(Note: Numbers do not correspond to the date, but rather, the sequential number of the blog)
September 2001: March April May June July August September 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 Recent

1. Ask to borrow an eraser from the person beside you (who is conveniently your Smart Friend).
2. Read off his or her answer on the eraser and happily apply it to your scantron (if MC) sheet. Trade his answer for one of yours.

Repeat.

Aside: I have been promoted to a higher class of living, much more "sophisticated" than raccoon meat; I have bought myself "Pogo Sticks". Yum?

Ramblings |10.23.2001|

"I want you to be merciful; I don't want your sacrifices. I want you to know God; that's more important than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6 (NLT)

What a relief! I think my spiritual walk w God has finally begun to pick up again. Phew. I hope it will only get better from here! It's been a while since I've touched the minor prophets in the OT, but after reading Daniel (and being reminded of our many days we have left here on earth), I decided to read Hosea again (with an odd feeling that this life lesson reminded me of Pretty Woman in a way). That verse just stood out to me somehow; it was almost as if God was telling me, through the words of Hosea, that our inner heart, which is reflective of our actions, is worth sooo much more to God than going through our lives with the "right" motions. The verse sums it up very nicely. Forget the talk, forget the offering, leave it at the altar, and do what you say you would. More importantly, a reminder for me: "Get to "know" Me instead of saying you want to "know" Me; alas, you can't know Me better through outward acts of service, be it through ministry or on your own.

Recently, I stumbled across the Adventures in Odyssey series again, my childhood radio drama stories that are aimed for 7 to 12 year olds. I guess I'm still 12 at heart, because I still thoroughly enjoy listening to what goes on in the lives of the fictional characters I grew up with. I definitely recommend it to you! They're worth listening to, especially these two episodes, entitled, The Triangle, Part 1, and The Triangle, Part 2. After I spent about 1 hr listening to the complete episode, I immediately thought of Sponge's blog, where he was about to rant about breakups and related relationships in suggesting that the "Golden Rule" was something that was not said but acknowledged and to be obliged by with every person. I'm guessing that this "Golden Rule" is what was broken between Jack and Whit.

I can somewhat identify with a couple of the characters in the story because I see situations like this happen in real life. A couple of my friends could potentially fall into the same fate as Whit and Jack Allen in the story, and have been similar situations. And if I was to project myself in the shoes of Jenny, I'd be trapped in a struggle of tug-a-war (and I do somewhat identify with her). The irony of the story is that not all situations in reality end as "pleasant" or half as "ideal" as this one. I picture one of my other friends as Emily; she's interested in someone that could be represented by Jack, but Jack's with a girl he loves, and yet he goes to her with his relationship problems. Back to my friend, if the guy wasn't a non-Christian, I do think that she'd readily go for him (not that she won't if he wasn't one, just not as readily) too if he was ever "free" again (and sometimes, I have a nagging suspicion that he is interested in her also but alas, he has a girlfriend). What a complicated life we lead.

How many people do I meet in Ottawa that knows someone I know, or that I know directly in this case?! Tis the strangest phenomena (sp?). Anyhow, I was looking up a Frank Yong (in UW Engineering) one day on the Elijah list because I have no idea who he is, and was curious where he was from, and a name on the directory caught my eye (Ben C is jealous now b/c he didn't get a directory): Jason Au.

Now, I know there are a TON of Jason Au's in the world, but I was curious enough anyhow. You see, I knew a Jason Au from my home city/church and he's 3 years younger than me, so I didn't know his whereabouts. I decided to look up the name "jason au" on the ICQ search, and it returned 37 results! I was about to give up but only 2 were online, so I checked their info, and one of them had a birthdate that matched the entry in the Elijah directory, so I knew I had a match. What made me more certain was the fact that even though he was in Ottawa, the timezone that he set on his ICQ info was 3 hours behind (matches PST!) and the fact that when I went to cross reference his birthdate with the Jason in my high school youth group's directory, I was 99 % certain that it was the same guy. So I decided to message him. Turns out, he's at Carleton for Architecture. Hope he'll feel welcome at OCAC, once he goes back again! He's already complaining how there's nothing to do in Ottawa :P

Dreams |10.22.001|

I woke up on Saturday morning to a phone call (that I did not answer), and fell back asleep to dream yet again. This time, my sister (or some Chinese girl that I can't pinpoint) and I exited a building before a portion of it blew up. At that point, I had a distinct impression that part of my elementary school exploded. Someone lady in charge proceeded to guide us away from the building, and pointed us toward the school bus that we were supposed to board. Upon boarding, we were all given a sweatshirt (to keep warm? to change into? I'm not quite sure). As we rolled along for what seem like a long time, I suddenly wondered where we were going and why the bus driver did not tell us of the destination. Coincidentally, there was a schedule of who booked the bus and for what occasion on the window of my seat. I tried to read it, but because it was posted toward the exterior of the bus, the typeset was mirrored. Luckily, the girl in the opposite seat behind me carried a compact with her and kindly lent it to me to decipher all the words. The strange part was that for the week, no company booked it and that cause me bewilderment. I suddenly had this thought, "What if they had in mind to take us someplace of no return?" In my mind, I was praying that God would show us what to do and how to escape. It must've been God's plan, because I arranged to ask the driver to let us off at the next stop for a pee break.

The bus stopped at the mall. I proceeded to tell my sister to gather up her belongs and follow me. The had a mall that was 10 stories in height and the main public washroom was on the 3rd floor. As people went to the third floor, we proceeded to adventure higher and further away from the bus as to avoid getting on the bus again. We reached the 7th floor and managed to find a clean, private bathroom before locking ourselves in and looking down to see the bus still parked. A realisation hit me then. Why did they give us the sweatshirts for? Another thought occurred to me. What if they wanted us to wear them beacuse they contained a homing device?! Uh-oh. We panicked. We weren't proven wrong when the guy from the bus tried to open the door to the bathroom (and I proceeded to scream) so he quickly closed it and waited for us to finish whatever we were doing and waited outside the door for us. We waited forever behind the closed door for him to go away, but we realised that he wasn't until we came out. So, we came out and acted all surprised to see him there waiting for us ("how did you find us?") and allowed him to escort us back to the bus so we could all begin the journey to the unknown once again.

At that point, I realised that my theory wasn't full of holes. I eagerly hoped, anticipated, and waited for the next stop because I figured that there would be more people wanting to use the lavatories as well. Surprisingly, we stopped at another mall. This one had a theatre in the middle of it. My sister and I gathered up what we had, and exited the bus, praying that it would be the last time. We went into the main bathroom, changing out of our sweatshirts and placing it inside the stalls, so that whomever was tracking us would think we were still in the washroom. We cut through the theatre and wandered to another bathroom. After what seemed like a prolonged period of time to make sure that no one would be coming after us, we bumped into the bus guy (or maybe it was another guy), but this time, he told us that the woman let him go (i.e let him free) before starting the bus again so we didn't have to worry. I had a nagging suspicion that some kids in the mall might have taken those 2 sweatshirts and proceeded to venture off with them before the bus lady appointed another escort to guide them "back" into the bus. Even though I felt bad, at least we were free. So, we decided to watch a movie. Upon entering the movie, for some reason, I introduced the guy to the theatre staff. He said beneath his breath, "That's funny, I know him by another name." Uh-oh. Not another trick? But, before I found out, I awoke.

The good, the bad, the ugly. |10.18.001|

The more I've talked to people, the more conclusive it seems: for every "outside" student that has worked in Ottawa, one has either had a good experience or a bad one, and neither one in-between. Ottawa either makes you, or breaks you.

I'm not entirely sure why Ottawa is special or unique in that way; it has an alluring spell that is cast upon unsuspecting victims. Perhaps it's the place, or even more so, the people. Placing the blame on a particular person, a group of individuals, an institution, or a particular church would hardly be fair, although sometimes I too wonder.

The irony of it all, is that I'm not sure where I would be classified as a part of the statistics of an "Ottawa experience". Spending 4 months in a city that is so different than and far away from home and school has its effects. What spell held me bound? What made me vulnerable to its pokes? At the end of it, where did "I" go? I look in the mirror, and all I see is a reflection of my past. Who have I become?

I like what I see, and yet I don't. Some fire in me has dimmed to a mere glow and is replaced with remnants of bitterness, cyncism, and complacency; an desensitized unfeeling. Yet, almost oxymoronically, the unfeeling sparked feeling. The "me" that never is homesick, somehow felt the feeling of nostalgia once I left the mysterious place. From a distance, faces seem familiar, here on campus. For brief seconds my eyes are fooled into thinking, "Oh look, there's Hilman!" or "Hey, is that Nate?", and even, "What is Matt doing here?". I've also gotten to know some others better, even after my departure.

I realise that some here have criticised my choice of friends, deemed me obseessed with my friends in Ottawa. Maybe I am, but how many people will patiently sit with you for 2.5 hours or more every night listening to you rant about things that are utterly pointless? How many will keep you company because you are in dire need of someone to talk to, especially when they have better things to do (like focus on education or work)? And I thank God. Although this has been in sense, the worst summer of my life, due to some unforseen circumstances, it has turned out to be the best in another light. I should thank the catalyst of this, but I better not take this too far . . .

Love has no boundaries |10.14.001|

Oh, Happy Birthday Mom! Today is my mommy's birthday. My sister and I got her a "mother" picture frame with her picture inside ('cept I have no idea what it looks like and I won't be able to pay my sister back for at least 1/2 year or more).

I was looking at Dom's and suddenly wondered if my old webpage would be as cheesy as Denis' and Marc's old website (Marc's is slighty modified now and nothing is working so it's useless to post his link), but I couldn't remember where I stuck mine. Suddenly it occured to me to look under the alias of my oocities.com e-mail address, and yipes, my page looks pretty bad. :P

Today's sermon was interesting, a continuation on the topic of friendship. One thing that Pastor Tim said really hit me: You cannnot choose to have friends. I was like "HUH?!". But the statement after made sense: You can choose to be a friend, but you cannot choose to have a friend. That's quite true. No matter how hard I try, there are bound to be people that want to be my best friend. One analogy with my cousin can be applied here: my 3.5 year old cousin likes me soooo much that I'm priviledged to be able to sit beside for dinner (over his parents even), to play with him when he's bored, and to help him change clothes, even if I don't have the patience to make him content. I don't choose to be his "favourite cousin", I just am, and for no apparent reason (since I only see him about once a year). Maybe that's the way it is in life. . .

Procrastination |10.13.001|

This entry should be entitled Miscellaneous II but ah well. I'm taking yet another break from my school work. I can't believe that for 6 hours, I've been doing the following:

• coding: yaay! finally done; my robots can now build a house!
• cleaning the house: mopping and sweeping (to be explained why later)
• procrastinating: reflecting and surfing the net
• munching: had lunch late and dinner early . . .or was it a "linner", if breakfast+lunch=brunch?
• laundry: finally done.

I think there's something wrong w me. Not sure what it is though (aside from the fact that before summer 2001, I thought that forgiveness came easy for me--well, I was proved wrong by me). Last night, we went to Leung Yue for some siew-ye and watched bits and pieces of Fulltime Killer, starring Andy Lau and some Jap-named actor who knows Chinese?. (Aside: there's this really cool Flash sniping game on that site). Afterwards, I developed a slight rash on my upperarm (but it mostly receeded this morning), and somewhere on the right part of my neck/jaw started to be very sore. J thinks that it might be my lymph nodes. Great. I have no idea what that means.

Laundry mess. On my way out to do some laundry, the glass jar that held my laundry detergent in it fell outta my bag and smashed into pieces onto the floor. Great. I hope none of you ever haveta sweep/mop up glass and liquid laundry detergent (enough for 2 loads) at the same time. Let me tell you, it's one of the more challenging messes to clean. The more you mop, the more soapy it gets, no matter how many times you rinse the mop. So, I decided to sweep and mop the rest of the house since I was cleaning anyhow. To top it all off, when I took everything to the laundry room (which is in another building), all the machines were taken! Thankfully, when I abandoned it there, nothing was stolen (or to my knowledge), unlike Ben C's misfortune when a poor lad (being optimistic here!) stole his pants and white socks.

Hmm, I wonder if one puts enough gelatin into jello, would one be able to make gummibears? :)...

Miscellaneous |10.11.001|

Wow, I just renewed my domain name sheepie.net for a LOT ($24.95 USD/year, which really works out only to approx $12.48 USD/year since I had my first year free :P). Well, not really if I was living in the States, but unlike an accountant would, I neglected to calculate the exchange rate. I should've paid for it on a day where the CDN $ was high. :P Ah well. But good news to those of you who can't remember my superlong URL, it's sheepie.net for yet another year. Phew.
You can also access:

• photos.sheepie.net for my photos
• elijah.sheepie.net to be redirected to the elijah fellowship homepage (which is momentarily under construction). . . and of course,
• impromptu.sheepie.net, where you are now

In my procrastination at work today, I decided to invest ICQ SMS. Guess what? I actually have every one of your SMS replies (sent from ICQ, replied via phone) stored in my SMS web-box. If you ever had difficulties receiving ICQ SMS replies from a phone, you might want to consider checking out the ICQ SMS Web-Box, where 60978221 is replaced with your ICQ number.

Cell group was good yesterday. New friends came and we sang songs in Chinese that I actually knew (thanks to last year's cell group ;P). During our prayer/sharing time, one of the fellow brothers brought out a very good point about the events following the WTC, etc. attacks. It's ironic how everyone is sympathetic about lives lost in America but we (as reflected in media) tend to celebrate , cheer, and encourage even more innocent lives to be lost in retaliation. The loss on September 11, 2001, hit so close to home and brought people together, but can't we also feel compassion towards those that live in other parts of the world? Does the distance make everything okay? How are we, in any way, "better" than "they" are for our acts?

Oh yeah, as I predicted earlier, I received my driver's license back via snail mail on Friday, before the Thanksgiving weekend. Even though I didn't get it in time for the weekend, at least now I feel more secure with it :P

I'm Thankful For ... |10.08.2001|

...Thanksgiving. Without the annual weekend, I would not have been able to take a break from all that Java and actually enjoy myself in Toronto (almost a first). Think this weekend actually felt like I was back in Ottawa once again (the coldness sure reminded me of it).

...my friends. Without them, I would not have enjoyed my Thanksgiving weekend, even though I didn't eat a traditional thanksgiving dinner. Ah well, Congee Wong sure makes a good substitute :). 'Cept the MSG is overdone b/c I was overthirsty and contracted a sore throat as a result.

Friday: I met up with Goldfish Man, Frank, Marcroni, Dim Sum (seems like I've known him forever), and Jonny Boy in the evening for some 10-pin bowling. I dunno how Summy does it, because he got strikes even with his left hand! Thankfully, I did not place last in either of the 2 games. I think my 4 days spent bowling in HK really helped. Phew. :). Bubble tea afterwards at Eternity took an eternity. I know why it's called that now--b/c the service is sooo slow.

Saturday: I can't remember what we did, thus X> (J) thinks that I got myself drunk somewhere along the lines during this weekend. Oh! Yeah, we went to Pac Mall (my second time) to eat some yummie sushi (pricey but good). Jon drove me to Office Place to get some of my course material photocopied. On Chapters: if any of you ever are in a strange need to get on the 'net for 15 mins at the Kennedy Commons Chapters, the $2/20 mins is unrefundable, so you can use my username and password: aimeili + lollipop. I'm glad that we stopped at Chapters b/c I was able to get 4 of my textbooks (that I was fortunately still missing) for the price of 3, and one of them was cheaper than the suggested retail price. So, being Chinese, I saved myself $20.

Dinner was yummy. McFish burger. Just kidding. Well, we did have a McD's meal for an appetizer before joining Silq, Danny, Hoi, Lawrence, Shaw for some all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ. Tastes better than what we do at home--less messy too! Spent some QT with Silq, Mumbles, and Jonny Boy, at the local Timmy Ho's--'cept that particular one had people who didn't understand English or something b/c even after I told her what I wanted twice, she came up with COLD ICE CAP (vs. hot cap).

Sunday: Church at T3C was alright. I have a particular preference for OCAC though if I was to choose from those 2 (b/c their styles of worship are somewhat similar). They actually had only 2 songs I knew (and from OCAC's POV, only 1 song). Most of them were older songs, and the only new one was, "Love You So Much" (Hillsongs). I caught up w a couple of ppl I haven't seen around much in the 'loo, and we went to lunch at some Malay/Singaporean food court type place. Food was quite yummie. Photocopied the rest of my course material at Business Depot/Staples and shopped again at Pac Mall (don't we just love it there? :P).

Dinner at Congee Wong (which we spent for lunch the following day as well before we all parted our separate ways). And night of fun and games at Dave and Busters. Ha. I was sooo close in having to not be able to get in b/c my parents neglected to send me my drivers licence in time and I had no proof of ID (since I look about 17). As a TO "bouncer" he was quite nice about accepting my student ID as some form of photo ID (though not age). The rest of the guys though, even though they had ID and had been of age for awhile now (yes, even Marc), he said to me, "I'll let you in this time, but even these guys are only on the cusp". Right. But I wasn't complaing b/c I got let in :).

Spent most of my $20 on racing/arcade games. Surprisingly, I beat most of them ('cept Jon) at Daytona and Daytona 2 on an automatic (they varied from standard/manual to automatic). Actually, I give them credit b/c it takes skill just to shift properly, whereas all I do, is step on the accelerator, and ease on them during the turns and accelerate again (brakes are used only in emergency situations). Not hard. Yaay. =). That was fun. The next part was concentrating on ticket/token games. The combination of Jon, Marc, Derrick and my efforts at various games (I flukedly managed to get 100 tix in a game) got me a package of gummy bears to share w them (eating and mutilating :P) during our coffee at Timmy's :). Yummy. Think the sugar kept me going during the night.

Conclusion: Weekend was well spent. Wish I knew these guys earlier in my university career!
"I thank my God everytime I remember you..." Philippians 1:3 (NIV). Thanksgiving.

Indian Summer? |10.03.2001|

I wonder what constitutes as an Indian summer? Days where sunshine warms the hearts of people, where one can blade outside in Ts and shorts? Days, at 26C, when Ben C decides to ask me to go to the driving range and I actually want to go, yet I have to go to class? Days, where my prof complains that it's too warm for an autumn afternoon?

So, in the midst of the lovely day, Ben and I decide to check out the job fair at the campus' "party hall": Fed Hall. Now, I can actually graduate and say that I have seen Fed Hall from the inside. I think I shocked Ben C when he learned that I don't participate in the parties and the dances our campus holds. :P Ah well. Ben, surprisingly, likes clubbing. But then again, he likes ballroom, so that's prolly why. So anyhow, Fed Hall isn't at all what I imagined it to be; instead of being big, it's quite small, and instead of having "gym" floors, most of it is carpet. Quite classy if it's in the right setting.

Yup. Um. That's all I gotta say today.