12.6.2004 oh by gosh, by golly...
well, that was officially the month with the least number of entries. only one! crazy. i swear i wanted to
update before the end of november again, but after that deadline passed, i just sorta lost the interest... again,
too bad for the 2 of you who check this site, but eh, that's how it is... it'll just get more sporadic though, at
least until i figure out what i wanna do for my website's next makeover...
so anyhoo... what's been up the last couple weeks? not much, i suppose... just work, mostly... settling back
into the swing of things here... and i do have to admit, that's part of the reason i haven't updated in a while.
been keeping myself busy with this thing and that...
last weekend was the smd retreat, and again we met up with the düsseldorf smd
group in this retreat house... good times, good times. did a spiritual gifts test, and i swear, i always come up
with different answers to these things. part of the prob is the way they ask the questions, part of the prob is
the range of answers, and in this case, the biggest prob was that it was in german. it took me 2 hours to finish
it. ugh... so i ended up with helps and apostleship. hmmm...
went to work out again this week, and then played in another indoor football (aka soccer) match... we lost again.
0-6. doh. but due to my vacation, i've only played in 3 games, so... yeah. heheh.
what else... haven't developed my film from china yet... i have 40+ rolls, and i've calculated that to develop
them all will cost me almost 800 euros. yeah, you read that right... i try not to go to dumpy drugstores for
my photo developing... what's the point in having some guy screw up my pics after all the trouble i went through
to take them? better to have them done right... unfortunately, that also means more $$$. and since i want them
scanned onto cd, well, we're looking at almost 20 euros per roll. crazy... so i'm gonna try and just scan the
pics and then print them out later... we'll see how that works.
let's see... church has been good the past couple weeks... this week, i led worship again, and i honestly didn't
really figure out how it was gonna work out, but somehow, i was saying the right words at the right time and i
got some good feedback... awesome! praise God! it's nice to be doing that again...
i've also been really slow to unpack. actually, i still haven't finished yet. there's stuff everywhere, my
suitcase still has stuff in it, including my suit... heh. i haven't even really started working with my new
laptop... oh yeah, i got a new laptop, a sony
vgn-a29gp... it's really nice, but i'm still getting new software to put on it... in due time, in due time...
i also got a new phone... yeah, i traded in my "old" sony ericsson
t630 for a cool new
s700i... it is sweet! it's basically got all the pda functions
i need, it's got a nice camera and an mp3 player on it... and the screen is deadly! i love it.
so holiday plans... er, i don't really have any. hahaha... well, that's not exactly true. i plan on staying
here for christmas, again... i plan on meeting cathy in london for new year's... i plan on working for most of
the time during the holidays, which is necessitated by the fact that i have virtually no vacation time left, and
the holidays fall on the weekends this year. bleh...
ok, this was way longer than i wanted to... i'll just have to do a little countdown of myself (a la
joanne) some other time...
12.7.2004 ...it's time for mistletoe and holly
whoa, stop the presses! journal entries on consecutive days! deadly! well, like i said in
my last post, i wanted to write something like what
joanne did... so here goes.
10 things about myself...
- i have a witty and sometimes bitingly sarcastic sense of humour
- i'm a slacker
- i love sports, just about all of them
- i love independent travel
- i love meeting new people, exploring new cultures, learning new languages
- i love photography, particularly landscapes and candids of people doing everyday things
- i hate how expensive it is to develop film in germany
- i hate wasting food
- i think i'm too picky with girls
- i love playing guitar for my church's worship team
9 places i've visited... (what? only 9?)
- china
- singapore
- malaysia (ok, only kuala lumpur, but still)
- japan
- turkey
- croatia
- serbia
- bosnia
- hungary
8 things i want to do before i die...
- skydive, with an insane, bloodcurdling-scream-accompanying free-fall
- see the leafs win the stanley cup
- see u2 live in concert
- travel to all 7 continents
- learn and become proficient in at least 3 other languages
- go out with a non-chinese girl
- get married, have kids, watch them grow up
- accomplish something really fulfilling (blindingly vague? yeah, i know)
7 things to win my heart...
- be smart (not book-smart, not street-smart, just intelligent)
- have a similar sense of humour, to be able to dish it and take it
- be independent, yet engaging
- not have any weird little annoying habits
- have an appreciation for architecture, design, and photography
- be stunningly beautiful (ok, i can live without the stunning... :P)
- oh yeah, and be single
6 things i believe in...
- Jesus Christ
- the support of my friends and family
- my own skills and abilities, weaknesses and shortcomings
- the general goodness in every person
- living life to the fullest
- not having regrets
5 things i'm afraid of...
- spiders
- not finding "the one"
- not making a difference
- not finding my true calling in life and being the best person i can be
- being too comfortable to risk a big change
4 of my favourite items in my bedroom...
- my bed
- my canadian flag
- my photo albums
- the postcards i've received in the last 3.5 years
3 things i do everyday...
- stay up too late
- wish i was somewhere else
- spend too much time in front of a computer
2 things i am trying not to right now...
- fall asleep while writing this
- give crappy answers
1 person i'd like to see right now...
- interestingly enough, my brother
12.24.2004 i'm dreaming of a white Christmas
it's unbelievable how fast time flies when you've got stuff to do. i swear, i've put off writing a new entry for
over a week now... brutal.
so everyone back home is wondering what i'm doing for the holidays, and friends here think (at least, some did)
i'm going back home, so here's the straight goods: i'm staying here for christmas. no surprise visit a la 2002.
i'm actually gonna spend Christmas eve with angie and her family in köln... a real traditional german Christmas!
deadly.
for new year's, i'm heading to london to meet up with cathy and fatti... well, i'm only meeting fatima for dinner
on the 30th, cuz i think she's got her own plans for the new year, but cathy and i are going to some place for
dinner and a party, all for 40 quid. not bad, actually, considering it's london. looks pretty good too...
i caved on my whole "quality photography" thing... a money decision, unfortunately. i like to develop my film
for prints, plus get them scanned to cd, all in one go. that costs money, and this time around, with 38 rolls to
develop, well, i wasn't really keen on spending close to 800 euros just for that... i mean, that's almost a new
d70! so i ended up taking my film
to dm, cuz their photodeveloping was good enough... and half the
price of the pro place i wanted to go to.
movies seen lately... the incredibles (excellent
movie, though not gut-bustingly funny like previous pixar films),
the princess diaries 2: royal
engagement (chick flick? kids flick? whatever, anne
hathaway is cute, though she could do with less lipstick), and
bad santa (a bit predictable but
billy bob thornton and
tony cox were hilarious)... yeah, that
bad santa. it's like a year late here. brutal.
so what else is new... jason's in vancouver now, but he's accepted a short-term contract at the
ericsson location in montreal, so he's gone until june or so... jose left
aachen yesterday for a new job in madrid (mark and i plan to visit in february! woohoo!)... marco is leaving
in mid-january... sophie left... but she's coming back in feb, as she accepted a local position here! crazy, so
not everyone is leaving...
oh, we had a little brouhaha at my church a few weeks back... well, it's
a long story, so to make it short, basically, we had a charismatic visitor come to share, a very charismatic
visitor, and some people didn't take it very well... to the point where they decided to leave. for some it was
sorta a "last-straw" kinda thing, but for at least one person, it was the reason... it's a
bit disappointing, but hey, faith is a personal thing, and that's their decision.
otherwise, things are alright... same old things, i guess. working out, meeting up with friends, playing indoor
football (soccer) with friends (and finally winning our first game last saturday)... it's been good times. a
little hectic, with christmas parties and farewell parties left, right and centre, but good times nonetheless.
12.30.2004 yet another 366 days done...
well, in a few hours, i'll be leaving for london, to celebrate the new year in style... i'll be meeting up with
cathy (aka see-lai) and probably fatti... should be good times.
so Christmas was pretty good... went to angie's family's place near köln for Christmas eve... it was pretty cool,
seeing her twin sister karin again, and her younger bro, andreas, and meeting her parents and an aunt... it was
mostly sitting around and chatting while eating special homemade Christmas cookies... every year, the "kids" play
some mini-concert thing for all the adults, and this year, angie, karin and karin's fiancé, martin, played violin
while andreas played cello... it was quite cool. another tradition is the present unwrapping... weird, eh? on
the 24th? it's apparently the most important of the Christmas days here. weird. so anyways, i went to the
Christmas mass at the local cathedral... it was all in german and i didn't understand too much, but i went for
the experience anyways... it was pretty packed but i think that's just cuz it's Christmas, not because local
residents are particularly pious...
anyhoo... so what else... had to work this week, cuz ericsson doesn't give
extra holidays now, besides what is mandatory... and since the 25th and 26th were both on the weekend, we didn't
get any days this week as makeup holidays... doh. oh wellz. it wasn't so bad... quite quiet actually.
watched a few other movies this weekend... the jim carrey show,
er, i mean lemony snicket's a series of
unfortunate events (somewhat amusing - but was that jude
law as the voice of lemony snicket? what a weird role to take),
ocean's twelve (almost as convoluted
as the first one, and yet still another satisfying steven
soderbergh movie>, and the arthouse ae fond
kiss (intercultural love story, a la my big
fat greek wedding)... still have to watch
alexander at some point...
anyways, i still have to pack and it's pretty darn late, so i'm gonna sign off here... dunno if i'll have much
internet access over the next few days, so this'll be my last entry this year. hope you all have a very happy
new year!