I think it is really fitting to end the year like this. I found an old… hmm what do we call it. “sermony” thing that I wrote about 2 years ago while I was at Capernwray. It’s not really a sermon, it was a short little spiel to segueway from one song (Jesus the Source of all My Joy) to another (‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus), for the Music Ministry when we performed at churches. I really love those songs, especially ‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus. In fact it’s one of my most favourite, because of its simplicity (it’s a hymn), and the truth found in its words…

–

This song is especially significant for me because for most of my life as a Christian, I thought that I was the source of my joy.I had no problems realizing that I needed Christ to forgive my sins and rescue me from hell, but beyond this forgiveness, I couldn’t see what else He could do for me. My spirituality – or lack of it, was the result of my actions. It depdended on me praying, on me worshipping, or on me reading the Bible. As a result of this, my peace was dependent on whatever serenity I could sum up; my love, on the security of being loved; and my joy, on my hapiness, or at least on an absence of despair. It made for one roller coaster of a Christian Life. I had emotional and spiritual ups or downs, loops, and twirls. Sometimes, it would just grind to a halt. You see, Jeus to me was merely someone who encouraged me when times were hard; someone to pick me up when I stumble. I never realized that He was – and is, an active participant in my life! As it says in Philippians 2:13, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” This is God’s salvation for us, not just Christ’s death for our forgiveness and restoration, but Christ’s life in us for our satisfaction.

Our next song is called “Tis so Sweet to Trust in Jesus”, and basically it is a description of what it is like when Jesus really is the source of all our joy.

As the Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians, “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (3:14-21).

–

1. ‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
Just to know “Thus saith the Lord!”

Refrain: Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and
o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!

2. O how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
Just in simple faith to plunge me
’Neath the healing, cleansing flood!
(Refrain)

3. Yes ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just from sin and
self to cease;
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest, and joy and
peace.
(Refrain)

4. I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.
(Refrain)

I make this pledge for my self right now. Never again will I ever go to an outlet mall 3 days before I leave for vacation. Grr.. So many good deals. So many nice clothes… Tommy, Polo. Nautica.. And I couldn’t buy anything! Next year, I’m totally going with the Envergas to their yearly end-of-summer trip to Buffalo. Get myseslf some nice new clothes.

Ok well I didn’t not spend anyhting. I did score a nice Gap cotton collar-less jacket. Which I think I might even take on vacation with me, even though I probably won’t wear it on account of hte weather. But meh. We’ll see… Oh yeah I should explain.

Yah we went to Buffalo today. I kinda didn’t really want to go. But I had to, cause I was the only other driver around. So yeah. it took us like 3 hours to get there. 2 to get back… which tells you something about the American border. Ridiculousness, it took us a good 45 mins to get through. What’s worse, is that just before we got to the border, we took a rest stop, where I got myself a huge coffee. So by the time I got to the border, I really needed to pee bad. It was so bad, I almost just walked the rest of the way.

Uhm. First we went to the outlet mall. Which had those stores I mentioned before. Again I couldn’t really do much, so I spent most of my time teaching Danny how to solve the rubiks cube. After a few hours there, we spent an hour looking for Walmart, where we spent another 2 hours or so, then we finally headed back. Oh yeah, I got a Chris Botti CD from Walmart. Sweet.

Yah that’s about it. I somehow feel like I should be writing up some sort of summary of my year. I tried doing this survey thing I found in my friend, Tina’s website, but I realized that I really sucked at reminiscing as my memory really sucks, so I could hardly answer any of the questions. So I gave up on that and wrote this post. I should really start journaling more. Or *actually* journaling. Or. Bleh, isn’t that what this blog is for? Meh. whatever. I wanna sleep.

So wow, it’s been… almost a week since I last posted, and there’s been lots going on… so here it is. I took my Christmas picture this year (which I send out to my friends from Capernwray), and I liked it so much I’m gonna post it up here. I’m formally dressed cause I just got back from chruch, where I was playing the piano… kind of red cause it’s Christmas of course.. but not black, cause Rob gave us the day off from the horid colour. hehe.

1. Regarding the title of this post… I put my baby cousin, Gabriel, to sleep yesterday, and it’s given me a new found respect for mommies. In fact, the whole experience with the baby here in my house has. But anyway, this particular instance, I was on my feet (cause for some reason he would keep crying everytime I tried to sit down) for like an hour before he finally got to sleep. Afterward, I went out with my friends, and durign that time, I guess I bent down to pick up something, and there went my back… it was spasming… It still hurts right now, I tried to bend down just a few minutes ago to see if the pain is still there, and it is.
2. On that note, my pictures of the holiday (and of baby Gabe and me together… the two cuties) will be posted up as soon as I find the frigging camera. I laid it down on the coffee table yesterday, and I haven’t seen it since.
3. So I got 2 sweaters and 2 shirts for Christmas. Sweet. One of the sweaters is this really nice Tommy Hilfiger one, hehe, which I really like. The other is an Exco hoodie – which is in my colour, brown. Oh yah, I also got a game for my Nintendo DS. Tony Hawk’s Down Hill Jam… But there are some gifts I have’nt opened still.. mostly because there are some family that I just don’t see until New Years Eve, so we exchange gifts then. Also because… uhmm, of a reason I cannot talk about on the internet for now – it has to do with my extended holiday in January. LOL. Oh and yah, that’s the reason why my parents “techinically” didn’t get me a gift either, except of course for my yearly stocking (though this year, my stocking was lost so I got mine in an Old Navy bag) of chocolates.
4. On that note, I don’t think I’ve gained much weight this holiday. On Christmas Eve, I hardly ate anyhting, for some reason. I was just not feeling well that night. Then I’ve been sick the past few days… something with my throat, which is preventing me from wolfing down these chocolates like I normally do..
5. Oh and on that note as well… LOL, our dining table yesterday was full of stuff… my mom says it’s 600 bucks worth of chocolates. Ferrero Rocher, Lindt Lindor, Kinder Bueno… to name a few… Again I can’t say why we had em.. for now, but soon enuf I’ll explain. I really wanted to take a picture of the pile of chocolates. Then of the pile of boxes afterward but again, the frigging camera was missing…
6. Our Christmas movie this year (me and my cousins) was “Curse of the Golden Flower”… this chinese film that was had a really deceptive trailer. We were led to believe there would be lots of fighting. But there wasn’t (not martial arts fighting.. though of course there was some, but the main thing was like.. war fighting, you know, army vs. army). But over all, it wasn’t as horrible as my bro and my cousins were saying. LOL.
7. Yesterday, I watched The Good Shepherd, which was amazing. I like spy movies. My only beef with it are hte cahracters.. Ok so Matt Damon is a good actor, but I’m sorry, he was too baby faced for this movie, in which, he supposedly has a 20 year old son. I’m like wtf? Oh but that’s not even the worse thing, cause who is his wife? None other than Angelina Jolie. If there’s anyone who I didn’t want to picture with a son who is my age, it was her. LOL. They tried to age her… But honestly, she just looked tired and ugly, and not anything at all like the glorious hotness of her normal self. And Isaac remarked, which I completely agree with, she just looked too modern for the movie too, which was set, starting in 1939, and went to like 1961. Again, it wasn’t that like the costumes or makeup or whatever was off. It’s just that it’s… Lana Croft. And Mrs. Smith. in 1939??? No way man. But as I said, I loved the movie… for those reasons I just mentioned, I probably wouldn’t be buying the DVD though. I just can’t stand thinking of Angelina being as old as my mom (or my Grandma for that matter).
8. This is more of a future prediction… but I still have yet to to watch Rocky Balboa, so I’m going to have to do that soon.
9. Most of my friends are going on a weekend trip today. They’re leaving around noon. Yah, me and my bro were supposed to go, but again, for reasons I cannot talk about, we couldn’t. What sucks for them is that it was originally supposed to be a skiing weekend. But thus far, it’s snowed like… 5 mm of flurries so far. So that’s going to be extremely unlikely for them. But meh, a weekend away with a bunch of friends… with lots of food and alcohol. lol. *sigh*.
10. Wow I think this is officially my longest list. Let’s keep going. I bought 2 Rubik’s cubes. LOL. I’m gonna give one to Danny, this Korean kid who’s staying with my aunt ahd uncle from Vancouver, who’s here for the Holidays. He learned how to do the mini-cube. So hopefully it’ll be easy for him to learn this. I really shouldn’t have bought myself one though. Since I hardly have any money left :S. Grr. But yah, I’m going to take some quality time to learn that fast way of doing it in like 30 seconds (Right now I can do it in about 1.5 minutes)
11. I also bought new earphones. One of those in-ear ones that are supposed to block out some noise. It’s the cheapest noise-reduction thing I could find (even though it technically doesn’t reduce noise. Anyway it’s going to be useful for… the next week or so… but not just that, I think it’s pretty comfortable, so it’ll be usefull too for the train and subway ride and stuff. The only problem is, I really gotta keep my ears clean. LOL.
12. Ok I think that’s it. Yahhh… Merry Christmas everyone! Happy New Year.

I just realized, I haven’t posted this up. Unfortunately, it’s not the best one, because I forgot to bring my camera to the last performances… grr. But meh.

Welcome to Our World, then Joy to the World, taken on Sunday, Dec. 10 from “A Christmas Tale” at Morningstar Christian Fellowship.

The sun has gone to bed and so must I
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehn, goodbye,
Goodbye,
Goodbye,
Goodbye!

–

The Sound of Music is such a good movie everyone watch it – by tile, the time you’re aged 12, you should have watched it already. By the time you’re 16, you should have watched it again… And by the time you’re married, you should have watched it a few times already. I guess I should get married then cause I’ve watched it a few times already – at least 6 times that I can think of.

Anyway, I guess it’s really appealing to me cause it’s been quite a musical night for me. I finally felt confident enough tonight to video tape myself playing the piano. Made some huge mistakes though that makes me want to rerecord before I post them up online… meh.

Wouldn’t the world be so great if people could just break out in song and dance randomly. Oh and of course, having a background track just appear out of nowhere too…

LOL any guesses what movie I’m watching right now?

Do, a deer, a female deer
Re, a drop of golden sun
Mi, a name I call myself
Fa a long, long way to go
So, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow So
Ti, a drink with jam and bread

… etc etc

Random tGif exchange of emails…

—

Subject, PLEASE READ!!! IMPORTANT. LIFE OR DEATH —————–

Isaac:

magandang gabi mga bayan. may mahalagang kuento ako! nasaan na ba ang mga puso ninyo? bakit lahat tayo ay nag sisinungalin sa mga bahay natin? nag papasakit
lang kayo sa mga pamilya nang pilipinas. wala akong nagkikita nang mahalan sa
mundo. bakit naman? hindi naman mahirap magsalita nang “mahal kita” o mag
intinde na may tao sa mundo na walang tuwa. pigilin ninyong maigi mag mahal kasi
ang puso ko umiiyak.

that is all.

that took me like 30minutes to
type, but it is very important and the secret to life itself.

David:

Your words form an illusion of letters only understandable by a select few. I’m
too bored to type anything else smart. So back I go into my X360 conquering the
vastness of Oblivion. A world slowly plunging into darkness as the legions of
Oblivion rally their forces. A lone man, me, stands alone, in the quest to right
what is wrong and to save the world.

Chris:

*Corrections…

Magandang gabi, aking bayan (Good evening my country). May
mahalahang kuento ako! (I have an important story to tell). Nasaan nab a ang mga
puso ninyo? (Where are your hearts?) Bakit tayo’ng lahat ay nagsisinungalin sa
mga baha natin? (Why do we lie in our households?) Sinasaktan n’yo lang ang mga
pamilya nang pilipinas. (you are just hurting the families of the Philippines).
Wala na ako’ng nakikita’ng mahalan sa mundo. (I no longer see love in our
world). Bakit naman? (Why is that?) Hindi naman mahirap na magsabi ng “mahal
kita”, o intindihan na merong mga tao sa mundo na kulang ang katutuwanan. (Is it
so hard to say “I love you”, or to understand that there are people in the world
who lack happiness). Kabayan, pilitin ninyong mag mahal, dahil ang puso ko’y
umiiyak. (Friends, give give love a chance for my heart is crying).

LOL!
I dunno where that came from, but I’m actually quite impressed, Isaac.

Isaac:

tee hee hee

Chris:

Since I’m correcting grammar right now, I just wanted to point out the
redundancies in your statement below.. “a lone man, me, stands alone”… lol of
course it was when you’re not typing anything smart anymore, so I totally
understand. Oh and why would you say these words form an illusion? Illusions are
not real. These words are real, the fact that you don’t understand it doesn’t
make it an illusion, what it is, is an enigma – a mystery

Ok now I’m done being smart… Frig, and I didn’t need to be smart again until Monday. Ghar… Darn you David, you made me use brain cells I was supposed to be giving a vacation to!

David:

“Darn you David, you made me use brain cells I was supposed to be giving a
vacation to!”

hence why I am smart.

Isaac:

smarted!

Julius:

dat’s a new one…gonna use dat one

Isaac:

hey guys, what’s very funny is that i talked about secrets to life and i
actually came across a video documentary that’s about the secret to life. it’s
very philosophically interesting and very convinceable. also, it doesn’t seem to
conflict with christianity if you replace the word universe with “God”. so yeah.
it’s about as long as a movie but it drives you in pretty well. check it out and
tell me what you guys think about it. http://www.thescienceofgettingrich.biz/

laters

—

Subject, TLC Holiday Show

Chris:

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL MAKE SURE SOMEONE TAPES IT!!!!!

December 14, 2006 – 10PM
December 15, 2006 – 1AM

Ayiheeehehehe LOL

Chris

________________________________________
From: Vasoula Plakas
[mailto:vasoula@rotfeldproductions.com]
Sent: December 12, 2006 5:03 PM
To: ‘Chris B. Evangelista’
Subject: RE: TLC Holiday Show

Hey
Chris-

We have just been given word that the show will air on Thursday
night at 10pm on TLC. It is entitled Holiday Blunder and you may want to check
your TV’s guide to confirm the time. Your clip has made it into the show and you
will receive payment within 30 days after it airs. Enjoy the show!

-Vasoula

Chris:

Oh yah, and I figured out what to do with the $100USD that we’re gonna get… Mr. Aguire of course as the star receives half – $50. I’m gonna take $10CDN for my expenses on shipping, and the rest’ll go to a pizza party for us.

Peace.

Chris

Josh:

forget pizza buy drinks

Isaac:

OMG!? THERE WAS MONEY INVOLVED? ALL OF IT SHOULD GO TO ME BECAUSE EVERYONE IS GOING TO SEE MY ELITE D2 SKILLZZZZZZZ!!!

Julius:

hey, i still get my share right? u said so chris…i haven’t forgotten.
julius

Andy:

Haha nice guys, nice
yo so who’s “falling asleep” next so we can get our
$100 again, LOL.. buy pizza instead of drinks plz.. noobs. well I look forward
to that, sumone plz remind us b4 the actual nite and lemme know who’s house I
can be at (dont get that channel).. lates

andy

David:

it’s a sleep over? O.o

Julius:

i won’t eat pizza noob might not even be there so send dat cash plz…keep ur word bro hehehe

James:

omg wow jules… your so ghetto… for what a couple of bucks? 10? 15? take
it… i’ll cover the 15 that’s taken away for the party….

Julius:

Lol

Josh:

ya what james said.. wow.

Julius:

YOU LIAR LOL…didn’t tell me wat u were doin w/ my share!!! k sure np, i’m
ghetto…wat james said. hehe meh..lata.

—

LOL yes, I know that was really random, and probably didn’t even make much sense.. btu meh…

Well to launch this series of “Holiday Vacation” reviews, I couldn’t resist talking about favourite apple, the Ambrosia Apples.

I ate these apples all through my years at Capernwray in BC (it’s a BC Apple). At one point, I was even spending more on buying these apples that I was on other snacks like chocolates and chips… Cool huh? Plus it makes me feel healthy, LOL. Though I dunno what difference it really makes, eating an apple or two a day, but eating the rest of the crap that I do.

Anyway. It’s just. Sweet. Though not that sweet. And a little bitter too. The taste is really, subtle, which I guess is why I like it. But most importantly, it doesn’t leave me with what seems like a dry mouth like other apples (especially red delicious) do. So yah. While it’s in season, I’m more than happy to spend the $1.49 per pound on ambrosia apples, when others are like $0.89…

Well I’m done all of my 6-7AM calls already, well most of it that is. I’ve gotta do one in about 10 minutes… Lemme quickly explain what I do here.

First of all, this job I’m speaking about is with TEC Services Inc., which is a service that calls Korean students to teach them english. I forget exactly what “TEC” stands for but it has something to do with that… Teaching English something…

This is how it works. It was explained to me in terms of “Kumon” here in Canada… Which I don’t know how Kumon works (I think it’s run by the City of Toronto, and a bunch of other places as an English remedial study program). But basically, from what I understand, these students have classes with an actual teacher sometime during the week, then twice a week receive a call from an “English-speaker” like me and talks to them for a few minutes. The idea, I suppose – which is the way I’m doing this job then – is that the teachers in country teach them the basics and stuff, while we reinforce (especially pronounciation).

It’s kind of cool. I guess it’s practical now that Long Distance rates are so low already…

But anyway, how this works out practically for me is that I have a list of 8 students per hour that I need to call and speak to, spending about 7.5 minutes per student (students range from children.. I think my youngest ever was 9, to older teenagers – my oldest was around 20). I speak to them using either one of the 2 levels of hand books, or by free talking. Then I grade them based on our conversation.

The thing is, if there is no answer at the phone number, I’m supposed to mark it down but then try again a little later… And here’s the deal, if it’s a day like today when I have 3 NA’s, then I have a little bit of time on my hands. My next call is in about 4 minutes when I try the last NA again. If there’s still no answer, then I get another few minutes to myself before I start on my 7-8AM calling.

The job is pretty sweet. Not really that well paying… well it’s better paying than a retail job – ok well at least now it is, since I’ve been promoted to Check-In Supervisor (Other Teachers check in with me to see if they’re ready for their lessons. Either that or I start tracking them down…) But basically, the main asset of this job is what I’m doing right now… Sitting in my comfy comfy chair, working from home.

Plus I even have the chance to facebook, or work on my blog, or do random computer stuff during the lessons… Hmm.. ok well technicall I’m supposed to be giving all my attention to my students… Which, I do… give them most… I mean comon, it’s just really hard to do that when you’re just repeating something over and over. And I really do give them most of my attention, and make sure they’re pronouncing properly and stuff… A message on facebook that would normally take me like 30 seconds to write would take me 5 minutes… just cause I’m paying more attention to work. But yah, it’s still enough time for me to finish all that stuff, responding to messages and whatever… Speaking of attention, I gotta make this call quick…

Ok it went through and I’m talking to a student now.. so I’m gonna end this now…

Well I’m really enjoying my vacation, though I have the feeling I’m going to be suddenly hit with reality – when I need to start studying for this last exam I still have (on Monday). But anyway, I have a few things to update, so here it is…

1. As I mentioned I still have an exam on Monday, it’s my first – and only exam during exam time at UofT, so that’s kind of cool, but it also kind of sucks that it’s so late.
2. For about 12 hours yesterday, it was looking really good that James and I were going to be sent to the Philippines for my Lola’s 70th birthday. It would have meant 3 weeks in the Philippines, leaving on December 25th or 26th, and coming back sometime around January 19th or 20th. It would have been fun, but anyway, I guess my dad slept on it, and it’s just not practical and ridiculously expensive. Not to mention the responsibilities that James and I have around here. But oh well… Looks like we’ll be getting PS3 instead, though not for a little while. It’s practically impossible to buy one, and I refuse to stand in line, so doubtful we can get it until January or maybe even March.
3. Thursday is the Christmas Party at work (UofT Telefund), which kicks off this year’s Christmas-Party season. We get one free drink, hehe. But I think that’ll be it for me for the night. Gotta save up money.
4. I’m actually getting tired of this post… My mind is elsewhere, so I’m just gonna finish this off… I have 5 movie reviews to write still… The Fog of War, Miami Vice, You Me and Dupree, Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest, and The Devil Wears Prada… Hehe, can you tell what I’ve been doing with my vacation?