always remember
Farrah Fawcett died today. Michael Jackson also died today. Those are the 2 headlines dominating the news today, at least in Canada & the US as far as I can tell. While these deaths are really sad, I can’t help but think of those who died today (and recently in the past few weeks) that didn’t get the same attention as the King of Pop did. What about the child who died of malnutrition because his family didn’t have enough for everybody? How about the protester in Tehran who was beaten or shot to death? What about the brave soldiers who gave their lives for a higher cause?
That last one particularly sticks with me. A couple of weeks ago, while my family was driving on the 401 to Kingston for my sister’s graduation, we witnessed something I had only seen in the news. We witnessed the motorcade for Private Alexandre Peloquin, a Canadian soldier who was recently killed in Afghanistan. If you don’t know what happens with Canadian soldiers who are killed in battle, then this may sound odd that seeing black cars speeding pass me in the opposite direction for brief moment sticks with me. Its much more than that. Let me explain.
The portion of highway 401 between Trenton & Toronto has been renamed the “Highway of Heroes.” It is this stretch of highway that all Canadians killed in action is driven down, from the air force base in Trenton, to the morgue in Toronto. Every-time this horrible trek happens, something amazing happens as well. Canadians from all backgrounds, veterans & civilians, men & women, young and old, gather on the bridges above the Highway of Heroes to pay their final respects for the fallen soldiers. Some sit, most stand, some salute, some wave flags; they all remember. And that’s why that trip to Kingston sticks in my mind so much. Not just the fact that I saw the motorcade pass by, but also witness the reverence and respect my fellow countrymen had for our fallen soldiers. It was really quite something.
So never forget. Don’t only remember those who past away who made the headlines. Remember the lesser knowns and the unknowns as well. Somebody loses a son or daughter, brother or sister, friend or family, every-time someone dies.
Always remember.
imagine a day
Imagine a day where you are unbound. Untethered. Unrestricted. Unbound from your fears. Untethered from your “identity”. Unrestricted in your love.
Imagine a day where you fully open up. Fully Embrace. Fully receive. Fully open up to the love from above. Fully embrace your true potential. Fully receive the Holy Spirit.
Imagine a day where you are truly spontaneous. Where everything you do comes out naturally from your ingrained character. A character born from the one above.
Imagine the possibilities. Imagine the joy. Imagine the hope. Imagine the unimaginable.
Now imagine a life filled with these days…
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?
oodles of talent
It’s past 4 in the morning right now and I’m not remotely tired at all. Gotta love how exams screw up your sleeping schedule. So, what should I do when I can’t fall asleep? Write on my blog of course!
If you read my last post, I left a quote hinting at what my this post would be about. Johnson was able to guess correctly (and amazingly quick too: he commented on my facebook note a mere 36 minutes after it had been imported from here. and just to be sure I saw his answer, he again posted a comment on my original post…oh Johnson, so keen). So, what’s this post about? Wong Fu Productions! bonus points to Johnson, just as I promised! 
If you know who and what Wong Fu Productions is, then you already know what I mean by “oodles of talent”. If not, allow me the privilege of being the first to introduce to them to you.
Wong Fu is made up of 3 guys from Cali, (Phil, Wes, & Ted) who went to school together at UCSD and now live together post-uni, and create some of the best videos I’ve ever seen. They started out creating these lip-sync music videos and soon expanded into creating shorts and even created a full-length feature film, all while finishing their post-secondary education. They’ve become a huge hit on the ‘net, with fans from all over the world (myself included) and are continuing with their media-making endeavours as their career now.
What makes their videos so good? Well, there are their comedic ones (like Yellow Fever) which just make you crack up like nothing else without being obscene or dirty. And then there are their more “serious” videos. These are the ones that fuelled my obsession for their work. Many of their videos are based on relationships, not just the romantic kind, but friendships as well. These are done so well, they’re just so real, something that most people can relate to, and something I definitely can relate to. My personal favourites are Just a Nice Guy and You’ve got a Friend. If you’ve got a half hour to spare, I definitely recommend you check these two series of videos out. Well worth your time. If you don’t have much time, check out this music video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcPEm7oWHd0&rel=1]
Now, if writing, directing, producing, editing, and whatever else goes into making these videos wasn’t more than enough evidence to show you what creativity and talent these guys have (and it is), they’ve got more up their arsenal. They’re also amazing photographers, animators, dancers, and composers. Not all 3 of them do all these things, but each of them do a few and do it very well. Talk about creative talent. Check out all of their stuff at wongfuproductions.com and you can see why I’ve got a bit of man-crush on these guys.
PS to all of you who wished me a happy birthday yesterday whether in person, facebook or text message: THANK YOU! I’ll never cease to be amazed with how many great people I know. Thanks and if I don’t see/talk to you in the next week or so, have a very Merry Christmas and a super awesome Happy New Year!
i want your money!
Before getting into the main part of this post, two quick things:
- just got to Vancouver today for a week long vaca here with the family and family friends and will be going on a week long Alaskan cruise on Saturday. Had japanese food for supper and wow! The sushi and sashimi here is soooooooo much better than the stuff in T dot. Yum!
- overheard this from 2 girls sitting at a table next to mine last night at Pho Hung (a Vietemese restaurant): “I’ve never seen a Chinese restaurant so full before! Except for Mandarin!” oh cultural ignorance…
———
Anyways, onto the main part of this post: your money! That’s right, as the subject explicity implies, I want it! But not for myself! Cause that would be pretty selfish and greedy of me! I want it for the Canadian Cancer Society! I, along with 10 others, will be participating in the annual Relay for Life at Forest Hill Memorial Park on June 22nd. We’ll basically be staying up all night, taking turns walking around a track for 12 hours to support those who have cancer, remember those who have died from, and rais money for the Canadian Cancer Society.
So please support me and pledge some money! Any amount will do and you can even do it online here! So even if you live half way around the world, there’s no excuse for not pledging! 
I’ve set a goal of $1500 and I know that with your help, I can meet and exceed that! (in span of a week, 4 of us raised over $600 through cuts for cancer, so $1500 in a month should be nothing!)
And to sweeten the deal, here’s what I’ll do: if I receive at least $1500 in pledges, I’ll wax my legs at the relay for life. I’m also open to suggestions if you have some other crazy thing you’d like to see me do. Of course, if I agree to a suggestion, I may increase the minimum pledge total depending on the degree of crazyness of the suggestion.
You can also help me try to win $7,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society from 102.1 The Edge by joining my facebook group here!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dRVv7XtvBU]
shameless promos
So, just as the title indicates, I’m going to shamelessly promote some up coming events. But before that, for those who care, a little update with the happenings of this lazy student.
So, in the past 2 months, I’ve been cut for cancer, saw a phantom terrorize an opera house, saw/listened to Switchfoot at Kool Haus (check out the vids here), retreated with a fellowship, given up meat & seafood for lent, started teaching swimming lessons again for the first time in 5 years, visted some friends in ‘loo, started some cool business courses, had dinner with a friend from Brazil, started tutoring again with the Meds, 
winterliscioused it up at La Maquette, saw the Canadiens (unfortuantely) lose at the ACC, and been trying to get into a regular routine now that I have less class. Hmmm…looking back, looks like I had some good times. So, what’s next? Hilarities at Skule Nite 0T7, CCF elections, find a summer job, launch Acting on AIDS, Unity in Diversty, become a shadow for a skit on Easter Sunday, finish up my design project, vacation with the fam to Vancouver & Alaska, figure out what to do with my life.
Now, onto the promos:
Come to UTCCF’s coffehouse: Unity in Diversity! This Friday at 6:30 pm at the Buttery. Food, music, friends, dancing plus thelaunching of Acting on AIDS! It’s going to be a great night!
Also, come to the first Acting on AIDS workshop at U of T! If you read my Urbana blogs, you may remember me mentioning about how we should be the generation that ends the AIDS pandemic. So, here at U of T, the first Acting on AIDS chapter is starting. We’re having speakers come in from World Vision to share what’s going on in the world with respect to AIDS and what you can do. Come out, learn, and be challenged to act justly. Join the movement! Tuesday, March 20 at 6 pm in the Bahen centre, room 2155.
Ending off today with some hilarities. Probably not what Jesus meant by “turn the other the cheek,” but funny nonetheless. *profanity warning*
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AalXl2dc0Kk]
relationships
This one is inevitable. If you’ve talked to me at some point in the last 2 weeks of November, you may know that this has been on my mind a lot: relationships, specifically the ones of the guy-girl flavour. And I’m not the only one, some of my other friends have been thinking and blogging about this too.
Now, what made me think about this? I don’t know. Maybe it’s the fact that many of my friends and people my age back home are getting married soon or have already done so. Maybe it’s because I may have a longing for one myself. Maybe it’s because of the conversations I had about this topic with various people in that 2 week span. Maybe it’s all 3 of these reasons. Whatever the reason, I was super-saturated with relationships during those 2 weeks.
So why all this relationship stuff? I think God is trying to tell me something. What is it? Still trying to work that out. But there are some thoughts I have about this.
First, why even bother with a relationship? If you look at the world, relationships seem to suck. Even in the Christian context. Half of all marriages (Christian or not) end up in divorce. Even personally, I’ve heard of all these screwed up things that happen in relationships that just hurt both people. It almost seems like there’s no point in getting into one. Almost. Where some may find the marriage statistic discouraging or become disheartened when they hear about yet another messed up relationship, I kind of take it as a challenge. To show the world that there is still such thing as integrity and honour in a relationship. There is such things as pure love that comes from above. I hope to slightly change the marriage/divorce percentage to the better side through my own marriage, God-willing, and show that there is something worth fighting for, worth working hard for.
So back to the question, why even bother with a relationship? Well, according to Voddie, there are two purposes for a relationship, specifically marriage: imitation and procreation. It’s to imitate to the relationship of Christ and the church, where the man is like Christ and the woman is like the church (see Ephesians 5:22-33). It’s to procreate, basically make babies. Now, I totally agree with this, but I think there’s more. What that more thing is, I’m still working out.
Now, why would I want a relationship? Well, of course, to honour God, but true as that is, it sounds like the typical Sunday school answer. There are more reasons that just that. During a dinner outing last year, a friend of mine was going around the table and kind of profiling all the guys with what kind of a boyfriend we would be. When she 
got to me, she said I’d be the type that would do almost anything to make the girl happy. Now, I don’t know if it’s because she said that or if it’s really true, but I believe it is. One of the reasons for me to be in a relationship would be to make the girl happy. This is taking it out of context, but it’s kind of like when Jesus said, “I didn’t come to be served, but to serve.” It’s not what I’d get out of the relationship, but what I could put into it. Now that’s not to say I wouldn’t get anything out of the relationship, but that wouldn’t be my movtivating factor. In fact, if and when I get into a relationship, I hope the girl will really challenge and push me spiritually, help me become more of the man that God intends me to be. I really like the triangle illustration for relationships where God is at the top corner of the triangle and the guy and girl are at the bottom corners of the triangle. As the guy & girl grow closer together, so also will they grow closer to God.
So that’s a snippet of what I think relationships are about. There’s more, much more, but I’m still learning and still trying to discern what God is saying to me. This is going to take a lifetime to figure all this out.
But let’s end on another type of relationship: one between a father and his son. Truely one of the most inspirational videos I’ve ever seen. Brought many tears to my eyes. The story of Team Hoyt.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCTIigaloQ]
white and nerdy
Whoever did this, they’re my hero. Who tags a wall with “pi”? hahaha! It’s just so white and nerdy, like me, except that I’m not white, um, but yeah…jokes.
boys are stupid?
Why do guys do such stupid things? I mean, seriously…what’s wrong with us? *sigh* I guess this is going to be my little rant about guys (much like the one I had about girls a couple months ago). It’s just within the past 6 hours, I’ve just heard about so many messed up things some guys have done. I’ve always disliked those “boys are stupid” or “throw rocks at boys” t-shirts and I try to stand up for our gender anytime a girl says something like, “all guys are jerks” because not all of us are, but after tonight, it seems those t-shirts seem to speak a little truth. Come on guys, man up!
On a happier note, a friend sent me a link to this video yesterday. If you’re having a bad day, I guarantee this will bring a smile (and maybe even a tear) to you face.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BngEhhdg4lw]
hey hey hey, goodbye!
This one goes out to all the leafs' fans
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqKh6gb_1uY]
