Exposure

So I am a prime example of a procrastinator if you don't know. If not that, it's my pure laziness that gets the best of me most of the time and end up not doing anything at all. That is how I survived junior high and high school. Junior high made me incredibly lazy; lazy to a point where it has become dangerous for me. My laziness/procrastination barely got me out of high school into university and it is now catching up on me. I had been constantly told that I needed to start studying in grade 12 because there would be no way I could cram everything into one or two nights before an exam to learn everything. Oddly enough, I pulled it off and did quite decent in grade 12 considering my efforts and what I had to go through elsewhere.

And thus, I was trying to study for my soc midterm tomorrow today. It was a short day for me so I got home just past 1 in the afternoon. I swore to myself I was gonna sit down and study until I gone through everything thoroughly. I just looked at what I needed to study and I was like, "HOLY SH!T that's alot of stuff". So something new I learned today: KEEP UP WITH THE DAMN SCHOOL WORK. Just for completeness' sake, I did manage to study all four chapters that are going to be on the test excluding the textbook. My prof did tell me stuff from the textbook, that we didn't cover in class, would be on the test, about 10 questions. So there is a possibility that I'll get owned on these 10-ish questions.

So... note to self: must learn to develop a healthy work ethic. One that does not procrastinate. Being exposed to this now will definitely change my attitude. Normally just having the attitude doesn't work for me because being motivated and actually getting down to doing stuff is a huge gap for me. But this being in university now and knowing what's at steak.. or stake, I could use some steak, but it's gonna be that much more important for me even if the program I'm in isn't what I want to do because it will set me up for the years to come. So if you want to be a good friend, please tell me to get off my ass and do some school work once in a while, if you don't mind.

... I am getting slightly worried about the Oilers... note the stress on slightly.

You only live each day once, make the best out of it each time.

Calm Before the Storm

Is that how the expression goes? Well you get the point. I really wonder if anyone actually reads this, or am I just wasting space? Whatever, as long as one person reads it, that's fine; even if it's me, haha.

Looking ahead at the month of October, I expect some pretty big changes in myself by developing a work ethic and focus towards school. I am actually quite intimidated by all that is coming up in only the month of October as well, guess this is life in university. I've been having a pretty relaxed university life so far. However, that is all about to change very soon. I look past this weekend as September ends, and I see a whole crap load of work I need to get done. I think I got off to a pretty decent first week or two in university, but the lack of needing to work just makes me very lazy once again. Before I say anything more, please don't spaz out at me just because you're in sciences and have a billion more exams/assignments than I do, I know very well that I have a much easier life than most of you, and I'm proud of that too. But this coming week, I have a music rudiments exam on monday, soc 100 midterm on wednesday, and a english essay due on friday. I would like to think that the music exam should be a cake walk since my level of educated theory is beyond that. But it is this arrogance that let me to getting only a 78% on my second assignment, so I definitely have to correct my attitude towards getting a "free GPA booster". Sociology may be the exam I have to focus on most because it's one of those classes in a lecture theatre and I have not been keeping up with this course at all outside of the class. My english essay should receive some big attention from me as well because I am not the most enthusiastic about going to english class. Let's just say that it feels like I haven't really gone to class at all.

So that's how this next week plays out for me. I can still be happy because I don't have nearly as much to do as some of you (= I still have a math midterm and psych midterm coming up in October, so I can't slack much at all.. It will be difficult for me to overcome all this.

Good luck to everyone with their exams and assignemtns, and remember, we're all in this together and God will help us through.

Reborn

So... I went to an Oilers game tonight. It was a blast! I haven't been to one since the lockout and tonight was the first time for me seeing the shootout live since it got put into the new NHL. I must say that the Oilers are going to be epic this year. Who cares if it is only preseason right now, you can still feel the hype and intensity from these players fighting for a roster spot (even though only Schremp or Brule is gonna get it). You can tell these prospects are definitely trying to make it hard for MacT and company to send them down to Springfield, and I'm glad they're making their presence known. Gagner, where do I even start with him. This guy, is ONE year older than I am and he will make more money this year than I will for the next 20 years. He is honestly incredible for one 19 year old kid. Soon, he's going to take over our team, take over Horcoff, take over the captain position. I also really like Nilsson. He's definitely becoming who he should've been with the Islanders.

Okay, outside of how good the Oilers are going to do this year, it was my first game in a long time. Even though just a preseason game, I had lots of fun and we(me and brother) had great seats. Gagner alone tonight may have made my day. Brule also impressed me with his grit and Smiders for his passion. You've gotta love that guy. It's just too bad I didn't get to see Souray's shot, Lubo, and the top line. But I'll get to see them on TV during the regular season! So this was definitely a renewed experience for me to be able to watch hockey live again. Imagine Rexall during playoffs, haha.

A little off topic, I think the next few weeks, more specifically Octover, will be a very interesting month for me. From where I stand now, I can just see my schedule pile up with exams and stuff like that. Outside of just school, there's some other things that cannot be mentioned here that may also be influential to me and my life. It's amazing at how little worry I seem to have towards all this. Here I go again praising God, but it's a good thing. For anyone, especially in uni, that feel pressured or stressed about exams and stuff, try looking at it this way: I feel that it is a blessing from God that I am able to see these challenges ahead of me and to know that He is with me throughout the entire way. Which means that there's no need to worry our lives away. God makes life so much easier just by acknowledging his prescence in our lives and putting any sort of faith in Him. Kind of like seeing Gagner bring the Oilers to life this year. Honestly, I think at this point of my life, God has such a big affect on me that it bleeds out of me and ends up in places like my blogs and whatever else comes up. This is why you kind of see me mentioning something about Him in all my blog entries; I just can't keep it inside, you know (=

So um, kind of late now, and tired from the hockey game. If I don't write within the next couple weeks, it will likely be because a miracle happened and that I actually put myself to studying for exams and doing homework.

Here's to an awesome year for our Edmonton Oilers =D

Oh, did I mention how good Gagner is?

Why?

.. Have I been so tired lately?! I get alot of sleep, I don't have all that much homework and studying yet, and I still feel like I haven't slept in days all the time, haha. Could it be the lack of sleep over the summer is catching up on me? It's been over a month, I don't think its that.

Hmmm.. Well today's congregational meeting was definitely interesting. Time to start a new week of school! However, something even more important is starting: Edmonton Oilers pre-season! I am hoping Schremp makes our team this year and finally lives up to what he's supposed to be. Alot of things to be excited about coming up actually, a new season of Heroes to be more specific. Hopefully I won't be as tired, or maybe it's just my allergies to the pathetic change of weather.

I HATE YOU ALLERGIES! YOU MAKE ME KILL TREES BY USING UP ALOT OF TISSUE PAPER.

Yay!

AWANA

Yay! So another year of AWANA has begun. Tonight was opening night and I had a real good time getting to know a few of the Sparks. Since I have self-proclaimed myself of being 'demoted' from the games director to a Sparks leader, many things were new tonight; many things were also old but still brought a refreshing sense. It was only the first night and I was allowed to get to know these kids at a much deeper level already as compared to when I led games. I think I might have hesitated at first when we split into our handbook groups as I had no clue what I was supposed to do because the new handbooks hadn't come in yet. But then I resorted to what I did with UrbanPromise and did a really cheesy introduction game. But it managed to help the kids become engaged for the full 20 minutes I had with them.

Although my role had changed, I was reminded that this is still AWANA and it exists for the same purpose that it always had and that's to draw these kids closer to God. I wasn't sure of what to expect of the kids tonight because throughout the two months I was with UrbanPromise, I became so accustomed to those Camp Hope kids that I wasn't sure what to get out of the NEAC kids compared to the kids in Surrey. I definitely need to remind myself to not compare, but to love these kids for who they are. I was also reminded that these kids here at NEAC are just as cute as the ones in Surrey. One thing though, that I must mention, is that ALL the kids here are chinese, haha. And the numbers with Camp Hope cannot compare with the numbers here. AWANA has almost twice the amount that Camp Hope has on paper, so I will definitely need to get used to the gigantic numbers again.

I look forward to getting to know these little kids! Seeing them smile totally makes my day =D

Cycle of Positivity

Alright, I want to briefly touch on something before I head to bed in attempt to regain my health.

Sort of continuing from my last post about paths crossing, I just want to write down something before I forget it. I want to use this entry, for those that come across it, as something that may inspire. This is also a bit of a response to some of the things that people say to me that I never really get to respond to them in the way I really want.

Like I said before, everything we come into contact with has some sort of an affect on us. To a bigger scale, every person we meet or come to know leaves his/her mark on us as well. So the "source" of this is sort of based off of a couple things for me which is making me wanting to allow it to live up to it's fullest. So I've had some pretty good responses from people who have read my little "blurbs" here and there and may find it inspiring or something like that. If you're interested, you might find them on Facebook. Here's the story behind it all:

I came across a couple situations that pretty much started this whole thing for me over the last year or so. I hit a time in my life where things weren't going all that well and I was needing some sort of a lift to get me out of the hole I was in. I was more or less constantly praying for something to happen so that I wouldn't be such a mess as a person. So I'm just going to go straight to the point here if that's okay. Basically, there are alot of things that inspire me to be the person I am and the person I can be. Things coming from left and right continue to inspire me. I'm a bit of a wacko so I have some weird beliefs. This belief I'm talking about right now can be generalized as a cycle of positivity, a term I kind of stole and use as well. So with so many things that inspire me, I believe that inspiration is actually a cycle of neverending positivity. What I want to do with the inspiration that comes my way is to be able to have it affect me, and then inturn use it to inspire someone else. Do you get what I'm getting at? Whatever we take in as inspiration for ourselves should be used to inspire others. Hopefully, whoever you inspire will do the same. This ultimately causes a cycle of inspiration that goes around to allow us to live life to its fullest potential. I'll use an example and then wrap it up. I don't like to worry. I don't like to be sad. Some people we meet always seem like they are happy, like they have never lived a sad day in their lives. I, personally, like to always have a smile on my face, but that just comes naturally for me. I think people can live such happier lives just by choosing where they put their attention. You can't just dwell on the negatives all the time, it makes you a pain for people to be around. "Great, gas prices are up... Oh well, guess I get to ride my bike!" When life throws something gay at you, you can always find something good out of it.

There's alot of things I can say to this but I will stop here as I may be overdoing it a little bit. So hopefully, the inspiration I've learned will inspire you to inspire. (=

Inspire to live, live to inpsire.

When Paths Collide

When you look at it, it's pretty amazing how every single thing in existance has it's own timeline. That has got to be one of the most amazing things that God has created in this world. The only thing seperating each one of us from something else is time. Seriously, when you think about it, it's pretty insane, don't you think?

More specifically, when the paths of two or more people collide, many different things can happen. I witnessed something today that kind of started this mad train of thoughts for me. I was on the train coming home from the university when I saw something happen between two people. Between what they were doing is within the two of them and I will say nothing more. However, what got me was that when I saw these two come into contact with each other (LOL this could be interpreted in such a wrong way), it made me think, "how in the world did these two people get to the point they're at this instant? What caused them to be doing what they're doing right now?" Then I began to remember some things I either learned or was taught about the interaction of people. I remembered that our lives are built so that each and every single thing we come into contact with, no matter how big or small, plays some sort of influence on us. Each event leads to the next and it just keeps building and building, ultimately creating the world we live in and who we are as people. Life is such a complicated thing to explain because there's a billion ways to look at it and just the way that God "wired" this world is beyond me and I definitely think it's worth thinking about and learning about. Either that, or I'm just a psycho.

Live high.

Adrenalin

.. It is such a sweet thing to experience. Athletes feel it all the time; many people who perform, or participate in high energy events feel "adrenalin rushes" as well. I'm pretty sure everyone has experienced atleast one adrenalin rush in their life so there's no need for me to explain what it's like. But this weekend was a pretty adrenalin filled weekend-it was an eventful weekend.

Friday brought our first AWANA leader's meeting to kick start the new year of AWANA. I personally look forward to this upcoming year of AWANA because I get to take on a new role of being a Sparks leader instead of the old games director. So yes, I sort of demoted myself, but I was getting bored and tired of doing games, therefore, this will bring some real cool experiences. I'm also looking forward to getting to know these children individually instead of just seeing them during games time.

Saturday also kick started a new year of a couple things: teaching guitar and Fantasy hockey! I am very excited for the new season of NHL if you haven't noticed yet =D As far as teaching guitar goes, I'm not too sure what I feel about it yet. Teaching guitar is always fun, but it's a difficult task to do. Being talented does bring challenges in that you have to find out what makes sense to you naturally but not for other people. I also am needing to find some new material to teach my kids. However, I still get paid an awesome amount for practically "babysitting" their kids for a couple hours. Later on at night during Saturday, we did our hockey pool drafting! I was so pumped for this event because I put so much hard work into my researching player projections and stuff like that. I'd been waiting for this time of day for the last few weeks and it was awesome!

So being the loser I am, here's how it went down for me: I was pumped. I clicked open the live draft room to find that I am drafting at third spot in a twelve people pool! Smack dead on I was right where I hoped I'd be. Fourth would have been a pretty decent spot as well, but I'll take what I got. Right away I knew I would end up with Malkin as AO and Crosby are given first and second picks. Malkin is a great pick as he will most likely end up with 50 goals this year, give or take a few. So I had my draft all planned out and all that stuff, of who I would pick in which round. But of course, like all drafts are unpredictable, I had to adapt. After an hour or so of intensity and being pissed because people stole my players, here's who I was so fortunate to pick up:

1st round - Evgeni Malkin
2nd round - Henrik Lundqvist
3rd round - Thomas Vanek
4th round - Mike Green
5th round - Paul Stastny
6th round - Petr Sykora
7th round - Mark Streit
8th round - Alexander Semin
9th round - Martin Gerber
10th round - Maxim Afinogenov
11th round - Sam Gagner
12th round - Joni Pitkanen
13th round - Phillipe Boucher
14th round - Fabian Brunnstrom
15th round - Karl Alzner
16th round - Ales Kotalik
17th round - Michael Ryder

Clearly, this was a very high risk draft for me. My two sketchiest picks are obviously with Brunnstrom and Alzner as they have never played a game in the NHL and are not even guarenteed a spot on their respective teams. The single mistake I did make with these two are picking Brunnstrom instead of Stamkos. I believe I also made the mistake of picking up a defenseman one round too late. My top two defensemen, Mike Green and Mark Streit's season can go either way-boom or bust. Hopefully it's the former. All in all, I think I did a pretty good draft and came in within the top drafters, so I'm pretty satisfied.

Today, as in Sunday, was pretty cool too. We had our exciting annual CPP meeting which made me fall asleep a couple times. Afterward we had our "rematch" of the adults versus kids soccer game. As expected, adults came out on top! We, as in adults which totally makes me feel old, went up 6-1 just to have the kids score five unanswered goals to catch up just to have their hearts broken by the one and only, scoring the winning goal =D

Hopefully I have a good week ahead of me. I really am not enjoying school that much. However, I am trying to choose to put my attention on anything but the negative so I can get by easier.

Just thought I'd throw this out there: you can do anything you set your mind to as long as you let God work through you and in you.

Music

mu·sic
–noun
1. An art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.

So I'm taking music in university. I've been classically trained on the piano for about twelve years, and now that I think of it, it was prison to be stuck in a classical way of doing music. The University of Alberta also teaches music with a very classical way of approach, and I can't say I'm liking it very much. I do have to admit for it being a little early to complain, but I do have my reasons-just hear me out. When I first quit piano and allowed music to work through me on the guitar instead of having myself work through music, it was so liberating. It was a very free way of learning and getting better at music for me. Now that I have to come back to being taught music, following all these rules, and stuff like that, I'm not enjoying it all that much.

I liked the idea that I got to grow in music through the different styles and methods that I got to encounter with just my guitar or piano at whatever the pace I wanted. This might be a little confusing, but thats okay, I understand. I had just recently began thinking about my view on music and I haven't been able to find the proper words to describe it to anyone else just yet. Music, to me, should be very free and done in a very leisurely way.

Music is a form of art that the entire world experiences on a daily bases. Music is a form of expression that people use to release emotions or feelings that they feel towards a subject of matter. I think the best way to learn more about music is by dwelling in it. Be sucked into music for a good chunk of time and you will come out learning alot. As I am supposedly on pace to becoming a music major, I am forced to think about this now. So I don't know if other people can relate the same way I can, but I just don't feel right taking music courses and being "taught" music again. I'm not even close to what you might call a music legend, but I do believe I have some sort of an ability that not too many people possess. Maybe it is because I have this ability that I can learn from music the way I do and do it so freely and with joy.

As I am still new to this, I cannot say that these beliefs are set in stone for me, so please don't judge me based on this little "rant". So if you're trying to find the point I'm getting across here, let's try this: Instead of learning music, we should learn from music. Make any sense? Haha. Also, this is a purely biased point of view towards classical music. Perhaps I'll go try the music program at Grant Mac which is supposed to be way better.

Keep on rockin' to it, please don't stop the music. The world would be a miserable place without music.

My Current Passion

I don't remember the last time I was so excited for a new season of hockey. These last couple weeks for me has been extremely slow in terms of waiting for hockey to start. I bet the next couple will be just as slow or even slower. As a right-minded Canadian, who doesn't look forward to a new hockey season?

I'm looking forward to seeing how the Oilers will play this year. Dang, Gagner is gonna be so pro. Really looking forward to this.

I've also been real hyped about the start of a new Fantasy Hockey season. I tried it out the first time last year and it was a blast! Although, I wished my results might have been better, haha. But I'm definitely geared for it this year, I've been doing my research (=

So to all you hockey apathetics, you're missing out on the second greatest game on earth!

The good old hockey game, is the best game you can name. And the best game you can name, is the good old hockey game.

Yay! So dang excited, haha. Well that's my post for today (=

Just a Little Bit

I may have crossed the line.. Just a little bit.

Hey people who creep my things! That's right, I've started a blog. Actually, I've been meaning to start one for a while now. The only thing that held me back was that I thought it was really stupid and that I'd end up like alot of other people who have absolutely nothing to blog about other than.. hiccups or something.

But hey, things change right? I've started university for just about a week now, and this curbside prophet's got alot of things on mind. Actually, I usually have something to say to almost everything, I just don't say it. Now that university has started, my world has just began to expand and I feel I should keep track of myself and see how insane I can be.

So starting today, I'm going to attempt to record my life.. on the internet. When I put it that way, it kind of sounds pathetic, haha. If you find my notes on Facebook interesting and a good read, you might find one out of ten or so posts on here similar to that. Why you might ask? The only reason I had those notes posted up on Facebook is because I literally could not hold it within myself. I had to get it out into the world somehow and Facebook was about the only place, so I did it. With this blog however, I'm going to be writing about just about anything and everything I come across now that a new chapter of my life has began. Kind of like that corner store you find just a few blocks down your house that you go to for your daily needs and stuff; Every typical thing you might find in a blog about a person will appear here.

Maybe I'll start tomorrow, I don't really feel like writing about what's on my mind just yet. I also hope everyone that's just began university is enjoying it right now.. I really do, because that's not exactly the case for me.

.. Okay one story. Last night I had a dream. Now, before I go any further, I am terrified of bees and bugs of that type, okay? So I had a dream, I was in the car with my mom and brother. It was a beautiful summer day and I had the window down. Along comes a bee, and it's a huge one. So I start closing the window, but it comes in.. I start freaking out slightly just to see the bee fly back out. *Phew* what a relief. Like, two seconds later, the bee flies back in and I get even more creeped out this time. I took off my seat belt and ran to the back row of seats. Next thing I know, I'm cornered into the edge of the car with the bee coming straight at me. This scared me so bad that I wake up. The second I notice I'm awake, I find myself dashing out of my bed towards the door out of fear. I had no control over this movement, wow. It was like a reflex, or a twitch, where I just darted out of my bed holding my blanket. I have never experienced this before, proud to say =D And based on a past experience, I checked my bed to make sure there was no bee, because for a split second, my dream may have escaped into reality based on the buzzing noises that a bee can make, haha. The End!

Peace out.