NCAAB Rankings #1

I've decided that it would be a little fun to rank my top 25 teams in NCAA basketball. This early in the season it's almost impossible to predict where teams will be 3 months from now, so I suppose it's more of a challenge to get the right rankings. When I started this I didn't look at any of the AP or ESPN rankings, going purely on my own data and list of NBA Prospects. Based on the number of potential NBA players on each college team, I've put together the following rankings. After I completed my list, I went to Yahoo! Sports to check their actual rankings, which I've posted in parenthesis:

1. Florida (1)
2. UNC (2)
3. Arizona (15)
4. Ohio State (4)
5. Kansas (10)
6. UCLA (5)
7. UConn (18)
8. Duke (9)
9. Georgia Tech (19)
10. Washington (16)
11. Georgetown (14)
12. Texas (26)
13. Marquette (13)
14. Gonzaga (27)
15. Pittsburgh (3)
16. USC (unranked)
17. Texas A&M (11)
18. Alabama (8)
19. California (unranked)
20. East Washington (unranked)
21. Colorado (unranked)
22. Florida State (34)
23. Rice (unranked)
24. Boston College (23)
25. Virginia Tech (40)

I wasn't quite right but it's not a perfect science either. I'm pretty close, at least the top 15 were actually ranked teams whereas beyond that, there are several teams that I picked that no one else even knows about. To be honest I didn't even know there was a team called "Rice" until today, but they have a player who's projected to be taken in the late first round in next year's NBA Entry draft.

I'm surprised at how low Arizona is ranked, way down at #15 by Associated Press. They have 4 players who could be drafted into the NBA this year. Though I agree that perhaps Kansas deserves to be higher than 'Zona because Kansas has almost an entire roster of future NBA players, though many are not ready this year. I guess it all depends, for all I know they could all declare this year, throwing my rankings in for a loop. So I suspect as we get closer to March, my rankings will change due to players stepping up and showing scouts they are better than most people thought.

But all in all, not bad for a 'first-crack' at it. And.. I realize this goes over the heads of most reading this, but I had to get it down as many of you know, I am pretty obsessed with this kind of stuff. I think my dream job is to be sitting at a desk analyzing sports statistics all day long.

Review: Chris Tomlin's "See The Morning"

Chris Tomlin is a great worship leader who is also a great song writer and a budding guitarist. I've always been a big fan of his work because his songs are easy to play and therefore great for worship leading. On his CD's you will always find he's singing it at capo 4-5 because he likes to sing high, but if you tone it back down, his songs are great for (normal) people.

I picked up the special edition of this album because it had a few extra tracks -- 3 "unplugged" tracks, and 2 completely new songs. I must say that getting the SE of the album was worth it because the final song "Over Me" has become one of my favorites.

This bit may come as a surprise and you may be thinking: "What, eBrian being critical? Against Chris Tomlin? No way!".

I'm slowly finding that, to me, Chris Tomlin (and this totally just my opinion) is starting to sell out or is in danger of doing so. What does it mean to sell out in a Christian context.. of course I'm not saying he's gone secular. I mean this in the kindest possible way because I'm a huge HUGE Tomlin fan, but if you look at his track record of late, it seems like a whole lot of self-promotion going on. Again I could completely wrong about this and maybe my views are way off and incorrect, but to me a worship leader is about writing songs for people to use to worship with. When an artist starts putting out "Greatest Hits" albums, "..in Concert", or "The Early Years" albums, then it's no longer new songs popping out, it's re-packaging old songs into different profit-inducing self promotional material. Granted I'm sure the proceeds go to very charitable if not God-driven ministries. I'm just sayin'.

Anyway, back to the album itself. The album itself is good. There are definitely a few songs that can be used for worship -- "Made To Worship", "Everlasting God" (one of my favorites), "Glorious", "Rejoice", "How Can I Keep From Singing". I really like the last one, it's based off an old hymn and basically redone, and it sounds great. Also one of my favorites is "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)", he basically does Amazing Grace but added a tag to it that makes it sound a little more contemporary and actually really fun to sing.

Overall, I would say this album is missing the kind of "Oomph" that the last album had. I remember listening to "Arriving" for the first time and being completely blown away with the lyrics of "Indescribable", and just playing it over and over and ignoring the rest of album for weeks, and then getting blown away for each song going forward. "Arriving" stayed in my car's CD player for at least 5-6 months before I got tired of it. Whereas "See The Morning" lasted about 2 weeks, and then I went into a rock phase and bought Guns N Roses.

In that sense "See The Morning" certainly has some great songs, there aren't any of those songs that you hear and go "Wow.. what a song. He is so right.." and prompt you to do some self-reflection or break out in prayer and thanksgiving. Perhaps another way to look at it, is that I didn't even bother to post any songs or lyrics up from the album.

So, a breakdown (I'm going to start using a scale for these).

Creativity (5/10) - Most of the songs sound very close to the previous stuff that we've heard from Tomlin.
Worshipability (8/10) - Songs are easy to play and can be used for worship on Sundays or fellowship. Not very many "fun" songs for jamming.
Value (8/10) - Although I did get more songs for the Special Edition, I also paid $27.
Longevity (6/10) - Perhaps because the songs all sound the same, there's nothing particular memorable about this album. When I started writing this review, I was listening to the album, but halfway through I got tired of it and switched to another band altogether. (Which also means another review is coming soon.)
Intangibles (10/10) - This is a fake category for me to boost an album's ratings. Haha.. but seriously this is about the packaging. I'm a big proponent of buying CDs and not mp3s. The album cover is nice, lyrics are neatly printed out. Also the special edition gives a 20 minute video of Tomlin, talking about his inspirations for many of the songs on the CD.

Overall: 38/50

Review: Wii Sports (Wii, duh)

Wii Sports comes with the Wii Console as a throw-in. And as a throw-in, I believe this game is very much underrated. Wii Sports is comprised of 5 different games that are said to introduce gamers to the world of Wii, that is, using and getting used to the wiimote and nunchuk through various sports that are quite intuitive to the controls.

There are 5 sports included with the Wii Sports -- Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Boxing and Golf. What's interesting is that everyone who purchased a Wii in North America got Wii Sports -- but everyone else who bought a Wii around the world got a game called "Wii Play", which actually contains 10 different mini-games. The mini-games are: Table Tennis, Laser Hockey, Fishing, Find Mii (variant of Where's Waldo), Pose Mii (not sure what this is), Shooting (Duck Hunt?), Pool, Charge! (apparently some kind of bull-riding game), and Tanks. Although some of these sound pretty stupid, it seems a little unfair that we don't get this package. The latest rumors are that eventually, we will get this game as a throw-in to a new controller, possibly in the new year.

I'm going to go through each sport and give each its pros and cons before wrapping up the game as a whole.

Oh, before I get into it -- What is a "Mii"? A "Mii" is a basic profile on the Wii console. Wii allows you to create profiles, which can be attached to your wiimote so that you can use your wiimote and profile on other Wii consoles. You can customize your Mii's appearance with an editor built into the Wii. It's a fun concept and I even made a Mii that looked somewhat like me, but all in all, it's pretty silly.

Wii Golf

The golf game is decent. You hold the wiimote like it were the shaft of a golf club, and hold A to swing. It measures how far back you swung from, your follow throw, and how quickly you swung. If you swing wildly, you'll shank the ball and it'll spin out of control and likely miss where you were aiming. I found this to be pretty tricky, because I would have just wailed it and now I have to control my swing. After a few holes (with scores of +8, +9 on par 4s), I settled down and managed to get a few pars and bogey's.

Wii Boxing

This particular one is not great. You require the nunchuk to act as your left (or right, depending on what-handed your Mii is) and basically you punch it. Overhead punches are jabs while low ones are body shots. I've managed to get a few uppercuts but they're almost always blocked. If you hold your hands up, you'll block punches to your face, and low for blocking body shots. If you hold the wiimotes to your waist and lean your body, it will detect that an your Mii will lean back and away. This is great for avoiding punches. The biggest problem with this game is that the sensor is unable to process quick flurries of punches. You need to punch by reach far forward, and then retract back to your body before you punch again. If you don't do this your Mii's arm reaches out for a punch and then stays out there. The Wii isn't very good at sensing that you reached back for a new punch. I find this to be the case for any action based on reaching forward to backward.

Wii Tennis

This is the best game in my opinion from Wii Sports. You hold the wiimote like the handle of a tennis racket and just play tennis. I haven't fully mastered it yet, I know that there is a way to get a very fast serve in, but I've only gotten it once or twice. Swinging fast or slow does seem to make a difference, and timing is a big thing, if you hit early, it will take a bigger angle, later, big angle the other way. Wii Tennis is doubles' only, so you can choose to control one player, or two. You can even control all 4, but I think you'd get tired pretty quickly. Wii Tennis moves the players around for you so all you need to do is swing. Often this is a lifesaver because if you are controlling two characters, if the front guy misses, you still have a chance with the guy in the back. I'm totally loving this game as I've found it provides a pretty good workout for the arms.

Wii Baseball

Wii Baseball is okay. There isn't a whole lot of control, you are either swinging (swinging low or high makes no difference) or pitching (throwing motion is standard, you can't actually control your pitch). By holding different buttons while pitching, you'll get different types of pitches like a fastball, curveball, sinker. For swinging as far as I can tell no amount of buttons will help you. I strike out a lot. A LOT. I've hit 3 homers out of playing about 10 times. You also don't run around the bases or do any of the fielding, it's all done for you. A single just means if you hit the ball and none of the infielders caught it. Even if it's a grounder to third base, it's an automatic out. If you hit it into the outfield and no one catches it, it's a double by default. I have heard of people getting triples.. I have never seen this yet. Other than that, it's pretty straight forward. What I do like about this game is that you can swat the bat around and imitate stances. For instance, Gary Sheffield and how he kind of shakes the bat a lot while he's waiting for a pitch. But it adds nothing to the swing so it's just for aesthetics.

Wii Bowling

Wii Bowling is second to Tennis. It's a whole lot of fun. You hold down B and go for the bowl, and when you release B, you release the ball. I have seen stories of someone letting go of the entire wiimote and have it hurtling into a television. I've seen screenshots of CRACKS in peoples' televisions because of this. This scares me A LOT. However, if you look past that, it's a whole lot of fun. You can put a lot of spin in the ball or none at all, depending on the orientation of the wiimote during your bowling motion. It's not completely realistic though, as I bowled a 186 on my first try. In real life the best I ever bowled was a 149, and I usually average around 60.

So, each of the games has it's moments and in particular, Tennis and Bowling. I would rank them in the following order:

1. Tennis
2. Bowling
3. Golf
4. Baseball
5. Boxing

Moreover into the game features is a training mode where there are mini-games for each of the sports and 3 different types of challenges that help you to hone your skills in each sport. My favorite one is a target practice with Tennis, where you are basically hitting the ball against a wall as practice. This is incredible for working out, and you really get a good feel for timing your hits and switching from front-hand to back-hand when needed.

On top of the training mode is an interesting tool that put you through 3-4 of the mini-games and measures your "fitness age". The first time I ran this thing, I scored 49 years old. Ouch. I did this a second time a few days later and scored 31. Now that's more like it..

The sounds are pretty mundane, nothing special but then again, how special should it be, you're just hitting a ball in most cases. Graphics are nothing special either, they're completely cartoonish-driven, the golf scenery is nothing to brag about. What I do like is that the wiimote emits sounds so when you hit a ball, you hear it get hit. This is and will be a great feature for likely any game for the Wii. Feedback sound is just a really great idea and other consoles should have thought of this too.

Overall I really enjoy this game, a lot more than I thought I would. If you'll recall I bought Call of Duty 3 because I wasn't sure Wii Sports would hold me over very long. But I often find myself popping that disc back in to try to beat those darn computers at Tennis.

Sound: 8/10
Controls: 9/10
Graphics: 8/10
Value: 10/10 (after all, it came free!)
Fun Factor: 10/10

Overall score: 45/50.

I haven't even played this game with other people yet, and I'm betting it will be even more fun, considering it was designed for multiplayer. I can hardly wait to have people over and watching the looks on their faces of smiles, determination and ultimately, frustration while playing this.

I think I might have them sign a waiver in case a wiimote goes flying towards my TV, someone must pay!!

Review: Call of Duty 3 (Wii)

I bought Call of Duty 3 (CoD) on a whim. Standing behind the cash register at Electronic Boutique Games (EB) I pondered about when I would be receiving my Future Shop (FS) games in the mail. It was a Sunday so I knew it would be at least a couple days. Could Wii Sports hold me over for 2 whole days? I had heard Wii Sports has no depth at all. And having seen a cool video of a person playing Call of Duty 3, I decided this was the game to get, so I slapped down an extra $65 on top of my console, controllers, etc.

This being an impulse purchase, I was immediately cast into doubt when the guy beside me at the other cash registered pointed out to me that CoD doesn't have multiplayer. But with me being silly and basically too giddy to think rationally, I ignored him, signed the receipt and walked out of the store proudly, beaming from ear to ear.

Initially, I found the controls to be pretty awkward. While playing First Person Shooters (FPS) with XBox and GameCube, I had grown accustomed to sitting down, laying back and just playing FPS with my hands in my lap with the controller. But with the added remote controller aspect of the Wii, I now had to have one hand holding the remote and pointing it at the screen at all times. Little movements of my hand from side to side would make my guy turn left and right, while the nunchuk controlled movement forward, backward, and strafing. The biggest difference is that on a conventional console, you can only shoot at whatever is in the middle of your screen. Now, you can aim anywhere on the screen and then to make the guy turn, you need to point just outside of the guys' field of vision. So think of it as a rectangle "shooting area" within the screen, and when you pointed outside the screen, the player would turn.

So initially I had a helluva a time, even just getting through the tutorial. Another problem with the controls I found was that the grenade buttons (Left and Right on the directional pad) was too far up from where my thumb was resting, which was at the A button. Furthermore, to need to reach down again below the A button to the "-" key in order to commandeer vehicles or stationary guns a little troublesome. My hands were just too small or maybe my thumb was too short. In the tutorial I had to throw a grenade into a window, and I had a really tough time pointing above the window without making him just look into the sky, and then reach way up over to the grenade button. It really makes shooting and throwing a grenade at the same time quite difficult -- though I suppose it's a little more realistic.

I'm not going to make too much fuss over the graphics. The Wii's graphics are equivalent to XBox/PS2 graphics. I find this game a little darker than it could be. I'm also sure this game would look better on 480p, but unfortunately the component cables don't come out until December.

Eventually I did get used to the controls and started to kick some Nazi butt.

Other aspects of the game include: Setting up explosives, paddling a boat, driving a tank, driving a jeep, operating turrets, wrestling enemy soldiers. I had the most trouble wrestling. Basically there are times when a german will get the jump on you and you find yourself face to face with him and he's trying to use the rifle to choke you to death. A little window pops up to show you how to manipulate the controller to fight the guy off, and the subsequently knock him in the face with the butt of your gun. It sounds easy but it is NOT.

The most fun I had outside of plain running and gunning, was the driving. It's a whole lot of fun. You hold the nunchuk at 9 o'clock and the Wiimote at 3 o'clock, and you just start driving as if your hands were on a wheel. This is absolutely great fun! The Wiimotes vibrate and give off sounds and I had a great time driving this one jeep through a tank area, whenever one fired upon us, you'd feel a strong rumble from the wiimote. It was absolutely great and gives me great insights as to how great a racing game will be. Possibly a Mario Kart or something of that sort.

If there's one thing I would have to complain about Call of Duty 3, it's the value. With no multiplayer capabilities, this game has limited replayability. Once you finish all the campaigns, there's nothing left except to try it on a harder level. This creates havoc because you're spending $65 on something that might last a month tops, but more likely, 2-3 weeks. If you were a kid and had more time to play, I could see someone finishing in less than 2 weeks, which really limits the value of this game.

One other thing that bothered me was how far back they put you when you die. You could spend 20 minutes getting through a mission and if you die right before you complete, you're sent all the way back from where you started 20 minutes ago. That's a big pain -- though if I recall correctly, the Call of Duty series has always been this way.

So in summary: Call of Duty 3 is very fun. Lack of multiplayer gives it low value and low replayability. Adjustment is needed to get used to the controls. Sounds are great, though a little repetitive -- when your mate yells out "Outta here!" for billionth time, I am thinking "shut up!". Cutscenes are great, good conversation and voice acting. Graphics are average. I think they could have done better, though I really have nothing to compare it to at this point.

Sound: 7/10
Controls: 8/10
Graphics: 7/10
Value: 6/10
Fun Factor: 10/10

Overall score: 38/50.

If you like FPS games, you will like this game, regardless of it's longterm value. That I am quite sure of. I love FPS, but I'm also looking for longterm value.

Note: I called EB to see how much I could get for this game if I traded it back. It was a measely $22 -- for a 2 day old game!! I then found a person on RedFlagDeals to trade with. I'll be trading CoD for Super Monkey Ball tomorrow evening.

Urbana: Power trip

I got my Wii today, after service.

The sermon was actually pretty good.. or had some great potential. I always find that the premise of sermons at TCCC are really good but then they fail to close it out. I think that's what I find most unsatisfying about the church, it's the sermons. The topic was "Unanswered Prayer". Pastor Kinson started it out by sharing a story in his childhood of praying for someone who was sick but they ended up dying anyway, and as child, being challenged with this idea that maybe there was no point in praying because it didn't make a difference.

To me that alluded to a very challenging message and something that really hits the core of being a Christian and the struggles and challenges that we face. But then he watered it down and just went into these 4 points about unanswered prayer, about how it protects us, strengthens us, deepens us, etc.

Anyway, about Urbana. I feel like these people are on a power trip. Since it's no longer on a campus this year and just random hotels, I want the comfort of living with friends. Urbana is different this year in that there are several different tracks to choose from and each track is quite different. All the friends I'm going to Urbana with are going on the "Open for Business" track. This is for business people, like finance, business administration, entrepreneurs. It's totally not me. But in order for me to be able to live with them, I need to enroll in the same track.

So I did. As soon as I got registered in the room, I changed my track to what I wanted, which is "Slum Communities in the Developing World".

Then, they moved all "Open for Business" people to another hotel, making everyone re-do the housing. So we did it all over again, I switched back to the Business track and got re-invited into the hotel. Then I went to register for "Slum" again, and it said the track was full! What the heck, so I picked the "AIDS" one instead.

Couple days ago I go back in and notice that they're letting people sign up for Slum but it's a waiting list. Since that's what I wanted to do, I switched to that one.

It kicked me out of the hotel room that I had been reserved for, saying this is a Business hotel and no one else is allowed to stay there. What the heck..

So I registered back in the Business track, got reinvited into the room, and send a complaint letter to the Urbana people.

What gives? I paid $450 to go to Urbana, spent another $300 on flight, and further I'll have to pay for my own lunches, and housing. And they won't even let me choose who I get to live with or what seminars I get to attend? What's the point? Certain individuals have a particular conviction to attend certain plenary sessions or seminars, and instead they decide to force everyone to go a certain way. It just doesn't make sense.

Urbana 2006 is completely chaotic. I hope they will get their act together, I am slowly losing interest.

Movies

I watched "The Upside Of Anger" this morning. I missed the first 15 minutes, so when they found the body, I had no CLUE what was going on. I thought I had changed the channel by accident. But otherwise I thought it was a pretty good movie. While I was watching this movie, for the longest time I had her name on the tip of my tongue, and then at about the 45 minute mark, I finally blurted out "JOAN ALLEN! YES!!". I gave myself a solid Tiger-Woods-pumping-fist and congratulated myself for finally remembering her name.

--I've noticed that lately I've been really bad with naming stars I see on television or in the theatre. I think this is a good thing though, because it shows that I stopped caring about completely useless things like this. This happened again later on in the afternoon while watching "Wedding Crashers" for, what I believe to be the 11th time. What.. it's entertaining! Anyway, it wasn't until the beach scene where they were playing the slapping game that I raised my arms up for a touchdown and blurted out "RACHEL MCADAMS! SCORE!!". My apologies to those who take pride in memorizing movie star names.

Ina lended me "10 Things I Hate About You" and "Serendipity". I'll comment on the latter first. I liked this movie. I don't think there has been a John Cusack movie that I didn't like. I'll give the movie a solid 8/10, which is really good considering it's a romantic comedy. Excuse me for saying this, but Kate Beckinsale is hot. (And no, I didn't have to look up that name.)

Onto "10 Things". I actually watched this a week ago. This movie reminded me a lot of Swingers, in that many people talk about the movie, many actors got their start in the movie, and it was just one big disappointment and waste of time. Jon told me it was based on the Taming Of The Shrew. While that may be the case, I have no idea what that is nor do I care. But I can tell you is that all teenage romantic comedies have the same approximate plot, so at least this one is original considering that it's fairly 'older'. So aside from the originality, this one was a stinker. Whatever the case may be -- I give it a rating of *yawn* out of 10.

--Sometimes movies that are 'ahead of their time' lose their effectiveness when they've been done over and over and all you can really say is "but that's the movie that started them all!".

Now for a BIG apology.

I watched a movie called "Flight of the Phoenix" on TMN OnDemand. Mind you I've been cleaning my place all day and wasn't really paying attention to the movie. But I read the synopsis and caught the words "plane crash" and "survive in desert" and that got me all excited since I love those types of 'survive in the wilderness' movies. All I can tell you about this movie was that it crap. It was so bad I can't even rate it out of 10. To show the magnitude of it's crapiness I'll have to move to a scale of 1 to a billion. I give it a 0/1000000000.

--I swear I'm always surprised to find my "guess bathroom" so dirty. I never use this bathroom because I have one in my own room. You would think that guests would have the decency to try and maintain the cleanliness of it. You would be wrong. What the heck are people doing in there? I dunno about you but when I'm at someone else's house I try my best to be as clean as possible in their bathroom.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about that. Wii-rival is tomorrow!

I miss my mom

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Birthday Mom! I miss you!!

The Prestige

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In-N-Out

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

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

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

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

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

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

Secret sauce is just Thousand Island dressing, btw.

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

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

"Earth" uses iPod

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

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

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

21 Days to go!

2006-2007 NBA Predictions

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

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

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

Other predictions:

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

Best Show

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

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

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

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

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

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

This leaves 4 shows, all of which are continuous.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Big Meat

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

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

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

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

The Nintendo Wii

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

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

Think!

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

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

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

So what should I share about?

For What It's Worth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Look at what John Mayer says about it:

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

So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change

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

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

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

One day..

Rock and Roll

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

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

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

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

Finally

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

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

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

So finally I'm back here again.

New blog

I've moved to brianyao.com.

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

Hah. Well, not much I can do.

Continuum

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

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

The Verdict is in..

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

1. Justice

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

2. Standoff

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

3. Jericho

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

4. Kidnapped

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

5. Vanished

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

6. Smith

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

7. Shark

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

8. Studio 60 on Sunset Strip

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

Reality shows!

1. Survivor

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

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

2. Amazing Race

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

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

Also, it's getting a bit too repetitive.

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

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

New category.. comedies!

1. 'Til Death

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

That's all for now!

Amazing guitar

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

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

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

Nick Saban

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

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

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

Ben

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

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

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

*More on Whorelando later.

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

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

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

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

Dear Frankie

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

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

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

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

Stephen Robert Irwin, 1962-2006

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

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

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

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

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

Rest in peace, Steve.

Jeff George

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

Jeff George? JEFF GEORGE?!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good luck to you, Mr. George.

Pluto

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

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

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

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

made to worship

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

Here are the lyrics:

Made To Worship by Chris Tomlin

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

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

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

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

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

Lucky Louie

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

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

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

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

twentyeight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anxiety.. or something

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

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

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

Life stages

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

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

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

'The setup'

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

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

'I'm still finding myself'

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

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

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

'I'm going to bed'

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

I don't dance

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

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

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

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

Relevant

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

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

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

coming..

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

Vacation

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

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

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

Blogging

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blah

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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