I've been thinking about myself a lot lately, and who I am I guess. And I find myself fairly perceptive regarding people. By this I mean, I can pick up names easily, even if they are not told to me. The way I do this strange actually, like I guess some ways are just listening to others talk, or looking at pictures and recognizing who everyone is, or even reading peoples' blogs and knowing them this way. I've been wondering whether this is weird, how I can know so much about a person, or maybe not so much, but just enough, so that it almost looks freaky.

What makes me think this I think is from this past Campus Challenge. Many times, I would either meet someone, or encounter someone, and I'd already know who they are. Like say for one instance, so one of my friends introduced me to a couple people, two of them. So youn know, introductions, and that was the end of that. But then the next day I think I sat down with those two people I met, the person that introduced us, and one other. Then I was implcitly introduced again, and I was able to remember both their names, and they were like, "how did you know?" acting all suspicious or something. And I was like, hello, I met you two yesterday. I guess it's just a case of who you want to remember. And I guess I'm just not all that important, or perhaps it's not me, and they refuse to remember new people.

I don't think it takes long for me to remember a name, and I have to say, it's easier for me to remember a girls name than a guys name, I think that's just natural for me, just because I think I talk more easily to girls. But we'll talk about that issue another time. But you know, I think it's just I want to remember peoples' names, because to them, it means two things: 1. I respected the introduction enough to rememeber them. 2. I have some alteriror motive to remembering who they are. Let's hope they don't misunderstand, and think it's the first latter.

But another funny thing is when I know the person's name, and I had never been introduced to them. I think I just enjoy knowing who people are. But I would never go and ask someone "whose that over there?" Because asking that type of questions just brings more questions that I'd rather not answer. So I just listen to people around me, finding out who is who, and just being perceptive of what's going on around me. For example, I was with two friends once, and one of them saw someone they knew. So they talked, and then he introduced us to the person he was talking to. But instead of saying "This is ___", he said "have you guys met?". And naturally, I don't know why, but it's my instinct if I know who they are to say so. So I was like "oh, your __, your __ sister right?" So of course, dumb me for saying this, but then she had this odd expression on her face, like, whoa, I've never met you, yet you know who I am? Anyways, don't know why my instincts are like that, I mean I could naturally play dumb and be like "nope, nice to meet you", but no, I have to say I know who they are.

Anyways, I think it's just natural for me to try to know everyone. By knowing a little about them, it makes conversation easier I think. But at the same time, if this person is some paranoid person, then they'll try to distance themselves, but then that's their problem, I mean how can you automatically deduce that I'm a person you don't want to know, just because I know who you are.

But I can understand how this quality can scare people away, because people like their privacy, they don't like strangers knowing who they are. But I just can't help it. But if the situation is I know who they are because they have some blog, then I think they should expect it, because by putting things on the web, there are going to be people you don't know who read it. This happened this past weekend. I sat down with some people I don't know, and so I introduced myself. Then they introduced themselves, and since I knew where they were from (the group, because someone else from there I knew went there too, I just know, can't explain it), I was like, "oh, I know you. Your __, I've read your blog. Then everyone started laughing, because it was like, someone's heard of you. Funny jokes afterwards, like someone was like, "he knows things about you. It's like, 'so how did that thing go you wrote about, did it go away?'." All jokes of course, but she ws either embarassed I knew who she was, or was weary that I knew who she was. I explained how come I read it, but ah well, up to her to decide.

See, it's encounters like that, that I should be more weary as to whether I should reveal my knowledge. Last thing I want is for them to feel uncomfortable.

But everyone who has a blog should be aware that if you write something, someone you don't know will read it. So if it is a secret, try to keep it to yourself, because people like me will remember it.

This week, if you go to many other's blogs, I bet you so many people will be writing about Campus Challenge. It's funny how when a big crowd of us go to one place, the next few days everyone usually writes about it. that says something, that it was a memorable experience.

Anyways, so for mine. Friday driving was horrible, the rain was disgusting. But anyone who was on the road will know that. Let me highlight some of my most memorable experiences. One of my best times was not even during the programs actually. It was my walk on Sunday morning to Tim Hortons. It was quite a walk, took me about 25 mins. I had to take this walk, because the day before, I simply had no time to do any of the preparation for the bible studies or devotions. I was always in the middle of doing something else. But it was such a nice walk, nice to just breath in the air, hear the birds chirp, see the river flow. Just experiencing God's creation. I think this kind of experience is probably one of the main reasons to have retreats away from the city. So we can simply just see how wonderful God's creations are without the noises/distractions of the big-city. Then on my way back, walked a different route, and it was so nice seeing the different buildings on the campus (trent btw, I don't think i mentioned it) and the people who are up as early as I. I found this to be one of my highlights for the conference because the whole weekend was very fast paced, everything was bang-bang-bang, and this was the one moment I felt was different, there was not a sense of urgency. It gave me some time to reflect and think.

Anyways, if you want to know more about what happened at CC, you are welcome to ask me.

Alright, got another question on relationships, like the one I wrote previouslyt two posts ago. So last time the question was: If a guy likes a girl, but this girl had a boyfriend, what should he do? Tell the girl his feelings? Hide it inside? Do nothing? Other options? Take a look if you have time.

Today's debatable relationship problem is this: In this day in age, does it matter who asks out who. Meaning is it still important that the guy makes the first step? can the girl ask the guy out?

My opinion is that it doesn't matter. I mean if the girl likes the guy, and she feels he may have feelings for her, if she wants to make the first move, then go for it. I mean these days, things are all about independance. that is why we have the "independant woman" who has a career. Maybe this isn't true for some cultures, but I am talking about Western culture.

I mean, so what, the girl makes the first move, well they want something, they try and get it. None of this, waiting til eternity crap. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but what do you think?

Someone said to me when asked this question, that they have seen many times how when the girl makes the first move, then should they be in the relationship, she will always be at a disadvantage, and that it's possible the guy will not treat her as well, because she made the first move. and this point is a good one, can't rule out that this could be the case, then it's probably this guy wasn't worth the effort in the first place. And the girl maybe should of been smart enough to really understand this first. And if she is able to realize he's not worth it anymore, then she should also take the initiative to break up with him. I don't think any girl (or guy) should be treated poorly by their significant other. And if it's like an ongoing thing, then it should be addressed. And anyone who says nothing, and think "it'll go away" is too hopeful. Although this is possible, I'm guessing the probability of that is low.

Almost at 5000, let's get it before I go away.

Campus Challenge is this weekend, going to be quite the interesting weekend.

This weekend was tiring. I did not get enough sleep by any means.

Friday night went to fellowship as usual. We had it at Sophia's place, which was very nice. She redecorated and moved into the basement. She did quite a nice place with the basement, quite impressed. It looked like one of those IKEA commercials where they take an unlikely space and redecorate it to look totally different, like the Subway car one. Anyways, we focussed on Sanctification, and what it truly means to be Sanctified. Sofia did a good job on it, and I really did come out with something gained.

Afterwards we went to cafe Demitre for some dessert. I shared the "Banana Republick", which is supposed to be two scoops of banana ice cream and one scoop of chocolate ice cream. But when it came, I noticed there were three scoops of banana ice cream, not two. We were missing the chocolate. So I made some comments to my friend (who worked there) and he spoke with someone saying they messed up. They gave us this huge scoop of chocolate ice cream to add. Now we didn't really care to get it, just wondering is all. But with that extra ice cream, it was painful finishing it. Because just too much ice cream. Anyways, I did end up finishing it, cause couldn't leave it there after making a fuss about it. That ended later than I hoped, but in any case, was fun.

Bright and early saturday morning drove back uptown to take this CCSA umpire exam. my mind is not in the studying mood man, couldn't bring myself to really study. Anyways, the test was as hard as I expected, and I don't think I passed. I didn't like the questions, I found them rather "trying to stump", moreso than "trying to quiz". Like the way they were written, it's like an english exam, and every question was trying to confuse you. Anyways, those who can pass it I must say can look up in their books/sheets very fast and easily (since it's open book), or are good umpires.

At night, went to the "jack and jill" bachelor/bachelorette party for Ken and Ann. It surprises me how many people have never heard of this jack and jill idea. Maybe it's some Christian made up party to counter the "scandalous" bachelor/bachelorette parties they go on usually. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case. Anyways, it was more of a "seeing people haven't seen in a while" party, cause I talked to a lot of people who I have not seen in a while, getting to know what's been going on with them.

Sunday we had a pseudo-practice on back campus of UT for softball. It wasn't a full out practice, but it was good to start off. I must say I underestimated some of the girls this year, but only because of the insistent "I'm so bad, i can't catch, can't do anything" act they put on in the weeks prior. This will be an interesting season. MEanwhile I think my eyes have gotten worse, so I'm scared I'm gonna get plunked by a ball coming at me, because I can't see it properly with 20/20 vision. I already booked an appt with my optometrist, but it's gonna take until July or something.

Alright, got a question for all you people who are so interested in the relationships questions. Say a guy has this small thing for this girl. but this girl already has a boyfriend. What should he do? Or maybe it's more than a thing, maybe he think she's the one, or she has all the qualities he looks for, only thing is she alreadyhas a boyfriend. Some of you may say that he should not do anything, because it's unfair to try to break them up, or something along those lines, but try to look past the initial reactions or thoughts and really think of the different scenarios. Obviously i'm not elaborating a lot, only because i haven't even thought this through. so what should he do?

Strange but True

I found this on cp24. It's in the Strange but true section.

Bras On Their Faces

Where there are no masks, wear a bra. That phrase might not have meant much a few months back, but in light of the S.A.R.S. outbreak, it’s the big thing in southern Taiwan. Because of a shortage of surgical masks in Taipei, villagers are now sliding the chest protectors over their faces to shield themselves from the disease. One middle aged man explains the origin of the fad on cable TV. “I went to every pharmacy in the village and it's impossible to find a proper mask,” he said, his face partially covered by a dark red cup. “Somebody came up with this idea so I decided to give it a try.” There’s actually a small bra factory that’s producing the makeshift masks, and workers are cutting the colourful undergarments in two and sewing on additional straps. That factory may be the only place to get protection from severe acute respiratory syndrome, since face masks have been cleared from most store shelves - and for an unfortunate reason: S.A.R.S. infections have tripled in Taiwan in the past two weeks to 360 cases, the third highest in the world after China and Hong Kong. But look at it this way: now men can wear a bra on their face in public, and women have no reason to slap them for it.

I wouldn't be caught dead with a bra on my face. But it'd be funny to see. Maybe a little laughter amidst the serious times of SARS.

So last night went to see Aida, opening night show. This musical has gotten very good reviews and the music is done by Elton John and Tim Rice. And I must say, the music is very good. However, the story resembles too much of Romeo and Juliet, which bodes points to be taken off, because this story line has been kicked around too much.

Aside from that, the musical starts off kind of slow. And the beginning made no sense at the beginning, but it all made sense at the end. If you see it, you'll be like "ohhhh" at the end. The music was a little unlikely at that time, it's very "modernized". The sets were interesting, there were a couple that were really good, like they had this set where it's shows a pool-side. And then they had people swimming in the air, it was really cool.

It wasn't as good as Lion King, but I wonder if the reason for this is because I knew the story-line of Lion King, and so the music was easier to understand. Whereas I didn't read any summaries about Aida, so when they sang, it was much harder to interpret the music. Overall, I'd give the play a 7.5/10.

So yesterday Ernie Eves, the premier of Ontario announced a new project to link all public transit systems in the GTA together for ease of use using a new Smart Card. A Smart card is like your Bell Canada Phone card where money is stored on a chip, and machines deducts money from the card each time you use it. So while this is a big convenience for everybody, don't have to worry about buying tickets from this municipality, and the other municipality, one card can be used for everything, including GO transit.

Although this makes life easier for the commuter, there is one downfall to this scheme. That is there is no limit to how much they can charge now. Because everybody always worries about exact change and stuff, when paying cash fare. However, now they can raise the cost any time, any amount, because it does not matter anymore, it's automatically deducted from the card, and it's always exact change. So when TTC decides to come into this (they said they'll wait until they see some money before implementing it), they can hike the $2.25 cash fare even higher whenever they want, in any denomination. So everybody, expect to see $3.00 in ten years.

It's getting hot out there right now, and I am beginning to miss the Winter season. I have always said I like cold weather more than hot weather. The main reason is because I would prefer wearing more clothes, as opposed to the limitation to the amount of clothes I can take off. I'm just not a big fan of hot weather, I mean there are no advantages. The sun is bad for you. Let's all hope it snows in August. =)

I have this bottle of Dasani water in front of me. From what I remember, a lot of people don't like this brand of water because it's "Mineralized Water", which basically means theyb take normal water, with all the chemicals, toxins, everything, and then add more, in the form of minerals to try and take them out. Thus, Mineralizing is adding minerals in it to make it more clean. However, this water says "Remineralized Water". What does that mean? I interpret it two ways: 1. They mineralized it once, then did the same procedure again, thus "re-doing" it. 2. Take mineralized water, that has been exposed again (or used again, in some way i can't think of) and then re-mineralize it. I dunno, both does not sound good. But first method is no "re-doing" anything, it's just a longer mineralizing process. Dumb words.

I missed episode of American Idol and the Bachelor last night, because of Aida. So I could not wait to watch it on tape, I wandered to the websites to read the recaps. There was no recap on the American Idol website, however I did find out who was left via the animated picture of three left, and the poll asking wheather Josh deserved to leave. I think he did, he's great when he's on, but horrible when he's off. Country is for him, and nothing else, which limits his potential as a Pop star.

As for The Bachelor.Now although this is a bad show, but what guy wouldn't want to be in his shoes? but anyways, three were left, tina, Jenn, and Kirsten. Now Kirsten is a snob, but who cares, she is nice when two of them are together, and if she doesn't make friends with the others, doesn't matter. I didn't really want tina to win, and low and behold, she got voted off. that's fine with me. I like Kirsten and Jenn. they both look stunning. I know, I'm so dumb for watching it, but someone's got to.

NEWS: the new Amazing Race is going to be on at the end of the month, don't anybody miss, it, one of best reality shows on tv, with the Mole, and American Idol, those are the best Reality Shows.

Man, almost got in another accident today. I was driving north on 404 and approaching Hwy 7. I was in lane 3 (counted from the right) and the two lanes to my right were exit lanes, and they were backed up today. I was appraching when this dumb car changes lanes into my lane from the lane to my right, someone who couldn't wait. Then they suddenly break when I was going almost full speed. Not much time to break for me or the cars behind me. I ended up honking the whole way appraching this dumb car, and the car behind me had to quickly change into the lane to our right while braking. I heard this large screach from them. Man, so close to an accident, all because this dumb car decided to change lanes out, and I think the car in front of them decided to stop on the 404 in a moving lane to get into the right lane to exit at Hwy 7. Man, people, if yuo can't get in, don't stop on the highway, exit the next exit, your gonna cause this major accident if you stop.

So we had another CC meeting last night, it went well. But it got me thinking about food. We ordered pizza for dinner because it was a night meeting. I think I wrote about this before, but why isn't there takeout food that is somewhat healthy, good for large crowds, and inexpensive. Pizza satisfies the latter two, but the first one is far from it. Always when we have large group settings and need to eat, pizza is first to come to mind. It's kind of annoying actually, because it's like always eating Pizza. What this world needs is some food that is good for lage group settings, relatively cheap, tastes good, and is healthy. No more KFC, no more Pizza. Sushi is not bad for large group settings, but it far from cheap. Chinese food is relatively healthy (depending where you buy it), but the more healthy, the more expensive. Those takeout places are usually not very healthy. Someone please think of something, and don't say have a salad, cause that does not cut it for meals like dinner.

I'm thinking how many places arrange a sandwich/wrap collection these days. And that I would say is relatively healthy, however those don't come cheap. And I don't know about you, but sandwiches don't cut it for dinner meal. Even for lunch, I'm not a big fan, but it can do. But there are not many places that make these kind of arrangements that are stores on their own. Have to be in like business district at Cultures or something. Worth a try one day, depending on the price of course. There is a need out there, and if only I can come up with something, I can start a business.

Camping Commando

Crocodile Hunter look out! You are as comfortable outdoors as you are indoors. Mother Nature is your second home and you know how important it is to take care of her. Your friends can count on you for an educational and fun experience outdoors, but also because you are prepared for any emergency. Keep up the good work.

You've learned about the joy of a quiet canoe trip, or sitting on a secluded, secret beach with no one but the geese. We are fortunate to have so many breathtaking National and Provincial parks in Canada. Read our Top 10 All Canadian Road Trips for more ideas on areas to visit within this great land. Happy trails to you.

Took another test today to see how much of an outdoors person I am. It's not a very good test, because it does not really test whether you are an outdoors person by the looks of the result. It's questions that someone can just know the answer to by thinking and listening. Looks like you can call me Crocodile Dundee from now on. Even though I'm not an outdoors person, is not a big fan of camping, hates mosquitoes and anything else that is small, annoying and flies. I don't go camping, I don't even like sleeping in cabins, unless it looks like the cabin from the early 90s tv show "Coach". But it was fun filling it out.

Okay, news, Esso and Petro Canada from DVP->427, Lakeshore->401 has gas at 49.9 this whole weekend. go crazy.

Article of Gas here

Logitech io Personal Digital Pen




This pen here is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. This pen stores what you write by hand and then when you place it in it's own USB cradle, it transfers all you have written to your computer. That is so cool, too bad it's damn expensive, not a toy worth owning at this price.

What it does it there is a small digital camera inside the pen. It records everything you write, and digitizes it. Then when hooked up to the cradle, transfers that digital document to your computer. I can see big uses for this. I want one just to play with.

The danger with this is the small digital camera. Who is to stop some techie to change the software so it becomes a real recorder and digitizes caputred data. Then at the end, has a movie made of what it has taped. This could pose great danger in privacy, and breed a new breadth of peepers. Think about it, not many people would expect to be invaded by some pen. Something to think about.

the article I read about this is here, I read something with more info somewhere else but I cannot find it anymore.

Anyways, enjoy the pen.

It's interesting these days. So many people have birthdays around this time. It's like everyone likes making babies in the July-August time. Anyways, so what is the big deal with birthdays anyways? I mean the only good thing to be happy about during birthdays is to celebreate another year of life. Other than that, what is there? I believe its's just another day. I mean why are there presents exchanged?

Birthdays are meant to commemorate the day you were born. But it's just another day. It's not big deal. So why do people make such a big deal of it? Is it really something to celebrate? I mean if you think of it, there are far more bigger negative points about birthdays than positive. It's another day closer to final destination. It further reminds you of this fact because your "age" increases by a year. Sometimes individuals feel forces to buy gifts. So why the big hoopla?

I never quite understood why birthdays are such a big deal. I mean sure i can understand people having fun on them. And having fun is good. But why make this such a special day. I mean everyday should be a big hoopla then. Why wait a year, why not everyday? I mean why do we count our age in terms of years, why not months? I am 258 months old. Sure 258 sounds big, because we're all used to thinking in years. Birthdays are just overrated. Sure I won't decline a birthday wish, but my opinion still is birthdays are no big deal.

So yesterday was free ice cream at Baskin Robbins. I had been looking forward to it for weeks. And so I go to the gym last night as usual, and around the corner is the Baskin Robbins. So I finish my work out and go there. The people in front of me told me the owner had been out there three times telling they are no longer servnig free ice cream past them. What in the world! It's not past 10 yet. They said by tmie they are served it'll be. Well tell them to work faster then! And then the owner comes out, guides them in. All the while I am complaining about not getting ice cream. I mean some others priob have seconds and I have not even enjoyed my first. I bet if I said I will pay she would let me in. This women is the ice cream nazi. But anyways, I couldn't be bothered to make a big deal, I said my words, and left. I am never going back there to give them business. This is out of spite.

I've been thinking about the softball season. I have been going to the gym regularly for like four months now, and I see some results. And so one would figure I can hit the ball harder now. But then I was thinking, wait a minute, if I am more strong, does that make me less quick? I'm thinking my bat speed may not be as fast as before. I gotta get accustomed to carrying my weight too. hhahaha. Gotta get practicing this summer for softball.

I am finding another problem with my workout these days. Last time it was these imprints left on my shoulders from using the squat machine. I think they are left from my t-shirt. This time, when I use the leg-press machine. Where I sit down, and I use my legs to push on weights, my right foot cramps. It never ceases to fail, I always cramp on my foot when I use this machine. I wonder why? I think there is something wrong with how I am pushing with my feet. Anyone got an ideas?

So here's an interesting thought. Why is burping and farting considered rude? I mean it's a natural effect of the human body? Everyone does it, Why is it considered so bad. it's not the most pleasant sound nor smell, but it's natural. I might see more understanding if not everyone does it. But let's face it, everyone needs to fart. I think everyone should fart or burp away. The more we are accustomed to it, the less we'll make a deal about it. The more it'll be accepted, and soon, no one will care. Just don't burp or fart at people. Do it away from people. Unless someone can explain to me why it's such a rude thing to do.

So I was talking to a co-worker about how so many people have birthdays this month. so he asked me whether I bought gifts for them. I said yes, small, but anyways. So he asks me, what makes a good gift? What do you think? I'm not quite sure, I mean you don't know them very very well, so how do you know they'll like it? I mean a lot of times first thing I look for is something I like. Then I think whether they'll like it. That is the hard thing to do. And deciding is even harder. And there is such a big difference with a guy-given gift and a girl-given gift. there are so many more possibilities when a girl gives a gift. It's an interesting question though, how do you buy gifts for people?

alright, that's it for today. got a lot on my plate next few days. Til next time.

This weekend was one of my most tiring weekends ever. Started on Friday night, when I went to Kitty's opening of her judged thesis. She had five paintings up. I would say if I had had done something, and it was being sold or even displayed, I'd feel quite good and accomplished. I'm happy for her. This store was really nice too, the Roseland Gallery on Queen west of Bathurst (702 Queen St W). It had this huge door that was like 12 ft high that the owners had brought over from France in the original doorframe. Quite the piece. Anyways, unfortunately her display is finished as of yesterday.

Then I went back to Oakville to lead bible study for fellowship. I had a hard time preparing for this one because I did not know what to prepare for. the book we usually use I did not have, and the website with the scanned version of it was down. So I decided to open up the Bible and see what I fell on. Got Ecclesiastes. It was an interesting passage I though, quite relevant, so unfortunately I had no time, but I read it, read some quick commentaries online, and went in. I think it went well, some of the questions were good. Had some good conversation. But somehow one of our conversations led to the reason leaves on the ground spin in circles when blown in the wind. So we talked about Eddy's for a little bit. All in all, think it went pretty good.

Then after, drove back downtown for Dorothy's brother's gig at the Reverb. He plays in a jazz band, and this was the second time I saw him play. Needless to say, a lot of driving. But I enjoyed it a bit more this time than the last, and had a good time.

Saturday woke up early to go to the gym, then the rest of the day was Nolan and Pam's wedding. But I managed to squeeze in watching Spy Kid's 2 right before. Anyways, wedding was nice, first time I attended a wedding at TCBC, and the church was jammed. Luckily me and my sister found street parking at a street with construction, had a "Do not Enter" sign, "Only local traffic" in it, so some people did no bother going, lucky for us. Anyways, reception was nice. Had a band, an entertainer for kid's, and a DJ. We stayed til the end, and not until the last song did I start going to dance. hehehe, lucky for me again.

And Sunday, well aside from church, did not do much. Went to gym again, and experienced the self-serve checkout at Dominion again, a nice experience again.

I experienced a weird thing on Friday at fellowship. I was talking with some guys, and somehow we started talking about weight. So some of these guys are about my height. But I suddenly felt fat, they were all lighter than me. And here I am still trying to gain weight. I have not really been able to get past my current weight now for a good 8 months I think. i have been stuck at about 160 for a long time, probably longer than 8 months. And my friend was telling me that he was told by a doctor that the for the charts that tell you whether you are overweight or underweight based on age are misleading for a Chinese person because it's actually better for a Chinese person to be at the bottom end or slighly lower. I don't know how it's done, but if that's true, I wonder if I'm overweight? I am actually feeling kind of fat these days, because some of my pants no longer fit, have to get them altered to let it out. I need to lose some weight. =)

This year playing softball is going to be interesting. We got a new coach this year, a Mr. Bernie Ma. He has taken the courage to lead our team to victory this year. I'm proud to see he's doing this, because if not him, I don't think we'd have a second team. This is going to be a challenge for him, but I trust he'll rise to the occasion. We are resurrecting our Team Reconciliation this year, and we have a whole new batch of players. Even more interesting because I invited a friend to play this year. I'm wondering how she will adapt to the team, because she knows no one else but myself and Bernie. But I trust everything will be okay, but we'll have to wait for the season to start to see. I think a lot of us who have played before are itching to play, because it's been a while, and we want to see how much difference a year makes.

Nothing much else to talk about. Have a good week.

So I was listening to the radio last night on my way back from the gym. I was listening to 680 News and they had this story I think on a new Sears. Sears has decided to reorganize their stores, by grouping products that don't necessarily go together, but are related by the interests of the target market for each section.

So what does this mean? It means the kid's clothing is next to the toys department. The Men's clothing is next to the electronics department. If they go by this theory, they have to put Women's clothing in the middle to be next to everything.

Anyways, I was thinking what a great idea this is. I mean from a marketing and sales standpoint, this idea is genius I think. I mean while your shopping for one thing, you see another that may stimulate your interest and buy that too. I think whoever thought of this idea should be given a pat on the back. I have no idea why nobody else every thought of it.

Doesn't look like I get to go to Spain anymore. Probably for the better. Last week the guy in charge of Support asked me whether I wanted to go to Spain. I really did not know how to answer him. I knew it was for work of course, but I was kind of taken aback from the suggestion. The reason he asked is one of our customer's at work is having a problem with the software I am working on, and have been the primary contact for. Although I did not create it, I am not even the most familiar with it (cause the guy who did code it is much more familiar than I), but I added a lot of features to it, and have been able to fix most problems.

Anyways, so the guy suggested to send me there to cool down the customer so that they do not return the product. I did not know how to answer cause not sure if I really want to. By going there, it means long hours at work. Anyone who travels for work means they work like 12 consecutive hours. I don't know if I want that. Plus I have a lot of committments here I can't just leave. Anyways, it intrigued me. But today, I hear my previous team leader, and also the guy who created this software will most likely be going. So I don't get to go. I would have gone if it was necessary, but I'm thinking the hierarchy of people dont' trust a student to do the dirty work with customer's. The contracts are on the line and they can't put it in the hands of some 21 year old who has been workign with the company for like 10 months. Too bad for me.

Been working very hard at work last couple of weeks because of these problems, and we are releasing our product soon. But today, it pretty much over, and I was back to the "what do I do now kind of attitude.

I was thinking while driving this morning how fortunate and blessed I haev been these last 10 months. Reason I was thinking this is because of my driving. I don't consider myself a great driver, but God has looked after me past 10 months everyday while I drive to adn from work. It's not a close drive (Mississauga to Markham, and back), but God has protected me throughout and it has been a blessing. So many times I have come close to an accident, and I have come out unscathed. I even got into two accidents as well, rear bumper collisions. but luckily no damage and I came out with no loss and the other driver's have ben gracious enough to just leave. Thank-You God for looking over me.

Your score was 10 out of 10

You Can't Touch This - MC Hammer

Might as well face it, you're addicted to the 80s! Like, totally rad man! You are a true 80s baby and you're not willing to give up on the nostalgia of watching sitcoms and Molly Ringwald movies! You proudly wear your legwarmers and your sunglasses at night. You were disappointed when the return of eighties fashions was short-lived. Try not to get too carried away: the days of singing raisins and sketchy Reagans are like, totally in the past dude. Try to find a way to take the things you loved about the eighties and incorporate them new millennium style and you will be one gnarly betty. Awesome!

This was what I scored by taking the 80's Quiz. Man, I can't believe I scored so good. First try, no cheating. GO TAKE IT HERE

Since I have a little more time today at work, I'll write another review. Went to this restaurant for Sunday School class yesterday.

Babur - Located on Queen Street between Beverley and University. This is an Indian food restaurant, and we had the buffet. Not sure if it's always buffet, but I'll write according to the buffet.

Selection wise, there was not enough. I've been to Indian restaurants before, and this selction does not cut it. SO many different appetizers I've had that were not there, and pity too, cause they are so good. But the stuff they had was pretty good. There was this chicken salad thing that was different from all else, it was sweet, like maple syrup sweet. I enjoyed that. The rest of the stuff was good too, lamb and chicken. There were these tiny fried things, were good, but spicy too.

In general, some of the food was more spicy than I like. the Naan was just alright, I've had some so much better. It was generally hard, so points off for that. Rice was hard too, was not soft. But other food, although spicy, it was good. The samosas were good, someone complained they had no meat inside, but I enjoyed them.

The atmosphere is very nice, well furnished, looks comfortable. The washrooms are very clean and well furnished, although because it's in the basement, not as great, but doens't matter a whole lot.

In all, I enjoyed the restaurant, but there were some expectations going in that were not met. 2.5/5.

Okay, more restaurant review since I put the fast-link on the left frame there.

Red Rock - Located on Sheppard East of Hwy 404 and west of Victoria Park Ave. This restaurant is situated beside the Time Hortons on Sheppard. the atmosphere in this restaurant is alright, it's a bar/restaurant. My friend said the place reminded her of those restaurants you see next to the hotels on side of highways (don't ask how she knows).

Anyways, the food selection was alright, but wasn't too spectacular. I had a Penne with tomato sauce with a cajun chicken breast on top. It was alright, nothing spectacular again, but tasty. My friend had the smoke salmon on a bed of linguine. Only thing, it wasn't smoke salmon, it was a chunk of salmon. That's not bad of course, but it wasn't smoked salmon is all. The prices are decent, very average, in the $10.99-$25.99 range. Downfall is there is no free bread, only sides that you can go with pasta is garlic brad and ceasar salad, which cost $1.99 each.

Atmosphere was alright, big screen tv you can watch the game on. they have a smoking room which was good, I did not want to smell smoke. But the pool table and some other games are located in there, which is good they have them, not so good it's in there.

All in all, I'd give it only a 2.0/5. It was not a bad place, just nothing really stuck out. If you want safe, I'd say it's a safe eat, probably can't go wrong, just not many lasting moments.

Today the traffic to work was great. Took me 30 mins flat to get to work, and I never broke 120km/h. I stayed below, around 110-115 the whole way. Hope going home is the same way. It's days like today I wish I was in high school, or working for the government, seeing they have the day off. I could use another day of sleep.

So was talking about this SARS thing with my dad last night. Since my dad and sister take the GO train everyday, and the news of the nurse taking the train from Appleby to Union, they take the same train, which poses a risk. So anyways, we were talking about how there really is no way of containing this disease. I mean it's always going to be around, there can be vaccines, but still, it will still exist. We must learn to co-exist with the virus.

And furthermore, how can anyone really stop this from spreading. I mean it's a tree format, one person infects two others. Each of those infects two others. This is exponential. you know what they say about knowing people, 6 degrees freedom or something right? So then what is the one solutions to catch everyone with SARS? Shut the whole country down for 10 days. that means all businesses, shut down for 10 days. everyone stays home with no contact with anyone for 10 whole days. Why? Becuase how else do we prevent potential contact? So if everyone stays home for 10 days, we know who is infected, and who is not. But this is preposterous, never will happen, but it's an idea.

Alright, more restaurant reviews. I like doing these, gives me something to critique about.

Sushi Inn - Located in the posh neighbourhood of Yorkville, this restaurant is fair value. I enjoye this place, although we sat in the lower level, which was not as nice an atmosphere as the upstairs, so that's a deduction. The food was good though, I enjoyed my sushi platter, it had an eel roll, spicy tuna roll. I liked the whole plate, good presentation. All in all, I'd give it a 3.75/5.

I'd like to correct my previuos rating of Piper's Bar and Restaurant. After thinking about it, it does not deserve such a high rating at 4.5. So I'll give it a 4.0 to leave some leeway.

Today I had a good day. Went to Good Friday worship in the morning. Although I did not go to TCBC. I went to Hosanna Evangelical Free Church. It was an okay service, wasn't anything spectacular. It was interesting going to another church for service though. Was talking to my sister when we were in there and we were like, only thing bad about being in such a small church (it's pretty small), is new people stick out like a sore thumb. And yes we did. So at the end, the Pastor specifically made a point, "If anybody is new, could you please introduce yourself and your friends." And then he just stared at me. I knew the Pastor, because I go there for fellowship, so he saw me, and knew I hadn't been there. Man, I felt so awkward introducing my mother and sister, and myself. Anyways, it was a nice experience.

I went dim sum after, and we sat in this small room with three tables. And in the middle of our meal, some new people sat next to us. A litle while after, I glanced over, saw this girl sitting at the table. Then I thought, wait a minute, she looks like this girl that I went to high school with who, I would say we were pretty good friends. I didn't want to say anything, even though we remained good friends up until she went to University. Then it stopped. I don't know, should I of said anything, I really was not too sure whether it was her. and it'd be weird to say something if it was not her. Anyways, I didn't, maybe I should of, but too bad. Had I not been with my mom and sister, I might of said something. I don't know what stops me, but maybe it's embarassment.

Went to see Passion Play at the Queensway Cathedral tonight. Was not packed at all tonight, unlike the first time I went two years ago. But we did not pay last time, and we did this time. But the play was just as good I felt. I expected a lot of it, so it was not as "ohhhhh" anymore. But if anyways get's the chance to go see it, I'd take the opportunity to do so. It's a play re-enactment of the life of Jesus. They got real animals. pyrotechnics, fireworks. Man, when Satan appeared, they shot up these four fire bursts that blinded me. I had to close me eyes they were so bright, and I could feel the heat. AND I was sitting second last row. Check it out if you have a chance. If not this year, next.

Last two weeks at work have been good for me. I have been so busy, but that is exactly what I want. I don't know if that's healthy. Because I always need work to do, challenging work, otherwise I'll be bored. I was speaking to a friend who was saying the same thing about her boyfriend. She does not think it's too good to be working so hard, or to always enjoy more when working more. I don't know, I think I just need a challenge. If I don't find my work challenging, then why am I doing it? Who doesn't feel the same way? I don't know how people can work if they don't feel challenged. I think a lot of people view relationships this way too. But I don't wanna get into that right now. But basically I said it before, and it's like women go for the "rough" and "tough" guys cause they feel it's a challenge for them to "change" them. Anyways, I can always talk about that another time.

It's been too long since I last blogged. I have been so busy at work (and this affects this blog because I usually blog at work cause I had time). But these last few weeks have been so busy I had no time to do anything. The only good time is my time at work goes by faster.

So first thing. Restaurant Review:

Alto Basso - This is located in Little Italy. It's a two floor restaurant/bar with a dance floor in the basement. The service was decent, although while pouring water, they spilled the ice all over, and the apology did not feel sincere. But anyways, Food was good, I had the Coq Au Vin. This is a chicken breast filled with Spinach and Chevre, which I found out to be goat cheese. It was alright, wasn't spectacular. Presentation of the food I give props to, they look so nice. As for quality, I'd give it a 3/5. Overall rating: 3/5. It's good restaurant, and I would recommend it, just not highly recommended. The best part of the restaurant is the website, check it out.

Piper's Bar - Located in the lower level of the Royal York, this is a Bar, grill type thing. I went there Friday night to watch the Leaf game. This place was pretty good, I liked it. I think it was a good choice, because if we went to a regular bar, there would be nothing to do after the game finished, however at Piper's, they have live music. All the waiter's and waitresses sing, and they got this great pianist who also sings. Man, that was great entertainment. And there is a free pool table, so that's fun too. The food was great. I ordered the Canneoili w/o the Shrimp/Salmon. I decided against the seafood cause I did not really want it. Cost of that was $13. For an extra $2, you get the seafood, a great deal cause they gave you two big slabs of salmon and multiple shirmp, well worth the $2. the Canneoli is really good. We ordered many appetizers too, they were all good, the fries, chicken fingers, wings, nachos, all good. Rating: 4.0/5

The mysterious marks on my shoulders have come back. I don't think they are stretch marks. I've seen stretch marks and they are not consistent to what I remember. I think they are just impressions left from the squat machine. Sunday I went to work out and I concentrated just on my legs, and today they are killing me. I actually hardly ever just concentrate on my legs, rather just work them into my workout. But yesterday since I went Saturday too, I concentrated just on legs, now they hurt, which is good.

Oh, after going to the gym last night, I went to Dominion to buy some milk. They opened a brand new Dominion near my house so I wanted to see it. They have a factory to make donuts just like the Krispy Kreme donuts in store. the store was pretty nice. some highlights included the self-cut bread machine. Because many supermarkets have uncut bread. So this machine cuts them in slices, quite the experience. I also liked all the hot foods. BUT, the highlight of the day was the SELF-SERVE CHECKOUT!!! Man, this was a greta invention. Mind you I bought something very simple, milk, it has a barcode. When I got to the checkout, all the lines were so long (ones with a person). Kept on walking, then I saw the self serve. There was a free self-serve checkout. Man, took me so little time, it was so easy. I like it. You guys gotta try one.

There have been quite a few new contract people at my work. I'm not too fond of this one guy. I think he worked here before, so he has already learned the ropes. BUT, this guy is like so stiff. He's the kind of guy who when you walk by him, he looks away or stares into oblivion. No facial expression whatsoever. Now I take him as someone who talks to those who will help him, and who cares to those who don't. This guy sucks.

Alright, tired again now. So I'll write more when I have time.

Weird thing happened yesterday. I went to the gym a little earlier than usual yesterday. I used some machines I don't usually use, and I was working out my legs more than upper body. So I used this machine that has pads resting on my shoulder, and it's a crouch. So anyways, fast forward to when I went to shower at night. I looked in the mirror and I saw these three red lines on each of my shoulders. It was the weirdest thing. You know those peanut butter cookies that you use a fork to flatten them and get the lines on the cookie, that's what those lines looked like. the most awkward thing. I did not check this morning if they are still there. But it's odd how that happened. I am assuming it was that machine, but I don't know why. Nevertheless, it was a good machine, I think I'll continue using it, as long as those marks are not life threatening.

Last night's American Idol was good. But I was thinking throughout, when did Julia Demato become such good friends with Kimberly Caldwell? they were at each other's throats at the beginning. Anyways, Julia lost, and I'm not surprised. I don't know why everybody hates Simon. He tell's it like it is, and his opinion is usually exactly how I feel. Randy should be more objective since he's a producer. And when the host asked Paula whether she felt the right people were up there, she almost ignored him. That's because of course she feels some should be up there, and some should not be. But she didn't want to single some of them out. She should be more true.

I have been thinking of the economy a lot lately. The Canadian dollar has been going up the last while, which is good for us. That means our dollar is strong and exchange rates are lower. So it makes me wonder, okay, so CDN Gov't says they won't back US war. And now US dollar is going down, and CDN dollar going up, so was this a ploy by Chretien in not participating, and thus our dollar is strong because we're not involved. Something like that can certainly happen. But it's interesting to think about that. I mean if Chretien thought of this all along, I must say I am thinking it's a good idea. Sure it hurts relationship with US, but well Bush never liked Canada anyways. When he took office, he completely forgot about us, all he cared about was talking to the Fox (that's Vincente, Mexican President). Furthermore, do you think the CDN$ is going up because it's strong, or because the US$ is weak? I think investors feel that the CDN$ is strong, but still, one wonders whether it's the US$ going down that makes it strong. If that's the case, then we better start buying US$ now, before the war ends.

So then you may ask yourself, will the CDN$ take a tumble when the war ends, and the US$ may go up? I don't know, but maybe so? I guess that's how people make money, take risks based on their opinion and risk.

This week, my snooker and ping pong games have been on. I have not lost many times, and been beating everyone this week. It's a complete 360 from last week, when I kept on losing, couldn't hit any shots. Things have been good. It reminds me, when I had my first interview here, the guy who interviewed me, the former R&D manager, he brought me to game room, and said if I work here, my ping pong game will definately improve. He was right. But more snooker game has improved more. My ping pong game has improved, but not good enough, still very inconsistent.

Oh, I just looked, those marks on back of my shoulder are still there. Gotta find out what caused them.

Not much has really happened with me for a while. It's the same routine as always now. Last Friday I mentioned for Fellowship, we were going to gym day. Man, it wasn't embarassment, but I wasn't good at all, but that's okay, neither were many others. so it went smoothly. As for my meeting in McMaster on Saturday for CC, it went very well too. We ended on time, everything was discussed, got to see some people haven't seen in a while, and we got stuff accomplished. Things for CC have been going well. Go sign up now at the website now.

Going to the gym this year has been good for me. Not only can I work out and build up. But one of the main reason I go is because I usually do not have time to go. AND, I need to get out of the house, otherwise I'll be stuck at my computer or in front of the television. I have to start watching less tv.

the reason for this is because my eyes have got very bad for many years now. In fact, I wonder when I will get laser eye surgery, because they are that bad. I can't see anything without my glasses/contacts, except images. Anybody know anything about laser eye surgery?

Grad dinner for UTCCF is coming, as is elections. A couple surprises I found for those running for committee next year. I plan to go down to UTCCF for the first time since september this Friday. It's going to be so weird going down, but hopefully will not be too bad. As for Grad dinner, wow, I would have graduated this year had I not been working. Kinda makes me feel old. So this year many of those i started with will be graduating, how sad. Best of luck with you.

Which brings me to graduation in general. TCBC, I noticed a while back that we will have so many of us graduating next year. Yu-Ling, Tammy, Toby, Adrian, Myself, Bernie, Anna, among others. It's gonna be kinda weird, we're finished? Again, such oldies.
Yeah, this blog has no real content, but oh well, maybe if my life starts getting more interesting.

Today has been a hectic day man. I wake up, brush my teeth, and then I usually get back into bed to finish waking up. Then the phone rang, my sister answered it. she comes to my door, and tells me to go pick up my mom & dad cause the car broke down. So i drove my sister's car to work. But this kind of derailed my plans for the day.

It all satrted two nights ago, I went to school to look at the Design projects for this year. My point in going was to find flaws. Anyways, so I was talking to some guys also on PEY. And it so happens, they had chosen the same project we wanted for Design (we being my partner for design). But they had proposed another idea, but anyways, i told my partner that night we had to get a hold of MacLean. It was imperative to get this project. After leaving many messages, we finally got a hold of him, only for him to tell he he promised the project to another group, who he doesn't remember who anymore. So it could of been the group I talked to. Anyways, so that was about 6:15PM last night while I was driving downtown for more design projects. So my partner made a meeting with him for 10AM this morning, although I hate going down in the morning, and I would have to be late for work at least 3 hours. So on my way home last night, I went to my design-partner's place, and we chose some alternatives for design, to propose to him. I left late, so I did not get much sleep.

Fast Forward to this morning, so I went out to pick up my mom. Because I usually drive the van, probably don't want me to drive sister's car downtown, so I called my partner to tell him he had to go alone, I could not make it. Fast Forward now to about 12PM when I called my partner after the meeting.

So the meeting went well, he liked one of our proposed ideas. It's a Computer Vision idea dealing with determining in an image whether an image is a shadow or real object. So my partner was saying how the prof would like to write a paper on it, and then because we'd be doing part of it, we'd get credit for it as well. Sweet! Publications!

And then my partner told me he said if the project went well enough, he would think about taking us on as grad students. Another sweet deal! Man, this doesn't get any better. Sure I never even thought of doing grad school. And I didn't even think I'd ever get an opportunity, and I don't really want to. But possibly having this chance has brought a whole new perspective on this issue. I guess if a position were to be given to me, I might just take it. Depends if i have a job or not. But although I really don't think having a Masters right now will help me much, it might give me opportunity to meet people with higher connections to get a job. So I feel kind of excited again, even though I never really wanted to do a Master's. But given the opportunity, I'd have to give it some serious thought, because market is not good, no jobs, maybe I should stay in school? who knows right now, we'll see what happens.

Tonight at fellowship, we're joining the high school group for "Gym Day". I never really was good at gym. Never really talented in sports, although I did post the best average for Team Sanctuary last season in CCSA softball. But although generally saying, I am tall for a Chinese guy, I have not played basketball since grade 9. I can't even shoot a ball anymore. It's odd actually, I've lost all talent. I used to be an okay player, not bad, but after one of my friends went to another school, I stopped playing period. Don't know whatever happened to him. So tonight shall be interesting. Although I heard last week, this is a gym day, with no basketball. Weird huh, what gymnasium does not have a basketball net?

I even started playing volleyball again this summer on the beach. I guess my serve has been pretty good, although I can't do overhand, only underhand. Whatever. But other than that, i still can't play. Anyways, point of the matter is, tonight, it's gonna be pure embarassment in front of young teens. Oh well, I can't deal with it, i don't go to their church! Who cares, I don't know their name, and they don't know mine.

I was debating whether to buy the 8 Mile DVD. It was $19.99 at Futureshop early this week. Not anymore. But I went to see it in theatres, and it was really good. I really enjoyed the movie, and the battles, actually started listening to what they were saying. And the dvd comes with more battles. Surely, I'm not like to keen on the music still, but the movie was good, the "Lose Yourself" song by Eminem is good too. But I think I'll forgo buying it, but someone tell me how it is.

After going to the Design Fair, one thing I noticed is how many people don't know enough information about their project. Although i can understand some of them not knowing, but the one thing, the worst one i caught was this. There was a project there, the poster had some sheet with these numbers, three columns, one row. they all headings, but the numbers had no units. So what were those numbers? The headings did not say enough, they said what it's associated with, but not what it was. So I asked the group, they said they didn't know, the computer spit it out. I was like, oh, okay. I didn't want to make them look bad or something, cause one was a good friend, but it was like, that's dumb. And there were so many posters with graphs and such, but many times I found they did not say what the axis were measuring. So it's like an X-Y graph, but the X had no label, or it had a label, but no units. It was dumb really. Anyone out there, make sure you know units! Describe what you show, otherwise, people like me will find your problems. I know, I suck.
Yesterday going home I was so tired. After I left my design-partner's place, I filled up on gas. When I left the gas station, was going to make a left. I went straight to turn left, then I noticed something. There was an island in front of me, there was no left turns, one way only! Man, I was so tired I did not even notice it. Luckily I saw it with enough time to turn and avoid going straight into the island. Gotta be more careful.

That's update for now.

So today was listening to the radio, gving me the update on the news. they talked more about the war obviously, than this pneumonia-like disease going through China and now Toronto. So it got me thinking. How come nobody has even suggested these two events are linked?

Now it has long been predicted that the next World war will be a biological affair, not nuclear. So it got me thinking, is it so far fetched that Iraq had some biological weapon and they decided to start with China? Could they not of caused the water to be polluted and since it is in China, it looks like it's China's fault?

Think about this, i don't think it's so far fetched. I mean we've seen this kind of stuff in movies, where some evil maniac derives some biological weapon that destroys humans. they can pollute water and because everyone drinks water, these people are targeted. We've seen this stuff in Mission Impossible and James Bond all the time, moreso Mission Impossible.

I have been rather tired lately, and I don't see it getting any better. I've got such a busy week this week. I plan on going to the Design Project fair two days, then have Men's group one day. So I'll be downtown a lot this week. Then Friday have fellowship, which is always nice, but we usually do some stuff afterwards, which is also good, but then I get less sleep. And then Saturday I am going into Hamilton for a CC meeting, so a lot on my table, and I gotta do some research on my design project.

At the end of softball season last year I was approached and asked to coach a softball team the following year. The offer was rather interesting for me, it intrigued me. However, I also knew I could not say yes at the time, because i was not baptised. Still now I am not baptised, so when I was approached again, I really could not say anything, IN some way, I wanted to coach, but I knew I could not rush this baptism thing for the sake of softball. Now I say rush, but let's face it, here I am at this age, I am way passed rushing. But nevertheless, I don't know why I have not been baptised yet, something is holding me back. I know I want to in some point of time, but I then i'm not sure if this is the time. How do I know? Sometimes I feel like one must be somewhat equipped to be a baptised Christian, and I know I don't feel I am always equipped. Are there requirements one must fill to be baptised? Well, so now I am not coaching, I am not baptised, and really, I don't know whether I plan to this Easter, or Christmas, who knows? any thoughts?

I've been having some kinda scary dreams lately, I don't know what it is. Like I would end up waking up in the middle of the night because of them. Must be something psychological about it, because I don't knwo why, and let's hope they do not come true, cause it's not something I'd want to live. Weird thing is I hardly ever dream, and even less are they ever bad dreams, so that is why they have been rather unsettling lately. I don't want to get into these dreams, partly becuase I only remember one of them now, and it wasn't too good. Freaks me out just thinking about it. I should go read some books on dreams.

Baseball season is about to start, and I have broken the promise to myself to limit thenumber of fantasy teams I joined. I even went over the limit, creating a new Yahoo account so I can join one more league. So let's see how this goes, I have no idea right now. I am a fantasy-league addict, there should be groups for people like me. Anybody else got this addiction? We need to support each other. But the season is almost here, and I have one more draft, the ETCBC-draft. I won the football league few months back against them, that was fun, considering I did not follow football before joining the league. I won the championship, and now I need to prove it was no fluke, with baseball.

Today driving to work was amazing, no traffic whatsoever, got to work at about 9AM. Anyways, but the drive home last night was not fun. By far the most dangerous part of driving is changing lanes. Why do I say this? Because although you check whether there is anyone behind you in the lane beside you, but the hardest part is when someone two lanes over tries to change into the lane you want as well. That's what happened yesterday to me. I was changing lanes to my left, and this other guy two lanes over changed lanes to his right. After the car in the middle lane went by me, I cahnged lanes immediately, and I was already in the lane, when this dumb Volkswagon Jetta started merging into my lane. He nearly hit me right on the front, but luckily I was able to swirve to me right to avoid him. Man, this guy almost took me out, that's the last thing I need. And he didn't make any motion to say sorry, he just pretended nothing happened. I know he knew,cause I made sure I honked enough at him to make sure he knew, before, during, and after he was in my lane. And to put the cherry on top, I decided to high beam him, I had no pity for this guy, I don't care, he almost took me out. And he didn't even try to avoid me, he just kept on merging into my lane even though my car was half way past his car, the nerve. I should of kept my high beams on.

Okay, next thing. Picture this situation. Three people work in Mississauga but at different places. One of them lives in Mississauga, other two live in Markham. They all drive to work. So then, all three need to do something downtown at around 4PM, so they all leave work early. Now the logical thing is to carpool. Now they could all drive to downtown, but parking there is so expensive, that it would not seem logical. So a proposale is said to park Mississauga where it's free. Now recap:
- Person A lives in Mississauga
- Person B & C live in Markham
- Person A, B & C work in Mississauga
- All go to event downtown
- Proposal to park at a neutral place where parking is free, and all go down together
- This means they would all have to go back to Mississauga for everyone to pick up their cars to go home afterwards.
Who is the most logical person to drive down? Personally, I think person A should drive, because he lives in Mississauga, and it seems logical for him to drive because it would of been on his way home anyways. What do you think?

Gotta run now.

Happy Birthday Cal

Today I am so tired. Didn't get as much sleep last night and I am paying for it today. Anyways, so earlier this week Elysia had icq'ed me asking if I wanted to go to Waterloo to surprise Cal for his birthday. Since last time it took so much effort to get in there on time, I decided against it, but I didn't end up calling her. Well, I mentioned yesterday she called me and so she told me there were some heading in later, and so I said yes. So after work, I drove all way to Oakville to pick some people up and I drove into Waterloo. I don't remember what time we got in, but it was probably about 8:45-9PM.

Sometimes I wonder why I ended up going in, we go in so late, didn't stay very long, but it was a nice thing to do for him, hope he enjoyed it. So I thought about how much it costs to go into Waterloo and back out, and I think, man, it's pretty expensive. It was not like a short drive, and I think it costed me about $15-$18 gas to go in and come out. Not a cheap trip when I think about it.

If I had known earlier I was going into Waterloo, I would of kept some of the brochures and posters for Campus Challenge and brought them in with me, would of made some sense. But I didn't, I decided like Thursday late afternoon to go, and so, too bad I guess.

I saw some people I haven't seen in a while, which was very nice. Got to talk to them about how they are doing and stuff. One question I have been very careful from asking these days are directed to grads, and what they plan to do afterwards. For some reason, I always get this vibe that it's not a topic to talk about, yet I always ask. I think it's been a hard topic to talk about, cause we've been stuck in school for so long and now we think, what's left for us? where do we go from here? and what's a bigger problem is a lot of people I talk to are in engineering or tech. school background, so since market has still not gone up, jobs are at a premium, so it bring further question to the future. Five years ago probably most grads would be dumb not to have a job secured coming out of University. I don't know how I'll deal with it when that time comes for me.

So when we got into Waterloo, we went to East Side Mario's, where we were celebrating Cal's birthday. So I was very hungry, so I when the waitress came around to ask us if we were ready, I do my regular talk. Whenever I go eat for something, if I feel it's okay to take up their time, and I don't know what good, I always ask the waitress. I totally trust their judgement, cause if they work there, they will have tasted most things, and they will know what's good, even if they've had it tons of times. So this girl, she was so courteous, she decided to take a seat and explain all the pros/cons of the dishes. It was so elaborate I lost track. But I thought it was such a nice thing to do, taking so much time to explain the menu. But too bad for us, we got the waitress who was a vegetarian. I need meat! So here is what I ate and what I thought about it. She said this dish was one of the favourites. So anyways, she was so nice about it, I was impressed.

So I can't remember the name of this dish, but it was the first pasta on the menu, and it was a linguine with alfredo sauce with tomatoes and chicken in it. So here's the deal, hardly ever do you find tomatoes and alfredo together. Because tomatoes have their sauce, and alfredo is a white sauce, totally non-tomato. So it sounded intriguing. I would say the pasta was good, but I thiunk the tomotoes are too much. the tomatoes never really mixed well with the alfredo sauce and everytime I ate a tomato, it had this awkward taste to go with it. So I'd give this a 7/10. The ceasar salad was good though, however the bacon bits were not broken up, so that was one downfall, still worth it.

Weird thing, we went back to Cal's, and I talked to one of the guys there. He lives in east-end Scarborough. And he asked me, "Are there any East Side Mario's in Toronto?" where have you been? There are tons in Toronto!

Oh, I didn't really want to drive into Waterloo, but I decided to anyways. It wasn't so bad, and I didn't think it would be either. But one reason I don't like to drive, is becuase I don't consider myselfa great driver, sometimes I drift into other lanes slightly, not extreme that it'll cause accidents, but I think one arm pulls the wheel stronger than the other arm, so it drifts once in a while. But I am not a fan of driving to Waterloo, or outside of GTA. I found the roads for driving extremely hard, because there are no lights for me to see the road, it's like I have to guess beyond 100m. I like the lights of Toronto so that you know what to expect. Anyways, I'm all against the no lights roads, so dangerous. Oh, and I tend to look a little nervous when I am driving in unknown territory. I like to consider myself good with directions, and I remember roads very easily. But when I don't know then well, it's harder. So when I dirve to work, I've done it so many times I can drive with hands at 6, but into Waterloo, I can't see roads clearly, and don't know exactly where I am going, so I had my hands at 10-3. Had to be careful. Not very relaxed. I don't like driving.

Oh, got something more to write about, but I think it deserves a blog of itself, so next one, "Sense of Direction"

Interesting thing happened today. Actually, about an hour ago. So I received a phone call on my call phone. I picked it up, someone asked for me, and I hear this girl say, "this is Lisa". So I was like "oh hi Lisa". But if you don't get where I'm going by now, I had absolutely no idea who this was. I don't know any Lisa, and I cannot recognize this voice. See, I went cheap, no caller id on my phone, so I rely on voice recognition (which usually works) and people identifying themselves. So anyways, we started talking, and I still had no idea who this was. Finally this person made a statement that finally trigered who I was talking to. It was no "Lisa", but "Elysia", silly me. Man, that was a hard one to figure out. Funny thing is I don't think she knew I had no idea who she was at all. =) But I decided to tell her, it did not harm, just something to laugh about.

Yesterday nights drive home was amazing, it was the smoothest drive I've ever had driving home ever, even including weekends. Every road was free of cars and smooth sailing. I don't know what happened. Opposed to this morning where I was going average of 30-40kph all the way to work. Anyways, I can't figure out why all the higways were so clear last night. I figure people stayed late at work thinking they'll avoid most of the traffic if they stay later. Keep on doing that, I could use more drives like that home, took me about 35 mins to get home, one of fastest times, and I hardly broke spead limit, almost 100-110 max all way home.

So I've been telling you about my work. The R&D Manager who hired me retired in December and his office has been vacant ever since. So after the restructuring/layoffs, it was revealed my Team Leader was no longer my team Leader, he was being assigned to another group, and my new I would have a new Team Leader. Anyways, this week, my new Team Leader moved into the vacated office of the recently retired R&D Manager. Meanwhile, my old team Leader just happened to be on vacation this week. Interesting how that worked out. anyways, my point is I was so surprised, cause it seemed my past Team Leader was slightly above this new team Leader, and now he jumped over him and looks like he got a promotion. Meanwhile, my past Team Leader, it looks like he got a demotion, cause he's got no team, and another person is above him now. Anyways, if I were him, I'd be searching for a new job, there is obviously no room for him to move in this organization. Heck, for all I know, my past Team Leader took this week off for interviews or something, who knows?

Since my new team leader took this office now, it feel he is even more distant to talk to. Which got me thinking, if I ever got some promotion or someting, or was given a room, I'd wonder whether I'd want to take it. Because, being away from the people who report directly to you, it gives this sense of distance of seems like your superior. And then you cannot relate to them anymore, because of this barrier. I'd want to be close to those around me, especially those working with me, or under me. Too much distance is not good.

I think I gotta start discovering myself now. I've been working now for about 8 months now, and I have come to a conclusion that I am not a great programmer. I still don't dread it, but I know I am not great at it, and there are probably tons of people out there who are better at programming than I. So what am I good at? do you have any suggestions. I guess I think about this because next year around this time I will of almost graduated, and move on in my life, what am I good at?

I've got one more thing to talk about, but I'd like to think about it more before I write about it, it's about softball this summer, lemme think about it.

I should of stayed home today, due to the weather, my commute today took in total a little more than 1 and half hours. That was actually not bad, considering I heard of guys coming from Yonge and Sheppard who took an hour and half as well, suckers!

Anyways, I am not looking forward to the drive home at all, thinking I might take city home, until 427 or something, not sure. I am really tired today, fighting off the urge to fall asleep at my desk. have to constantly do something besides read this User Requirement Document I was given, something like eat, drink, play. Only thing that keeps me awake is looking at my fantasy pool. Which reminds me, we need three more teams for my baseball pool to make a full league, someone please join! e-mail me if your interested. or make a comment below.

I watched American Idol last night, that show is so good. So last night was the wild card show, where some past contestants who did not make it before got invited back for one last chance. I don't understand why they invited all these people who did not even make the final 32. If you didn't choose them then, why now? Anyways, this Clay Aikens guy is really growing on me, I like him, I hope he get's far. Along with Reuben, that big guy is so great. Those two are like polar opposites, one is this huge black guy, other is this tiny white guy. There are some American Idols for you.

You know, I've been thinking of names lately, and how when we meet somebody and find out their name, you think, yeah, that name suits them. This thing about suitable names according to how they look. Like "oh, that person looks like an Andrew", or "that girl looks like a Lisa". I wonder how this process works. Is it just in our minds or something, or is there really a suitable name for each person. Then there are some people who you find that they don't look like the person for that name. Like at the gym I go to, there is this guy who works there everytime I go, so after going there for two months, Monday night I leave, and I say, I don't know your name. His name is Wally, but he totally does not look like a Wally, he looks more like Jeff. So how does one come to this conclusion? It's kind of weird to describe, like someone actually looks like a name. Of course I didn't tell him, his name is short for Wallace, totally doesn't suit him. But then he doesn't look like a Jeffrey, just Jeff. I wonder if I look like a Jonathan? What about John?

Last two weeks at work I've been feeling deprived, A few weeks back, they cut the satellite dish. We got four channels, two french, one London base news channel, and some useless channel from the satellite now. So someone brought in antennas but the quality of picture is not so great, but it suffices for now. But I feel so deprived without the satellite dish man, used to get CNN, Newsnet, anything, now, can't even get a decent feed on the local news. Man, I was so spoiled with that dish, just don't tell me the pool table and ping pong table are gone tomorrow, I'lldie with boredom. Those things keep me interested the whole day. I hate to say that, but it's true.

So the weekend just passed, and I didn't do much, just about how I like it these days. I enjoy staying home Saturday, watching tons of tv and not getting much done.

I had been craving a Harvey's Western breakfast sandwich all last week so after Iw ent to the gym Saturday morning, I picked one up for myself, so good. Then I started the tv mania. I finished up a bunch of shows I taped last week, and then I had nothing to do. so I decided I'd start the Chinese series I wanted to watch, but didn't have a chance before. I almost finished one tape for the weekend.

By far the best thing I did this weekend was the baseball draft. I joined one of the public baseball pools, did the draft, and I really like my team, although becuase it's h2h, I'm not so sure I am gonna win, gotta fill some overlooked categories first via trades. By the way, if anybody would like to join my baseball pool I created, send me an e-mail.

And today, I am feeling so sore. Why you ask. After church, Shu-Ling and I started folding the CC brochures. In total, we folded 549 brochures. But we got some acquired help from the little kids in the church, child labour. Anyways, since I did not drive, I had to get to Union station from church. I had no change for tokens, nor any tokens, so I decided, I had some time, I'll walk down. So I carried the box full of brochures, 1500 in all. I carried the whole box from TCBC down to Union station. And if you don't know where TCBC is, just picture Spadina and Queen walking down to Bay and Front. Needless to say, I thought my forearms would be aching, but no, it's my biceps that are killing me. I haven't been in so much pain since I went back to the gym.

Funny thing happened last week. I went out to dinner with a friend from school. We talked at the restaurant for so long, it was so nice. So when we left, I said bye, she went to her car, I went to mine. When I was at my car, I looked over, she was still standing outside, what was wrong. Anyways, I thought she may of needed to get something before getting in. So I started my car, got in, while still making sure she was alright. Then she did something odd, she went to the trunk (she drives a honda Civic hatchback) and popped the trunk. Of course, I think most people would assume she was getting something from the trunk. I kept on staring, I was at another part of the parking lot, not next to her. Then the oddest thing happened, she got into her trunk. Then she closed the back and started crawling to the front of the car. So at this time, I decided to call her, to make sure things are okay. It ended up she told me her locks were frozen, on passenger and driver side. And only her trunk would open, so she got in via the trunk. So funny, I kick myself for not having a camera and taking a picture of it, that would of been something to remember. Now I would of helped had I known that was the problem, but I didn't, any natural person would assume she was getting something from her trunk.

Recently I have been dreaming of getting a 19" LCD monitor for the new computer I shall buy in a couple months. But they are so expensive. If anybody has any hookups or deals, let me know asap, I am willing to spend to buy it.

Man, today playing snooker at lunch as so good. Won both games I played easily. Everything was going in today, my aim was far superior today. But always at the end I scratch a few times, gotta work on that, then victory will be sweeter. I gotta improve my ping pong game too, it's not getting much better. My shots are still very wild.

That's it for now, hope everyone's week is good. Later on this week I will blog again, not sure about what yet, usually takes it as it comes.

So I have been talking about this friendship thing lately with some people, I don't think they read my blog before we talked, which is good, unbiased opinion.

So one guy, I don't talk to him much, but he goes to my church, he messaged me one night. So I was saying something about this working has caused an rift in friendships (in general) even moreso than the past few years. We have become detached because we're all so busy, doing our own thing. I was saying over my years I have met a lot of people, and for a short period of time (short is all relative of course), we were good friends, then all of a sudden, everything is off.

So he was saying to me how he wishes he was more like me, in that you can meet more people, because he believes even a short friendship is better. So then I said to him, well, nothing happened at the end, so in essence, there was not much gain. But the thing is it was a lost opportunity. How? Because maybe if one thing were different, we could of been real good friends. And that is a lost opportunity, because what could of been more, ended up being nothing.

so he countered by saying how it's God's revelation. If God wants us to be real good friends with someone, then it'll happen. And in some ways that is true. But then i said, well, although God provides us the opportunity to meet people, and start a possible friendship, how can we say the end result is what God wanted. I mean he provided us with this opportunity, but if we don't cherish this friendship, then how will it grow? He gave us many opportunities, but everytime, do we turn the other cheek, or do we embrace the sitaution?

I don't really know, but I think a lot of times, we probably turn the other cheek. I know for me, I am kind of sad that although I meet all these people, a lot of times they don't turn out to last long, which is a shame.

Which brings me to another question, has our fast paced lives rules over the pace of friendship. I would think friendship takes time, a good one i mean, and is it because in the Western world, everything has to be fast, comes at once (ex: internet, coffee, service), that we just don't wait for a friendship to develop? It's an interesting thought actually, are we just impatient to see what happens? Or do we not work enough to make things happen? Or is how things turn out just not dependant on much besides how it was supposed to be?

So I'm gonna talk about something that has been talked about a lot lately, and I myself have talked about as well, Friendships.

These days, I kinda feel lonely, I don't find I have very close friends, and at times, I worry. But before I talk more about that, I want to talk about Friends in general.

Now I few questions you may want to ask yourself is do you have a close group of friends? In your group, do you have any close non-Christian friends? Lately, I have been hearing more and more of people losing their friendships with non-Christians but building stronger friendships with Christians. Although it is good to have close Christian friends, I also feel it's a danger to lose the non-Christian friends. Now why, I have a few points:

1. The danger of losing non-Christians as friends is that they end up viewing Christians as anti-social to anyone who is not non-Christians, essentially discriminating against them because they are not Christians. If you look at it in their eyes, what happens is one day you were friends, and next, you dumped them for a Christian group of friends. Now what happens is it kind of looks like, and in a way is true, that you don't feel you have anything in common with non-Christians. Or even worse, is that you think your better than non-Christians, that they just can't relate to you.
2. How can you be a Christian without associating with non-believers? God asks us to spread his word, to teach non-believers about Him. Now how can you do this if you are not friends. Outreach does not work if you don't reach a certain level with them first. And what's worse, if they know you do not associate with non-believers as friends, then why are you talking to them, to meet a quota or something?
3. As time goes by, and you continue to ONLY associate with Christians, you become more anti-social, because there are bound to be more non-Christians out there. You no longer have any commond ground with them. You may even (and I dare say) give off the impression like your superior, which is totally not the right message you want to send.

The reason I wanted to "rant" about this is because I see a lot of my friends, and myself as well, falling into this trap. Not associating as much with my non-Christian friends, and associating more with Christians. I feel bad about it, but then I on another level, I feel I'm being distanced from all people in general.

Another reason why I bring this up is I also see some people, when one day you find yourself being stuck between two separate plans, some of them automatically choose the "Christian people" plan, as oppsed to the other. Now of course, sometimes it's coincidence, but often times I hear it's more because "I feel I can talk more with the Christians, and I can't even talk to the non-Christians anymore", so then they don't even consider the plans not including Christian majority.

It is this frame of mind that I want to get away from, and I think others should as well, because maybe the reason you can't talk too long with them is because you don't try, or you dont' get the chance to enough. maybe your not opening yourself up as much as oppsed to if your in a group of Christians. Do you think that non-Christians "just don't understand?", like that's totally dumb to think. Maybe you don't give them a chance to understand you because when you are asked "What have you been up to lately", you'd rather say "nothing but school", rather than the truth, which is maybe "hanging out a lot with the people I met at CCF". sure, this notion may not be hard to accept, but it's the truth, and perhaps, they may like to know what you do, and what's wrong with that?

Another reason that you may not want to distance yourself from a group of friends because of another group, is because it starts looking like your dumping them, your better, or the other group is better. Although this is all probability, and it's them thinking, yu do not help by distancing yourself. what I mean is say you were originally friends with a group of non-Christians. And suddenly, you start hanging out a lot more with Christians. And suddenly, you devote all your time to them, and none to the original group. It starts looking cult-ish, that you completely seperate yourself from the original group, and becuase you associate with one that has a common religion, it's possibility of being looked that way.

Now of course you don't do things because of others, but yourself primarily. But you have to also view what your priorities are. Now if you put Christian friends over non-Christians friends, then that's not so cool. It gives off this notion that Christians have this superiority complex. I mean they are all people. I see them more of on the same level, just friends. I don't know if any of the things I say has validity, or is right, but it's just ranting, something on my mind, I did not get to sort it all out.

About my problem, I can't seem to get close friends. High school was never easy, I fast tracked, so never really got to know those in my grade, and didn't have enough time to build friendships with those in grade above. came out with one/two good friends only. University, had close friends at beginning, but as years went by, saw less of them because we all had less time, all had less time together in terms of classes, and now, not even in school, or hard to all get together. CCF, was close for a while, and now since I am working, I do not go anymore, and it's become all the same thing. Church, was close with them for quite a while, but now we all go to seperate Universities, we see a lot less of each other. So this proves what Rev Nolan said in his sermon last Sunday, you cannot rely on a common-link to make friendships last. And those common links for me (school/fellowship/church) is not holding very well. It kind of scares me sometimes. But sometimes, I can't do anything. Sometimes I try to reach out to some, and they end up walking backwards. What is there to do?

I read this article that was rather disturbing today. So Great Britain has decided that they would endorse this course about sexual eduation. Now it's the content that they approved is what disturbs me. So it is said that Great Britain has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in Western Europe. So in order to amend this rate, or try and fix it, they have decided to promote alternatives to sex, in particular, oral sex. They plan encourage children under 16 in using oral sex instead of full sexual intercourse.

Britain is said to have on average 39,000 girls under 18 getting pregnant each year. This is an astounding rate in my mind. It makes me think how come this rate is so alarming? Is it the kids over there have nothing better to do? when I read this article, I was like, "What in the world are they teaching in school these days?"

So if you promote oral sex, that will just lead to sexual intercourse anyways. Because if they have gone that far, the next mile is just that much closer. I mean in schools, they are promoting sex, by giving out condoms and oral contraceptives. Sure, those are products designed to prevent pregnancy, but it is still promoting sex. It's outrageous the things that are going on.

But then in the other hand, now that the children in Britain are already having sex, and this rate will grow if they don't do something, what can they do? You can't force people not to have sex. It's not like to can ban underage children from having sex. They can't charge more heavy taxes on underage parents, or anything like that, since if they already have the child, their life is probably hard enough without the extra taxes and stuff.

So I think it's good that the country is trying to lower this rate, which they hope to halve by 2010, but it's not exactly the best way to go at it, but then what else is there? The more you tell them no, the more they go against you. You can't force them to do things they don't want to. It's a personal choice, and they have to make their own decisions. You could always lock them up in your basement for a quarter of their life, but how often does that work out well either?

If children want to have sex, then there really isn't much the government can do about it. They can say they're against it, but talking is nothing, it has no affect. But as someone who is not sol old (*gasp*), I find young teens like to go against authority. The more you try and stop them, the more they will go ahead and do it. No matter what it is. I think it's the aspect of seeing how much you can get away with offenses. Only, the results of sex to an underage child is much more than they can handle (probably).

I think the reason so many teens have sex these days because the act is viewed as such a "good" thing. Media makes it look so nice, and everyone wants to experience how it feels. They want to experiment. And television shows it as something that is okay when your young, don't have to wait until getting married, this is not the 19th century, sex is okay, is what television says.

So like I said, I think it's good Britain is taking steps in trying to minimize the underage pregnancy rate, although not the best way, in reality, what other way is there?

So I finally fixed my blog, for some reason it has converted a whole bunch of the code into jargon. Most of the tables and the attributes that went along with them were all screwed up and had this <img> tag in between them, which did nothing. So finally got it fixed to how it's supposed to look, so shouldn't look much different from how it looked before.

Today is another session of our Men's group, I expect people there this time as opposed to weeks previous. I'm leading today, a bigger group, and I'm kind of worried. I wanted to talk about adjustment to school. Our group is primarily first year, and what I wanted to talk about is the changes they have gone through. And also, the things we expected to happen going into the next step and how reality has changed. So the purpose of all this is to realizing the changes, adjusting to them, and organizing your life accordingly.

I think going into University you have a lot of expectations. You think it's a girl-haven, it might be easy breezy for work part, you have tons of time. Yet, so many expectations we have are not true. One of the biggest thing one can learn in University is Time Management, and I think that is the one thing the first year's in our group have a problem with. I know this because hardly anyone after coming a few times at beginnning can commit anymore to coming to our Men's group regularly, because they have to catch up on their work. It's an expendable event in their books. So I hope to work on that.

Tomorrow, at fellowship, I will be leading the Bible Study. It scares my in a way, because I have never led Bible study before in my life. I don't know how I got away from it, but I managed to do so. So we have been studying this book on Spiritual gifts, and so I kind of forgot about it for a while until yesterday so I decided to read the passage last night. I read about three versions of it (NIV, NLT, and NASB), and I noticed how many more footnotes there were for the NASB version. I went to google, and searched in the newsgroup for discussion about this passage, and I found a breadth of information, more than I wanted, cause each one was like ten pages. So pray for that, cause I have no idea how that will go. We're reading Acts 1:1-13 and Acts 2:1-11.

I was talking to one of the testers the last couple of days. He is relatively new to the company and he is from China. So I have been askig questions to get to know him. So I was asking him about the work over in China, and one of the things I asked was the pay. He told me that they pay is relatively the same as it is here. He worked for Motorola, and because it's a foreign company, the pay is almost the same is as it here. I was rather surprised with this because the standard of living there is so much lower. So you'd come out with a greater net income. It kind of brings new thought into my hope that one day I can go back and work there for a period of time. But I know I wouldn't want to live there indefinately, the Western World just has too many good things.

Watched American Idol last night and the night before. There was a poll for the viewers asking which of the judges do you most agree with in their analysis. And the winner was Simon Cowell, the one whos is rude. However, even though he is rude, he is usually right on the dot, he tells it as it is, and no matter what, it's usually right. Paula on the other hand I find is always the one wrong if there ever was one wrong. She is too nice, and can't just say, you suck.

I don't know what happened this weekend, but my Ping Pong game got much better over the weekend. It was like a miracle, it just happened. However, it is still inconsistent, as I have yet to win a game. But my shots are much harder to return, although still doable. Gotta keep on practicing.

Watching Smallville this week, I keep on wondering what's going to happen. So many more people know of Clark's power now. Lionel Luther must know, cause he's not blind! So he must of seen Clark with his powers when he and Martha were captured. Additionally, the pretty doctor who is going out with Lex must know a lot now, cause she got some of his blood. And the fact everytime Lex is in her office, I get scared he's gonna find out. And what was with that ship last episode. How can it go into flight in the air, lights and everything, and nobody see it? That is so unreal, this is a hospital, people are always walking in and out! And how come nobody questioned that strike of energy that sweeped through the hospital? It's obvious everyone felt it, cause they were blown away from the energy. And how come it only healed Martha, how does the ship know to ONLY heal Martha, and nobody else. I think it would've healed everyone in the hospital, which would be a miracle. So many questions and possibilities. And I can't believe Clark called out Lana's name after Chloe poured her heart out to him while he was unconscious/sleeping/whatever. "She is the girl of his dreams and he does know know it." Sure, they are both pretty, but come'on, choose one already.

So I was talking about movies. What is with movies these days, always geared towards the woman-dominance. With movies like "How to Lose a guy in 10 Days", or "What a girl wants" (coming in March or something), or ones like "First Wives Club" and "What Women want". Everything these days are like movies for women on how to dominate over men.

I'm not liking this at all, or about how to please women. What about MEN! Doesn't anybody care about the other sex here? why aren't there movies like "What men want", "how to please a man", "How to lose a girl in 5 days"? There is seriously some conspiracy against men.

And another thing about movies, they all seem the same now. Especially those lovey-dovey movies. They are always about some out-of-luck girl who one days meets this wonderful man how is all rich and everything, and they all in love. "Pretty Women", "Maid in Manhattan", there are several movies like that out there. That puts so much pressure on men, like they HAVE TO be rich to get a girl. Like seriously, why not have some out-of-luck man catching a break with some rich girl and they fall in love? The only movie I know of that has that story line is "Notting Hill" (Julia Roberts have done several of the previously-talked about genre). It's always about the women. What, is it not realistic for some guy to find a rich women and they fall in love?

I think we need to realize the change in the times. Men matter too!