buy mii a wii

Hot 10!

Here is my response to Lydia's Hot 10. I realized in doing this that I'm significantly less of an obsessive personality than I used to be. 2 years ago Dave Matthews would have been on the top of my list. And Apple Inc (that really hasn't changed)... I've mellowed a bit. So here goes it:

1. stars. They're my favourite band and rock my world. I think I would say this is my favourite album of theirs, Set Yourself on Fire. They're a Canadian (from Montréal) indie band. I would describe them as being up-beat(ish) electronic-driven, indie rock. Check out their myspace to hear more. Heart!!!

2. iPhone. I love anything by apple (pretty much), and haven't come across something that apple has made in the last 5 years that I haven't liked. I own an ibook and now have found myself under a bit of technolust after it. WHY IS IT SO HOT? It seriously makes my heart beat faster. Man I'm so sketchy. But look at it. DROOLFEST 2007.


3. CBC Radio 3. Gloooorious. When I deleted all my unpurchased music, this site kept me sane. I never listen to the radio, because its trash. Not that I listen to much Christian music because... well... I wouldn't say its trash, but I just don't really like any of it that much. Canadian indie is where it's at and that's what CBC Radio 3 is all about. You can make your own playlists and listen to stuff for free, subscribe to podcasts and have free good music!

4. honda civic 2008. Ok, maybe this is totally lame, but I was walking down the street the other day and I saw this car that I thought was really nice. Simple, obviously looked affordable. Honda civic? Whatever, I think its hot.

5. Reformation Study Bible. I just love the intense theological notes in it. I'm not exactly what I would call a 'theological ninja master' (I still can't really believe I said that in my staff interview), so its nice to have as a reference. Plus the typeset is really refreshing.

6. Four O'clock Tea's White Chai. It's basically glorious. It tastes like a mash-up of Chai and Christmas with a kind of Vanilla thing going on. It's not cheap (because its fair-trade and organic), but it is worth all $9 of it. I think you should really go out and track it down and try it. Because it may just change your life.

7. iPartee.com. My classmate's brother & his roommate have started up a rival of facebook that deals more with social events. It's an amazingly designed, well organized site that has profiles that are similar to both myspace/facebook but without the clutter & lameness like all the stupid applications on facebook. Check it out- its especially good for those of you in big cities (cause what really happens in Kingston?). You can rate restaurants and critique them, post concert events etc. To sign up: the betacode is 'tonight'. They want to keep it add-free. So sign up, and get all your friends to too!

8. Gmail. I love Google. I love Gmail and Google Documents. It makes my life so much easier in terms of administration. I just can't believe how some people live in the dark ages and still use hotmail. It kind of makes my heart mourn a bit for them. It's like living life with lobster claws when you could have hands / living a Christian life without the spirit-filled life. Why? WHY do people live life this way?!

9. Boys with Guitars. No, this isn't the name of a band. I'm just stating for the record that when I see cute boys weilding guitars with any sort of skill, and they sing... I'm pretty much can not be held responsible for anything I do or say. This combination just does something to me. I have to stay away from open-mic nights, and sometimes close my eyes in worship for reasons that are not as holy as it would seem (ie, fighting distraction of hotness... cause seriously, boys + guitars + jesus loving? eek)

10. Transformers Movie. I LOVED THIS MOVIE SO MUCH! I can't believe I only saw it once in theatre. Just thinking about it gets me really excited. It was JUST SO AESTHETICALLY PLEASING. And cool. I went with a bunch of guys and was the only girl (as usual), which made it so much fun. Anyways, I was sitting there with my mouth agape, in awe, pretty much the entire time. This picture was one of my favourite scenes. I should buy it.

why development-lovers are so often not God lovers

And people wonder why its hard for me to talk about my faith with my classmates:

"I speak about the Christian religion, and no one need be astonished. The Church in the colonies is the white people's Church, the foreigner's Church. She does not call the native to God's ways but to the ways of the white man, of the master, of the oppressor. And as we know, in this manner many are called and few are chosen." -Franz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth p42

He's known as the author of the 'bible of decolonization' which really is all about how violence is the answer. My mom would disagree; she would always tell my brothers that violence isn't the answer.

congratulations!!

Congrats to Silas and Lydia who have finished their support raising for staff!!!! So exciting. God is cool. FYI, we had been praying that Lydia would finish her fundraising by mid-october (she was praying for this upcoming monday, and I was secretly praying for this Sunday). God is cool. Oh wait I already said that.... oh well, it's still true.


I have this hugeeeeeeeeeeeeee headache today and I'm always tired. I wonder sometimes if there's something medically wrong with me. But Queen's health is always so busy so I'll never get an appointment there!

i'm a giant loser

You know when you're so tired and did something exciting/or are about to do something exciting and you have all this adrenaline in your veins? And when that exciting thing is over you still have adrenaline and you're a bit bored because you've just been, say, studying for awhile and now don't have anything really to do? And you're kind of hyper? That's me right now. Hyper. Glucose. mmm. And now I kind of have performance anxiety because ppl are telling me they're reading my blog (Hi Aban and Selina!) so I feel like I should say something meaningful and not stupid. But most things I say are meaningless or irreverent babble and I probably shouldn't be recording them as evidence if I want to get hired on staff.

I've been having a really hard time keeping focused. I was supposed to spend my only 2 free hours yesterday studying for this midterm i just wrote.... and I may have spent 30-45 of those minutes looking up how to get the new (beautiful) font Calibri that comes with Windows Vista (ugh, i loath the fact that I like something from Microsoft). It's so simple, but so pretty. It doesn't seem that exciting here, but it is so nice on paper. I know its weird. But fonts really are like art. I remember downloading a font pack of 2000 fonts in high school. And feeling excited when I can name the fonts used in billboards or store signs.

And then I napped. But i couldn't not nap, i was so tired. I justified it by telling myself I was 'reviewing the events of Muhammad's life (my midterm was on islam) with my eyes closed' and I WAS... my mind just wandered a bit. and hten i'd have to remind myself 'no no, go back to the hijrah... yeah Medina. ok from there.' And then I saw a book on the shelf in the library about anarchy and I wanted to read it. I didn't. ugh. And then I went on facebook. and then ipartee.com.

Soon to come... my response to Lydia's Hot 10.

fall & homecoming

Fall is here. I know not because the leaves are turning mesmerizing colours and crunching under my feet. I know not because it became crisp and cool all of a sudden; not because its midterm season or homecoming is here. I know because I can feel it in my spirit - it's hovering over kingston. It feels lonely and sick. I am happy; I love fall, but I always forget that it feels like this. I know I'm not crazy cause I mentioned this to my housemate today and she totally understood. I'm dealing ok with things now. I'm managing. Midterms are coming and will probably kick my ass, but I will pass and it will be ok.

It's homecoming weekend and the football game was a lot of fun as per usual. I went despite feelings of guilt, knowing I should be studying. But there's something about the half-time show, with graduates from '37 driving by in golf carts that really gets me! Tonight is the 'famous' Aberdeen street party and when I walked by it at 7:30 it was already covered in cops. It was ridiculous. I've never seen so many officers ever in my life. If I didn't know better, I would think we were being occupied by another country, or something reminiscent of FLQ-styles sketchiness. It's really sad how our student population treats the community and the police. They're trying to keep things safe and we call them pigs. People are stupid.

Happy fall! Don't get SAD.

construction, fall, thanksgiving, and droopy eyelids

This week has been weird. I've gotten over the whole morning-after-syndrome and am now looking to the future with excitement. I've had a lot of opportunities to step outside my own comfort zone, and was faithful to follow through because God is good. I'm actually sitting in a seminar right now, as my prof talks about "invention of tradition" and the "creation of tribalism" in parts of africa. But I'm thinking about the encouraging Servant Team meeting I just had (at 7am!) and thus my droopy eyelids. The leaves are turning and tides are changing here at Queen's. Day by day I'm excited to leave behind me my schooling, and am enjoying the transformation of this campus that is analogous to the construction that is ripping apart our campus. God is good. He is faithful.

I really love fall. Watching the leaves change and as they die they become so beautiful. It reminds me of sanctification. It reminds me of something my dad said to me on the phone when we were discussing my staff interview this weekend. I told him when the staff asked me "What motivates you?" I had totally drawn a blank and ended up replying really stupidly for a lack of anything better to say at the time. His response was, "I know what motivates you. Hypocrisy. You see hypocrisy in people and you want them to be better, you want them to have integrity, and so you're honest with them and encourage them to be better." It's true, although I had never really thought of it like that.

the morning after

I just came back from a weekend retreat called Summit. I laid a lot of things down to God this weekend. Actually, that's not true... I laid down the last thing that I had (at this point at least), which was fear or concern of people's thoughts of me in evangelism (see this post). God is the love of my life. He's the only thing that satisfies me, that keeps me going, and is worthy of my time and energy. But I'm still concerned about how people perceive me. Yesterday I did some rash things because I was afraid to, and this morning I woke up with that feeling..the morning after feeling that is probably (I wouldn't know) comparable to waking up beside someone (ugly too) and thinking "WHAT DID I DO?!" Seriously, what did I do? Nothing bad, of course, but I'm just feeling like this was sooo ridiculous. I remember feeling this way after summit last year, asking myself "why would I commit to that?"