January 29, 2006
Happy Chinese new year, everyone. :o)

So the freak out that my parents had over my missing sister can be explained by a phone that died. Shoulda figured as much. All's well with the world again.

Back to reading Supernatural fics.

January 28, 2006
Good movies of late: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Tristan and Isolde. I watched Charlie at the fun-filled JOY fellowship dinner at Alice's. It was good to eat with each other again, then enjoy the movie together. That Freddie Highmore just exudes goodness! I'd put him on par with Haley Joel Osment. Hopefully he will make a few more movies before he hits puberty, then good luck after that! :oP The best part of the evening was most definitely the Oompa-Loompa dance sessions. Joeie, Celine, Jon and Jeff were the BEST! Haha... what awesome dancing, and what an awesome way to end the night.

I went earring shopping with my mom this afternoon (I really like the "vintage" 1928 stuff at the Bay... I guess I secretly want to be a flapper... without the smoking and craziness), then went to watch Tristan and Isolde with Samia. I was pleasantly surprised that the movie was pretty well done. There were some cheesy lines here and there (love will do that to ya), but the story was actually quite enjoyable, since it ended on a realistic (i.e. not fairytale) note and it wasn't too much like Romeo and Juliet as I thought. Also, James Franco does an excellent job brooding and smoldering on screen. And finally, Rufus Sewell picks a good guy role! This adds another enjoyable evening to the term list. :o)

January 26, 2006
Work has been slooooooow. Even Hazel said so. I could leave early, but I'd need to make up hours, so never mind about that. :oP But cool thing is that I found out Samia is a huge TV freak, and movie watcher too. It's nice to be able to freak out over shows with someone at work. Kinda like when Crystal and I found out we both were X-Files fans, and thus we brought in all our X-Files merchandise. :o) Yes, I am a geek.

JOY Winter Retreat was, as expected, quite awesome. There were only 9 people, and it was just awesome living and chatting and cooking and sharing with everyone over those few days. There are a series of videos to prove my point. :o) I promise to bring them to Alice's house tomorrow when we once again cook for fellowship. I think the lessons on meditation and service were quite good (thanks, Joeie!), and I hope to exercise more of these spiritual disciplines in the coming days. Gotta get beyond good intentions.

Small group has been a blessing. It's good to dig into the Word with some good friends. It's funny how we randomly came up with our book of study (Daniel), and are actually discovering new things in it. God is showing us connections between the different books of the Bible, and I've enjoyed seeing that. I mean, the Bible is meant to be a cohesive whole, so it's a delight to see that for myself.

I'm off to Waterloo tonight to see my sister and have our early Chinese new year dinner with her. Pray for her. She's having quite the time living on her own. Hopefully, the summer will be a little better for her.

January 19, 2006
Got my Falling Up CD. Sweet. The lyrics have such bad grammar, though, for an album from a respected label. They definitely need an editor to go over things! The instrumentation is not bad though. It's somewhat clich�, but whatever. At least they have some sweet piano licks. Mmm...

JOY Retreat tomorrow! Just bought the rest of the food tonight. We are underbudget, which is great. :o) Can't wait for the retreat!!! The yumminess that it will be! Yay!

January 14, 2006
The week was not bad. Things are starting to get started. :oP At work, Ava (the placement student I'll be working with) and I got the new project to do, so it'll keep us busy, I imagine, as our centre is the lead agency of the city. Heck, we're the only ones providing the service in the whole city. So that should be interesting.

Small group with Ceci and Mel also started. We made loot bags for Open Door ("search, and it will find you" - haha!), and *finally* came to a decision of what to study for the term. It shall be the chapter of Daniel, and I shall go and print out some stuff from the chapter so we know what is going on in that chapter from some experts.

I think the highlight of the week would be going to the Thursday night dinner at Open Door. I just love that ministry. You can really just see God's blessings everywhere. I think it's absolutely awesome that they rely solely on donations from various churches and individuals to run their centre so that they can really minister to the people who come in about God, instead of getting hampered down by legalities if they had applied for government funding. Even while we were there, cool things were happening. There is one where Alice brought in these guys shoes, some Scholls at size 12. Lynne (the executive director) forgot to ask the guests about the shoes until late in the day, but finally remembered. One person put up his hand and said he needed some size 12 shoes, and his girlfriend commented that the shoes were perfect, because he needed Scholls on account of his flat feet. How amazing is that? I just hope God continues to work in that couple.

You know, I think that the Open Door is the place that got me more passionate about working with low income people. In fact, getting to work with this population at work this term is making me think that maybe I shouldn't have my focus on working with immigrants, and instead work with low income and homeless people in the future. When I first realized God's plan for me, it was with the homeless population, more than the immigrant population (although the two are quite intertwined in some ways). I guess with two groups I'm passionate about, God might have some interesting things planned for me in the future. We'll see how it all unfolds.

Last night, I had a good time hanging out with Ceci, Jen, Joeie, and Jon. Despite technical difficulties, I think we had some interesting discussion about a variety of topics. Sharing about dream jobs is just so neat. I love getting to know people more in that way. And of course, I shared my one-time childhood dream of becoming a butcher (no kidding). Good times. :o)

January 7, 2006
Ahh... the weekend. I overslept again. Eleven hours of sleep. I should really stop doing that, to get a more productive day out of days off. Oh well. Next weekend.

Nonetheless, I've been semi-productive. I'm clearing/replying my e-mails backed up to July. I'm down to 16 e-mails in the inbox, and I'm backed up to the beginning of December! It hasn't been down that low since like a year or two ago. Sweet! As well, I'm snooping around online looking for cross stitch patterns. I wish cross stitching would make it big, so to speak, so that the patterns aren't so homey. :oP But my mom said it is a rather old fashioned art form. Oh well. I'll make do with what I have.

Also, I'm currently in love with Theory of a Deadman's "Santa Monica." I just love the mellow songs from hard bands. A strange attraction it is. So I went on Bonfire and bought it, along with 2 Jet songs and David Usher's song (see below). Yeehoo! I should stop buying stuff with my non-existent money. Hmm...

I'm going to Rebecca and Praise's benefit concert for cancer tonight. Thank you Gerald for the ride tonight!

SONG OF THE MOMENT

She fills my bed with gasoline
You think I wouldn't notice
Her mind's made up
Her love is gone
I think someone's trying to show us a sign
That even if we thought it would last
The moment would pass
My bones will break and my heart would give
Oh it hurts to live

And I remember the day when you left for Santa Monica
You left me to remain with all your excuses for everything
And I remember the time when you left for Santa Monica
And I remember the day you told me it's over

It hurts to breathe
Well every time that you're not next to me
Her mind's made up
The girl is gone
And now I'm forced to see
I think I'm on my way
Oh, it hurts to live today
Oh and she says "Don't you wish you were dead like me?"

I wanted more than this
I needed more than this
I could use of more than this
But it just won't stop
It just won't go away

I needed more than this
I wanted more than this
I asked for more than this
But it just won't stop
It just won't go away

And I remember the day when you left for Santa Monica
You left me to remain with all your excuses for everything
And I remember the time when you left it all behind
And I remember the day you told me it's over

"Santa Monica," Theory of a Deadman (from Gasoline)
Go songs about love, lost or found, from hard rock bands! :oP

January 5, 2006
I'd love to stay and chat, but I have work tomorrow. It's going well. I can't believe I have *clients* to see already, since my second day of work. I guess it's good to be thrown into the work anyway. Helps me pick it up quicker, and make my mistakes now. I can bug the heck out of Samia now, since I have newbie status and can do such annoying pesky things! Not that she minds. I think!

Anyway, so the VJ was gushing about it during some music video countdown show from Alberta that my satellite TV streams in. Some David Usher song. Okay. Short story even shorter, I liked the song. It came on Mix when I was driving to Niette's to drop off her b-day present, and I enjoyed it even more. The lyrics are interesting. Have a read while I go print overheads for tomorrow's JOY meeting.

SONG OF THE MOMENT

The pornography made me do it
So those drugs that got us high
Was the thoughts of revolution
They�ve been poisoning my mind
So I�m walking down to the water
You keep coming up for air
All those people, they don't give a damn
They just stood around and stare
And I say

Love will save the day

Come on sell me more of your religion
'Cause it's sure to make a change
Last night god was on the TV screen
Taking dollars for their pain
Come on talk about that evolution
It�s been poisoning my mind
I�ve been looking for a saviour
I�ve been waiting for a sign
And I said

Love will save the day

I am walking
I am breathing
I can feel you
I can set you free

Love will save the day
If love will save the day
If love will save today

Maybe tomorrow

"Love Will Save The Day," David Usher (from If God Had Curves)
If you've heard the song, then you'd know that there's like a preachy person who talks about humanism. As much as I think this song has some interesting points to make, I think it's still rather sad that humans believe they can rely on themselves for some sort of salvation. Flawed people can't bring salvation. That salvation will be flawed too. Thank goodness for Jesus. I just hope that collectively, Christians will get the Good News right one day.

January 3, 2006
First day of work at DBNC. It's always a mental workout when you need to adjust to new sights and sounds each work term. The official tour of the grounds reminded me of Ottawa, but to a much smaller scale. I think it might be possible to actually remember the names of everyone this time! They'll also be putting me to good use this term. I'll be involved with the Share The Warmth, Winter Warmth, and an upcoming gas funding program. I'll be working with more disadvantaged people rather than immigrants only, I think, but it'll be a good experience anyway.

Doing an unpaid work term is a little unsettling to think about at times, especially since I've been able to support my own tuition throughout two of my three years. But as my mom reminded me, I chose it myself. I suppose it's a bit like back in grade 12 when I worked in the hospital. But of course, that was pre-Waterloo co-op. Well, paid or unpaid, I'll still get the type of experience I need. And a mom who will nag me to do my MSW, rather than seminary. Oh well.

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January 2, 2006
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!! Two thousand and six is upon us... I wonder what it'll bring?

Okay, for the month of January, I will try to wean off my xanga and use this as the predominant blogging area. Just trying different configurations so I can streamline things a little better. But I will leave up a comments link on my xanga so you can comment on stuff if ya want (and have xanga). We'll see if this works.

Man, this has been one lazy holiday. I watched so much Iron Chef, and random schtoof like World's Greatest Bartender (?), Vertical Limit (too abrupt of an ending), A Knight's Tale, CSI, House, Crossing Jordan... the list goes on. Oh, and I slept in every day, nearly. Terrible. I need to discipline myself to live again. Or something.

So I should set some goals. We'll see if I can accomplish these things in 2006:

• Write a short story for the Toronto Star short story writing contest
• Knit a scarf
• Read all those books I've wanted to read: Persepolis 2, The Confessions of St. Augustine, The Imitation of Christ and others

Let's not overshoot. :oP I'll think of more when I brain actually starts march�-ing again.

SONG OF THE MOMENT

Is this the new year or just another night?
Is this the new fear or just another fright?
Is this the new tear or just another desperation?

Is this the finger or just another fist?
Is this the kingdom or just a hit and miss?
I miss direction most in all this desperation

Is this what they call freedom?
Is this what you call pain?
Is this what they call discontented fame?
It'll be a day like this one when the world caves in

I'm singing this one like a broken piece of glass
For broken hearts and broken noses in the back
Is this the new year or just another desperation?

You push until you're shoving
You bend until you break
Do you stand on the broken fields where your fathers lay
It'll be a day like this one when the world caves in

Is there nothing here worth saving?
Is there no one here at all?
Is there any net left that could break our fall?

It'll be a day like this one when the sky falls down
And the hungry and poor and deserted are found
Are you discontented?
Have you been pushing hard?
Have you been throwing down this broken house of cards?
It'll be a day like this one when the world caves in

Is there nothing left now, nothing left to sing?
Are there any left to haven't kiss the enemy?
Is this the new year or just another desperation?

Does justice never find you?
Do the wicked never lose?
Is there any honest song to sing besides these blues?

And nothing is okay until the world caves in
Until the world caves in

"The Blues," Switchfoot (from Nothing Is Sound)

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