Famous Last Words

Jumped

2007-05-04T17:17:00.000-04:00

So I got jumped last night. I was at Trevor's house and I took the bus home (like I always do) and I was walking home from the bus stop and I was walking down Gainsborough and I saw two people up ahead and I immediately knew what was coming. It's funny how God kind of prepares you for these things. I finally figured out it was a guy and a girl and they were arguing about who knows what and I didn't look at them or anything when I walked by. The girl was standing in my way on the sidewalk so I went to walk around on the grass when her boyfriend, or whoever he was, pulled her out of my way. As I was walking by them, the girl punched me in the side of the face, about where my left jaw is. She started calling me names and I kept walking and I was like "what was that for?!" And she continued to call me unmentionable names and I kept walking. I started pulling out my cell phone to call my boyfriend when I heard her start running after me so I turned around and as soon as I turned around she punched me in the side of the head again. Then she grabbed the half ponytail I had in my hair and she had my head down so I was staring at the ground and she kept pulling my hair and punching my in the head. I had my cell phone in my hand and I didn't want to drop it and have her steal it so I was trying to get it in my pocket. I finally got it in my pocket, but she threw me into a fence and I somehow ended up being dragged on the ground. I got a couple punches in her side 'cause I was trying to get her off me, but she was bigger then me, and fatter to say the least so she had total advantage, especially since I've never fought anyone before! After I was on the ground I got up and she and the guy started walking away and I just stood there for a minute and waited for them to get farther ahead of me before I continued home. There's a break in the fence where I go through to get home and when I walked through it they were standing there and it made me jump a little to see them. She didn't touch me after that, she just continued to call me names and I got on the phone and called my boyfriend.

Once I got home I was crying hysterically when I was on the phone with Trevor and Nathan heard me so he came downstairs to see if I was alright. I woke up my parents and told them what happened and my mom made me call the cops. It's funny cause my dad and brother got dressed and went outside to look for them. I'm not sure what they would have done 'cause they can't exactly start beating up a girl, but they never found them. The cops came and just took down where I was hurt and my description of them. Although it's hard to pay attention to what they look like when my head is getting beaten so I'm not sure I helped the officer out a lot. But either way, it's done and over with. I'm not too hurt. My head is pretty bruised, especially where she pulled out my hair. Our bathroom garbage can was half full of the hair she ripped out of my head, so you girls probably understand how much that hurt! My ear is cut and bloody and sore, but it's okay. My jaw is a bit bruised up and I have a bad scratch on my elbow and knees. Good thing I was wearing a sweater and jeans otherwise I would be more scratched up than I am.

What I don't understand is that I don't even know this girl. I've never seen her before in my life and she really had zero reason to attack me besides the fact that she seemed to be fighting with her boyfriend and apparently she took it out on me. The officer said that his first impression of me was that I looked very sweet and nice and he said that she probably took advantage of that, and that maybe I looked like I was better off then her and she decided to make me pay for it. Whatever the reason, it's angering that I will no longer feel comfortable walking home at night, not that I should, but I mean, I have no beef with her, so she had no reason to hurt me and now I can't help wanting to kill her. But I've decided to let it go and I'm lucky she didn't have a knife or something and that she wasn't really all that strong. I'm actually kind of proud of how well I took her punches. Not that that's important :P Anyways, hope everyone enjoys this beautiful weather and have a great weekend. Be safe!

I Dyed My Hair

2007-04-09T17:01:00.000-04:00

Well, sorta. Okay I lied. I highlighted my hair. I vowed that I would never ever ever in my life ever dye my hair, but man, I'm really sick of it! So I decided to get it highlighted. I just went to First Choice 'cause I really didn't know where to go and now I know where NOT to go! I dunno, I'll highlight it again and go some place better when I get some money. It cost me $111 and it's barely noticeable! I put red in it and then the hairstylist decided to put really blonde colour in it as well, and I mean if it was more drastic I'd be happy. My poor boyfriend came with me and ended up just sitting there for over 2.5 hours. I felt really bad. He was good about it though, and said it was nice to just spend the time with me, but really I know he was dying hahaha! We just had our 8 months anniversary yesterday, so that's cool. We've managed to put up with each other that long :P

In other news, not really news, but whatever. I was sitting in class today and the girl next to me was talking about her friend that told her boyfriend she wouldn't marry him unless she got her this ring that costs $20 000. Can you imagine that? I mean, what if you lost it or something? Besides, you can't really buy love so what's the point of having something that expensive? It's outrageous! I think buying an engagement ring is something that's important because it does show that the girl means something to the guy and that he's willing to do something to show his love, but there's a line people!

Anyways, that's my rant for the day. I have to go write two essays now. Global warming, and poverty and Christian ethics. Fun stuff.

Hola!

2007-04-04T18:03:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone! It's been a really long time, I know. I got this impression since I'm now under "Other Blogs" on Jamie's blog. You know you're slacking when...hehe. I just have never been in a blogging mood when I'm home. Well, this should be pretty short. Lets see, this past year has been a rough one with school. I just never got into it. And the past couple months have been CRAZY busy since I've been trying to pick up my slack, but really haven't been able to so now I'm just waiting for it to be done hehehe. On a happier note with school, I got an essay back that I figured I'd do mediocre on and I ended up getting a 90%! So I know I'm somewhat smart hahaha. The professor wrote that I should enter it into this essay contest, which is pretty cool. This summer I'm going to be working at Goodlife (yes I'm still there) Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings then Tuesdays and Thursdays I'll be volunteering at my dad's work (Compassion Canada). I got accepted for the volunteer bursary program so I'll get reimbursed $2000 if I volunteer 200+ hours over the summer, which is pretty sweet. Besides all that, nothing really exciting is going on, which is another reason I never blog hehehe. Have a good one all.

Deck the Halls

2006-12-23T22:22:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone! Well, in 2 days. I haven't really been "important" busy. I've just been lazy and absent from the computer. I remember the days when I would spend hours upon hours on msn and surfing the net, but these days I can barely stand 10 minutes on the thing. It's weird.

I'm somewhat excited for Christmas. The lack of snow besides the sudden drop of death a couple weeks back doesn't make it feel like Christmas all that much. Plus my boyfriend went down to his hometown (LaSalle) for 5 or 6 days. It kinda sucks 'cause it was very spontaneous (as in last night at 12am this was decided) and if you know me, you will know that I need time for things to sink in otherwise I tend to get disappointed. That's my own fault of course, but still. Needless to say, I'm happy he gets to see his family since he hasn't seen them since August. I just miss him is all :(

Christmas for the Braces this year consists of church tomorrow morning, my brother and his girlfriend and my grandparents coming over tomorrow night to open some presents and eat a steak dinner, then Christmas morning we wake up, open our stockings and head over to my grandma's house to open presents with my cousins. Then we come back to my house and open presents there with my other grandparents and then eat a turkey dinner. Boxing day will probably consist of my dad waking up at 5am to go scout out the infamous Boxing Day sales :P

The rest of my holidays (besides New Years) will probably consist of me trying to catch up on school work. Ewww, what an icky word. School. No more mention of it!

Oh right, I forgot to say my boyfriend got me a sick Tool shirt from Backstage. I was quite excited when I opened it! Anyways, merry Christmas everyone and I hope you all enjoy your holidays and time spent with family, etc.

Also, I think Tara's right. It shouldn't just be about presents. My brother Kevin had an idea when he was a kid that we should each get 3 presents at Christmas because Jesus only got 3 presents. We did that for awhile, but I'm not sure what happened to it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :)

Here and There

2006-11-27T15:31:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone.

It's been awhile.

Hmmm, wasn't that the title of my last post...

I must say, I've been pretty busy. I'm rarely ever home it seems, except for now of course. In all honesty, school has been very difficult for me this year. Not the work itself, but more "doing" the work. For some reason I just have zero motivation to do any work, and then once an exam comes up (like the one I'll be writing in T minus 1 h 5 minutes) I don't study until the day before or day of the exam. I'm hoping over the Christmas break I will get caught up, and then get some work done ahead of time to make sure I do okay.

But in other news, our car broke down last Monday. I thought that it would suck a lot more than it did because I highly rely on the car to get me everywhere, and I admit, I've been pretty spoiled with car privileges. So thank you to my parents for that. So of course, I spent many long hours on the bus (no exageration). It would take me about an hour to get to school (including walking time), it takes an hour on the bus to get to where my boyfriend watches his nephew, and then an hour to his house from either there, or my house. It kind of sucked/was funny riding the bus with him 'cause he tends to be grumpy on it. Although our last bus experience was pretty funny. Since we're on it for its entire route we sit at the very back. But for some reason the bus was pretty full, and in front of us sat this *ahem* larger woman and her man friend that was about half the size of her in height and width. Then another larger lady gets on the bus carrying twins in her arms and sits right beside Trevor and hits him in the head with her bag.....I laughed.....he didn't. And another time, this woman sat in front of us, and she clearly wasn't all there, because she turned right around in her chair and just sat staring at us the entire bus ride...literally. We both couldn't stop laughing! The best part was Trevor was spinning a CD on his fingers and she wouldn't look away from it. Oooo shiny! Don't get me wrong, we were nice to her and everything, it was just funny.

Oh, and guess who I saw on the bus. The one and only Tara! It was the last bus of the night and I was at the back, and this little blonde steps on the bus with her crispy chicken and I didn't recognize her at first because of her uniform, then once I realized it was Tara, I got up and sat in front of her and said "hi". She politely looked up and said "hi" back, not realizing it was me. But of course, after a few seconds, she jumps up and says "hey!" and gives me a hug. It was nice to see a friendly face that late on the bus. It was funny because we were the only ones talking on the bus, so everyone could listen in to our conversation. So yes, the bus does have some perks of seeing people you haven't seen in a long time.

Alright, I know this has been slightly boring, and I have a few topics to blog about, but I just don't have the brain function for it at this point as my exam material is running through my head. So ta-ta for now! (T minus 50 minutes)

It's been awhile

2006-10-26T22:43:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone. It's been quite awhile since I wrote on here. My brother and I just got our wisdom teeth out this morning. It went pretty well from what I've been told. I'm not in too much pain actually, but my brother is. Poor guy. The thing that sucks the most is that we can't really eat solid food, so apple sauce and pudding just isn't cutting it. I'm pretty hungry. The freezing's pretty much gone, it's just my lower right lip that's still a little tingly; but other than that I'm doing good. I don't feel sick or anything. The medicine is making me feel drunk though. I'm having trouble walking straight and focusing on things, but it's kinda funny :P Apparently when I woke up from the anesthetic I told my mom I was just driving or something hahaha she was just like riiiiiiiight...hehe.

In other news, school's going alright now. It's taken me this long to get into it. Sad, I know. But sometimes it takes me awhile to learn a lesson. Now that I'm back into the swing of things, I feel a lot better and am enjoying my classes and readings and such; so that's good. Later sometime I'll have to post about some of the topics we've been talking about in class because they're pretty intriguing, especially my Controversies in Christian Ethics class, as well as my Social Justice class. But considering I can't exactly think all that straight right now and I've had to correct countless spelling mistakes, I think I'll save that for another day. Also, sorry I haven't been reading other people's blogs....I've just been overwhelmingly busy.

So with that, I'm going to bed 'cause these T3s are makin' me reeeeaal sleepy. Goodnight *yawn*

Day 1

2006-09-07T17:44:00.000-04:00

I had my first classes today. They went alright. Both of them were religious studies. My first professor is like 68 or something and from the looks of it, he's the type that doesn't use technology, so that's gonna suck because I have trouble listening and writing at the same time. But oh well, ya gotta do whatcha gotta do. My second class looks like it will be good, but this guy is really annoying in it. He always talks out without raising his hand and it's always about himself, and it's not usually relevant to what the professor is saying. For example, my professor mentioned spring break and he's like "it's California break for me..." Who cares?! So needless to say, I want to smack him. I like the professor though. She's really energetic and seems pationate about teaching, which as most of you know, really helps the class to be interesting.

I bussed it today about a hundred times though. I waited in line for OSAP for 3 HOURS! The only thing that helped was the guy beside me started talking to me, otherwise I would have been bored out of my mind. They were playing some Peter Pan Robin Williams film though, so that was alright, but the volume was pretty low, it was hard to hear. Then I bussed it home, ate and got my other books, then within 15 minutes bussed it back to school. Oy. That's a lot of bussing! Anyways, I'm not looking forward to school this year for some reason, but I'm sure I'll plug through it. Normally I'm excited, but I really could careless to go back. We'll see as the year progresses.

Why, oh, why did she swallow a fly?

2006-08-22T16:22:00.000-04:00

For some reason I was humming that song, so voila! I-'tis my title. 2 weeks, and 2 days. Oh someone shoot me now!! I'm not ecstatic to return to the classes and schedules and having to do work for a specific deadline. I've gotten quite comfortable in my routine of working and then hanging out, or watching movies since I've been alone for 2 weeks.....argh. Part of me wants to go back because I am very routinized (?). I've got all my stuff ready. Surprise surprise I know. Aleah's ahead of the game? What? Zat cannot be! Although I won't buy my books until classes actually start because I just don't feel like it hahaha. It's kind of exciting this year because my best friend's going to Western now, Nate's starting and so is Elyse so there'll be lots of people I know. I find it kinda cool that most of the people from Faith going to University are all at the same place. Our little family unit cannot be broken.....muahahahaha!! I just drank a lot of tea, so I'm a bit hyped up. Anyways, I'm on my way to work. I like working nights much better because my manager's not there and she's a real....bad person. She can be nice when you're doing perfect, but she's the angry type that can't deal with mistakes. One of those control freaks who should be locked up. Hopefully she doesn't read this....

Famous Last Words

2006-08-03T14:18:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about my words lately. I'm being really lazy these days and I guess the things that come out of my mouth aren't exactly the greatest. It's not even curse words, it's just negativity. I'm not sure why all of a sudden, but other people have noticed and commented on it, and so it got me thinking. Every next word we say could be our last. This isn't some depressed realization. Quite the opposite, actually. It's more of an epiphany. Something you hear over and over and you let it roll off your shoulders until it actually means something to you personally. That's sort of how I learn all my lessons. The hard way. I can never seem to take words of wisdom if it goes against something I want, even if it's coming from someone with a lot more experience than I. I've said this before, but if I'm told something's hot and not to touch it, I almost always touch it just to see how hot it is. I do that to this day and it's pretty, well, stupid. It can be a positive trait, however, because it gives me a bit of independence in that I don't have to rely on people to tell me what to do all the time. I can figure it out for myself. But some lessons just aren't meant to be learned.

Going back to words, it says in the Bible that we are to watch what we say and to build each other up. I don't think a lot of people, me definitely included, understand the importance of this. Think back to all the good things people have said about you. Got any? Now think back to every negative thing you've been told. Which one has more influence? The majority would say the negative. What is it about negativity that gets to us? That's my question. The saying, I believe, is true that it takes 100 positive words to make up for one negative comment. I'm not sure why, but I just can't wrap my head around why we can't shake off other peoples opinions. I know God made us relational beings so people are important to us; but even when a stranger says something, mostly we think twice about what they say. Maybe it's conditioned in us through society and other influences. Maybe it's the devil's manipulation to weasel his way in. I haven't quite figured it out. All I know is I gotta start watching what I say. As you all know, my family can be pretty sarcastic, but even sarcasm can cut deep. So it's hard to know when to draw the line and who to draw the line with, because you never really know the impact of your words.

P.S. I renamed my blog Famous Last Words 'cause a) I like it, and b) it's a Jars of Clay song that I really like. S'funny, the little caption underneath is also a Jars of Clay song.

T Dot

2006-07-19T10:51:00.000-04:00

Yesterday my family and I went to Toronto for the day because Nathan has never been. He'll be 18 in August and has never been to Toronto....I find that amusing. Some of you may or may not know this, but my dad grew up in Toronto. Our journey began at 8am. We left the house and headed for McDonald's for some yummy breakfast I don't like their breakfasts, although I did eat some pancakes that were alright. Anyways, we were going to go to the one over off Wellington by the 401, but my dad decided to pull into the playplace one on Wonderland S. Lo! and behold, Tara was working! So that was cool to run into her there. I completely forgot she worked there in the mornings, so it was cool to see her working. Also, only a couple of you might remember Mike and Onalee Mitchell. Well my brother asked my mom, "How do you spell Onalee?" and after that, she walked in the door! It was pretty cool. After a bit of chatting, we set out for Toronto.

Once we arrived, we parked and went to the CN Tower (of course) and since it's friggin' expensive, only my brother and I went up. It was neat. I'd already been a few times, but it was quite beautiful to look out over the water and everything. Funny thing, I'm not the person who's overly concerned about things, so once they scanned my ticket I shoved it in my back pocket and it was kind of sticking out. Then on the way down, I realized someone had jacked my ticket! I thought that was pretty funny since a) I didn't even notice, and b) it's useless to anyone once it's been scanned. After that, we spent a good while wandering the underground tunnels and my dad got us lost. We finally found our way and went to Richtree, which is this place where they give you a card and you just go to all these different food stations and they scan your card and you pay at the end. It was very different; nice atmosphere though. Apparently it used to be called the Mov N' Pick (sp?).

Our journey continued on over to Don Mills where my dad grew up. He took us around and showed us different places he lived and hung out. A lot of it had changed though, except for his schools. We even went in one because the door was conveniently open....muahaha. Then we went on some nature hike (yep, in Toronto) to this valley where my dad used to play and cause trouble. After a bit more driving and giant traffic jams, we arrived back home, but first stopped off at Jack Astor's for supper and then to Loblaws to redeem our free ice cream.

It was cool to see where he grew up and all that. Toronto's definitely different than London and I think that I'm happy just staying right here where it's more familiar. That's my story. The end.

P.S. We took lots of pictures. I might post some later, but I got a new computer and I don't have all the programs up yet.

Greetings Strangers

2006-07-17T21:21:00.000-04:00

I haven't written in here in a long time. I think that'll be my opening line from now on. I don't seem to be doing very well at this whole blogging thing. I still read peoples from time to time though. Hence the comments. I'm having a good summer, although I don't really have anything exciting happening. I've been working at the dollar store and I really like it. I get to do cash, stock shelves, face stuff, etc. I like cash now, but when I first started it was a little stressful. I've learned a lot of people aren't very forgiving or understanding when people are training. I guess we've all come to the point where we expect everything when we want it. I know I'm definitely like that sometimes. It's going pretty well though. First time I did cash they said I did really well and my till was perfect at the end, so that was encouraging to hear because I was thinking I sucked! I'm still working at Goodlife, though I'm starting to really get sick of the politics, but oh well. I'm a student and need the money, so I shouldn't be complaining.

I'm still at London Outreach Center and I really like it. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but they found out I sang at Faith and they were trying to get me to sing. I said yeah right! hahaha But I go to the young adults thing Wednesday nights and I'm likin' it.

Oooo you know what's amazing?? Styx is coming to London on Friday for Rock the Park! I'm so excited!!! I might be going with my parents or something because they really like them too and we have a DVD of theirs and it's friggin' amazing! So everyone go see! Anyways, that's all I've got for now.

Woohoo!

2006-05-26T18:54:00.000-04:00

I got a new job!

I'll be working now at Goodlife in the daycare as well as at the Dollarama in Sherwood Forest mall. I'm excited 'cause I've been looking for a second job. I've never worked anywhere else, so this should be interesting.

But this was definitely an answer to prayer :)

Still livin'

2006-05-22T15:28:00.000-04:00

Hello all...

I don't have much to say, but I feel I need to write something so you don't all think I'm dead or something. I was so happy yesterday. A friend of mine, who I haven't talked to in 5 weeks, called me. He's up in Borden doing his basic training. So it was nice to hear from him. Apparently it's hard living up there . They have buffet styled meals with steak and ribs and stuff, they never do more than 10 push ups at a time because they have older women in their group, and they don't get screamed at like in the movies. I'm sure it's worse than he plays it out to be. He seems like the kind of person who's pretty tough...tough as in can handle pain and pressure. He said that I could do it though. Now if only there wasn't a potential of being shipped off, I'd join the army for sure! I like challenges like that.

Speaking of which, I started working out again. Oh boy! It was pretty difficult. I hadn't stretched out in a loooong time, so needless to say, the next morning I woke up pretty sore. I worked out again today and now my legs are killing me! I had such a hard time walking home hehe. I bike a lot already outside, but I hadn't done weights and specific exercises regularly since last September. I know...it's bad.

I put this picture up because I took it and I like it. It's kind of difficult to see here, but there's a tree and a silo silhouetted in the foreground. It looks pretty. I love nature!

Enjoy the rest of your long weekend all!

Apparently I can't read

2006-05-04T15:51:00.000-04:00

I'm thoroughly upset with myself. I screwed up my Religious Studies exam. I was supposed to do eight definitions for something, but because I can't read I only did five and lost 7.5%. Then I messed up a couple questions. The thing is, I've been doing really really well in that class all year and it comes to the last thing and I messed it up horribly and I'm mad. I e-mailed my professor about it, and he raised my mark a little bit, but still not enough to make me happy. Ugh, why can't I just read??!!

This has no title....but now it does....

2006-04-30T13:38:00.000-04:00

Firstly, I have this new CD by Anberlin called Never Take Friendship Personal and I must say I am obsessed with it! I'm listening to it right now, which is why I'm mentioning this. Go listen to it :)

Anyways, as far as churches go, I am now torn! It's weird because in the beginning I was so set on going to New Hope and I loved going there, but now I just don't see it as "home". As I mentioned before, I babysit for Steve Thursday nights at London Outreach Center, and the past couple Sundays I've gone there while my family went to New Hope. The reason I say it's weird is because I have always always always gone to church with my family, and now I'm going by myself and it's a little bit to take in. I'm not sure if I like it or not. I do because it forces me to talk to people and it's a good step of faith by going to church on my own and not having my parents to tell me to go, so it's good in that sense. But then again, I always saw going to church as a family event and in a way, a time to spend together, especially at Faith because we were so involved and had to work together as a family and as a church family. And by me going to another church I don't want that to appear as though I don't want to be with my family. But also, if God is calling me somewhere else, then that's where I should go.

What I like about LOC is first, the people. I always feel so welcome there and people take the initiative to talk to me, when I feel I don't get that at New Hope. Alright, intermission, I must say something. In NO WAY is this me bashing another church. The only reason I am comparing it is because I am trying to make a decision in which church to attend and why I decided to switch in the first place. So, the second thing I like is the worship. Probably because it does remind me of Faith more than New Hope's does and I just like the style better. Not much to say about that. Third, I like that it is a small church. Bigger than Faith, yes, but much smaller than New Hope and they only have one service, which means you can know everyone in the church, not just whoever attends your service. I have nothing against bigger churches. It's just a personal preference to have that feeling of family/community and to be involved.

The only thing that might take some getting used to is that it's Pentecostal and so the preaching style is pretty different. Doesn't mean it's bad, I'm just not used to it! They had a guest speaker there this morning, Wayne Meyers. He's 83 years old and he spoke about how today is the Sunday of opportunity. How we can be involved with God's mission and mostly about giving. I noticed they talk a lot about giving at LOC, which is fine with me 'cause I want to help poor people in some way anyways! So this morning made me think about my own financial situation and I always seem to use the phrase "I'm poor" when really, I have waaaaay more than a lot of people. So anyways, it made me think.

On a last note, Wayne Meyers said this (I think he quoted someone else or something) and I liked it: "If you have everything but Christ you have nothing. If you have nothing but Christ you have everything."

So true.

Gee-Tar

2006-04-23T18:29:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone,

I have the sweetest little video for you to watch. I love the guitar and I think this kid is so good, and I love this song too. Here's the link to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjA5faZF1A8&feature=Favorites&page=1&t=t&f=b

Hopefully that works for you all. If not, go to youtube.com and click on videos, then top favourites and the video is called guitar. The kid's fingers go so fast, it's amazing! My brother and his girlfriend were over last night for his birthday (happy quarter of a century Kev :P) and he was playing guitar, and I think he's amazing....but maybe I'm just bias ;) Anyhow, watch this video, it's really good.

This and That

2006-04-12T19:34:00.000-04:00

I am so glad to be done classes. I had definitely had enough! All that's left is my four exams.

I just finished watching Van Helsing. I bought a DVD drive for my computer, so I can now watch movies in my room! The downside is my computer isn't exactly the newest technology, so depending on the movie, the quality varies. Anyways, I thought this was the worst movie ever made. It was horrible! I was so bored, and after 2 hours and 12 minutes, I wanted to shoot myself. I don't think the acting is very good and neither are the graphics. Maybe vampire movies just aren't my thing, but still. You cannot tell me that this is a quality movie!

The other movies that I've rented so far (yes, they're all older because they're cheaper at the video store) are, The Hunt for the Red October: I thought this was actually a pretty good movie. You can tell Americans made it though because they make the Russian government look completely incompetent. But Sean Connery does a really good job, and it was very entertaining. I rented White Chicks and watched that last night. It wasn't all that great. There's some "inappropriate" stuff in it, but it wasn't all that funny. I did laugh a bit though. I watched Black Hawk Down, which I thought was a really good movie. It's kind of scary to think of war in that sense though because it was fairly graphic. I have a friend going off to basic and so I think I got stuff out of the movie that normally people wouldn't think of. I also watched Little Nikki....not one of Adam Sandler's better movies, and his voice is crazy haha, but as always, there are some funny parts in it. Lastly, I rented The Forgotten. Terrible movie! There were waaay too many loopholes and the acting wasn't all that great. The emotions in that movie were severly lacking. If I found out all the things she found out and went through, I think I'd be a little more surprised and psychotic! So I was disappointed with that one.

So the only good ones were The Hunt for the Red October and Black Hawk Down.

On a totally different note, I was thinking earlier today about something the pastor said on Sunday at New Hope, which was that ALL sin is punishable by death (or something like that). That made me think of all the things that I (or we) do that we may think is just little, but the penalty is still death. I wonder if we all thought that way, how much less sin would occur. The only problem is thinking this before we commit any sinful act. "If I do this, is it worth dying for?" My whole thing is usually shoot first, ask questions later. Therefore, I react mostly before I reason. I don't know, I just thought it was something worthy to think about.

These Days

2006-03-31T21:32:00.000-05:00

I don't really have anything profound to blog about.

It's thundering out. I love thunderstorms! It's my dream to see a tornado up close. I know, I'm weird.

I love the weather we're having. It makes me happy.

I'm trying to work on a 10 page essay of which I know nothing about. I've even read the book I'm supposed to be writing it on and I have to look up every fifth word in the dictionary. I wish my vocabulary was bigger. I'm just not interested in this class at all (liberation Theology). I literally leave every class pissed off because I feel like I've been ripped apart of every belief I have. Oh well. It's a taste of the real world.

I am trying to beat Lord of the Rings on Gamecube. So far, it's not working. I almost beat it last year when I rented it and played three days straight, but I had to return it before I could finish. Now Nathan's bought it and I'm trying to beat it again, but I'm stuck on this one level and it's driving me nuts! I spent 2 hours on it today and then my parents kicked me off the TV :P

I'm going to C4C banquet tomorrow. I'm pretty indifferent about the whole event. I could go and be happy; and I could stay home and be as equally happy. So we'll see how it goes.

We have new neighbours moving in next door. I thought I'd welcome them by playing music really loudly :D Welcome to the neighbourhood!

Lastly, I'm learning that life is too precious to worry about the little things, or even the big things. I'm beginning to realize that my time is better spent with a couple good friends, than with mediocre relationships with many people. Don't worry, you all are still really important to me :)

Anyways, see you all!

This is why I hate computers!

2006-03-23T13:41:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry I haven't been commenting on peoples blogs recently. I actually haven't read anyone's from a little while. So I finally had a little bit of time to read them all, and I did, but when I went to comment and do the whole word verification thing, it kept telling me I was wrong. But I KNOW I was typing the right thing! So my apologies to people.

Also, crappy computers....I don't know how people can stand them! So I bought a DVD drive the other day, and I was so excited to use it and what not. I hooked it up myself and had my dad check it, and I did everything right except had to switch it to master instead of select. Anyways, I get the thing up and running, but it's not working properly! My audio is slow and messed up and it won't really play my Linkin Park DVD at all. You know how sound can be slow and kinda sound staticky? That's what it's like. I'm thoroughly frustrated. I'm going to have to ask my dad to see if he can fix it because I've spent hours and am out of ideas.

Anyways, that's all for today folks!

Change is Inevitable

2006-03-17T17:25:00.000-05:00

*sigh*

I miss Faith.

I babysit for S. Clarke occasionally on Thursday nights where he plays the piano at the London Outreach Center (LOC), which is now in Faith's old building. It's weird being in there, let me tell you. It's funny how every church I've ever known who has worship practice is always held on Thursday. Just an interesting note. Anyways, it's funny because LOC took over Faith's building, but they also bought the place next door to Faith as well in order to expand their building. It's much different when you walk in for sure, but if you look closely, you'll find evidence of Faith. Now I just want to make something clear here and say that in no way am I going to be bashing LOC at all. I think it's neat, though, walking around and seeing some of the stuff from Faith. Things that I've noticed are the same are just little things, like the cupboards and everything in the kitchen is the same....that's pretty much the only major thing left in tack, but even the little labels under the kitchen cupboards are the ones that we wrote down so many years ago, as well as the slidy thing we used so that we didn't kill the people in the kitchen with our hockey playing, or hurt ball! There are also the wall lamps from the old sanctuary now in the nursery's backroom; the bathroom doors and signs are the same, as well as the paper towel holders in the bathrooms; the carpet from our old sanctuary is the same, but it is now a youth room; it looks like they took part of our old stage as well, but rearranged it a little differently; the storage room is the same (including the mops!); the front foyer tiles are the same; the exit signs are still on all the doors, and that's all I can think of for now. In order for you to really understand what they changed and how they changed it, you'd have to go see for yourself because it's way too much to explain on here. Yes, I admit it, I was snooping around a bit, but I just couldn't help myself!

Sometimes going there is hard because lately I've just really felt like I want to feel home again. I don't feel at home at New Hope and probably never will. The other time I babysat I came a bit early so I was sitting in the sanctuary waiting for Mr. C. and I was watching everyone set up their stuff and I wanted so badly to just climb on stage, pick up a guitar or something, and just hack around. I never thought I'd say this, but I miss singing and worship practice so much. I want to feel a part of a team like that again. I loved our worship and felt like it was actual worship and not just a performance. It's funny how much you can take something for granted, something that was such a huge part of my life, and then once it's gone, that's when you realize its significance. I wish now that I could have realized how amazing our church family really was when I was actually a part of it. But on the brightside, getting together with everyone always seems just like it did back then and I never feel awkward or like I don't know everyone.

Even though change is inevitable, it doesn't mean all change is bad. Looking back at this I know that it was for the best and the leaders were following God, and I know it was a very difficult decision to make because I know how difficult it was to hear. But God does have different plans for all of us, and I can already see how changes are being made in peoples lives, as well as my own. I've just been thinking a lot about this lately and even now, it's hard to let go, especially when pretty much once a week I'm reminded of it. Anyways, I just needed to clear my head. Just to let you know, this wasn't meant as any sort of depressing thing. I'm not depressed at all, more like daydreaming and reminiscing. I'm actually really tired because I've barely slept the past three nights, so I'm downing the caffeine and plugging away on my essays and things.

I'm going to end this thing by referring to the story of Job because Job had all sorts of changes made to his life and he had no clue why, but through it all, through the hard times and the darkness, he never once cursed God. I think it's applicable here because even though, to me at least, this was an extremely difficult thing to deal with, I want to know and understand that God is bigger than it all, and that He has plans for me that I can't even begin to ever dream of.

Follow the leada leada leada....

2006-03-11T20:04:00.000-05:00

I remember we did this song during O-week....ANYways.....

I do not know what I've gotten myself into. Remember how I was talking about my d-group (discipleship group)? Well, my d-group leader approached me a couple weeks ago and said she had to talk to me. My first thought is always, "uh oh". And "uh oh" is right! Her and another girl part of Campus for Christ sat down with me and asked me if I was interested in leading a d-group myself next year. I'm still in shock! It honestly caught me completely off-guard. The reason it caught me off-guard is because for one, my d-group leader doesn't really know me. She knows me within our little d-group and my answering questions about God, but she knows nothing about the Aleah outside of that. Also, I am very quiet and don't talk much anyways, which by the way is progressively changing and I'm not so afraid to speak to people I don't know. So this little meeting thingy we had was a fairly quick get-to-know-what-Aleah-believes session. I did have to admit some things that I've been struggling with lately and that was pretty difficult because I don't like telling people I've just met about my problems! The decision was left up to me to think and pray about. After some prayer and thinking I told my d-group leader that I would do it. So lo! and behold, I'm going to be leading my own d-group next school year, which means I have to go through a bunch of leadership/evangelism training. It'll be fun to get to know other Christians on campus and be able to influence others to deepen their relationship with God, but it's still frightening. They estimated that this'll take up approximately 10 hours a week of my time, so for me, that's a huge commitment since I'm terrible with time management to begin with!

I'm still left wondering, "why me?" Those of you that know me know that I'm not too partial to leadership. I'd rather be the follower. I'd much prefer being told what to do and doing it when it comes to these sorts of situations, because I'm also very indecisive. Also, this will be a lot of responsibility and accountability on my part because I have to set an example for the girls I will be leading. On the upside, it will definitely help me stay on track with God and with the decisions I make because I will be accountable to these people. If it was just me I was being accountable towards, then I'm much more likely to make the wrong choice. But if it's someone else, I'm more likely to remain strong and do what's right since I hate disappointing people. I know that sounds sad, but right now it's the truth. So all in all I'm excited about this, but also at the same time terrified to death! If you can remember, please pray that I'll be strong enough to do this and that God will work through me to reach others.

The Week of Death

2006-03-04T19:09:00.000-05:00

Reading week. It sucked. Darn.

I don't have much to post about and I'm bored waiting for my dinner (yes, I'm spoiled, my mother makes my food). I had reading week this past week. It was not very fun I must say. From the Tuesday before reading week, allll the way 'till the Tuesday during reading week I was confined to my house except for one doctor's trip for sweet, juicy meds. I had a sinus infection and it sucked. Actually, it didn't suck, it was painful, that's what. Because of this, I missed a whole lot of class and didn't get any work done. Even after I got better, I still didn't get much work done. Why? Because a friend introduced me to a computer game and I now spend my time doing that. Needless to say, I am behind in readings and have two papers to write for next week, which I haven't started yet.

In other news, I had "minor surgery" Thursday morning. It's not really surgery at all actually, but for some reason, that's what the doctor woman called it. Essentially what was done was I had three spots frozen and they burned holes into me. It was great! Esepcially when I could smell it burning.....sorry for the squimish, which includes myself. I am telling you I do NOT do well with medical things/blood/cuts/wounds. I almost fainted today. I had accidentally stuck the bandaid to the cut/hole on my lower back and my mom had to pull it off. Ouch! Even writing about it makes me weak! Anyways, my dinner's ready. Adios and happy hunting!

"You just wait 'till you're a parent!"

2006-02-20T20:56:00.000-05:00

Parental wisdom. Gotta love it.

Why is that when we have problems we have a tendency to run from our parents instead of running to our parents?

From the times we are born we are solely dependent on our parents. For food, clothes, shelter, protection, wisdom, etc, we are wholly in the care of our parental units. As we grow older, we become aware of our own identity and we begin to test that by attempting to make our own decisions and seeing how our parents react. A lot of the time punishment defers us from doing something we shouldn't, or it convinces us to lie about what we did. As we grow even older, sometimes we become rebellious and start listening to our friends, peers, celebrities, etc. instead of the wisdom of our parents, the ones who gave us life (in the technical sense)!! When we become even older still, our relationship again changes with our parents, and sometimes we become friends with our parents, going to them for advice, guidance, telling them stories, joys, achievements.

If there is something I have learned, tonight especially, is that we are always meant to run to our parents. No matter how scary it seems, or how disappointed they may be with us, they are always there to guide, protect, discipline, and most importantly, love us.

"Religion"

2006-02-15T22:13:00.000-05:00

I am wholly against religion.

That may be a bold statement, but it's the truth. I'd even goes as far as to say I hate it. The whole subject of faith, belief and religion has played out in my mind for a long time. I could never quite figure out why people are so against religion. I used to think that religion had to do with your own personal belief. But I've come to realize that it has nothing to do with that at all. Religion is just an excuse to A) do what you want and give reasoning for it, and B) to control. Beginning with A, take the Crusades for example. My history on this is a little rusty so correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe what they did (the "Christian" Europeans) was they slaughtered a whole bunch of people....I think they were some tribal groups or something...I don't quite remember. But the basis is that these Christians killed a whole bunch of people in the name of God. No wonder Christians have a bad name! If God is ordering people to execute "savages" than God is not who I thought He was. My point here is that historical events/figures have done really stupid and inhumane things, but used God as the reasoning and justification behind it and that's just wrong to me.

On to B. I'm going to pick on the Catholic church because, well, I don't agree with it. We actually continuously have discussions about this in my Liberation Theology class, but you also want to know why Christianity is given a bad name? Look at the Catholic church. It is so ritualistic that it makes me sick. It's a chore to go because it's boring, its focus is distorted, and there is no freedom. What its aim is, is to contol who does what and who has what position. What's the point of confessional? So the priest can redeem you of your sins? Only God can do that. What's the point of the Pope? Is he any better than you or me? Does God love him more because he gets to ride around in that fancy car and everyone bows down to him? No. In fact, I disagree with the whole premise of people getting so excited over the Pope's arrival or appearance. Does that mean the Pope doesn't have anything good to say, or that he shouldn't be allowed to speak at all? No no no. But I don't think he should be elevated on such a level that he now becomes superior and there is created this hierarchy in which the focus becomes wealth and status within the church; it's almost idolised. Way back in the day, the church and the state were one, in a sense, but that ended up not working. I think it's horrible that indulgences were sold by the church to generate money, and by doing so, they tricked people into believing salvation came through these little pieces of paper. That's just manipulation of power.

What is church about? What is Christianity about? Certainly not controlling the masses and carrying out meaningless rituals Sunday after Sunday. I think that's the problem is that Christianity is about relationship. It's about me and God. Not me, God, and Benedict. I think that's why so many people are turned off by it is because there are all these meaningless rules. People are just following rules for the sake of following rules. There's no foundation. Sure there are some rules to follow that are clearly laid out in the Bible...especially in the New Testament regarding Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. No, I am not against church in any way. I'm just against the fact that in some relgions, or sects of Christianity, it becomes a focus of religon, not relationship. I actually think church is amazing because you learn and grow and are accountable to others. It is in the church that community is created and that people can come as one and develop relationships. Does this mean there won't ever be churches without problems? Of course not! But I just think a lot of churches, a lot of Christians have lost the purpose, or focus and our eyes should be on God, not on the self preservation of the church. For it says in the Bible that through Jesus we are saved and by him alone do we receive salvation.

Note: this was a very random tangent, so sorry for being all over the place and not laying this out clearer.

Evangelism

2006-02-01T14:01:00.000-05:00

Hmm, I haven't posted in a long time!

I had the opportunity yesterday to sort of go evangelizing on campus. I can say that I have never done this without my parents before. Whenever I have shared my faith was when I was part of a church group going out as a kid, or when we went on a mission's trip. So needless to say, I was terrified! My D-Group leader (I think it means discipleship) at school asked if I would come out with her and go sharing around the UCC. I did. I'm sure those of you who are at Western know about the "Is Anything Free?" campaign going on. If not, it's an event hosted by Campus for Christ and it's asking the obvious question, is anything free? The whole promotion is to share the belief that Jesus is a free gift to us, all we have to do is accept Him. So there's this event on February 8 and at the very beginning there will be a draw for $2500. The reason that it's at the beginning and not the end is to show that there is no catch. That C4C is not looking for anything in return. There is a speaker afterwards and people can choose to stay if they wish, but are completely free to leave if they choose.

About the sharing. So my D-Group leader and I went out around the caf and talked to three different girls; and wow!! The difference in response between just three people is crazy! The first girl was of a Christian background and so she pretty much knew the concept, but she didn't seem very strong in her faith, but was willing to listen and answer our questions. The second girl seemed very unresponsive and somewhat annoyed that we were talking to her. She gave bare minimum answers and didn't really have any knowledge on Jesus or anything spiritual, and she seemed like she was hurting in some way. The third girl we talked to was actually joined by her guy friend and so we talked to both of them. She seemed embarassed by her answers that she gave and the fact that she grew up Catholic but couldn't really pick a stance on anything. The guy, however, jumped all over the questions and seemed quite "philosophical". It was great! So overall, it was a really good experience for me and I pray that those three people will show up to the event and possibly God can open their hearts to the message.

I think also, going evangelizing is a HUGE test on my part because when you're randomly talking to people about God like that, I think you need to also actively demonstrate those beliefs ALL THE TIME!! For me, it's difficult because I guess you could say I live a "double life". I often struggle with making the right choices and living for God 24/7, not just on Sundays and at church events. So I think by going out and doing this, proclaiming your faith to the world, especially Western, a place I will be spending the next 2.5 years of my life at, is definitely a test to whether I can live my life solely for God, or for myself. I believe that accepting Jesus is not just a belief, but a way of life. It's not enough for me to just say, "yeah I believe". I need to put that belief into practice and show others what is meant by a "follower of Christ". I was reading my blessings that were written for me by most of you, and a few of you mentioned the meaning behind my name, which is "light of the sun", but most of you translated it as "light of the Son", and it reminded me that that's exactly what I need to be. I need to live up to my name, so to speak. I thank you guys for those blessings because every once in awhile I pull them out and am reminded of who I am and who I need to be for Christ.

I'm going to hopefully go to FNL this Friday (I've never been before), so if anyone who reads this is going, I'll see you there! :)

A few songs I really like right now:
Rescue by Desperation
How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin
'Till I See You by Hillsongs
Wonderful Maker by Chris Tomlin
Forever by Hillsongs

Why Vote?

2006-01-11T12:05:00.000-05:00

I don't normally post about anything political because A) I really don't know much about politics; and B) It's not a major interest of mine. But I am going to tell you who I am voting for and why. Knowing that I'm Christian, I'm sure it doesn't come as much of a surprise to you that I'm voting Conservative. I'm 19, so this is my second year voting; and yes, I voted Conservative last year as well.

I will say this, I would rather not vote at all then vote Liberal. I actually thought about not voting this year because I don't particularly agree with any one specific party, because, for one thing, I do care a lot about social issues such as poverty. But this is how I have rationalized by choice for voting Conservative:

I figure that moral issues are very important, especially from a Christian standpoint. Issues such as gay marriages and the like are difficult to eradicate if you're not advocating at the federal level. Therefore, if the Conservatives are voted in, then there is a much more likely chance that those laws can be changed than if the NDP (or any party) were in power. So where does that leave social issues? Since I'm not exactly sure where the Conservatives stand on poverty, etc. I'm just going to assume that they don't have much of a plan for stuff like that from what I hear from people (correct me if I'm wrong). But anyways, I think that if we can get the government to change laws regarding morals and such, then if they aren't going to help the poor, then I think that's up to us to do that. We can't rely on the government to solve all problems that arise in society, so where do the citizens come into play? I believe that when it comes to social issues, society should take on more of an active role. Or the church. There are lots of churches that help out and make up meals for people, but there are a lot who don't. So maybe the church should be more active in the community as well.

My point is, it's easier to advocate for moral issues at the federal level and help with social issues as a community. That's my logic at any rate.

I'll Spam You!

2006-01-10T10:58:00.000-05:00

Well, I added the word verification to my blog because I am annoyed with getting those stupid comments like, "I like your blog. Now would you like to buy a car from me?" etc. So yes, hopefully that will get rid of those people.

I started classes yesterday. I had Religious Studies (the New Testament) in the morning for only 10 minutes. But I'm really looking forward to that class because I am sort of doing a study on Jesus myself, so hopefully this class will give me either a new perspective, or some new information. After that, I went to do my OSAP papers and since I got there before 10am, there wasn't much of a line. Last year I think I waited something like 2 hours!

I had my astronomy class yesterday too. It was just a review of the last class before the break, so that was a waste of time. But I was able to pick up another textbook I needed. But on the way home from there, I was driving and suddenly got hit with a horrible sickness. It was weird. I mean, I woke up feeling not myself that morning, but I had managed to function quite well for the day. Then once I got home, I had a fever of 100 or something and I felt like I couldn't stand. Strange I tell you. Oh well. I woke up this morning feeling good after having 12 straight hours of sleep!

Anyways, I don't really have too much to say today, so I should go do some readings. Have a great day all!

Holly Days

2005-12-28T16:36:00.000-05:00

Yep. I am on holidays now and boy it's......grrrreeeaattt! I'm both bored and busy at the same time. I always say, oh I'm going to do this and this and this.....but some of them never end up happening. Ah well. I am proud to say I finished two things for school, one that was due at the end of January, and one due in the middle of February, so that's kind of satisfying and encouraging.

Anyways, we had our Christmas on, yup, Christmas Day! My brother came over in the morning, his girlfriend was supposed to come too but she wasn't feeling well. So we opened presents and stockings with him and my grandparents. Then they all left and the four of us went over to my grandma's and her husband's to open a couple more presents and enjoy some yummy turkey! My great grandma was able to come which was nice considering she just lost her husband and she's 92.

Guess what I got!! Nope, you're wrong. I got a new guitar! I was both surprised and pleased all at the same time! It has really good sound, so now when I play my "mom's" it sounds terrible! hehehe. It's called an Art and Lutherie and it's made by Godin, if that means anything to you people. Oh, and it's an acoustic. So yes, I was very excited about that! Now all I have to do is learn how to play a lot better....

So, anyways, just thought I'd write a few lines, and I hope you all had/have a good Christmas and Happy New Year!!

You're Forgiven

2005-12-12T17:11:00.000-05:00

I said on Jamie's blog a week ago that I would write about what I was learning in one of my Social Justice classes. Well, we were talking about forgiveness and the reason I wanted to post about it is because I just could not wrap my head around what my professor was getting at. Forgiveness, well, it seems pretty simple from the surface. Someone hits you, apologizes, you forgive them, end of story. But once we started talking about it, it didn't seem so simple and I walked out of the room confused as ever. What my professor was posing is that we must forgive or we die. So you better make restitution with everyone! No no, just kidding....well, sorta....anyways. What I didn't get about his explanation was that forgiveness is mutual. I'm not so sure I agree. For forgiveness to be mutual, the wrong-doer must want to be forgiven. For example, someone walks up, smacks you in the face and walks away. You decide you're going to forgive that person even though they have not asked for forgiveness, nor are they sorry for what they have done. I guess it comes down to defining forgiveness. For the sake of this post, I looked it up on dictionary.com and was thoroughly disappointed. Dictionary.com defines forgiveness as:

1. The act of forgiving; pardon
2. 1: compassionate feelings that support a willingness to forgive 2: the act of excusing a mistake or offense

Hmmm...doesn't seem to help! Whenever I think of forgiveness, or not forgiving someone for that matter, I think of holding a grudge, or using the offence in future arguments, being angry about what happened, stewing over it, etc. So if someone murders someone I love, for example, and they don't ask for forgiveness or aren't sorry for what they did, I still think that forgiveness can apply. I can forgive someone because I don't want to hold it against them, or I want to let go of the baggage or simply because we're supposed to. I brought this up in class because I still am not sure about the whole mutuality of forgiveness. My professor said that forgiveness is then used selfishly. If you're forgiving someone simply because you don't want to hold a grudge anymore, or because you want to move on, then it's not really forgiveness at all. He states that in order for true forgiveness to take place, both members must be willing to move past the situation. Therefore, an event requiring forgiveness is an obstruction of time. Since we live moment by moment, something that happens requiring forgiveness causes the members to stop in time, so to say, and in order to get past that, forgiveness is required, otherwise the relationship is severed. There is no possible way for you to forgive someone when they do not want forgiveness and continue the relationship.

What I'm getting out of this is that you cannot forgive someone "fully" until the relationship is restored. I'm thinking that I don't agree. Situation brought up in class: What if someone's father rapes them, the father does not own up to the raping, and the person severs communication. Then ten years down the road, because of the issue, wants to forgive the father for what he did without the father acknowledging the situation, or even if he does, it doesn't make a difference. Instinct here tells me that the relationship should not be restored because of the possible danger the restoration may cause for the person. I still think forgiveness is possible in this situation. Then again, I guess you have to ask if forgiveness and letting go of something is the same thing. See, this is why I'm confused on the whole thing! So if you have any insight to this whole mess I've just created, please do tell, and hopefully you at least sort of understood what I was talking about.

Master of the Slippery

2005-11-24T21:39:00.000-05:00

I want that printed on my tombstone.

Why you ask? Yes, yes you did ask why, so now I am answering you. You didn't say why? Well too bad, I'm answering you anyways! Ahem, because I am, indeed, the master of the slippery. For some reason I am a much better driver in the winter than I am in perfectly clear weather. As most of you know, I enjoy speeding down the road as my life flashes before my eyes with every lane change I make. Honestly, my heart races when I drive. It must be the adrenaline that I love. So yes, I drive very well in the winter. I make sure I keep my distance and have plenty of time to stop. I don't make daring moves, turns, or lane changes that could alter my life drastically if something were to go wrong. Also, our car's front tires are......crappy, so I can't rely on them to get me anywhere. The other night I picked my brother up from his new job (hahahaha I know! He works! It's a miracle. Visit him at No Frills in the produce section a knock over a few banana stands) and I was driving fairly slow down the side streets to my house and he says in a snarly tone, "Why are you driving so slow?" So I reply sweetly, "Because it's slippery dearest brother". He says, "Pffttt it's not slippery. You're just slow!" So, being the wonderfuly loving and bestest sister ever, I slam on my brakes and sharply turn onto our street, and as we head for the lonely little tree on the corner I can see the look of terror in his eyes well up. Of course I start laughing and correct the car and continue on our slow, yet merry little way down the quaint little street and arrive safely to our immaculate estate.

So I exagerrated a bit....sue me! Wait, Joel, is that possible??? Hmmm I must watch what I say on here...it's in writing, might be taken literally. Anyways, today I was stopped at an intersection behind this dude and his chick girlfriend in their crappy little standard and the light turns green and he's not moving. (Keep in mind I had spent 45 minutes driving from King's to Masonville, a drive that takes 5 minutes in nice weather). So I was worried that I wouldn't make the light because it's the shortest ever, so I honked at him because he wasn't moving at all or doing anything. His chick friend gets mad and starts waving her hands at me, meanwhile I'm laughing my head off because his stupid car can't get through the intersection. He finally gets going and I proceed to go, but lo and behold! I get stuck! I'm thinking, "oh crap! They're going to laugh and do one of those 'I told you so' things. I better get out of here!" So I put my foot to the floor and take off like mad around the corner, using the snow to and ice to keep my momentum. It was awesome! It was like a scene you would see in a movie. I couldn't help but smile at my amazing ability to maneouvre around the corner.

Anyways, that's all for now. Goodnight!

Jokes are funny when you're the instigator

2005-11-18T18:45:00.000-05:00

hahahaha oh man. In astronomy today, the guy beside me was kind of bored and he had a remote for his laptop. So, being the genius that he is, he was trying to shut off this girl's laptop two rows in front of us but her body/arm was blocking the sensor on her laptop. So after like 10 minutes, she finally leaned back and stretched in her chair and he took the opportunity, pointed, pressed, and zap! There goes her laptop's power! Oh wow, it was hilarious! The look on her face, the expressions of the people around her, it was all too perfect! The four of us (sitting in the back row) were trying so hard not to laugh out loud. It was one of those turn around and smother your face in your arm kind of laughs. The girl beside me though, she didn't find it very funny. Come on! Lighten up.....it's funny! The only reason it was so side-splitting was because the girl wasn't typing out notes or anything. She was just using the internet to look at the professor's notes online. If it had of been someone actually typing out notes, then I would feel really bad. But since it wasn't, it's hilarious! Oh, and as a warning, I was talking to the guy and he said that he walks through the library and shuts off peoples laptops.......so those of you with one, protect your sensors.

I found a telescope in my basement today! That's exciting considering I'm in astronomy. My brother left it behind when he moved out and so now it's miiiiiiine!!! Muahahaha. But, with this snow and all, it makes it quite difficult to see the stars. Speaking of snow.....I love it! It's so fluffy and seasony. Anyways, I believe that is all for today. I left for dinner and now I lost my train of thought, so I shall end this! Good day.

Oh, I almost forgot! My parking attendant is leaving!! :( Man, no more free parking for me. This sucks. He would always give me free parking, but now he's moving to another parking lot, and alas, I am left to pay the fees. You will be missed. (hehehehe)

Fire is Fun

2005-11-14T19:17:00.000-05:00

So I went away this weekend up to Brockville to visit my boyfriend. You'll get a kick out of this one.......his name is Nathan :P Funny, eh? Anyhoo, yes, he lives in Brockville and for those of you who don't know where that is, it's 6 hours away. I must say, distance sucks and is extremely difficult, but neither of us are willing to give up at all, and I think that makes it all the better. Do you want the story? Ahhh I'm reluctant to share, but here goes:

I met Nathan back during the Christmas holidays when Michelle (my bestest friend in the whole wide world) invited me out with some people from her Bible college (Summit). We talked for awhile and then I went home and that was it for 6 months. Then back in June, he came down to hang out with Michelle and Stark (a guy also from Summit) and so the four of us went out for the night and did random things. At the very end he asked for my e-mail address (actually Stark did because he was too shy.....awwww) and we've talked everyday since. Then back at the end of September, I went up to his house for his brother's wedding ('cause he invited me) and that weekend, we decided to "date" for lack of a better word. So there you go, there's the story with very little detail and such.

Anyways, this past weekend (Thursday-Sunday) I went up to visit him 'cause he came down here the last couple times. So yes, it was a great weekend, despite the fact that I got sick and ended up taking some gravol and sleeping for 3.5 hours on Saturday.....so that sucked. But we did lots of random things....like drive to Kingston for no apparent reason, which was fun. Man, people are dangerous on the 401! I was doing close to 140km/h and this girl was right on my butt. I was surpised because you shouldn't even ride that close in the city. If I had of slammed on the brakes, or even stopped a little bit for that matter, she would have been through my trunk and it was a rental car, too. So on to why my blog is titled as it is. We're both kind of pyros, so we had this great idea to do random things with fire. So we went down to a campsite and used the firepit there. Since it's fall though, we had to clear away all the leaves around the area, just to be safe. He had 1000 matches and so grounded up the heads of them into a powder and filled a film canister with them, then took a rag and soaked it in paraphine oil and lit it as a fuse. It made this pretty sweet fireball! Then we chucked a lighter in the fire and it exploded. Don't worry, we stood back far enough not to die! We poured some paraphine oil on the fire and that created some heat! It was cool because the fire would swirl around the inside of the pit and looked like the actual pit was on fire. It was really neat. Then we also took a lighter and unscrewed the top of it, then took another lighter and lit the first one on fire and once it burned far enough down, it would create this massive stream of fire and you could throw it and then it would look like a streak of fire through the air. I think that's all we did. At any rate, fire is fun!

So, my train left at 11:48am on Sunday and I almost missed it! Literally, I jumped on and then they shut the door and left. It was a close one at that. So our goodbye was extremely short. It's always difficult to come back to reality and hate that. I had a 2.5 hour lay over in Toronto, so that sucked because I was feeling like crap. I walked around the underground city a bit and that quickly ended since I was carrying all my stuff. Everyone thinks that Union Station is overwhelming and intimidating. I don't find that though. I don't know why. I don't think it's too big or anything. It's entertaining because it gives you something to do while waiting, whereas in London all you can do is sit and watch that little TV screen of Touched by an Angel, or good ol' David Suzuki. Anyways, I must be off.

The Gray Zone

2005-11-09T12:37:00.000-05:00

For Social Justice and Peace Studies (SJP) we had to read an article called The Gray Zone by Primo Levi. He states that in Nazi Germany during WWII in the concentration camps, there is no clear defining line between persecutors and victims. Here's a little history for you:

While the Jews and others who were hearded into these concentration camps had to endure the horrendous conditions and many ultimately faced starvation, some were also forced to kill their fellow Jews, gypsies, etc. Within, they had these Special Squads (SS) who were the ones doing the mass killings. At first, they mainly consisted of the Nazis, but soon, they were comprised of Jews with the supervision of the Nazis. What the Nazis did was they carefully examined the prisoners and then picked the most vulnerable and the ones they thought were likely to collaborate and do what the Nazis told them. So essentially, the idea behind this was to dehumanize the Jewish people even further to the point where they were willing to kill themselves. Now members of the SS were segregated from the rest of the prisoners and were kept away from the ouside world as well. The purpose for being in such a position was A) it bought a little more time, allowing a glimpse of hope for survival, and B) there were certain privileges such as getting a little bit more to eat than other prisoners (emphasis on little because it would only amount to maybe a ladel more soup, if that, and if you can call it soup).

The members of the SS were utlimately killed every so often. Meaning they would have one SS, and then a week later (that's just my number...it's not specified in the article) a second SS was formed who would go in and kill the first SS in order to keep confidentiality and to prevent witnesses from later telling of the events that took place.

So, where does the gray zone come in? Well the gray zone is neither the victims nor the persectors. The gray zone consists of those who began as the victims, but turned into the persecutors (so basically the Jews who were members of the SS). Levi says that we cannot judge them because no one knows what they would do in that situation. Well, I'm going to go ahead and say that I really don't think I could knowingly kill hundreds of people just to survive. Not with this kind of knowledge at least. Death would seem much sweeter than the mere chance of survival, and if in fact I did escape death, the emotional, psychological, mental, etc. distress that I would have to live with afterwards. It just does not seem worth it. Granted, yes, this is speaking from the comfort of my bedroom and my secure little world.

Looking at this from an apodictic moral standpoint, one would conclude that it does not matter, they killed another human being, and not by accident either; it was purely for personal gain. But, I think that this whole situation should be looked at more casuistically. Desperation pretty much erodes any sense of moral judgement. Who can say what they would do in that situation? Man, just thinking about the inhumane things these people witnessed on a daily basis while being subjected to the murder of their fellow beings, it's inconceivable. Not to mention being forced out of your home for things that were pretty much inherent. "I was born Jewish, or I have brown hair, or darker skin, therefore I must die". Gee, that doesn't seem very uplifting. Being Jewish, I'm sure they were wondering where God was in all of this. Therefore their whole basis for morality was probably thrown right out the window and survival was the main focus of the collectives in the Lagers (as Levi calls them).

I'm still not sure where I stand on this whole issue. Whether they can be catagorized as victims, or persecutors, or if Levi is on to something with this gray zone, I'm not sure. I'm leaning towards agreeing with Levi, but it is still difficult to ignore that they did have a choice. But then on the other hand, their whole construction of the world had been severed and then reconstructed to form this sick and twisted reality that was created for them. I don't know. The whole thing is rather disturbing and it is hard to conceive that human beings, people that share 99.9% of the same genes as us, were brutalized in this way, including every other mass genocide, ethnic cleansing or whatever other label is put on human destruction.

It's November?

2005-11-07T00:04:00.000-05:00

This is just a quick one today. The weather is simply awesome and it makes me so happy I just had to say something about it!! That's right, so if you're inside right now reading this, go outside! For those of you who are more fortunate with your laptops, I suggest sitting outside, as long as you have wireless that is. You're probably wondering why I am inside and not enjoying it right now as well. I have waaaaay too much work to catch up on, and I am wasting time at this very moment. Oh well! Man, if my dad didn't take our camera on his trip, I'd post a picture of it. The trees around my house are all yellow and it looks awesome against the back drop of a perfectly blue sky. Usually we have at least one day where it's snowed, but not this year! I wish that it would snow for all of December just to get into the whole feeling of Christmas (yes, I know it has nothing to do with the true meaning of Christmas, but I still like the seasony feeling of it all) and then once that's over, it would all melt and be nice again! But alas, taking astronomy, I know how the seasons work, and it's definitely not that way. Anyways, I need to go write an essay for Religious Studies since I won't have time 'cause I'm away this weekend!! Whoohoo!! :) Goodbye!

P.S. My dad called yesterday and he said he woke up to pouring snow in Colorado! Ha ha sucker! :P (I'm such a loving daughter!!)

Okay

2005-10-30T12:04:00.000-05:00

Okay, my apologies for yesterday's post. Like I said, I was in a bad mood....not the best time to be saying things!

Anyways, we went to church this morning, minus my dad because he's down in Colorado Springs on vacation.......just kidding, it's for work. Well, for the first half I really didn't see the point in being there. Singing the same old songs in the ridiculously high key ranges, listening to yet another message. So I just sat there during worship, barely singing, and going off into my own little world. I was tired of doing the same old motions and not really connecting with God, so I figured why am I going to just "pretend" I was into the worship and "feeling" God when I'm not? My thinking is it's not about the motions, it's not about looking spiritual or just putting on an act. It's about relationship and if I'm not at a great place, I'm not going to pretend I am because I'm in church. Church is supposed to help you grow in your faith, not sugar coat it.

But my attitude changed during the sermon. Pastor Greg is still doing his series on faith. The first couple weeks I don't feel helped me a whole lot because I'm passed the basic belief in whether God is real or not. But this week he talked about actually applying it to your life and beginning an actual relationship with God. This is more what I was looking for. He referred to the two Greek words for the English word "word" which are logos and rhema (I think that's what it is.....going by memory here). Logos means the actual word....so the Bible is the Word of God....it's what God said, whereas rhema is the application of the word, so taking the logos of God, and applying it as the rhema. Does this make sense? I'm hoping I'm explaining it right!

So yeah, that really stood out to me because right now I'm searching to find out how to not just go through the "motions" but to actually mean them and get to that place where it's no longer in my head, but in my heart. It's really hard I must say! I had a conversation with my b/f the other day about how it's easy to look spiritual by raising your hands, closing your eyes, waving flags, etc. and thinking that by doing this, you're connecting with God. Being able to list the things you do that are spiritual and thinking that, because of them, you have some deep relationship with God. But I think that it's not about looking like anything. It's about the heart, and I don't want to get caught up in the outward appearance in church, or anywhere for that matter, of being spiritual. Look at Jesus, he didn't care what anyone said about the things he did because he knew that they were all done in obedience to God, not because he wanted people to think he was holy.

Anyways, those are my thoughts for the day. I'm off to the train station to get an ISIC card....sweet discounts for my travels! hehe have a good day everyone! :)

Stupid Blog

2005-10-29T23:26:00.000-04:00

I've decided I hate blogging. Why? I don't know, I just do. I can't come up with anything important to say and I hate writing. I always have all these thoughts going on but can never figure out how to arrange them in a clear and concise manner. Which brings me to my next point of how much I hate essays. Right now I am working on part of an essay for a group. That has to be the worst thing ever because there's so much pressure and I am no writer at all! I'm more sciency. At least, I get better grades in sciences than anything else. But anyways, you don't want to put wrong information in for the essay or screw it all up for the rest of the group. Bah, I hate it.

Well, I don't really have anything positive to say right now, but for some reason I just felt I had to write something. Maybe I should end this entire blog. I never really write. I've learned something....many many times to say the least....I learned that you should never make decisions when you're mad. The other day I went to roll the car window down to chuck my discman out it because it wouldn't stop skipping, but luckily I stopped myself because I would have regretted that decision for sure! But anyways, I shall leave you now. I'm having one of those horribly bad days, but for no real reason at all. It kinda sucks.

P.S. Don't forget to set your clocks back an hour.....mmmmm sleep.

P.P.S. For all you who keep criticizing me on my whole music thing, you can stop. I still have my CDs. Why? Because I'm terrible and I don't really care anymore and I've gotten some comments from friends who say I'm turning into "that" Christian. Wanna criticize me for letting peoples opinions stop me? Go right ahead.

Quit hammering nails in my head!

2005-10-17T13:49:00.000-04:00

Muahaha that is me playing Nothing Else Matters by Metallica....good song.

So anyways, ever since Monday I have had this horrible headache, hence the title of this blog. They weren't even migraine headaches, just horrible pressure where you feel like your head is going to explode. Yeah, fun stuff, eh. No, not really. Everyone kept telling me I had a brain tumour....it's good to have friends....*note sarcasm. So I went to the doctor yesterday and she got me to do all these funny things like jump and down and touch my nose with my eyes closed and stuff. I think she was checking for vertigo. So now I'm on sweet medication! Yah!!

I don't really have much to say these days. School is ridiculously busy, but I still love it. I find it hard to balance school, work, socializing and sleep. Oh right, the doctor also told me to take naps during the day....hahaha I don't have time for that! Who's she kidding. So yeah, I find second year is a HUGE change from first. I feel like I have more time, but then again, like I have eight times as much work.

I've decided I don't like my Minority Groups class. The text book is horrible. I find it's hard to understand what they are talking about because I think they just used about the biggest words they could find to describe things and I'm not very good at English in the first place, so that's a challenge. Also, they just ramble on about crap that I really don't care about. Like, "we can't look at racism on the surface, we have to dig deeper and find out how it is constructed, and then once we figure that out, we must learn when this occured, and then why it happens and how it links to everything else in the world..." Okay, so that's not what they actually said, but it might as well be. This is what I hate about University, you can spend all your time learning about issues in the world, but no time trying to fix it. Yes, I understand you have to know the root of the problem to fix it, but really, do we care about a million different theories that some dead people constructed that never worked? Not really. So what's the point of learning about it? Bah, whatever.

Before I end this, here's some good Christian music I've discovered:
- Spoken - they just released a new CD
- P.O.D. - yes I know they're not new, but I never really listened to them before
- Blindside - I've listened to them for awhile and they're still good
- Falling Up - I just got into them
- Kutless worship CD - is good
- 12 Stones - are alright, not as heavy as I like sometimes though
- Skillet - I don't own their stuff right now, but I listened to them at a friend's and they're good

I Can't Believe I'm Doing This

2005-10-06T20:18:00.000-04:00

Okay.

I cannot believe that I'm doing this. No no, it's nothing really big, well, to me it is, but for you, probably not so much. I've decided to get rid of some of my music. I was talking to a, um, friend last night and we were talking about music and such and how he only owns Christian music. I had thought about my music collection before and I realized that I don't have all that much Christian music. So last night was like a huge revelation for me. I thought about it all day and I came to the conclusion that some of it really has to go. This is especially hard for me because I LOVE my music and not necessarily the lyrics of everything, but certain songs I think are just magnificently done and I'm not sure I can do this and part with it.

I sorted through my music binder today and created four seperate categories:

1. Christian
2. In Between (stuff that cannot be classified under either, such as Creed, LotR soundtrack, etc.)
3. Non-Christian (3DD, Linkin Park, Pilate, Audioslave, etc.)
4. Bad (stuff that includes swearing pretty much)

I have 70 CDs in total, and here's how the categories break up:

1. Christian: 18 CDs
2. In Between: 10 CDs
3. Non-Christian: 31 CDs
4. Bad: 11 CDs

Right now I am focusing on those 11 CDs categorized as "bad". For the most part, I'm okay with parting with those except for a couple CDs which are just killing me because I REALLY do NOT want to get rid of them. Here's how that group breaks down even further:

1. Green Day - American Idiot
2. Matthew Good Band - Beautiful Midnight
3. A mixed burned CD with some bad stuff (such as Missy Elliot....ewww)
4. Another mixed burned one with various swearing songs
5. Breaking Benjamin - We Are Not Alone
6. A Perfect Circle - 13th Step
7. A Perfect Circle - Emotive
8. Pearl Jam - Ten
9. Incubus - Make Yourself
10. Alicia Keys - Songs in A Minor
11. Our Lady Peace - Clumsy

Now, the reason for this selection is simple. CDs that inlcude swearing in them in more than one song pretty much (for example, I am not including Audioslave because there is only one song on their first CD with swearing and I don't listen to that song anyways, so it's all good...in a sense). I'm alright with getting rid of all of them except for A Perfect Circle and Incubus. I don't know why, but those two have such a huge hold on me. I really like their music and I am really unsure if I can actually do this. I feel like God is calling me to, but I, in my weak human state, don't feel as if I can.

It's funny, 'cause I was talking to my parents about it and I came upstairs to do some Bible reading and I read Hebrews 4:13, which says, "...Everything is clear and lies open before him, and to him we must explain the way we have lived." That really struck me because last night I was trying so hard to justify the music I was listening to, but it just was not measuring up. And this verse made me realize that God knows all and if I can't justify it to my friend, then how can I justify it to God? I can't.

Another verse I read was Hebrews 4:15-16, "For our high priest (talking about Jesus) is able to understand our weaknesses. When he lived on earth, he was tempted in every way that we are, but he did not sin. Let us, then, feel very sure that we can come before God's throne where there is grace. There we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it." Oh boy, I sure need it! This was also a comfort to me and somewhat of a confirmation that this is something I need to do. So yes, this was just all a bit of an epiphany last night....so I thought I would share it. Pray that I don't go back on my decision and that I obey God!

Baby Shower Part III

2005-10-03T12:23:00.000-04:00

Well, these are the last of 'em. I hope you enjoyed and I wishI could put all the other ones on, but some of them are really fuzzy and everything. Anyways, have a great day guys! :)

Note the football in the air that Mr. T just threw
Nice catch Ariel!
A little chattin', botchy ball (sp?) and football
Read above
Praying
More praying
Boy we like praying. Sweet!!
Three beautiful women! Laura, Alma and my mama

Baby Shower Part II

2005-10-03T12:07:00.000-04:00

Well, here's some more for you guys to look at. I'm glad you enjoy them!

I absolutely love this one of Seth!!
Awwww!!! :)
People....you can figure it out!
Mr. and Mrs. Terry with little Benny (as my mom calls him)
Awwwww! Mrs. T and Elyse and of course, the baby!
The whole lot of us
Nice backpack Abe. It suits ya!
Not sure what's going on there (there's you Jamie...are ya happy??!!) :)
Awww fast asleep! Man, I wish I was like that right now!

Well, sorry it took so long, but as I said before, I went away this weekend and it was amazing!! I got to sit at the head table of the wedding and everything :) I also got to drive a Mustang!! No....I didn't kill anyone. But it was pretty sweet. I wanted to test to see how fast it got up to 80km/h so we were driving in the country and I stopped the car and we counted 1.....2.....3.....GO! And I took off and it took about 6 seconds to get to 80km/h, but I don't think I was flooring it because I was a little scared since it was a rental car for the wedding and Nathan's dad wouldn't be too happy if crashed it or something! Anyways, yeah, that was great! More pics to come!

Baby Shower Part I

2005-09-28T14:05:00.000-04:00

I thought I would use this whole picture uploading thing to post some of these for you guys! There's a lot, so I'll have to make a couple, or few, posts. I don't know how to get them in the order I want, but oh well. This'll have to do. Enjoy! P.S. If you don't want your picture up here, too bad!! P.P.S. these were taken by my dad, so sorry if some of them are blurry! He doesn't quite know how to use a camera yet ;)

Awww look at Melissa!
Little baby Benjamin
Joel, Elyse and me...mmm food!
Melissa and Mrs. Grant
Nathan and Dave (he's come out of hiding!)
Food...Abe, Joel Terry, Mrs. Terry, Mr. Grant, Mr. Terry and Mr. Timmerman
Jamie and my mother
Mrs. Timmerman, and yep, that's my mom!!
Joel Terry, Richard and apparently me
Celia, Joel is hiding, and Richard. I'm guessing that's half of Zachary too!

These Days

2005-09-28T13:35:00.000-04:00

This would be Nate, Kev and my dad at the Fox
My dad thinks he knows what he's doing!

And he goes for the swing!!

Not sure what happened with this one, but there's Nate showing his skills!

I never knew you could do pictures!! This is great!! haha

Well, I don't have much to say, really. I'm going away this weekend to Brockville (up by Ottawa) from Thursday to Sunday to visit my friend. His brother's getting married so I get to go to that! I like weddings! Anyways, so I've been busy these past few days getting ahead on school work so I don't have to worry about it. Speaking of school, I'm still pretty much loving it. I particularly enjoy my Religious Studies class because I'm learning a lot about the Bible and challenging my professor because he doesn't believe the Bible to be 100% true, so that's interesting. Also it helps with studying the Bible and being able to pick apart little things and really disect the Scriptures to understand their true meaning. Sometimes I get in the habit of just skimming it, and so this acts as a focus for me.

For my Social Justice class I have to do volunteer work with a group and we just got our placememts yesterday, so I am at the Y.O.U. Youth Opporunities Unlimited, I believe. I don't really know much about it yet, so I'll let you know how things go with that. It didn't really matter to me which place I got, but I had a couple I know I did not want to get put in and that was the L'Arche one because my heart isn't really for the disabled community, although I do have compassion for them and believe in treating them fairly, but I'm not sure I could work there; and also the Cross-Cultural one, also because my heart's not there either. I don't really care to help immigrants get settled in London. Again, I have nothing against them, I just don't feel I'm the right kind of person to work there. I'm not one for patience, as you all probably know.

On a different note, I rear-ended a car the other day. Quiet! It was NOT my fault! Well, I'm sure you law people would argue it's my fault, but technically it wasn't. I was going through the University and I had the green light, but some woman pulled out in front of me and slammed on her brakes, so I had to slam on mine, but the brakes in our new car aren't the greatest and I didn't stop in time and so I hit her. Not really hard, but just enough to jolt her car forward. There was no damage or anything. In fact, she didn't even get out of her car, she just glanced in the mirror and kept driving. Boy, she's lucky she didn't because I probably would have bitten her head off! All you drivers out there, ya don't do that! Why she slammed on her brakes I don't even know. I should have shot out her tires or something. She doesn't deserve to drive if she's going to pull out in front of people like that, especially when I had the right-of-way.

Yep. That's all!

Time Flies

2005-09-13T13:46:00.000-04:00

Yes, yes it does. I'm in second year? What? But I swear I just started university! It feels weird to be older than people now. I'm not sure why, but it does. Now I don't have an excuse for not knowing my way around, although, I've never actually had a problem with that.

Well, classes have now begun and frankly, I'm excited! Working with kids for the past 4 months full-time has just turned my brain to mush. The question of the day will no longer be, "Do you have to go potty?", or, "Here, let me wipe the snot off your face", for if I were to say that at school, I'm sure I'd get a few looks. Well, I had to go to the Academic Dean's office and get a few things straightened out since they switched one of my classes on me (Soc. 239, social inequality, the one I really really wanted!) so now I can't take that until next year and I have astronomy instead. haha yes I know, a bit of a difference, but I need a science credit to graduate, and this class has actually become the one I look forward to most, except for the fact that it is a 1st year class. That's kinda weird. I don't know why, but I've noticed their significant level of immaturity. But I'm sure all you who are ahead of me feel the same way about the people in my year.....so it all balances out...sorta. ANYways, my astronomy class is on Main, and I never really realized just how big the campus is until I had to find the building and parking, etc. Although I was quite disappointed at the size of the class because there is less people in it than in some of my classes at King's and I was a little curious as to know what it would be like to attend a larger class than the ones I am used to. And the building's not very nice either. Oh well. The professor is a little strange though. I noticed that when he's speaking to the class, he always looks as though he's looking out the windows at the back of the room and not the students. That bothers me a lot. But he knows what he's talking about nonetheless. There's a lot of work ahead of me for that one. 3 exams, 10 pop quizzes, readings, and 8 assignments. But that's okay. I get to stare at the sky and actually know what I'm looking at.....so there's a bonus. We were talking about scales yesterday and wow, I just can't rap my head around just how big the universe is. It's crazy! If I could post the pictures from my text I would because it's so mind boggling; very interesting, I must say.

One thing I'm excited about, for my religious studies class (101a, 102b) my text book is the Bible! I think that's cool 'cause if any of you have seen my house, we own at least 14 Bibles. BUT, the downside, well I shouldn't classify it as a downside, but I have to read pretty much the whole Old Testament in the next 4 months. You know how much reading that is on top of everything else?! Oh well. Maybe I'll learn something important that I never knew before, which is highly likely. But I'm looking forward to that class as well, especially since my prof. likes me from last year because I always participated in his class and actually knew something about religion, so that's decent.

I can't believe how much they charge for parking. It's ridiculous! I parked for a little over an hour and I had to pay $4.50. Stupid rip off. And I have class on Main 3 times a week. I think I'll take advantage of that "free" bus pass. Yes, I know that was random.

When I was walking to class yesterday morning from my van (I strategically parked 2 blocks down so that I could go over the time limit and not get charged.....like last year....hahaha I almost got away with parking in a 1 hour for 3 hours for a whole year, but then I got a ticket right at the end) there was this old lady lying on her front walkway bleeding. There were about 3 or 4 other people there helping, so I stopped and asked if everything was alright and they said that she tripped and fell; and since there were already people there I kept on going to class because I couldn't do anything else and it wouldn't be very nice to formulate a crowd. But the ambulance showed up and everything and when I passed her house on the way back to my van, there was blood all over her sidewalk. I hope she's okay.

Anyways, I should probably do some reading. I hope everyone else is enjoying school, and/or work, and those who are overseas, whatever you're doing! Have a great day!

To be or not to be.....it's a terrible question

2005-08-12T15:47:00.000-04:00

I wrote earlier about what was up for me this summer and all, but I decided I would post this one seperately. I was talking to my friend on Monday night (no one knows him and he lives in Ottawa, so don't worry, you don't know him) and he's usually pretty depressed and doesn't really like his life all that much, because, from his side of things and what I hear, his parents aren't really the nicest people to live with. I can't say for sure if they are or aren't, I kind of have to go with what he says. But he was saying on Monday that he was having really bad thoughts of suicide and that he really just did not want to live anymore because of all the stuff he puts up with at home and in social settings and all that. Well, this kind of freaked me out because he had never actually talked about suicide before, even though he told me awhile ago that he had attempted to kill himself in grade 7. The thing is, I noticed that he seemed to be unusually unhappy these days when he was telling me how he liked to ride his bike around and do dangerous stuff because he didn't care if he got hurt because it numbed his emotional pain. I thought that he was just looking for attention and all that, so I gave it to him because I'd rather be safe then sorry. You know, I'd rather be generous and taken advantage of then not help someone when I could of if they were really in trouble because I just wasn't "sure".

So on Monday, he started saying how he had absolutely no reason to live and that he couldn't get back on track with God and he had nothing to give him any sense of hope or purpose in life. What do you say to something like that? I had such a hard time responding to him, but I just let him know that God hasn't abandoned him and that I'm still friends with him and all that.

I got to thinking, you know how people say that suicide is selfish and they're not thinking about the ones they're leaving behind? Well you know what, it may seem selfish to us and all, but think of they're position. Obviously something is very wrong in their life for contemplating or achieving death, and a person who is thinking about killing themselves, certainly doesn't feel they have any reason to live, so why would they care if they've left people behind? Some of them feel abandoned by their family anyways, and the physical pain they would feel is minimal compared to the emotional pain they endure day to day. My friend whom I was talking about is such a nice guy. I mean, he's very encouraging and always seems to put me above himself and goes above and beyond to try and help me sometimes, yet if he's a victim of suicide, he's automatically labelled selfish. That doesn't seem right to me. I think that just day after day of dealing with everything he tells me he deals with is enough to drain a person and wear them down to a point where they feel they don't have the strength to put up with it anymore.

And also, those who only attempt to commit suicide because of some deperate cry for help, should be given help. Many people who know someone who does that thinks that they're just being dramatic or something. I remember in high school my friend had attempted suicide and everyone just said that she wants attention and made fun of her and ignored the whole incident, and personally, I don't think that's beneficial at all. I think that they should be given attention and maybe if people would actually take the time to figure out what the problem is, a life could be saved, or turned around. The fact is, many people ignore the signs of suicide because they just don't want to become involved, or take time out of their day to help someone out, or stand out of the crowd and do something for someone out of pure generosity.

I think also we take for granted the people we have. When he told me that, I was a little shocked and felt very pressured because he said I'm the only reason he's living right now because I always try and help him, and he said that I'm the only one who's listens to his problems and actually cares. So for me, that was a little overwhelming since I had no clue what to do. The conversation ended kind of rough and he said he was going off to bed. So the next day, he never showed up on the computer, or talked to me whatsoever, and that freaked me right out. I realized then how much a person means to you when they're gone. It was completely out of character for him not to be on msn because he always was. He's one of those people you can fully count on. So when he never showed up, it was very unusual. The next day came and went and still no sign of him. I e-mailed him and everything and still no contact, so the obvious went through my mind and I think I prayed a million times in those couple days because I knew he would do it if he was serious about it. So finally after 3 days, he talked to me and said that he had been kicked out of his house because his mom rearranged everything in his room and he didn't like it or something, so she told him to leave. That's his side anyways.

But just during those 3 days, it made me realize that everyone in my life, is so important to me, and I don't know what I would do without them. I think we take those close to us for granted sometimes because they're always there. Rarely do we experience their absence, and only in their absence are we truly grateful for them. Maybe some of you are different, but for me, I find I appreciate a person the most when they aren't there. For instance, my dad is gone right now and only in these last couple weeks have I realized how much he does for me everyday, but if he had of been here, I wouldn't have known that or been as appreciative as I am now.

It's been awhile

2005-08-12T15:00:00.000-04:00

Well hello there everybody!

I haven't blogged in awhile, and again, I still haven't discovered anything important, or worth my while to blog about besides random pieces of information and what's been going on. Lets see, all I do is work. Yup. I actually like it though because I know everything that is going on all the time in the daycare and most of the kids love me because I'm the one who's consistently there, so that's kind of comforting to have that security in my job. But on the other hand, Goodlife is THE WORST company to work for. I'm supposed to be promoting it and all, but I tell you, never work for them. We now have no manager, and our assistant manager is leaving next week, Patch (founder of Goodlife) poked his head in the daycare the other day to try and tell me how to do my job (which he knows absolutely nothing about by the way) and so that was annoying and aggravating since he was a jerk about it and all. I'd like to see him work a shift in the daycare! Stupid Patch. Anyways, also they tried to cut down staff and how many people work at a time....stupid idea since we're understaffed anyways, and now our budget is down to $14 a month for supplies, and they're taking away the one thing that attracts people to come: the cage and the sportswall. It's this thing where the sensors light up and the kids wack them, or they can just play ball in there or whatever. Enough about work.

Lets see, what else is going on?? Oh, my dad went to Peru for 2 weeks, so it's been just the 3 of us. I've found we get along quite well! Apparently in Lima it's just like Manila with all the pollution and dirtiness type-a deal, so my dad's eye has been bothering him and he pretty much has to keep it shut. He bought a digital camera before he went away, so we'll have to show some pictures of Peru or something.

I'm really looking forward to school. I can't wait to get back into the whole routine thing and back into learning and stuff. Don't you worry, within a couple months I'll be back complaining how much I don't want school and blah blah blah. But I'm getting a little tired of working with kids allllll the time. I babysit on top of my job, so it's just non-stop with the kids. If I had a couple, fine, but the fact that I see like 30 everyday is just a little too crazy. People have been telling me lately that I seem drained and they're probably right. So yeah, I want school to come and I want to buy my books! My plan is to get my books at least a week early, that way I can start reading and try and keep ahead for as long as possible to make it easier. But I need the booklist to be out because some of my classes don't have any books listed for them yet.

I also want school to come because that means my best friend will be coming home and she hasn't really been home for the past year, so I'll be thrilled to have her around this year! Well, I think that's about it. Good day!

Courses

2005-07-16T14:53:00.000-04:00

Well, I signed up for all my courses yesterday. I have to remember to pay my deposit though....that was just a reminder to myself! Anyways, so this is what my schedule looks like so far:

Monday: Religious Studies (a study of the New Testament) - 9:30-11:00am

Tuesday: Sociology (Social Inequality) - 8:30-11:30am (it's at Brescia though)
Social Justice and Peace Studies - 6:00-9:00pm

Wednesday: Religious Studies (same one) - 9:30-11:00am
Social Justice and Peace Studies (different one) - 6:00-9:00pm

Thursday: Sociology (Minority Groups) - 3:30-6:30pm

Friday: OFF!!!!!!!

Hahahaha that's twice in a row I've managed to get Fridays off! I'm happy about that! That really helps with work though. So yes, that is my schedule. I also have to do some volunteer work for SJP, so I think that I'm going to try to get into Compassion Canada and do something there since I am hoping to work there some day, if possible. Anyways, have a great weekend everyone! :)

Question

2005-07-07T13:39:00.000-04:00

Hello everybody! This isn't going to be a typical post....in fact, it's not really a post at all. I just had a question and I can't seem to figure out the answer to it, so I thought I'd raise it to you all and see what you think.

I was just wondering, is it better to spend time with God everyday no matter what, even if your heart isn't in it; or to to keep doing it even if it feels like it's only being done out of routine, or some dutiful act or something? For example, if throughout your readings, or prayers, you're just grumbling and not wanting to do it or getting anything out of it, would it be better to just not do it, and wait until you're heart is in it, or do it anyways? Because in the Bible, isn't there a situation where the people are doing all these "right" things and everything, but their hearts weren't in the right place, so God got mad? I may be completely off on that one, but for some reason I'm remembering that. Anyways, hopefully someone can help me out. See you all!

Lots to Learn

2005-06-16T13:39:00.000-04:00

WOW! I had an amazing conversation with one of the women I work with today. She's Muslim and I'm Christian and we were just going at it back and forth about what we believe and justifying what we believe and everything. We weren't angry at one another or anything. There was a bit of yelling and passion in our conversation, but it was great! We talked about everything such as Jesus, heaven/hell, the resurrection, the Old Testament/New Testament, baptism, man I can't remember everything. It was so cool though because I learned a lot about myself and what I believe versus what others believe, even different sects of Chrsitianity.

One thing I did learn though is that I know so little about my faith. At times I was having such a hard time defending myself because I just don't know enough. But the thing is, I want to start to study about it more because before I just read the Bible, but I never take it in and piece things together and really take it to heart. It's more of a dutiful act. I also want to learn more about other religions and what they believe so that I have a deeper understanding of where they come from, such as Christadelphians because one of the other girls I work with is Christadelphian and they are coming from a completely different background if you really look at the fundamentals. It's the same with Catholocism. Everyone says Christianity and Catholocism are one in the same, but I really don't believe that because there are fundamental differences that make a huge difference between Christianity and Catholocism.

Anyways, I just thought it was such an eye opening experience for me and my faith and I really need to know where I stand on everything and take it seriously because it is serious and I can't just go around believing what everyone tells me and not being able to back it up. I believe the Bible to be 100% true, but I need to be able to justify why, and telling people "just because" doesn't suffice. So yeah, that was my revelation for the day.

"But what if.....?"

2005-06-15T21:39:00.000-04:00

You know what I think is genius? Even if it is mean and cruel and manipulative? Any guesses? Nope, you're wrong. It's the media. Man, those people are so smart! You may be thinking exactly what my professor would speak about in my SJP class, how the media is terrible and all that fun stuff. But if you really think about, they're smart! Sure, they manipulate people and everything, but they accomplish their goals quite effectively. I think the media's biggest tactic used is playing on peoples' fears. I was watching TV the other day (surprise surprise) and there was this Tylenol commercial on. They had this woman talking about how she was taking Advil and how it was bad for your stomach and that she was having stomach problems because of it, and then at the end they're like, "Tylenol works without the stomach pain" or something like that. I am no medical doctor by any means, maybe Advil really is bad for your stomach, I don't know. But I thought it was funny how they were using the strategy of making people afraid to continue using Advil. It may be a low blow to the Advil company, or not a very honest advertisement, but you have to give them credit because I bet there will be so many people switching to Tylenol because they start thinking, "hmmmm....I have a stomach ache. *gasp* I took Advil today! The commercial must be right!" Maybe that's a bit exaggerated, but still. You'd be surprised how many people get sucked into these things.

I have no energy right now (work is killin' me!) to even try to make this post "intellectual" or anything like that because I know this is such a huge topic, but I figured I'd just write that down while I was thinking about it. So hey, if you people want to make it into a big thing, go right ahead! I'm always interested in hearing everyone's opinion on the media.

9 Days

2005-05-24T14:26:00.000-04:00

Well, I mentioned earlier that I was going to post my thoughts on my upcoming birthday. Why you ask? As some of you may remember (or not, that's fine) I am turning 19. The big 1-9. The day when I can legally become a chain smoker and an alcoholic. Whoohoo! *note sarcasm. A couple of you posted awhile back about drinking and Christianity and the such. I don't believe I ever contributed to the conversation/debate, and since I'm going to be 19 in 9 days (hence the title), I figured I'd tell you firsthand my thoughts on that and why I came to my decision.

First of all, no I'm not going to smoke. That's like sticking a sign on my forehead that says, "Cancer welcome here!". My parents were both very big smokers up until about 30ish and I've learned from them that it's a waste of money (especially since it's up to like 8-9 dollars a pack....talk about an expensive way to kill yourself!) and it's definitely not worth the health risks and the horror of trying to quit if you ever wanted to. [Trust me, it wasn't fun when my parents quit ;)] Anyways, so don't worry about that.

About the drinking. Now this is a big one. Maybe none of you will be surprised to hear this, and maybe you will; knowing my parents and what they think of drinking, it's not surprising to me. But personally, I have no problem with drinking. It's not as simple as that though. I wouldn't go out and get plastered or anything like that because I think that is fairly irresponsible on my part, especially being a girl since so many guys nowadays are, well, jerks. I've heard too many stories from friends about how guys would be extremely forward with them, to say the least, at the club. Therefore, if I ever went to a bar or something, I don't think I would go without a trusted male escort (i.e. my boyfriend) because I think it's a good protection.

My parents don't have any problem with drinking repsonsibly (like I said before, not getting drunk or something) and I also share that value. They drink beer and wine and stuff around the house and it's very casual. I grew up with beer in the house, in fact, there's a 12 pack downstairs, so it's nothing new to me. I already told my parents that I'm going to drink, but I also let them know that I'm not stupid either. For instance, I have my G2 which means that I cannot drive under any circumstance with a blood alcohol level higher than 0. And I never would. "I'm fine to drive" will never EVER come out of my mouth unless I haven't had anything to drink because that would probably be the stupidest thing I could ever do. My friend crashed his car in high school because he was drunk and I was furious with him for making such a STUPID decision. He's lucky no one was hurt, except for the tree he hit.

Many of you have your reasons for not drinking and you know what? I'm very respectful of that because it's hard to do in this day and age and I'm very proud that you guys have stuck with your decision and stood up for yourselves. I am not going to drink to conform to the rest of the world, which is, I guess, what I am doing. It's just that personally, I don't see a problem with responsible drinking. There have been alcoholics in my family in the past, but I don't fear that happening to me because I truly believe that I'm responsible enough to control the amount I consume and my behaviour. One of my friends told me that on my 19th birthday I have to drink so much that I puke. Why? I can't even comprehend the reason for trying to throw up! I don't like the fact that if I drink too much, I'm not in control. If you all know me really well, you'll know that I can be very controlling (just ask my dad about the TV remote!) and to let something control me in that way is completely out of character.

I also don't think drinking is against the Bible or anything like that. Like some people have stated, Jesus turned water into wine and the such. But I don't think that Jesus was out back getting drunk with the 12 disciples! Therefore, I believe it's all about responsibility.

I hope that my thoughts are clear, and if not, feel free to state your opinion or to ask questions and stuff because if I can't argue my side, then obviously I'm not completely sure on why I have made this decision.

Reflection

2005-05-03T13:47:00.000-04:00

While out the other day with a friend, we got on the topic about people's gifts/talents, etc. It got me thinking. I think that everyone should do a reflection of themselves to figure out what they're good at, what they like doing (even if they suck at it) and what others see in them. It can be fairly difficult to assess yourself completely because there are probably many areas in one's life that they never thought of as a gift, or a talent. For instance, this friend was talking about all the gifts that they saw in someone else, but said that they, on the other hand, only had three. I was a little surpised that they could only come up with three, so after they listed the three, I was able to say several others just off the top of my head. The biggest one being that that person is very good at encouraging others and seeing the good in people. They did not think, or realize for that matter, that that could be a gift/talent. So, my point is, it's important for everyone to think about and know what they are good at, and for others to tell them if they notice a talent in someone else.

Our Faith "group" used to do blessings and things for people. At first, I thought that it was kind of "churchy" and not really my thing. But after the first one we did, I realized that it was a pretty good idea. Why don't people do these all the time? It's amazing that a group of close friends and family can get together and encourage a person and tell them how special they are and the good in them. When we did one for the four of us who were graduating, I found it very uplifting, and actually really surprising. Some things that people mentioned about me I never thought of before, or I never really realized that it was a gift unique to my personality.

Something I think is as equally important as constructive talents (that's what I call them...not really sure if there's an "official" title) such as welding, building things, fixing things, etc. is abstract talents (again, that's my labelling) such as being nice, encouraging, helping, listening, etc. People don't seem to think about these things very much, or even think that they are talents given to them. To me, these abstract qualities are really important to focus on. For instance, noticing the good in people. Not everyone has this talent. Sometimes it's difficult to think of something positive about someone you hate, and some people aren't good at saying something positive about people they love. But then there are those that can see the good in everyone, even if they haven't known them for very long. I think this is an extraordinary talent, because I tend to be, er, not very good when it comes to thinking positive about certain people, or expressing how I feel for that matter! But my point, if I have one even, is that we should focus on our personalities, or abstract qualities, just as much as focusing on the constructive talents we have. I think people notice these more.

So, think about being positive today and encouraging someone in something they are doing. Chances are they don't even realize they are good at it. Like really, what bad can come out of being nice?

Have a good one! :)

Done AND done!

2005-04-28T19:25:00.000-04:00

That's right! I have now completed my first year of university and I'm so happy to be done! Now all I have to focus on is work. Whoohoo!!!

Lets see, what did I learn over the course of the year? Hmm...not much. No, just kidding. I'm sure I learned a lot. I pretty much enjoyed all my classes, or the readings at least. My geography professor was SO boring, so I didn't go a whole lot to that one (but don't worry, I still did really well in the course); sociology was good...I'm going to be minoring in it, just for the heck of it I guess, except Prof. Hammond was kind of dry sometimes, but the readings I really enjoyed; social work, I didn't mind the lectures, but the readings were bad and I hate learning about policy crap; religious studies I liked, especially debating and stuff, but my professor's a retard, so that was interesting and there was a lot of reading and weekly tests, so the work load was a bit heavier than the others; and lastly, social justice I enjoyed a lot, especially the lectures, since I never did the readings anyways! But I am still going to stick with that as my program. I know, it sounds like I didn't care a whole lot about my classes, but I did really well, I just know how to use my time wisely and only do what I need to do.

Also, I thought that first year was a little easier than high school's grade 12 for some reason. If it's true that you're supposed to subtract 10% from your high school mark to equal your university average, well then, I'm pretty smart! So, it's not like I slacked off or anything (well maybe compared to some people), it's just I like doing things at the last minute because it helps me focus more. I also found it helpful to write out all my text notes and stuff to study from. It makes it more organized. I think first year is just a learning experience to get a feel for what you like, your study habits, what's expected from you, where everything is, etc. Someone asked me a little while back if I found it scary, and surprisingly, I didn't at all. I'm a very shy person, so I don't like new things all that much when I was in high school, but for some reason, now I feel a lot more comfortable with meeting new people and not really stressing out about anything. It's pretty cool! I found the people are a lot more accepting of people who may be "different" or not "cool". It's not as cliquey as high school was, but people do have their own groups because not everyone can be friends with everyone.

So yeah, now I have to pick my next year's courses and stuff. I really did like first year, but right now, I'm pretty much done with doing work and stuff. I can't wait for the summer and for my birthday (I'm turning 19...and I'll be explaining my thoughts on that later on when it's closer to my birthday).

That's a toughy

2005-04-25T22:24:00.000-04:00

I'm sort of starting to get a little more involved at New Hope. The thing is, though, it'll just never be the same as Faith. Ah well. So far, the church closing down has been working out for me. Yesterday I went to Paul and Julie Noad's house (sort of young adult leaders). There weren't very many people there though (I think about 7 including Joel K. and I), but it was nice to see and hang out with people again from the 40 Days of Purpose. It was just a casual hangout that included cards, Sequence, and good ol' fooseball (sp?). The girls almost beat the guys 7-10, which was pretty impressive because I thought we wouldn't even get any points! Anyways, that was that night.

This morning I woke up and my dad was home. I had forgotten he took it off, and so we started talking about what I was going to do after University and stuff (oh the joys). You know what? It's a toughy. I don't understand how people can know exactly what they want to do with the rest of their life. Mine is so general. Poverty. Yup. That's it. I don't know what I should do about it, but I do know that that's an area of interest. See, the thing is, I want to help poor people in other countries because they truly are poor. It's a matter between life or death. Here, I'm a little less sympathetic towards poor people because they have a much better chance of survival than those of third world countries. Does this mean I think third world nations deserve to be helped over those here? Not at all. I just feel that's where my heart is. It's such a hard decision to make: what to do with the rest of your life. On one hand, I want to devote myself to helping those less fortunate than the rest of us; but then on the other hand, I would absolutely love to have a family of my own. I don't work in a daycare just for a pay cheque you know! I happen to adore children. So the big question is, right now, what would I rather do, or how can I do both?

Yes, I know, I am only finishing first year. But you know, this year flew by and I imagine the rest of them will as well. So time means nothing to me right now. Life is so strange in that way. I am more confused than ever. See, here's what I'm thinking. It's a little jumbled and messed up, but bear with me. If I were to become a mother (which I so desire to do so), that means I would have to take off a lot of time away from whatever it is I'll be doing. I do not want to be one of those mothers who shoves their kids in daycare or anything like that because it is not beneficial to the children. Of course I'll socialize them, but eight hours in a facility with someone else raising them does not sound appealing to me. Therefore, I would want to stay home until they start school. So that means I would be jumping back into the workforce behind because of those "lost" years. But another possiblity would be to just be a stay-at-home mom and maybe sponser a child, or contribute my time voluntarily, or part time. Man, so many decisions to make! My dad keeps telling me "you're only 19" (in a month) and therefore I have lots of time. But I'm one of those people that likes to get decisions and stuff out of the way as soon as possible, that is, if I HAVE to make a decision, because I'm really terrible at it!

So that's that. If any of you have any suggestions or whatever, that would be cool. Goodnight all.

Vegetable Monster??

2005-04-18T21:31:00.000-04:00

I believe Joel eluded to this topic on his blog somewhere...can't remember. But man, this is annoying. They're taking away a significant character from Sesame Street! Or modifiying, rather. I think this is absolutely messed up. It's not the cookie monster that's making children obese. In case they haven't noticed...Sesame Street has been around for awhile, and the introduction of the cookie monster didn't suddenly create some epidemic of fat kids. It's that stupid Ronald McDonald that's killing everyone. Working at a daycare, I see it all the time. Kids will eat two or three cookies, maybe...but then you have regular kids coming in almost every night with McDonald's or Pizza Pizza....hmmmmm, but that's not making children fat, right? Come on. McDonald's, they're eating chicken nuggets and french fries that are made from potatoes, isn't that a vegetable? Sure it is, but they fry it in grease and then lather it with sodium. Sheesh. Maybe if parents weren't so busy with other things, they would notice that THEY'RE the ones feeding their children, so THEY should be monitoring what they eat. Get rid of fast food commercials in between Sesame Street. Maybe that would help. Besides, I grew up with the cookie monster, and he never made me fat. And if society thinks that McDonald's "healthy choices menu" are really healthy, HA! I laugh in their face. I'll tell you what they really put in those things, and how they leave them sitting out for days and then label them "fresh". Yup, sure sounds good to me.

Also, if we're in some sort of health kick generation where everything has to be low-fat, sugar-free, 0 calorie, water crescent crap, then maybe people should re-think jacking up the prices so that no one wants to eat healthier. That new fruitbowl thing at Wendy's, yeah, it costs like six or seven dollars. For fruit! I'd rather pay 3 bucks for a fattening hamburger, then at least I'd feel like I actually ate something. Well, that's my rant for the day. Anyways, enjoy yourselves!

P.S. Snuffleupagus was the best character from Sesame Street! ;)

Yet Another Random Post

2005-03-18T16:00:00.000-05:00

Well, not too much has been going on with me recently. Pretty much the same old. The good thing is that school is drawing to an end! April 4, I believe, is the last day that I have classes, and then exams begin. I'm happy to report I just received my Geography test mark back and it is the highest mark I have ever obtained in university....and I studied the day of....go figure, eh?! On the other end of the spectrum, I got my Sociology test mark back and it was the worst test I had done in that class.....but still a good mark, just not for me. It's a little scary to think that I have almost completed my first year of university. So much has happened this past 8 months.....it's pretty crazy!

Currently in my SJP class, we are talking about the global food system. Now, this just isn't a topic that interests me all that much. My professor is a vegetarian and everything and buys organic and blah blah blah....so she's very, umm, passionate about this topic I guess you could say. On the other hand, there's me. I'll pretty much eat anything that moves, comparatively speaking that is. But I LOVE meat, and my theory is that God put cows on the earth for us to eat. Why else would they be here?? I don't agree with the way animals are treated depending on what farm they come from, but I don't really care, I'll eat them. But the thing about my program is it includes a whole bunch of different topics such as militarism and food and politics, and frankly, these just aren't things I "care" about. "Care" is a very loose word because I do feel they are important topics to discuss, I guess, but that's not where my heart is, per se. I'd rather learn about homelessness and poverty. To me, those are more important issues. But I do know all these things are linked together and what not, but hey, I can't help everything! So yes, I guess it's just a matter of narrowing down what you feel most passionate about and pursuing that more specifically. I'm just so lost. I don't know exactly what degree I should get to help poor people and stuff because I don't care much about policies, which is what Social Work focuses on, and Social Justice is sooooo......I don't know.......crazy, for lack of a better word. I signed up to do an Honours Specialization in Social Justice and Peace Studies, as well as minor in Sociology, or major, can't remember. I think minor. That makes more sense. Anyways, that's what I'm signed up for for next year. *sigh* Life is so complicated!

Another thing I figured out, working out helps you feel better when you're sick! Who would of thought! I haven't been to the gym (well I have for work) in a week and a half and I was starting to feel horribly "blah" because I've had a cold, but today I decided I would work out (even though today is the worst I've felt all week) and it made me feel better! So there you have it. If you're sick, go for a run. Speaking of running, I'm working my way up! I can't run worth anything, but I sure am trying! I'm more of a sprinter. That's what I was on my track team for in high school, and I came in third once, too. Yes, I'm proud. But that was three years ago....so I'm a bit rusty. Abe, I don't know how you do those long distance things! My props to you.

Anyways, have a good weekend everyone! I hope no one got completely wrecked last night! ;) And if you did, ah well, sucks for you this morning.

Class

2005-03-02T20:45:00.000-05:00

Oh, I thought of something. Last night, I had my Religious Studies class. We were talking about the Book of Job and stuff, and all was well, until my ignorant teacher decided to be an arse. Okay, some student put up their hand and starting saying how the author of Job didn't mean for the Book to be factual, but merely metaphorical. I was half listening at this time, and this caught my attention. So I waited for my teacher to respond (being Catholic, I figured she'd disregard this comment and move one). But nnooooooo! She agreed! I was so stunned and disgusted, it's not even funny. This other guy who was sitting on the other side of the room and is obviously a Christian, was also horrified at this. We both kinda looked at each other and shook our heads. So, my Professor went on to explain how the Bible isn't completely historically accurate. And how only some of the books of the Bible are factual, where others are more like folklore. The other guy put up his hand and said, "so then that's like saying Jesus isn't historically accurate, but rather 'metaphorical'". My Professor responded, "no, Jesus was historically accurate". So then he asked, "then how do you know which books are and which aren't?" Professor: "it's a judgment call". What in the heck is that?? This made me SO mad, you cannot even understand. How can the Bible be a judgment call at what's historical and what's not? That's absolutely absurd. My Professor is now officially a moron to me, because I have no idea where she stand on anything and she's always jumping back and forth on things. It's odd.

Also, she was saying how "the Satan" in Job is not really Satan, but a being of heaven, or an angel or something. I think she's just pulling stuff out of her a** because I have no clue where she's getting this. She also was saying all this other stuff that was just so far from the truth and completely offensive to me. I couldn't believe it. If this stuff isn't making sense to you, then I'm sorry, I guess you would have had to be there to hear everything she said in order to grasp why I was so unsettled by this.

Cars

2005-03-02T20:30:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been on this kick where I REALLY want a car. I mean, I'm losing sleep over this, people. I've been searching around e-Bay and stuff, but man, I can't find anything. I don't care what it looks like (as long as it's not a Ford, because Fords SUCK!!) I just want anything that will move. The thing is, I like the idea of being able to drive over to *someone's house anytime I want, or go here or there and not have to worry about walking (because trust me, it sucks getting up and walking in a blizzard to work....doesn't make it so appealing). And you all know how much my mom loves driving.....so yeah, it would make her life a lot easier since she always drives me to and from school ( I guess I am spoiled).

Yes yes yes. I know. Cars are expensive. The insurance, the upkeep, blah blah blah......but I really really really want one!! It makes me so mad because I know I can't afford one...well, I could, but then I wouldn't be as rich as I am! Muahaha....kidding people. Easy up.

In other news, not too much new is up with me. School is slowly coming to an end (yes!) and I am hoping to get a full-time job at the school. I handed in my resume and the guy's like, "do you have your name and stuff on your resume?" I just looked at him and was wondering if he was serious, and once I realized he was, I said "of course!" Sheesh. Do they really have to tell people to put their name and everything on a resume? I mean, I may be blonde and everything, but I'm not THAT stupid.....I hope....though I've been told otherwise....*cough*....moving along. I don't really blog much anymore, because A) I spend WAY too much time on msn; and B) I have nothing relevent and/or important to say. Hence this really random post.

So yeah, the world of Aleah is still the same.....relatively speaking I guess. Yeah, it's sad when you don't post for like a month and in that span, nothing new happens. Hahahaha, oh school just sucks the life out of me! Speaking of school, I have an exam tomorrow.....I should probably get studying on that (this time I've started already....go me).

Have a frickin' good one all! ;)

Sexuality and Catholocism

2005-02-11T15:27:00.000-05:00

I didn't really know what to title this thing, so there's as close as I can get. Last night, I attended the discussion panel about contraceptives being handed out at King's College, and my personal view is that it was an awesome discussion. I must say, our president is pretty funny, and same with the residence representative. Although whenever Dr. Brody spoke, he lost me. I had no clue what he was talking about half the time. Too advanced for me. Hehe. Anyways, I thought it was great that all kinds of students showed up, from various religions and beliefs. The panelists, I thought, argued, or presented rather, their reasons for banning contraceptives from being distributed by the Catholic school very well.

A few reasons I picked up on was pretty much the sanctity of marriage and how sex should be between two people who love each other and are married, for a couple of reasons:

1. It prevents having children being born into an unstable or unprepared family, basically. It makes the conditions of raising a child much worse if the two people aren't married or even know each other very well.

2. It presents the spreading of STDs. This is because if two people have sex when they're married, and only when they're married, it is virtually impossible to spread or get an STD. Makes sense to me.

Also, if that didn't matter to you, they also presented the reason that if King's lost its status as a Catholic school, we would be shut down and would have no funding, our degrees wouldn't count for anything, everyone would lose their job, it would be hard for students to tranfer, etc......

I also thought it was cool that it was open to the audience to ask questions, make comments and other stuff. Everyone was really into the discussion and it kept going on, so finally, the host had to end it even though several other people still wanted to talk. Overall, it was a really good presentation and I almost fully agree with the panelists on this issue. Sorry I don't have a whole lot of information. I have to write a thing on this, so I'd rather do it there than here.

Have a good night everyone! :)

Frickin' Wicked!

2005-02-04T17:32:00.000-05:00

Ah ha. I finally received my Lord of the Rings trilogy in the mail that I ordered....mmmm....5 weeks ago!! Needless to say, I'm thrilled. I was watching part of it today and it took up about 2 hours of my time just watching one part on one of the 12 CDs that comes with it. It's great. We all know what my life looks like for the next few months! haha just kidding. Maybe.

Anyways, that's my exciting news for today. Enjoy your peoples weekends. Possibly I'll see you. Maybe not. Who knows!

Have a good night!

Perfect Circle

2005-01-31T10:15:00.000-05:00

I don't really have a whole lot to say, except that my new favourite video right now (even though it's pretty old) is Imagine by Perfect Circle. I think it's really powerful, especially the images that are shown in it and the little news exerpts at the bottom of the screen. I think a most shocking part for me was when they showed the American stuffing his face with chicken and then they showed an African child licking white goop off his hand for food. If you want to watch it, I'd recommend going to www.musicvideos.com All you do is type in "imagine" in the video search and then click on the one that says watch. I had to set up a yahoo account to watch a whole bunch of videos, but I think you all can get away with watching just this one. The song is the cover for John Lennon's version of Imagine, but I like this version a little better. It's darker, but really good. Have a good day everyone and watch the video!

Crazy crazy

2005-01-20T16:54:00.000-05:00

Wow. I thought I was swamped before? Ha! I'm dying here. I have so much work to do. The only reason I'm not doing it right now is because I'm waiting for my ride to go home. Sweet home. You know, I could really use the summer right now. The beach, the warmth, the sun, the better-than-this.

Oh, there was this really cool speaker who came in to my SJP class, and man, his story was absolutely unbelievable! I'm not going to share it because it's long and very sad and depressing and rather disgusting, actually. But yeah, he's very inspirational and I liked how he talked about God guiding his life. Very cool.

Sorry for the randomness of ideas, but I don't actually have anything really important to say. I'm rather quite tired and bored, so this is what I'm doing for amusement.

Anyways, hope your lives are less chaotic! :P

Freaky

2005-01-15T22:41:00.000-05:00

Do you guys want to hear something scary? Well, it's scary to me, at least.

Did anyone hear of the girl who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend over here by where I live? Well here's the story. This girl had been off and on with this guy for awhile. He was a heavy cocaine and heroine addict among other drugs. This girl had ended the relationship with him because he was verbally abusive and most likely phyisically abusive, as well. So he was angry with her that she didn't get back together with him and he decided to break into her house one night while her and her friend were at her house. He broke in the window, had cut her tires so she couldn't drive away and cut the phone lines so she couldn't call for help. He stabbed her and her friend and the friend ran across the street to call for help and when she came back, he had stabbed her multiple times to where she died. The friend survived with a knife wound.

The thing is, the girl who died was the sister of one of the girls I work with. Apparently she was the sweetest girl who just always got herself mixed up with the wrong guys. I think that's so sad. I mean, she's just this sweet, innocent girl who thought she could change him (that's why she gets herself into these relationships. So she can change them into better people). You want to hear something else scary? I knew who the guy was that killed her. He came into the gym all the time. In fact, the morning he killed her, he was in the gym working out while I working. That's so scary to think of. He was a huge guy. I mean, huge. Probably one of the biggest guys I've seen come in. He had tattoos all down his arms and the girl couldn't have fought him off if her life depended on it, which it did, even if he didn't have a knife. He had to be on steroids or something. But he was one scary guy.

I just can't stop thinking that he was there. You never think that those sort of things would happen close to home. It's scary. I feel so bad for the girl I work with and her family. No one deserves to go through that. It's terrible. It's evil.

He's probably going to try and plead insanity because of the drugs. The thing is, when I was in law class in grade 11 (nothing special), we used to defend cases like that, where the accused was on drugs and at the time I kind of sympathized with them. I really don't now. I don't care what you were on. You should get more time because you were stupid enough to do the drugs in the first place. I'm sorry, I know that's not the way the legal system works, but I'm just so angry. I mean, he came in to work out and the girl's sister works with me, and she was most likely working that day because she always works and he was there. You can't help but think, "what if?" I wish you could know when those sort of things are going to happen because maybe he could have been stopped or something. It's just not fair sometimes.

Something to think about

2005-01-13T20:06:00.000-05:00

Whoa, I was really scared for a few days. I thought that I had a 10-12 page essay due in a week, but it turns out that it's not due until February 7. Yeah! That gives me so much more time than I had anticipated. God is good.

I'm taking a break from working on school. So much to do!!! (Everyone else in University can concur with me).

Yesterday in my Social Justice and Peace Studies class we were talking about homelessness. I was excited because poverty and homelessness are the issues that I really enjoy learning/studying. I just finished working on my presentation on homelessness and I actually learned a lot about it. My topic was specific to youth who are homeless. But it helped me to know a lot of facts, rather than the usual stereotypical mindset that most people have about homeless people. Most people assume that homeless people are generally drug addicts or mentally ill. But that's not true at all. Less than 20% of homeless people have drug addictions or are mentally ill. The youth who do do drugs usually do it to relieve some of the pain they are feeling. Most homeless people are runaways from some form of abuse or oppression they experienced at home (this is called emotion-focused coping and isn't as effective because it's only a temprary relief). I think that's terrible. The problem is that there aren't enough resources to assist homeless people because if there's a case where a youth is being abused, they are less likely to get aid because social workers take the calls from children more seriously since they are more vulnerable than adolescents are. Therefore, that person is left to either suffer the abuse, or pretty much to become homeless if no one else is willing to take care of them.

I think that there should be more help coming from the community. I mean, most of us (me included until I researched this topic) don't really care to help the homeless. Why? Firstly, because of the previously mentioned stereotypes and also because we're selfish and greedy people. If we're not being entertained, then we're not interested. Besides, did God not command us to help those in need? So why aren't we!! (I'm also included in this). I think it's completely unfair that someone can inherit millions of dollars for doing absolutely nothing, and then there's some homeless guy working his butt off so that he can make a few bucks, but isn't getting anywhere with his life. I was watching a movie about tent city in Toronto (an area where homeless people live in tents) and these two guys worked so hard and built themselves this little dwelling (I wouldn't even call it a house) out of scrap material that they found around the city. A lot of people assume that homeless people are lazy and don't have jobs (I'm not gonna lie, some are, but the majority aren't). The reality is, that no one can survive on a part time job. On average, a person needs to make $11/h in order to afford a one bedroom apartment, let alone the costs of food, transportation, repairs and other costs that come with life. That's why you see homeless people walking around with nice little things like a nice coat, or shoes or something because A) someone gave it to them, or B) they can afford those things, but they just can't afford to pay rent or anything.

That's just a little about what I'm thinking. I don't really want to write everything else and bore you guys! I could debate this forever!!! (Feel free to disagree).

Have a good night! :)

All is well

2005-01-12T19:09:00.000-05:00

I must say, I'm not into the whole bloggint thing anymore. But I will say, whoever still reads this, I feel very appreciated. I figured I might as well post when I have something positive to say. Life is great! There's my positive for you!

See, it's weird. The first semester, I wasn't motivated at all. I didn't ever want to do work and I loathed studying with all my being. Not sure why.....but meh. NOW, however, I absolutely love doing work. It's the strangest thing. I like being in class, at the library, studying, working on things. I feel like I'm accomplishing things and I figured out what I want to do after school. I'm not going to say, because, well, it might change and I hate it when people ask me that anyways. Actually, I'm in the library right now! It's great.

Also, church is good because I am getting more involved and I can talk to more than just the people I knew from Faith (I still love you all). I am looking forward to the 40 Day Express thing on Sunday. Very good.

Life in general is just great. I've learned a lot about myself and other things that were happening and figured everything out and have a very good understanding. I think I'd call that God's doing, if you will.

Anyways, for those who still read this, there's my life right now and I hope you enjoyed.

Have a good day :)

"Say I"

2004-12-20T13:34:00.000-05:00

That's the song that's playing right now. I have no title ideas.

Anyways, I'm just killing a bit of time right now. I finished my second exam this morning. Wow, I really have NO idea how that went. First of all, my stupid Professor waited until 9am (the time the exam should have started) to have the exams photocopied, so I had to wait an extra 45 minutes to write it, which sucked. Secondly, she had the weirdest answers to the multiple choice questions. For example, if one of the answers was right, say A, then for some of them, B and C would also be right then. It made no sense! And I studied for so long and I knew all my stuff, so it wasn't like I just didn't know the answer. I just didn't know which wording was correct! Oy, I hate that. But, it's all done, so that's good and I'm happy. I just have one more left tomorrow.

I finished my Christmas shopping today, too, which is also very good. AND I just finished wrapping them. The countdown now begins: 5 days!!! Man, I love Christmas. I'm so glad there's snow, too, because it makes it feel more holiday-ish. The -20 degrees Celcius helps, as well. I'm laughing at all those who still have to shop though because when my mom and I were driving home today the traffic was backed up heading towards the mall on Fanshawe for at least one kilometer. And for once we weren't stuck in it! hehehe.

Anyways, I wish you all a safe and merry Christmas and I hope you enjoy your days off!! :)

2004-12-03T13:43:00.000-05:00

You know, I'm getting really really angry with the commercialization of Christmas. At first, I didn't really see it so much, but now I do and it's horrible! I have seen all these commercials on TV that are saying the true meaning of Christmas is giving people the gifts they want, drinking Coca Cola, eating cheese (what's up with that?), going to certain places, making people happy, etc. And at the end of all these ads, they say "The real meaning of Christmas, or the season..." NO! That's not the TRUE meaning of Christmas! Get it right! If you want a holiday to be about presents and all that other stuff, create your own. Don't steal it from a very meaningful "holiday". Everything that has a lot of meaning to it, that is sacred to people's faith, have been made into some money making ploy by retailers and other people who don't believe in it. Fine. You don't believe in it, don't celebrate it. Don't steal a celebration from someone else and make it your own. Don't get me wrong, I'm very much into the Christmas thing, like decorating and buying people presents, but I also realize and remember why I'm doing this. I could careless if people didn't buy me anything! I like doing it for other people and to remember that Christmas is about the birth of Christ (hence CHRIST-mas).

Now, they're not even saying Merry Christmas anymore. It's Seasons Greetings or Happy Holidays. I think it's realy depressing that people have completely destroyed the meaning of it. Stupid Santa. One guy goes out and gives toys to some needy children, and they replace Jesus with this guy. I doubt he would have wanted to take over Christmas with Santa Claus and his reindeers and elves and all that fairy tale stuff. Kids these days aren't even being told the true meaning of Christmas anymore. You ask a kid at work what it is, and they say presents and Santa. It's sad, really. It goes to show you the sort of priorities people have these days. Especially with the commercials. I was actually really suprised watching TV the other day and the amount of money that people were spending. It made me sick. In one of them, all these guys got really expensive things, like laptops, Mp3 players, all these other gadgets. And another one the family bought a fireplace because the kid thought Santa wouldn't bring him toys if he didn't have a fireplace and then on top of that, they bought a bike and a remote control car, and some other expensive toys. What kind of message are we sending people? Now this kid thinks that whoever doesn't have a fireplace won't get toys. If he tells that to some other kid who doesn't have a fireplace, they're going to feel bad and maybe the parents aren't rich enough to spontaneously buy a friggin' fireplace for their kid! It's really ridiculous.

So when you're doing your Christmas shopping this year, think about why you're doing it and what it all truly means.

P.S. We need some snow up in here!

My Exciting Life

2004-11-28T22:01:00.000-05:00

No, that's a lie.

As you can see, I haven't been blogging really. Surprise surprise. I've been really really busy in the last week or so. I had something due every day and I wrote an exam on Thursday for Sociology. I barely studied for it, and ironically, I think I did better than the last one I actually tried on. Strange world.

I've gone to the young adults thing at New Hope a couple times now. I enjoy it. Nice people, good worship, fun games, all round goodness. I had a long conversation with one of the girls there and it was cool to get a different perspective on things from other people that I don't know. But I feel terrible because I forget her name! I'm usually pretty good with names, which is really annoying Oh well.

Work is still going. Lately, though, I've not wanted to show up. I swear, ALL the sick children end up coming in, and it's horrible! The thing is though, we have a policy about that sort of thing, but I never enforce it, as well as a policy on lateness, and I never enforce that one either. I just can't tell people! I feel so bad! Anyways, I've been told I don't appear to be as enthusiastic about work as normal. That's pretty bad because I'm normally really good at faking being happy. Hehehe...it's a talent! I wish! I need another job for the summer because I really can't survive on $8.00/h 12 hours a week. It just doesn't cut it. My friend (whether she's right or not) said that Ford hires students in the summer and if they work full time, they'll make $17 000. And they give their students scholarships too. It sounds too good to be true and I don't really think I could handle the same boring thing all....day....long. I'd rather enjoy my job and make less money. Though money could buy a car, and a car would be nice. And while I'm dreaming......hehehe. The other thing is, I hate Ford, so do I really want to compromise my views for some cash? It's a cruel world.

Well, there you have it. My not so exciting life. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy it. But a spontaneous adventure would be cool. I always loved those movies where extraordinary things happen to ordinary people. Besides, who would want to watch a movie that was exactly like your own life? You know how boring that would be? And that's why it's called fantasy! Good old fantasy.

Have a good night all!

If you don't succeed, burn yourself! That's what I learned.

2004-11-17T17:39:00.000-05:00

In my SJP class today, we were discussing nonviolence as a force. The class actually broke out into a huge debate where insulting started occuring and it was pretty crazy. Me, being the quiet, shy person that I am, didn't speak up at all. Do any of you remember the crazy guy named Curtis I talked about awhile ago with the whole pencil ownership thing? Yeah, well he brought up the issue today about a Muslim guy who lit himself on fire outside of the Whitehouse gates. I guess he wanted to speak with the government officials and he made his request by handing the guards a note that said URGENT on it and that he'd like to speak to people of authority. Well, of course this wouldn't work and the guards basically said screw you. So he covered himself in gasoline and lit himself on fire screaming "God is great" in Arabic. He did not burn to death, but once he recovered, he was obviously hauled away. This information solely comes from Curtis' mouth, and he said that it wasn't covered in any mainstream media, but rather the more "underground", if you will, sources. The Muslim guy who set himself a light wanted the media to cover him so that the world would see that nonviolence can be a force as well. Too bad for him, the media didn't cover him and he lived to see that his cause was not blatently heard. Poor guy.

Well, the whole "braul" we had in class today was about whether his actions were right. Basically it was one guy fighting the rest of the class claiming that suicide just isn't the answer. It's a really touchy subject because people who stand in front of bulldozers, tanks, trains, etc. are trying to make a statement, but sometimes they get killed. The guy in my class claims that that isn't suicide because someone else is willingly killing the person fighting the cause. But he thinks that the whole setting yourself on fire is suicide. My class claims that it is a worthy cause and it does speak out very clearly that something needs to be done. Sure, sometimes it does speak out clearly. But I really don't agree with setting yourself on fire and justifying it as a worthy cause. My professor claims that this IS nonviolence, but only because it's not toward others and that people can do whatever they want to themselves. Sorry, actually that was Curtis who claims that. But anyhow, it still is violence. Can't people get charged for attempted suicide? Maybe I'm wrong. Still, it's a horrible thing. You can make a statement just as well by doing something else, rather than burning yourself. The Muslim guy was angry at Bush for the war in Iraq because his family/friends/everyone he knows was being killed for nothing. I don't know, it just blows my mind that anyone would do such a thing to themselves. I think that the only thing that the mainstream media would be saying if they actually did cover his case, was that he was some crazed lunatic who wanted to kill himself and blame it on Bush. No, I don't think that. But I can easily see how the media might portray it.

Just the fact that the media didn't cover it says something. Hey, they control what the world sees pretty much, and why wouldn't he consider that they would just turn it around against him? I still can't believe anyone would want to do that. It sure does make a statement though about how much he's probably suffered because of the war in Iraq.

I don't really know much on the issue except for whatever was discussed in class, so feel free to bash me if you'd like.

I just thought it was pretty crazy.

A little early don't you think?

2004-11-16T21:53:00.000-05:00

Man, what's with people? Christmas is in more than a month and a bunch of my neighbours already have their Christmas decorations up. This is ridiculous. I always knew my neighbours were weird, and this just proves it! Christmas will come faster if you just forget about it until at least December, that way you're not all stressed out about it. Then there's my crazy Aunt who starts Christmas shopping in September. Now that's just wacked out. I don't really have a whole lot to say on this issue, I was just noticing it and it really bothered me. I'm also tired of this stupid weather. Make up your mind! Is it winter or not? Bring out the snow! Christmas just isn't Christmas without snow.

Have a good night everyone!

P.S. If you get some 24 hour flu thing, I'm really sorry! Believe me, it's not fun.

P.P.S. I have NO ideas for blogs anymore. Sorry that this is REALLY boring!

A Couple of Things

2004-11-09T10:18:00.000-05:00

First of all, we had our first snow fall yesterday! Most of you are wondering why I would use an exclamation point in reference to snow, well, because I like it alright! Actually, the usual pattern is I want snow up until Christmas, and then once Christmas is over, you'll probably start to hear me complain about it. Anyways, I was at school last night and I went in to class at 6:45ish and then when I came out at 8:20ish (my Prof. was sick, so class was short), it was all white! And it was snowing really hard too. See, I love it when you have a terrible day (my day was terrible, yes) and then when something good happens at night, you always seem to define that day as good. It was also good because I calculated that I didn't fail my geography exam like I thought I would, but I think I got the same as my Sociology exam! My Prof. posted the answers to the multiple choice outside her office, so all I need is the answers to the short answer (which I figure I got perfect on, or close to) and therefore that gives me my mark. It's good to know I'm average. ;)

So yes, as your weather predictor for today, it's supposed to snow some more and then not snow because it's a high of 1, and then snow again on Friday, and be "warmer" Wednesday, Thursday. That's what the New PL site says, so that's what I'm going with.

Happy snow day to you all and enjoy it!

You don't eat what?

2004-11-04T21:48:00.000-05:00

Sorry to do this, but I'm going to pick on all the vegetarians/vegans/crazy people out there. First of all, you don't want to eat meat, fine, don't. A lot of people don't eat meat just because they're on some health kick or whatever. But I'm picking on the people who don't eat meat because "it's mean to hurt the poor animals". Am I all for randomly killing animals and abusing them for no reason? No. Am I all for brutally murdering them and eating them? Yes. Well, in a sense. Maybe not the whole "brutally murdering" part, but eating them, yeah, of course.

I think it's pretty obsurd when people say it's wrong to kill animals to eat them and they have feelings too, blah, blah, blah. I think that certain animals were created just so we could eat them. Back in the hunter and gatherer societies, they would have all died if they didn't eat meat. It was a main source of nutrition. I really don't think you could argue that they could live off of berries and fruit for the rest of their lives. It's just not possible. One of my friends is a vegetarian and she won't eat beef, chicken, etc., but she will eat fish. Why you ask? Well I did too. She said it's because fish have scales, therefore they can't feel pain and so it doesn't hurt them when you cut them open and pull out their insides. This does not justify eating them! It only justifies an EXCUSE to eat them! Of course they feel pain.

Furthermore, the only thing I'm against eating is lobster. It's so inhumane the way people cook them. To me at least, it just looks disgusting. First you boil them alive and listen to them scream (if you ever heard one, it literally screams. Kind of bone chilling actually). Also, I don't think it's right when people kill animals for sport, such as tigers, panda bears, regular bears, elephants, just for some form of trade to sell their fur or ivory tusks; unless of course they're squirrels. Man I hate those things.

But anyways, back to vegetarians. You know how overpopulated the world would be if no one killed and ate cows? Besides, vegans don't eat dairy products, because "it doesn't belong to humans. It's for the cow's babies." Yeah, whatever. If you didn't milk a cow, it would explode. So really, you're saving it's life by taking it's milk. Whoa ho, a solution! Also, the number one leading cause of starvation in India, is cow worship. Why? Because it is illegal to kill a cow in India. So all these cows are running around, free to do whatever the heck they want, while the civilians sit and starve to death. Not only that, the cows are free to roam wherever they want, right, so they go and kill all the crops and stuff, which was the only shred of hope the people had of actually eating. Kill the cows! Eat them and enjoy sweet, juicy steak!

Besides, what's with people trying to replace hamburgers and hot dogs with soy products and claiming they taste the same? No they don't! Ever had one of those? It's like chewing on your hand, it's so gross. Granted, I will give them that tofu tastes pretty good in pasta, but that's it. None of this tofurkey crap you want to serve for Christmas. It's just not going to happen.

The only thing I would change about eating meat, is possibly the process of some of the farms that make meat. I saw a video on it once, and the people were pretty brutal. They would beat pigs in the head with crow bars and they had no sensitivity whatsoever to the animals. I may be all for eating meat, but I'm definitely not all for making the poor things suffer horrible, painful deaths. Make it quick and painless. That's the best way to go. They're pointless animals anyways. Might as well eat them.

My opinion is purely uneducational, so feel free to rip it apart if you disagree.

Time for a Change

2004-10-31T21:57:00.000-05:00

Yeah, as you can see, I changed the template. I was getting a little tired of pink. I went for green at first, but then I realized green doesn't really suit me, if that makes sense. So, I went with blue because, of course, it is my favoutrite colour. The one thing I don't like, is that I lost all the changes made to my template, like the comment sections, so now I believe you will have to sign in to comment. Plus, I lost all the pre-exisitng comments, which also sucks. Ah well. Enjoy the new blue colour!

P.S. I also think they should come up with some better templates, because the current ones aren't the greatest to choose from.

Enjoy your night! :)

Companeros Inc

2004-10-28T10:38:00.000-04:00

Anyone ever heard of this organization?

The guy who leads it, Gonzalo Duarte, I believe, was also at the nonviolence presentation last night. He spoke about his organization, Companeros, which goes to Central America to help out people there. It sounds pretty cool. If you wanted more information about it, you could go to www.companeros.ca

After the presentation ended last night, I went and talked to Gonzalo, because I was curious to know if it was a Christian based organization. I wondered this because when he did his 5 minute spiel in the beginning, he played God of Wonders and he was talking about doing worship and stuff on the trips, so I asked him if it was. He said that the organization itself is not Christian based, because he had been told it would be better not to, because Central America has had bad experiences with American Christian organizations. But he told me that he is a Christian and there are Faith based experiences and such. He then talked to me about my Faith, etc. It was cool.

Anyways, the one that I was looking at, was the one in Nicaragua. I think it would be a good experience. What you would do is go and help build homes, or help clean up communities and things, and you could stay with local families and experience the culture and such. It would be in May for ten days. The only thing I have a problem with, is travelling by myself. Not by myself, but with other people in the group as well, but just by myself as in not my family. It may not appear so, but I don't like leaving the country without my family. It's a safety net, you know. But hey, maybe it'll be a cool thing to do. Just a thought.

Enjoy your day!

Nonviolence Event

2004-10-28T10:24:00.000-04:00

For my Social Justice and Peace course, we're required to make up 8 hours by going to educational events to do with SJP. Well I went to my first one last night, which was about nonviolence as a means to basically speak out. You know, against the war in Iraq and other violent attempts to achieve peace.

First, they had this 18 year old guy from Texas named Brandon (yes, he had a funny accent) speak about his experience with nonviolence, as well as violence. He had been drafted into the United States army in the beginning of 2003. He signed a contract saying that he would receive a college education and a $5000 bonus at the end of his basic training. He finished his basic training the November of 2003 and thus, wanted his $5000. Who wouldn't, eh? So, when he asked for it, they simply said that it should be about the duty to your country, not the money. Everytime Brandon confronted them, he'd receive the same answer. All this time during basic training, the soldiers are cut off from the outside world. Brandon said that when they were doing training, he had no idea what the situation of Iraq was. He said that when he had completed the training, he found out there was no weapons of mass destruction, etc. I also thought it was cool (well, interesting) the tactics the army uses to train their soldiers to kill. (See, I'm not very informed when it comes to things like this, so I think it's interesting). Brandon said that it's basically a training of conformity. When one person screws up, you all get punished. That way, the group ends up turning against the people who cause their punishment. The army, obviously, trains the soldiers to basically forget their inhibition not to kill. Therefore, it's easier to kill in groups, right (you know, the whole conformity thing), so whenever someone is to be killed, they send several people to do it.

Anyways, once Brandon finished his basic training, he decided that he didn't agree with the war in Iraq, so he requested a discharge. He didn't receive it, because they said if they did grant him this, he would be blacklisted and sent to jail for some amount of years, and therefore, would have a difficult time finding a decent job. So, he has since sought refugee status in Canada. He has been staying with this family for 7 and a half months and is still trying to be allowed to stay here.

Do you think that soldiers who don't agree with the war, or violence in itself, should be allowed to seek refuge in Canada?

I got nothin'

2004-10-20T22:17:00.000-04:00

Sorry guys, I never seem to have anything "important" to talk about. No world problems, no opinions, nothing. All I have is what I've done this week. So if you're interested to know, read the following.

Well, let's see, Monday and Tuesday (as some of you know from my MSN name) were the worst two days of my life. Why, you ask? I'm not quite sure. You know when you wake up in a bad mood and it just completely ruins your whole day? Yeah, well, there you go. So Monday, for the first time in awhile, I didn't have a ride to my "morning" (meaning the earliest class I have) class, so I had to take the good ol' city transportation. Sarcasm is intended. So I, thinking that whenever I go to catch the bus it's 10 minutes late, decide to leave 5 minutes later than normal as to refrain from standing outside in the freezing cold for 15 minutes. Well, to my great fortune, the bus just happens to be 7 minutes early this time. Whoohoo for me, misses the bus by 2 minutes and I end up waiting outside for 35 minutes on the cold, hard, sidewalk. I, to my surprise, wasn't angry, but rather upset. It was one of those things where I didn't feel mad, I just felt like crying and going back home. I figured my day couldn't get worse (never think that), when this girl who talked to me on the street corner once for two seconds, decides to strike up a conversation with me EVEN THOUGH I'm sitting on the side of the road, my back to her, and my discman playing! Generally, I'm a nice person and don't mind talking to people, but this just made me really mad. Don't talk to people listening to music unless you actually know their name! Sorry.

Anyways, my day continues on and class was pretty crappy, but then I was okay once I got to the library and started studying for my first University mid-term (which is tomorrow by the way). Well, I go to my next class, which is geography, and it's going pretty well, until I find out that my exam is scheduled for the 20th of December. That's horrible. There's some ray of hope though, because my professor said that last year that happened and it ended up being switched to one of the first exam days. I pray that happens. So, to end my day, I ended up yelling at my family because I had a bad day and they decided to be loving and speak to me. Yeah, I felt bad, but they understood. Good ol' family.

Tuesday, I can't remember why it was bad, but it was. Oh right. I didn't feel very well or something like that. Hahaha though class was kind of funny. Juliet, being the freak that she is (love you!) decides that it's too cold in the room and "she's paying tuition to freeze, I don't think so" sort of thing. So she goes and cranks up the heating and by the end of the class is was SO hot in the room. Quite funny! And our professor flipped at some people who were talking, that's always entertaining to watch.

Today was actually a good day. I went to work, we only had 7 kids the entire time, yet the time passed by really quickly, which is unusual. I went to class and it was short and sweet and I actually was able to catch my bus on main and get home early. So yeah, that was good. Yes, this is really boring, but I have nothing else to say! My grandma's wedding is on Saturday, so that's exciting.....I'm definitely not going to explain that one, because, well, you'll all think my family's crazy, if you don't already that is.

Have a good night all!

Did You Know?

2004-10-14T21:41:00.000-04:00

I found this neat little website with all these "Did You Know?" facts on it and so I thought I'd put a few on here. If you wanted to read all of them, here's the site: http://www.geocities.com/area51newmexico/page8.html Mind you, some of you will find some of them on the site inappropriate. Just a warning to ya.

1. 23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts. This is hilarious, 'cause it's true! (No, I've never done it).

2. In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere. I never knew that. I love Seinfeld and now I'm going to have to look for that. Yes, I have lots of time on my hands.

3. More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call. I think this is astounding considering everyone at Western and my high school owns a cell phone. Just goes to show how priviledged we really are. Actually, in a village we went to in Thailand, we were the first white people they'd ever seen. That's cool.

4. The greatest recorded number of children that have been born by one mother is 69! The poor lass gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and a measly 4 sets of quadruplets. Poor lass is right! You know how horrible that would be? She'd be pregnant non-stop! Ewww that would suck. At least one of them would be happy...

5. 13% of Americans actually believe that some parts of the moon are made of cheese. Hahaha and they wonder where "stupid Americans" come from.

6. The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910. Wow. They're not supposed to know what that is at their age! Well, nowadays I'm never surprised what the kids know, but not in 1910. Poor kids.

7. If you could count the number of times a cricket chirps in one minute, divide by 2, add 9 and divide by 2 again, you would have the correct temperature in celcius degrees... How do they know that? Hmm...interesting.

8. Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. Makes sense.

9. The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it. I wonder how they know that? It's either they're putting them in there on purpose and know that, or some poor soul has devoted his life to finding this out.

10. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die during the movie. It's so true. Those stories sure are messed up. And we teach them to our children.

11. In York, it is perfectly legal to shoot a Scotsman with a bow and arrow (except on Sundays) 'Cause you have to keep the Sabbath Holy.

12. On average, 90% Dutch teenagers can speak fluent English whereas only 80% American teenagers can speak fluent English. (Just incase you didnt know, English is not the first langauge of The Netherlands.) I really hope that's not one of the things we Canadians share with the States.

13. In Texas, a recently passed anticrime law requires criminals to give their victims 24 hours notice, either orally or in writing, and to explain the nature of the crime to be committed. Only in Texas.... Hahaha! Again, stupid Americans.

14. No piece of square dry paper can be folded in half more than 7 times Go ahead, try it.

15. The people who make school kitchens, also make electric chairs. Explains a lot.

16. The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night. Oh gee, that really helps my fear of spiders! So would it be more for people who go camping a lot?

17. Los Angeles' full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula". In English this means 'The City of Angels' This, I did not know.

18. In France, a five year old child can buy an alcholic drink in a bar And people get excited that the Netherlands' drinking age is 16...

There you go. Now you know random, useless, pieces of information. Have a good night!

Piercings

2004-10-13T17:35:00.000-04:00

I was at the mall the other day and I noticed an unusual piercing that I've never seen before. Some guy had the back of his neck pierced. It was so weird! It actually looked kind of cool, in a scary, morbid sort of way. The two holes were fairly far apart, too. I wonder, though, how would they get it pierced like that? It looks severly painful. Also, what's the point? They could easily be snagged on something and get ripped right out, because I don't believe the actual piercing would be too far below the surface of the skin because there isn't that much skin to begin with on the back of your neck. It really hurts to even pull on a piercing let alone have it ripped out. Some babies at work always pull my earrings and it hurts! As well, I've seen people pierced on their front, just below the neck and all it is is two studded balls on either end of a rod of metal, basically. I don't think it looks all that great. I think there is reason and pure insanity when it comes to piercings. For instance, I think only certain guys look good with their ears pierced or whatever. But also the actual earring they choose is crazy. I saw some guy with this really ugly pearly looking thing shoved in his ear and he honestly looked like a girl. I'm not against piercings by all means, but for some of them, I just don't see the purpose. I don't mind eyebrow rings on guys, or nose rings on girls (as long as it's a stud or something), but when people pierce their lip or their tongue, I always wonder why.

The tongue is really easy to get infected for one thing, and for the first couple weeks you can't eat any solid foods. Well, that's what a friend of mine said when she got her tongue pierced. Also, lip rings would just be really annoying. There's this girl in my class with one and I think it looks really crappy. Again, what's the point? Maybe to express individuality or something like that, I don't know. A guy actually said that it was for his girlfriend because she likes to play with it. Yeah, that's nice to know and I won't get into that with you either.

Also, what's with getting piercings when you're drunk? I know so many people who have woken up the next morning to find they pierced themselves. It's crazy. Someone I know attempted to pierce their own belly button; someone else I know got their ear pierced (a guy) by using ice cubes and his sister-in-law did it; and this guy from my high school got his nipple pierced. Those, also, I don't understand. But hey, whatever makes you happy, right? I'd just be too afraid of getting it ripped out. You know how much that would hurt? Also, for women, they are unable to breast feed once they have children. I guess that doesn't apply to the women who don't want children, but I know someone who got it done and afterwards, the piercer was like, "Oh, by the way, you can't ever breast feed again." Well how lovely is that. It kind of would have helped if the information was given BEFORE the piercing. She was actually really upset too, because she wanted children. But with choices comes consequences.

I actually find it quite amazing how many places you can have pierced on your body. Some, more than others, I really wonder why you'd want it piereced! I'm not "against" it or anything, I just don't understand why some people would want that done to themselves. So if anyone would like to clarify that for me, that would be awesome. Have a great night people!

Crazy Socialists

2004-10-06T17:43:00.000-04:00

Well alrighty.

I thought I knew extreme, but I was wrong. I'm taking three different social classes (social work, sociology and social justice and peace studies, which is the program I'm in). There are some pretty freaky people in there, let me tell you. You know, it's all cool if you're for equality and saving the environment and all that fun stuff, but you know, I do believe there is a limit between caring and insanity. Maybe it's just me and the fact that I care, but not as much as some, I don't know. But me and this guy Jeff are sitting in my SJP class (figure it out) and this guy named Curtis comes and sits beside us. He's notorious in our class for being crazy extreme when it comes to the world's problems. So, he sits down and is just all quiet and everything (sorry if you've already heard this story) and then he starts talking to Jeff and I. He holds up a pencil and says, "Do I really own this pencil?" Jeff and I look at each confusedly and both respond, "Yes." Curtis continues on, "How do you know?" "You're holding it aren't you? It's yours." "Yeah, but it may be in my possession right now, but do I really own it fully?" By this point, Jeff and I were getting really creeped out by the fact that he would even ask such a question. So Curtis continues on, "Well the pencil came from the tree's wood and the sunlight made the tree grow, blah blah blah." And he goes on this whole spiel about who knows what. I stopped listening. Then he asks, "So do I own this pencil." To make him happy, we both answer "No." Who really cares? It's a pencil. You own it because you bought it and that's that. Trees don't have a say in what there wood gets used for and the sunlight has to make the stupid trees grow and then the humans come and chop down the trees. Therefore, you own the friggin' pencil.

People like that make me really annoyed. I mean, who has time to think of these things? They're so insignificant. Sure, he's thinking about the whole balance of life and yadda yadda, but really. You want to solve some problems? Go solve world hunger. Quit worrying about whether or not you really "own" the pencil or not. It was just really weird, that's all. Other than that kid, I like my lectures. Yes, I can see how they are extreme, and how I could turn into a communist, as some have put it. But I really don't see myself becoming one. :P Anyways, I have to go to my fun and exciting tutorial (sarcasm intended). Have a good night!

"There are no stupid questions"

2004-10-01T20:20:00.000-04:00

That is, by far, the worst cliche ever. See, I always thought that University was for "smarter" people. You know, those who put a considerable effort into their high school education, but apparently I was wrong. For one thing, I thought I could escape the idiots from my high school, but once again, wrong. I am probably the wrong person to be blogging about stupid questions/people, but hey, whatever. I have geography class on Monday nights from 7-10 and there are nine of us all from Lucas. It's not so bad because there are 100 people in my class approximately, therefore meaning that I don't exactly have to associate with them, because they were all people (well, less a couple of them) I would label as "snobby". But they're all morons though. Yes, this is being harsh, but just listen (or read) to this.

So, we're sitting in this freaking hot room and being lectured for three hours about maps......fuuuun. For those of you who know, it's in the Mansion, so all we can do is open the door and hope we don't all melt of heat exhaustion. We were particularly talking about thematic maps right, and you know, how each colour represents something, blah blah blah. Well, this one kid from my school puts up his hand and asks, "Why did they pick those colours?" (There was an example map on the screen showing sporatic corn crops in a gradual light pink to dark red colour sequence) So he continues, "It's too hard to tell the colours apart. Why don't they just make them all different colours like brown and blue and green?" At this point, I was extremely annoyed because the two of them (another guy from my school as well) were asking incredibly stupid questions the whole class. I'm really astounded that they even got into University. They're idiots. But honestly, who asks that? There are no stupid questions, eh? Uh huh. Anyways, I said that they were really stupid or something like that to a couple of my friends and the guy who was sitting in front of me turns around and said that he was going to see how long he could stall the class by asking stupid questions like the other guys. So, he raises his hand and started asking a bunch of meaningless questions, yet not completely moronic that the professor could tell he was joking around. Needless to say, we never finished the lecture and are therefore, behind.

I'm terribly sorry, but I was just really surpised that these people could be so uneducated. And they were serious, too! Which really stunned me. But anyways, that's my little rant. Of course we all say stupid things at some point or another (again, I'm known for that, I'm sure), but some people I just don't understand. So yes, have a good night all!

Campus Food

2004-09-23T22:43:00.000-04:00

Wow, the whole blog thing is suffering pretty good. Hahaha.

Anyways,

You know what's really starting to annoy the heck out of me? I'm sure you can guess. A lot of things, right. Well, just the cost of food on campus is absolutely ridiculous. I'm going to be broke forever. I spent two bucks on a friggin' thing of juice and you know those little individual sized bags of chips? Yeah, well that cost me a dollar fifty. It's crazy I tell you. They shouldn't be allowed to do this. They already sucked more than five thousand out of me! What more do they want? Yeah, well that's all.

Whoohoo!

2004-09-17T14:54:00.000-04:00

Yep that's right. I can now drive!! Yeah! I passed my G2 test this morning....I finally went and got it. Heh, I could've had my G2 for about a year and a half if I had of actually went when I was supposed to, but ah well.

I wasn't so nervous until I woke up this morning at like 6am for some reason. Then I started thinking about it and I realized I had never backed into a parking spot before, and that kind of got me all panicky, but then I fell back asleep and it was all good. Hehehe.

I did screw up a bit though. I was being overly cautious and such and so I came to a red light and he told me to turn right, so I went to stop for the red light, but then it changed to green, but for some reason I still stopped before my turn anways and he told me not to do that; I also went to slow in a residential area, which is very weird for me, 'cause I usually fly through them....but hey, I passed, so I really don't care! So yep. That's it. Anyone need me to drive them anywhere? ;)

Oh, I have one little problem to tell the world. I was looking at the newspaper while eating my predictable bowl of cereal this morning, and I stumbled upon something very interesting. Of course, it has nothing to do with the news because I don't really read it, but there was this little thing in the Sears catelogue or something like that, and it was a Catwoman doll. It was the stupidest thing ever! I swear, it looked like it was some sort of stripper/prostitute thing. And this doll or Barbie, is for little girls? Oh, oh, and it comes with a wip and everything! Isn't that exciting? It almost made me sick. The pants have all those little shreds and tears in them and the shirt, well, isn't really a shirt, and it's all leather too. I just think it's terrible that this is what all the little girls are playing with these days. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against Barbies or whatever, I played with them when I was a kid, actually I liked G.I. Joes better but that's beside the point, I just think this is going a bit far. I don't know. I just wouldn't want my little girl playing with some prostitute doll, that's all. So, tell me what you think. Agree, disagree, whatever.

I'm Beginning to Hate London

2004-09-14T20:11:00.000-04:00

That's right.

This city is starting to really bother me. I hate the bus system. It has got to be the worst public transit system on the face of the Earth. I had a class (or so I though, explanation later) at 6:oopm right; so I figured I'd get on the bus at 5pm, since 5:30 would be pushing it since the bus only comes every half hour. Well, I'm standing there for 20 minutes waiting for the stupid bus to come and finally it does, but I mean, people have things to do! They're not taking the bus for the joy of riding it along with other people who don't have the priviledge (yes, priviledge, it's not a right, especially when there's so many crappy drivers out there) of driving a car. So, needless to say, I did make my class, but I don't want to stand around for 20 minutes trying to figure out if the bus is going to show up or not. And it takes me about 10-15 minutes to drive to my high school, dependng on traffic, but on the bus, it takes an hour and a half because the routes suck and the times suck. Public transportation is supposed to be convenient! Not a pain in the butt! Anyways, that's my rant about this city and their lack of good transportation.

Now, for my class. Well, I wasted a good three hours tonight. I got to the bus stop at 5pm, got to my class at about quarter to six, and there ended up not being a class. Whoo....there's another hour wasted. Then, my 7 o'clock lecture, which was supposed to go until 9pm, ended up lasting 5 minutes. That's right. So, I wasted my entire "evening" doing nothing but waiting and wondering. It turns out my professor was sick and couldn't make it. You know what? I'm sick too! I feel like someone shoved a screwdriver down my throat.....okay that's a little drastic, but I'm not in the greatest mood right now. But the upside is I get to watch Spiderman for class on Thursday. I love that movie! Yea, now I'm happy again! Anyways, I hope you all have a lovely night watching Canada win the World Cup....though the score is tied as of the end of the first period. Go Canada!

Perfect

2004-09-12T18:52:00.000-04:00

Well, O-week is over and now I must begin my regular class schedule. Lots of fun activities and great people and lots of other exciting things happening for me! Lets see, I went to some barbecues (I learned every University student loves free food); I went to the dance at Brescia, which was alright for a dance; I hung out in the tent a bit and wandered the campus (stupid, long travelling time from each campus); and I went to the Billy Talent concert on Friday night. It was pretty good. I somehow managed to get right up at the front in the mosh pit and close to the stage. But man, people are pretty vicious! So, I kinda backed it up a bit, so as to not die. Some girl took a really hard fall though from body surfing. She came to the pit and there was no one there to catch her so she went head first onto the ground. I helped her up and she said she was alright, which was good. As for the concert, I came at about 8:30ish and I saw a couple bands before Billy Talent and they were alright I guess, but not amazing. Billy Talent was pretty good though. His voice is so crazy! It's hilarious. I've never really been to a concert like that before and I was sort of surprised to hear so much swearing just because you were never allowed to say that on a high school stage, so I just automatically figured the same thing for here. But I sure was wrong! It takes a lot of energy out of you though, being on the ground and jumping or being pushed around. But it's fun!

Tomorrow I start my classes. I only had one on Thursday, which was Sociology. It lasted 25 minutes and we pretty much did nothing. It was great. Now only if all my classes were like that, then that would be pretty sweet. Other than that, there's not a whole lot going on.

All I have to say is life is great and change is good. ;)

O-Week Begins

2004-09-06T19:02:00.000-04:00

Well, today was the first day of O-week. It wasn't all THAT great. See, I was really sick this morning and it took all the strength I had in me to actually get off the couch and go and meet my friend. I got this cool green shirt though saying that I'm a Frosh. Whoohoo! So, once I felt a little better, it was okay. I saw Ariel there and we hung out for like 15 minutes! Haha. He ditched his friend, so I told him he could come along with me, although he's 25, which is a little awkward, but ah well. Then I saw Juliet and hung around with her for a bit. I met some cool people, but I don't think I'd be good friends with them. My friend and I realized after awhile that all the people we met were guys, so we went in search for some girls to talk to. See, the way I figure is guys are easier to first talk to 'cause they don't seem so judgemental at first. I could already see the little cliques forming with the "cool" kids and the "not-so-cool" kids. Gee, I hate that.

We went to the Labatt Hall for some welcome thing and they taught us all these cheers and stuff and it was alright. Apparently King's has a mullet cheer! Hehe. And this guy named Dan went up to the front because he had this crazy mullet! There was this pretty good "motivational" speaker who had attended King's way back when. Afterwards, I was talking with some Sophs and they yelled at Andy (speaker guy) to come over and he was really nice, which was very welcoming I guess you could say. Then I went to see the football game and left at half time because all the King's students were going back for a free barbecue but I didn't want to eat barbecue food, so I went home and actually ate dinner! (If you heard what I've eaten over the past 3 days, you'd all probably kill me). So, yeah, it was an okay day and I'm really excited to start classes and everything. That's what I'm mostly looking forward to. Oh and I met some people in my classes, which is cool.

Anyways, that's all. Have a good night!

Different

2004-09-04T18:34:00.000-04:00

School is in two days. Whoo!! *sigh*

I'm excited, but in that nervous sort of way. You know how it is.

Anyways, I was so excited about my books that I read one of them already, as in totally finished it. It was only 190 pages, so no maginificent defeat or anything. I can tell that I'll have a pretty interesting year ahead of me. The book was actually really good, as in interesting. Except that I don't believe in everything that the author spoke of, because some of it is pretty extreme for my beliefs. I can understand the whole communism label though, that's for sure! No, I'm not communist, not by a long shot. See, one of the author's ideas about homeless people struck me as very odd. He spoke of how we should just leave homeless people alone, because that's how they want to be and most of them choose this lifestyle. So, instead of preventing homelessness, we should accede it. He suggested that, if homeless people want to live under bridges or in parks or something, we should accomodate them by putting in electricity for them or fix the bridges to be more "homey" for them. I fully disagreed with this idea. I even laughed when I read it. First of all, if we install electricty in the parks or under the bridges for them, what the heck would they be using it for? Do you think homeless people walk around with little microwaves or portable heaters? Come on! Get real here.

The whole thing about homeless people wanting orchoosing this lifestlye, is just absurd. Sure, there are the small percentage of homeless people who enjoy the freedom and laissez faire lifestyle, but a lot of homeless people are either mentally unstable, drug addicts or kicked out of their houses. Then there are also other miscellaneous cases as well, but that is irrelevent right now. I just don't think that the majority of homeless people actually prefer to be homeless and would choose homelessness over a job and a house. But, hey, maybe I'm wrong. The author argued that in fact, homeless people actually do want to be homeless. All because one or two people said that they liked it. They said that they like the freedom and they actually earn money by collecting cans. Well, fine. They can enjoy this. But these homeless people obviously haven't spent a Canadian winter out on the streets. I mean, I get cold just waiting for the bus, let alone sleeping and living on the streets for 4 months of winter. There's only so much you can take.

He also talked about how we are dealing with the "problem" of homelessness. He said that the government wants to berid of homeless people because they are outside of the heirarchy of society because, obviously, they don't contribute to it in the form of money, which is true and I can see why the government would be concerned about that. He said that the programs are useless that in place. Each year it never stops homelessness and it never will. And each year, we know it, but we have false hope that maybe one day it will. Sure, this is sort of true, and I can understand this as well. But he said that it takes "vision" to fix this and that we shouyldn't be worrying about solving the problems or preventing things from happening, but we should make happen what we want to happen. But I think, what would happen if there weren't any programs? Sure, it's easy for him to say that we should have this "vision" and make happen what we want to happen, but in the meantime, what are we supposed to do with those starving on the streets who depend on the shelters? Should we just say, "No, sorry. The programs aren't in place right now because we're trying to create this vision that is going to save you in the future. But in the meantime, try to find a job so you can eat." Maybe I'm being extreme, but whatever.

Don't get me wrong, he did have some good ideas, but I can't get to them right now because I have to leave. So have a great night guys!

Great Day!

2004-08-30T21:40:00.000-04:00

Today was the best day of my life! Why, you might ask. Well, I'll tell you. It started off with a good day at work. I got to take care of this 7 week old baby. She was so cute! Yeah, yeah. I know what most of you are thinking. Who cares? Right? But I do! I never get to take care of babies. And guess what her name was. Maliah! (Like Aleah, except with an "M"). There was also this little girl (about 7 years old) who brought with her a little Bible - it was actually the New Testament, like those little red ones they gave out at school. She was reading it to Maliah while she was sleeping. It was the cutest thing ever, and it was really cool, too. I asked her what she was reading and she told me and then she said that she wanted to read it everyday so that she could finish the whole thing. I just thought it was pretty amazing to see such a young kid saying stuff like that.

Then, I had two hours of in-car with my instructor. He's hilarious! It's always great driving. I went on the highway for the first time. That was exciting. Everyone was passing me though 'cause I was doing 110km/h and they didn't like that. But it's so much easier than I thought it would be. I can't wait until I get my license!

Then I went back to work again for another exciting time. (No sarcasm intended). I worked by myself (stupid Rustom!). But I have figured out a way to make kids listen to you and have fun at the same time. No one has figured that out yet at work, except Rustom. See, if you give them too many rules and yell at them all the time, they don't listen. Imagine that, eh? But see, everyone is always yelling at the kids and telling them to settle down or be quiet or don't do that, you might get hurt, type of deal. You know what? When there's more rules, the kids get hurt more. I only had one get minorly injured. And that's because they didn't listen to the ONE rule I had. But she was 3, so you can't really blame her. Haha. We (this 11 year old and I) were pushing the kids on the riding toys really fast around the daycare. It was great fun!

But that's not really why my day was the best. See, when you apply for OSAP, some people qualify for this scholarship, and I was one of them. So, I just checked the box, and I had completely forgot about it until today. I received a letter in the mail saying that I had just won a $3300 scholarship!! It was amazing!!! Sorry, I don't mean to brag or anything, 'cause I'm not trying to, but I was just SO happy! I told my mom that and she started laughing so hard and crying at the same time. It was great! (You have to know my mom to understand). So yeah. Praise God for that!

Anyways, I've rambled enough. Have a good night!

2004-08-24T22:03:00.000-04:00

Sorry all. I haven't abondoned this blog or anything. It's just that I have nothing really to say. And I still don't have anything to say, I just thought I'd let you all know that.

The same old stuff is going on with me. Pretty much work. Today I worked a double shif anf it was brutal. In the morning it was pretty crazy and one of the parents left the door open and a baby escaped (I didn't know because there was so much going on) so this guy comes in and is all pissed off and is like, "Did you know there's a kid out here?" So I went and grbabed her and shut the door. Then tonight, my volunteer was taking all the kids to the foutain outside thr daycare door and her son ran out and one of the kids had to chase him in the mall to catch him because my volunteer was holding a baby and I was helping a girl who had just had an "accident" in the washroom. It's times like those when I don't like my job. But ah well. My work also screwed up my pay and cut 12 hours off my paycheque so I had to straighten that out, which was a pain.

School is in like two weeks! Like some of you, I'm xcited! Everyone assumes I'm nervous, but really I'm not! I have two classes with my friend from high school ad one class with Juliet. The class with Juliet is Religious Studies.....go figure, eh?! I still have to buy my books and pay the first deposit, in which I found out once I relaxed, was that I'm only a couple hundred short of the full tuition price, which is fine.

I watched three movies on the weekend. Actually, they were rented and they are kind of old. But the first was League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. My first impression of it was distorted due to the circumstance in which I was watching it. But, I actually like it now. I mean, it's not as good as say, Spiderman or something, but it was still pretty entertaining. The second was Daddy Daycare. Yeah yeah, be quiet. It was a "cute" movie. It was clean, which is surprising considering it was Eddie Murphey. I don't know if there were any "plotholes" in it, because that's not why I watch movies. It was fairly funny, but nothing special. The last was S.W.A.T. It was alright. I mean, the whole story line was kind of crazy. The action was okay and all. There was quite a bit of language in it, and the amazing part was that it wasn't all said by Colin Ferrel. I really didn't like the girl in the movie though. She was too tough for me. I don't know, maybe you guys like that or something but she was kind of creepy.

Anyways, not really a whole lot going on. Enjoy your night and go outside 'cause it's really nice!

London Outreach Centre

2004-08-15T13:38:00.000-04:00

That's where we went this morning. It's located inside the Lamplighter Inn at Best Western on Wellington Rd. The service started at 10:30am, which wasn't the greatest thing for me, but hey, I got to sleep in. The worship started off the service and it was alright, but the first two songs they played I didn't know. I've heard better worship though, and they kept repeating the verses and choruses a lot, which I didn't really like because I didn't know the songs! But it was still good. They actually had a female drummer, which I have never seen before. She was good too. It was a little loud though because she was using real sticks in a smaller area. Probably smaller than Faith's sanctuary. It was funny because their worship team consisted of like five people because they only had one singer and he played guitar, so no, they had four people. Drummer, piano, singer/guitar and electric guitar.

The pastor was fairly good too. I enjoyed his sermon this morning. He's like Leonard, he takes a few Sundays to get through his sermons! He said he was going to be taking the next few Sundays to get through his topic. He spoke about building a personal relationship with God, and not just doing the rituals Christians do, but actually getting personal with God. He also touched base on the fact that Christians need to lighten up and have fun. That everything doesn't have to be spiritualised and we don't have to be reserved and all uptight about being Christian. That we need to go and have fun, that you don't need to pray before a baseball game or something like that, but he said he doesn't disagree with praying, it's just that some Christians have a tendency to become uptight in their faith, which is true. I thought that was pretty cool, because I know a couple Christians who are like that (none of you, don't worry). He was pretty funny too, making small jokes and what not about different small things, you know.

Overall, it was good, but it wasn't great. I'm still sticking with New Hope, because I like the worship better and I like the people better. Not to say London Outreach Centre had bad people, it's just they weren't my kind of crowd. I don't think there were any youth there. If there was, they were all under 12 and went to Sunday school. That's what I didn't like. They were all approximately 30 and over with small kids. So it didn't really appeal to me there. It looks like New Hope is still up there in the rankings.

For some reason this morning, for the first time in awhile, I really really missed Faith. Usually I'm alright because I see everyone and it's all good, but today, I just wanted to be at home in our church. What I miss the most is the worship team. You know, just fooling around and having fun and playing songs I like best. That's what I'm really missing. We weren't alone this morning because we went with the Clarkes, but I missed playing hockey and stuff after church. Because this morning, they all kind of left and there was no food, or fellowship or anything. But yeah. How are you all doing with church scouting?

Antwone Fisher

2004-08-12T18:47:00.000-04:00

Wow, two in one day. It's a miracle.

Anyone see that movie? I think it's an incredible movie. For all of you who haven't seen it, it's about this guy named Antwone Fisher, obviously. He was born in the Ohio State Correctional Facility for women, since his mother was in jail and he was placed in an orphanage. He found out that just two months before his birth that his father was shot and killed by a girlfriend of his. He never even knew Antwone existed. Antwone's mother was supposed to come and claim him after she was released from prison, but she never came for him. He was placed in the care of Miss Tate, a single foster parent. He lived with two other boys, and some woman in her twenties. Regularly, Miss Tate beat the boys down in her basement and she would tie them to a metal pole and whip them in the back with a wet rag for the littlest things, such as putting fingerprints on the walls with their dirty hands. The boys would scream and wail, but she thought she was teaching them a lesson. Antwone soon figured out when they were going to have a good day or a bad day just by the cooking Miss Tate made in the mornings for breakfast. If it was eggs and bacon (or something like that) he knew he had to watch his back the entire day. If it was pancakes, then he was in for a good day. Pancakes weren't often made.

Also, Miss Tate didn't even call them by their names. She would call all three boys (excuse me for the language) Nigger. Each boy knew who she was calling just by the way she would say the word. Soon, Miss Tate didn't beat Antwone as often. She would tie him to the metal pole in the basement as usual, and threaten him with a stick lit on fire and she would wave it in his face, close to burning him, so as to teach him a lesson. Then she would put out the fire and keep him locked down there with no lights until morning. And this was no comfortable basement, either. It was one of those old, dark, dank, creepy basements.

One day, when Antwone was six, Miss Tate and the two other boys went out somewhere for a couple hours, and the young woman who lived with them was there to watch Antwone. He was scared of her because she also beat him. She also made Antwone do stuff with her and she would practically rape him, because if he didn't, then she would beat him. He was six and she was in her twenties! That's just a little disgusting if you ask me. Antwone got tired of it and he was scared, so he ran away to his friend Jesse's house and stayed with him for a bit. When he was older, he was kicked out of Miss Tate's house because she went to beat him with a shoe and he grabbed it away from her, but he didn't touch her with it. So, he lived on the streets and in shelters, wherever he could find a place to sleep. He stopped by Jesse's house again after a few years of not seeing him. Antwone and Jesse went to the store to buy some food or something like that, and Jesse pulled a gun on the store clerk. Antwone was trying to get him to stop and so Jesse turned around to talk to him and the store clerk pulled a gun out and shot Jesse in the head in front of Antwone. It was messy, too, so you could imagine how he felt.

After that, Antwone joined the U.S. Navy. He would get in fights and stuff with the other Navy Seals and so he was sent to a psychiatrist where he talked to him all about his past. After working things out and what not, the psychiatrist sent Antwone to go find his family, and he did and he ended up being alright and he had a beautiful girlfriend, yadda yadda.

This whole story was based on the actual life of Antwone Fisher, who still lives today. I just thought that his whole life was just amazing. I mean, people actually go through these things and have childhoods like his and sometimes even worse. I believe that Antwone Fisher was lucky to have come out of it alive and to have made something of himself. There's just so many people out there who have faced challenges like this and you hear about how all these hoodlums have done nasty things and gang war and rape, etc. But you rarely hear about, or see, the ones who come out alive and go above and beyond where they have come from. I just thought it was a spectacular movie and the story was just incredible. I recommend it to those who have not seen it. But, I just thought it was cool and it shows that even the most troubled person can succeed in life.

But what I don't get, is how these kids get placed in foster homes and such, with foster parents who beat their children and treat them like crap, and they don't even love them. I mean, why would anyone want to take in a child if they don't love them and if they don't care about their life? It's just more work for them, not to mention a lot more money for the cost of living and paying for their food and clothes, etc. So why do people do it? Why would they treat kids like that and take them in if they don't want them? I just don't get it. But anyways.

Have a good night!

Why??

2004-08-12T12:35:00.000-04:00

Ugh. I just got a letter in the mail from the OSAP people and for some reason they re-evaluated my file because some changes were made (changes in which I did not make, so who knows what they're talking about) and now they're giving me less money!! They used to be giving me an extra $1000 or so dollars, but now, it doesn't even cover my tuition. Why the heck would they do that? Argh. Well, good thing I'm smart and have some money saved up. But still, it sucks.

I guess that's why prayer is good. Because people (or the governmental system) likes to screw people over! Sorry, I'm just a wee bit disappointed right now. AAHHH that makes me so mad! I had everything worked out and it was all good and now this happens and I want to hurt someone (not in the literal sense though). But then again, I guess this relates to my previous post and trusting in God and such. Anyways, I hope your day is better than mine! :)

God really does listen

2004-08-09T21:18:00.000-04:00

For the past long time, I've been praying about something, and not really thinking that my prayers would be answered in such a way as they were. Just today, I was thinking about what I've been praying about, and right at that moment, my prayers were answered. It was amazing! That's never happened to me before, so it was cool. My parents told me that some anonymous person/people (I don't even know who they are, they didn't want me to apparently) had been praying and felt lead to do something for me, and it was awesome! The funny thing is, no one even knew I was praying about it. God really does work in mysterious ways. Also, the whole perfect timing thing works, too. It was just at the right, most precise moment, which I thought was quite miraculous! I just wanted to share that little inspirational thing with you just so you know prayer really does work and God is always there, even when you can't see Him or it feels like He's not, He is. He shows Himself through examples just like the one I said. So when you think He isn't listening, just remember the whole perfect timing thing, and know that God is ALWAYS there. I just thought I'd share that with you! Enjoy your night. :)

Driver's Ed

2004-08-04T22:32:00.000-04:00

I had my first in-car lesson today. It was quite exciting, let me tell you! I was so nervous in the beginning because I didn't want to kill anybody and we had his two little boys in the back with us. First of all, the car was horrendous! The front tire was kind of low, so it pulled to the left; the engine was really loud and made a funny noise; the gas pedal took longer to gain speed; and the brake would bog everytime you used it, even if you were pushing lightly. But it kept my speed in check, which was good. Surprisingly enough, I went really slow! This is amazing, because usually I have trouble driving at least the speed limit. I drove about 40km/h through my area (I usually do like 60km/h) and on roads posted at 60km/h, I drove live 5km/h under and everywhere else actually. But, to my surprise, no one was ever on my tail. It was completely different from my driving experience last weekend! Hehe.

But the scary thing was, all these horrible things happened to me that have never happened before!! First off, a car pulls in front of me, then a dude on a bike rides in front of me, then a man crosses the street in front of me and a lady another time. Also, I was coming up to this red light (I was still far back, not even stopping yet) and the light turned green, but just before I went through the green, a guy comes zooming through the red light! My instructor's like, "Whoa! Did you see that?!" It was crazy. He made me drive downtown as well, which was freaky. There were these people standing on the street corner dancing like folk dances or something whacked out. It was weird. I got behind this guy dowtown and we kept hitting all the red lights. Well this guy would stop so his back tires were on the white line and then he would roll forward. Brake. Roll forward. Brake, until he got into the middle of the intersection and when the other people's light turned red, he'd go before our light even changed. He did this a few times. Like really, what's the point of even stopping in the middle of the intersection? Why not just pull a Greg and look both ways then drive through? It was crazy, I tell ya.

Needless to say, there were no problems, he didn't have to use the little emergency brake on his side or anything, which was good. We just cruised around for two hours! He's so funny though. I used to be his neighbour when I lived at my old house. We were just driving along and he was listening to something on his cell phone or whatever it was he had, and he was jotting down all these notes (completely unrelated to the session), so it was good. We even listened to the radio.

Totally unrelated to everything, my new found love: cheesecake! Oh man! I never knew I liked it. In fact, for a few years, I thought I hated it! I had a little bit at a wedding once and it was alright, but I had some at Costco the other week and it was amazing! Tonight, I went to Plantations with Melissa and Juliet and I had a massive piece of chocolate fudge cheesecake, and oh, it was SO good! I couldn't finish the last two bites though because I had just finished eating dinner before I went there. It's so expensive! But definitely worth the money spent. I advise you all to eat lots of cheesecake...then go for a run. ;) Have a good night everybody!

What? No church?

2004-08-01T18:59:00.000-04:00

That's right!

For the first time in I don't know how many years, we didn't go to church just for the sake of lack of interest. It was weird! I mean, I ALWAYS go to church! Where did you all go anyways? I got to sleep in and we went to Ipperwash and I got a nice tan...erm...slight burn....I don't tan. Sad, eh? Anyways, that's all.

Sometimes the best things in life are the simple things.

2004-07-30T17:47:00.000-04:00

Like the title says, sometimes the best things in life are just the simplest things. I think we take for granted the small things in life that give us joy. It's important for us to just enjoy those moments for what they're worth and not take them for granted. For instance, here's my list of things that are small, but tend to make me happy, even just for a moment:

1. Cold showers on hot days.
2. Cuddling with my cat. Sounds really stupid, but it's actually quite nice when he's all happy and snuggly!
3. The smell of freshly cut grass...it's good!
4. The smell of laundry detergent. Yes, it sounds weird, but it smells so good!
5. Being freezing cold and getting under a warm blanket.
6. Being so tired you think you're going to pass out, and then finally being able to lay down in your nice, comfy bed.
7. Reading a book or colouring a picture with a kid (or having them climb into your lap. It's cute!)
8. Lying on your bed, or sitting in a comfy chair while listening to GOOD music [good meaning my kind of music ; )].
9. Going for a walk on a warm summer night.
10. Also, going for a walk on the beach at night....really nice.
11. When you first come inside and it's all rainy and stuff, and then you come out again and it's all sunny. It's a nice surprise!
12. When you've had a terrible day and someone, unknowingly, says or does something to make up for it.
13. Seeing someone else really happy. Seems odd, but it usually makes me happy, for some strange reason. Actually, I believe I was talking to Abe about this, how the greatest joy in life is seeing someone else's joy (my teacher used that example with seeing his wife happy).
14. Being with friends. You don't even have to be doing anything, I just like being with people.
15. My brother's presence. Yeah, yeah. We fight sometimes, but I like hanging out with him. He's going away for a week and now I'm going to be all alone! Alone in the sense that my mom doesn't really like playing video games! Nate and I get along really well despite what you all think.
16. Sitting in front of a real wood burning fireplace. I used to do this everyday at my friends house during lunch (or the smell of a campfire).
17. Waking up early in the morning and everything inside and outside the house is so peaceful and you get to just think or watch the sunrise. I did it once. It was cool.
18. Forgetting about letters or objects and then finding them in your room or house somewhere and then reflecting back on the memories.
19. Buying something new, especially if you worked hard to pay for it.
20. Mashed potatoes and meat patties with my mom's gravy.....yummy : )
21. Seeing or hearing from someone you haven't seen or heard from in a long time.
22. Listening to "Hide" by Creed. I don't know why, but it always makes me smile. I just really like the tune or something, I'm not sure.
23. Seeing a miracle, or having your prayers answered.

Well, those are just some examples of little things that are the best in life. I could go on forever! So, enjoy the little things in life that make you happy and don't take them for granted. Have a good long weekend everyone! : )

Only in Dreams

2004-07-29T12:58:00.000-04:00

Ok.

Question: Do ALL dreams mean something? I mean, we all dream every night, but we don't always remember them, right? So can we just dream random, pointless and insignificant things and they are just some weird memory or something?

Do you ever have dreams where you wake up completely confused and your mind is boggled trying to think of what just happened? Ok. That's been happeneing to me a lot. They're not really dreams either. More like nightmares. The funny thing is, I don't watch scary movies, scary things don't happen to me and I don't read scary books. So what the heck?!

Last night I had this really freaky dream. I'm sorry if this is really morbid and you end up regreting reading this. Again, my apologies. But I dreamt that all the youth were at my house in my living room (I told you it was scary :P Hehehe). But it wasn't really my house. (You know how you dream it's your house, but it looks nothing like it? Yeah, that's what I mean). My house was on the same street, but it was right on the edge of the street and the windows were about a foot above cars driving by, so you could see into the cars very clearly and just above eye level. Anyways, all the youth were there, plus this girl I work with (don't ask me why she was there, I don't know!). So, we were just sitting talking or whatever like normal, and this white van drove by with this guy inside who looked like a farmer or something (red plaide shirt, dirty jeans, red truckers hat, stubbly beard, etc.) But he was driving really slowly by my house, and I was just watching him. Then I noticed he had a gun in his mouth. It was just a silver hand gun and the barrel was pointing up at the roof of his mouth. I said to you all, "That guy that just drove by has a gun in his mouth". But Julie (girl from work) said, "No, he wasn't driving, he was walking." We kinda bickered back and forth calmly and I finally said, "Ok whatever". And you guys didn't believe me and carried on with your conversations.

So, a few minutes later, the guy drove by again in his white van, but this time he was going even slower than before and he was now on the side of the street closest to my window. I watched him and he still had the gun in his mouth and I saw him shut his eyes and pull the trigger. Sparing you the gory details of seeing someone shoot themselves a couple feet away (and what I saw sure was gory), it was bloody, to say the least. No one would believe me before when I said he had a gun in his mouth, but the shot, oddly enough, didn't even scare you guys. You all just kind of turned around and looked out the window (but it was difficult to see out for obvious reasons). It was really weird. The next thing I remember was being on the floor in the corner crying and just saying over and over to stop talking about it and that I didn't want to hear about it. Then I woke up.

So that was my really morbid dream. I've been having weird dreams like that lately, but some of them have really twisted creatures in them or someone's always being killed in front of me. It's weird. I mean, I'm not scared or anything. Like right now I'm not scared or freaked, just a little puzzled. And I don't ever have the same dream over either. Maybe they don't even mean anything. I'm not looking for interpretation, I just want to know if ALL dreams actually have meaning, or if a lot of them are insignificant. I heard somewhere that a lot of dreams are of what you are thinking of while you're going to sleep. That must not be true though, because I sure wasn't thinking of that! Anyways, sorry if you're all scarred for life or have nightmares yourself! I'm just curious, that's all. Again, sorry! :)

Nobody's "Normal"

2004-07-27T21:28:00.000-04:00

You know what's funny? How people condemn others on a daily basis for not being "normal" or for being "weird", as we usually put it. I looked up normal to see what the standard definition was on dictionary.com. Pertaining to this issue, it is as follows:

Conforming with, adhering to, or constituting a norm, standard, pattern, level, or type.

I thought this was interesting because they used the word conform and I believe that's exactly what being normal is. Conforming to a person's, or group of persons, idealistic view of the way we should act, think and function in society. Sure, we do need some conformity in order to keep the world slightly sane and less chaotic. I'm not saying we should break laws and such just to prove that we aren't of the norm, but we shouldn't be afraid of thinking, or acting outside the box. By insinuating a norm in society, I don't think it teaches anybody anything, except that we MUST act a certain way or dress in certain clothes to be labeled what you want others to label you as, and in order to be deemed "normal".

Although there have been many people trying to imitate the role of normal in society, such as celebrities, who are hailed for their style and attitudes, there has also been other people who have gone out of their way to avoid the norm so that they can change the world to better it. Just think of slavery. What if Martin Luther King Jr. conformed to societal expectations the rest of his life and didn't do anything to fix the wrong in the world? Possibly, black people wouldn't have the same rights they have today. Same with Rosa Parks. The norm was for blacks to sit at the back of the bus and give whites the priviledge of the front. She didn't want to conform to society, so she sat at the front and look what happened! Still others continued to branch off from the norm and helped change the world. Mother Theresa was known worldwide for her caring and giving heart. The norm in society was, and still is, to think of yourself first and others later if it fits into your plan, but she had a heart for the people and decided to help them instead of turning a blind eye towards them (or however the saying goes).

Yeah, sure, there have been others who have avoided the norm and devastation has occurred as a result, such as Hitler and Stalin and other people like them. But they're just crazy.

My point is, just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't make it worthwhile. I think people are too easily swayed by the ways of the world and conforming to society and being "normal". Trust me, I know it's hard to avoid being like everyone else. Hey! I'm like everyone else, too. But it was just a thought. I just hate it when people use the excuse that "everyone does it" or "he/she did it first". I've seen too many people get hurt because they stepped over this person or ignored that person because they weren't "normal" or they didn't act like everyone else and they didn't want others to think they were actually friends with this person because they were deemed "weird". The funny thing is, there really isn't anybody who is normal to everyone. Canadian society is weird to Asian culture; and American society is weird to African society, and so on. Skaters are weird to preps, goths are weird to nerds, etc. So there ya have it. In many ways, we're all weird. Enjoy it. And quit worrying what the guy beside you is thinking. Most likely, he doesn't give a crap anyways.

Weekend

2004-07-26T16:33:00.000-04:00

Well, it was yet another wonderful youth event this weekend. I had a lot of fun with all of you who went camping. Shall I do a recap for those who didn't go? Sure, why not.

Friday: We began our journey departing from Abe and Melissa's at about 10:45am. My car consisted of Mel, Celia, Catharina and I. We stopped for bagels for Melissa and the other two cars continued to the camp site. We had to catch up to Abe and Jamie, so we were going about 40km/h over the speed limit to do so! Weaving in and out of cars. No, not really. But it sounds exciting, eh?! Finally we caught up to them. Then melissa was feeling really sick (poor Mel :() so I had to drive for about an hour and a half (I only thought it was about 30 min, but I was wrong). It was kinda scary because I had never driven on a highway type road before and I went really fast and I actually had to pass people! But anyways, we arrived there safe and sound. Once we got there, I think we just set up the tents and went swimming for awhile and some tanned. We had our supper and sat around the campfire discussing the questions that George posed to Abe and the group for some free ice cream. Oh man, I had been eating candy ALL day long and then when we had supper, I had four hot dogs in a matter of 10 minutes and then some more candy. Then Bradley started talking about and playing with his disgusting gash on his leg and I almost threw up. Yeah, that was exciting! I think after that, everyone ('cept me and a couple others) played hide and seek. We talked some more and went to bed.

Saturday: We all got up, had breakfast (yummy pancakes....or potcakes for those of you who heard the joke and some muffins). We went to the grotto on our very LONG hike and it was really cool. There was a lot of really pretty sights to see, such as the lake, the grotto, the cliffs, etc. It was a really nice hike. A lot of work though and my legs still hurt! Abe climbed on the wall along the inside of the grotto and had to turn back because of the overhang. But, Richard thought he could do it so he climbed his way around and ended up falling in! Ah, good times. Over half the group turned back to the vans, but about 6 of us continued on the Bruce Peninsula trail (I think) and we climbed down this tunnel thing to where the overhang was above us. We all made it down safe and sound, except for Bradley who almost rolled down the rocks, but managed to catch himself. Funny kid. So we journeyed back to the vans and made it just in time before we all died of exhaustion. After that, Abe and I went swimming, Celia and Catharina went on the paddle boats and the rest hung around the campsite (doing what, I'm not sure). Again, we ate dinner, which was spaghetti (and it was good 'cause Mel's awesome!) and we played capture the flag and my team won the first game (Abe, Jamie, Laura, Celia and I), but it was so hard 'cause I was tired from hiking and swimming and I had to chase Nathan and he's fast! Then we sat around the campfire and talked again. Hahaha...there were some funny conversations going on there! The best was when everyone went to the washrooms without flashlights and attmepted to use the toilets, but apparently all the guys missed and Tara ended up using the washroom after them...just imagine what happened yourself! Hahaha.

Sunday: We woke up, had breakfast, packed up and headed over to Tobermory to walk around the harbour. It was really nice there, but totally a tourist haven, with overpriced everything and gift shops! We wanted to see the Chee Chee Mon (sp?) come in, but SOMEBODY told us the wrong time and we never got to see it! But, after some wandering, we went home and all dispersed in our own directions. It was a really memorable trip and I thank those of you who organized and supervised it. Thanks a bunch and do it again!

Today: I have to work a double shift today. I've already worked one and now I'm off to the other. What's worse is I'm slightly sick and really tired. I actually had a nap today, which is amazing because I haven't had one since I was a kid! That shows just how crappy I'm feeling today! Actually, it's probably just stupid allergies or something. But anyways, I have to go to work and feel free to add on to or correct any of the events I've listed. Have a great day!

2004-07-21T12:25:00.000-04:00

Computers suck.

My computer, and by my computer I mean the one that I am priviledged to have located in my room, has completely killed itself! Well, I may have had a hand in it, but uh, hehe, I didn't mean to! See, I was bored, so I went searching for lyrics (like I always do) and I came across a lyric site I'd never been to before because all the other stupid ones didn't have the band I was searching for, so it's their fault! Anyways, the next thing I know, all these evil (and by evil I mean annoying) pop-ups kept, well, popping up! Then it continued to tell me I have a virus and yadda yadda. So, my dad being the computer genius he is (no sarcasm intended), tried to help me over the phone. It didn't really work though, because I know absolutely nothing about computers....NOTHING! When he came home, he tried to fix it, but I really screwed it over and there's a million viruses (that's right, a million), so now all my computer is good for is listening to CDs since my stereo is broken! My dad uninstalled MSN because, actually, I don't know why. But he did. Now I have to walk all the way to my mother's room to use the internet and MSN! It's an outrage I tell you! I don't know how such horror could befall an innocent person like me! AND while my dad was fixing my computer, he deleted my friend off my list! You wanna know why? Because he didn't like her name. Well, it did have swearing in it, but still! No, actually, I wasn't mad at him. I was laughing so hard though!

Anyways, the whole point of this, is that there is no point. I'm bored and hot. We have no A/C like some of you priviledged folks, so I'm stuck inside because I also do not have a pool or any other means to cool off with, therefore, I get to sit here and do nothing. I'm also getting sick, too. A cold more like it. If I can't go on the camping trip, I will be really mad! But anyways, enjoy your hot summer and I hope you're not as hot as me! (No pun intended :P)

Crazy Sports

2004-07-18T22:12:00.000-04:00

Firstly, did they change the blogger post thingy? 'Cause mine is different. Pretty sweet!

Anyways, I was just watching part of the Calgary Stampede tonight and it got me thinking. What kind of morons come up with these sports? I mean, really! Specifically, I saw the bull riding thing they were doing and man, they are all crazy! Yeah, sure, it takes talent and all, but who came up with this? The whole idea of the sport is for the person to stay on the aggravated bull the longest. The thing is, the bull isn't even all that angry to begin with. The people actually make it angry themselves so that the bull will buck even harder and they will be more challenged. You want to know how they anger the bull? Well, I didn't really, but I found out. They tie a rope to the bull's *ahem* (if you don't know what the *ahem* means, then go visit Jevant's blog about the Darwin awards and see). The bull is all caged up in an immovable position. Then, as the gates are being opened, a man standing beside the bull and its rider, yanks up on the rope that is still attached to the bull's "special area" and then releases the bull. No wonder the bull is so flippin' angry! Like really, who came up with this sport? WHY?!!

Also, who would want to take part in it? That was my life long dream as a child. I said, "I want to ride on 2000 lbs bulls, that are angry to no end and hopefully stay on long enough to beat my opponents and then when it's finally time to get off, avoid a concussion, a goring or being stepped on. Yup, that sure was a dream of mine! Idiots.

Another stupid sport involving bulls: the running of the bulls. Alright, what does this prove besides pure insanity and stupidity? Yes, I'm going to run down narrow streets while giant bulls are running after me and maybe, just maybe, I'll outrun all of them and not get killed or seriously maimed. Hmm...seems logical, no? Oh boy, people really do have too much time on their hands if they think engaging in near death experiences (and sometimes not so near) is a career. Crazy, crazy.

So that's my rant on bulls and stupid people.

Criminals or Mentally Ill?

2004-07-14T22:05:00.000-04:00

I got the chance to talk to Susan Sterling (a former member of Faith) today. She was telling me about a program they have going on in Victoria, B.C. for heroine addicts. I'll warn you now, I don't know much about it, except for what she told me, so if you want exact details and such, then you'll have to research it for yourself.

Well, the program is instilled to help heroine addicts get clean needles and heroine. This enables drug addicts to use the drug in the safest manner possible. By doing this, the drug addicts, most of them, end up wanting to free themselves from their addiction. This is because when they are on the streets, they have to resort to illegal means to obtain the drugs, by either stealing it, dealing it, or prostitution to get money for the drugs. In places in Europe, I believe, they also have this program for addicts. Once this program was created, it reduced crime by 60%. That's huge, because a lot of the crime was from dealers and other addicts trying to get drugs any way they can. But by having a program, it allows them to focus on other things in life, such as a job. The statistics reported that of the addicts enrolled in this program, 40% end up being fully employed for long periods of time. This is incredible, because without it, the addicts would be on the street causing trouble and with no job or any place to live. By having this program, it helps them to get their lives on track. Most places have social workers working full time to help the addicts with withdrawal and the whole process of giving up the addiction, which addicts can enroll in at anytime they feel they are ready to quit.

While this program does seem helpful, the States and some legal authorities are outraged by the installation of this program because they see heroine addicts as criminals, when really they are mentally ill. It is like a disease because these people, almost all of them, once they get in, it is difficult to get out and they so desperately want to get their lives on track but they can't because they don't have the willpower or the resources to do so. So by having this program, it helps them get their lives back in order and quit the addiction altogether. Although this does seem positive, there are some who, after as early as a week, get right back on heroine. But I don't think that we should see them as criminals, because it is something that is affecting the addict mentally. Just like alcohol, it is a poison that slowly takes over the abuser and it is hard to get out. Though alcohol isn't as extreme as heroine, it still has the same effect on the person. They become abusers and addicted, they think it's an escape from their problems when really it becomes the biggest problem in their life; they use it to feel a high and then eventually use it to feel "normal" and they truly believe they cannot function throughout the day without it. It is a sad state to be in, but there are lots of people who suffer from addiction and it should be helped in every way possible. Addicts are considered mentally ill, but the ones distributing it are considered to be the real criminals. This is because most there are a lot of dealers who don't even use heroine, but they feel it is a means to acquiring money, which it is, it's just not the greatest way to do so.

But then again, looking at it from a Christian perspective, it may seem Biblically wrong. You know, this program is distributing the drug, legally however because they had to apply to the ministry of health as well as to get exempt from certain parts of the criminal code. Some may see it as morally wrong because the addicts are still getting the drug. But really, in the end it has proven to help stop addicts from being abusers of the drug and also significantly lowered the rate of crime. To me, this is an assistance to addicts rather than a hindrance.

That's really all I know from the situation considering I only had twenty minutes to talk to Susan in the car. Let me know what your take is on this. As I said, I'm not educated on this subject really at all, so maybe there are more details that would condemn this program or maybe prove it to be successful.