well, i've been a little awol again... sorry about that. just haven't been able to find the time to update.
well, it starts up again today...
quite a few things have happened since i last updated... i went to london, chilled with vince, claire and amy
again... well, i went to london with chris and mark, but i didn't see them a whole lot, since they were staying
at a hostel, and i was staying at claire and amy's place. we ended up only meeting up to go out on 2 of the 3
nights we were there...
but anyhoo, last thursday was the first time in over a month where i drank alcohol. yeppers, i broke the streak.
it's amazing what you can do once you put your mind to it, but i said i wasn't gonna keep it going past this trip
to london. well, i probably went too far, cuz i wasn't feeling well the next morning. but it's alright, i slept
in, did a couple errands for claire, and then went to watch
underworld and
bad boys 2.
i know what you're thinking... i went to london to watch movies?!? well, i went to london to chill, and in lieu
of anything else, i went to watch a couple movies... pricey though, as i paid £18.50 combined...
bad boys 2 was alright, but nowhere near as good as the first one. i mean,
will smith and
martin lawrence are both decent, but man, i was expecting more.
i mean, how could it not be funnier? i dunno, but it just wasn't that good. entertaining, yeah, but not what i
was hoping for.
underworld, on the other hand, was decent, even if there wasn't much substance. but who needs
substance when you have kate beckinsale in tight leather? :P
she was hot.
anyhoo, i didn't help myself by going out again on friday night, with mark, chris, his friend mike, and vince and
some of his friends... on saturday, i either had a massive hangover, or a fever. not knowing what a hangover
feels like, i thought it was probably a fever... but the forehead check didn't agree. oh wellz. whatever.
went to greenwich for about 2 seconds, as the boat down the thames took a while... claire showed me around the
market, and then we booted it on the underground to the other end of town, to meet vince, amy and some other ppl
to watch a premier league football (soccer) match! fulham vs. leicester
city... we had deadly seats. i dunno how vince got them (ok,
actually i do), but
we were in the third row, closer to the away side... it was so close, you could smell the pitch. deadly. good
match too, fulham winning 2-0. i also got to see probably the most famous japanese player, junichi inamoto,
since he plays for fulham...
anyhow, didn't really do much of anything the rest of the trip... i still wanna live there though. london is
great, if you can afford it. somehow, i'm gonna find a way... hopefully while i still have friends there, but
even if not, i'm still there. i really miss things like the 80's style chinese comfort food (ngau
lam hoa fun, seafood chow mein, and wonton noodles) and having a huge selection of
english magazines... ok, toronto has that of course, but it's not the same... trust me, go there and you'll see
what i mean...
aight, this ended up being a london recap somehow... oh yeah, about the title... i did get sick in london, since
i picked up some bronchitis. went to the doc today and got some meds. so it was partially the hangover and the
bronchitis which did me in on saturday... anyways, more ranting about the recent ontario election and other
stuff another time. and yes, pics to come, when i get more time...
10.15.2003 the infamous canadian party
jason, chris and me, at the canadian party
well, i said i would post some pics, so here they are... unfortunately, they're quite overdue. yes, the canadian
party was a while ago. like 3.5 months ago. ok, i've got some catching up to do, aight? no worries though... i
spent the last couple nights going through my pics so i've got a bunch that i wanna post... it's a matter of
writing about the stuff around the pics... or maybe i'll just post the pics in the
photography section...
john, me, chris and tim... there's even more in the coke cooler
so anyways, the canadian party was a hoot. everyone who went said it was amazing. some ppl even said it was the
best party ever. well, i'm not willing to go that far, but it's definitely up there. alas, part of the charm
was the exclusivity, the singularity of the party... and how we wouldn't be able to recreate the feeling again.
so, for those of you who missed it... sorry, but that was the first, and last time it's gonna happen.
me and lauren, the cool queen's chick
the hardest part was clearly the logistics... somehow, chris and i managed to lug 9 cases (that's 9 x 24 cans) of
various canadian beers across the ocean... labatt's blue,
molson canadian, sleeman's, kokanee,
alexander keith's (the last two are owned by labatt's... who knew?)... we had a great selection, something so
that ppl who came could have a taste of what we get back home. well, lemme tell you, bringing all that stuff
back here was not easy.
not only did we have beer, but we had "canadian" food... chili, "real" caesar salad, "real" hot dogs (i brought
over 6 packs of maple leaf wieners), "real" hamburgers (6kg worth of meat), "real" banana bread and carrot cake
(courtesy of heidi)... just tons and tons of good canadian chow.
here's me attempting to spin some tracks in virtual darkness
(the camera's flash obviously doesn't do me justice)
we even wanted the place to look canadian, so we got as much canadiana as we could... sleeman's paraphernalia,
a big labatt's banner, a canadian flag... we even had some canada stuff to give away as door prizes, like a
couple old navy canada day t-shirts and a roots hat... anyways, with all that in place, we also rented some
stereo equipment, some lights, a drink cooler... lemme tell you, it was not a small undertaking.
kickin' it with a cute german girl (whose name i don't remember :P)
well, we had about 80 ppl in jason's place at any given time... between 90 and 100 in total over the night. it
was a pretty diverse crowd, from expat canadians, to germans and spanish, to a few expat japanese girls... but
everyone had a good time, eating canadian food, drinking canadian beer, listening to canadian
music...
anyways, i probably won't post about the ontario election, only to say "good riddance" to ernie eves and the
tories. next up, the toronto municipal elections. i'm all for david miller, although i think john tory would be
half-decent as well. aight, i'm out.
10.23.2003 friendster - the virus
you know, if i'm not careful, i might only have 4 posts this entire month. how shameful. aight, i'll try to get
cracking on something substantial this weekend. probably won't happen, but hey, let's look on the bright side.
ok, who am i kidding, there is no bright side.
anyways, a lot of you might know about this website called friendster...
i think i wrote about it before, but basically, it's like the old sixdegrees website reincarnated. and now that
the internet is far more prolific than before, everyone and their brother is on it. or so it seems.
you can't possible imagine the amount of time this thing has sucked out of my life. what you thought was
impossible has actually happened - yes, i check friendster now before i check
espn. how freaky is that?
i check it in the mornings, i check it at work, i check it in the evenings. i constantly add new ppl to be on my
friends list, and i'm writing testimonials like they're going out of style. i've even received my first match
suggestion, with a girl whose picture isn't available and whose status is already "in a relationship"... what
kinda match suggestion is that? that's like kicking a guy when he's down...
anyways, what's gone on in the last week? not much i guess... fritzi had a birthday party here on saturday, lots
of ppl around, drinking way too much, eating way too much and having way too much fun... apparently they were up
until 7am. crazy. on sunday, a bunch of us young adults met after church to discuss this youth group idea we're
kicking around... just getting ppl's opinions, what they expect, what they can contribute, etc... exciting times
ahead.
oh, and i went to the first smd hauskreis of the year... that
translates roughly into "home circle", but essentially, it's like a cell group. went to one at this guy alex's
place... there were 10 of us squeezed into this tiny living room. it was interesting though... well, as
interesting as it can be when one only understands 25% of what's going on. yes, it was in german. oh wellz...
you can't learn if you don't use it, right? yeah, whatever.
anyways, time for bed. see you on friendster. :P
10.26.2003 we will, we will... rant
ok, i promised pics, you got some pics. and not just this one. i finally got around to putting up all the
other decent pics from my barcelona trip... check them out here... you
better like them... i dunno when the next big post will be...
angie and me, at fritzi's grad party
so this here is a pic of me and one of my roommates, angie... we took this at the grad party for another roommate
of ours, fritzi... she invited all of us to go, so we did... actually,
lyds was here at the time, and she came along too... and it was coolz,
after all the speeches and whatever... hahaha... just kidding, fritzi! this also happens to be the best pic of
me so far with my really really short hair and new glasses. heh. so says me.
anyways, i found out that my little cousin, diana, might be coming to visit me in december! woohoo! it's a bit
dependent on if she gets this job during that time, but if not, she's gonna fly all the way from calgary to visit
lil' ol' me! heheheh... sweet! we'll find out more next week...
my mom is so funny. for the longest time now, she's been telling me (and
my bro) not to get married before the age of 30. i dunno if it's just
cuz she wants us to live our own lives until then, or what, but she's been saying that basically since i was 18
or 19.
so anyways, i called her up last week just to chat... and then she starts asking me about this girl, wondering
why i don't go out with her, why i don't like her, etc., etc... and then she's like, "you're almost 27!" and i
was literally shocked. hahaha... i was like, "didn't you always say to you didn't want us to get married before
30?" and her answer was that i had to know the girl first and i have to start somewhere... hahaha... it's so
funny... she's all worried about that. i never woulda guessed. well, she's a mom. i guess she can't help it.
anyhoo, the world series is almost done... the
florida marlins are one win away from defeating those evil, evil
new york yankees... yes, even though jeffrey loria, that owner from hell,
is one win away from achieving baseball greatness, i can't stand the yankees winning again.
even though loria practically killed whatever was left of baseball in montreal (and we can all agree it's on
life-support), the thought of george steinbrenner winning because he spent almost $200 million usd is
unfathomable. go marlins! (for the sake of honesty, i have to add that i have a couple important marlins in my
keeper league, so i kinda root for them by default.)
alright, last piece tonight, before i go to bed... for all you ppl living in t-dot, please, please, please,
exercise your right to vote, during the civic elections coming up. i cannot emphasize how
important it is that you do so. this is a basic building block of democracy. that you can cast your vote,
whichever way you want, so that your voice may be heard.
because if you don't vote, then your opinion is not heard, and someone else speaks for you. if you don't vote,
you have no right to complain about the state of affairs in your government, because you didn't take the time to
voice your opinion. call it complacency, call it apathy, the bottom line is you should vote. if you don't like
any of the candidates, vote for no one. if you don't know any of the candidates, learn! not caring is the wrong
way to live in a civilized democracy.
ok, rant over, time for bed.
10.29.2003 this is what dirt feels like?
i feel stupid. i feel naïve. i feel used. and i feel like i have no right to feel this way. ugh. the curse of
rose-coloured glasses.
monday was not a good day. well, the beginning of the day sucked. i got nailed for not having a ticket on the
train to köln (i was late, and i had to catch that train) and fined 40 euros. for a ride that
normally costs me 5. can i bring back an old word i haven't seemed to have said in a while? rage.
then there's the other thing... it's a personal thing i'd rather not divulge here, but ppl who know, well, they
know. i just... feel like burying my head in the sand. problems not going away? fine, i'll go
away.
i'm just in this über-melancholic state right now. been listening to p&w music, trying to focus on Him, but it
just keeps coming back to this one thing. <sigh> i'm verklempt (sp?) like mike myers in
coffee talk...
i guess i can just keep myself busy... tonight, the smd held their gala dinner thing, as they do every semester,
and it was basically for ppl in the cell groups to invite friends to this dinner cooked by the smd execs. it was
coolz. saw a bunch of ppl i hadn't seen for a while... johannes, miriam, susanne, jan...
tomorrow night, i'm going to a football match here in aachen. it's a german cup match, between
alemannia aachen and 1860
münchen (the other munich team)... and then thursday is basketball as usual.
aight, buck up, steven. tomorrow's another day.