goodbye yesterday

another year is drawing to a close, remember when 2003 held so much promise? although new year's eve carries celebration, it also brings introspection with it.

did i do everything i ought to have done? did i treat people how i should have? did i do all i could have? did i seize the day? did i celebrate and mourn at the right times? did i make a difference? did i have the right relationships? were there things i should have handled differently?

while i do think there is value in learning from the past, often i think that perhaps, instead of dwelling on the past and wondering how things should have been, we should look to the future.

what can i do that i ought to do? how should i treat people. seize the day. carpe diem. celebrate. mourn. laugh. cry. make a difference. be who i am meant to be. seek God's direction.

i started this post with something else... blogger ate it. i wrote about how i'm not sure where this next year is going. i'm trying desperately not to be anxious. His perfect plan will be revealed when it needs to be. when it's right.

thank you Father for your perfect love, your perfect timing.

end of the year

taking a que from andrew over at bloggedyblog, i am posting a year-end list. Here is my list of my top five...

Favourite CDs Purchased in 2003

5. Downhere's "So Much for Substitutes"
Favourite Songs: Starspin and In America

I was pretty excited for this CD to come out. In fact, I even conned all the programming staff at camp to wait until the day it came out in June to make our trip to the Christian bookstore to pick out our devotional material... and, you know, get this CD. Although there are three songs I really like on, "So Much For Substitutes" overall was a big disappointment. But, it still makes my list because Downhere's pretty cool and they're the closest I'll ever come to personally knowing rockstars (they went to my college even while I was there).

4. Starfield's "Tumbling After"
Favourite Songs: Can I Stay Here Forever and Cry In My Heart

I saw Starfield twice this year, in March and in September. I love Starfield. But sometimes, their album is even too sickly sweet pop-ish even for me. But overall, it's a very good album. It was hard to pick just two favourite songs. "Cry In My Heart" is a good worship tune.

3. Switchfoot's "The Beautiful Letdown"
Favourite Songs: On Fire and Twenty-Four.

I saw Switchfoot in concert the weekend before "A Beautiful Letdown" was released. It was an awesome concert. I went to get the new CD shortly after it came out, but it was already out of stock. I didn't end up hearing it until the summer, and borrowed it numerous times from my cool friend Mike, and I bought it sometime in the beginning of August when I finally decided that it was time to get my own copy. It was a very wise purchase.

2. Plumb's "Beautiful Lumps of Coal"
Favourite Songs: Boys Don't Cry and Go

Definitely the most expensive single CD I've ever purchased, I had to special order it for over $27 (Canadian) because the school bookstore didn't have it. However, being a big Plumb fan, it was well worth it. I'm never disappointed in Tiffany's music. I especially love the intro on "Real."

1. Jars of Clay's "Who We Are Instead"
Favourite Songs: Show You Love and Sing

Jars of Clay is, without a doubt, my favourite band. However, I never thought that they would ever create another album that would even come close to their first one on a scale of how much I liked it. But, "Who We Are Instead" has done just that. I love it. It's a very different Jars sound, but definitely a good one. I love the lyrics. Very sound album. I'd recommend it's purchase to anyone.

permalinks

okay, i think they should be working now, thanks to neely. she's the greatest!

advertising rates

i've been making further inquiries into this whole closed captioning thing (see post below).

this is the email i got back after visiting the official ctv advertising page:

This is an automatic reply:
Thank you for requesting information on CTV. If you are an advertiser looking for a password to our new sales site please let me know the company you are with and I will be happy to provide you with one. If there is already a company name provided in your initial e-mail please ignore this message as you will hear from us shortly with a password. If you are looking for additional sales information, please send me the details of your campaign and I will be happy to get you in touch with someone who can better assist you. Please also include the region (local, provincial or national) you wish to advertise in. However, if you are a student, I'm sorry but we are unable to release the sales site password or advertising rates to the general public.
Thank you and have a nice day.
CTV Marketing

my quest for information goes on. can i provide closed captioning? do i have to be advertising something?

i will let you know.

closed captioning provided by

i don't know if anyone else has noticed this... or maybe it's just me because i'm home and have been watching a lot of tv and we only have two channels... but i think it must be pretty cheap to pay to provide closed captioning on tv. because ryan malcolm's new cd "home" has been providing the closed captioning on pretty much every stinkin' show on ctv while i've been home.

i suppose it's part of their big world idol push.

but ryan's not going to win world idol. but that won't stop millions of canadians from buying his cd i suppose.

but, someone seriously should crown him "closed captioning king."

:)

so this is Boxing Day

so here i sit on this day we call "boxing day" in Canada, the day where you "box up your leftovers for the poor" (or something like that)... or go shopping or look over and play with all your gifts... thinking of how often we are never content with where we're at.

here i am, at home, surrounded by family, waiting for friends and people i love to get on msn messenger so i can talk to them, because they aren't here and i miss them.

Merry Christmas

hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas day with family and friends.

on my way

i'm leaving in a few minutes to go home for Christmas and will be home tomorrow afternoon sometime. not sure when i'll next be online... so may you and yours have a wonderful Christmas remembering the joy and wonder of the birth of Jesus, the One whom we can call Saviour.

maybe i should have

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maybe i should have just called them... you know, instead of spending 6 1/2 years in post secondary education earning rather than just buying the "benefits and admiration that comes with a diploma!"

and perhaps it would have saved me a few tens of thousands of dollars as well. ;)

top picks

little women
home alone 2
wild hearts can't be broken
the bourne identity
serendipity
brokedown palace

i think these are my favourite movies.

because of Christmas Day

this Christmas, i am going home. home to northern alberta, home to my parents' house. i've never actually lived there, because my parents moved after i finished high school and i've spent most of my summers in various parts of the world inbetween college years and seminary. so... i pretty much only know my family there.

this Christmas, my whole family will be home. my older sister, her husband, my younger sister, and my little brother. i guess technically he's not little anymore, now that he's 20 and is taller than me, but i think he'll always be "little" to me.

i don't know what i'm getting for Christmas this year, i would like a bigger lens for my camera, but i am kinda doubtful that that will happen. i think that i got people some pretty good gifts this year, i framed some pictures i especially like for my older sister and my mom in some really cool frames, and i made my dad this cool 3-D sheep picture thingy (he's a sheep farmer, he likes anything with sheep on it), and my brother-in-law some personalized golf stuff (apparently, or so i've been informed, he likes to golf), and then i got my younger siblings what they wanted. i made some scarves as well and sent them to various people. and i made cards and sent them to a bunch of people as well. i like making homemade stuff better than buying gifts usually. it's more fun to make stuff than buy stuff.

i don't come from a Christian family (well, they go to church, but that's about it), so Christmas isn't really a time of deep spiritual significance, we go to church Christmas Eve, and say grace Christmas day, but that's about it. sometimes i wonder what it would be like to celebrate Christmas with a whole family of believers. cherish it if you have it.

two thousand years ago in a town called Bethlehem, a young girl gave birth to a child in a stable. God came to earth as a tiny baby to bring salvation to mankind. 30 years later he died on a cross.

and today i live because of Him.

here i am

i am currently in a little town south-east of calgary, at my sister and brother-in-law's house. they left this morning for my parents' house. i am here until tomorrow when my younger sister and i are leaving for home too.

so, right now, i'm sitting on a dial-up computer enjoying the wonders of the internet, albeit very slow, but having a lovely time. :)

i tried to fix my permalinks... but i don't think they're working still. this frustrates me. i like my permalinks.

my roomdawg

my montanan roommdawg jodi is leaving tomorrow morning for her sister's wedding in brazil.

that means jodi gets a tropical summer Christmas wearing shorts and hawaiian tropic suntan lotion... meanwhile, i will be at home where it's -25C and light from about 9 or 10 am until 3 or 4pm-ish.

"hello, baby."
- jodi's future brother-in-law's first greeting to her

santa clause 2

the s.w.a.t. boys redeemed themselves.

:)

lyric

so, this afternoon me and my roommate jodi listened to bebo norman's cd "ten thousand days" for oh... about 4 hours straight.

A page is turned by the wind to a boy in curly grin
With a world to conquer at the age of ten
But as history unfolds and the storybook is told
He finds salvation but not at the hands of man

And the God of second chance
Picked him up and He let him dance
Through a world that is not kind
And all this time, preparing him, the one
To hold him up when he comes undone
Beneath the storm, beneath the sun
And now a man, here you stand
Your day has come

A page is turned in this world to reveal a little girl
With a heart that's bigger, as it is unfurled
By the language in her soul, that's teaching her to grow
With a careful cover of love that will not fail

And the God of second chance
Picked her up and He let her dance
Through a world that isn't kind
And all this time, preparing her the one
To hold her up when she comes undone
Beneath the storm, beneath the sun
And grown up tall, here you are
Your day has come

Beneath the air of autumn, she took him by his hand
And warm within the ardor, she took his heart instead
And high upon the mountain, he asked her for her hand
Just for her hand

A page is turned in this life, he's making her his wife
And there is no secret to the source of this much life
When the grace that falls like rain is washing them again
Just a chance to somehow rise above this land

Where the God of second chance
Will pick them up and he'll let them dance
Through a world that is not kind
And all this time, they're sharing with the one
That holds them up when they come undone
Beneath the storm, beneath the sun
And once again, here you stand
And once again, here you stand
Your day has come
- "A Page is Turned," by Bebo Norman

another road

have you ever thought of blogging using a pseudonym?

when i fist started blogging, i thought about it. i never used my last name. i wasn't sure i wanted people i knew finding me on the internet.

but, whatever, eventually i threw all caution to the wind and here i am. more and more people know about my blog. a professor told me the other day that they found it over the summer. my cool friend mike reads it sometimes (see, i mentioned you, i told you i would). and my roomdawg jodi. and my friend holly. someday, they'll all have blogs. chuckle chuckle.

sometimes it makes me nervous that this is just out there... on the net... for anyone i know to read (what if i wrote something self-incriminating?), and sometimes i think whatever. i blog, therefore, i am cool. ;)

but sometimes, i still think, maybe i should give this all up and go under a pseudonym. i thought of a cool one the other day.

get ready

i just got a spam email with the subject line "get ready... summer 2003".

i wish i could have been ready, only summer 2003 has already passed.

silly spammers.

chuckle chuckle

i took these photos of the "booming arts community."

that makes me laugh.

question

what is it that you'd really really really like for Christmas this year?

good day

so i just mailed about 2/3 of my Christmas cards. i haven't sent Christmas cards in, hmm... oh, about 4 years i think. but this year, i decided to make cards. it sounded like a good idea at the time, it just ended up taking forever. :)

i got my MRRP (thesis) proposal back today. my professor liked it. really liked it. not bad for typing it up in a couple of hours.

now i have three and a half months to pound out 40-60 pages.

i think i can do it.

i got an emailed entitled "new year's resolution" today. it was spam, but wasn't it a bit early? i don't make new year's resolutions anyways.

does anyone actually keep new year's resolutions anyways? sure they're cool in january, but by february, and certainly by march, who remembers them and who talks about them anymore?

saturday i'm taking the bus to southern alberta to visit my sisters for a couple of days, then on the 23rd i'm driving home with my younger sister home, we're staying overnight in edmonton and then getting home on the 24th. i'm not sure yet how long i'm staying home... we'll see. i don't have to be back for anything in particular, but i'll probably come back the first week of january.

anyways, i think i'm going to go home and do a little Christmas baking for little exam snacks for some of my college friends who are unfortunately stuck doing exams, and i need to finish a couple more Christmas cards.

have a great day.