UPgraded

Okay, so the Pink Kryptonite Lovers page wasn't QUITE the upgrade... as some of you have pointed out (especially JENNY) that it was more of a downgrade. So, here is an upgrade (hopefully)... it's not much, but considering how much I know about computers and HTML and everything like that, oh well. If you have any opinions/suggestions, let me know. I'll see what I can do. Otherwise, welcome to the re-vamped Lost in Geospace Blog. haha.

In other news... it has taken me over an hour to get to work for 2 of the 3 days this week. Thus, I have been late (only by 10 minutes) twice. Stupid traffic. Stupid drivers that don't know how to drive. I mean, do you really need to drive 40 below speed limit? ACK! And strangely, I've been getting rougly 8-9 hours of sleep every night, but I still feel exhausted every morning and want to take naps during the day. So exhausted even now... I actually closed my eyes during my lunch break today and ended up falling asleep... sigh, haha.

And also... I will be away this weekend in Vancouver. Get to catch up on some nice weather, hehe. I don't care if it rains, just as long as it's above 0 degrees.
Okay, that is all. Good Night.

The Longest Day

So, Friday is my longest day. Which is why I need to post now, at 7 in the morning in order to get my 2 points. :P Otherwise, I will not come home again till 3am Saturday morning, sigh... 20 hours.
Off to work in half-ah-hour... work till 4:30... head to church... pick up my mom from Greyhound station at 7ish... head back to YAC for gym nite... possibly go eat/drink or just loiter at church afterwards... go play hockey at midnight... finally get home at 2:00... take a shower... go to sleep... doesn't seem like a lot, but it still adds up to a 21 hour day (since I wake up at 6). So, got to go now, eat breakfast, pack hockey equipment, pack gym equipment, pack work stuff and go scowl at rude/bad/slow drivers during rush hour traffic.

GO FLAMES GO

Seweet. 10 wins in the past 11. Tied for first in the Northwest Division alongside the Vancouver Canucks. 4th in the Western Conference (granted, we've played more games than most teams... but if those teams were to win those games to match games played with the Flames, we'd still be 6th in the West) We're also 8-2-0 against Division rivals (Vancouver, Edmonton, Colorado and Minnesota), which will be a huge bonus since we play up to 1/4 of the overall games against them. Crappy thing is we play the Eastern teams so little. Which means that Phaneuf (who really deserves a Calder) will likely be overlooked by those Eastern voters who never pay attention to what happens in the west.

Anyways, I finally finished collecting all my pins for the Flames 25th Anniversary Pin Collection. No more having to go to Esso or Max every couple days, haha. I'm so happy I found a Jarome Iginla pin though. I didn't think they would be sold in such greater numbers than every other pin, so I had to drive to 4 different places just to find one. But, I finally found one, so my collection is complete.

The collection seems pretty good. Seems they got a good list together for the top 24 players all-time. Though, I have to say that my favorite all-time Flame will have to be Theoren Fleury. What about you guys?

My All-star line up would be like so: Not based on skill, but on my liking them.
1st team:
Theoren Fleury - Joe Nieuwendyk - Jarome Iginla
Al MacInnis - Gary Suter
Mike Vernon

2nd team:
Gary Roberts - Doug Gilmour - Joel Otto
Robyn Regehr - Dion Phaneuf
Miikka Kiprusoff

3rd team:
Tim Hunter - Lanny McDonald - Joe Mullen
Paul Reinhart - Phil Housley
Fred Braithwaite

Oh, and it's Pizza day tomorrow. We're getting pizza from this place in the NE called Coco Brooks or something like that. And I hear that they are REALLY good, and they have really unique pizzas. I'll let you know how it is after tomorrow. I ordered an Egg and Bacon pizza... wonder how that will turn out, haha.

Fun Facts from Samaritans Purse

Did you know that the country of Lao had more bombs dropped on it during the Vietnam War than all of Europe combined during World War 2? That's CRAZY, and considering Lao is 2 countries away from Vietnam, you have to wonder how many bombs Vietnam and Cambodia had dropped on them. YIKES! Sad thing is that most of them are still undetonated, so it's kinda like a mine-field.

Samaritans Purse has also produced over 40 million litres of CLEAN water in Sri Lanka since the Tsunami of last year.

Operation Christmas Child collects rougly 7-10 million shoeboxes per year from the 10 participating nations (Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Finland) and distributes to over 80 nations worldwide. However, they will NEVER enter the same location more than once. Yet OCC, which has been operating since 1993, has barely scratched the surface of reaching all the children in need around the world.

Edumacation

I finally got into EMR (Emergency Medical Responder) for next semester at SAIT! I'm so happy that I caught the registration opening this time, instead of missing it like last time and having all the classes get filled up. That leaves me with a HUGE peace of mind now. It means that I'll finally be able to start working towards a full-time occupation instead of this jumping around with temporary jobs or doing nothing at home all the time kinda life. But for those of you who are wondering what EMR will get me. It is the first of three courses that need to be completed in order to be a certified paramedic. It is also with being a certified Emergency Medical Responder that I will be able to go on ride-alongs with actual ambulance crews and determine whether or not I am fully capable/suited for such an occupation. Hopefully I will be, cause it would really suck if I was going into something that I won't actually be able to follow through with later on. It would be another waste of a year or more. And honestly, I've wasted enough time at UofA already. It's time to figure out who I am and stick with it and become something/somebody instead of being such an immature kid that isn't capable of living independently of his parents. Sigh. Getting into this course gives me a sense of peace, but there's always this sense of dread that accompanies it. What if it doesn't work out? What if you're heading in the wrong direction again? What if you can't do it?
Hopefully, all goes well with my plans of registering into Mount Royal for their Bachelor of Nursing program for next fall. Having that as an option will definately help calm me down.

But back to the present. Work has been going well this week. I'm so tired in the mornings though and I keep drifting in and out during devotions in the morning, which is HORRIBLE, so I shall have to head to bed earlier tonight. Otherwise, all is well. I'm doing a good enough job that I got a second monitor set up on my desk so I can work on different things than the rest of the team. Well, other than the other guy that got the 2nd monitor as well. But it's good, it's much easier using the 2nd monitor to read scanned cheques instead of having to read peoples ugly handwriten info on envelopes. But for those of you who is curious as to how the Operation Christmas Child program is going... we have collected roughly 160,000 shoeboxes nation wide with more still coming in.

Oh, and welcome Mr. Giggles to the blogging community. You will find him linked under his alias: Kenric.

Sweet, Free Stuff

Haha, I love working for Operation Christmas Child. They keep bringing over stuff that can't be sent over seas in a shoebox, so we get to get a bunch of awesome free stuff. Most of it is edible stuff, since only hard candy gets sent over, so we get tons of chewable candies and chocolates, haha. But today, they brought over some sort of protein drinks cause it potentially can freeze and burst and destroy many shoeboxes. It tasted pretty good, and we all seemed to have a burst of energy at the end of the day, so that was really cool. And I don't know if it was because of the protein shakes or maybe I'm getting more energy these days because I'm not sleeping my days away, but I had so much energy when I got home today that I decided to work out. Right now, I'm thinking that I really should start drinking protein shakes more often, cause wow, the effect that they have on you is HUGE! You guys really should give it a try, cause look at what it did for me...
















Technically, that isn't me. I say technically, only because Jackson says I say technically all the time in inappropriate sentences. However, that really isn't me, haha. We don't even get anything that gets taken out of the shoeboxes, all those stuff gets sent to charitable organizations. Though, we do have 4 huge boxes of Old Dutch chips that the warehouse sent over, why? I don't know, but I don't care, haha, free chips is fine with me.
And I don't know if that picture is real or digitized, but that's just gross. How in the world does anybody get to be like that anyways?

First Day

Well, just got home from my first day at work. All in all, a good day. I was able to wake up at 6:30, eat breakfast, take a dump, take a shower, etc... and make it to work... err... 2 minutes late, but now that I know the exact time it takes to get there, I'll be there on time from now on (hopefully). :P The team that I work with seems really great thus far. Though, out of the 12 of us, there are only 2 guys. :P And only 3 of us is probably younger than 30. haha. Oh well, it's all good.
Didn't do much today though, just went through orientation and some training. Orientation was long, but pretty interesting. Got to learn a lot about the Billy Graham Evangelistical Association. I never knew that Franklin Graham used to be a huge rebel and didn't actually accept Christ till the founders of Samaritans Purse brought him into the fold. Interesting, very interesting.
Anyways, training was cut short today cause our trainer is sick and couln't speak. So we ended up going over to the warehouse and helping out with the shoebox inspection. Which was great, too bad we don't get paid to do that all day long, haha. And also, those who are interested, there is an open house this Saturday around 1-4, so if you guys want to drop by there and learn more about the Association and Samaritans Purse and such, you're welcome to go. :P I'm thinking of volunteering for that day... debating whether or not I should go and help Flora and AC move though...

Bruised and Battered

Oh man, I'm so sore. I'm so glad I don't start work till Thursday, haha, so I still have 3 days to recuperate. Recuperate from what you ask? Well, first off, my ego will be forever shattered from snowboarding on Friday, haha. 25% of me thinks I should give snowboarding more of a chance, especially since I bought the Sunshine card this year and have the potential of going at least a couple more times this year. The other 75% thinks that I should just purchase my own skiing equipment so I won't be tempted to try snowboarding ever again, haha. But I have to admit that snowboarding/skiing conditions were great on Friday (except for the ridiculously long line ups - - it took us over an hour just to purchase lift tickits) and that it was fun going snowboarding with a bunch of friends. But snowboarding hurts. I was bruised and battered after Friday from falling every so often and I still can only go heel, no toe. Everytime I tried to go toe, I would flip on my face, sigh.
I also ended up missing YAC (whoops, bad example) but there was no way I was going to make it on time, so I figured that it was better to go for dinner with the people I went snowboarding with instead of showing up late, hehe. Shockingly, even though I was bruised and battered, I ended up going to play hockey that same night. It was good, I actually did not feel overly tired or sore and it was a good day of cardio for me, haha.
Then on Sunday, we ended up going to go play some football again. Luckily, not tackle since there was no snow whatsoever, and the ground was like frozen solid. But on my first run of the day, I ended up having both my feet slip out underneath me while I tried to dodge Kingston and ended up wiping out really badly, sigh, more bruises. Luckily, I didn't wipe out face first when Sarah came after me and threw the football right between my feet (while I was running), sigh... never block a pass going for her again, haha, she's CRAZY!!! :P
But there you have it. All bruised and battered from a weekend of some awesome sporting events. :P I don't regret any of it, haha, except maybe choosing to go snowboarding instead of skiing. :P

Birthday Bash X 2

So, Happy Birthday to both Sylvia and Jacklyn.




So this weekend has been pretty busy (in a good way). Busy enough that I didn't have time to start Civilization 4 yet, haha. But it was good. The Youth Rally on friday night was awesome, not quite as many people as I figured there would be, but overall, still awesome. Hockey was pretty good, still need to improve on my skating though. The only bad thing this weekend was that I felt like I was fighting a fever after hockey and throughout Saturday. Which sucked, cause I wasn't able to enjoy Yamato's, and I ALWAYS enjoy Yamatos. Got to enjoy 2 birthday parties which was really fun and it was nice to see some of my high school friends again. Watched DOOM, which was okay, not a movie I would buy, but it was pretty good. Though the first person shooter style of filming (for about 5 minutes of the movie) reminded me why I don't play Doom, haha, man, I got such a bad headache after that 5 minutes. :P Also played some tackle football and I'm still sore. My right knee is still bruised, but I guess that's because we decided to go with tackle even though the ground was iced over and there was no soft patches anywhere. But it was fun, good times... and some scary times, haha, especially when you see Mr. Alred coming at you either to tackle you or to bull you over to get to his endzone, haha. Ahh... hopefully the weather next week will be decent enough for us to play tackle again, haha.

And My Photos under my Internal Links section has been updated again. Tons of photos this time round. Quite a few stranger photos that I would love to delete whenever possible, but some artsy-fartsy person wanted them, haha, so I guess I have to keep them for a while. :P Check them out, if you want them, try to save the photo, if that doesn't work, leave a comment, send me an e-mail, call me or message me on MSN and I'll send them over to ya.

Occupied

So, seems I havn't updated in a while... which is weird. It's not like I'm busy or anything, but whatever. Age of Empires 3 has occupied my free-time recently, haha. It's a good game, so people who like strategy games, look into it. It's pretty good. I can't compare it to the 1st or 2nd one cause I never played the 2nd one and I don't remember the first. But I've enjoyed this one so far.

Also confirmed is that I will be starting work with Samaritans Purse on Nov. 15 for approximately 6 weeks. As for what I'll be doing exactly. It will not be handling the shoeboxes in the warehouse, but it will be handling the monetary donations that come in with the shoeboxes. So, it will be data processing. The cool thing is that there will be devotions every morning, and MWF will be combined devotions with the entire Billy Graham Evangelistical Association.

Currently un-occupied is the English Side Pastoral position, which we tried to fill today by trying to persuade Pastor Kat to come back for good. :P She says she'll pray about it. :P It was really nice seeing her back and her sermon on Sunday was really good as well.

Oh, I also took Elijah around the block for a 2nd tour-of-trick-or-treating after dinner tonight and it was pretty cool. Didn't get much candy cause most of the houses had closed down for the night (IT WAS ONLY 8!!) and then he said... "id cowd", so we went home. :P






My Photos Updated

Birthday

Okay, my bad. Seems some people thought that my birthday was when I posted that last blog, but it wasn't. :P It was today... or actually yesterday now. Friday the 14th. The cake was added on to the Thanksgiving Feast. But yeah, thought I'd clear that up, and because I don't have much to blog on. Just that... I GOT TICKITS TO THE FLAMES GAME ON MONDAY!! Phoenix... not exactly the same as Edmonton tonight... but oh well. Get to watch Gretzky's first game as coach... at the saddledome. :P And Jenny's right. I am getting old. Very old. I felt so dead... so tired halfway through hockey tonight. Maybe it was having 2 dinners tonight... or maybe it was because we played 4 on 4 because we didn't have enough players... but either case. I'm the youngest guy there, I should be able to outplay them all. haha. not even close. And King. Your brother has way too much energy. I mean, near the end of the game when most of us is dragging ourselves around the ice, he's flying around, haha. And he even goes for some extra laps after we call it quits. Sheesh. :P Okay, that is all. See you all tomorrow for Fright Night. :P

Edit: Thanks everyone (especially Jacko for organizing) for the surprise dinner, and the gifts and the warm wishes. It was great. And thanks Flono for warning me in advance, even though you didn't intend to, haha... I'm sure they'll get you back for that. :P And Fright Night... oh, the memories.

Happy Thanksgiving/Birthday

Ack. I'm getting old. And I still have not established myself anywhere. Sigh.

But Thanksgiving. So much food. :P My parents had 40 ppl over last night and only half the food was eaten, so you can guess at how much leftovers we have for this week. Haha, no need to cook this entire week... well, except for the Cell Group dinner. But yeah, now the only thing left for this week is for me to get a job. But since I'm pretty much done waiting for the hospital to call back, I shall go drop off a resume at Christian Pub... and if nothing comes out of that, then I shall go for Superstore nextweek.

My Photos updated.

Opening Faceoff

I must say, tonights game was a bit disappointing. Not only did the Flames get beat 6-3 by Minnesota, but they could have easily won the game if they had come out and played hard right off the bat. But instead, it took them till the 3rd period to show up and by then it was already too late. But the potential seen in the 3rd period looks great. Now if only they can maintain that type of play every period, every game, then the Flames will definately reach their lofty expectations. However, if they keep coming out flat like they did tonight, then we're in trouble. But no need to start panicking right now, it's just one game. Philadelphia lost as well... to the NY Rangers.
Though hopefully with Regehr back in the line-up in a month, the defence will be better as Montador played pretty poorly and Hamrlik had way too many defensive lapses. Both Hamrlik and Simon really has got to work on their skating, they were both beat by the speed of Minnesota on multiple occasions. And Special Teams was horrible tonight. 1 for 8 on the power play? Horrible. 1 for 3 on the penalty kill? Horrible.
But high-scoring in the New-Look NHL. 16 out of the 26 teams that have already played tonight scored 3 or more goals.

Starting Line-up

Okay okay, so I havn't updated in quite a while and some of you are becoming upset. But honestly, I was just going slower for those of you who have less time to check blogs on a regular basis so that you can remain caught up. :P Actually, okay, the real reason is becuase I'm stuck at home with no school and no job and there really isn't anything to update about.
Job Update: no change... no calls... no new applications.
School Update: SAIT winter semester registrations are still not up... Mount Royal fall semester registrations are still not up either. So, playing the waiting game. And wondering... Paramedics or Nursing? Only thing stopping me from pursuing Paramedics fully is questioning whether or not I can handle all the situations I will be in (stressful, death and mother nature). The only thing really stopping me from pursuing Nursing is... the perspective of being a man-nurse. haha

Otherwise... starting line-up for the flames. Appears that this is what the flames will be using when the puck drops officially in a weeks time. (New Line up/My Predicted Lineup)

Amonte - Langkow - Iginla / Amonte - Langkow - Iginla
Simon - Reinprecht - Kobasew / Reinprecht - Lombardi - Kobasew
Nilson - Yelle - McCarty / Simon - Nilson - Donovon
Wiemer - Ritchie/Lombardi - Donovon / Wiemer - Yelle - McCarty

Surprise for the forwards is Ritchie. Tough call to make though. Lombardi has been playing really well as well. The only player that I think hasn't had a strong training camp is Wiemer, but he's being paid 1mil, so I think he'll be in for sure. So who sits out? Both Ritchie and Lombardi have played really well and both deserve to be in the lineup. So far... the number 1 line hasn't done too much, hopefully they find their chemistry and start producing. The number 2 line has been really good and has produced regularly. The 3rd line has found chemistry together and is doing well. The 4th line has not played together regularly enough to say. Nystrom has also made a strong statement to stay as well, but with the depth up front, I think he will definately be down in Omaha for his rookie year.

Regehr - Leopold / Regehr - Leopold
Hamrlik - Phaneuf / Hamrlik - Ferrence
Warrener - Ferrence / Warrener - Phaneuf

With Regehr out with a knee injury for a month... Ferrence will probably move up to play with Regehr, while Montador moves in to play with Warrener. The question now is... who will be the 8th defenceman? Giordano or Ritchie Regehr? Both have played really well. Regehr, Leopold, Warrenr, Ferrence and Montador are playing like they did during the playoffs, so good. Hamrlik has been steady but hasn't produced offensively yet (1 of the reasons why we signed him). Phaneuf has been steady but has had some inconsistent nights, hopefully he becomes more consistent over time.

Kiprusoff / Kiprusoff
Sauve / Sauve
Krahn / Krahn

Kiprusoff is showing that he will be a candidate for the Vezina, so that's good. He's looking to prove to everyone that he isn't a one-hit wonder. Sauve has played well lately, but so has Krahn. However, Krahn still has never played a full pro-season as a starting goalie, so he definately should go down to prove his mantle in Omaha.

That's all from Geo... the "hockey pro". haha

The First Snow

Well, summer was officially over yesterday (Sept. 21), and today was the first snow. Granted, it didn't snow in Calgary, just in Banff and area, but still... I was there, and there was snow... a lot of snow as well. Ack. But it does feel strange definately, summer is over and I'm still in Calgary. I'm so used to being back in Edmonton by now, but now I'm stuck at home with nothing (productive) to do. Sigh, hopefully I get one of the jobs I applied for (2 at the foothills and 1 at the childrens - - and incase you are like Marvin, no the new Childrens hospital hasn't opened yet, we do have another childrens hospital already in operation in Calgary. :P).
In other news, dropped by Future Shop on the way to dinner today and guess what I found? Yup, X-men Legends 2, haha. Now I just need to find time to play it. :P I have relatives over so the TV is occupied right now, I'm so tempted to moving that secondary one into my room so I can start playing right NOW!! actually, I'm probably going to go do that now, haha.

Security Breach

So, went out to get Xmen Legends 2 today... and couldn't find it anywhere (superstore, future shop, wal-mart). I was so sure that it was supposed to be released today, and I came home and checked online and it says in stores NOW!! Where is it?? I WANT IT!! argh, oh well... I ended up buying Smallville Season 4, haha, so I'll still have something to do. :P

Then my mom and I, went to the airport to pick up some relatives who are in town for the weekend. We got there early, so we decided to take a walk around the shops, and we end up seeing this HUGE line-up, from Gate A all the way down at least half the length of the airport... and the reason was... a security breach. Apparently, it was big enough that they re-directed EVERYONE to Gate B, and even took the people who were already inside and on planes back off to reboard through Gate B. Interesting...

GROSS

Get Rid Of Slimy Girls Club

Who knows where that club is from? ah... no points. No props. Just a kudos out to whoever knows. haha. :P

Anyways, came home tonight from Sam's early birthday party, since he won't be in town next week, and guess what I saw while catching up on the news on sports through the good ol' Calgary Herald? Yup, it was something gross. Something that I detest. And yup, it was a bug, but not just any type of bug. Not a mere spider, or a fly... but a CENTIPEDE. Man, I hate centipedes. They're so gross, and SOOOO freakin' quick. I'm scared of picking it up with a kleenex cause of all their pointy legs (it gives me shivers just thinking about touching a centipede) and trying to use something to carry them outside or to their watery grave (the toilet) is so difficult cause they're just so quick and they scamper everywhich direction so quickly that you end up missing or it heads towards your fingers and you drop them back to the ground, haha. Luckily, this one was right at the kitchen door, so I just opened the door, let it climb on a sheet of kleenex and then I tossed it quickly outside. This was unfortunately, the 3rd centipede I have found in the house in the past year. The first one... I actually forgot what happened to it, but it disappeared, so I'm pretty sure somebody killed it. The second one... I let it crawl into a sheet of kleenex, and then used my pincers to pick up the kleenex and deposit it in the toilet. :P I hate centipedes.

Though not as much as I hate bees/wasps/hornets. I get so creeped out around them. I had to go to the bottle depot last week and the place has been infested by hornets this summer, and waiting outside for half-an-hour just freaked me out. Hornets were flying everywhere, going in and out of all the bottles and I honestly wanted to just leave the bottles and run away. There were 2 hornets in one of the bottles and when I went to lift it, they started buzzing so much that it felt sooooo strange and freaky that I ended up tossing that bottle into the garbage can right next to me (the garbage can was holding bottles meant for deposit, so I didn't waste it). Ack, so gross.

Eyes Wide Open (part. lll)

I had this dream, a very vivid dream, back when I was probably 6 years old or so. One so vivid that I still remember to this very day. I remember clearly getting up early in the morning before my alarm went off because I really had to go pee. So, I head off to the washroom, lift up the seat and take a pee. After that, I feel so much better and relaxed that I head back to bed and go back to sleep, only to wake up... all wet. Yup... dreams do affect you in reality. :P

It's HOCKEY time. Yeah baby.

So, played some good ol' ice hockey tonight... after playing only once in the past 3 years. Yup, it's been a long, long time. Surprisingly, I did alright. I tripped over my own stick once (which I didn't think was possible, haha), and fell a couple times without any help from anybody else. :P But otherwise, I was able to somewhat match the speed (though these guys seriously are way too fast) and my positional play was decent. But my balance, man... no balance whatsoever. Really need to work on getting my center of gravity lower. :P

Other hockey news. Professional hockey returns to Calgary. Time to see how the new CBA/Rules/Teams work out. As for the Flames... looking pretty good, but then again. New rules, and everyteam has changed so drastically (excluding Washington, Minnesota and Carolina) that its really hard to tell how the team will do this year. Anyhow, here is my prediction for the Flames lineup.

Amonte - Langkow - Iginla
Reinprecht - Lombardi - Kobasew
Simon - Nilson - Donovon
Wiemer - Yelle - McCarty
Ritchie
(Looks like we should be able to have all 4 lines rolling since all 4 lines are fully capable. Hopefully Lombo has gotten over his concussion and Kobasew finally breaks out after a stellar year in the AHL last year. Wouldn't want to be playing against our checking line of Wiemer/Yelle/McCarty and the other 3 lines all have speed to kill, sweet. haha)

Regehr - Leopold
Hamrlik - Ferrence
Warrener - Phaneuf
Montador
(Defense looks like it will be top 5 in the league. Even with injuries, we have so many defenceman that can play 25+ per game, it should be awesome. Regehr (possible Canadian olympian) Leopold (possible American olympian) Hamrlik (possible Czech olympian) Phaneuf (future Canadian olympian) and both Warrener and Ferrence are more than reliable. Montador, has got to be the best 7th d in all the league)

Kiprusoff
Sauve
Krahn
(Hopefully Kipper can play up to his extremely high expectations now. It doesn't look like he'll be a one-year wonder since he played really well during the World Cup and had good numbers last year in Europe. Sauve... needs work before he becomes a decent backup. Krahn, needs the minutes, will be in AHL for sure.)

Now for some Oiler bashing. :P Getting Pronger and Peca was a nice move. Losing Brewer and more than a few young up-and-coming players was not such a good thing. Ryan Smyth so far hasn't signed a contract yet. So your defensive side has improved... but now you have no scorers on your team. No offense whatsoever. Smyth? He's good in the corners and in front of the net, but most of his points is from playing with more talented offensive players and garbage goals. Maarkanen (sp?) broke his collar bone last week, but even with him and Conklin playing net. Neither is proven and at most will be average netminders for this season. Both require more experience... but then again, one of them might break out with a stellar year. I think they still have a chance in making it to the playoffs since they still have a ton of speed to kill and their defence got a much needed facelift... but I highly doubt that with the team they have now, that they will be able to make it deep in the playoffs. :P Okay, you oilers fans, lets hear what you have to say, haha.
And flames fans as well...

Ogopogo

Spent a week out at the Lake Okanagan Resort... ended up finishing up 3 books since we didn't rent a boat this year and didn't have much to do except relax, eat and sleep. :P Which isn't all that bad, but cruising on the lake on a boat or being pulled along on a water-tube is a lot of fun as well. So, didn't have a chance to see the Ogopogo... which is the 'monster' of Lake Okanagon. :P Some serpantine creature similar to the Lockness Monster. haha. I ended up flying back to Calgary last night, to make it back for the CPC Open House/DVBS Followup-Reunion, which was awesome. Got to see a lot of the kids come (though I guess most of the kids were KFC/YAC regulars already). So it was all good. Though, I found out that Shauna is making the trip out the lake with the other Newberries today... sigh... which sucks, cause I actually wanted to see her again. Oh well, got to chat with her on msn last night, just to make sure she wouldn't get mad that I had already left. :P Since we were talking about me driving out to Kamloops with AJ and Stef to visit her or her to come to the lake. Both were pretty slim chances, but now she is going in and whoops, haha. Anyways, nothing much to write. Karen and Eva are now a part of the blogging community. And I have nothing to do for this fall... sigh... hope I get that job. :P

Be PrePrayered

Wow, camp was awesome this year. Even though it rained every single day (except for the last day), which means that we were inside more than we usually are during summer camps. I also didn't go to the lake this year either, no swimming, no water-trampolines, no tossing others off the trampoline. :P But other than the rain, it was still an awesome camp. I can honestly say that I have never laughed as much or as hard as I have during this years summer camp than in any other camp I've ever gone to. It was great. :P Rev. Ron Powell was an awesome speaker that taught us a lot on prayer and faith and of being pure. A lot on life-app. which is great, cause it prepeares you for what you can do at home on your own, instead of just coming to camp and trying to get revived/renewed in a week. It was also a lot of fun having a lot of the youth come out and I hope they got a lot ouf ot this camp. It was hilarious watching them try to take and dish out pranks :P Ah, summer camps, just got to love them.

Favorite Quotes

Okay, time to update, but I don't have much to update... so... I was just looking over all my favorite quotes and figured I'll post them. And then you can all leave comments on what your favorite quotes are as well. :P And maybe some of these quotes will mean something to you as well.

"Many that live deserve death, some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them?"
- Gandalf - Fellowship of the Ring, Lord of the Rings (Movie)

"Don't wait for it to happen. Don't even want it to happen. Just watch what does happen."
- Malone - The Untouchables (Movie)

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
- Edmund Burke - Tears of the Sun (Quoted in Movie)

"What is a friend? It's a single soul dwelling in two bodies."
- Aristotle

"Desire reveals Design, and Design reveals Destiny."
- John Elderidge - Wild at Heart (Book)

"I believe in Christ like I believe in the sun. Not only because I see it, but because by it all things are seen."
- C.S. Lewis

"Good judgement comes from experience. Sometimes, experience comes from bad judgement."
- Jim Horning

"Never explain -- your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway."
- Elbert Hubbard

"The difference between 'invovlement' and 'commitment' is like an eggs-and-ham breakfast: the chicken was 'invovlved' and the pig was 'committed'."
- Unknown

"The hardest thing in the world is telling the girl that you love that you like her."
- Lex Luther - Smallville Season 1, Episode 5

"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."
- G.K. Chesterton

"Reality is that which, when you stop beliving in it, doesn't go away."
- Philip K. Dick

"A person isn't who they are during the last conversation you had with them. They're who they've been throughout your whole relationship."
- Rilke

So Fat

So, I finally got my stitches out yesterday, and man does it look ugly. Also, my thumb is now quite fat and swollen. And it hurts to bend it, which is actually kinda scaring me. I'm really hoping that overtime, my mobility will be back to normal, and that I didn't cut a tendon or anything... really hoping and praying. Oh, and while we're on the topic of being fat... I seemed to have gained over the summer, even though I'm eating less (I think...) playing with kids everyday and even playing soccer at least once a week... sigh... hopefully it's all muscle mass. :P

Hmmm... there's not much for me to blog right now... I just havn't updated for a while, so I thought I would... err... NHL is coming back, hooray. Calgary looks pretty strong right now (though everybody is gaining new people and everything, so i wonder how we'll actually do...) Amonte for Gelinas. Good trade. McCarty for Clark. Aweome trade. Langkow for Conroy. Good trade. Phaneuf for Gauthier and Commodore. Awesome trade. Now to see if we sign anybody else. :P

JesusExpo 2005 - The Joy and the Pain

Wow, JesusExpo was AWESOME! There was so many people that showed up, it was just... Awesome. There's no other words to describe it. Great Job everybody. Kudos to those who worked the Face Painting/Balloon Booth, cause you guys had non-stop work all day. But yeah, the worship service at the very end of the day was also Awesome. :P Anyways, guess all I can say about JesusExpo was that it was Awesome. Thank You God for the beautiful weather and the awesome turnout and the lack of complications throughout the day.

So, I guess that's the joy. :P Now to the pain... So... I got 4 stitches today. The first time I've ever gotten stitches, so I guess it was a... cool... experience. :P As for why I got 4 stitches... it was because I kinda stabbed myself in the side of my thumb with a knife. So, now my thumb is stitched up and bandaged and in extreme pain. However, I guess it wouldn't have been as bad if it didn't happen because of my own stupidity and happened because of something uncontrollable or unpredictable. BUT... it WAS because of stupidity (my own stupidity), so that makes this injury that much worse, cause it was totally preventable. For those of you wondering... I was tired and was rushed (or felt rushed), so I wasn't thinking... and I took my SwissArmyKnife to cut through some ducttape that was holding 2 hoses together... and when I cut through it... the knife slipped out and stabbed me in the thumb, and then the blood came squirting out... yes... squirting. I was actually surprised how calm I was at first... Andrew asked if I was alright and I said I was... and just stuck the thumb into my mouth so that blood wouldn't squirt everywhere on the street and walked to the first-aid kit and tried to bandage my own finger. However... when I realized that I couldn't put the bandaid on because of the massive amounts of blood coming out and that it wasn't going to stick... I started freaking out and ran out looking for my mommy. :P Luckily, my mom (a nurse), Auntie Daisy and Dr. Robert was able to patch me up (though I nearly passed out in the washroom). After they bandaged me up... I ended up walking around and helping out with things for about another 4 hours before they finally decided that I should go to a hospital or a walk-in clinic. So that was that. Such a perfect day, such a perfect event... and I had to go and do something so stupid and put myself into so much pain, sigh... I guess it's better that I did something stupid and hurt myself instead of doing something stupid and hurting somebody else... But yeah... Kudos to Tanya for not freaking out when I came to get a bandaid for my first-aid kit, and for getting me the bandaid and the paper towels and for cleaning up the blood that I dripped on the floor. :P
Okay, time to catch up on sleep. Hopefully, my thumb won't be hurting after tonight... hopefully the kids don't do anything to it during VBS this week. Anyways... JesusExpo... so awesome. Time to kick it up yet another notch. BAM!

Early Mornings

First off... We won our soccer game tonight: 1-0. So, congrats Kenric for playing an awesome game and getting your first goose-egg. And ofcourse, AJ for getting the only goal. And I think I re-rolled my ankle again, sigh...

Secondly... I have no CAR!!!!! at least... for one day. So that means that I now have to wake up at 5:30 because I have to leave with my parents at 6:30. And since JesusExpo is on Saturday... I'll have to wake up at 5:30 then as well. ACK! Lack of sleep is going to kill me. BUT!! We are almost half-way done VBS, and it has been going extremely well, so it's been a blast. And ofcourse, JESUSEXPO!! Can't wait. Those of you who don't know about it. We are closing off an entire street in Chinatown on Saturday the 23rd of July (this coming Saturday), so you should come on down and check it out. And if you come by at the right time... you might catch me sitting in the dunktank and I know you all want a shot at dunking me. :P Okay, time to get half of my 10 hours sleep over the next two nights...

Stampede Sunday

Well... even though I was left off the list of people who went to the stampede on Jacksons blog... I did actually go!! It was pretty good, pretty much the usual. :P Though I didn't play any games this year... oh well... like I told Kenric before Stampede. "If I play games and win, what am I going to do with the stuffed animal? I really need a girlfriend... just so I can play games and give the prizes to someone without looking bad. :P" But anyways... I did end up buying a cowboy hat (black) for $40, which I don't think is too bad, and I think I'll wear it enough to make it worth while. :P Actually, I think I'll wear it everyday for this week, haha. well... maybe not. but we'll see. But I am so exhausted today... was so exhausted during VBS as well (luckily, it was a teaching day, so I didn't have to do anything straneous). All 3 of us (me, King and Karen) all slept in... though we still made it to church before any of the kids did. :P

2 In A Row

It is the starting of a streak... a winning one this time. :P We won our 2nd soccer game today and are now .500 for the season. Who would have thought? :P We are slowly improving as a team, though we are still outscored 11-5 on the season. The possible reasons as to our sudden turn-around? 1) We finally realized that even though this is called a recreational league... most other teams are competitive. Therefore, so must we be, as evidenced by most of the team now owning cleats and shin pads. 2) We finally understand the concept of positional play. Therefore, we have better passing and better coverage. 3) We added AJ (the rep league player) to the roster. Therefore, we now have more players that truly understand and know how to play the game. 4) We finally have fans that come out to watch us play that either cheer or taunt us. or 5) We've played 2 sub-par soccer teams... :P
Oh, and I didn't wipe out this time (possibly because I bought a pair of $9 cleats from Wal-Mart)... though I did misplay a trap really badly... and my left-foot kicks/passes are still really lacking.

Update (Sunday, July 10, 12:34am):
Jacklyn is a jerk. There, now you got a mention in my blog, hope you're happy now. :P

He Shoots and He Scores

Alright! We finally scored a goal in soccer, and not only that, but we finally won a game. :P It took us 3 games to finally score a goal (and it happened in such a way that we barely even celebrated the goal, haha) but we finally scored, that's all that matters. :P And we won the game 3-1... BONUS!! Strange thing though, was that we added AJ and Jon to the roster and another unrestricted free-agent that asked if we needed more players... and we still only had 3 guy subs, and no girl subs. I thought we were going to lose for sure because we had so few players show up for the game, but nope, we actually did pretty good. I think it was the fact that we were more comforatable with our positions and we weren't switching positions all the time because of line-up changes or anything, so that probably helped. We still arn't the best positional team, hehe, but it has improved drastically from our first game. Kenric also played really well today, I think the practice we made him go through on Sunday helped him a lot, cause his positioning in goal was much better tonight.

But now I am exhausted... because VBS started yesterday and now I have to wake up at 7 in the morning everyday and staying alert and active with so many kids everyday is really tiring. But so far, VBS has been going really well. No major thing/disturbance has occured yet, so that's great. :P But like always, we already have tons of things to talk about and complain about and to laugh about. Ahhh, the good times of VBS. :P It's a good thing that we did change up our structure though, cause with 35+ kids everyday, it's extremely hard to keep them together as a group. So, THANK YOU GOD. All things happen for a reason, and this is why we thought of doing it this way, because You knew how many kids we would end up having this year. Alright, time to sleep... and wake up early to figure out what to do for an animal costume....

No Pain, No Gain

This sucks. I rolled my ankle playing bball at Lindsey Park tonight. It was so awkward how it happened too, but whatever, at least it isn't sprained or broken. However, it was still a fun and enjoyable night hanging out with everybody, especially when we went swimming afterwards. Well, not really swimming, just trying to get Jon Chu to do flips off the diving boards. :P Too bad I already rolled my ankle, or else I MIGHT have gone on higher diving boards instead of just the normal one. :P Oh, and about the no pain no gain title... I don't know what I gained from all this pain. I mean, I couldn't keep on exercising or anything... sigh.

Afterwards, we went to Dennys on Pagan Trail, and man, the service was horrid. I mean, we basically got there at 11:30ish. Sat there for about 5-10 minutes and had to get the waitresses's attention before she finally realized we didn't have menus yet. She didn't come back to take our food orders until a bit after 12. And then our food didn't arrive until almost 1 o-clock. And then she forgot bits of peoples orders as well (I didn't get my white toast, Sarah didn't get her french toast and Leo didn't get his french fries). And in the end... we got all of them (excluding my toast) packed to go after 1:30 because we were all tired of waiting. Nobody got refills either until the very end when we finally got the french fries and french toast... sigh. Add ontop of all that, was that the resteraunt was really cold, and most of us got stomach aches afterwards. It was bad, worst service I've ever had/seen in my life.

And then I came home and found a centipede... A CENTIPEDE... crawling around on the basement floor. Sick. I ended up getting it to crawl onto a sheet of kleenex, and then picking up the kleenex with my pincer-toy and tossing it in the toilet. :P And now I'm sitting here blogging with my ankle under an ice-pack, wishing I could go to sleep but knowing that I really need to ice my ankle up... sigh... I really hope my ankle heals before VBS starts next week.

Okay, have an awesome Canada day people. Celebrate the decline of a great nation... sigh...

@ Geo's, Part 2.

Okay, so I'm at my own house... but people are over... and some of them are complaining that I havn't updated lately... and I figured since Jacklyn has a Part 1... somebody has to do a Part 2. :P But I don't really have anything interesting/important to say... so... lets see...

I love playing sports... but man, with a swarm of mosquitos following you every where you go; It SUCKS! No matter how much bug repellent you spray yourself with, they're still all over you. And as most of you know, I HATE bugs... like totally detest... okay, so I'm pretty much bugaphobic, so it sucks that much more having a swarm of mosquitos flying in circles above your head everytime you stop to catch a breather... and then you're stuck trying to make sure you don't swallow any.
Stupid rainy year. When it first started raining in May; I was actually happy. I was thinking, yeah, we're not going to have a drought this year, that's a good thing. And then it kept on raining, and raining, and raining, and raining. Now there are flooded cities/towns, tons of flood damage (the west side bridge to cross onto Princes Island Park was washed away, with a bench sitting in the middle of the bow river. :P ) and a whole swarm of mosquitos. So that sucks. Hopefully, there are less mosquitos and less rain and more sun when VBS starts next week. We're overloaded, but it's going to be a blast. Hopefully, everything will work out perfectly.
But on a positive note. 7-eleven has these cool Star Wars slurpee cups with Darth Vader heads as lids. They were 3 dollars, but I think they're worth it. There are 4 to collect... so I'll probably end up collecting all 4, if we end up going to 7-eleven consistently after playing sports.

It Begins with the Bat, and the Aid always comes First.

Well, I went to watch Batman Begins tonight with Philip, Kenric and Gooi. And, I must say. I had pretty high expectations going in, and I came out thinking that this was the worst batman movie I ever saw. Oh wait, sorry, did I say the worst? I meant, the best. :P I really liked it, it had good action sequences, cool gadgets, good characters, good plot. Overall, a very good movie, worth the trip to the theatre. I really hope they do go for trying to do 2 more batman movies with the Bale character.

Oh, and for those who was asking about what test I took today. I PASSED!! My piano exam. Oh wait, we already clarified that I wasn't taking a piano exam. Okay, so I passed my BIOCH 203 Exam... but wait... I failed BIOCH 203 and have given up on it, so I guess that isn't right either. :P So, okay... no more lies, as Kingston has already demanded, haha. I passed my Standard First Aid with CPR level C Upgrade including Basic Rescuer (though I still don't know what the basic rescuer card is for... what's the dif from the standard first aid with cpr level c card?). So, why was I trying to study for an upgrade? Because I havn't taken a first aid course in over 3 years and have only had to use first aid once in those 3 years. And it is always good to be ontop of such information, especially First Aid and CPR skills, cause if you only just pass (okay, so you can only pass with 84% or higher, but still)... it doesn't seem like you are truly capable of helping people. But yeah, I got 98% and passed all my skills. :P Missed one question though. I didn't think a head injury could cause vomitting as well as nausea. But I guess if it was severe enough, it would. Oh well... missed my 100%. But at least I'm re-certified now.

Super Nanny

Okay, so not really a nanny and not that super. But I ended up going over to babysit Pierson and Courtney for the evening. They were astonishingly really well behaved, which is awesome. haha. I helped Pierson with his homework, which he did without grumbling and even took my extra challenges without complaining. He is such a good kid. He even helped me in trying to understand Courtney's gibberish, haha. And Courtney is... the attention seeker, and the gibberish-talker. But she at least is obedient now, so that's awesome.
But, yet another day where I ended up doing something I never expected to do, and yet another day where I didn't get any studying done because of it. Sigh, next 2 days is cram time. Hope I pass on Saturday.

780 to 403

Well, it appears to be official. Or at least, getting closer and closer to being official. And what is becoming official you ask? I believe I am no longer going to be half-edmontonian anymore... and back to being pure Calgarian (though everybody in Edmonton will argue that I was always Calgarian and those in Calgary will argue that I had already become an Edmontonian). But yeah, received my required to withdraw letter from the UofA (again, sigh... when will I learn) and I am not even going to appeal it because I'm sure I don't have a strong enough argument to beat it.

So what am I to do? I am currently in the process of applying to SAIT (in the direction of paramedics) and Bow Valley College (in the direction of nursing). Hopefully, everything will work out really well. I'm pretty scared right now, about what direction I'm heading in life... and I'm quite confused about where to go. I'm also quite depressed that I wasn't able to take hold of what I was given at UofA and accomplish something more than two withdrawal letters in a record 3 years. So, hopefully I have at the very least become a better, more mature individual that is stronger physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally then I was before I left for UofA.

And since I have pretty much made the decision that I will be staying in Calgary full-time now, I have also gotten a new cell-phone in the 403 district. If you want it, just ask, as you will no longer have a need to call long-distance to reach me anymore. :P And for those who have my 780 number... it will remain active till the end of the month, at which point, Telus will kindly deactivate the account.

To finish off this blog, I would like to ask for your prayers that I may learn God's will for me and that I will be able to follow His plans for me. For those of you who have been praying for me since I left for UofA, I would like to thank you all for your prayers. :P

Wedding Pictures

Okay, for those who have been asking (Linda)... My Photos has been updated for pictures taken at Mo's Wedding.

Star Wars Geek

Well... since everybody seems to be making fun of my Star Wars geekiness, hehe... I thought I would post a picture that I found online that I thought was quite funny. And that is a true Star Wars geek... I am not. :P

Weekend News

Well... I finally got my wireless internet working so that I could use my computer in my room. Had to go on a wild-goose hunt to get a wireless router that would work, but thanks to Sam, all is well now. :P But I guess now that my computer is in my room and has internet, and I set up my mini-fridge in the basement with cold-drinks... I have no reason to leave the basement of my house except for food now... oh well.. hehe... it was my parents idea to move my computer down to my room. :P

I apparently missed out on an AWESOME YC this year... and I missed one of my favorite Christian bands in Kutless perform live... which sucks... however, I was able to see an old-friend get married (finally, hehe) so that was a real pleasure. So, Congrats to Mo and Jocelyn and I hope they have a wonderful life together. But I did realize at the wedding that... I really should learn how to dance, haha... or at least... get some confidence to do something on the dance floor... but anyways...

Played some soccer yesterday as well... getting ready for UofC league play over the summer... but right now... I suck, haha. Hopefully, my feet-work get better over time, cause I can't do much right now. :P

And last but not least... finally, FINALLY, watched Episode 3 today with Kenric. And I must say, that it was really good. Much better than episode 1 and 2 combined... but still not as good as Empire Strikes Back (I'd rank it around the same as Return of the Jedi). There were some stuff that made me go... what? that doesn't make sense... or... that was stupid, and or that doesn't fit into the saga properly or even into the theme of Star Wars. But otherwise, it was a really good movie (excluding all scenes with Padme and Anakin together or just Padme... they ruined Padme's character with this movie). And Jon Wong... if you ever read this... it isn't Wedge that is in the movie. Captain Antilles there is the same Captain Antilles that captains Princess Leia's diplomatic cruiser and gets killed by Darth Vader in Episode 4, and he's Alderaanian... Wedge is Corellian. :P So no relation either, hehe. And a fun fact for all you Star Wars geeks out there (like me), the real-life actor for Wedge Antilles (Dennis Lawson) in the original series is the real-life uncle of Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequels).

Finally Home

So, after nearly 3 weeks of vacation. I am finally back home. Not that vacationing was bad, it was really cool and interesting to see South Korea, Hong Kong and part of Japan... but it was just getting too repetitive and long. And man... I really, really dislike HK now, haha. It's so hot and humid and dirty, and smelly... and busy and over-crowded and everybody's so rude. I think if I had a choice... I'd live in... South Korea. :P Hate HK and Japan is just too expensive to live in (unless I was rich, then I'd live in Japan.)

Hmmm... guess I've already written about my trip to Korea and Japan... and there's not too much to say about HK... so... the only other thing that was interesting was that our flight out of HK back to Canada was delayed due to a freak thunder storm. Delayed for 3 hours. Therefore we missed our connecting flight in South Korea and ended up having to stay overnight there. Though I guess I can't complain too much. I mean, they housed us for free at the Hyatt Regency in Seoul... and man, Hyatts are awesome. They are such nice hotels and the food is awesome, haha, especially the breakfast.. Mmmmm, Smoked Salmon, Honey-Glazed Ham, Personalized Omelettes and Waffles... But anyways, it was interesting, cause we ended up having to transfer through Seoul and Tokyo (both places we had already been to) in order to get back home... Granted we got back home exactly 24 hours later than supposed to.

Oh, and ANYBODY WANT TO WATCH EPISODE 3 WITH ME?? Grrr... everybody seems to already have watched it... twice... haha.

Japan

Well... 7 days in Japan... Ranging from Osaka to Nagoya to Mt. Fuji to Tokyo. I must say that Japan is a really beautiful country with beautiful scenery and beautiful weather. A much needed break from the hot, humid, dirty and fast-paced city called Hong Kong. But being that it was with a Hong Kong based tour... we ended up doing a lot of shopping and a lot of bus-sitting then I would have preffered... but it was still a nice trip overall.

Highlights... bought some small decorative samurai swords... for... quite a bit of moola, but meh... something from Japan at least. Spent half-a-day at Expo 2005 at Aichi (not nearly enough time to check out everything available at Expo) but it was interesting. Spent 2 hours each in 2 separate line ups for some presentations. 1) The Hitachi presentation... a use of some new high-tech devices to view some endangered species presentations... and then a ride with 3d binoculars... to view 3d animals... and the ability to kind of interact with said animals through a device placed in your right hand. Pretty cool... but the 10 minute ride was not worth the 2 hour wait. 2) The Toshiba presentation... some new high-tech device that takes 3D photos of people... and then they used our photos and placed them into a movie... so we were the characters of a short movie that they had made up... it was pretty cool... and it was fun trying to find yourself in the movie. Spent some time visiting some of the country pavilions... but couldn't see the Canadian one because there was a huge line up for it (which is cool), but I was able to talk to one of the Canadian representatives about Hockey, haha... but I found out that we lost to the Czech Republic in the World Championships, sigh... that sucks. And apparently, Craig got booted from the Apprentice because he lacked communication skills.... and Kendra won season 3 of The Apprentice. And the Lowell Lockmonsters (Flames AHL team) lost in the 2nd round of playoff s as well. Mike Vernon and Gary Suter are both up for possible Hall of Fame induction this year as well.

Ummm... saw Mt. Fuji... I guess it was okay, didn't get up close, up close to it... so didn't get to really see a live volcano... but oh well... the best view of it was on the airplane from Tokyo to Hong Kong. :P Hmmm... didn't get to meet up with my friend in Tokyo though... it was too hard to organize... but I gave her a call at least... so that was cool. Ummm... okay... guess it's only 10 in the morning in Calgary right now... but it past midnight here... and I'm exhausted from 2 weeks of vacation... with only 5-7 hours of sleep every night... and tons of walking with little rest during the day. 3 more days... till back to Calgary.

South Corea - Seoul

Well, I went, I saw and I experienced South Korea. :P And no, I didn't mispell Corea/Korea in the title. Apprently, Korea was supposed to be spelt with a C. However, Japan didn't want Korea to be ahead of Japan alphabetically, so they changed it.

Anyways, I enjoyed my short time in South Korea, mainly just in and around Seoul. And the impressions that I got were:
1) They are Hi-Tech... yet Trashy... (basically, their technological revolution happened so fast that they didn't really upgrade... rather they just patched in all the new stuff over their old stuff. So, you have your hi-tech towers right beside your stereotypical medal sheds and such...)
2) They are Well-Dressed... yet Tacky... (basically, clothing styles are either tacky for North American standards or all suits and dress clothes.)
3) They are really clean. (For such a large city with so many inhabitants, they are really clean.)
4) They are honorable and respectful.
Hmmm... those are my impressions... though it doesn't really explain an entire society and culture.
But I guess the best thing about the trip to Korea was the food (Korean BBQ, Korean Hot Pot and too much kimchi), and the best thing was that we got a lot of it because we were on a tour. :P I guess, briefly, we saw an old Palace of a long-gone dynasty, A Korean Folk Village, the Seoul World Cup Stadium and Everland Theme Park.
And since I mentioned the best things of the trip, I guess I'll have to mention the worst thing. And that would have to be the 11 hour flight from Vancouver to Seoul... Especially since I have a very difficult time... actually, pratically an impossible time sleeping on a plane. So, I ended up being awake for over 22 hours... which made me quite tired during the time in Korea.

Anyways, I am now in Hong Kong, and will be here till Saturday, when we then head over to tour Japan for a week. So, time to shop for some hi-tech gadgets and work on my horrible chinese. :P

So Sad

Well... I'm home now and it feels really nice. Had to have had the NICEST sleep in the past 6 months last night. Felt so nice to sleep in my big comfy bed, and felt so nice to sleep after being so sleep-deprived from finals. Started to unpack today... halfway done... then went out for dinner with Kingston, Jon Chu, Sam and Sarah... and then just hung-out at Sam and Sarah's place. Quite relaxing, very enjoyable. But it made me think... think about everybody I don't get to see and hang out with anymore at rez... I miss everybody there. It was so much fun... and I miss all the laughter and fun times... sigh... so sad... hopefully we keep in contact... even if we are all returning to our homes, spread through the entire world...

Oh, and I checked my marks today... got 3 of them back... 1 officially posted on beartracks and 2 unofficially on the psych website... B+ in Psyco 267 - Perception (kinda good, kinda disappointing, since it was my best class this semester, and a repeated course as well) B in Psyco 233 - Personality (which is about what I expected) C in Psyco 223 - Developmental (not what I expected, sigh... thought I could get at least a B-)... Psyco 281 - Learning and Behaviour... still unknown, but it was my worst one this semester so... sigh... so what does this all mean for me?? It means I am GOING (edited. thanks Andrew) to be requested to withdraw (once again) from the Faculty of Science due to poor academic standing... And since it will be my second such request... it will be a permanent removal from the Faculty... sigh...and because I did not get a straight 4.0 gpa this semester... I'm going to have to appeal for sure, ACK... so sad

If my appeal goes through and is accepted, then THANK GOD... I'll be back at UofA next year, and in 2 more years, I will finally graduate with a BSc... however, if I my appeal gets rejected, then... I am one lost and confused little boy. Paramedics? (can I handle the stress? can I handle the learn on your own style?) Electrician? (do I really want to?) Transfer to another U? (with my accademic record, can I even? will I be accepted?) Bible College? (am I called to? Christian Ed?) ARGH... so sad

Done, Done, Done and DONE

YES!! Praise God! I am DONE my exams. haha. I can finally get some decent sleep at night and to not ruin my eyes by staring at a textbook the entire day. And I can finally spend time outside... no more being stuck indoors when it's SOO beautiful outside. I love spring. Haha. Man, I'm tired... I got... 45 minutes of sleep last night... Finally couldn't stand it anymore, so I decided to take a nap at 6:15am... and set my alarm for 7:00am... I jumped out of bed thinking I had slept in and was late for my 9:00am exam, but just as I jumped out of bed, the alarm went off, haha, talk about perfect timing, I mean, I was standing up, but my eyes wern't even opened yet. :P

Anyways, all I can say is. THANK YOU GOD for helping me through all my exams, without You, I could NOT have finished my exams or have been even relatively prepared for them. Right now, I'm kinda scared that this might be false hope... or wishful thinking... but I'm pretty sure I did pretty good on all of them, cause I was not panicked or shocked and I was even able to answer written questions without ever going totally blank. AND I never stayed for the entire scheduled exam time. :P Which hopefully doesn't come back to bite me in the buttocks. But Lord, my exams are in Your very capable hands. Take me where You want me to be next year.

Okay, time to clean up, and start packing. It's home time.

Links gone crazy??

Strangely enough... Linda and Miltons Blog Links were not working for the past week... they kept sending me to the Blogger Homepage...
So I finally got tired of it and searched around a bit to figure out why it wasn't working... and I finally figured out that Lindas page name has changed. I guess she decided to add in a www. before her name, cause nobody else has a www.name.blogspot.com page. But yeah, anyways... Lindas page is now properly linked... but I can't find Miltons page, haha. Hmmm... maybe if I try a www. before his page... and... VOILA... okay, I have found his page now... so both links should be working now... strange... wonder why they both have www. now and the rest of us don't... anyways... as you can tell... I have nothing to write today... just been busy trying to study... wrote 3 of my 4 finals... I think they went alright... didn't get 100%, that's for sure. sigh. But, hopefully I did really well in them. But regardless... wonder what my GPA will be at the end of this year... wonder if I'll need to appeal... I probably do... sigh... wonder if my appeal will work?? Wonder where I'll be next year... UofA?? or someplace else?? Sigh... the unknowns... sigh...

Well... I'll be on vacation for most of May... be in Japan for a week... wonder if we'll get attacked there?? or if we'll be safe there, hehe... now with all this Japan vs. China thingy... stupid protestors... though I guess it's stupid for Japan to glaze over what actually happened during World War 2... but then again... I wonder why nobody complains that Russia has glazed over their actions during WW2 as well.

Hmmm... on another random note. The lady who 'found' a peice of a human finger in her Wendy's Chili has now been arrested. She has been arrested because she has a history of making law-suits against major corporations so this could still be a fraud... though Wendys is still offering a ? $100,000? reward for anybody who can help solve this case. Considering that they were unable to find anybody working in that Wendys or in their distrubuters who have lost a finger... could it be that this lady chopped somebodys finger off and placed it in her own chili so that she could file a law-suit against a major corporation like Wendys?? Well... regardless... I doubt I'll be ordering a side chili at Wendys for quite some time... sigh... which sucks, cause I loved their chili and used to always switch my side order fries for chili... but I don't know if I can eat chili there without thinking about finding something in there now... blah!

Hmmm... okay, on another random note. It's too bad that the Hitmen gave up a 3-1 series lead and lost to the Brandon Wheat Kings... it was a heroic effort I guess, considering the Wheaties were the top team in the east and one dominating force. However, luckily... at the removal of the Hitmen from the WHL playoffs... the AHL playoffs has now begun, haha, so I can still follow the Lockmonsters (Flames minor affiliation) through their playoff run. So far... series tied 1-1 against Hartford (Rangers minor affiliation).

Sigh, okay... one more random note. My candidate on the Apprentice is still in the game and is one of the final four. Craig is still alive and going strong. However, I must say this again... the candidates for this Apprentice SUCK compared to the last two seasons. The last 2 seasons always had strong candidates battling it out in the final 4 or 6 (excluding Jennifer M (season 2 finalist))... but honestly... I don't really like any of the final 4 candidates this season, and yes, that includes Craig. I think he's better than the rest... but he isn't the best. I thought Kelly was going to win last season because he was strong, he knew how to lead and he knew how to follow and he always worked as hard as he could. But Craig? He doesn't know how to communicate at ALL. Tana, kinda flakey, power hungry and arrogant... Kendra, very very selfish, emotional and not much of a leader... Alex, is plain useless, he hasn't done a THING in the past 5 weeks and whenever he did do something, he did an extremely poor job... So yeah... honestly... I feel bad for Troy (first season) who got fired because he was a high-school graduate only and did not have the education, or so Trump stated then. Man, if Troy was in on this season, he would have dominated the entire season. For those of you who don't know... this season... it was the Book-Smarts (those with a university degree) vs. the Street Smarts (those with only a high school diploma)... so Troy could have played on a level playing field in this season and he would have butched them all. :P

Oh...kay... time to sleep. Be back home in 3 days... Tuesday to be precise. Otherwise... study, study, study... exam... pack, pack, pack... say farewells... and home time.

Last Call

Last call, y'all.
Anybody who wants 'good' quality pictures from Easter Long Weekend (primarily Linda's Surprise Farewell Party) tell me now... cause I'm going to start resizing them so they don't take so much space on my computer, and so I don't have duplicates of pictures on my computer. To preview said pictures, click on My Photos under Links: Internal to the right. To order... e-mail me the titles of those that you wish to receive... Otherwise... good quality pics will be gone in... I don't know... about a week??

Sigh... okay, now back to studying... sure hope I do good on the final exams... I hate all these Unknowns about my future... but nothing I can do about that now... blah... God, my life is in Your very capable hands. Help me to stop trying to control my own destiny with all my worries... Help me to focus on today and what I actually need to do right now and help me to actually have the strength/will power to do them. So much inner turmoil... so easy to hide myself in games/socializing/sleep/fantasies... but so much pain when I focus on what I need to do and who I am... Why was High School so easy for me, only for me to suffer so much in University? What is it that I am supposed to learn from all this? Where am I supposed to go after all this? Who am I supposed to be? Who am I right now? Was I meant to overcome all these things... but in the end... only to come this far and to have failed horribly... ARGH!!

You give and You take away.
You give and You take away.
My heart will choose to stay.
Lord, Blessed Be Your Name.

Sigh... on a side note... completely off-topic... Go Hitmen. Playing Calgary Flames Hockey, practically repeating the Flames run last spring. Hope you guys make it all the way.
Crap... this blog took half-an-hour to write. Too much to think about... almost home time... less then 2 weeks before I'm back in Calgary. And it's strange... I'm torn... first time since I've moved up here. This floor... this family... will never be together again...

You've Been Flooded

Due to the recent flood at International House, one of my friends decided to use the idea as a prank. (Not a stupid prank where we'd cause damage, which whould then incite revenge... but a funny one) Though I've realized that you kinda have to have some sort of experience with living in rez to truly understand the nature of rez pranks. Only those who have lived in Rez seems to have understood the prank and thought it was a good one, but those who have not lived in Rez think it's stupid... But I thought I'd try to blog it anyways.

So, the plan was that we would fill up a whole lot of styrofone (sp?) cups with water and block up somebodys door, so that in essense, he became flooded in. We did this to only one person, because we figured that we would not have been able to realistically do this to an entire wing (14 people) as we originally had intended. Also, we had intended to target one of our friends who was moving back to Calgary today because she was done her school year, but decided that it would be a bit too mean to trap her in when she was trying to leave and her parents showed up.

So, 4 of us got up at 6:30 this morning and started our endeaver, and ended up using 900 cups to 'flood' the hallway in front of our targets room. It took us roughly an hour to complete the process. At first, we tried to be extremely quiet in pouring the water into all the cups, but we soon gave up on it, cause we knew he wouldn't hear it and wouldn't wake up. :P We had to catch one person who came out of their rooms to make sure they were quiet and didn't accidently wake up our target. We almost got into deep poodoo, when we heard some noise in one of the rooms close to where we were working. And going in to tell that person to not make any noise if she came out of her room, we found that the RA (Resident Assistant) was also in that room. The RA is basically the person in charge of our floor, who reports to Housing and Food services, who can write up incident reports... and basically evict us all... so we were all like OH CRAP! Especially since this RA has shown throughout the year to work precisely out of the book, and not really understand the personal side of rez life. However, to our shock and everybody else on the floor when they found out later, she actually joined in to help with the prank. lol! So, we made sure we got a picture of her helping... just so we can have evidence that she was apart of it as well, so we don't get evicted. :P

But yeah, when we finally finished, we started waking up people on the floor that we thought would enjoy watching our target come out and see himself flooded in. So we called him up and woke him up... however, he didn't rush out as we intended... or even come out immediately... which actually ruined the plan a bit, cause he started brushing his teeth and everything, so we had to rush him out by banging on his door. So he came out with his toothbrush in his teeth... and well... the reaction was really good. :P Cant say too much about it... he didn't jump or scream or anything, but it was good.

But yeah, that's my story... I may have ruined it by trying to explain it so well... and not to mention... I'm extremely tired...

Anonymous

You know what's cool? Google Maps are cool. Check them out. http://map.google.com/ Not only can you search for places (though they arn't quite done yet, I don't think...), and you can zoom in and out easily and scan through the entire map of North America just like that. Also, it's pretty well detailed maps... and they even have SATELLITE pictures... so you can get close enough with actual picture view to pick out the church and everything (not with good detail, mind you). However, again, they don't appear to be finished, and parts of the map does not have satellite feed. But still... overall, pretty cool. Kinda fun just to play around with it even if you arn't trying to find a specific location. :P Unfortunately, it isn't live feed on the satellite view... though that would be pretty cool... then you can check out the status of the traffic and everything. :)

And none of that has to do with the title. However... people who sign in my comments... and use anonymous... please, pretty please, write down who you are, cause I'm not good enough to tell who is writing what by what they write and how they write it. And if you write in anonymous... you can always just type in your name at the end of your comment... cough*grace*cough... or just get a blogger account. :P

Year End Party

Well, the Year End Party was tonight and it was really good. We had a good turnout from our floor like usual. :) All dressed up, so it looks nice and good. :) Nothing much to say about it, just had a formal party with food/floorpresentations/music/dancing/drinking over at a banquet hall at Lister Center. Kinda tired right now, spent an hour working on a yearbook collage after coming back from the party. Oh, and the picture above is of people on my floor (missing a few people, mainly the ones that never come out). Oh again... Because of the Flood and Fire on Wednesday night, and because of all the hassles for I-house residents following that night. We all got free entrance to the year end party (instead of having to pay $10 to get in).

Picasa, if you havn't heard about it, it's a FREE photo album by Google. It's very handy and easy to use. You can tag all your pictures so that its easy to find specific pictures later on. And then if you download the FREE HELLO program, it allows you to send digital pictures to other people with a HELLO account (which can come in really handy). It also allows you to post pictures on your blog in a nice simple way. :)

WHOA!! Totally forgot about Daylight Savings... sigh... so it IS actually 3:20am at the time of this posting... I am going to be soooo tired tomorrow for church.

Introvert

Hey, I am not debating the fact that I am an introvert. I know I am an introvert. But I'm not THAT MUCH of an introvert, where I stay by myself 24/7. That is all I'm saying. :) So Jacklyn, you can agree with Jen, and Jen, you can state that I said I was an introvert, and you'd both be correct. :)

Futher clarification:
On the introvert/extrovert scale... I would sit between introvert and the middle of the scale. :) So that means that... I have introvert tendencies, but not wholly.

And hey, our blogger crew continues to grow in numbers. :) Leenda has one as well. So I was thinking... maybe we should all change our comment settings so that we only allow blogger users to comment. That way, they are required to start up their own blogs if they want to comment. :) And then, they would feel obligated to blog on a regular basis as well. WUHAHAHAHA... But what do you guys think?? hehe

Flood and Fire

IhouseFlood
Originally uploaded by g_mahfia.

Wow, this was a strange night. Around 9:30pm the fire alarm went off. Most of us acted like usual, grabbed our coats, grabbed our shoes, and grabbed our cameras and started heading out. However, this time it wasn't a fire drill, or somebody smoking in their rooms, or somebody forgeting about their cooking in the kitchen. This time, it was somebody accidently hitting the sprinkler head in their washroom, which punctured the glass casing and therefore, releasing a WHOLE lot of water. The picture you see is the hallway in front of that persons door. This picture was taken about 15 minutes after the water was released, and I don't think the water was turned off until at least half-an-hour to an hour afterwards. Luckily for me, this happened on the 5th floor of the building and I live on the 6th floor. However, water leaked all the way down to the 2nd floor and possibly even to the first floor of the building. Tons of water damage to the building, and I can't imagine the damage done to peoples rooms, especially the one in which the sprinklers went off in. The extent of this was so bad, that you could see the water damage from outside the building. You could see the water stains between every floor around that side of the building. It was pretty bad.
Stupid thing was... We all went outside, and then one of the RA's told us that everything was under control and sent us all back inside. (which is when I got the picture and video) But immediately after we all head back in, Campus security comes in and tells us all to head back outside. An hour later, we all get to go back in, but the fire alarm goes off again, and this time there's a fire in one of the 2nd floor kitchens. (Somebody was stupid enough to leave their pot on the stove without turning it off before leaving). So out we all go again... and now it stinks of smoke and most of the building is under heavy water damage. And to think that the International House isn't even a year old yet. And to think this happened 3 days before the Year End Party.

Sigh, though I must say, I kinda missed seeing the fire department cause this is the first time I've seen the fire department come to I-house this entire year. (I hear it's the 2nd time, but I wasn't in town for the first one). But compared to living in Schaffer last year where we averaged at least 2-4 fire alarms per month, or Lister the first year where we averaged 1-2 fire alarms per month. You kinda miss seeing 6-8 fire trucks pull up to your building. Though, if there wasn't so much damage to the building and ppl's properties, this would have been a better occasion.

Anyways, now I need to finish my assignment and go to sleep.

Easter Weekend Pt. 3

LFP-HawaiinLinda1, originally uploaded by g_mahfia.

Farewell Linda. Hope you have a wonderful time in Hawaii.

Well, we had a really successful surprise party for Linda yesterday (Good Job Jacklyn for organizing). Lots of people came out for her farewell party and most of us were dressed to the Hawaiin Theme. The best part of the night was naturally, Linda's arrival and the surprise (and luckily, she was actually surprised, hehe). Which means, good job everybody for eluding Linda and not letting her know the secret, hehe. The rest of the night was just another night filled with fellowship, games and food. Though, there is a couple high-lights that really stood out at the party for me.
1) The great baloon fight. :) I know there's a video out there somewhere. And that video just shows baloons flying everywhere, it was crazy. Just a really fun time. Brought up a lot of good laughs, especially when we started luring people to go through the room, but really just entered the gauntlet. hehe.
2) Darrens 40th Birthday. On top of the already festive atmosphere and fellowship, we got to celebrate Darren's 40th birthday as well. Which was great, cause Cheryl made a WONDERFUL cake... and we actually put 40 candles on it, haha. It was great.

Okay, anyways, I've blogged a lot today. But for those of you who wish to see all the pictures I took over the weekend. You can click on My Photos on the links to the right. Also, for those of you who wish to receive some of the pictures, just e-mail me or message me the titles of the pictures and the quality in which you wish to receive them in (good or resized (smaller/poorer)) and I'll get them to you whenever I am able.

Oh, and if anybody has the video of the baloon fight, could I get that please? and possibly any other good photos?? hehe

Easter Weekend Pt. 2

BirthdayAmyClem
Originally uploaded by g_mahfia.

Happy Birthday Clem and Amy. I still find it kinda strange and funny how they are married and have birthdays only 4 days apart. But yeah, after Good Friday service, we ended up heading over to Clem and Amy's house to 'chill' and to celebrate their birthdays. Luckily, Good Friday was right in the middle of their birthdays, so it was all good. :)
The night was really awesome, as we all just sat around and just fellowshiped, just talked, and talked and talked. And played with Elijah. Man, that kid has way too much energy, I think he tired US out first, hehe. Oh, and instead of going out for dinner, or ordering in, or having a pot-luck style dinner like we always do. We actually ended up just cooking... though Amy did most of it, hehe. But that was a nice change.

Easter Weekend Pt. 1

Thank You Lord for what You did for me and for all of us all those years ago. Thank You for the Cross. Thank You for your Blood. Thank You for your Sacrifice. Thank You for thinking of me.

Above All

Above all powers
Above all things
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began
Above all kingdoms
Above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what You're worth

Crucified
Laid Behind the stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all

Once Again

Jesus Christ, I think upon Your sacrifice
You became nothing, poured out to death
Many Times I've wondered at Your gift of life
And I'm in that place once again
I'm in that place once again

And once again I look upon the cross where you died
I'm humbled by your mercy and I'm broken inside
Once again I thank You
Once again I pour out my life

Now You are exalted to the highest place
King of the heavens, where one day I'll bow
But for now I marvel at Your saving grace
And I'm full of priase once again
I'm full of praise once again

Thank You for the cross
Thank You for the cross
Thank you for the cross, my friend

Stampede

First off... We finally got hot water back after a 4 day hiatus... felt so nice to take a nice hot shower this morning, hehe. These past few days sure taught me a lot about the things that we take for granted here in Canada. Things such as hot water, electricity and the like. It's strange how in most places in the world, most people don't have hot showers everyday, or use electricity at all, and here we are not even really capable of 'living' comforatably without such commodities without planning for them in advance (eg. camping, etc.).

But back to the what this blog has been titled for... the Calgary Stampede has been growing consistently for the past few years, not only in number of attendees, rides, games, but also in who comes to town to perform in concerts. This year, Michael W. Smith and Delirious will be in town to end off the Stampede. I mean, wow, we usually only get country singers/bands or secular Canadian artists. But for the stampede to actually grow big enough to invite big name Christian bands is something completely... different... and cool. On one note, this is awesome for Alberta as we continue to be a shining light in a country slowly falling into an inmoralistic nation. It's nice to see that Christians and Christianity is still welcome in such a time, and it gives hope for this country. But yeah, this will be a pretty awesome concert, not only because I like both Delirious and Michael W. Smith, but also because both of them have proven that they have awesome concerts. So it should be really cool.

HOT WATER!!

ACK!! We have NO hot water, I repeat... we have NO hot water in the building. So... I'm going to stink in a few days, if they don't get this thing fixed. hehe. But this is getting really annoying, cause we can't take showers, cause it's freezing cold, no warm water or anything...

But yeah, something about not have any water pressure in the building... and something about the water heaters being on the TOP of the building? And therefore no water pressure = no water in water heaters = no hot water. But WHO would honestly put the water heaters on top of the building?? And WHY is there no water pressure?

Oh, and another bad thing about this... It has been snowing outside non-stop for the past few days. It's been hovering around minus 10 as well. Sigh. Well, at least I get to look forward to being home in less than a week. YES!! And it's a 4 day weekend, so I leave Thursday night and stay till Monday afternoon. :)

Curling

Well, went Curling for the first time in my life on Saturday. It was pretty good, if only I wasn't sick... but since I had already paid a week before, I decided I might as well go. And if I wasn't sick, and feeling light-headed, I may have actually remembered that curling... happens on an icy surface... which means that the place will be pretty chilly... but I ended up wearing a t-shirt cause it was so nice outside. HA... so I curled with my jacket on, hehe... which really hampers you.
But it was still a pretty cool experience... it's really hard to measure how hard you need to throw the rock... I either overshot the target or never made it to the target, haha, unless I hit other rocks. :) It's also really hard to tell whether or not you should sweep or not... and usually when we finally realized that we needed to sweep, it was too late to made a big enough difference. sigh...
Oh and one more thing about curling... if you want to kick or even pretend to kick somebody... USE THE FOOT THAT HAS THE SLIDER ON IT!! Cause if you keep the foot with the slider on the ice and kick with your other foot, you are going to wipe out big time, hehe... which I did... but at least I didn't hit my head like one of my friends. :)

Sick

Well... I don't know how it happened, but I am sick. And being sick really sucks. Though I guess the strangest thing right now is the fact that no matter what time I go to bed... early or late... I always wake up at 5am... maybe that's why I got sick, cause I wasn't getting enough rest. But yeah, hopefully this waking up at 5am will stop soon, need some quality rest... and hopefully all will be back to normal before midterms kick up again in the next 2 weeks.

Wow... shortest blog yet...

Bowling

Went bowling yesterday with a couple people from my floor. It was only 5 pin, but it was still really fun. I was actually able to bowl a 187, which is probably the highest score I've ever gotten in 5-pin bowling. For one game, I tried to play in different ways, so I bowled like Fred Flinstone and whatnot... didn't do too well, but I somehow made it over 100pts still... so I have to wonder how I never got over 100 before?? or maybe I have?? But yeah, most of the ppl that I went with have never played bowling before and watching them play was really interesting, to say the least. :)

Today, for church, we sent off an HMS missionary team from Vanguard college to China, which is an annual event. It's always awesome to have them come and do their drama's, testimonies and their attempted singing in mandarin. :) (Though, I think they speak better mandarin than me, haha, sigh). None of the students were chinese, naturally, so it was really cool. And God Bless them as they head over to China for a 6-week short-term mission trip. After service, we all went over to Wok King for lunch, and being at a table with a bunch of caucasions who don't eat chinese food often is... interesting. A lot of them, mainly the older generation, the parents that came to see their kids performances, were extremely picky in how/what they eat. One of them even scooped out fish and shrimp from the congee and left the congee... interesting... But yeah, that meant more food for us though, hehe. :)