Well, it's been a while. So many rants, so much stuff happened. Here's the quick rundown.
Friday:
Saw "The Day After Tomorrow" in theatres. Good movie. Some cheesy plotholes, but allround goodness. Go watch it. Family friendly, excellent. Except for the cheesy romance, right Trenchcoat??
Saturday:
GREAT day at Canada's Wonderland. Was there from 10-10 with Trenchcoat, SmarterOne and M. We went on Drop Zone at around 950 at night, and got an AWESOME view of Toronto at night. Absolutely incredible. And then the plunge down to the earth was fantastic as well. Seriously, you all have to do that. It's a fantastic experience.
The rest of the day was fantastic too. Great people to hang out with, and a just all-round fun day.
Sunday:
Baptism and fun pool party, then "Miracle". Good all around.
Monday:
We WON our baseball game 12-11. YAHOO! Finally! Super-excited.
I'm in Toronto tomorrow for work (and yes, I feel all important :P). Should be lots of fun. I'm doing this major contract negotiation between TD and Adobe, and it's preeeetty cool and fun.
And yes, I have LOTS of thoughts on the Federal Election...but I have to go to bed early tonight...so you'll hear those tomorrow. Waking up at 5 am - BAD.
Sorry this is a little boring. I'll get more later when I have more time.
Here's why you should always treat fast-food employees with respect.
Yesterday, I went to McD's after my baseball game, and wanted the cheap burger. I thought it was the McChicken, but that's Wednesday. For some reason, I thought Tuesday was Wednesday, so when we gave the guy my order, and he quoted a really expensive, normal McChicken price...my dad and I both told him to recheck.
Needless to say, he informed us of the day of the week...and yeah. Wasn't really so great. I felt a little stupid, to put it lightly.
Be nice to everyone else. You never know when it'll come in handy.
Glad to make everyone laugh last time.
Not really a whole lot going on right now. Lost our first 2 baseball games, but hey, they were close.
Yeah. And I would rant on the Canadian election, but I'm too tired to do that now. I'll have lots of time later on. Whatever.
And Go Lightning Go. I don't like the Flames.
I've had several people asking for this story, so I'll post it.
Tuesday night, I went for a walk with a couple friends in Springbank Park. It was a nice warm night, foggy, dark, etc., and so along we strolled, merrily chatting away.
As a side note, one of my friends was wearing a BUTTONLESS leather trench coat. I stress "buttonless" because he did - apparently the lack of buttons makes it cool.
Back to the story. We walked down from the parking lot on Springbank, to the place that used to be Wonderland Gardens. There, we saw a security guard sitting in his car. Friend B (not trench coat friend) said we should turn around. Trenchcoat and I thought it was a good idea, and so turn around we did - heading back into the dark park. The security guard did not acknowledge us.
Now, if you know Springbank, you know there is a bridge that goes across from the park side to the countryclub/Riverside Drive side midway between Wonderland Gardens and the parking lot. So, Trenchcoat, Friend B and myself were walking along, nearing the bridge (although not intending to cross) and all of a sudden headlights appeared behind us. On the walking path. That was exactly 1 car length wide.
Now, we all assumed it was the security guard, apparently coming to kick us out, or something like that. Now remember, we were 3 guys, walking along, just out for a stroll and a chat - no drugs, sex, etc., etc., etc. In other words, we were doing nothing wrong. So, seeing the headlights behind us, approaching quick, and seeing the bridge nearby, we did what any self-respecting, innocent, university-age male would do.
Run like crazy.
Across the bridge we sprinted, Trenchcoat and myself in the lead (Friend B is a little slower - and more rational, but we were ALL running). So across into the country club we get, and we look back. The car shuts off the lights. RIGHT at the bridge.
So, we keep going. Still running. Eventually, we get far enough away, and slow down. And then start walking to Riverside, planning to walk all the way around. Needless to say, we keep discussing how stupid we were, and shouldn't have ran, etc., etc. But we did, and we won't next time...blah, blah, blah.
We finally get to Riverside. By this point, we realize it's going to take over an hour to walk all the way around (back to Wonderland, across the river, back to the car), so, figuring the car has moved on, we head back to the bridge.
We were right. The car had moved on, fortunately.
About 20 steps from the bridge, Friend B yells, "Holy Crap, He's BEHIND US!"
Sure enough, all-too-familiar headlights were coming down the drive behind us. So again, we did what any self-respecting, innocent, university-age male would do.
Run like crazier.
Sprinting back across the bridge, we hushed eachother down, and watched as he shut off his lights again. We ran a little farther until we were tired, and realized he wasn't coming. About 10 minutes later, we got back to the vehicles, and high-tailed it out of there.
Moral of the story:
If you are going to be running from security guard cars.....make sure you're in shape.
See, I told you all. When I post on something serious - 3 responses. When I post on nothingness - 8-10. I don't get it. You're all weird.
Don't have much to say tonight, except that I seem to be finally locked into my 6 hours of sleep. I went to bed at 12:30 am last night (early for me) and woke up precisely at 630....when I planned to get up at 7. Normally, I'm sleeping from 1-7. Who knows? It's strange.
And the annoyance with the massive reformatting of the Word Document continues. I'm at something like 180 pages now, of 715. It'll take a while.
Baseball practice tomorrow, worship on Thursday. The week continues....I don't like Tuesday. Not quite the middle of the week yet. Aw well. Weekend is coming soon...and it's a Loooooong one! Yaay for long weekends!!
First of all, I want to apologize if my last post sounded bitter. I was stunned, shocked, and confused. With some time to think about it, I want to clarify.
I am 100% behind the leadership of our church on the church shutting down. Does this mean I am happy? Not at all. As a matter of fact, I am upset, sad and hurt.
I've attended the same church since inception for over 14 years. I know no other church. I've been there for more than 700 Sundays, and countless other days (the thought is mind boggling). With the exception of home, I've probably spent more time at that church than any other place (although Western may have now passed that). It is like a second home.
And it's not just the building, or the concept or the idea. It's the people. I love you all so much. Many of you I've known for all of those 14 years, and it's been a joy and a pleasure to be able to get to know you all so well.
Our youth group has to be one of the tighest, most cohesive youth groups I've ever seen or heard of. The size definetely helped, but it is true that our group was and IS very close. I don't think that has to change. It is true, we will not be seeing eachother 2 or 3 times every week anymore. But I for one plan to make an effort to continue to see everyone, and I hope everyone else will plan on making the same effort. There are some fantastic friendships in that group, and I plan to ensure that I continue in those friendships that have been so well founded and established. In short, I'm not going anywhere.
Worship team is an entirely different matter as well. I'd like to personally and publicly thank each of the members of the worship team for everything that you have meant to me. It has been an honour, a joy and a privilege to be able to play and worship with people such as yourselves (you all know who you are). I will truly miss that, but I know that we will all bless other churches, wherever we end up with the skills that were developed at FCCC.
It's difficult, however, to think about that right now. What will I do without hearing how I've "lost my bonus" yet again? What will it be like not to be able to bound into a church and be able to engage in deep meaningful conversation with so many different people - crossing gender, age and race lines? What will it be like not to be able to engage in the umpteenth end-of-church hockey game? What will it be like not to see Noah Hawkins jumping up and down on stage banging away on his toy guitar?
I don't know.
It was said it was like a funeral. It is worse. It is like a funeral, except the person is still alive, and they're somewhere out there, but you don't know, and you don't know when/if you will ever see them again. Mentors, friends, brothers, sisters, pastors, elders, disciples. It's all ending. But it's God's will. And I, as I articulated on Sunday, plan to follow the leaders on this one. We all pledged several years ago that we would respect, honour, and follow the leadership of the church, as they directed us by God. And I, for one, plan to honour that, and I encourage you all to as well.
This does not, however, mean that this is not a sad time. It is. And it will be. Things will change. That cannot be denied.
Thank you to everyone who has helped to make my 14 years at FCCC such great ones. And let's remember 1 key thing. Jeremiah 29:11.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope, and a future."
Well, I guess that's it. Huh. It's over.
My church is shutting down.
Well, the summer rolls on. Summer blockbusters out in full force, warmer weather, coaching baseball...ahhh the joys.
Again, I post now out of the need to fill time, here at 12:35am on Sunday waiting for my laundry to finish so I can sleep. But whatever.
Grades are back in, and I survived. No bridge-jumping for Joel, fortunately. It's tough to tell, but I seemed to smack down right in the middle. I did my best, and it came out okay. And I am content with that.
Tonight was an enjoyable evening (nothing like being kicked out of your own house). 2 movies in one night are always fun, and the company was most enjoyable. Brothers and sisters all mixed up always make for lots of laughs, sarcasm, jokes and strange, strange discussions. Often happens when you have strange people, I suppose.
Completely unrelated note again. Ben Stiller is an awful actor. He's the straight man who isn't funny (Seinfeld was the straight man, but he WAS funny). Apparently some of his older stuff is golden. I'm not sure I care to find out. And Minority Report was dreadfully boring. Don't watch that.
There's my movie advice for the day.
Well, the laundry is finished, and I'm tired. Time for sleep...
Well here I go again. I seem to get more comments when I talk about nothing. Almost like as if I just blogged and said "talk amongst yourselves". So do that.
Anyways, I went to the annual HighDay Spring Celebration tonight, and recognized almost noone. It was weird, boring and sad. But oh well. Such is life - should have known that all my friends wouldn't be there - I hardly know any of the families anymore.
I don't have much to say tonight, except for the fact you won't be hearing from me from work. Apparently, it's against TD policy for employees to use computer workstations to post things on the net. Good thing they didn't check me last year when I didn't know that. Beliefnet and WP Youth were FULL of Rukh's posts from there...hahaha
Well, I get upstairs in my room tonight, with the fan on and window open so that I remain cool....and I smell the lovely odor of skunk. My entire room stank of skunk (I'm thinking that my house was sprayed or something. Which is why I am down here blogging while I hope it airs out quickly.
My last post caused great response, although not for anything profound I said. Apparently, I'm only profound when I don't intend to, and not profound when I intend to. Funny how that works.
I don't really have much to say, but I'm trying the old "blog for the sake of blogging" or "journal for the sake of journalling". It's probably good for me, I think. I hope. Either that, or I'm wasting alot of time.
What is the allure of Messenger?
I'll admit, I'm a bit of a MSN freak. During the school year, I'm on all the time. If I'm not online, I'm probably either on the bus, out with friends, or sleeping. (Note, you can call my cell phone to contact me for either of the first two, but when I'm only getting 6 hours of sleep a night anyways, I don't really wanna hear from you).
That said, I've been "offline" for the better part of 2 weeks now, and last night had my first MSN conversations in quite some time. Now, eating lunch at work, I've been trying to determine what is it that makes MSN so popular.
Is it the speed? Well, it's the same speed as a phone call, but free.
Is it the convienience? Free, but it takes longer - you have to type it out, and the other person has to be there. Cell phones still seem to be a better method.
Is it the impersonality of MSN? I think so. You can chat with someone, and everything's cool. No tone of voice to evaluate, no facial expressions. You never know if the person is silently hating your guts while you talk, or falling in love with you (unless of course, they're telling you how they are feeling).
That seems to be the biggest drawing card, I believe. People like to be able to chat, without always having to delve into the deep emotional, personal connections that might come from face-to-face communication. After all, if I have something really important to say, I'll use the phone.
OR, is the whole MSN craze just part of a seemingly unquenchable need for instant communication - as seen in the cell phones, pagers, RIM's, PDA's, etc. etc. etc. that drive our country? My guess is it is somewhere in between.
This was probably more boring than I thought it would be, and for that, I apologize. I hope you had a good lunch too.
This is becoming an all too familiar pattern - of not finishing blogs. Ah well. What can one do. It's not like I'm working 40 hours a week now or anything. Hmmmm.
Anyways, it's now been almost 2 weeks since my last exam, and I figure I've probably forgotten almost everything I learned. But hey. So has everyone else. Now I just have to forget my exam marks....
As a side note - they've changed the blogger interface. Much better. I highly recommend it.
If this seems disjointed, it's because I'm writing in between MSN conversations. Always an adventure.
But anyways, enough for today. Something is up, no matter how boring. I promise better in the days to come.
So I didn't quite get around to finishing the blog yesterday.
Anyways, Day 2 of my new job is now complete. It is quite exciting. Really, there is nothing negative I can say about it. The people are fantastic, and my immediate co-worker and supervisor are two of the nicest people I have ever met. They've been both helpful at taking me slowly along the learning curve, yet also making sure I'm not simply rotting away plowing through manuals.
Essentially, what I am doing is managing and administrating the many contracts that TD Bank enters on a constant basis. Contracts with software developers (ADOBE, Microsoft) and all the way up to the BIG contract with IBM - the largest outsourcing deal in Canadian history. If you don't know what that means, ask me again sometime. Even I'm not totally sure yet.
I have this great little cubicle and desk to call my own. It's rather large, actually, and I need some pictures, etc, to fill it up with. Really, no complaints as of yet. I don't feel too "Dilbertized" and life is good. I happen to be right beside the VP that runs this floor - and a good deal of the other floors. However, he's in an office with 2 windows and a door, desk, table, chairs, etc. But hey. That'll be me *someday* ^o)
This blog has been less philosophical musings and more simple journalling. But that's okay. Stay tuned. It's subject to change - rapidly, for no reason, but it just might.
The other big news of the day is our baseball team. I am for sure coaching - and looking forward to that. Very, very soon, I'll be out there 3 or 4 times a week, coaching away. I can't wait. But, the law will be laid down - no messing with the coach.
This has been more rambling now than decent important conversation, and I fear for losing my readers if I continue along this vein. If I am losing you, I apologize, and I urge you to return. The next post will be better. If you like this style and just like hearing about my life, I'll try to continue this as well.
If you are starting to think that I'm just filling time now, you're right. I'm waiting to get a ride home from work, and so YOU get to hear about it. Time to go for now.
And again...YEE-HAW! School is done :D
Yee-Haw!
It's been a while, but exams are finally done. Hopefully, I didn't become the first UWO law student in 5 years to fail first year law - although, one can never be sure. The most common 2 jokes at law school this year?
1 - I was part of small group "F" - and we all know what F stands for (no, Lynda, they said "fail" not "first" :( )
2 - On a B curve, you're doing okay if you get a B. But you know what the problem is? "You can't spell Constitutional, Contracts, or Criminal without a 'C'!"
Whatever. They're done, I'm done, and the world is happy. Shall post more later on, mostly on my brand new job!
Again, I apologize to all my faithful readers for the long delay between posts - twas not intentional. Merely the result of some giddy, lazy, carefree days in between the end of school and the beginning of work. And thus the blogging suffered.
