welcome to version 3 of my website! it's been a long time coming but i finally got cracking on the site design
and here it is... lemme know what you think of it...
yeah, i know i've been scarce of late, but i've been working on this website for a while now, and i'll be
darned if it don't look 10 times better than the old one...
westfalonstadion, site of the borussia dortmund-real madrid match
i haven't gotten all of the content back up yet, so most of the links are dead... but all in due time. i'm
gonna try to put up all the old stuff in the new format by the end of march...
all the pics from the old site, that is, the ones in the pics section, can be found in my yahoo! photos account, while the ones i've been running on the
old home page will still be here.
anyways, thanks for checking up on my site, and stay tuned for all the new pages!
slowly, i'll eventually convert all my other pages to the new format, but for now, all i got is this journal, so
hang tight, and i'll catch up at some point...
this weekend is just chill. yesterday after work, i did nothing. went to carsten's (from basketball) place for
his birthday party, met some ppl there, including this one kazakh guy who looked asian. he said he was is a
kazakh, but he's from krgyzstan (sp?)... we had an interesting chat...
i also tried absinth for the first time... heh, you might know it as "the green fairy" from
moulin rouge... well, lemme tell you, it ain't
for the faint of heart. it smells like licorice, tastes even worse (in spite of the flaming sugar you add in),
and it packs a kick (55%, woohoo!)... it's funny, you'd think that after consuming a few gulps, you'd get knocked
on your butt... well, i thought so, until i did the math, and it only worked out to the equivalent of about 825ml\
of beer... no hallucinations either, i don't think they make the real stuff anymore...
today, i did nothing. well, ok, i shopped a bit (only bought a bit of groceries and some household items) and
then went to köln for claudia's birthday party... it was fun too, met a few more au pairs who i haven't seen
before... there's nadine from south africa, and belen from argentina... and then there were some of claudia's
classmates, but i didn't talk to them much... my german ain't that good yet.
anyways, no service this week or next, cuz the german church is using the building for something, so... i think
i'll be staying in aachen and hanging out with the smd fellowship group...
cuz i've missed so much time in my journal, there's so many things i've wanted to talk about, but i haven't been
able to... in addition to the list of things that i had already planned to say... <sigh> it never
ends...
ok, so i'll start by saying that there was a time when there was hardly anyone updating their blogs or journals.
it seemed like only my bro and
maxima were updating... slowly but surely, ppl did start coming
back... matt and lyds are back,
if a bit sporadically... even yuling and
superfatconball are back at it... now we just gotta get
gabe to come back to life...
speaking of other ppl's blogs, does anyone else have a problem with
joanne's blog? for the last week now, i've been having problems
reaching it... it'll load up briefly and then my browser will just quit... weird...
anyways, a bunch of ppl i know were planning on visiting europe this summer at one point or another... lyds,
matt, grace, viet... but now, due to the situation in the middle east, ppl are having second thoughts, or are
more reluctant to travel here... and i do mean here, in particular. to that i ask, why? it's not like the war
is happening here, and even though france, germany and russia are against the whole thing, that doesn't mean the
usa is gonna attack them (though would it really surprise you if they thought about it?)...
i don't think the situation here is any worse than it is back in canada... ppl still going about their daily
lives, most not really giving a hoot about the impending war, except in heated political discussions... i mean,
ok, if you were thinking of going to the middle east for vacation, or egypt, yeah, maybe you'd start having some
reservations, but western europe? i'd say you'd probably have more cause for concern if you were going to korea
or japan, or in any of the countries in southeast asia where there are problems with militant islamic
fundamentalist groups (the philippines, indonesia, etc.)... but every place has its problems, and as long as you
have your wits about you, there shouldn't be any reason to not come to europe... and visit me!
one more interesting tidbit before i go... last month, i found out that ppl actually thought i was canadian... as
in native canadian. an aboriginal. hahaha... i find that so amusing. but then, of course, when ppl ask where
i'm from, and they hint (sometimes asking aloud) at china or japan, i very strongly tell them i'm from canada...
well, it just so happens that some ppl really took that to be actually 100% native canadian, and i find it all
really amusing since it's the first time that's ever been suggested... i've been called korean and filipino
before, but not aboriginal... heheh, neat.
3.17.2003 the calm before the storm
you know what's weird? having mike call me big
bro. first, he doesn't usually call me that. it's either steve, or
george, or any other buddy-type nickname (guy, stupid, bum, etc.), so
hearing (ok, reading) him say big bro is a little strange... but in a good way. now if i can
only get him to call me goh... heheheh... fat chance. i've been working on that for over
10 years...
so it looks like the war is happening. probably gonna start this week. well, i guess that means all i was gonna
write on it before, all the stuff that's been backlogged... well, it's all a moot point now. oh wellz. i don't
even have a tv on which to watch the all-day, all-night, playstation-like coverage of cnn.
actually, while it's still a mildly relevant topic... is the american government petty or what? freedom fries or
freedom toast, instead of french fries and french toast? come on, that is just plain dumb. this childish
behaviour doesn't just reflect only on the government though... doesn't it sorta manifest itself throughout your
impressions of american culture?
another thing i wanted to say was that it's sorta scary how intolerant the american public seems to be when it
comes to these hot-potato issues. ok, the operative word there is "seems"... of course, it's a blatant
stereotype to think that all americans are gun-toting, SUV-loving, backwards-thinking barbarians, but it remains
a fact that there are some ppl out there who are like that. they're so patriotic, it borders on being
nationalist. in fact, doesn't this all this flag-waving, you're-either-with-us-or-against-us rhetoric, coupled
with aggressive military behaviour sorta remind you of a particular movement here in germany back before ww2?
i'm not saying it's the same, but as your side mirror says, objects are closer than they appear...
one last thing... hotmail changed their login procedure, from the web that is... maybe it's just the webpage, but
the bottom line is, i can't get hotmail at work anymore. i don't have a windows machine (though i have a windows
emulator on my workstation), so i can't get msn messenger, which would do the login for me... sucky.
3.18.2003 freedom fries = french fries
ok, apparently some ppl haven't heard about the whole freedom fries thing. basically, in some stupid, childish
but symbolic up-yours to france, 2 republicans in the house of representatives decided, in their committee on
stuff about the house, that the restaurants in the house would have their menu items renamed to freedom fries and
freedom toast. here's the cnn
article if you wanna read up on it...
ugh, it's so petty, it's beyond comprehension. what i can't stand more than anything else is that ppl can be so
short-sighted. so it's ok to claim the fifth amendment if it's in your own interest, or claim the freedom of
speech when insulting others, but if you so much as say something negative about the war effort, you're suddenly
unpatriotic? since when did the so-called standard-bearer for democracy become a totalitarian society?
today marked the start of the second week of my german course at the volkshochschule, aka the
vhs. it's equivalent to a local community college or such, cuz it's run by the government... hence the name...
the people's college...
anyways, lemme tell you how deadly my class is. well, first, lemme tell you what class i'm in. it's called
deutsch spezial - niveau iii, which probably doesn't mean anything to you. ok, basically,
it's a special german course, outside of the regular course structure (grundstufe and
mittelstufe), and it's the third level of this special course, for beginners who have good
knowledge of german already. i know, that sounds oxymoronic... but they mean beginners as in first-timers to
vhs.
so my class has 15 ppl, including the teacher. within this group, there are 13 countries represented! deadly
(yes, this is the deadly part)! ok, there's germany, of course, and canada... and then there's italy, france,
brazil (2 ppl), argentina, taiwan, denmark, romania (2 ppl), lithuania, georgia, finland and spain... we're a
veritable united nations! we even can't communicate properly like the real one! hahaha...
on a complete tangent, i was sorta reminiscing a bit on my childhood last week, and i came across a realization
that kinda had me wondering... when did we stop giving loot bags at parties? those were so cool! i mean, at
what age did we just stop doing that? i think it's kinda sad that you lose some of your childhood innocence
as you grow older, but i think loot bags are one thing that we can bring back without any probs... ok, so i know
it's like bribing ppl for coming to a party, but hey, it's still cool. who can't use a bottle of bubble-blowing
liquid (eh, conball?)? aight, when i go back home, i'm gonna throw a party and give out loot bags. woohoo!
3.19.2003 strawberries hate me
ok, normally something happens once, you say whatever. it happens again, then it's like, ok, that's weird. but
a third time? ok, even i can take a hint...
this is how i've come to deduce that strawberries hate me. yes, it's true.
it's not so much that they hate me though, but it's more like they just don't want to be eaten by me. anyone
else seems ok. seriously. ok, so now you're like, what kinda crack has he been smoking? lemme give it to you
a la paul harvey...
so on monday i buy some strawberries. small pack, like a pint or so. bring it back home, intending to eat it
after dinner. no dice. thomas noticed there's already mold growing on it. you know, the fuzzy white stuff.
i know what you're thinking... ew. too many details. hahaha... ok, it gets better...
yesterday, i bought another pack, from a different supermarket, one near work. i forget to bring it back though.
so what do i find this morning? yeah, that's right. mold on my strawberries.
you'd think i woulda figured things out by now. well, i'm walking down the street towards home, and i come
across some strawberries (btw, they were all in a plastic basket with saran wrap around it) that looked pretty
good, though not as aromatic... but they were really cheap, compared to the others, only 80 cents. ok, why not,
i think. i bring it home, leave it in the mailbox since i was going out again, and then come back not more than
4 hours later, and guess what. i find some mold.
this is so dumb! i can't believe this. the strawberry deity is obviously displeased with me or something, cuz
this just shouldn't be happening to me all the time. ok, so you think that i'm not looking at the strawberries
enough when i buy them... could be true, except after the first time, i was actually looking for signs of mold,
so either i'm totally blind or i just can't see mold until after i've paid for the strawberries.
and that's... the rest of the story.
i had a long talk with matt last night... rang him up and we chatted a bit about blah stuff as usual before we
started going into some deeper stuff... i can always count on him to challenge me. and time and again, he's
really rocked the boat in which i live my life... thanks buddy.
we talked primarily about the future, and planning for it, and what we want to do... well, actually, i think we
only talked about it from my side, but it was a good talk... i gave him the lowdown on what i was thinking of
doing next year... matt's concern was just to make sure that God can do what He wants, and that i don't limit
Him by limiting my options...
it's hard to articulate... basically, matt challenged me to think about whether i'm really open to God's calling,
whether i can even hear Him calling or not... often i feel like i'm too defensive when i try to explain my side,
but i think i was fairly honest with myself...
we also talked about whether or not i was just rationalizing my own personal desires, whether or not i was giving
God full reign in my life, whether i was fully developing my spiritual gifts... heh, every time we get deep like
this, i just can't help but think that i'm so woefully inadequate to do God's work... i need, like, a job, or a
sabbatical, where i can devote all my energy into learning how to be God's servant, and not my own.
anyways, i need a good kick in the pants every now and then... thanks matt, for not being afraid to give it to
me... everyone needs a friend like him. many thanks to God for blessing me with his friendship.
today was great. sunny, relatively warm (about 17-18 degrees)... i slept in, since the german church needed the
whole building again, so no ibc service until next week... met angie and julia at westpark for some chillin' in
the nice weather... chris and patricia came by as well, and we were playing around with a volleyball first, then
a football (american, not fussball)... it was great! i can't wait for more chilloungin' like this...
this weekend has been pretty good... friday after work, chris came by my place and we chilled here for a bit...
chris stayed for dinner, which i didn't eat, cuz i don't like the stuff that fritzi was making... later, chris
and i went to sausalitos for a drink and we sat and talked for a bit... then chris saw his roommate, anna, who
was there to celebrate the end of her med exams... and i met one of anna's friends, heidi, who's also in meds and
who is half-canadian! deadly. she was coolz and we promised to chill together sometime.
oh, this brings me to starbucks. how? well, they're opening up a starbucks, the first one in aachen, in the
markt area, and heidi said we should go there to chill sometime... hahaha... really, this is too funny. now all
we need is a chapters... :P sorry, indigo, right? bleh.
yesterday, i was supposed to do my taxes with jason, but we sorta just dropped that until some time later...
instead, we did a little shopping before patricia's little dinner party... first, we went to this fish store we
discovered last week... i picked up a nice thick tuna steak... mmmm... and then we went to interfood, this asian
goods store... man, they have almost everything! from white rabbit candy to hoisin sauce to those bamboo dim sum
baskets... it's not that far from me, and it was my first time there! hahaha... ok, blame my laziness. i knew
it was there, but i just never was in that area during opening times...
well, the party was pretty good... there was 8 ppl there... patricia, chris, jason, jason's gf nina, sylvia (a
spanish friend of patricia's), mark (a dutch guy in chris' german class), and claudia (chris' german teacher)...
and of course, me. sylvia and patricia made spanish tortilla, and some salad, while chris made some chili... it
was pretty good too! but the best-tasting dish was mark's tiramisu... oh, so yummy! heheheh...
anyways, yomi has been bugging me to put up more of the website, so i'm
gonna try to do that in the next couple weeks or so...
so much to talk about... ok, first, i rang up some ppl over the last couple days... one person who i hadn't
talked to in a while was cheryl. actually, i was talking to linh, one of her housemates, and then i talked to
cheryl, and then i found out she was coming to europe! sweet! but she wasn't coming to visit... i'm like,
what?!? how can you come to europe and not visit me? well, turns out she booked a contiki tour thing and it
wasn't coming anywhere near here...
so i suggested for her to visit for a little while after her tour, and she was all excited about that... we
talked about the different options for getting here (her tour ends in athens), and what we'd do, etc... well,
after a couple days of giving her various scenarios of possibilities, she finally tells me her plan... she's not
coming anymore! yeah, she's had second thoughts about travelling alone, even if it's on this tour thing...
<sigh> another one bites the dust.
so perhaps you've heard of the
ppl who got arrested in aachen for suspicion of terrorism. heheh, yep! it's right in my backyard! ok,
it's actually more in chris' backyard... he saw the cops and all that this morning! i had no idea... kinda
funny though, in one way, cuz you never really think of yourself as being in a danger zone... but anywhere can be
targeted, including some small german university town. think schroeder would've reconsidered his stance if a
bomb went off in the reichstag? yeah, maybe.
oh for those of you who might be interested... here's
dubya's personal war record...
makes you wonder why more ppl don't call him out for what he is...
from the same site, a horribly scary
look into what could really be driving this whole mess down there...
anyways, for any of you who's interested in coming by to visit, i highly suggest being here for june 14... chris,
jason and i will be hosting a party at jason's place... the theme? canada! heheheh... canadian music, canadian
beer (first thought: why?), canadian bbq... it'll be sweet.
3.28.3003 crazy pics, crazy sushi
oh seriously, what is it about europe that is freaking ppl out so much? i swear, north americans are so
paranoid. what, just cuz there's no big ocean separating you from what you see on tv, that makes it more
dangerous? honestly, i don't understand...
so lyds and angee's trip is d.o.a... all that's left is gracie and
viet... luckily, grace says her trip is pretty much a done deal, since the tix are bought and all... coolio...
viet's trip is a little more sketchy... haven't heard nothing and he's fixin' to get a new car...
hanne and heidi-marie, in cafe extrablatt
went out with hanne (from denmark) and heidi-marie (from finland) after our german class tonight to chill a
bit... we thought there was gonna be some party with some of the spanish-speaking ppl in our class (like halimi
from argentina and gemma from spain), but they bailed real quick after class and so we just went to cafe
extrablatt for drinks and some chatting... it was pretty coolz...
inside crazy sushi
oh, i forgot to write about hitting up this nice and cozy sushi place
jason and i found on saturday... actually, we'd seen it before, but we just haven't gone until now. well, turns
out to be not so dirt-cheap, but much more reasonable than edo. what was even better than the food though, was
the service... not typical german (read: bad) service! yeah, it was awesome... we got there just before closing
time, and they didn't shoo us out! hahaha... they even kept it open after the posted closing time, and kept
serving as well... ppl kept coming in, though not everyone was buying stuff (some ppl were just
visiting)...
actually, the woman who owns the place was very flattered when we mentioned this... she said that it was atypical
for a german place to be operated in such a fashion... and when she found out we were from canada, she started
telling us that she actually got a lot of the stuff in the restaurant from toronto! deadly! yeah, things like
the plates and bowls, these calligraphic scrolls on the walls... even the name was inspired from the place at
york mills and leslie...
some ppl from church, at claudia's birthday party
so this last one is from claudia's birthday party at her place, 2 saturdays ago... it was kinda weird, cuz there
were 2 distinct groups of ppl there... her school friends, and then her church friends... well, mixed in that
second group were some other au pairs, but they all knew each other just the same... it was nice, we just chilled
and i got to know some of them better... s'all good. :o)
yeah, i know what you're thinking... what's up with all the pics today? heh, well, i've been lugging around a
couple weeks' worth of pics on my digicam, and i finally got around to downloading them onto the comp, so i'm
posting them now... so chill, aight? hahaha...
ok, bedtime.
it's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood...
there's a huge rant i want to make about consumerism, but i haven't quite finished formulating my thoughts so
it's gonna have to wait a bit... i've been thinking about this topic a lot more recently, but it's really been
spurred on by this old issue of adbusters i hadn't read yet...
the scene today at a bunch of cafés near elisenbrunnen
anyways, today was a super nice day... took off from work a bit early, got a haircut (once again, with the
hottest hairstylist ever), and then went to chill in the city for a while... it was so nice... everyone came out
to enjoy the weather... it wasn't super warm, but warm enough, with a light breeze... perfect. the sun wasn't
coming through all the time though, and i thought it was gonna start raining, but so far, so good. forecast
looks good for the weekend too... woohoo! doncha love spring? :o)
me, patricia and chris at hofgarten
i met up with angie, chris and patricia for some drinks... of course, having been cooped up all winter, we wanted
to take advantage of the nice weather, like everyone else... we sat outside of the hofgarten, got some drinks and
just chillounged... sweet. unfortunately jason couldn't make it... he insisted that the report he was doing was
absolutely critical and he couldn't leave without finishing it, so he missed out on the great evening... sucka!
hahaha... just kidding j!
3.31.2003 the day the tables turned
first, big ups to bigjon, for persevering through trying times. who needs depth perception anyways? second,
word to wendy who's confined to quarters. let us know how you're doing, aight?
anyways, i previously ranted about the rampant paranoia of north americans... well, cows have come home... what
goes around, comes around... the tide has turned... heh, you get the idea. well, what's the big deal? SARS.
i was talking with euming last night and i was going on about how the
media has blown SARS way out of proportion... sure it's an infectious disease, a pretty bad one at that, but the
mortality rate isn't quite as bad as say, ebola or black death.
well, the next thing you know, florian comes back from his nice 3-week vacation... oh, and guess where he was?
that's right, smack dab in the thick of things in guangzhou. hk too. for 3 weeks. and he works in my office.
aiya.
my first reaction was "hi florian", and my second was "maybe you should work in rudy's office..." hahaha...
honestly, i was like a little hesitant to even be in the same room... i wonder if this is what it was like when
hiv/aids first became known... you almost didn't want to touch the people... and look how silly that seems
now.
anyways, according to the who, the mortality rate is less
than 4%. four percent. think about that. all this paranoia and hyperbole over 4%. you'd think pestilence was
unleashed on mankind or something. in the words of golf phenom
michelle wie, "chill please."