More USB

I know you're probably thinking -- oh great, another post about some silly looking USB keys. Well guess what -- they're not USB keys!

These are batteries, and in my opinion quite possibly the greatest things ever made. That's right -- they're USB rechargeable AA NiMH batteries. Plug it into your laptop, XBOX360, Wii, monitor -- whatever has a usb port, you can charge your batteries on. And apparently they can still be charged on a regular battery charger too!

A Wii Retrospective

It's hard to believe that I have owned a Wii for 7 months, because it feels like I haven't played it very much at all. In all honesty I haven't touched the thing in 2 weeks. I'm trying to think of the last time I played Wii by myself, as a form of entertainment (as opposed to a form of entertainING). I believe I haven't played it as a form of personal entertainment since.. well, February when I first got Wii Play.

Hard to believe that such a popular gaming system, one that continues to be difficult to obtain throughout the world, has completely lost its appeal to me. Although I do continue to look forward to Smash Brothers Brawl, my zeal for this gaming system has waned significantly. Yesterday in EB Games, I was lining up to pay for Guitar Hero for PS2. The guy in front of me had just picked up the last copy of Mario Party 8. Heck, I didn't even know it had come out. I could have easily lined up ahead of that guy if I had wanted one. (MP8 is probably one of the MOST sought after Wii games yet).

Now on one hand I'd fully admit that when it comes to entertainment, I am a person who loses interest in things rather easily, going from one thing to another, but to think that a few months ago I was trying to convince everyone how great and revolutionary it was and now, I barely even touch it. It's just a neat little white box on top of my speakers that collects dust.

The other day I spoke to Allan at church, he was explaining to me that the novelty has kind of worn off on him and he hadn't touched his Wii for a whole week.

Mind you, I think the Wii is a fantastic party system. But without company, I think this system is not nearly as great as everyone thinks. I haven't touched my XBOX360 in about 3 weeks either, so it's not like it's any more 'exciting' than the Wii. I have arguably the most popular game for it, Gears of War, and I haven't touched the system in 3 weeks. Think about that.

Meanwhile I haven't gone more than 48 hours without picking up the Guitar controller for the PS2. Guitar Hero games totally rock. All this talk about these next-gen consoles and here I am playing old-gen stuff. Just goes to show you how important graphics and cpu speed are -- not at all.

Just think, had I known all this today and not bought any of those systems, I'd be sitting at home, still playing Guitar Hero 2 (which I got for free), and be sitting pretty with an additional $1300 in my pocket. Such is the life of a gamer..

Sitting on an angle

If you're a guy and you're reading this, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You're sitting down into your car seat, office chair or couch and something doesn't feel right. You reach back and pull out your wallet and sit back down and aaaahhh.. what a relief. After years of sitting on an angle and trying every which way to eliminate the bulge in my right back pocket I found the perfect solution.

It's called the ALL-ETT™ Billfold. I was a little skeptical about the ability to reduce my 1.5-inch wallet thickness to nothingness. Last Friday I had the privilege to see a real spectacle. Frank from my small group had a wallet that was, no kidding, 3 inches thick. THREE INCHES. Thankfully Frank keeps that sucker in a front pocket. I can't even imagine what it might be like to attempt to sit on that beast..

I've tried everything, from switching from the tri-fold to the bi-fold, leather to cloth and then back to leather, and then removing all non-essential cards like the library card, the Optimum card, Air Miles, PEO card, the letters of the alphabet in sign-language card, Stamp Traveler's Club card, etc.

What ALL-ETT™ has done is, made the world's thinnest wallet with a revolutionary design made from a super thin material. The material actually comes from parachutes, it's super durable and ultra thin.



In this photo you see a regular wallet stuffed with 30 credit cards. Then there's the Billfold with the same number of credit cards. Simply amazing!

Review
I was surprised at how thin the wallet really was. It came in an envelope like any other regular mail. By itself, the thickness is comparable to maybe 3 sheets of paper. As I opened the wallet, I realized that this material is really quite cheap. It's very thin plastic paper, makes a crackling noise as you open. Not good. Next, I proceeded to empty out my regular lambskin wallet. I was able to stuff everything I had into the Billfold.

Sure enough, the Billfold with all my stuff in it was significantly thinner. In fact, with everything in the Billfold, it is actually thinner than my old wallet with nothing in it!

Who are you talking to?

This thought occurred to me yesterday as I was walking back to work after lunch with Ina. We had street-meat. And that is why Ina is the *best*.

Anyway, there was this guy talking to himself and I thought he was one of those people on the street who have conversations with themselves. I remember when I was little, sitting at the bus station in Buffalo and there was this African American woman talking to herself. She wasn't overly animated but just sitting two seats away from me, I sat there and listened to her entire spiel, and it was actually quite interesting. In her mind she was speaking to a judge, presenting her case and I remember it being very coherent, almost like she had rehearsed this a trillion times (which probably why she was in her state in the first place). I suspected she was probably very intelligent and just completely lost it after some legal trouble.

These are real people, who just happened to lose a few marbles here and there. But I just remember that time in Buffalo (or was it DC?) when I sat there for 10 minutes waiting for my mom or dad to get us some bus tickets. And when my parent came back they felt protective and pulled me away to keep me from this dangerous person who could lash out at me on any moment's notice.

I guess it's kind of sad the way people are treated just because they are having a conversation with no one around them. Nowadays you see people doing the exact same thing everywhere, only it's completely justified because they have this little piece of plastic stuck in their ear with a blinking blue light on it.

Jericho cancelled

Damn you all to hell, CBS. You canceled the only show I watch on your network, the only good show remaining out of a seriously pathetic lineup of crap shows. I mean come on, The Unit gets renewed? It's nothing more than militarized version of Alias with President David Palmer instead of Jennifer Garner! Isn't smoking pot illegal in the US? And how about these other crap shows like the Ghost Whisperer, Close To Home, The Class??? No one watches that shat! The New Adventures of Old Christine? I mean what the hell kind of name is that?!

If it weren't for NFL football I would block your channel altogether. Damn you, you stupid, stupid bastards! I spit on you.

blogging

Blogging used to be great because anywhere I'd go or see, anything interesting or funny I heard, or controversial, I'd tuck that away in the back of my mind and write about it whenever I had a chance to. And of course I'd always be thinking of what interesting things I could tell the blog world about. My eyes and ears were open and in tune for anything I could find that might be interesting for others to read about.

Nowadays my eyes and ears are closed. And whenever I do see something cool, I tell Ina about it and it ends there.

Speaking of Ina, she and I are gonna do some travelling this weekend, out to Boston and New York. I'm excited. Personally I don't recall ever going on a vacation for myself, aside from going places with family or visiting family. This is my first ever vacation.. kinda cool.

Ina's done most of the planning because she's been there before. But what I do know is that for Boston we're going on the "Duck Tour" (Saturday) and a Boston Red Sox game on Sunday. Personally I'm not a huge baseball fan but given the historical and prestige of the Boston Red Sox organization, I'm excited to go see this. Fenway Park, the Green Monster. The curse of the bambino, and fans that care. Should be fun..

For NYC, I don't think we'll be seeing that much at all, mostly visiting with Ina's friends.

Maybe I'll take some pictures and post them up, if I get a chance?

This is for people who talk during movies

Yay!

My girlfriend is coming home today. Yay! YAY!!

Encore?

Why do artists cut their concerts short only to have them come back after the audience claps and screams their heads off? I mean what's the point of it? Last night at the ACC we watched as John Mayer and his band stepped off the stage. The crowd was cheering (screaming) for more, people were clapping and waiting in anticipation for him to come back. I didn't make a peep. Of course he was coming back -- he hadn't sung fan-favorite songs like "Daughters" or even "Body is a Wonderland" yet, so there was no way he wasn't coming back for an encore.

Of course in the end I was right, he came back to sing one of my favorites "Stop This Train", followed by at least 3-4 more songs. You just kind of knew that he was coming back.

But seriously, why do artists do this? Is it simply for a break to get some water/alcohol, and maybe to take a short nap? Maybe they went back to the check scores? Why not perform all your good songs and then just leave it at that?

If he had just sung Daughters, I bet I wouldn't be half-deaf right now.

Obelisk

The good news is that this is for real and you can order it here. The bad news is, it's almost $9000.

But could furniture get any cooler than this?

If that doesn't impress you, check out the slinky chair:

Free?

One of my friends likes to say he's "free" when his wife is occupied with something else, or if she's gone away somewhere, allowing him to do whatever he wants. He gets all excited and invites us over to play video games as if he's been liberated or broken out of jail.

I dunno, Ina's been away for a few days and I don't feel "free" at all. I just miss her a lot.

---

We went to "Sushi on 7" last night, to celebrate my dad's 58th. I had a helluva time trying to find the place. First of all I loaded up Google Maps to get an approximate location before I left. Google maps was way, way off. I typed in the address and it gave me a location that was East of McCowan. Turns out the place is actually West of Kennedy! Secondly it was dark and snowing so we had a hard time looking through the car windows to see the addresses/storefronts. I missed our reservation time by about 20 minutes as a result, but fortunately the restaurant was only half full (we had to have a late dinner because my brother had a night class).

The food at Sushi on 7 is great. They have tons of variety -- over 190 different items are available on their menu. For dinner, it was $17.99 for Mon-Thurs. Food comes fairly quickly so that we're not sitting around letting our stomachs get full in between the waves of food. I've found that to be the case often in many AYCE sushi places. It's like some kind of ploy to get us full so we won't keep eating them out of their business. The service was not great, it's surprisingly difficult to get the attention of any waitress even though the place is really quite small.

Sushi on 7's specialty rolls are okay, not as flavorful as I've found in other places, but the fish is fresh enough to make up for it. Their seaweed salad is the best I've had so far. The beef ribs were cooked perfectly, very tender and tasty. They had one dish, fresh mussels that we kept ordering. Very yummy, very tenderly cooked and light tasting. My mom had some Udon which she said was good. They have coconut pudding -- one of my all-time favorite desserts, one which is fairly rare to find in any restaurant these days so that was a big bonus for me. Their tea sucked.. it was way too diluted.

I don't think they have sashimi for lunch which is a shame because otherwise I'd consider going back there for a lunch, just because they have so many other great choices.

I'd give the restaurant a solid 8/10 rating.

---

I want to buy the new Tim Hughes album. I sampled it at Mitchell's Family Bookstore last weekend, and it sounded GOOD. Well, at least Track 1 sounded good. Too bad it's so expensive at Mitchell's. I mean honestly who pays over $20 for a CD these days? Why are Christians trying to rip each other off? It doesn't make sense.

I guess it's the same as any culture ripping each other off. It's more about profit and greed than who the victim is.

---

The Leafs missed the NHL playoffs for the second straight year, but there are still a few Canadian teams to cheer for. Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary. I don't like the Senators at all, but I feel we have to cheer for them because I'm just sick and tired of seeing American teams win our Stanley Cup. It ain't right. That being said, at least it's always Canadians who are hoisting the cup, even if they are playing for American teams. I can't help but cheer for the Penguins, at least for this series. I could see myself cheering for Ottawa in the next round, but for me, Sidney Crosby epitomizes the essence of Canadian Hockey -- not an idiot like Daniel Alfredsson.

Go Flames! Go Canucks! Go Canadians!

Liar

Does this look like a spring forecast to you? This author doesn't think so.

Several months ago, a lie of epic proportions was masterminded, that has affected millions of people around the world. Starting off as a joke, it has slowly turned into this year's biggest elaborate falsification that has forced this author to think 'enough is enough'.

"..one of the most heinous, deceptive hoaxes in the history of mankind.."

I am sick and tired of it, and I will not only expose this rodent for being the mastermind of this most heinous, deceptive hoax in the history of mankind, but prove that this liar is laughing all the way to the bank.

For those who do not know, this is Wiarton Willy, aka the despicable, low-life scumbag. And in my opinion, he deserves to be locked up behind bars.

Two months ago, Willy predicted that spring would come early. At the time, this made everyone excited, as you'd expect, the prospect of having an early spring meant more time to bask in the sun, to enjoy loved ones, to put away our winter clothing, etc, etc, etc. And for awhile, this prognostication seemed real. A week later there were record high temperatures, and Willy was lauded for being right.

Heck, even I'll admit that I was quite proud of our little Canadian hero, of not only being right but for being such a model citizen. Indeed, these were great times for Willy. We see here a statue, which was built in honor of Willy for these so-called "accurate" predictions. Just the other day, I predicted that it would be sunny outside, and a few hours later, it was. Was a statue erected for me? No sir!

Here we see this evil creature snacking on what is most likely some goodies, no doubt a result of another scam he pulled on some young unknowing innocent children.

I submit to you, the public, to stand up for yourselves and not allow this rodent to continue his string of lies without getting away with it. I encourage you to sign petition to make sure the evil does not continue to spread. Now the only question remains -- how will Willy respond to these accusations? Will he own up to this obvious trickery while the rest of us shiver in the cold with our toques and scarves in the middle of April?

More than meets the eye

I get a lot of comments about how I look a lot younger than I really am. I get carded at bars, and after they see my ID, they either apologize or say "WOW". Well folks, I'm here to tell you not to be fooled any longer. I am old or in the process of getting old.

We were talking at work about the Florida Gators, in particular we were talking about Joakim Noah's father Yannick Noah. Well the thing is the father once won a French Open Championship (tennis) back in his hey day. The funny part is that one of my co-workers remembered it. Turns out actually that a bunch of the Gators' players' fathers were famous professional athletes, although I hadn't heard of any of them. The Maryland Terrapins have a player named DJ Strawberry. I couldn't make the connection at first.. they kept showing Darryl Strawberry, the great baseball player and at first I couldn't figure out why they kept showing him on camera. Turns out they are father and son. The moral of the story: When you are watching sports, and you can remember cheering on the fathers of today's stars.. you are old.

Transformers and TMNT. When I watched the original Transformers, I was hitting the tail end of it. The cartoons I remember most fondly are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Duck Tales and Talespin. So when I see a movie being made of a cartoon that was practically before my time, that's kind of scary. Of course even without Transformers, the fact that we were in grade 6-7 when the original live-action TMNT movies were released already says a lot.

Here's another one. Fashion. What's in and what's not in. I find more and more I am seeing people walking around in clothes that I saw people wearing when I was small. The fashion-cycle or loop or whatever you want to call it has made a full circle. I wonder if I can find my glasses from grade 1. Maybe they're back in..

Random thoughts

Today in the subway I managed to get a good seat. I find if I'm either very late or extremely early, I will get a pretty good seat. Also, I find it easier to get a seat the closer you are to the front of the train. Anyway, today was a late day and I even managed to get my favorite seat in the second car. My favorite seat is the ones facing either front or back (not to the side), and sitting closest to the wall of the train. I find those seats usually best for my posture, when the train stops and goes it doesn't send your body in one direction or another.

I also find those seats cosier, and particularly in winter time because the heater is usually just below this seat.

Anyway as I was saying, I got a good seat today and sat down and pulled out my book. I've been reading "The Life You've Always Wanted" by John Ortberg. It's a good read I guess. I'm on the chapter that talks about the sin of hurriedness and how to slow down your life. I find this chapter rather humorous. Ortberg talks about how multi-tasking, road rage, and rushing are all forms of this hurriedness that we need to train ourselves to avoid. I found this quite funny because Ina and I have had so many conversations about these very things..

But back to my story. I was sitting there reading my book and this woman or girl sat down beside me. I could tell she was probably a good looking woman because all the men around us were stealing glances at her. This is actually something I do all the time, I think it's fun. I like observing other peoples' reactions (in most cases, men) to women. A woman doesn't have to be good looking, but if she's blonde you are almost guaranteed that men will turn their heads to take a good look. They will even nudge eachother and in one single nod with their head all their pals will be looking over and gawking. It's absolutely hilarious. Men are pigs. By the way, women often also notice good looking women, only it's not so much a gawk like guys, but more of a "I hate you, but I have to admit those are nice shoes" look.

Right so back to my story.. of course, couldn't see what she looked like because she was right beside me, unless I leaned far forward and stole a look myself, which in my opinion, is just wrong. Anyway, she pulled out a magazine and started reading. It was a magazine about celebrities and their lives, you know the ones with the fashion do's and don'ts, papparazi pictures of their personal lives, gossip, things like that. I continued reading, but every once in awhile I couldn't help notice how engrossed this woman was in her readings.

I think it's sad how these people who are in one particular profession -- in this case, acting, have become such idols in the world today. Who cares what these people are doing in their lives? They are entertainers, nothing more. Who cares about what their babies look like? Why would I want to see their kids, if I don't even know them? It doesn't make sense. And why is their such a fascination in how many times a person goes to rehab? Another thing is the clothes.. don't even get me started on that one.

If someone came up to me and asked me what I was wearing, I would tell them, "Are you blind? I am wearing clothes. Can you not see them? Get that camera out of my face, please. Oh and by the way, Jesus loves you." "Oh I see.. who made them? How should I know? Um.. one sec. It says 'Made in Thailand'. My guess, it was a Thai person."

Just the other day, my cousin emails me and asks me about the glasses that Clark Kent was wearing in the movie "Superman Returns". As if I would remember something like that. That movie was a year ago, how in the world would I remember what some dude in a movie was wearing? I mean talk about a useless fact to stuff your brain with. "YES! I *do* know! Ah ha all you naysayers! I knew this information would come in handy some day, so I had it tattoo'd on my arm. Let's see.. It was model 5222-062XFPWES.. hold on, the rest of it is on my other arm.. -250-GGF0-11. It's from Lenscrafters, it comes in 3 colors."

I mean come on. Apparently he wanted to know because he wants to look like Clark Kent.

Has the world gone mad?

Mega Man

Is this a killer costume or what? And he's got the picture perfect pose! Bring it on, Dr. Wily!

Wee Sports

Lame Duke

Duke totally bombed yesterday, taking out a large chunk of my NCAA bracket predictions with them. I remember about a month ago, there were still 2 minutes left in a game they were losing, and Josh McRoberts was sitting on the bench sobbing. I tucked that image away in my head but I should have used to to make my predictions. Duke has no leadership which is why they lost the game. While I can't blame this particular loss on McRoberts, this will definitely his draft stock, if for any reason that other players will get a longer chance to showcase their talent. I still think he has more potential than, say, Aaron Gray -- but he has no way to prove it now.

Speaking of which, here's hoping VCU rights a wrong by beating Pittsburgh in the next round.

Everything else was okay for me except for the 8/9 matchup between Michigan State and Marquette. Perhaps Marquette's loss here is a good indication for Dominic James to stay another year. Anyway, these 8/9 matchups are tough to call. My next one will be Villanova against Kentucky. I picked Villanova but it really could go either way.

One game to watch today is Georgia Tech vs UNLV. I see a mini-upset there. Another one to keep an eye on is Memphis.. I think they are a crap team, even though they received a #2 ranking. If there's one high seed that could be upset, I think it could be them.

From friends to more than just friends

Looks like this kid has got it all figured out. Too funny..

Phew..

I have been on a bit of a lucky streak lately.

Firstly, and I know some of you are sick and tired of hearing this -- I won again on Tim Horton's Roll-Up-The-Rim thing. I've won twice now, out of 2 tries.

Yesterday after I got home from an evening of "Resistance: Fall of Man" (great game, btw) at Stan's house, I found a peculiar message on my answering machine about me owing money to the doctor who spent literally 2 minutes with me at a walk-in clinic I went to a few weeks ago. It turns out my health card is invalid, I'm not covered at all by the Ontario Government.

Aside: $35 for 2 minutes.. that's $1050/hour. Maybe I should have went to med school..

Anyway, so you're wondering where is the good luck in that?

Well, as I started preparing documents to renew my health card:

1. Proof of address.. credit card bill.. check.
2. Proof of citenzenship.. Passport.. check.
3. Proof of signature and photo.. Driver's license, let's see.. it's expired!!

I discovered that my driver's license expired... TODAY!

Spring forward

I remember a few years ago, my boss took me down for coffee because I had just gotten promoted or something, and we started talking about my career and all that. He was gonna buy me a coffee but I don't drink coffee. We had a talk about that too. He said he was like me, didn't drink coffee at first but then one day it hit him and he needed it. And now he just couldn't go without it.

I think I can safely say that I have had maybe 30 cups of coffee in my entire life, although 3 in the past week. I guess it's finally caught up to me. The spring forward thing totally killed me. I remember last night telling Ina if I just sleep early I'll be fine. But this morning my alarm sounded woke me and I was like "no way.. I just went to sleep a few minutes ago..". Plus it was still dark outside.. who wants to wake up when it's still dark? I sure don't. I'm a government employee.. that's supposed to be one of the perks!

Fortunately I had a free coffee in my pocket thanks to Tim Horton's "Roll Up The Rim To Win" promotion. Coffee is bad.. but feeling awake is good.

KD anyone?

I wish I had posted this one 3 months ago so that I could look like a genius, instead of posting now and looking like a copycat. The fact is, before the season started I predicted the Texas Longhorns to do much better than most analysts had prognosticated. I had them 12th overall, while experts put them at #26. Looking at the rankings today, they are ranked 15th by the Associated Press, 14th by USA Today and ESPN.

The reason they had ranked Texas so low no doubt is because they lost 3 key players to the NBA: LaMarcus Aldridge (who many thought the Raptors should have taken 1st overall), PJ Tucker (the player Toronto *did* draft, albeit in the second round), and point guard Daniel Gibson. These 3 were the core of their team and the reason they were one of the top ranked teams in 2005. So it's only reasonable to expect a team devastated by 3 core players declaring for the NBA, to suffer the following year. So why in the heck did I rank Texas 12th?

To clarify, this isn't a post about me showing off that I predicted a team higher than everyone else and that I turned out to be right. If you look at my rankings (made November 27, 2006), no where do I have Wisconsin ranked -- yet they're the 3rd best team in the country (I mean.. who could have seen Alando Tucker's rise to the top on his 5th season?!). So yea, I'm not here to tell you how smart I am.Unless you don't follow college ball or the NBA, you already know the name -- Kevin Durant. KD is a name you'll be hearing a lot about come draft time, and during March Madness. This freshman could have been wearing a Raptors uniform this year if not for David Stern's age restrictions (forcing players to spend 1 year in college before coming to the NBA). Whether Durant would have been a better choice over Bargnani remains to be seen.. but you sure wouldn't be hearing critics complaining about the Raptors' inability to rebound and defend down low if we had him.

Kevin Durant can do everything Bargnani does, and then some. The 6-10 small forward defends (a word that is not even in Bargnani's vocabulary), blocks shots, steals, shoots 80% from free throw range, 41% from 3-point range, and is averaging 25 ppg and 11 rpg. Kevin Durant is uber talented, and has carried the Longhorns all season long. Barring injury, I would not be surprised at all if the Longhorns end up in the NCAA Elite Eight. Heck, they could probably make it to the Final Four. Okay.. realistically speaking I can't see them making the Final Four.I'm not saying Texas is gonna take it all, but with Durant leading the way I don't see why they can't surprise a few teams. They almost beat 2nd-ranked Kansas on the weekend, where Durant scored 25 in the first half and then was held to just 7 in the 2nd after he was injured. Hey, if Carmelo could pull off what he did in Syracuse on an extremely strong draft class (likely the greatest draft class in NBA history), I definitely think Durant has the potential to do something similar.

I will post more as we get closer to March Madness, including a final revisitation my poll ranking predictions.

Forward progress needed

I was having a conversation about the show Heroes with Kenric the other day, focusing on their writers. It seems that they have the ability that many other shows' writers seem to lack -- the ability to satisfy viewers with substance, while getting us to keep coming back for more.

It seems like every episode has a cliffhanger, and in the next episode they resolve it. The same cannot be said about another popular (though becoming less and less) show, LOST. LOST is a show where the writers fail to tie up loose ends, proving to the viewers that even they don't know the answers to the many questions that left unanswered about this show. This proves to be a prevalent problem in many of these serial shows that need to provide something to keep the viewer from changing the channel.

Shows like LOST, Smallville, The 4400, they lack writers who know how (or don't bother) to bring the show forward, to make progress in the storyline. If motivation is what they're looking for, take a look at a show like Alias. Alias was an amazing show at one point in time, before they started to drag the story along, throw in re-runs and recaps, until the fans lost interest and they had to can it due to poor ratings. Yet in its inception it was an *extremely* popular show. LOST too, was highly successful when it came out, even winning an Emmy for best new show. Their ratings have dropped significantly but the writers have yet to clue in.

Smallville has less to worry about because it's a CW show, a channel that only kids watch (and a few of us pretenders). They have made some progress, but for the most part, it's 3 episodes of "meteor rock freaks" for every good episode involving Clark learning a new power, development of Lex vs Superman, and etc.

The 4400 is a lesser known show that I won't comment on because I don't know anyone besides me and my brother who watch it. The show has the potential to be as good as Heroes, but ends up being worse than Smallville.

Lately, Battlestar Galactica, a highly-acclaimed television show that I have been keeping up with, has fallen off the deep-end as well. Again, the common notion is that you need to sit through 3 bad episodes before you get a good one. Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica was incredible, absolutely amazing. But season two has left much to be desired.

The only serial dramas that I can think of that have had constant "forward progress", are 24, Prison Break and Heroes.

The Age of Google

I can't imagine my day-to-day operations without Google. I use the search engine every single day, I use gmail for email, and gtalk to talk to Ina every day. I use Google Calendar to book and track my appointments. I use Google Groups to access usenet to browse various topics including Raptors, movies, television shows, programming and cooking. The Google search engine has changed everything.

Imagine if you could bring a laptop into a job interview. Any non-personal question could be answered with Google. All you'd need is a fast connection and the ability to type fast.

I have a lazy cousin, who, instead of researching things for himself, emails me or my other cousin for help. For instance, he wanted to know what laptop he should buy. Normally for me, if I'm about to make a "big" purchase, I spend about a month scouring the web for reviews until I find exactly what I'm looking for.

But instead of doing all that, my cousin would just email me and say "Hi, what laptop should I get?" and provide me a link to a bunch of laptops. Yesterday he asked me "Is Vista good?". You see, my cousin hasn't discovered Google.

Today he emailed me and my other cousin about a name of a song. He said the lyrics contained "at the cross". Now any Christian knows this is not an uncommon phrase in Christian music. But Google, being the uber search engine that it is, has this kind of information. Of course, my cousin doesn't know this because he lives in the dark ages.

Although he did eventually find the song himself, I suggested that perhaps instead of constantly asking me (and my other cousin) every question that pops into his head, he should just ask Google -- to which responded "You are better than Google."

Wow.. talk about flattery.. I mean, better than Google?! What a compliment!

Of course none of it makes sense because I answered all his questions by consulting, yes, Google, as did my other cousin. And likely, my cousin's sucking up exposes nothing more than pure laziness on his own behalf. Or perhaps what he's saying is that I am better at searching for information on Google than he is?

Half of these things I had no idea existed, but now that I do, I cannot get enough of it. If you think Google is great now, check out this article..

Data Mining using Google

USB Hub

If it seems like I have an obsession with USB devices -- I don't. I just find these very amusing.. Case in point, check out this amazingly useful USB Hub.
Marvel at this wonderful genius! A tape dispenser..AND a USB Hub, all in one! Did I mention it's 2.0? O yeah!

Reflection: Worship as a feeling

I've gotten a chance to reflect on my previous "controversial" blog about Spirit-filled worship. I cannot be convinced that being Spirit-filled does not result in and outward appearance of joy, awe, wonder, reverance and happiness. However, I can or have been convinced that my perception could be completely incorrect.. that what I see of a person could in fact be way off base.

Following my original blog, Kinson strode up to the pulpit and spoke about Joy, and how it's not necessarily an outward emotion, which kind of caught me off guard a little because, well, the other speaker preached about the contrary. However he spoke more about inward joy, and how to attain it, which did agree with my assessment of people, in general, needing to invest more in their spiritual lives to attain a higher level of spirit-filled-ness. So the sermon was more jiving with my blog than not. Shrug.

Review: Wii Play (Wii)

I pre-ordered this game and got it yesterday from the EB Games at Eaton Centre.

Wii Play is the game packaged with Nintendo Wii's, to my knowledge, for people in Europe and Australia and it comes with a Wiimote. It's $60, so really you are paying for a Wiimote and the game is a throw-in.

It has many games, similar to Wii Sports. But don't get these two games mixed up. Wii Sports has won many awards, including TIME's Best Game of the Year. Wii Play is a whole 'nother story.

Wii Play is kind of like a tutorial disc for the Wii system. It trains users on how to use the Wiimote. Each game is really just a test for you to see if you know how to use the Wiimote. Here is a review for each of the games.

1. Taanks

Tanks is actually fun, and it's quite challenging. You moved your tank around the screen that will often have walls and barriers, with the nunchuck thumbstick, or with the directional pad on the wiimote (if you don't have the nunchuk attachment -- since the game only comes with the wiimote), and you used the trigger B to shoot. The tank can fire up to 5 shots at a time, and then you ahve to wait for each shell to explode before you can fire more. Each shell bounces once off a wall before exploding on its next target. Each level pits you against anywhere between 1-6 tanks, and each of the enemies get progressively harder with themselves getting better and better weapons. After a few tries I got up to level 14. After every 5 levels you get a free life, and you start with 3.

This is a fun game, and I would almost say that I would have paid $10 for this game alone. And it's so simple. I'm sure I played a game just like this 20 years ago on my Atari 2600.

2. Mii Pose

Mii Pose. How do I explain this. Your Mii can pose in 3 ways, and you can switch from pose to pose by hitting A or B. Aside from that, you can tilt your Mii by tilting the wiimote. Now, bubbles start falling down with the Mii posed in a certain way and tilted, and you need to match your Mii (controlled by your wiimote) to the Bubble Mii.

This game is virtually unplayable.

3. Fiishing

Okay. You have this pole, right. And it has a hook. And you dip the pole into this pool, and the fish swim around. You wait, a fish bites, and you pull up on the wiimote and there! You caught a fish. The bigger the fish, the more points, and if the littlest fish bites, you lose points.

Another unplayable game beyond the first 30 seconds when you realize you have absolutely no control over that little fish that makes you lose points.

4. Find Mii

There are several modes that randomly appear in this particular game. Basically, your Mii, as in the one you designed yourself, will be on the screen with several other Mii's, some that you created, some that are just randomly generated, and you have 30 seconds to find him/her. The quicker you find it, the better, as you get more time added to your total for the next one.

The next one is a room of 15, or 20, or 10 Mii's, and you have to pick the two who are the same. It sounds easy but I got eliminated on one of these.

Another one is they are all walking up and down a street, and one guy is faster than the rest. You pick the fastest to move on. There was one level where they were all swimming and one was swimming faster.

Another one is to pick 2 who are not behaving the same as the rest. The one I got was, they were all watching tennis, heads going back and forth based on the tennis match, but two were looking in the opposite direction.

This game is somewhat playable. I could see it being fun in a party setting where two people are competing to find the matches.

5. Shootiing

This is duck hunt, only if you hit a duck, it's only a bonus. There's 5 levels:

1. Shoot targets.
2. Shoot clay discs
3. Shoot bugs?
4. I can't remember
5. 10 of your Mii's are running around a field, and UFO's try to grab them. You need to shoot the UFO's. You stay alive as long as there is at least one Mii left. Waves and waves of UFO's com.

6. Pool/Biilliards

This game has some really cool physics.. You can put some *unbelievable* spin on a ball. But I really can't see much fun in this beyond that. It is really crappy.

7. Piing Pong

This game had so much potential. Having played Wii Tennis, I really thought this would be THE GAME for Wii Play. I was wrong.

Ping Pong is nothing more than you moving side to side like playing Pong. You can't put spin on the ball, you can't even pick the direction really. You just act like the paddle and be at the right spot to have it bounce off you. It is really a complete waste of time.

8. Aiir Hockey

Imagine what I just described to you about Ping Pong. Add neon lights.

9. Some kind of cow race

You turn the wiimote horizontally. Twisting forward is accelerate, pulling back is breaks, and then turn it like a wheel for a car. To jump, you lift the remote up.

So you're a cow. And your goal is to hit other cows. And avoid hurdles. And finish the race. Again I'm sure this game is better with two players. It has to be.


I think that's all of them. If there was another, I forgot it because.. well, it deserved to be forgotten, much like these other ones.

Sound: 6/10
Controls: 8/10
Graphics: 6/10
Value: 10/10 (after all, it was practically free when you consider it game with a wiimote, which is btw, one of the hardest things to find in any store these days)
Fun Factor: 2/10

Overall score: 32/50.

Edit:

I liked this particular review, from 1UP on Wii Play:
"Play is made for people who don't really like games, and if you're someone who really does, that's a problem. Sure, most of these minigames are fun...for about 10 minutes. But hey, maybe your grandma will want to marry it."

wiirkout, no thanks!

I have discovered a wonderful way to lose weight, and I'm willing to share this amazing tidbit of information to the world, right here on my blog, for nothing! Absolutely free!

In the last week or two, I've lost a total of 8 pounds. I'm 146 pounds! Can you believe it? I barely believe it myself, but it's true!

In fact, if you want to lose weight like I have, I would even be willing to give you the solution in person! Just come to place, I'll breathe on you a few times, let you use some of my snotty kleenexes, and VOILA! You can be sick like me, and lose tons of weight! Hurray!

Indianapolis Colts

I'd like to send out a big congratulations to the Indianapolis Colts for winning this year's Superbowl. This team has proved to me that exciting football can still exist in this league. After several years of Championship teams comprised of a "just enough" quarterback, heavily backed up by staunch defense, the Colts have bucked the trend and won it all with a pure offensive attack. Not since 2000 when the Rams took it, have we seen an offensive team win a Superbowl. It's about friggin' time.

Talk about injecting a little excitement into the league, similar to the new-NHL -- more offense, less defense approach. As I became tired of the Jersey's neutral-zone trap, I have grown tired of these just-enough teams. Hopefully this starts a new trend in football.

Anyway, again a big congrats to Tony Dungy and the Indianapolis Colts.

Review: Norah Jones' "Not Too Late"

This is a review of Norah Jones' latest offering, "Not Too Late". I read a review about this album on the Metro a few mornings ago and it noted that she had written most of the songs on this album, which is exciting to me because she's always just sung songs written by others. In fact, she's been criticized for that as well -- she's been labelled a good singer, but that's it.

I like her voice. She's got a really unique voice, and honestly I just like it a lot. The music is nice and mellow, and lyrics are meaningful. It's the kind of stuff you'd listen to while walking by a lake or on the street while it's raining lightly and seeing kids playing in a yard. It's a great "reminiscing" album, not that it's even about that, but it makes you think. That's the kind of mood I get from it.

In her first album, which is the only other album of hers that I own, I found every song catchy. This album is more of a mood thing, not so much a 'catchy tunes' album. It's relaxing, almost therapeutic at times. I think she's proven to any of her doubters that she can definitely write music, and write well.

I paid $14 for it after tax at Futureshop, which is decent except that I saw it for cheaper the next day at HMV. I hate that. Anyway, here's a quick breakdown:

Creativity (7/10) - There's a decent amount of variety on the CD. Different styles like jazz, country, and head-bopping-side-to-side beats. There's a song where she whistles, which I think is cool. Nothing ground-shaking though.
Worshipability (0/10 * 7/10) - I'll alter this category for the sake of not giving extremely low marks for secular music. Let's call this category "Singalongability".
Value (10/10) - Anything under $15 after tax is a good price.
Longevity (8/10) - I can see myself listening to this a lot because it's not very distracting.
Intangibles (9/10)- It's a nice little case, and not a hard plastic one. It's paper but it's sturdy and it's thinner than the average CD case. It's also got a neat cover and a different slot for which the lyrics come out.

Overall: 41/50

A Wii bit funny

Check this out..


I assure you, my "Wiirkouts" are *not* like this!

Killer app

FuGwah was telling me about a week ago about "killer apps". A "killer app" is the one game that causes everyone to buy a particular console system. Despite the Nintendo Wii absolutely *crushing* the PS3 in the war of new consoles, it has been Xbox 360 with Gears of War that has been flying off the shelves. Furthermore, because of the difficulty of finding an available Wii to buy, some people walk into a store, find there were no Wii's, pass on the available PS3's, and pick up an Xbox 360 instead.

There's absolutely no compelling reason to buy a PS3 right now for most people, except fanboys. As an anti-Sony person, I could not tell you what game I think might be the PS3 killer app. However at the same as a Nintendo Fanboy, I cannot tell you what I think might be the killer app for the Wii.

I think for Nintendo, because it has several exclusive franchises such as anything related to Mario or Zelda, resulting games from these franchises might contain a killer app. But then again when I look at today's gaming world and what people are looking for in general, it is about expandability, games that can evolve and have rolling content. For instance for a game like GoW, you could have new maps to play, online play will always be different depending on who you're playing. However with Nintendo, games like Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers, Wario games, Mario Party, etc etc, have no expandability. They're like arcade games.. you can play until you're sick of it, but the games themselves will never change.

Will the Wii ever have a killer app? Perhaps a new Mario game, or a Zelda game -- but you would only find fans of these franchises buying this games, and most of these people already have Wii's. Will Wii buck the trend of a console needing a killer app to survive? So far it has, but will that last, I am thinking probably not.

Of course the concept of a "killer app" is somewhat foreign to me. I've never been that kind of a person to buy a console just for a particular game, unless you count upgrading my computer for certain computer games. I didn't buy my GameCube for any particular game. I almost bought a PS2 just for Guitar Hero 2, and I doubt that game was considered as a Killer App. We had a Nintendo, and an N64 -- none of those consoles were bought for the purpose of playing any particular game. Perhaps there IS some hope of a successful console with no killer app..

Anyway, the only reason I thought of this entire subject was because I heard about a computer game that was in development. This game, is something that I have dreamed about for 9 years. As franchise, this game approaches the Warcraft franchise in terms of my favorite franchises.

Fallout

I read recently that Bethesda Softworks were now several years into the development of Fallout 3, and they were hiring more developers (graphics?) to get this thing into full gear. I must say when I heard this, my heart nearly skipped a beat. A game that I had been waiting for since the *second* I finished Fallout 2, has a strong possibility of being released in the near future.

I also read rumors of Fallout 3 coming out on Xbox 360. If there was ever a "killer app" for the 360, for me, this would be it. I would gladly pay $600 for the console just to play the next entry of this beloved franchise. Of course if it still comes out on PC, forget all that..

Matthew 7

I think one of the great things about Matthew 7, is that it provokes thought and discussion. It reminds me a lot of how pride and humility go hand in hand. ie: You can be humble and show humility, but if you tell anyone about it, you've become proud. I think at the end of day, you start to realize that God has a pretty good sense of humor.

Matthew 7:1-2 is another prime example of this. I received a comment to my "Spirit-filled worship" post that quoted verse 2. How do you quote such a verse to someone without you yourself contradicting that verse?

If we examine Matthew 7, what is Jesus trying to teach us?

In verses 1-5, Christ is teaching us that we should not form or express conclusions about others without seeing or dealing with our own issues.

But then He gives us verse 6, which is telling us to judge the dogs, the pigs. In other words, don't judge.. but judge. Personally, I think verse 6 is teaching discernment, which is still drawing conclusions but based on biblical principle.

In 1 Corinthians 2:15, Paul calls Christians to make "judgments about all things". If we as Christians really want to follow our Lord's teaching to love our neighbors, we can't escape our responsibility to warn and challenge those around us in the face of opposition. I believe Matthew 7:1-2 is simply a guideline to follow when judging/discerning others. It can't mean that we must give all spiritual discernment in order to be "loving Christians".

In Matthew 7:15, 16 and 20, Jesus *demands* spiritual discernment.

Is it our duty as Christians to keep discerning conclusions to ourselves, in order to avoid "judging"? Matthew 7:1 isn't saying that it is sinful to confront, challenge or warn others. Again, I see it more as a guideline.

Christ has commanded us to judge those in the church according to the standards of His Word. (1 John 4:1, Matthew 24:23-25, 2 Timothy 4:2-4).

Now to revisit my previous post about Spirit-filled worship.

Firstly, the fruits of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. A fruit of the Spirit is JOY. If we are full of Spirit, would we not exhibit traits of the Holy Spirt? Would we not exhibit joy?

Secondly, singing as a form of worship. I never said people must sing in worship. My biggest lament of my church congregation is the fact that people look like they are tired, bored, and wishing they were somewhere else. However upon doing some research, singing does in fact have an important place in the worshipping of God. In fact, according to the Bible, singing is a big part of worship. In Ephesians 5:19, Paul instructs the saints at Ephesus to "sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord". Colossians 3:16 says "singing with grace". James 5:13 says "Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms". Matthew 26:30 "sung a hymn". 1 Corinthians 14:15, "I will sing with the Spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.. Revelation 5:9 - "and they sang a new song", Revelation 15:3 "They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the Song of the Lamb." Acts 16:25 "were praying and singing hymns to God".

Paul tells the Colossians to sing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. I don't know anyone, regardless of how conservative and introverted they are, show thankfulness by looking bored, tired and unresponsive.

Finally, I've been thinking about people would read my previous post and felt offended by it. Is it that hard to believe that not all of us are high in Spirit? My conclusion is that it's possible that someone might misinterpret that being "spirit-empty" is a sin. I've been spirit-empty before, I don't think I was being sinful. Just not spirit-filled. People talk of spiritual-burnout, when someone pours so much out, there is nothing left and they need a recharge. There's nothing wrong with that.

My contention is that if people are feeling spirit-empty, they should feel the need to rectify it, just as I would. Spend more quiet time talking to God. Read the Word and replenish your soul. Pray. Fellowship with your fellow believers.

That's all I've got for now.

USB drives

I found this really amusing. These are all USB drives, ranging from 128mb to 512mb. Tiny? Yes. Expensive($99 each)? Yes. Cute? VERY.



Here's a few more. They're called iDucks. They light up when you plug them in.



These are only 128mb each.. but adorable! Only $59 apiece.. what a deal!



Who *wouldn't* want a piece of wood sticking out of their usb port?

---

Wiirk-out #2
Weight: 150 lbs
Workout time: 10:27pm - 11:04pm

Spirit-filled worship

The sermon yesterday was about being Spirit-filled, about being filled with the Spirit in worship. It was a great sermon. It was a special guest speaker, Brian C. Stiller, president of Tyndale University College & Seminary. I wish we had more guest speakers.

Anyway, I think one of the things that hit me, having been part of a worship team and see a real glimpse of our congregation from God's standpoint, is that the majority of the english congregation at T3C is spirit-empty.

Stiller spoke about how, as you are filled more with the Spirit, through whatever means -- prayer, devotion, scripture reading, etc -- you start to "leak" the Spirit. You're so full of spirit that your life and your actions are affected -- it's like you're wearing Him on your sleeve. Everything about you personifies the Holy Spirit.

To illustrate the idea of making use of the Holy Spirit to reach God, Stiller used the example of buying a home, and how when you put in a down-payment or deposit, you are tied to the home. But if you walk away from the home, you will lose the down-payment. I also heard another analogy with chocolate milk. If you have a glass of milk, and you pour chocolate syrup in and do nothing, all you have is a glass of milk. Until you take a spoon and mix it all up, the syrup is just going to sit at the bottom. You can't have chocolate milk unless you mix it all up -- until you allow the Spirit to consume your life, you will never have the sweetness of truly knowing God.

Another example I'd like to throw in, is worship at Urbana. Since day one, the music was amazing. There is no difference between the music we heard on Day 1 and on Day 5. On Day 1, it was just a bunch of people standing and singing. But on Day 5, after 5 days of being filled with the Spirit through prayer, through scriptures, speakers, seminars, interactions with eachother -- people were jumping up and down, screaming JESUS at the top of their lungs, doing conga-lines up and down the aisles, raising their arms to the sky, crying (literally) out to God, kneeling on the floor, etc. We went from regular Mr. John Christian to people who were so filled with Spirit that He was literally BURSTING out from us.

When I look out at the congregation at our church, I see a bunch of people from Day 1 Urbana. They are looking at the words and thinking "Ugh.. why do they make us stand? What is this.. do I have to sing? This song again? Oh man.. now they're making us clap. I am so not clapping."

Only for the majority of them, it's not Day 1. It's day 1000, or 6000 of their spiritual journey with God. You have to wonder, how spiritually empty, how dried up they must be, to have that kind of a reaction to worshipping God? How scary is it, that nearly an entire congregation, 'normal behavior' is to stand/sit there and do nothing?

When I sang for Ina or Ina -- ooops -- I mean, when I sang for Yee Lee or Karen, I would often sense their frustration because no one was singing, you would look out and see a bunch of blank faces and you didn't know, was it because we sang poorly? Did we pick the wrong songs? Can they even hear us?

Maybe we're being too hard on ourselves. What good is it to provide Spirit-led worship, when people are not Spirit-filled? We're stirring the milk, but chocolate syrup has solidified and won't mix in anymore. People are stuck on Day 1.

Urbana: Update

I thought it might be a good time to update some things from Urbana. It has been difficult.. the adjustment from Urbana to real life. The transition has been seamless, in that Urbana feels like years ago. Obviously this isn't a good thing. I've forgotten a lot of promises I made to God.

In my commitment card, I made it a point that I would share the gospel with a co-worker. That hasn't happened. However, something really neat happened, where an ex-co-worker called me out of the blue and asked if I could set him up with someone that could answer some of his OT-NT questions. I was really excited about this, and I've dialogued with him quite a bit since then and he'll be meeting up with my pastor likely next week to get some questions answered.

Also in my commitment card, I committed to serving in a short term mission this year. Of course that will be Longlac. I need to book my years' vacations next week so it will be officially etched in stone by then.

I've been working on trying to finish my Perspectives project. It's been interesting to say the least. I've had to explore my own imagination on how the people of Longlac can be reached, in a long-term basis. Pretty much the ideas that I had hoped to get out of the Longlac committee that never came together, I am now needing to put on paper. It's also made me realize how little I know of these people. I really need to make it a point to understand them this summer, understand what makes them tick, how they would be brought to worship God, how they would enjoy worshipping, their general thought processes, what they strive for and what they hope to get out of life. All these are important things to learn about them, as part of research on learning the most effective way to evangelize to them.

So that's my update for now. I will try to update from time to time, to keep myself accountable.

Brainstorming

My brother told me he was coming home for the weekend yesterday, so I went to Loblaws to buy some juice and dumplings.. cuz that's what we eat. Anyway, I suddenly had a big urge to cook, after looking at all the processed foods in the aisles.

I haven't cooked since I made ribs last year. I've been eating a ton of TV dinners, not so much because I'm lazy, but just because I haven't had the urge to do so. Once I discovered the Parker Lee microwavable dinners, I really got into them.. I tried them all and discovered the curry beef brisket ones are AWESOME. As well, there is a Vietnamese Noddle with Beef Brisket that is just stupendous. $3 for a bowl of it, and it's enough for a meal.. now that is cheap.

Anyway, I just haven't had the urge, or inspiration to cook since the ribs, but today while picking up some red peppers for a tuna sandwich (that's another thing.. I decided to make tuna sandwiches for lunch, maybe try and get in the habit of making sandwiches at least once a week to save money), I had a sudden craving for stuffed peppers. My dad used to make stuffed peppers once in awhile and I remember them being oh-so-good.

I'm sure he used ground beef.. I was thinking of trying it with ground lamb instead, that could produce an interesting aroma.

So here's what I've been thinking about, for ingredients and recipe:

1. Cut out the stem of the pepper, cleaning out the seeds and 'compartments'.
2. Dice onions, garlic, and some other ingredient which I haven't figured out.
3. Cook the ground lamb til brown. Put in a bowl.
4. Sautee the onions, garlic and the mystery ingredient.. add beef before caramelization.

Now comes the tricky part. How do you make the meat stick together without eggs. I was thinking of using milk and possibly bread crumbs, to give it some kind.. umm.. sticky texture. Perhaps rice. I dunno.. I'm gonna have to think about that one.

Anyway, once that's all done, just stuff the peppers and throw it all in the oven...til the pepper is cooked.

Oh.

2a. Chop up some mozarella cheese (btw, I really hate buying cheese. Even the smallest block, which ends up being a rip-off because of the cost:volume ratio.. and I never finish it all and then it goes bad... it's so annoying.), and put sprinkle the cheese on top of the pepper, and let it sit in the oven til it melts. Then serve..

I think that could totally work.. although I'm picturing a very bland tasting stuffed pepper. I guess it all depends on that mystery ingredient. Maybe jalapeno might do it, give it some extra taste.. and I'm sure I'd use some salt and pepper as well.

Yes.. this all sounds good to me.

wiiBrian

I made a new year's resolution to start working out, the goal being for me to reach "healthy status" by the time I reach 30. Lon challenged me to work-out a few months ago, saying that he does it so that he can glorify God for as long as is humanly possible.. or something like that. I think that's a pretty good reason to work-out. The other reason would have been to get myself into shape to attract women, but since I already have a girlfriend, I'm just gonna go with the glorifying God reason.

Let's not kid ourselves here.. eBrian and "workout" simply are not two words you will often hear in the same sentence, least not in terms of a "commitment" that will last longer than 2-3 weeks. Although I have a reason to workout, I'm not exactly *UN*healthy, so what's to keep me from going along with my current routine? I need more incentive.

I read this website about this guy who spends 30 minutes per day playing Wii Sports for 6 weeks, and he lost an impressive 9 pounds. If you look at the site, you can see before and after pictures of his gut, which have noticeably shrunk. I am seriously gonna do this.

I have taken pictures of myself, but I will wait until the "after" pictures. I am committing myself to 30 days of training. That is, 30 times that I will blog about wiirking out. I will post the results on the 30th, or on April 1, 2007 (whichever comes first). I am not going to check my calories, or all that stuff. I am simply going to weigh myself each time, and report how long I wiiked out.

Wiirk-out #1
Weight: 152 lbs
Workout time: 8:00pm - 8:37pm

Names

Ina was telling me that I have a habit of mentioning names of girls in my blog, whom I have a crush on. That, as if by some cosmic force, Ina believes that I start mentioning the object of my affections in my blog entries. What's worse, is that Ina told me that others know this about me, and apparently (according to Ina) many girls have commented on this before. I wonder if there are people out there, who, upon seeing their name appear on my blog, run for the hills. I hope not..

And how does it work exactly, I can imagine a large tally board listing each name I have mentioned, and a frequency table marking each time I've mentioned them on my blog. And then there's a play-by-play commentator, calling out names as they appear. "For those of you just tuning in.. it's a tie between A, B and C. A hush has come over the crowd as we await, who will break this hotly contested 3-way tie. Oh, what's this? A new girl? Mentioned 9 times? Oh my goodness.. a new entry, D, has blown her way past all 3 front runners and is all alone in front! This is crazy folks, oh the insanity! In my 40 years of name-counting, I have never seen *anything* like this! WHOAAAA.. 15 more times?!?! Looks like we've got ourselves a winner!"

This observation from Ina makes me nervous as well as a bit paranoid. Firstly, if what Ina says is true, then imagine what people must think of me. I must've mentioned at least a hundred different names over the past five years. And secondly, maybe there's something terribly wrong with my psyche. Could Ina have discovered something terribly wrong with me, perhaps a psychological disorder? Scary..

Now let's say for a minute (not that I'm admitting that Ina is right), that perhaps what Ina has suggested does have some truth to it. Maybe my subconscious mind subliminally whispers a name to me over and over, and as a result, I just type them out instead of saying "her" or "she", I say "Ina" or "Ina". I really don't know. It's weird.. I never really thought about this before.

Perhaps I need to be more conscious about the names that I mention on my blog.. I wouldn't want people like Ina to get the wrong idea.

I hope that clears things up..

Disappointment

Coming out of Urbana, I have a clear picture of what God wants me to do. I've been pretty excited. Mind you, probably not as excited today as I was 2 weeks ago, but excited nonetheless. I had "coincidentally" joined a Long-term Solution committee, a joint effort between 3 other churches to try to further His kingdom through means beyond VBS and door-to-door canvasing in Longlac and Ginoogaming. I had been to Urbana and felt God's call for me serve Native people. I had personally seen how these people needed God more than ever because they were being forgotten.

Yesterday I received an email from Sylvia, one of the girls from TKPC who we had met with last year to discuss their vision for Longlac. There's a meeting at MCPC in two weeks where all 4 church leads (usually the pastors) will meet up to discuss this years' plans for STM to Longlac. It's exciting because we generally try to work together so that we aren't all teaching the same lessons or have the exact same theme. Our thinking is to offer the kids a comprehensive package of VBS, rather than drilling the same thoughts (not that this would be bad either) and ideas into their heads. Anyway I've been invited to this meeting, never been a part of it before.

Of course the reality is that what we teach people is more likely to be forgotten than retained. Ultimately missions is all about building relationships, gaining trust, and sharing personal experiences.

Anyway, in this email Syl apologizes about not following up with committee, and the reason for that --- I was the *only* person who showed any interest!

What the frack!!! Does no one care?!?!

Modes Ponens

Back in school, we had this logic course, it was called Mathematical Logic, and it was a beast of a course. So many proofs.. if A, then B, etc. I remember the textbook was a baby blue color, about the size of a tiny notebook, and costed $120. We learned about words like "tautology", and "modes ponens". I really had no idea what any of this meant but when writing out a proof, at some point you would write 'modes ponens', and then you could skip several steps of the proof and then, QED.

I never knew what QED meant either. Just looked it up.. says "quod erat demonstrandum", or "which was to be demonstrated". In highschool, Mr. Ha told us it meant "Quite Easily Done". I like this latter definition better.

Here are a few if A, then B scenarios I have come up with.

Prove: If Brian is wearing light colored pants, then pen ink and/or permanent marker will gravitate towards my pants.
Alternate B: Brian is more likely to have a nosebleed.

Tautology: If Brian is wearing light colored pants, then he is more prone to mishaps involving things that cause stains.

It's like some voice is saying in the morning: "Brian, don't wear your brown pants today because you are going to spill soy sauce all over your leg, and you want to make sure everyone can see it even after it dries up. Oh, and you can forget about combing your hair because you're gonna have the worst case of hat-head ever from wearing your toque this morning."

Anyway.. enough of that. QED.

Aches

Yesterday the entire 27th floor had to evacuate at Metro Hall. The fire alarm had been activated on the 29th, so we all headed down the stairs. I figured out a way to descend the stairs without making my legs extremely sore the next day.. using my arms on the rails, I descended the stairs as if my life depended on getting down as soon as possible. It worked.. shuffling my feet and letting gravity take over, I flew down the stairs.

And so, my arms hurt today, which is far more bearable than sore legs.

My new year resolution was to start working out, and my excuse for not starting was because I was jet lagged. The jet lag is gone. My arms are sore from a fire evacuation.. so that's enough exercise for this week.. QED.

Pains

I have noticed over the past few months that my physical wounds stick around. I have had many cuts and bruises in my days of yore, from paper cuts to large gashes from falling off really big rocks that I tried to climb.

Aside from my cd-rom mishap in highschool, I've never had any scars that remained. For some reason my regenerative skin cells are no longer working full time. If I get a cut, it takes weeks to heal and what's worse is that it doesn't even re-form the way it was before.

So.. I guess the metabolism was the first to go as I got older.. and next, the regenerative ability of my cell tissues. What's next?

Post #1001

Firstly, I have updated the comments to haloscan so that anyone can comment. I think people have been having trouble commenting because of the new Google-login feature of comments.

Anyway, I've decided to make a non-Urbana post regarding all I did during my vacation that was un-related to Urbana. It will be in list form and not organized at all. Good luck.

-The flight was seriously boring because my brother slept the entire time so I had no one to talk to
-I watched the movie "Invincible". Pretty good feel-good, zero-to-hero story. 7/10
-The lady sitting beside us evidently never flew before, she was complaining incessantly at the flight, food (no meals), drinks, pilot, Americans.
-Went to In-N-Out burger. Very good. VERY GOOD.
-I bought a laptop at Circuit City, it's a Toshiba Satellite, M115. It's mostly Vista compatible, but then again, it's not like I'll be using Vista any time soon.
-Went to Carl's Jr. These burgers are amazing. AMAZING.
-Vegas is seriously boring unless you gamble, smoke, or have never been there before.
-Watched "Pirates of the Caribbean 2". Quite possibly one of the worst movies I have ever seen. 0/10.
-Watched "The Break-Up" again. What a depressing movie, although it does have its moments. 6/10.
-Went to a Japanese restaurant called Osaka, which is supposed to be ranked #2 amongst Japanese restaurants in Vegas. I'll admit, the food was good. But expensive beyond belief. I got a chirashi that costed enough for 4 people to eat at Sushi Bong.
-Are you still reading?
-I saw and played a PS3 at an EB Games. They had 3 available at the store, but everyone was asking about Wii controllers. Anyway, out of the 3 new consoles (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360), the PS3 has to be the biggest waste of money out there.
-The Colts defense is looking good, but the offense doesn't. How will they fair against the Ravens? The future isn't looking so bright.
-Big (lucky) win by Seattle. I can't help cheering for these guys after they got robbed of the Superbowl by the NFL officials last year.
-Urbana was awesome
-Went to Red Robin, yet another burger place. Burgers were huge. I was still burping up burger meat the next morning.
-Watched "Apocalypto". I've decided that Mel Gibson is a mad man. Pointless movie, but good action and very exciting. So much blood. The blood "cloud" was a neat effect.. 7/10.
-We went to Primm, NV, for their massive outlet mall. I walked through the door, took a right into BR and bought pretty much ALL the clothes for the day. Sales after sales after sales. It was great.
-When I arrived in St. Louis, I quickly texted Ina to see if she was still there, she was. Thank goodness, because I'm pretty sure I would have gotten lost without her.
-We (as in the non-student T3Cers) texted a whole lot throughout Urbana in order to track eachother down. I can't wait to see my cell phone bill. Telus is 15 cents per message.
-The hotel rooms were nice, at the Adam's Mark. Allan refused to share beds so we each had to take a turn on the floor.
-In fact, one night he decided to try sharing so I had to only use half the bed. When I woke up I found him on the floor again.. he couldn't stand the tiny space. Unfortunately I didn't know so I was scrunched up the entire night thinking he was still there.
-Allan called Mils every single night. I thought that was sweet and romantic (or just responsible?) of him.
-I have 4 weddings that I know of, to go to this year. This is surprising because I thought my group was finished. I guess this is the second wave.
-I can't believe you're still reading..
-We have a dog, named Dusty. He's a pug. He's soooo cute. I am proclaiming that Dusty is the cutest dog in the whole world. He knows he's cute. When you call him for a hug, he'll take his fine time coming out.. he'll yawn a few times, stretch his legs a bit and saunter over. It's the cutest thing (although also annoying sometimes because you just know he's taking his time on purpose).
-My mom refuses to set the temperature at home above 70 degrees. That's 21 C. Maybe I'm spoiled but that is really cold to me. Plus I think 21 degrees there is different from here because I have a relatively smaller area for the hot air to cover, and it retains the heat. For some reason, it always feels cold in the house at Las Vegas. Except of course in the summer when it was 37 degrees.
-A lot of people are getting sick. It's some kind of cold virus, that just won't go away. I hope I don't get it.
-Dexter's season finale was quite possibly the most surprising twist I've ever seen. There is no way I could have seen that one coming.
-Speaking of television, my brother and I caught up on Smallville and it is confirmed that this show is going down the drain. One really exciting (but since quashed) rumor was that there would be a spin-off of Smallville for a live-action Justice League. The prospects of this would be unbelievable, but think of the budget too. They recently attempted an Aquaman spin-off that crashed and burned before the pilot even aired.
-During my stay in Las Vegas, I watched and caught up for the show Battlestar Galactica. This is a great great show. I watched all of seasons 1 and 2, and then what's left of 3 so far. This show is so awesome..
-I watch way too much television.
-My mom told me that Rachel Ray won #2 for most influential female. #1 was that first female speaker in US government whatchmacallit. That one is impressive. But Rachel Ray? Really?!?
-I wonder if there are any naysayers of the TJ Ford for Charlie Villanueva trades left. Ford is a beast.
-My brother bought me Far Cry Vengeance for the Wii for Christmas. I haven't touched the Wii since I got back.. but then again I haven't really done anything period.
-I'm starting to get a little bit concerned that I may have bit off a bit more than I can chew, regarding my Perspectives project. Most people do these things in groups, of 3 or 4. I am doing it alone. 2 weeks left til the deadline..

So there you have it. A quick and brief update of my vacation.

Urbana: God's Will

At Urbana, pretty much anyone you ask would say that the reason they were at Urbana was to learn more about God's will in their life.

I've now shared about several different perspectives or thoughts about what I experienced at Urbana. I will now delve into areas where I felt God speaking to me, and how I dealt with each of the little lessons God taught me.

Over the past year, several things have resonated through my thoughts and prayers.. if you looked through my blog entries (at least the ones that were serious and non-sports-related) over the last 2-3 months, you would remember several posts related to the following:

1) Missions

I've already been over my missions decision-making and prayerful requests for direction. To summarize, I felt God nudging me towards serving at Longlac once again this year, based on the general lack of concern for these people at a missions conference as large as Urbana, on God speaking to me through scriptures, on people I spoke with in regards to missions and their experiences.

2) Meaninglessness at work

To summarize, I have felt for a long time that the work I do is meaningless. What purpose do I have, for supporting a web-application at work? If I stopped, how many people would be critically affected? Is God pleased with what I do?

I registered at Urbana under the "Open for Business" track. Seminars belonging to this track were related to BAM (Business As Mission) and other business-related topics like money management, goals and ambitions, greed. I registered in this track having no intention of attending any of the seminars. I'm in computers. Who cares about business? I'm just a geek.

Over the conference I met several people, including Joe, an IT guy who worked at Saddleback (Rick Warren), and another guy named Brian, an owner of a software company that uses their income to fund missions. Both of these guys had valuable insight on the IT vocation, and how we can be used to further God's kingdom. Joe was a staff for Saddleback, and he talked to me about his missions work in China teaching computer and also psychology (he was now taking psychology in school). They'd travel from factory to factory in China to educate people about relationships, work ethic, and spirituality, and of course God would be a central focus on the latter. I met Joe completely at random, he was assigned to the same section as I had been, for the Stadium Servant (usher) job that I had volunteered for.

As for Brian, another chance meeting, I happened to sit down at his table for breakfast and found about his ministry. He had a software company that was using its proceeds to fund missions. He had created an openSource portal software, that gained popularity and advertising money through the Internet. He was now working on a content-management portal for churches (this is actually something T3C is, or at least should be, looking into).

I was really surprised when I talked to these two people and learned of the usefulness of what I do. It excites me in knowing that God uses everyone in some way, even computer nerds like myself.

I also ended up taking a seminar where a man spoke about innovations and inventions, creativity and entrepreneurial efforts that were used to further God's Kingdom. One story that particularly touched me was a group of women from Europe, who brought fabric and sewing materials to Africa, recruited sex workers and prostitutes, and made their own clothing line. They then shipped these back to Europe and sold them, creating a steady income for these women who could now support their families without needing to sell their bodies and risk the transfer of sexual diseases. What an amazing idea that essentially provides a sustainable income for a group of people who really needed it.

I don't believe in coincidences. God placed these people in my life so that I could have a chance to hear their stories and to learn about ways that I can use my skill set to build on His kingdom. No longer am I going to work just so I can evangelize to my co-workers. There are several different options out there for me to experiment with.

This truly gave me a renewed sense of excitement and passion about my work.

3) Relationships

I've lamented throughout the year about girls, the perfect wife, being single (and loving it). It's been a topic that seems unavoidable at times, due to the sheer volume of friends getting married or engaged, co-workers asking me, parents, etc. There's just no way around it.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I truly believe that it is up to God whether or not we find that special someone. Some people function better with a partner, others excel by themselves. There is no right or wrong. God says yes or no, and that's it.

Maybe I sound foolish in saying this, but I put this entire thing into God's hands. I am a true believer that God provides when we ask. God answers prayer.

(You may be wondering how this fits into my Urbana sharing. It just does..)

4) Worship

I have been asked to lead worship. Personally, this notion scares the crap out of me. I am not sure I can think of anything more scary than leading a congregation for *anything*, let alone the possibility of playing an instrument, while singing, while leading. That is just plain scary to me. And to have to have the onerous task of trying to get the congregation into the right mood, the right "place" -- seems almost impossible. I have enough trouble down in the pews trying to find a way to stand before the Lord and truly worship Him myself.. and then now, to have the responsibility to get people there? Yikes.

I have been asked to lead worship and I am scared at this prospect, because it's been asked several times now by different people.. people who don't even know eachother so I couldn't just blame it on a secret plot against me. It's not just a big coincidence.. God's trying to tell me something.

At Urbana, I repeatedly found myself at that "place". Coming before God, in His presence, being filled with the Holy Spirit. The emotions I felt, the freedom of letting go of myself, releasing my self-awareness. Of looking up and reaching out for Him, arms out and inviting Him in.

I don't know how to bring people to that place. But I am interested in finding out.

This is a topic that I will have to revisit because I am just totally scared at this point at the prospect of leading. I'll be praying but I'm asking you to pray with me.

--

So to summarize:

God answers prayers.
God places people in your life for a reason, not by coincidence.
God will tell you things you may not want to hear, but you should listen.
God has put you where are today for a reason.

Urbana: Poverty and Injustice

Love your neighbor as yourself
See a need and meet it
Defend the powerless
And in heaven be richly greeted

Our lives are but a breath
Only one chance to throw it away
To die to oneself
And see Jesus anew each day

Poverty, and dealing with poverty as well as the AIDS pandemic was one of the major subjects this year at Urbana. What our roles are in this battle against disease and suffering.

On Friday evening for dinner, Urbana delegates enjoyed a special meal. What made it special, was that it was a mixture that World Vision gives to the poor in Africa, a mixture of corn meal, some grains and vitamins.

It was difficult for me to enjoy it.. first of all it didn't taste very good at all. I put in one packet of sugar and heard many put in 3 packets. But the point wasn't to enjoy it but rather, to give a glimpse into the life of a poor african (or other country) grouping up in a poverty stricken world. I was touched by that.. and even more so, an hour later when my stomach started growling for more food.

This level of poverty really makes me think about how I spend my money, the level of luxury I live in, the number of useless things we in North America complain or debate about. Kinda puts things in perspective.

For instance, sitting in a nice 4-door sedan wondering if I should have gotten leather seats instead of cloth.. how cleaning my interior could have been so much easier if I had leather seats. Or while driving, I start to wonder why I didn't just splurge an extra thousand bucks to have the volume control on my steering wheel instead of way over there on the dashboard. To put things into perspective, the money spent there could easily have fed several villages for years.

The evil one is evil
God is faithful and true
They're fighting over your soul
So whatcha gonna do?

He promises to guide you
Promises clarity
So please don't take His call
To just mean: "Clothes for charity"

One kinda cool part of that night was that Bono from U2 teleconferenced in and spoke to us. He spoke about the war on AIDS and our roles as Christians. It was neat.

This world that we live in.. there is just so much parity between the many blessings that I've had compared to the many horrifying atrocities that others have experienced. But I think that the asterisk on both accounts would say that we all need God.

All the evil and injustice of the world goes streamin
Into city where kids cannot even start dreamin
Cuz they laborin' without knowing the hope of Jesus
Or they simply dying of preventable diseases

It may seem daunting friends
But your battle gear is useful
Every day spent in the Word of God
Is making you more truthful

God is concerned with the last, the least, the lost and the littlest. One speaker, Sharon Cohn told us a story about a woman named Elizabeth, a Christian. She was told about a job that would allow her enough money to support her family, only it turned out that she was captured and sold to a brothel, where she was imprisoned and forced to become a sex slave. She was raped and abused repeatedly. She prayed for God's help. A year later, when she was finally rescued, they found this written on the wall of the her prison cell, where she had been tortured and abused:

"The Lord is my light and my salvation --
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life --
of whom shall I be afraid?"

"When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall."

"Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then I will be confident.

(Psalms 27: 1-3)

When I heard this story, it nearly broke my heart. To endure the way she did.. I wonder and fear if my faith is as strong.

(italics are a rap written by Jedd Bloom)

Urbana: Unify Us

We lift our song
Sing as one voice
To the King, let it ring
We need You

We lift up our lives
A living sacrifice
Give it all, all Your call
We need You

At Urbana I was exposed to a huge dose of God, of prayer, praise and worship, a constant feeding of God's word and instruction. I felt the Spirit moving in me, I felt peace, and this unending urge to smile and laugh as a result of it. It was a 5-day spiritual buffet of love, an all-you-can-eat of blessings and teachings.

Going from what I suspect was a tiny morsel of what heaven must be like, to the "real world", I feel the need to feed again and I'm just now realizing how hard that can be when we are faced with so many distractions, negative thoughts and feelings, sin.

Unify us
Purify us
So that we will change the world
So that we will change the world

It's made me realize how much I need God. How much WE need God. How I need to always recognize His grace, in knowing that He is there for me, that He is calling my name and reaching out His hand towards me. It's hard, I think, to also have that mindset with all the things going on around us in everyday life.

And as I try to continue this walk in Jesus, I must strive to maintain a balance between gorging on spiritual nourishment, and eventually feeding others. God is a missionary God, we're all called to serve in missions one way or another, so we need that balance.

Jesus you are our hope
Giver of life
Without you what could we do
We need you

Towards the end of the conference, the emcee Greg Jao spoke about how the transition between "Urbana-world" to "real-world" would be difficult, because regular life is so much busier, so much more distracting, etc. I've been feeling that this morning. So many overwhelming feelings and thoughts, and as real life creeps back in, so many distractions and temptations.

We need you Lord
We need you Lord
We need you Lord
Here our cry

Urbana (Happy New Year)

I felt so happy today. I'm still happy. I feel so unbelievably blessed.

Worship time was so good, the place just absolutely erupted tonight, it was so amazing. God broke down the walls of inhibitions tonight. I sit here today and admit, proudly, that I, ebrian, danced. I've made this excuse in the past, where I'd say that dancing is silly and that I would probably only dance if something truly amazing happened, like for Jesus' second coming. Well that's not quite what happened but I let's just say I was really into it.

And honestly, I probably looked pretty ridiculous, but I didn't care. God was "in da house" and I was soaking it all in.

I spent most of the day reflecting on what God has been speaking to me about over the past few days. I've committed myself to the Ojibwey people of the Longlac area. I know it's where God's calling me to commit, and that feeling of being certain of where the Almighty wants me is so satisfying, so fulfilling. That fact alone had me smiling for most of the day, and just feeling so uplifted and relieved. I don't know how else to describe it other than that I felt "full" of spirit.

I know what Chris Tomlin was singing about in his song "Enough", that all of God, is more than enough. I feel satisfied like I had a big meal and you kind of just sit there patting your stomach and smiling.

God is good.