Don’t pay attention to the “time” at the bottom that this post was supposedly written. It is now 6:13PM. And you know what? THERE’S STILL SUNLIGHT OUTSIDE! Actually it’s a sunset outside, and it should stick around for another 20-30 mins. Which is AMAZING. That means that it actually, really is, SPRING! Oh oh, and… can’t forget the temperature this morning, when I went to school… it was 10 degrees (Celsius)! Oh man, it’s the first time I was able to wear shorts without the threat of getting sick (doesn’t mean I never wore shorts, cause I’ve barely worn my pants the past week…)

Anyway, I dunno what was making me so lazy about blogging this past week, cause my major assignments were done. I guess I just didn’t feel like it all last week after those marathon sessions on the computer last weekend.

Tuesday, the Mormons came again, and we talked for quite a while. It was pretty cool, I’m getting all the info about how they become missionaries and everything. It’s pretty facinating… and I’m kindoff getting a better understanding about their religion. From what I can tell, it’s actually a lot like Catholocism, which, I gives me an idea of the pull of the church over the people… It also shows me how tough it would be to share the truth to them.

Wednesday… uhh. wow, I actually really don’t remember what I did. Which probably means I was at home all day, doing nothing. Thursday I was working most of the day… Oh wait, now I remember what I did on Wednesday! The furniture came! Well, some of the furniture… I’m gonna take a picture…

Thats the… new leather loveseat, and armchair (with footstool)… and new coffee table and (not seen… on the far side of the room) new end tables too… that mom and dad bought last week. The couch is the same old couch, because the couch for this set is on back order or something and should be here in like… 8 weeks… well, 7 weeks now.

I’m actually liking the couches, but don’t tell my parents. Cause I’d been complaining about the leather. I was asking for either cloth of course, or micro fibre… I just… don’t like leather. Well I didn’t, and I still kinda don’t, but it’s not as bad as I thought it was. I don’t like the feel of leather at least not for like everyday tv watching. But at least it’s really puffy and soft, not like the downstairs ones. So if I lay down the comforter on the couch, I can feel comfortable lying down and watching tv…

Apperantly, the couches cost “a year’s worth of my tuition at UofT”… Sick. That’s 5000+. But here’s the real cool part, the standard free tv…

Yup… that’s a 51′ TV… sick huh. Nice one too… Panasonic, which was a special deal for the weekend they bought it. So that’s what I did all day on Wednesday… I had to set up that unit that the tv is sitting on right now… then, I had to switch the home theatre systems between here and the basement. Have to match the good tv with the good sound system you know. That was ridiculous… Having to figure out the donwstairs system is pretty hard.

Anyway. As I said, Thursday, I was at work all day. Friday, it was most of the day… the rest of the day, I was at MissionFest to help out at the Capernwray booth. Chris and Suzy Fordham are pregnant, which is really cool. I got talk with Steve Thiessen alot too, and with Dan Horne (who I always hear about, but I’ve actually never met). The Capernwray Quebec booth was right beside the Capernwray Harbour one… which is why we got to talk alot while I was there.

I went home on Friday around 10 or 11… when we had Josh’s 21st Birthday Party a little late… We had uhh… different kinds of drinks… than we normally have. Peach Snapps, that kind of thing. Which uh, yeah, is not exactly very manly. LOL. But yeah, it was alright.

I went to sleep at around 3AM. Which was dumb cause I had to be back at MissionFest at 9AM the next morning. I spent all day Saturday there. Which was really really great. I got to see Seth… And also, Beth, Laura and Darren. It was a bit more boring later in the evening… but then I got to talk a bit to the the other exhibitors too… The guy at the TWU booth is really cool. I talked to him the most cause it was right beside Capernwray Quebec’s.

Ok. Here’s where the stupidness comes in. I finished at MFest around 10 at night… Which was pretty late, so I asked Steve to drop me off at the closest Go Station. Problem was, the station was closed, and I didn’t realize it until like 20 minutes after he left. So then, I had to find my way back to the main road, get on a bus to get to the subway. My goal was to get to Union as fast as I could… I got there around 11:45 or so… Meaning, I just made the 12:07 train, which was the last one on the line. I had some cinabon, and finally was on my way home.

Sunday was New Name Presentation, which was really cool. It was like WordFest… they put out all of the flags, cause the name was representing of the international nature of the church… And there were some other things too. The new name is Morningstar Christian Fellowship… where the nations meet. Which, I think is a pretty good name. Most of tGif didn’t like it. I can understand, cause it sounds really.. odd. Kind of like a mall.. someone said. But I like the “Christian Fellowship” part, cause that’s what I think should be the idea of churches.

Meh. This post is getting real long, so I’m gonna stop. Sunday afternoon was Orchestra, and sunday night was Kid’s Trec, which I’m back to teaching now with Judy and Jerlene. Bleh, I dun feel like writing anymore, so I’ll finish this tommorow or something..

I was really surprised about how many people were still at Robarts when I left at about 2AM last night… There must have been at least a hundred. I guess I’m not the only one who was procrastinating on a paper..

I finished my PoliSci paper at around midnight (remember that’s the one I wasn’t procrastinating on). I would have done that so much earlier, but the stupid ComSci paper was holding me down. When I finished it, I started on the ComSci one, I did Computer Vision as a topic… I pretty much chose that that same day. LOL. Whatevs.

I made 2AM my deadline… even though I said that I wouldn’t leave the library until I finished both papers. I didn’t want to drive home ridiculously sleepy. I got home around 2:30, and I started on the ComSci paper again. My plan was to finish before 5AM, then hand it in right away (drop boxes) so that I could sleep at least until 10AM.. The PoliSci paper wasn’t due until class at noon. Well what happened was, I didn’t finish the paper till about 5:30 or so, so I handed it in by around 6AM.. Man I was so sleepy driving to school and back, my eyes were actually drooping. I’m never going to drive that sleepy again.

So I went to bed and woke up around 10:30… it was pretty late so I decided to just drive to school. That actually surprised me… I was afraid I would spend like a half hour looking for a parking spot… I found one right away, right in front of Robarts. What annoyed me tho is that when I was walking to Con Hall, I saw like 5 parking spots closer to it than the one in front of Robarts. But meh. Whatever.

I got home around 1PM… I found out I lost my cellphone somewhere. The thing is, I never even took it out of the car. I think what happened was that when I put it down after using it while i was driving, it started shifting around and fell on the floor. Then, when I opened the door when I parked at school, it fell out and I didn’t notice. Bleh. Apperantly, Josh tried calling at 11AM and someone else answered. I’m really hoping that the guy turned it in to the lost and found at UofT somewhere.. Robarts didn’t have it. I’ll try calling around again tommorow.

Sigh. after figuring out what to do there, I finally was able to get to sleep around 2PM. I slept till about 7, and now I think I’m going to turn in again. I can finally clean my room…

The Mormons are coming tommorow. I need to prep a little for that. Then I plan to go to school around 2 or so, to do the readings and maybe a little bit more studying. Even though I don’t like the subject all that much, I’m actually finding it easier to study. Fun.

I’m finally done my Political Science paper… 3600 words of pure genius… LOL. That’s what I think of myself at least, midnight, after a 12-hour marathon to get it done. Please note though that I didn’t procrastinate on this! I have been working on this all week… cause this is the kind of paper that requires ALOT of time. I’ve probably put in a good 50 hours on this already. Between the research and writing… Phew. Ok now on to my ComSci paper. Now this one I *did* procrastinate on… LOL. But yeah. It’s the length of my introduction to the PoliSci paper… So whatevs. I’ll post again at 2AM when I finish it. Heh.

We were in the Music Ministry together last year in LTS, and now it seems we get enjoy the same experiences again, though she lives in Nevada… Hehe. I’m amazed to hear how similar most jobs in retail are (she works at American Eagle… I of course work at Old Navy… see her comments below)… To Kristine: Wow Kristine! I can’t believe how similar American Eagle is to Old Navy. Hehe. You’re very right, it is such an experience. And especially about the Mission Field too. Not that I “preach” directly… but I’m confident that God is using even the seemingly insignificant things… like my enthsiasm, that I don’t swear, and things like that… to show himself to my co-workers. I’ll be leaving Old Navy very soon though (I’ll be handing in my notice within the next few weeks), becuase I will be starting my job with the City. Anyway, it’s great to hear from you! — oh and yes the head sets are irritating. I try hard to avoid having to wear it, whcih isn’t always successful. hehe.

You can check out her blog here. It’s really great!

Ok… I just came from church, which was really great. It was a baptism service where 10 of my classmates from the New Comers class were baptized. Unfortunately I might miss some of the other ones from the 11 service (I’m at school right now) but I’m rush back there as soon as I finish my assignment, which I had to come here to school (UofT Scarborough, not downtown…) because my stupid StarOffice kept crashing. I just want to get this part out of the way (this is for ComSci) so I can really concentrate on my essays tonight.

Speaking of the essays, despite my resolve not to go home on Friday until I was finish one or the other essay, it did not work. Robarts (Library) closed at 11PM and I was kicked out. So I had to go home… which, yeah I pretty much didn’t feel like writing anything when I got home.

I at least have a very good idea now of how my PoliSci paper is going to flow. I’m sitting at just over the halfway mark, which is about 2600 words.. Unfortunately, it’s looking like the essay is going to be too short (it needs to be 15 pages long, which is about 4000+ words) so I have to figure out a way to lengthen it… I’m considering lengthening the Introduction, cause if I try to add another argument (right now I have 2 really long ones), it might go over the limit… And I really don’t feel like doing that anyways.

Next I have to write my ComSci paper, which was really freaking me out until I started rereading my paper PoliSci paper and realized that the ComSci paper, at 1100 words minimum would be roughly the size of just my introduction to the PoliSci paper… So yeah. I had a good laugh at that. Plus it’s a mostly expository essay… meaning I don’t need to have any arguments or anything. Rather I’m explaining a piece of technology… So that’s not really of much concern to me now. Nonetheless, I’m going back downtown after Orchestra rehearsal this afternoon. And this time, I amd really not coming home until I have both papers done, if it takes me till 4 in the morning (ok well, actually my limit is like 1AM, cause the last subway is at like 1:30). Oh fun! And my head really aches right now. And last night I couldn’t get to sleep cause I took tylenol that had caffein (sp?) in it.

Ok. So the first step to all this of course is to finish the first part of that ComSci assignment (a mail merge document done in StarOffice), and the Computer Lab is finally open. So. Yay!

Ok I am downtown after working for a coupla hours. I’m down here because I have 2 papers to write, and I’ve resolved that I am not going home until one is written (either ComSci or PoliSci). Hmph. Yeah, there’s too much distraction at my house… by which I mean, my bed. LOL. Actually, yeah, that’s the only distraction at my house. Obviously it’s not the internet, cause I have it here (I’m on my laptop connected to the UofT Network). Not really TV so much… that’s debatable. Actually I would like to have TV around so I can take my breaks watching it (30 mins fun… for every 1 hour of studying). But whatever, there’s YouTube…

Ok. Uhm. I don’t really remember what I did on Tuesday. Oh wait, yeah… I was here, doing research for my PoliSci paper. That was actually a very fruitful time. I came down here around noon, and stayted till my last evening class was over (Religion). Then on Wednesday, I had my interview at the South District… which was… it was alright. The idea of the camps are… a little scary. 4 different camps that I would have to run… the first three weeks, a “Dance, Drama and Music Camp”, the next two are Youth Challenge Camps (for which apperantly, I need to have a mountain bike, and have to go on an overnight camping trip). Next two are “Boarding and Breaking Camps” LOL. Which are, as they name suggests, Skate Boarding and Break Dancing Camps. Finally, the last two are Music Camps. Amazingly, my concern really isn’t so much for the 4 weeks of camp that aren’t my exact speciality (Arts/Music). The Arts and Music camps are really odd, because there are so many variables that need to come together. I’m almost at a lost of what I need to do. But meh, I’m sure I can handle it. I can pull something off…

Oh, the other thing is that the camps max out at 16 campers… ages 13-16. I still don’t know how I feel about that… Teenagers are deffinately different from Children, but then again, they’re alot alike. Meh.

Wednesday night, we had a party at Kristen’s house. It’s supposed to be a squash/swimming party… I did neither. It was basically TGIF + Kristen (and her sisters) + the Villenueva’s (and Faye’s friends from University). It was fun. We finished at Kip’s at about 10PM, then moved the party to my place. We were there singing Kareoke till about 2AM. Fun times.

Thursday I had a 7-hour shift at work. Well, almsot 7 hours. Short enuf that I only had a half-hour break. We have a visiting supervisor from Ajax, Shane, who is training, while Alka is training at the other place. It was Michael’s last day at work. He’s off to become the District Supervisor or something for Winners… I think what it’s looking like is going to happen is that One of the other Managers (Old Navy has 3… GM – Michael, Customer Service – Naureen, and Logistics – Michelle) will be promoted to GM… Most likely Michelle, cause apperantly she’s been at Old Navy Scarborough Town pretty much since it opened. That would leave one of the other positions open. Well… Last week, they were training Helen to do the 38-Admins/Hourly Reads, which tells me that she might be a Supervisor soon (there are 2 supervisors after the Managers… Logistics – Billy, and Customer Service – Alka), which then means that one of the current supervisors is going to become the Logistics Manager (if in fact Michelle is the one promoted). Phew. That was a long spiel.

Of course… I could be completely wrong. Plus. It doesn’t matter all that much for me, cause I will be handing in my notice in about 2 weeks.

So where does that leave me? All of my shifts since… well, February, have been Cash Shifts. Which is pretty good. The thing is, I think if I had been getting Cash shifts all along (at least since Christmas), I probably would have seriously considered sticking around Old Navy for the summer (at least I would have seriously considered it until this South District thing came up). The main reason to consider it is of course, continuity. Plsu, I most likely would have gotten a raise during the annual eval things… in April. And of course this is still all part of that plan to get a job at the bank… More experience at Old Navy means more experience of customer service that the bank sees when I apply. However. And these are big howevers… The bank plan requires that I be on Cash. Which isn’t always a guarantee. Plus of course there’s the automatic 40 hours a week for 8 weeks that I would get, at a higher rate, with the City… Add to that the even higher rate with the South District, and my decision is pretty much made.

Ok. Today, I was at work again. Duh. ‘Till 4… I found out it was St. Patrick’s day, so I bought a St. Patrick’s day Old Navy T-Shirt. After work, I went to Wendy’s to eat, then on to the Subway, and here I am now. Now I’m going to write this paper. Horay!

Ok so I’m in alot of pain right now, after those intense Volleyball games last night. I think I’m going to have to leave a week in between these volleyball nights… if I don’t, the pain will stop at around Friday or so, then I’ll only have 3 pain-free days, then the pain will start again on Monday. LOL.

I knew this was going to happen too. Yesterday, I slept most of the afternoon after I came home from school so I could stay up all night to write my PoliSci Paper. This after I came home after my tutorial cause it was raining and I didn’t feel like staying downtown. My plans now are to go downtown at around 10AM and stay there until my evening class. I *need* to have this paper done tonight.

Tommorow’s another paper-writing day. This time for ComSci. I think I’m pretty much decided that I’ll do Artificial Intelligence. My goal for that paper is to be done by Saturday, when I’ll hand it in (cause I have a class on monday when they expect it in). Most likely, what’ll happen is that it’ll take me ’till Sunday. Which means I’ll need to wake up super early on Monday to hand it in.

Also, tommorow, I have that interview about that Coordinator Position in the South District. The one that pays 3 dollars more than my current job even though it’s the same job. I have good reasons for me getting that job, but then again, I had really good reasons for me getting the Area Coordinator job too… But I’m even more confident on this one than for AC… For AC at least I recognized (after hearing that they were interviewing 14 people for 4 positions) that my chances were quite small. And of course realizing that a lot of people more senior than me were also applying. But for this job in the South District… For starters, the very fact that they had to go to Kevin Ainey and the Camp Committee here tells me that they’re quite desparate for someone. So it deffinately won’t be a competition thing… if even there is a competition with others for the job. Most likely, the only reason they’re interviewing me is to have a look at me. And so long as I don’t totally screw it up, that I’ve got the job. In fact they were even willing for me to just call them on the phone for the talk, and not come in in person. I of course want to see what everything’s about so I opted to go in for a face-to-face interview.

Oh well. We’ll see what happens. Owe. My neck. Off to school! Well, back to bed for a bit, then off to school.

Ok… My mom and my brother are home, so well, yeah the house is full again.

On Friday… well actually on Thursday, I got an interesting Phone Call from Kevin Ainey. Apperantly, South District was asking around about getting someone from East District to take a specialty (arts) camp there. It’s an over $2 raise for doing the same job… plus I get a specialty camp, not just a general day camp. Sweet. So he’s setting up an interview for me. Oh, the reason why I missed the phone call on Thursday was that I had work in the morning, and then I had a focus group downtown. 65 bucks for 2 hours! What was really weird about it, is that it was all older white folks, except this other chinese girl, but I was for sure the youngest there. It was alright… I could almost say fun. They were pretty alright for old white folks.. hehe. Josh and Isaac slept over on Thursday (cause my bro came home), which meant I really didn’t get much sleep. We played a game of Catan… then I had to practice, cause I was really freaking out about Sunday.

Friday, after waking up at like… noon, we went out for a bit. Lunch at McDonalds. Then we (except Josh) went to Blessings where I bought Illuminate… David Crowder Band. I’ve been wanting that CD for a while. Well wanting anything by David Crowder for a while. Turns out it was a really good buy (which I define as a CD that I like more than 50% of the songs). Then, I read for a while, at home, then went to Churchill for Oasis.

Saturday, I had to work. It was Spring Dress Up Day… to kick off March Break. But apperantly, I was the only one told. Only me and Billy (the supervisor who told me) were in shorts… Well at least during the time I was working. I came home early, and slept the rest of the afternoon. I really needed that cause I had little Thursday and Friday. Sunday was… the day of My Help. And it went really well. I messed up a bit during the second service, but still nothing horrible. Next up… Easter.

Oh yeah, hehe. I went to a Beauty Pageant on Sunday Night… LOL. Miss Teen Canada (Globe). LOL. I got to sit at the VIP table with Josh and his mom, and helped Josh judge a little bit. I wouldn’t call it a wholly pleasant experience tho… Everyone there was so maarte… *shudder*. I guess it should be expected. But bleh, I don’t think that’s something I’ll really want to experience again.

Ok I think that’s about it. I went to class this morning, but didn’t stay to write my paper like I planned… I left my power bar at home, and my laptop was running out of batteries. Plus it was raining. So I slept most of the afternoon. I’ll write my paper tonight and most of tommorow. Fun!

Alright the moment of truth… in a coupla hours that is… I’m going to be playing “the piece” (that’s how I think of it now) in front of more people than just the orchestra members. Fun! I still have’nt gone through the entire piece without a mistake. That is a major mistake that’s noticeable (at least to me). So that’s something to worry about. I’ll probably play it oh, another 50 times before tonight ( I do have about 8 hours). And then after that, probably another hundred times before Sunday.

Man I really hope this is the only “hard” piece I have… All the other ones were pretty easy (except Worship Celebration, but I at least have like 4 more weeks to deal with that). Oh and don’t forget my 2 papers due a week from Monday. Craziness.

Ok. Time to relax, read and watch some TV.. then, yes of course, back to the piano.

Oh yeah, I started a video blog. Which is kind of cool. I’m slowly realizing how amazing YouTube and Google Video really are. For now I don’t have much to say, but I’ll be putting up stuff soon. I spent yesterday practicing (about 4 hours worth). My evening class was cancelled so I felt less guilty about skipping school… hehe.

Tito Ed’s (Emman’s Dad) 50th Birthday Party was on March 4, 2006… I dunno where it was, but it was a nice place. I think it’s the nicest place we’ve been to… it looked so classy, especially with the bar there. Except it was pretty small.

Me, Josh, Isaac and Dave went through 3 bottles of Bambino’s… hehe, it was great. But at the end of the night, I had to drink about 5 bottles of water (and pee like 4 times) to flush all the alcohol out of my system to drive home (I was not drunk! Not even close to drunk… I figured it out… we had about 3/4 of the bottle each, which at Bambino’s 7% alcohol, is equivelant to about 2 beers… Then I stopped drinking the earliest, 9:30PM, drank the most water, and wasn’t driving until 2 hours later )

Of course there was dancing too. Jules taught us a Cha Cha line dance thing… Hehe, we’re preparing for Kat’s wedding.

We (TGIF) did our Ninja Vanish thing again, which was cool… LOL. We started off with a “Ribbon Dance” borrowed from Rhythm Gymnastics, which turned into a fight scene… The “tough” guys got beaten up by the ribbon guys, but then I came in and beat up the ribbon guys, except for the ribbon leader (Dave). He did some crazy ribbon moves and I did the ninja vanish thing and ran away… Video to come soon when I have it edited down.

Then it was dance time.. Yay, and then we were dead tired… All Pictures are in “My Pictures”…

Hmph. What else. Yesterday, I still went to the 9AM service, even though I went to bed at like 2AM… Then, I went out to lunch with the Villanueva kids (Joseph and Gracie) and Tim… We were the early comers, most of TGIF went to the 11AM. Then I took Joseph and Gracie home, and me and Tim hung out at my place until the 11AM service ended. After the service, I had to wait for the auditorium to clear before I could practice on the grand piano… I need some time on that piano cause I really notice a huge difference between the way I sound on it, and the way I sound on my electric piano at home. Unfortunately, I couldn’t play much, cause the rest of the orchestra came to start rehearsal.

Anyway. I was struck with cold, hard reality durign rehearsal when we went through “My Help” in time. Oh man, it’s scary. My deadline is Wednesday, cause that’s the full rehearsal with the choir. That means I’ll be practicing quite a bit tommorow and Wednesday… I already did an hour today, I plan on another 2 hours before I go to bed.

Hmph. Add to that my midterm today… which actually was not bad. I predict minimum 80%. Which apperantly will be bellcurved, which means it could get bumped up even more. Ok. VJ Search, then practice the piano….

Ok. So I was talking to this lady in my newcomers class today and she told me something amazing. We just happened to be talking about how she came to Christ, and she was telling me about learning about the Alpha program of Churchill, and how she had gotten a flyer about it, which is how she learned about the program.

I don’t know what made me ask, but I asked her where she lived. Because I remember how TGIF did some Alpha Flyer runs over the summer. And would you know it, she lives around Meadowvale and Sheppard at the new townhomes there. I was like… What?? I still remember very clearly the day that we did that area, cause we had a huge discussion about where we should do the flyer run. And finally, we decided we were going to do that area, cause it was close to Pizza Pizza, where we would have our lunch. LOL. But also, I remmeber it cause we did the *entire* neighbourhood… something like 800-1000 houses (there were 10 of us).

Anyway. It all sounded pretty amazing. But even cooler, is that she remembered seeing the person who dropped it. She thought it was a girl, cause the person had long hair. Again, we were the only group who did this area, so I’m pretty confident that we were the ones who put the flyer at her house. And as for the long hair… it had to be Joseph Villanueva. Again, another reason why I remember the day so well is that that was the day we cut his hair… Actually buzzed it, cause he was starting school at Yorkland Christian Academy, and they don’t allow guys to have long hair then…

So yeah. Oh man, I’m soo encouraged right now, seeing the fruits of what we did… I mean, of course it was a very small part, but how amazing is it that God is able to use this simple flyer run to bring a person to Christ. Praise God!

listening to some tagalog song…
verse Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boast boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord. – Jeremiah 9:23-24