none live for themselves

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speed of light?

How does news travel so fast? I know we’re well into the information age and with all sorts of communication technology, information can travel at the blink of an eye. But it still astounds me how fast some news travels, especially things that involve myself.

For example, just tonight at worship practice, one of the vocalists, Beth, mentioned how she heard that I have an interview next week and that she’d pray for me. Sweet! But I was once again surprised, because I had only gotten the call about the interview earlier that day and only 3 other people knew about, or so I thought. Apparently my mom had talked to her between me telling my mom and me seeing her at practice.

And just last week, same thing. This time, when I was volunteering at school, the secretary inquired about an upcoming opportunity for me. She was of course referring to an interview I had later on that week, but again, I had only found out the day before and had only mentioned it to 3 other people at that point. Still haven’t figured out how she found out so fast.

So news does travel at the speed of light I guess, even when you don’t expect it.

“Hey, I’m not even sure there’s such a thing as the Internet. It might just be Jeannie telling everyone stuff.”
~ Matt from the TV Show, Studio 60 ~

elections 08

Some very important decisions will be made in the next two months on both sides of the border. Yessiree, elections are coming to both Canada and the US. So who are you going to vote for and how did you come to that decision? If you don’t know who you’re going to vote for yet, how are you going to decide?

Well, you can definitely (and should) look at each party’s platform on the issues like the economy, education, health care, job creation, tax increases/decreases, etc. Those are absolutely important factors in deciding who you vote for, but I challenge you to look at more. The aforementioned issues really only deal with our own country. What about the rest of the world? And I’m not just talking about foreign policies/relations. What about AIDS? What about poverty? What about all the injustices in the world? As one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations in the world, we have a responsibility to those countries in need. Our leader must be one who is committed to this responsibility and acts on it. Not only should he/she look out for our country’s best interest, but also the world’s.

So when it comes time to cast your ballot, I hope everyone will consider not only the domestic issues, but also the world issues.

“Never forget, JUSTICE is what LOVE looks like in public!”

in her net

I’ve got a confession to make: I love the internet. I absolutely do. It’s the greatest thing ever. I don’t know what I’d do without it. Really, I don’t. There’s just so many things that are possible with it: communication, entertainment, purchases, music, the list goes on. Here are a few things I love about it.

Communication. Things like facebook and MSN messenger are great. You’re able to communicate with people around the world. Distance is no longer an obstacle. Don’t forget about e-mail and blogs as well. Simply awesome. I’ll admit, I hated facebook when it first came out. I joined initially because a friend told me it was great. Truth be told, it sucked when I first joined. There were only 3 Canadian universities on facebook when I first joined and no features. Except poking, the most useless facebook function ever. No photos, no videos, no cool apps. It was basically an online popularity contest. But I have to admit, over time, facebook has become an excellent communication tool. Catch with old friends you haven’t seen in years, plan events and parties easily, share your pictures and videos with friends effortlessly. Good stuff.

Purchases. Get anything and everything from the internet. No longer are you bound to buying what’s close by. If you can find it on the net, you can buy. How very convenient! I especially love buying a lot of my music online now through iTunes. I’ll still buy CDs whenever I find a good deal, but iTunes is great. Not only is it cheaper, but often times, if I pre-order, I get bonus tracks that aren’t released on the CDs. Sweet!

Entertainment. With sites like youtube, how can you go wrong for entertaining yourself. Who know how many countless hours I’ve spent watching stuff on there. I love it. Not only can you entertain yourself, but you can also discover new things. One thing I never thought I’d use the internet for is discovering new music talents. I’ve always found out about new artists through the radio and friends. But now I’m discovering cool artists by just browsing the net. My personal favourite right now is Jennifer Chung. A sweet girl from Cali with an amazing voice and songwriting skills to match. Here’s my favourite song of hers:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zar6Lx9-Riw]

Speaking of entertainment, check out Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Joss Whedon + Neil Patrick Harris + comedy + musical = awesomeness. Seriously, check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

Now, unfortunately, it isn’t all good. With all this freedom opened up with the internet, it’s also given voices to people who frankly shouldn’t be talking. Hate groups and hate websites are unfortunately on the net. So are disgusting things like child pornography. I’m pretty sure this stuff only makes up a very small sliver of the internet, but it still saddens/angers me that people would put stuff up like that.

Back to the good stuff. There are many more communication tools that I haven’t mentioned, but there is one I’d like to highlight before I end this post: twitter. For those of you don’t know what twitter is, it’s basically a tool where you can post short messages about what you’re doing at that moment. Friends can subscribe to your feed and be in the know about your doings. It’s suppose to let people know what you’re doing in between blog posts. Now I’ve received a few invites for this over the last few months, but I’m still skeptical, seems like it’s a pretty thin line between twittering and stalking. Do I really want people knowing what I do on a hourly basis? Do I want to know what others are doing on an hourly basis? I just don’t know. What do you think?

to have and to hold

Just got back from one my many visits to Toronto 2 days ago. I made the trek up with my parents for yet another wedding. The last one for me, at least for this summer. It’s been kind of a wedding blitz for me these last 2 weeks. First, 2 weddings in 2 weekends, and then finding out in between those 2 weddings, 2 couples I know getting engaged (congrats to Alex & Austen and Kat & Mike!). As always, very exciting and awesome to celebrate with friends and family!

The last wedding I went to this past weekend is one that I’ll probably always remember. I had the privilege to help out the happy couple (Teresa & Caspian) by being one of their ushers. Not a difficult task, but was glad to help out in any way possible. But it isn’t this that made it so memorable, it was how the couple made the day that could have been (and rightfully so) all about them into a day about God and others.

The first thing that stuck out in my mind is their first act, besides the first kiss, as a married couple: to lead all of us guests in musical worship. That’s right, the bride in her bright white dress and the groom all decked out in his tux standing on stage with their band, leading the church to worship God. Just awesome. :)

It didn’t stop there either. Later that evening, during the banquet, there were the usual speeches from the maid of honour, best man, families, and the newly wed couple, but during the newly weds’ speech, they invited Trevor from Compassion to speak to the guests about sponsoring a child. Teresa & Caspian themselves had started sponsoring their second child through Compassion a couple of years ago and not content with just that, they decide to open up their special day to encourage others to do the same, to join in something that is close to their hearts. Wow.

Again, a brilliant day that I won’t forget because of how two people diverted attention that they could have drawn to themselves onto God and helping others in need.

what’s next?

“There will be books written about Harry – every child in our world will know his name!”

Anyone know where that quote is from? If you guessed Harry Potter, kudos to you!

the scarI just started reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone again for like the 5th time (you could say I’m a fan of the books) and came across this quote from the first chapter. It’s when Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall are waiting for Hagrid to deliver little baby Harry to the Dursleys, and McGonagall says this to Dumbledore. Kind of ironic when you think about it, cause it’s pretty much come true in this, our real world.

But it got me thinking, what will I be remembered for? Harry’s known for being the “the boy who lived” and defeating Voldemort; JKR’s most famously known for writing the Harry Potter series. But what about me?

I guess I’m thinking about this because I’m at yet another crossroads in my life. Just finished university and have the rest of my life before me. Exciting times, definitely, but it would be nice if I had a clue about where I’m going or what I even want to do. There’s only one thing I know for sure, I want to be of service to others. Unfortunately, that’s about as vague as you can get when it comes to direction in life. I’m sure I’ll discover my niche in this world sooner or later, but I’m hoping it will be sooner rather than later. Here’s to the beginning of the rest of my life. :)

What about you? What are your passions? How would you like to be remembered?