She-Man

A "woman" failed a gender test after winning a silver medal. Apparently there are people who will do anything for a victory these days. What's next? Covering a small child in fur and entering them in the Westminster dog show?

Laughter and Vomit

My friend Ben told me about this site called 'Steve, Don't Eat It!' where a guy called Steve samples different "unique" food items most people would throw into the trash. I don't want to ruin the surprise for you, but I urge you to read it all the way through. I found myself laughing so hard I needed to get up off my chair and walk around. But as I was reading and looking at the pictures, I noticed my stomach begin to turn and felt the familiar 'I-Think-I'm-Gonna-Hurl' feeling. This site is gold, I say.

'Steve, Don't Eat It!'

Random

I've been back in Michigan for about 2 days now, and it's been rather relaxing. Within these two days, I was able to:

* Watch the movie 'Apocalypto' with my dad.
* Mail out a package I sold on ebay.
* Walk my parents' dog.
* Go out to dinner with my good friend Ben during his study break.
* Watch TV.
* Play guitar.
* Sleep.

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I went to Toronto with my fellow road trippers Jen and Natasha. Apparently, after experiencing real Chinese food in Detroit (of all places!!!!!) they've been wanting more. And being the resident Chinese guy, I never turn down Chinese food, so we head over to Markham and grab some eats. We go to a Shanghainese restaurant called Asian Legend
and fill ourselves with dumplings, green onion pancakes, roasted duck, noodles and vegetables. We unfortunately ordered WAY too much food, so next time we go, hopefully more people can come along.

After lunch, we putz around and check out the different Chinese "landmarks" in the Markham/North York area. We go to a grocery store, a bakery, an Chinese herb store, and the "world renown" Pacific Mall, or as Pernell says 'The Chinese Mall'.

I must say, it was an absolutely great day spent chowing down on great food and being surrounded by such absolutely fantastic people. Thanks for the great day, Natasha and Jen!!

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I had to get gas before hitting the road on Thursday and pulled into the gas station I usually stop into. After my baby's gotten her fill, I go into the booth to pay and who do I see? Sam. Most people don't know who this guy is, but he's the gas station attendant I've gotten to know over the past few months while living in Hamilton. He's an amazingly friendly guy who loves to chat and smile. After pulling out of the gas station, I head back to my place to get my stuff and pass by another gas station that was selling gas for 5 cents cheaper than what I paid for. Normally, I would be fuming at my poor decision, but I didn't really care because if I would have let my frugality make the decision for me, I wouldn't have seen my buddy Sam, and I wouldn't have gotten to shake his hand and wish him a wonderful Christmas. That, my friends, was well worth an extra 5 cents/gallon.

Holiday Cheer

This video made me laugh out loud several times.

Random Digital Musings

Earlier this week, a Division III basketball team from Lincoln, PA pummels their opponent by 123 points. The final score:

201 - 78

I peed my pants after I read the article. Check it out
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Here's a story I came across that truly inspired me. For the lazy, here's a quick summary:

A woman on a United Airlines flight has a "condition" where she had uncontrollable flatulence of preposterous quantity and quality. To help reduce the odor, she literally lit her own farts to mask the smell. Other passengers were complaining of a burning sulfur odor, which forced the plane to make an emergency landing, where all the passengers were forced to de-plane and be searched.

It takes the phrase 'dropping a bomb' to a whole new level for me. Honestly, this is unbelievably funny to me, but I do feel really bad for this woman.
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I was surfing around iTunes a couple days ago looking for freebies and came across a free download of a video featuring an interview between NBC's Brian Williams and U2's Bono. It tells of the stuff that's happening in Africa, and gives an inside look at some of the tangible things that have resulted in all the awareness and work that's been poured into the country. If you've got a US account with iTunes, then go get it. If not, my apologies. It's not available on the Canadian iTunes store. But if you're nice to me, I'll consider hooking you up somehow. Until then, here's a sample to wet your palate.


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This is a beautifully crafted video. I saw it first at my good friend's church website, Vox Veniae in Austin, TX.


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This site has been the bane of my existence as of late. It has pretty much any and all TV shows you can think of available to watch online. I originally got it from Nathan's blog, but after some sleuth work, I must expand the props to include Rachel and Erin. Apparently, Erin found it first, and then told Rachel, who in turn shared the wealth and told Nathan.

In about a week, I've been able to catch up on pretty much every show I've previously watched or wanted to watch. On the list:
Prison Break
Survivor - Cook Island
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Heroes
Entourage
Lost
The Office

Approximate number of hours spent watching these shows: Too many.
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I've been in the market for a new computer bag, as the one I've got is a bit on the small side for both my books and my pack rat tendencies. I saw this one a while ago, but didn't want to pay the asking price. A couple days ago, I found a sweet online coupon, and used it in conjunction with the discount from using google checkout, and got the bag for $35 + S/H. It's scheduled to arrive sometime next week. I'm flippin' excited.
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My awesome older bro Albert bought me this mug recently. He described it to me over the phone, but I couldn't quite picture it, but when I got to Denver, he showed it to me, and my eyes bulged out and my jaw dropped. It's another French Press coffee mug similar to the other one he bought me a little while ago, but unlike the old one, this new one has a little secret compartment in the bottom of the mug that has a little container for extra grounds. So instead of having to make 2 cups of coffee with the same grounds, I've got extra grounds to make a fresh cup. This baby is glorious!! Thanks, Al!!

Productive

For the past few months I've been carpooling with Mel B to Mississauga on Thursdays. I usually meet with my spiritual director these days, but even on the days that I don't have a meeting, I still make it a habit to come to Mississauga because I've found that it really helps me keep a bit more of a "normal" schedule. Plus, I've found that when I'm awake and out of the house, I usually get more stuff done. To top it off, it's always fun being stuck in a car with Melissa, cuz she's always got great stories about her kiddos.

Anyways, I had a great morning. After dropping Melissa off at school, I headed off to the nearby community center and started working on my papers. A few hours later, I was able to crank out 2 of these bad boys. Right now, I'm feeling really good. Will the productivity continue through the day? Probably not, because I've got internet right now, and I've got way too many internet shopping destinations to hit up and not enough time for more papers.

A Wet and Hot Day

I was able to experience both ends of the temperature spectrum today. For some, this would be a good thing, but the way it unfolded for me, I thought it absolutely bit the big one.

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WET

This morning, I met with someone at the McMaster Divinity College to get more information about taking an elective at Mac instead of at Tyndale. What was supposed to be a simple meeting turned out to be a big suck. For starters, it was raining like nobody's business, but fortunately I had my car so I was sheltered from the vertical H2O. That is, until I needed to find parking. Today was the first time I had been on the McMaster campus, so I didn't know what to expect in terms of parking. Rachel had warned me that parking was atrocious, so I had braced myself for the worst. Apparently I didn't brace myself well enough because what I had envisioned in my mind was a day on the beach compared to what I received.

As I pull up to the booth to pay for parking, I ask the lady inside the box 'I have a meeting at the Divinity College. Where is that?' She points to the building and says 'it's over there, but you can't park there. All the spots are reserved, so you'll need to park at the main lot and walk over.' As she says this, I watch my wipers flip back and forth like the arms of someone floating in the pool who doesn't know how to swim. I look around my car and realize I had not brought my umbrella. Strike 1. Strike 2 comes when I drive up and down EVERY SINGLE AISLE and cannot find a parking space. After 15 minutes of aimless driving in a packed lot, I finally find a spot, which happens to be the absolute last spot in the furthest corner of the lot. Just my luck, right? Well, it gets better.

I get out of the car and make my way to the Divinity College. No umbrella, no hat, no gloves. I finally arrive at the office of the person I was supposed to meet with, literally dripping wet. I excuse myself and go to the mens room and grab a bunch of paper towels and dry my hair as best I could. The entire time, I was thinking to myself 'I'm so glad I didn't put gel in my hair today.' After cleaning up, I go back into the office and take a set. As I start talking to Jeff, I begin explaining my morning ordeal with the weather and tell him I had the fortune of finding the parking spot that I did. He inquisitively, yet compassionately looks at me and says 'you could've parked in our parking lot here. We've got these little tickets you could put in your dash that lets you park in our lot.' At once, I began to think of the movie 'Fight Club' to see if I could remember how to build explosives so I could chuck one into that good for nothing ticketing booth as a thank you for screwing me over.

After venting out my frustrations internally, we proceed with the meeting and start chatting about school stuff. It was a good meeting which was both informative and productive, albeit quite quick. I found myself stalling and drumming up some small talk for the purpose of giving myself more time to dry before I head back outside. Unfortunately, our conversation drew to a close, and I found myself back in the rain. This time around, I discover that the rain had gotten significantly colder and harder. In fact, as I was walking into the wind, the rain was coming down so hard that it literally felt like little tiny needles being stuck into my face. I distinctly remember audibly making sounds and noises in response to the pain. As I was walking I would randomly peep out 'Oww!!' or 'Ooohhh!!'

Needless to say, this was not a very good way to start my day.

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HOT

After my wet, wet morning, I decide to come home and dry off. I towel off my hair and change into some dry clothes, all the while start cursing at the fact that my room is unbelievably cold. In fact, it feels so cold, that more times than not it seems to be the same temperature outside as it is in my room. After cleaning up, I take a gander at the vent that is supposed to be blowing out hot air. I put my hand up to it and feel the slightest bit of warm air coming through. As I felt this tease of warm air, I think to myself 'my farts are hotter than this!!' As I was about to give up and start cursing again, I notice this tiny little lever to the left of the vent. I lift the lever up, and magically, the tiny bit of warm air turns into a turbine engine and pumps hot air into my face. It turns out that the vent has been closed this whole entire time, and I had been too much of an idiot to open it up.

Thanks to this recent discovery, I am now in a room that is no longer frigid. If only I had been an engineer, I would have made this discovery much, much sooner. Oh, wait, I was an engineer. I guess my stupidity trumps whatever education I managed to receive.