Stressful Weekend

Warning: Long Blog. Read At Your Own Risk

Man, oh man, what a stressful weekend. So, it all began Friday night when I had to drive up to Red Deer to write a multiple choice exam for my EMR provincial certification. So far, so good. The drive up is pretty nice and relaxing. Exam is scheduled to start at 6 and end at 8, and registrations open at 5. So, I head out of Calgary at 3:30 and get in line with about 500 other people by 5:15. I end up standing in line till quarter till 7... and don't get to write my exam till 7! An hour later than the scheduled start time. Okay, that's not that bad, but you really start to psych yourself up when you're standing around waiting for an exam to start, haha. And what some of my classmates and I have discovered is that SAIT does not prepare you all too well for the ACP (Alberta College of Paramedics) exams. Sigh... so I hope I passed the written portion of the exam. But, I finish my exam at 8:30 and got back to Calgary around 10, cause I figured the extra trip would cost about $30 in gas and hotel for a night would be about $80.

The next day, Saturday, I have to go back up to Red Deer for my practical exam which is scheduled to begin at 2:30. So, I leave Calgary at 12:30 and get in line with about 150 other people at 2:00 and end up sitting out in the hallway waiting for REGISTRATIONS to open because the 1:00 group was running behind schedule. We end up waiting till 3:15 for registrations to open. After that, we all get set up in a waiting room where we all get called out one at a time to get tested. I wait till 6:00 for my turn. And I blew it, haha. Oh man, that 4 hour wait really psyched me out. I over-analyzed the entire scenario! I mean, it was a simple unconcious, choking patient. Sound simple? Well, it was. So simple that when you look at it, it's really a First Aid scenario. BUT, I was in EMR mode, so I figured I should do chest compressions, but WAIT, he still has a pulse, which means that his heart is still beating, which means that I can't do CPR, and chest compressions is within CPR!! So, I decide not to do chest compressions. Well, suffice to say... I can't clear my patients airway any other way and I decide to do a rapid transport to the hospital, but regardless, the patient dies, haha. and I fail. The sad thing is... I KNEW I failed, but I still had to wait another hour in a sequester room to wait for them to tell me I failed!! haha... man... you get really depressed when you have that much time afterwards to think about what you did and what you could have done before they tell you how you did. I woke up at least 4-5 times that night thinking about what I did wrong and what I should have done. I killed a PLASTIC DUMMY and I was this stressed out! Man, I need to get stronger mentally, cause what happens when I can't save an actual person?? It better not be out of incompetence!! At least I'll have a partner with me at all times.

So, retest is scheduled for Sunday at 1:30. So, I end up not going to church cause I left Calgary at 11. Which meant I had to ask Tony to usher for me as I couldn't replace Andrew as usher anymore. :P I don't think he prayed hard enough, haha. But yeah, I end up getting there at 1:00 and stand in line with about 200 other people. Registration starts early for once at 1:15 and we get set up in the waiting room by 1:30. Looking good so far, way ahead of schedule this time. But nope, I end up sitting in the waiting room till 6:00 again for my turn. Man, another 5 hours sitting around thinking about what type of scenario you might get and what you need to do and how you should do it and at what order you should do it in!! So psyched out!! And the scenario for the retest?? Patient is having a stroke. Simple. It is, really. Administer high-concentration oxygen by Non-Rebreather Mask at 15l/m, do a quick primary survey and gather history. Package and Transport. Simple. HOWEVER, the patient decides to have a seizure en-route to the hospital. AND THEN decides to code on me (go into cardiac arrest)! So, now I have to get my partner to pull the ambulance over and come back to assist me with the patient (luckily, somehow, we end up in front of a firehall and firefighters come out to assist as well. :P). He is now pulseless, so we have to do CPR and defib him. He comes back to life, but by now we've had to size and insert an OPA (oropharhyngeal airway) changed the NRM to a BVM (Bag-Valve Mask) with assisted ventilations at 20bpm (1 breath every 3 seconds) moved him from a semi-fowlers (sitting-up) position into a supine (lying flat on back) position. Man, the retest was so much more complicated than the initial scenario!! And I passed, haha, but I had to wait another hour afterwards stressing about what I might have missed or what I might have done wrong!

Man. Going into this profession, I was afraid of getting a patient that was too complicated to handle and because it was so complicated that I couldn't save them. BUT, it ends up that the patient was TOO simple for me to even save him!! Sigh... I need to be more confident when I go into situations. But SAIT sure doesn't prepare you enough for real life or even ACP exams!! Anyways, that was my weekend!! Who actually ended up reading this far? Without just skipping to the very bottom to read this paragraph to see if I sumarize the entire blog? But, here's the summary. Long Weekend. Too Much Time Waiting For Exams To Begin. Psyched Out. Stressed Out. Failed First Scenario Which Is 100% Easier Than Retest Scenario. Passed Retest Scenario. Now Waiting For Written Results. 6 Hours Driving In One Weekend Is Crazy!

Frustrating

Sigh... the game isn't even over yet and I've already given up, haha. How frustrating. I knew they had it tough to win the cup this year... but at least show up to play... sheesh. No emotion whatsoever. No energy. No mojo. Haha. Sigh. Oh well... another season done with nothing (other than a division title) to show for it. Another year of too much time wasted on watching Flames games and not enough time on studying or working, haha. And I was looking forward to a Battle of Alberta too.

Guess there will be some big changes over the off-season now. Maybe not on defence, cause they're pretty steady. Not in net, cause you can't get much better than Kiprusoff. But the forwards?? Man, we need some leaders like Gelinas man. Somebody who shows up day in, day out and never gives up. Always plays with energy and leads the team that way. Oh, and maybe a game-changing centreman which we've lacked for quite a while now.

Oh well... can't cheer for the Flames... who should I cheer for now? Lots of good teams out there. Guess cheering for Canadian teams (Ottawa and Edmonton) never hurts. San Jose and Buffalo are good teams to cheer for as well. Who to cheer for, who to cheer for...

Okay. San Jose in the West (not because I won't cheer for the Oils, but who can't cheer for Thornton?? haha). Ottawa in the East.

But an interesting fact:
Top 4 teams in the East advance to the confence semi-finals.
Top 4 teams in the West are upset in the confence quarter-finals.

Rollerblading

Man, today was such a beautiful day that I decided I should do things outside. So, first off... I decided that since we have a pressure washer, I might as well use it. So, out I go fiddling with it, since my dad seems to have lost the instruction manual already. Takes a while, but I finally get it to work and I rinse the highlander. But it was such a nice day and really, a rinse doesn't really clean the car. So, out came the bucket of soap and water and there I am in my bikini... errr... I mean... in my shorts and t-shirt washing the car. :P Then I washed the garage floor and when I finally finished... I decided I would rollerblade to Marvin and Julia's house for cellgroup instead of taking that 5-minute drive. Wow... I havn't rollerbladed since 1st year U and it felt really strange. I kept on trying to stop like I was on hockey skates and my ankles hurt really quickly and it felt extremely awkward to rollerblade around, so I need practice. But strangely enough... it took me exactly 5 minutes to rollerblade to Marvin and Julia's house... what the... it takes me 5 minutes to drive there. Strange.

Anyways... I want to get out of the house tomorrow, so I'm going to go do some chores and whatnot in the morning and then I'm thinking I'll probably be going rollerblading along the river in the afternoon. If anybody reads this before Friday afternoon and wishes to join me for some rollerblading, please come join me. Give me a call or try to bump into me at church or whatnot. But it should be a nice day tomorrow. Good warm up for gym nite. :P Maybe... or we might be too sore for gym nite, haha. Either way, that's the plan. I'll go alone if need be, but if anybody would like to join me, that is welcome as well. :P

God Is In Control

So, why do we still worry and stress over every little thing so much?? I mean, come on, God is in control. I guess there is the sense that we should still do our part and check things out as well... but man... why do I bother even stressing, haha.

I stressed over the final week of class becuase I had been way too lethargic over the entire semester, as I rightly should have cause it was my own fault. I tried to pull a semi-allnighter to get things together (semi as in sleep at 11, wake up at 3) but I slept in, haha. Guess God knew that I would need the sleep more than the cramming. But sleeping in sure made me stress over my exams. :P

I stressed over the final lab exam, especially after hearing that people failed and saw people crying... and I actually went pretty tunnel-vision while doing my scenario and was still worried going back for my review.

I stressed over the fact that I havn't received any information about my provincial certification exam at the beginning of May and others had already received their schedules. I mean, the application said that if the application is late or incomplete, they won't send you anything, so I was kinda worried that maybe my dad faxed my registration to the wrong number or forgot about it or that I had filled the registration in wrong. Oh man... so, I end up calling them today and what do I find out? I'm already scheduled and it's in the mail. Sheesh. Why bother stressing, haha.

Guess I should stop stressing about getting into the EMT program next september as well. I havn't heard anything back from them yet... and they said I would probably hear back from them by early to mid april. Ack. One of my classmates got told that they were on the waiting list, so maybe the fact that I havn't been told anything is a good sign, haha, and that they're just waiting for me to get provincially certified.

Oh, and stressing out for the stretcher-lift test a month ago. Figured I wasn't going to be strong enough or something... but I glanced at my results during my interview and it was excellent in all the categories. YEAH! And I'm lucky too... a friend of mine in my class got her whole back torn out because her stupid partner decided to just give up halfway up the stairs and dropped the stretcher on her. Sigh... I feel so bad for her. All her back muscles torn because some girl gave up halfway and dropped the stretcher... now she can't even bend over to pick things up and/or even continue to be a paramedic... sigh. Why are there so many stupid people in the world?? Who the heck gives up halfway because they find it too heavy and just drops her side of the stretcher halfway up the stairs without even warning the other person. ARGH!

Wow, I thought this was going to be a nice and simple blog... guess I end up talking more and more when people don't interupt me to tease me about something. :P Anyways, time to go get an allergic reaction and cut the grasses. :P

Wow...sers...

Man oh man oh man... So, I'm officially done my EMR class now. Though I still have to take my provincial exam May 5-7... hopefully my registration went through and I will be able to write it then. I havn't heard anything about it yet. But let's pray it all works out, cause if I get provicinally certified, I'm pretty sure I'll get into the EMT program for next september.
Oh, but I'm done my EMR class, haha. and I'm so HAPPY! Giddy really, haha. There were 4 exams total... and since this is a learn on your own course and come in to take your multiple choice exams whenever... I ended up leaving 3 of my 4 exams till this last week, haha. But my average for all 4 exams was 87%, so I'm really happy about that, haha. 92% on the final written exam. OH YEAH!!
Okay, so doing well on multiple choice exams isn't really why I'm so giddy, haha, I mean, they are multiple choice exams. :P But I was so freaked out about my LAB EXAM today... the scenario test... the application test... oh man... I was so freaked out and most people were. But my lab test was today and I passed!! And it's not that easy... we go in as groups of 4 to be tested... and 2 of the other 3 people I went in with failed and now have to do a re-test. One of the girls that was in the group before ours came out crying... and I heard at least 2 others failed from earlier groups... but seeing that girl (who from what I saw during class was decent with her scenarios and knew her stuff fairly well) come out crying was like, oh man... panic time!! But I passed!! and I passed with... wait for it... wait for it... 100% HOLY CRAP! When they asked me back into the room to give me my mark, they were like "how do you think you did?" and I was like... ahh... good?? and they asked "do you think you missed anything?" and I was like, well, I missed this and I missed that... and then they dropped my exam booklet on the desk and it said %100... and my jaw just dropped and I was speechless, haha. Then they were like "I don't think you missed anything" haha... oh man... so very happy right now. :P

But a good sign that I'm on the right track. I'm enjoying it. I like what I'm learning. I like what I'm doing. And I seem to be understanding what I'm learning and appear to be capable of doing what needs to be done!! And man, I think this might be my first A out of high school, haha. YES!!!!

Edit: So, I checked online and my final overall mark was 94.43%!! I believe that comes out to be an A+!! WOOT WOOT!! Ha, I better not screw up on my provincial certification exam, haha. That would really suck.

DIVISION CHAMPS!!

YEAH BABY! We beat Colorado and finally clinched the division title. Amazing really, considering how poorly they started this season off. But wow, we won the division. And what a way to win it too. Last home game of the season... against the only team that had the possibility of beating the flames to the division title... kipper gets his league-leading 10th shutout of the season... Phaneuf gets his 20th goal of the season (amazing for a rookie defenseman {new record for a Flames rookie dman [and ummm... game winning goal too] yeah, 3 brackets this time} so take that). 2 more useless games and then the playoffs begin. Can't wait. And the flames lost only 7 times at home this entire season going 30-7-4. I went to 2 games and one of them was a loss, how crappy is that!! :P

But the Oilers and Canucks fighting for that 8th and final playoff spot is going to be so tight. I feel for you canuck and oilers fans. This will be really close. Oilers beat Anahiem tonight... so if they beat Colorado for their last game of the season, then they are in to the playoffs. BUT, if the oilers lose to Colorado and Vancouver beats San Jose tonight and beats Colorado on Saturday, then the canucks will be in. Oh boy... lets just hope the canucks lose tonight to San Jose so we won't have to go through all the waiting, haha. Just let the oilers in to the playoffs already, lose vancouver lose!

Edit: San Jose 5 - Vancouver 3. Oh, and thanks for the call Milty... figured you'd say congrats on the flames clinching division, haha, but nope. :P Edmonton is IN, Vancouver is OUT.

Amazing Year Part II

So, the Flames had an amazing year the last time the NHL was around and was one game away from winning the stanley cup. And ofcourse, for those that still care... they were one goal that should have counted away from winning the cup. But oh well... not much you can do about it now.
But anyways...
This year they started off horrendously going something like 4-10-2 in the first 2 months. Since then, they have clinched a playoff spot... have a 100+ point season for the first time since '91... currently hold top spot in the uber-tough northwest division (and only need ONE more point to clinch that division title) - which they have not won since the '95 season... Mikka Kiprusoff is most likely going to win the Vezina trophy for top goalie... Dion Phaneuf may be overshadowed by Ovechkin and Crosby but is still one of the best rookie defenceman to come into this league in a VERY long time (some say he might be a finalist for the Norris trophy {top d-man in the league} but I doubt it)... and currently they will win the Jennings award for the team with the lowest gaa in the league (though they only have a 0.04 lead over Ottawa with 3 games left)...
Most of our players are coming off the injury list... so we should be relatively healthy at the start of the playoffs which will be a huge plus as we are 13-3-3 or something like that when we have all of our top-6 dmen playing in the same game. It's too bad we'll be missing Marcus Nilson though, cause he is huge defensively along with Yelle. Otherwise, we should do well in the playoffs as we have been playing well against all other playoff contenders currently. Detroit and Dallas we can match (and since there isn't a shootout in the playoffs, we'll be fine against them!!), Anaheim, San Jose, Colorado and Edmonton we can beat and have beaten as of late. Nashville was the biggest doubt for us, but now that Vokoun is out for the season, they should be easy pickings with a minor leaguer as their #1 Goalie. Vancouver, well, let's just hope they don't make it to the playoffs. LET'S GO OILERS!! just till the playoffs begin. :P And I guess, LET's GO SHARKS as well, beat those cannots in your home and home!!

Amazing Year

As I was reading over the amazing Da BeezNeez blog, I began to look back over the amazing year that has recently passed. Granted, I didn't have an amazing birthday to really say it's been a new year, but nevertheless, I was able to reflect upon the amazing year that has passed since last April. And boy have things changed, for better or worse, I can't truly say, but I can say that it has been truly an amazing year.

But first off, let us look back to where I was last year (which we'll place the starting date to be approximatly April 1, 2005). At that time, I was still attending the amazing University of Alberta (which is SO much more amazing than UofC) and residing within the walls of the newly built International House - UofA and on the amazing 6th floor - the Eye-House Penthouse! The month of April was a month of change, big changes... amazing changes... for that year. Looking back at my archives, I realized that I was finishing my not-so-amazing university career with a bang (that being with a gun pointed at my own temple kind of bang). So there I was, returning to Calgary with only my amazing life experience gained in the not-so-amazing deadmonton and with not a single academic achievement that I had originally hoped for when I first moved up there. The positives of my 3 years in edmonton? Well, ECPC now has someone trained specifically to do sound, hehe, that in itself can be considered amazing (and another amazing thing about that is that Cam was only what... 12? and he was already nearing 6 feet tall, SHEESH, now that is what I call Amazing!). I also learned how to become less of an introvert and to become more socialable and all those who know me will know how amazing that really is. :P But there I was back home with no clear idea of what I was to do, or where I was to go and really... no clear idea of who I was anymore. And really... the only clear identity of who I was as stated by everyone else was... as recently revived by Jaxsta's blog... Geo is a Blog Creeper!! :P

However, in the year to follow... a lot has happened and a lot has been learned. For instance, I realized how amazingly bad I was at Soccer and that I was only invited because I drove AJ to the games, haha (I know you were kidding Andrew). I realized that VBS is still amazing even after all these years of being there, and that it only gets more amazing every year. Also, it was amazing to see how many kids wanted to come... I still can't believe we had to turn kids away (and I still feel bad because of it) but wow, that was truly amazing. After only attending summer camp part-time in 2004, summer camp 2005 was that much more amazing, ESPECIALLY with all the youth that came out, it was a blast. :P Can't wait for Summer Camp 2006 - August 14-18, see you all there! Anyways... a year off... well... I guess a semester off of school for the first time in my life felt really, really strange. Especially since I hadn't actually graduated with anything and didn't have an occupation to focus on. It was an interesting few months of being unemployed and not a student anymore, to say the least. However, God granted me an amazing job at Samaritans Purse for the winter and that was amazing. I got a job in a field I had absolutely NO experience in (granted, it didn't require much, haha) but still... it came pretty much out of the blue... but it was pretty amazing. The group of people I worked with were amazing and fun to be with (for the most part) but it was nice to just have something to do. :P Since then I have been back at school at SAIT, taking my EMR and hopefully will end up being a Paramedic in the near future. If all goes as plans and it works out, then that would just be amazing as I was honestly completely lost last April. Oh, I also got an amazing experience when I got a job at the Foothills Medical Centre (also completely out of the blue) and got to see first-hand what it felt like working in the Health Care industry and within a hospital environment. And I would have to say it was pretty amazing, I loved it and other than the fear I have everytime my cell phone goes off now (as I had this fear whenever my cellphone would go off and I would have to refuse a shift because I was busy that day... now I guess I can see why I had that fear... because it was going to get ME FIRED!!) But yeah, it was amazing while it lasted... that whole 3 weeks, haha. Anyways... not everything has been as amazing as I seem to have made it out to be... but it has been pretty much an amazing journey for me this past year and that would be my amazing blog epiphany. All that has gone on in my life has been strange, but everything happens for a reason and God will show me the way as long as I look to Him for the direction. There are a ton of questions I still don't have answered, like why did I have to go to UofA? why 3 years? Should I have just come straight back after my 1st year when I got booted the first time?? am I on the right road? We shall see... first step! EMT.... results come in within the next 2 weeks, ACK!! Am I in? Or am I out? If I'm in, than that would be truly amazing cause I feel that I'm not as prepared as some others are for this field and if I get in right away, then that would be an excellent sign that I am on the right track.

Hmmm... I'm sure there is an amazing blog epiphany located somewhere in all that garbled mess of a blog. I know I was writing about one when I started... but with all the thoughts that resurfaced from thinking about the past, present and future... I may have completely lost track of it. So... I know most of you don't like long blogs... so well... tough luck, this one's long, haha and you're lucky I'm stopping it here and now. :P

Okay, actually, this amazing blog ends here.

Actually, right here.

Amazingly, it goes on a bit more.

Amazing... I don't think I'll be saying this word for at least a couple weeks after today, haha.

OH, and my blog epiphany which I TOTALLY got sidetracked off of was that... a year ago, I was the blog creeper. The blogger that seemed to check every 5 minutes and commented within the first minute of a blog being posted. :P However, the BLOG EPIPHANY was that as of today... LEO is the one who spends the most time brousing through the blogs (2-3 hrs per day... per workday!). I on the other hand, spend a MAX of 1 hr per day, haha!

Okay, it stops now. Period.

Interview

Yes, I had an interview today... from a Mormon evangelist at the bus stop at Dalhousie. :P Made me think... you know... what if... I was more updated with my apologetics, haha. Then I could have turned all the questions back on him and made him think. Unfortunately, my apologetics is pretty poor and I wasn't in the mood to discuss or debate since my top of the head knowledge is not as deep as it should be. So, he basically introduced himself, asked if I knew Jesus Christ and explained about the Book of Mormon and that was it and for me to think and pray about it. Also, I had just finished an interview for the EMT (Emergency Medical Technician - Ambulance) program for next fall. Which, I don't know, was alright I guess. Kinda scared that I won't get in and it made me think is this really what I want to do?? Most of the questions were based on how much do I know about the paramedic field in general? And honestly, not much, haha, oh boy. It's just something I can see myself doing and enjoy doing. So we shall see... completely out of my hands. Only 73 seats and only those who they deem are good enough are allowed in (if they don't fill up all the seats, that's fine by them). Ack. Why is life so complicated?? What if I don't get in? What do I do? I havn't heard anything back from Mount Royal Nursing either... out of school again next year?? Barely more qualified then last year... am I going in the right direction God? Is this where you want me to be? Is this who you want me to be? What am I not doing that I could be doing? ACK!! Luckily, I felt pretty calm before and after the interview (really nervous during) and I really felt that I have no control and that is it now wholly in God's very capable hands and I should leave it there and stop worrying about it. SO, I shall stop worrying about it now, haha. Though I did have to send in my Unofficial UofA transcript in right after... and err... UofA was not exactly the best times in my life academically... hopefully that doesn't affect the selection process... please please please... ack, okay, stop worrying, start praying!

Score of 42...

So, according to Dr. Phil's test I am:

41 TO 50 POINTS: Others see you as fresh, lively, charming, amusing, practical, and always interesting; someone who's constantly in the center of attention, but sufficiently well-balanced not to let it go to their head. They also see you as kind, considerate, and understanding; someone who'll always cheer them up and help them out.

Fresh? Lively? Charming? Amusing (in what way)? Always interesting? Center of attention? Interesting. How accurate is this test, I do not know. If you wish to see the test, you can check it out at Kingstons blog as I do not feel like cutting and pasting the entire test here.

Otherwise, FLAMES WIN A BLOWOUT GAME!! Finally! haha. 7-2 against St. Louis. Granted, it was against St. Louis, but still... if we can't win a blow-out game against a team like St. Louis then that's even sadder. :P It is sad to see how far Lalime has fallen though... some HORRIBLE goals he let in tonight. But oh well, we'll take the win. I wonder if they'll play Boucher tomorrow against Columbus though... considering what happened the last time he played (granted, Columbus is not nearly as good of a team as Nashville) but still, it's a TIGHT TIGHT race here.

Stretcher Lift Test tomorrow morning. I have a feeling I'm going to be REALLY REALLY Sore tomorrow and possibly for the weekend. We have to move stretchers up and down staircases to make sure we can physically do it as part of our application process for the EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) program for September. And these will be fully laden stretchers. Oh well, should be interesting. And no, my ex-job at the hospital will not have prepared me for this, as we take the elevators at the Foothills. :P

Edit: I passed the stretcher lift test, YES! But now my forearms are extremely sore. 150lb of sandbags was placed ontop of the stretcher, which probably weighs 50-80lbs itself? Ack. Gonna have to work on that forearm strength for sure though. Anyways, now it is time for the Formal Interview next Thursday. Ack. I sure hope I can answer all the questions adequately and that my resume will be adequate as well. So scared. Got to get some references togther quickly too.

Hearts of the Innocent

The new Kutless is out!! $12.86 at Blessings TODAY AND ONLY TODAY!! Highly Recommended. :P Musically, really good. Lyrically, probably their best, IMO. As of right now, "Smile" is my favorite song on the cd.

Terminated

CRAP! I just got my contract terminated. Not because I failed my health assessment (which I didn't), but becuase they say I'm not available for shifts enough. What the crap. I've been open with them from the very beginning about being in school and everything and they said that it wouldn't be a problem that they would understand. I've refused 3 shifts so far and taken 3. 2 of them I refused because of school and one because I couldn't make it in on time. ARGH! It's just so frustrating when they say everything will be fine and that they understand and then they let you go because of the exact reasons they guaranteed were fine. Then they compare myself to the other people who have been trained at the same time I was... all of them not having school or other issues to deal with AND they say they've taken more shifts then me, NO DUH! they've also been receiving more calls to go in. ARGH, it's so frustrating... you work so hard to get work and school balanced and then they decide that you arn't trying hard enough!

Man... I didn't realize how much I loved this job until today... For the records... I'm crying again. Refuse a shift to force myself to study for 6 hours only to have that be a major reason why I get fired. Refuse a shift so I can make it to my dad's birthday dinner and get fired. Refuse a shift so I can go to school and get fired. And apparently they said that I've refused more shifts then that even though I never got those calls, what the crap. SO PISSED OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Health Assessment

Ha, it would really suck if I failed my health assessment and then have my contract revoked and end up not actually getting the job. Hopefully all goes well today... cause I'm really liking this job right now and I would dearly like to keep it for quite the while. :P Working on Sunday turned out to be pretty good. Getting past the shock of working on a weekend and missing out on Jacksons b-day party and even Courtney's b-day party was tough to begin with but by the end of my shift I was in a pretty good mood. I got to work a designated area, intead of central - which operates around the entire hospital moving everything from patients, cadavers, specimens, equipment and charts. The designated area was in Emerg XRay. So my entire day was to move patients between XRay, CT, Emergency and Minor Emerg with the occasional patients back to inpatient clinics in the main hospital area. And since the day wasn't extremely busy, I got to sit and read some books that I brought last week or watch TV (saw some desparate housewives, scrubs, the oilers get beat by minnesota!! and even some claymation Carebears, haha). But I really like working in the emerg area... everyone is on top of things, there isn't any grumpy nurses or slow nurses to deal with and the patients are usually really nice and talkative when you move them because they've been there for hours on end with nothing to do and since I get to transport them to and from xray or ct, I see them twice or sometimes even more if they need more pictures taken at a later time, and I walk past their beds everytime I have to go get somebody else. The best is when you walk by their beds and you finally dont see them, which means they finally got sent home or to a unit (sounds dumb, but it sucks having to see them sit their on their beds for hours with nothing to do just waiting for a doctor to finally get back to them about their condition). I even got my first call where security had to accompany me... kinda scary. The guy was just extremely aggressive for some reason... so he got this small cramped up room with an uncomforatable bed and a door that only gets opened from the outside, haha. And he kept on complaining about service, sheesh... you wonder why you get such poor service if you have such poor attitude.

Oh Man...

Oh man... school on a Sunday. That's a first. And unfortunately, it won't be the last. There's 2 more for sure before the end of April. And who knows what my schedule will be if I get into EMT and beyond. Otherwise, it wasn't too bad. Luckily, we focused primarily on splinting, traction-splinting and using extrivication devices. Which are all hands-on and no theory or lecture time today. And since we were all very apathetic today, the instructors decided to let us out at 3:30 instead of at our scheduled 5:00.

Oh man... work next Sunday as well. That will also be a first. However, it is a 3-11 shift, so I won't have to miss church next week.

Oh man... I went to Pearl Tea Hut today after schoool and found out that I was missing my debit card!! I've never lost a debit/credit card before and I was really shocked and scared of the possibilities and the fact that I had no idea what I was supposed to do if I lost a card (who do I call to inform it's gone?). I ended up ordering a pearl tea before calling/heading over to Cheesecake to pick it back up. :P Good thing it was there.

Oh man... I spent about $200 yesterday in an impromptu shopping trip. I got tired of studying, so I decided to head down to the Avinida Sportchek for their Store Closing Sale and ended up buying a Vic Onepeice hockey stick for $84 (regular is $130), so it wasn't that big of a deal, but I drove all the way down there and didn't want to leave empty-handed. :P I then went over to CP and bought 2 cds for $24 (Switchfoot - A Beautiful Letdown and Thousand Foot Krutch - Phenomenon) and apparently I just missed bumping into Andrew, Jacklyn, Jackson, Jenny, Kingston, Sam and Sarah as everybody dropped by Sportchek to grab up cheap stuff. :P After that, I dropped my bass guitar off at Long & McQuade for my free setup and bought a guitar tuner and a guitar stand totallying about $40. Then I drove back up to Marketmall and dropped off clothes for the Salvation Army and then took a stroll around the mall. Ended up buying 4 dvds all of them being 2 for $30 (Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, Dodgeball and the Goonies).

Oh man... I am now 0/1 at Roll Up The Rim. And I think I'll probably end up staying at 0/1 till this is over as I don't drink coffee or tea and the hot chocolate wasn't spectacular either. Oh well...

Oh man... I think this was the first Sunday in quite a while where I ended up at home instead of hanging out with everyone... though that's more because I lost my debit card and had to come back up to the northwest anyways and decided to just head home instead.

Oh man... I'm finally caught up with Battlestar Galactica and now I have to wait a week for every episode, that's going to be tough. Especially since Episode 19 was a TO BE CONTINUED!!

Oh man... Thursday night... All you can eat Sushi and Korean BBQ at Sushi BBQ Inn with Cell Group?? or... head in to lab and practice all applications for EMR with fellow classmates?? hopefully, work doesn't call for a relief shift on Thursday as well to complicate matters even more...

Oh man... this blog has been really pointless and getting long, so I'll stop now.

First Official Day

Yup, it's the first official day of my burps smell stinkier than Kingstons. Actually, that's probably impossible. But it was the first official day of work after training. And I guess I really need to work on my sleep habits, haha... it's not good to go to sleep after 1 and then get a call at 7:30 in the morning to see if I could go in. But it was overall a good day. Worked from 9-5 and didn't seem to make any huge mistakes, hehe. But it is definately a lot more stressful when you end up having to go on your own and do everything on your own without somebody more experienced keeping an eye out for you. But everything seemed to go nice and smoothly, so that is great. So, 40 hours down, another 1,960 hours to go before I'm finally done with my probation period. :P Now to rest my poor feet... and my friend who is jealous because I got the job that she's been after for months says that you sit around all the time, HA! Other than my half-hour lunch break and a short 15 minute break, I was walking around carrying out jobs, and man is the hospital big and when you have to go back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth and carry equipment and push stretchers and take stairs because the elevators always break down or they are always too busy to actually catch... my poor poor feet....

Oh, and I thought somebody stole or towed my car after work too... but it was just because I forgot exactly where it was parked. :P So, I checked out 3 different levels of the parkade before I found it on the correct level on the opposite side. Sigh, you know you're mentally fatigued when you can't even remember where you parked your car.

Flames Talk

What the... Cale Hulse? We traded for Cale Hulse? Why? He's at best a 5th-6th defenceman. Are we stocking up on depth for the playoff run?? Which is quite possible, but now we have Robyn Regehr and Leopold, Hamrlik (once he comes back from injury) and Phaneuf, Warrener and Ferrence, Marchment, Giordano, Richie Regehr and now Hulse as well... Depth never hurts I guess and we didn't really give anything up to get Hulse...

I'm thinking that maybe Hulse was brought in to play as a 5th-6th D-man so that we can offer Warrener or Ferrence (in combination with some forwards, likely Kobasew and another player) in a trade to get somebody like Jokinen to provide us with a number one centreman to complement Iginla. Why Kobasew? Because we have to offer up somebody whose got potential and it's either Kobasew or Lombardi and I think Lombardi has stepped up more so then Kobasew. Also, Dustin Boyd is more of a Kobasew type replacement than a Lombardi replacement, so we won't be missing out on much once Boyd comes up within the next 2 years or so. Or possibly, Brent Krahn will be shipped out if Florida is looking for a goalie with good potential to replace Luongo if they end up losing him as rumours state. Oooh... going to be interesting what trades happen before the trade-deadline comes up next week.

A Triple Code Day

So, there was yet another Code Blue today, hope it doesn't happen everyday... and definately hope it doesn't happen so that I have to be the person that has to call it in. Anyways, Code Blue is Cardiac Arrest or Medical Emergencies. So, once you call a Code Blue, a response team of doctors, nurses and such rush to the scene with a crash cart and such. Code Black is a Bomb Threat at the hospital. But yeah, the second Code for today was a Code Yellow. It's a code that nobody really pays attention to, as I just kept on reading a magazine and didn't even take notice of where the Code was being called from. But Code Yellow is a missing patient, and it only affects Security and the nurses at the unit that it is called at. The third and last Code today doesn't get any attention by anyone either, and that is Code Red. Which is the Fire Alarm, and nobody pays attention to it because it goes off quite frequently as patients in the Psych ward might pull it, or somebody forgot something in a kitchen or something... so you can really tell who works at the hospital and who is a visitor when a fire alarm is going off as all the visitors stand dazed and look around anxiously, while everybody who works at the hospital just keeps on walking, talking, laughing and doing their jobs like they don't even notice it. :P The only annoying thing with a Code Red is that all the elevators get sent to the main floor and get locked down for the duration of the Code, and then you get this huge back log of patients, equipment and everything waiting to cram into the elevators on every floor immediately afterwards.

Anyways, one more day of training and then I'll be done with that. I don't have my work schedule yet though... But yeah, I really hope my scrubs come in (but there's a chance I won't get them for a couple more weeks)... but it really feels weird walking around in the scrubs that I currently have as the pants are too long and is really baggy and sometimes feel like they're going to fall off. Oh, and if you don't know, all scrubs are color coded... so burgandy colored scrubs are the scrubs I should be wearing as a porter... teal colored scrubs are the scrubs I should be wearing when I work on the lift-team... deep blue colored scrubs are for house-cleaning... and I'm currently wearing sky-blue colored scrubs, which are surgeon colors. :P So, I look like a surgeon when I'm going around. :) Clem, Kenric, Milty and Tony suggested that I pick up girls like that... by saying, "Hey, I'm Dr. Geoffrey Mah, do you mind if I give you a mole check?"

CODE BLUE!

So, who knows what Code Blue is in a hospital setting?? And out of curiosity... what is code blue at Wal-Mart, all you wal-martians?? Anyways, there was a code blue today and I was on the elevator that ended up being sent directly to the response team, so I had to rush off the elevator right away, luckily I was heading to the main floor anyways. So, the second day of training was much more interesting than the first, by far. The first day of training was walking around the entire foothills medical clinic to get a sense of where everything is located, and boy is there a lot of places to know. Today, we got sent on a scavenger hunt around the hospital to see if we could find all the places on our own, that was pretty cool... and we had to get signatures from unit clerks at all the locations we were sent to and I even got a chocolate egg from one unit. :P After that, we got paired up with experienced porters and got to observe them, though mine made me do all her work after I observed the first few calls. Haha, but it was all good, really good experience that way. Get to practice doing everything and yet having somebody experienced jumping in here and there to make sure things went smoother. :P Luckily, my first 5 jobs were all just moving folders and such to different units. Moving patients wasn't too bad... moving them on a stretcher was pretty easy to do... moving a patient on a wheelchair and having to bring along an IV pole was much harder as it requires a TON of wriststrength to move and turn a wheelchair with one hand. And no dead bodies yet, and luckily when I visited the morgue, they weren't doing any autopsies yet. :P I think the worst call ever will be to transport a dead baby... it's so sad... and you have to place them in a baby coffin for the transport too... anyways, 2 more days of training...

Kaput

So... I have now figured that nobody actually reads the 'inspirational' messages. So, Inspirational Tuesdays is now officially kaput.

And an update on my job opportunity. I received a phone call on Friday afternoon, but I missed the call because I was taking a shower, and they never called my cellphone, and I didn't realize that they had left a message on the answer machine. So, I thought nothing about it and left the house for the rest of the day, until my mom notified me of the message that asked me to give them a call back before 7pm that Friday... this was after 9pm on Friday. Sigh, so I gave them a quick call and left a message. I was informed during my interview that the first day of training was most likely going to be today, and I didn't receive a call back from them all weekend... which means that I didn't get the job, cause they didn't bother calling my cell phone, so it couldn't have been important enough as to locate me to notify me before traning, sigh... I'm presuming that I didn't get the job because I didn't put weekends down for availability (because my labs are on every other weekend)... but oh well... that meant that I ended up staying at Jacksons house longer than I would have if I were to have started training today, and I got to finish playing Gauntlet Legends. :P And I agree, that was a really short game, haha.

Oh, and I got a phone call today informing me that I actually did get the job, and that training will now start next tuesday after family day. :P So, all that worrying and checking my phone every half-hour over the weekend (especially while playing football, because I was afraid all the running would make me not notice the phone ringing) was pointless. :P

Inspirational Tuesdays Pt. 3

A little about my week again. I told some of you that I was not looking for another job (full-time or part-time) as I was content on just focusing on school for the moment. However, I received a call yesterday morning from the foothills hospital about a possible position and to come in for an interview today. While going in to the interview this morning I realized that I didn't even know for what position this was for, as I had sent in a couple resumes to different positions, haha. The closest possibility was from my latest resume sent in for a lift-team position which I had my old dad's new wife send in for me through internal sources. :P During my interview, I found out that it's a combination of lift-team and porter (a position I had applied for back in September), so that was awesome. There's apparently 4-5 people being interviewed and only 3 spots open, so hopefully I get one of them. If I do, I'll be working Casual-Relief, but I finally get my foot in the health-care door and it will be perfect training/practice for paramedics as well. Now to make sure I stay on top of my schooling while working as well, haha, oh boy, I sure hope I can handle the extra workload. I guess that's all for now.

Simple Difference

There once was a man who was deeply contemplating life. He Asked God to help him understand. God sent an Angel to take him on a little trip. The Angel brought him to an Elevator and down, down, down they went.

When the doors opened, the man saw a huge banquet table. Seated around the table were horribly miserable looking people. They were starving, not much more than skin and bone, and yet the table was full of every food imaginable. The man quickly turned to the Angel and said, "Why don't they eat?"

The Angel said, "Watch closely." The man watched and realized that the utensils the people were trying to eat with were six feet long. Try as they may, they couldn't get the food into their mouths. They would stab the food, try to flip the food into their mouths, but the food fell to the floor, the wall ..... seemingly everywhere but into their mouths. When someone tried to reach out with their hands to get the food, it instantly turned to stone.

A table flush with food and everyone was starving. Soon the man couldn't take any more of this misery and said, "I've seen enough." So they got in the elevator and shot up, up and up.

When the door opened, the man was astonished. Before them was an almost identical scene. Another table full of every imaginable food. Hugh six foot utensils, and people seated all around poking at the food. The shocking difference here was that everyone was laughing, happy, joyous and well fed. He then saw a woman seated at the table try and use her hand to catch a carrot that was rolling off the table. As she caught it, it turned to stone. She tossed it into a pile and they all laughed.

The man frustrated said, "I don't get it, everything is the same but these people are so happy. Why?"

"Watch and see," the Angel said with a gentle smile. Then at once it hit him. There was ONE SIMPLE DIFFERENCE. THE HAPPIER PEOPLE were using THE UTENSILS TO FEED ONE ANOTHER, while THE OTHERS were using THE UNTENSILS TO FEED THEMSELVES.

Inspirational Tuesdays Pt. 2

Well... a little about my week first. I'm done my job at Samaritans Purse now, as I didn't take up the contract extension. This way, I have no excuse NOT to study and to do well. My first lab day was on Saturday as well... it went relatively well, now to make sure I remember everything I was taught and to keep practicing it and hammering it into my head and make it second nature. DCAP-BLS and TIC!! Look for Deformities, Contusions, Abrasions, Penetrations, Burns, Lacerations and Swelling. Feel for Tenderness, Instability and Crepitation! Ha, we even got to poke each other to check for each other's blood-gluclose levels... it's nice to see that there are other aspiring-paramedics that get qweezy around blood (good thing we'll all be trained to get over it). The person that got to poke me though, was really freaked out about poking other people, and ended up poking me 3 times just to get a puncture on the side of my index finger to get a blood sample. That wasn't fun, haha, but it sure shows me how important it is to do it right for your patients. :P Also, I think next lab day we get to practice taking vitals in the back of a moving ambulance. :P

GOD EXISTS

A man went to a barber shop to have his hair and his beard cut as always. He started to have a good conversation with the barber who attended him. They talked about so many things and various subjects. Suddenly, they touched the subject of God. The barber said :

"Look man, I don't believe that God exists as you say so."

"Why do you say that?" Asked the client.

"Well, it's so easy, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God does not exist. Oh, tell me, if God existed, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be no suffering nor pain. I can't think of a God who permits all of these things."

The client stopped for a moment thinking but he didn't want to respond so as to prevent an argument.

The barber finished his job and the client went out of the shop. Just after he left the barber shop he saw a man in the street with a long hair and beard (it seems that it had been a long time since he had his cut and he looked so untidy). Then the client again entered the barber shop and he said to the barber:

"Know what? Barbers do not exist."

"How come they don't exist?" asked the barber. "Well I am here and I am a barber."

"Noo!" the client exclaimed. "They don't exist because if they did there would be no people with long hair and beard like that man who walks in the street."

"Ah, barbers do exist, what happens is that people do not come to me."

"Exactly!" affirmed the client. "That's the point. God does exist, what happens is people don't go to Him and do not look for Him that's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

Inspirational Tuesdays Pt. 1

Warning: LONG BLOG.

Okay, so, from last week's post, I figured I'd start posting some of these inspirational stories that made me cry so much. :P Mondays would have been a nice start to the week, but I forgot. Wednesdays would help boost your week in the middle. But Toonie Tuesdays... Cheap Movie Tuesdays... Inspirational Tuesdays... what the heck, haha. And spending that one hour at the 24/7 Prayer room really set the mood for this as well. It was a nice and peaceful time alone with God and it just shows how much I've fallen back and how much growth I still need to achieve. If you have free time, I encourage you to head over there and just pray, read (your bibles, devotionals, writings/prayers on the walls), draw/paint, whatever. It will definately be an uplifting time.

A Doll and A White Rose

I hurried into the local department store to grab some last minute Christmas gifts. I looked at all the people and grumbled to myself. I would be in here forever and I just had so much to do. Christmas was beginning to become such a drag. I kinda wished that I could just sleep through Christmas. But I hurried the best I could through all the people to the toy department. Once again I kind of mumbled to myself at the prices of all these toys. And wondered if the grandkids would even play with them.

I found myself in the doll aisle. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a little boy about 5 holding a lovely doll. He kept touching her hair and he held her so gently. I could not seem to help myself. I just kept looking over at the little boy and wondered who the doll was for. I watched him turn to a woman and he called his aunt by name and said, "Are you sure I don't have enough money" She replied a bit impatiently, "You know that you don't have enough money for it." The aunt told the little boy not to go anywhere that she had to go get some other things and would be back in a few minutes. And then she left the aisle. The boy continued to hold the doll. After a bit I asked the boy who the doll was for. He said, "It is the doll my sister wanted so badly for Christmas. She just knew that Santa would bring it." I told him that maybe Santa was going to bring it. He said "No, Santa can't go where my sister is...I have to give the doll to my Mamma to take to her". I asked him where his sister was. He looked at me with the saddest eyes and said "She has gone to be with Jesus." "My Daddy says that Mama is going to have to go be with her."

My heart nearly stopped beating. Then the boy looked at me again and said, "I told my Daddy to tell Mama not to go yet. I told him to tell her to wait till I got back from the store."

Then he asked me if I wanted to see his picture. I told him I would love to. He pulled out some pictures he'd had taken at the front of the store. He said "I want my Mamma to take this with her so she don't ever forget me." "I love my Mama so very much and I wish she did not have to leave me." "But Daddy says she will need to be with my sister." I saw that the little boy had lowered his head and had grown so very quiet.

While he was not looking I reached into my purse and pulled out a handful of bills. I asked the little boy, "Shall we count that money one more time?" He grew excited and said "Yes, I just know it has to be enough". So I slipped my money in with his and we began to count it. Of course it was plenty for the doll. He softly said, "Thank you Jesus for giving me enough money." Then the boy said "I just asked Jesus to give me enough money to buy this doll so Mama can take it with her to give to my sister." "And he heard my prayer. I wanted to ask him for enough to buy my Mama a white rose, but I didn't ask him, but he gave me enough to buy the doll and a rose for my Mama." "She loves white roses so very, very much".

In a few minutes the aunt came back and I wheeled my cart away. I could not keep from thinking about the little boy as I finished my shopping in a totally different spirit than when I had started. And I kept remembering a story I had seen in the newspaper several days earlier about a drunk driver hitting a car and killing a little girl and the Mother was in serious condition. The family was deciding on whether to remove the life support. Now surely this little boy did not belong with that story.

Two days later I read in the paper where the family had disconnected the life support and the young woman had died. I could not forget the little boy and just kept wondering if the two were somehow connected.

Later that day, I could not help myself and I went out and bought some white roses and took them to the funeral home where the young woman was. And there she was holding a lovely white rose, the beautiful doll, and the picture of the little boy in the store. I left there in tears, my life changed forever.

The love that little boy had for his little sister and his mother was overwhelming. And in a split second a drunk driver had ripped the life of that little boy to pieces.

Suffice to say, I havn't been driving as recklessly as before. But, this also shows how much Faith little children have. Something I've lost over the years, and it's something I need to work on growing again. This story also proves that God DOES answer prayers (even those you never put to words) and that God is STILL by our side even through the most difficult of times. And sometimes, you wonder why you go through what you do and nothing positive ever seems to come out of it. Well, sometimes, your difficulties are meant to strengthen those around you. So, be a blessing to everyone, no matter what circumstances you find yourselves to be in.

What happened to him? Where did he go?

Last week, me and Jenny had went out shopping and ended up having a very interesting conversation about everything (mostly about the past) over dinner that lasted over an hour. It was great talking about the past and looking back at our lives and the things we've done, and how we've changed... but one of the things that Jenny stated was that it was great how I don't cry as much as I once did. Which was a lot... I was extremely emotional and broke down into tears every week at the very least... and I agreed with her that it was a good thing. To be emotionally stable is a GOOD thing, to not let minor things bring you down is a GOOD thing, to understand that you can't possibly fix everything or that you arn't always the reason things go sour is a GOOD thing. I honestly can't remember when the last time I broke down into tears over something... possibly first year uni.

Today, I decided to go through all my saved emails in my YAHOO account, so as to send them over to my gmail account. That way I could search for them faster and be able to use them, as most, if not all, were of the inspirational sort. And honestly, I broke into tears, again and again and again. I spent roughly 3 hours reading through them, fixing them up and sending them to my gmail account and the tears just kept coming. And the one thing I realized was this:
In the past few years since I went to Edmonton for schooling and since I've come back home; I have lost something. I thought I had learned so much and gained so much knowledge by living on my own, that I didn't realize what I had lost till tonight. I thought the experience at UofA had made me stronger emotionally, spiritually, physically and mentally. I was more social, better equiped for life and was more of individualistic. I wasn't as much of a push-over, I wasn't as scared of people and I wasn't breaking down into tears over every little thing that happens between me and my friends.
But what I've lost were the importance of Love, Faith and Hope. I didn't break down into tears or even showed that I cared over the little things (a friend was hurt by what somebody else said), or even the major things (my parents were in the hospital for medical reasons) anymore because I simply didn't care. If something happened to someone, I'd simply say it was their own fault, they brought it upon themselves or that whatever happens, happens. I no longer sympathized with them or even cared if they got through it. If it happens, it happens, nothing more, nothing less. I looked over some of the emails that I sent out when I was younger and I noticed that some of them had me connecting such emails with bible verses and words of encouragement for people that I cared about. I no longer do that, I no longer even bother trying or caring.

Another thing that I told Jenny was that in this New Year, I want to improve my spiritual walk, because it has slipped over the last few months due to work and a lack of time. Now I realize that I've slipped much further than I would ever have imagined. I no longer serve with a passion, I do what I do because I can, or because I think I can do it better than someone else. I go to fellowship and church because I should, not becuase I long to. I sleep in for work more and more becuase I don't want to be at devotions. My prayers are rigid and done out of habit. And I no longer have that sense of Love for others. I will always look out for and be happy when I'm around my friends, but how many of them do I go out of my way to ensure that their lives are well and to be there for them to lean upon and to stand by them in their most difficult times? How many of them would want me to be there in their most difficult times? How many of them do I allow past my defences, to see who I am inside, to see what troubles me, to allow them to even try to aid in them. I mentioned to Jenny that I have no close friends in my life anymore, but that I was content at having a group of good friends. But where then is my accountability? or my comforting shoulder?

It is a time for change. It is a time to find myself once more. It is a time to find who God wants me to be and to become that person fully. It is a time to step out of the comfort zone and to step away from the excuses. It is a time to become fully in LOVE with God once again and not care about making people happy or finishing those sentences just for a quick laugh. It is a time to find a balance of being the quiet/shy kid and the obnoxious/proud adolescence.

I asked God to take away my habit.
God said, No.
It is not for me to take away, but for you to give it up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole.
God said, No.
His spirit is whole, his body is only temporary

I asked God to grant me patience.
God said, No.
Patience is a by product of tribulations; it isn't granted, it is learned.

I asked God to give me happiness.
God said, No.
I give you blessings; Happiness is up to you.

I asked God to spare me pain.
God said, No.
Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me.

I asked God to make my spirit grow.
God said, No.
You must grow on your own! but I will prune you to make you fruitful.

I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life.
God said, No.
I will give you life, so that you may enjoy all things.

I ask God to help me LOVE others, as much as He loves me.
God said...Ahhhh, finally you have the idea.

THIS DAY IS YOURS DON'T THROW IT AWAY
May God Bless You,
"To the world you might be one person, but to one person you just might be
the world"

Back To School

Well... after a semester away from school, I'm finally back. This time round, I'll be taking my EMR at SAIT. Today was the first day. It was just orientation, so it wasn't anything much, but it's good to hear that I got into the program at a good time. Apparently, there is a high demand for paramedics right now and should be at its peak when I graduate in a couple years. Excellent.
Bad news is that one of my instructors dropped out due to personal reasons and my lab schedule has been changed to fit with the new instructor that came in. Which means that I can no longer attend Breakforth. Which SUCKS, cause I was really looking forward to going, and I really wanted to see Kutless in concert as well. But I guess that isn't going to happen anymore. It sucks even more that I can't get a refund on my registration cause it's past the deadline. SO... if somebody wants to go, they can take my registration. Currently, Jenny is priority, since I ended up talking to her first after I found out I couldn't go. :P But she is still checking her schedule, so yeah. Let me know if you're interested. It is $127.33. But honestly, I'll give discounts where needed. :P
Otherwise, I'm going to be studying a ton now... and hopefully I understand everything and do well. I want to graduate near the top of the class so I can jump right into city instead of having to move out to some rural area for a number of years before coming back. Also, I want to do really well so I can get into tactical EMT - get to train alongside SWAT and be the team that goes in to such situations. Apparently, I won't get a gun, haha, but oh well... it should still make things more interesting.

The Dreaded Interview - Geo's Remix

THE RULES:
1. Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I will respond with five questions for you.
3. You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers. (Or if you have no journal, just post your responses as a reply here)
4. You'll include this explanation.
5. You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

THE QUESTIONS: (Courtesy of Kingston)
1. If you were stranded on a desserted island, and you could only pick one food source to be provided as your sustanance at an unlimited amount, what would that food be and why?
I was going to say meat (steak/ribs/etc)... but I'm thinking that it wouldn't be sufficient for survival. So assuming that there will be some natural fruits on this island to provide me with my vitamin input, and assuming that there will most likely be fish around the island to provide me with protein. I would have to say RICE in order to provide me with my carbs, and rice goes with anything and is so much more flexible in cooking than pasta or bread. :P

2. What is--in your opinion--your greatest achievement?
Tough question... I always seem to have doubts and reservations about any of my achievements. There will always be something that I could have done better or should have done in order for it to have been better... but I guess if I were to choose something, it would have to be any of the VBS's. Being able to watch these kids grow up and being able to be there to help them and hopefully influencing them positively would be it I guess. I don't even know if that counts as an achievement... but yeah, otherwise, I havn't really established myself in my own life to consider anything achieived. Graduating high school would be an achievement, but I never put any effort into it to have it be considered great.

3. What is your favorite love song of all time?
"When God Made You" - Newsong w/ Natalie Grant

4. Let's say you were the last man on Earth and the entire human race depended on you finding a mate. The only mates left on Earth under this circumstance for you to choose from for some reason are the female teachers you've had in your life through elementary-high school. Which teacher would you choose? Describe her and tell us why you'd pick her.
First off... how do you even come up with a question like this??
I guess, technically, if I were the last surviving male on Earth and was depended upon to replenish the race of homosapians, it really wouldn't matter whom I chose. Or actually, I should choose them all and speed up the process. :P
But I don't know... I guess if I HAD to choose one... Mrs. Uitenbosch (grade 9 homeroom teacher and grade 7 and 9 math teacher). She was the nicest, most understanding, easiest to get along with, most respected, etc...

5. What would you rather do: become a YAC Leader or a Worship Leader?
Easy question. YAC Leader. Worship leading would be terrible... I'd have to sing and that alone should be reason enough for why I wouldn't ever be or SHOULDN'T ever be a worship leader. :P And I'm more of a back-ground type person, I realize you need to get out of your comfort zone, but my skills are better suited for background stuff, none of this center-stage business. So, YAC Leader... as long as I don't need to be the chair. :P

MY PHOTOS UPDATED: YAC Sleepover

Working Through The Holidays...

really, really sucks. 2 weeks holiday has now become a 2 day holiday and it bites. It's just not the same... sigh... oh well... might as well get used to it now. We can't all become teachers and get to enjoy the holidays. :P

Went skiing yesterday and it was pretty good. It was kinda cold, especially riding up the Angel ski-lift, but it was fun. I'm really sore now, but not as sore as I would have been if I had went snowboarding. :P

Played some Dutch Blitz today, haha, and that was fun as well. Philip is now called Mr. Cheat. :P

Time for bed, but I'll leave you guys all with this joke I just found:

A pregnant woman is in a car accident and falls into a deep coma. Asleep for nearly six months, she wakes up and sees that she is no longer pregnant.

Frantically, she asks the doctor about her baby. The doctor replies, "Ma'am, you had twins! A boy and a girl. The babies are fine. Your brother came in and named them."

The woman thinks to herself, Oh no, not my brother, he's an idiot! Expecting the worst, she asks the doctor, "Well, what's the girl's name?" "Denise," says the doctor.

The new mother thinks, Wow, that's not a bad name! I guess I was wrong about my brother. I like Denise! Then she asks the doctor, "What's the boy's name?"

The doctor replies, "Denephew."

Christmas Is Finally Upon Us...

and HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS, and Merry Christmas to the rest of ya. :P But wow, not what you would expect for a Christmas day in Calgary... +10 degrees... no snow... tons of sunshine, it's awesome, haha.

Anyways, I thought Christmas was really good this year. Even though I got my first taste of working through the holiday season, all things still worked out. Thank You God. I didn't get much sleep with all my after-work shopping, but at least I finished shopping on-time, haha. And it wasn't really "rushed" shopping either. I got a lot of thought into most of my gifts, and I'm quite happy about what I gave people this year. So far... only a few bad choices... 1) got the wrong hat for Crys, whoops, but I tried... and that was honestly the only one there at the time, haha, as King and Karen can attest to. 2) The book I got King was a bad gamble, cause he already had it. Otherwise, everything else, I havn't heard anything bad from, hehe. Tony was really happy with his gift, so that's great. Nathan was really happy with his gift as well. So, I've broken even at least, haha.

Candle-light service was really good last night. Short, simple, to the point. Very refreshing. It was disappointing that there was no pot-luck though, but oh well... maybe next year. Carolling was... to me... quite stressful, haha. I'm never going to agree to take charge of anything that has anything to do with chinese people, food and traveling time, ever again. BUT, it was good to see that the MAJORITY of everyone showed up on-time (mostly) for church this morning. That was my biggest fear with organizing carolling this year... that it would end up going late as usual and everybody would be too tired to go to church.

Anyways, spent time at home after church today just cause it felt like a home-day. An R&R day. And it was good. I got to play with all 3 of my new Game Cube games, haha. James Bond is going to take some time getting used to with all these different axis and such... but it seems pretty good. Thanks Leo. Played some soccer with Janet afterwards, and it was pretty stressful trying to beat the computer together on professional, haha... but pretty easy to do individually... hmmmm... :P Thanks Jon Mah for that one. After that, I decided to give Mario Sunshine a go and it was good. Confusing right now cause I don't play much RPGs, but I'll figure it out sooner or later, haha. But I really need to find some time to learn how to play my bass guitar though, ack... so many things to do, so little time to do them in. :P

Wow, I wrote a bunch today... and didn't even realize it. That means it's bed time, night all. Merry Christmas again, and have fun for all of you who are braving the Boxing Day Madness tomorrow. :P

Edit: I just noticed now... but Andrew and Christine Lee gave identical christmas cards this year... haha, okay, that's all.

Edit Again: Found yet another centipede in my washroom, ACK! This time, I was taking a dump, and when I stood back up, I saw the centipede right between my feet, and I was like, WHOA!! but now it has gone down the toilet.

Edit Yet Again: Holy Camoly, I just realized that I spent roughly $530 on gifts this year... that's roughly $200-250 more than I usually spend. Wow... good thing I have this extra temporary job this year. Wow... well... better to spend on other than on yourself. :P Again, hope you all liked your gifts this year, but wow... 530... wow... it sure didn't seem like I spent that much, but wow...

My Workplace

So, this is what my workspace normally looks like. Well.. the decorations have only been up since this week, but that's basically my open cube. And this is what happens.

Christmas Is Almost Upon Us...

and it has been a hectic schedule heading towards that day. Last week, I went shopping after work every night except for Monday night. :P I hit Market, Sunridge, Northlands, Crowfoot, Chinook and Westbrook. And I hit Christian Pub before the Church Banquet, which was last night, to finish off all my "Teir 1" gifts and was also able to finish my "Teir 2" gifts. The great thing was that I was able to give all my gifts out during the banquet so I don't have to worry about it anymore, and I even won a prize as well. It was 2 red crock pots. They look pretty nice, but I really don't know what I'm going to do with them. Maybe, like Jacksons frying pan he won a few years back, they will come in handy in the future. OR, they will become perfect gifts this year, haha. It's great that they're "prizes" and not "gifts' haha, cause then I can re-package them without re-gifting them. :P

Anywho, I was able to finish my "Teir 3" gifts today... some before and some after B-Jo's birthday dinner. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BJ!! I hope you enjoyed your dinner... as with all the other 35 of us who showed up. HOLY CAMOLY, 35 people showed up for dinner tonight!! But it was good, Chianti's during Cheap Pasta night is always great, haha.

What else is on tap before Christmas finally arrives?

Tomorrow, I must finally finish organizing the Christmas Eve Carolling, haha. BTW, I have informed my parents that they are not allowed to let ANYBODY in if they come early. If you come to my house early, you will be told to wait in your car till we all arrive. So, you might as well come out and enjoy the Fellowship we will all be having as we go carolling together.

Thursday, I will be going to Long and McQuade with Jenny and possibly Philip to guitar shop, or violin shop for Jenny. I'm planning on buying a bass guitar becuase we are desperate for one at church and I might as well pick something up. Give me a new hobby to keep me away from playing computer games all the time.

Friday, extended family dinner and family secret santa, excluding our long-lost cousin who apparently will not be showing up again. Possibly play hockey, but I doubt it.

Saturday, finish preperations for carolling and then it will be Candlelight Service and carolling, followed by church secret santa.

And then the big day comes Sunday!!

Oh, and just as a side note to all of this. TSN has Calgary ranked 3rd in the league, whereas the Deadmonton Spoils are ranked 15th. :P

The Mah Whisperer

So, my first horse was named Little Hooligan and I played it probably twenty times and it won about... 20 times. Hehe, it actually did have a perfect record. It wasn't a very cool horse though, it was normal looking... black with white stockings, nothing as cool looking as Sam's horse was. BUT it did win a lot, so that is what matters.

Actually, I lied. I didn't have a horse. I was unfortunately attending UofA at the time that this Sega Horse Racing fad came along, so I never did get into it with everyone else. I remember coming back every long weekend, and every Sunday, I'd have to come with you guys to Eau Claire just to watch you guys race your stoopid horsies, haha... and I actually thought of purchasing one, but figured I'd only play it once a month and it wouldn't be worth it. Now, if only I knew that purchasing a horse would give me blog points later on in life, THEN, I might have actually purchased one. But I am unfortunately not very strong in the force and can not forsee the future as well as Master Yoda, so therefore, I must give up sole possesion of first place and fall back into a tie with Leo... once again. We've only been tied for about 90% of the time since this blog points thing started. :P

Anyways... been shopping every day after work this week and I'm still not even close to being finished, sigh... and I havn't started wrapping gifts yet... or even writing Christmas cards yet, ACK. Back out shopping tomorrow... this time, not as a loner, as Jenny will accompany me and hopefully give me tips. :P

And work... has been tiring, but okay. I got bumped over from SP (Samaritans Purse) to BG (Billy Graham Evangelistical Association) for this week. Apparently, BG is extremely far behind on their own data processing, so I got sent over to help out with their load. So, now instead of entering donation ammounts for OCC (operation christmas child)... I get to enter book/calender requests so that they get sent out. More boring stuff... but oh well, you got to do what you got to do. And I got chocolate from the BG staff for helping them out (even though I'm really just told to do it by my supervisor, haha). Okay, that's all.

Christmas Eve Caroling

Here is the list of songs so far... if you think one (or more) of them should not be on the list, let me know. If you think one (or more) other Christmas carol has been missed, let me know as well and I'll put them in.

1: Angels We Have Heard On High
2: Away In The Manger
3: Deck The Halls
4: Do You Hear What I Hear?
5: Frosty The Snowman
6: God Bless Ye Merry Gentleman
7: Hark! The Herald Angel Sings
8: It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
9: Jingle Bells
10: Joy To The World
11: Let It Snow
12: The Little Drummer Boy
13: O Christmas Tree
14: O Holy Night
15: Silent Night
16: Silver Bells
17: 12 Days of Christmas
18: We Wish You A Merry Christmas

And currently, we have 3 houses.

Your Prize

I thought this was pretty funny. Maybe it's because I'm a Star Wars geek... but maybe it's funny in it's own right and you found it funny as well.

Also: I appear to have misplaced my Smallville Season 1 DVD's... Did someone borrow them? This is why we have you sign DVD's out... cause I have a horrible memory. Anyways, no rush on returning it... just let me know who has it please, pretty please. Your prize may very well be a toyyoda. :P

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.