Jester's Blog

A confession, a thank you and a plea.

2007-11-29T07:26:00.000-08:00

November 29th, 2007

How do each of you pray? Where do you pray and how loud do you pray? I want you to think about that for a little while.

I will start with a confession. Most of you already know this. Most of you heard me tell you over the phone. I am so ashamed, so scared and so humbled by God for even considering. A little less than a month and a half ago, it came to a point in my life where I relied on school, to keep my mind off anything that would depress me, attack me. I relied on it keep my mind from thinking about stuff that aren't true or not Godly. I won't lie, I even relied on watching my collection of "Friends" dvd's to make me laugh, to make me think about other things, positive things. One day, I had a midterm. To be frank, I was thrilled. I said "Yes, 50 minutes of freedom from this "retardedness" that is me. That is my sadness and pain." I was let down. I lost 10 minutes of my test time. My one escape failed me at the time and I was devastated. When I got home from lunch with my sister, I look up something on the internet. No it was not pornography. I looked up sleeping pills. Not for the purpose of sleeping. I must apologize for that. Especially to those who didn't know yet. It scares me to this day that I would even consider that. That is my story.

Now that you know this. I want to thank you all for being there for me. Jonny, Roni, Melissa, Nathan, Jordan, Dan, Katie, Katie, Trevor, Nolan, Cyler, Heather (keo keo!), RJ, Susan, Jo, Nick, Alyssa, Nathaneal, James, Matt. Thank you all. I praise God for each of you whenever I can.

I can say that I appreciate your prayers, your presence, your love and your willingness to listen to me whine and complain at 3 in the morning.

The desire of my heart, in which Nolan has asked me earlier is to be free. Free for God. Free from this pain, this...anger, this bitterness, and this sadness. I want to break these chains, I want to fight for myself, so I can begin to fight for God again. I want to have the strength, God's strength that he's given me to carry myself, so I can help others and love others through Him! That is my plea to God each day, each night each minute of my time here.

My plea to all of you now is to keep praying for me. My plea right now is that you meet with me on saturday. 2:30pm at my house to pray. To talk. We'll be praying for each other, for me and for God to work in all of us. Times are hard, times have changed, people have grown up, gotten married, moving around, leaving town, but we must, as a group as the same group from way back when, keep holding on to him. Hanging on the strength that we've all found in Him. If you are not comfortable with praying in front of others, please remember to pray around this time for me. Or maybe take this as an oppertunity to try and to share anything that you may need prayer for. I know most of you don't mind at all. This needs to happen, I know it does. God knows it does. Please be here if you can.

That is how I pray. I confess, because from the moment I wake up, i have sinned. But already forgiven so I thank God for it. Then I ask God for whatever my heart needs, whatever my soul, my mind needs.

"I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints." Philemon 1:4-7.

See you Saturday.

-JP out
"All that I have is Yours, all that I am, is Yours"

Awakening

2007-10-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

October 29th, 2007

Jesus Christ, our Savior, who is the propitiation, the satisfaction if you would for our sins, and not just for our sins, but the sins of the whole world. The blood of Jesus Christ flowed from seven places. The first place He bled from: the blood that poured from His head that day. The blood from the thorns in His skull cleanses you from thoughts. The blood that was on his face, hay he has covered the things you may not want to face up to because of what you've seen or heard. Know this, the blood flowed for you.

"Ya, but you just don't know, I've backed away from the Lord, I've turned my back on Him."

Well they took a flagellent and they beat His back and blood flowed from His back, He was reduced to hamburger meat that day. His back was beaten so brutally. And if you've turned your back on Him and walked away from Him, know this: the blood that poured from His back cleanses you sprinkles you.

"Ya, but you just dont' know. What I've done with these hands."

Those hands were pierced, those hands were pinned to the tree. Spikes driven through those hands where He bled to cleanse you and cleanse me from the stuff that we have done that we ought not to have done, things that we've handled that we ought not to have handled. Hey, understand, the blood flowed from His hand.

"Ya, but it's the stuff that's inside of me. It's just things I feel in my gut. I have bitterness towards them and I'm angry with hurt."

Jesus wants you to know that blood flowed from His side when they thrust that spear into Him when He hung on the cross.

"Feet, where I ought not to have walked."

Blood flowed from His feet too. When the spike pinned Him through the feet, to the cross of calvary.

Now I realize, things I can't face up to, thoughts that I've had that are not right, not good, not true. Bitterness inside of me. Stuff that I've touched that I ought not to have touched, places I've gone where I shouldn't have walked. And I look, and I realize, the seven fold, flowing, of the blood of Christ. Cleanses me in every area from all sin and I am free and I am forgiven. By the blood, I can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Seven times perfection, seven places...that's what He went through for me and for you.
Amen

-JP out
"I'm a little teapot..."

A Thank You To Everyone

2007-10-24T12:23:00.000-07:00

October 24th, 2007

Thank you. Every single one of you, who answered your phone, replied to your MSN messages. Thank you to those who called me back. Thank you to everyone who prayed for me that night and who are still praying.
I realize I have not spoken to any of you, for months, some...a year or so. My friends, my family, you have no idea what you mean to me. No idea how you've moved me. It was extremely humbling to pick up the phone and call every single one of you that I had the number to. To realize that even during my absence, my period of never speaking to anyone, you are all here for me. To realize that you will help me and pray for me even if I've not been a friend or even an acquaintance at this time, is...overwhelming. I thank God for each and everyone of you, and I thank you for showing me what God has really given me. I tried so hard to contain myself while on the phone, but when I got to calling Lauren. One of my supposed best friends and Jonny over MSN...I just couldn't help myself but to let go. When was the last time I call either of you to see how you were doing? Or ask you out to some coffee or hot chocolate? When was the last time I showed up to your house for anything. To know that you still know my name, to know that i can still trust you Lauren, Jonny, it brings tears of disbelief to me. It is embarrassing to even say that. I am ashamed.

Weakness is a wound, that no one wants to speak of, but "cool" is just how far was have to fall. And I am no immune, I only want to be loved. But I feel safe behind the firewall. Can i lose my need to impress, if you want the truth. I need to confess. I'm not alright, I'm broken inside. Let me tell you this. I am not alright. I am not well, or fine. I am a mess. I'm not going to lie to you, I am holding back whatever I'm about to say. I can't give much details because it is too damn difficult. Eventually, you will know everything. If you want.

Rather than throwing a pity party, I want to tell you what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to get myself back. Lately, I've lost things that I stood for. God, friends, family, my future. I lost sight of what I believed defined me. My desire to help friends, my desire to only see them happy and to see that their walk with God is in the right path. So I'm trying to find, what has made me happy in the past. People say you should never dwell on your past. That is impossible. Lately I've only been focused on what has hurt me in the past, because it has been happening again lately..the past few weeks. Every time God has put me through a test of faith, I am convinced that I am to learn something from it. I think this is true, but the problem is, I haven't learned yet. I haven't learned from this test, I have not learned from the last test. Is this why I'm being put through this again? Perhaps.

I can't stray away from the past because I look to it for guidance sometimes. Someone once said, that experience comes from times where you don't get what you want. The past helps form who I am. Help me make better decisions. Granted, I haven't done that often, but it has happened. What have I done that was good? What was bad? I've been trying everyone. Been trying to remember anything that I've done that was good. So I can bring it back.

Thank you all for your prayers and words. I'll remember you when I count my blessings. Please keep praying as I will be praying for you too. Take care.

-JP out
"You're my Jesus, You're my hero. Everything I wish that I could be."

Wow, long time.

2007-08-04T14:08:00.000-07:00

August 4th, 2007

Hey guys and gals. Wow, long time. I almost completely forgot about this website. First and foremost, happy belated birthday to Cyler, Roni, and Jordan. As well, happy birthday Dan, who probably won't read this, and probably won't see any of us today for his birthday. Girlfriends, *sigh* who needs them right? This blog is mainly a....re-warm up for others to come. Since I haven't blogged since March. I think that my final exams really turned me off of trying to think of anything to blog about. I did take a spring english class. Read about 6 books in 6 weeks. Crazy, but I did find some extremely well written and interesting books. If any of you are big readers, you should definitely give "Tigana" by Guy Gavriel Kay, and "The Etched City" by K.J. Bishop.
This year I will be attending PAX again. It'll be in Seattle this time and will be MUCH bigger. It should be great times. Going with a couple of my school friends and such. Dan and Holly were going to Vancouver for their anniversary and they might come down to Seattle to hook up with the rest of us at PAX for dinner something. I looked back a little at this year to see all that's happened. People getting married, engaged, starting to go to school again. All crazy stuff. I know of some who are moving out of town. Oh well. I have something crazy planned too, but I can't say yet. :)
Any who, I'm free for this month guys, give me a call. b(^_^) Take care!!!

-JP out
"This little light of mine..."

This Might Get Me In Trouble

2007-03-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

March 23rd, 2007

This is a little story that was sent to me via e-mail. It's in honor of my fellow friends who are of the male type. Enjoy! Haha!!!

One evening last week, my girlfriend and I were getting into bed.

Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually says, "I don't
feel like it, I just want you to hold me."

I said, "WHAT??!! What was that?!"

So she says the words that every boyfriend on the planet dreads to
hear...

"You're just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough
for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man."

She responded to my puzzled look by saying, "Can't you just love me
for who I am and not what I do for you in the bedroom?"

Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to
sleep.

The very next day I opted to take the day off of work to spend time
with her. We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at a big, big
unnamed department store. I walked around with her while she tried on
several different very expensive outfits. She couldn't decide which
one to take, so I told her we'd just buy them all. She wanted new shoes to
compliment her new clothes, so I said, "Lets get a pair for each
outfit."

We went on to the jewellery department where she picked out a pair of
diamond earrings. Let me tell you... she was so excited. She must have
thought I was one wave short of a shipwreck. I started to think she
was testing me because she asked for a tennis bracelet when she doesn't
even know how to play tennis.

I think I threw her for a loop when I said, "That's fine, honey." She
was almost nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the excitement.
Smiling with excited anticipation, she finally said, "I think this is
all dear, let's go to the cashier."

I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, "No honey, I don't
feel like it."

Her face just went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled,
"WHAT?"

I then said, "Honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while.
You're just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for
me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman."

And just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I
added,"Why can't you just love me for who I am and not for the things
I buy you?"

This may only be true for some people and not all, but hey...what can I say?

-JP Out
"You matter to me..."

I Despise Long Division

2007-03-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

March 16th, 2007

Well, I certainly don't despise long division in a mathematical sense. In fact, I'm expected to use it all the time here at school. The long division I speak of is the time spent away from everyone for the past couple of months. It's been a while since I've seen the majority of you guys. For the exception of Cyler who came to see 300 with me and my school friends. It's mostly my fault for being absent, and I apologize. I recently gave some small advice to a friend of mine...and it involved NOT talking about school. So, I've decided not to talk about just that tonight. So, what's going on in my life right now? I want to tell those who I haven't seen in a while, nor talk to for that matter. Well, honestly, a lot has changed. First and foremost...*sigh*. My walk with God, hasn't been on track as of late. It could be due to that I'm not spending enough time with the rest of you and not talking about Him enough. I admit, I'm not alright. I hope you guys can pray for me. I've recently gotten more students to teach now, so that's a good thing. I teach Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. I do have a new cell number. If you don't have it yet..please email me to get it from me. I think the biggest news is that I moved. Most of you have been here already. It's my aunt's house in the Hamptons. She's moving to hong kong for 2 years without coming back...maybe for Christmas. So my family decided to move here and take care of Calvin. I'm excited about living here even though it's far away from most of you. If you call my old house number, you will get me here cause I forwarded the calls. When things get settled in, I hope to invite everyone to have a mini housewarming type party. My most recent CD I bought is the new Relient K CD. My most recent game is God of War II, which I finished no more than an hour ago. I'm still working on my "surprise" for everyone, but it's hard to find time, but I'll try. I miss you all. Give me a call and maybe I'll get lucky and will have sometime free. Thanks for reading!!

-JP Out
"I bring with me, the destruction of Olympus!!!"

Precipice of Darkness

2007-03-09T08:11:00.000-08:00

March 9th, 2007
Today is my little sister Natalie's birthday!!!!

I realized that playing over Hotel Dusk: Room 215 at this time of year again is lost cause. Due to the soul-stealing antics that is University life...so I will eventually get to it, but now is not the time. So here's a new topic :D.

In all respect to night time coffee with a friend because there needs to be "a talk" between you two, or just for the sake of hanging out at night, there seems to always be a point in time during this get together where someone says something...non-intelligent and asks for forgiveness since it was late...and they're not "thinking straight". So, when exactly are we thinking straight? Mornings? Well, I can argue against that, but I won't. I like night time chatter though. Some say that they get on an emotional high and start thinking about their past, future, present, past relationships, and the things that aren't exactly fantasmic in their life at the moment seems to get the best of them. Where does the term "night-time magic" come from? Now, I, for one have not experienced this voodoo of the night but I'm sure it exists ^_^.
It is true, that during the night that our inhibitions could be potentially lower than the required amount to stay alive and so we say stuff that we don't really want to say or offer things that well, we really don't want to offer like "sure I'll drive you to school tomorrow morning...I'll just study during my 2 hour break." I mean lets be honest here, I'm probably not going to study all that much. Though that example is ridiculous for such a topic, it's all I could think of. It IS morning you know :P.
Mornings tend to bring out the worst in people. In fact, I think my inhibitions are zero on a..."inhibitions..meter?" It's cliche to say that some of us are not yet awake enough to even think about going to school or going to work. Some of us luck out though, having a 45 minute commute to work or school, thus giving us the time to "wake up". Some aren't so lucky having to stay awake on the road stuck in traffic waiting for an hour and a half between 16th AVE and Mcknight. Or some of us mean to go to school and end up in the parking lot of a 7-11. Or doing a complete loop, and end up home again. I assure you, these events did not happen...perhaps. Mornings could bring out the best in some, or more likely, the "annoying" in some because it is the "annoyed" person that has the morning bring the worst in him isn't it? I'm getting all confused, but yes, the best in some people. Perhaps, best enough to sing:
"Morning's here, the morning's here. Sunshine is here. The sky is clear the morning's here. Get into gear, breakfast is near. The dark of night has disappeared!" Yea.
The meaning of all this lies in something my sister said this morning, something that she's never had the state of mind to muster up during the morning. There was a noticeable part between clear skies and a big cloud of sorts, possibly a rain cloud. In fact, if night and day were to be paradox in one painting, this would be a masterpiece. My sister proceeded to say "It looks like we're driving in darkness trying to drive towards the light but it seems that it's trying to keep us here." That was a very...good analogous observation. I think God put some words in my mouth because I responded almost immediately saying that if we keep driving, we'll eventually get there...it's not very far. She smiled, because I think she agreed with me.

I picked up the new Relient K CD expecting nothing worse then "2 lefts don't make a right...but three do" or "Mmmhmm". Needless to say they did not disappoint me. The rhythms and guitar riffs and even the style of their play in some songs don't sound like anything from "Mmmhmm" which is what I'm looking for in a new album. Bands that try different things are far more superior than the obvious latter. Despite their slight change in riffs and sound, every song and the album as a hole, "Five Score and Seven Years Ago" is delivered in typical Relient K fashion. Meaningful lyrics, catchy tunes, musical genius and a whole lot of heart. With of course, some silliness that is required in any Relient K album.

-JP out
"I just wasted, 10 seconds of your life"

A List Pt 10: Lists, and More...

2007-01-29T11:23:00.000-08:00

January 29th, 2007

The brutality of Nintendo Game Cube video game: Wario Ware Inc. was based on its ability to give whoever thought about playing the game, a seizure. I do recall having to close my eyes in fear of becoming blind because of the fast paced mini-games and many colors surging through my retinas. I do enjoy the game though, but not enough to purchase it. The new Wario Ware game for the Nintendo Wii showed a wide range of mini games and great ways to make a fool of yourself, which is the point of coming to my house and playing video games anyways :P. The basics of the game involve invoking the child in you, allowing you to use your imagination to make something as small as a remote, fun. Holding it like a samurai sword, an elephant's trunk, or perhaps pretending it was a phone. I'm being truly honest about the phone, as it is a mini game. Trust me, even ask Jonny. As for the "seizure factor", I think they improved on it, probably because of the 10 lawsuits Nintendo had. I'm just kidding. The colors weren't blurred together, and a lot more crisp. The mini-games did not come shooting out at you like Dan's 1 million rounds per second machine gun. I think it this is because of the basis of the game. The Form. It tells you how to hold the remote before the game starts. The mini-games do get very fast though.

To those who've been reading my lists, thanks! As you can tell, I kinda like lists. I thought it would be funny if I did a list of my top ten favorite lists. These lists don't necessarily include my own lists, but other lists I've seen that were pretty fun. Here we go!

JP's Top Ten List of His Favorite Lists
1. My Top Ten list of best lists :P haha..
2. The Death List (as created by our group, and because I'm last or second last on that list)
3. TSN's top ten sports plays of the week.
4. TSN's top ten fights of the week.
5. Much Music's top ten music videos that has nothing to do with the song.
6. Ed the sock's worst music videos in the history of the world.
7. Top 88 Ways to tell if you're Asian
8. The Marriage List
9. 1up's Top Ten Awesome Games that no one played.
10. NHL standings. (Let's be honest here, I look at that list a lot.)

For my next post, I've decided to share something really fun with everyone: I came across a video game for the Nintendo DS; it's called Hotel Dusk: Room 215.
The basis of its appeal is that its like an interactive book. They did a very good job in telling the story. You even hold the DS like a book. You know how when you're really into a book and you kind of imagine yourself in the book? As if you're the main character or something like that? Well, in this game, I found myself complete submerged into the story, and the brilliant part was, I was actually the main character...figuratively. I controlled him, told him what to say...asked the questions and so forth. The story itself maybe not a best selling novel, but it has some very good positive notes on it. It story isn't that long, but long enough to fill up a few good posts. So what I've decided on what to do is to play through the game again...looking at all the details and story very carefully, and re-write the story with some added things of course...to share with everyone. I hope you enjoy the story, cause I certainly did. Next post will be Hotel Dusk: Room 215, Chapter 1. Take care, good morning, good afternoon or perhaps, goodnight.

-JP out
"You reap what you sow"

I Swear I Hated That Guy The Moment He Was Born

2007-01-26T12:14:00.000-08:00

January 26th, 2007

After 4 months or so of waiting, the day had come when we would travel to Edmonton to listen to the Edmonton Symphony play video game music. Overall the trip was fun, tiring but well worth it. We were blessed with decent weather and a clear road on our trip up and more importantly, the trip back. In spirit of going to listen to video game music, the mini-van was fully equipped with Nintendo DS's and a Nintendo Game Cube. Granted I wasn't able to participate in the games as I was busy keeping my foot on the gas pedal and swerving into rumble strips. Who needs to play when you got sounds of bombs flying, people getting electrocuted, and the panic of scoring a goal before time runs out on the clock. Needless to say, I could easily imagine what was going on during a game of Mario Strikers. The competitive nature of my friends carried on to a game of Mario Party. I'm honestly surprised that my friends aren't blind from playing off of a small screen. Despite all the fun gadgets in the mini-van, I think the most useful was the walkie-talkies and well, the GPS system on the mini-van. The concert itself was nothing short of cool, but overall mediocre. The choice of songs were good, since it offered balance. They has music from classic arcade games, to One-Winged Angel from Final Fantasy 7. Which, by the way, was my favorite of the evening. There were times when the symphony and choir were off time. What do you expect, the symphony was from Edmonton. Let's be honest here.
Here's where the title comes in. They had volunteers....to play some old school games like space invaders and Frogger...whilst the symphony played the music in real-time :D. That was cool. They had this dude...named Roy. I swear he just crawled out of the basement to come to this concert, he was at least 400lbs and honestly, not very smart. There was something about him that made me angry. You know how that happens sometimes? I only feel partially guilty for thinking this way about him, but I don't think I can help it. When asked a simple question, "Where are you from?" He proceeded to think as if he didn't know. Then he decided to say...well, there's a lot of places, I guess Edmonton. That's a direct quote. I don't know...a little slow in the head. Oh well, I probably won't ever have to see him again.

Again, in spirit of video games, here's College Saga: Episode 3

-JP out
"Happy Birthday Nikki :)"

A List Pt 9: Who Saw This Coming?

2007-01-16T00:38:00.000-08:00

January 16, 2007

First and foremost, I would like to send out my deepest congratulations and love to Trevor and Melissa, who are to be married sometime in the near future. It's a happy time when 2 friends get together, start to date...pray a little, then get engaged. Thus the list created by us during my 21st birthday party still holds true, unfortunately I don't remember who was after Trevor. Was it Dan? Cause that's my next bet anyways. I'm almost certain that the list will be broken and become false...but here's hoping! A new list has hit me and everyone is probably wondering why this list hasn't been posted yet. Here's the reason. I wanted to create the illusion that there are other things in my life that doesn't involve video games. I hope people believe me...here it is.

JP's Top Ten List of His Favorite Video Games
1. Final Fantasy 6 (Final Fantasy III for the Super Nintendo)
2. Final Fantasy 7
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 (for original Nintendo)
4. Super Mario Brothers 3
5. Super Smash Brothers Melee
6. Chrono Trigger
7. Final Fantasy 11
8. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
9. Warcraft III (Defense of the Ancients Mod)
10. All the Mario Karts

Note: Elite Beat Agents was pretty close 11th or so but sometimes that game pisses me off.

This list is very very, subject to change. I have about 7 or so RPG's I have yet to play which could easily make the top 10 such as Disgaea 1 and 2, Xenosaga 1, 2 and 3 and others too. Thanks for reading.

-JP out
"I'll stand with arms higher and higher than this, in awe, of the One who gave it all.
And I'll stand, my soul Lord to You, surrendered, all I am...is Yours.

There Are Going to be Some Pissed Off People

2007-01-12T21:44:00.000-08:00

January 12th, 2007

Did you hear? Did you see? I did. I read, I pondered and I disagree...partially. No, I agree, wait, I don't know. Annoying to see a man being torn by news. I came across an article...Canada's new copyright law proposal. I don't know what to think of it. It's not a long article, so if you have the time, click on the link and give it a read.

The proposal focuses on the booming market of mp3's players. Also known as the Apple iPod. Burning albums, downloading them from a peer to peer connection, bit torrent for the laymen are to be considered as a prosecutable action. As noble and...morally correct as this seems, where is the medium? Where is it? How is it justified to force honest people, and grand supporters of music to pay for their songs TWICE. For the CD, and for the mp3 content on the internet. The convenience of my iPod is beyond words, I can take it with me to the gym, I can take it on the bus, to school without having to take the countless CD's that I have spent time to put on this mp3 player of mine. CD's in which I have bought with my money and have spent the time to go to the store and get it. In support of the band, in support of music as a whole. What of the people who don't do this? Who have thousands and thousands of songs but do not own but a single album? There are those who cannot afford albums. There are those who...don't really care. Who am I to judge? But look at what this has come to. LOOK! What say you of this....especially if this goes through? I don't need your defense, I don't need it. There is no right, and there is no wrong because it will NEVER be resolved you know that.

As promised here is episode two of the College Saga:

-JP out
"Goodnight, goodnight"

Parodies of Parodies

2007-01-03T14:16:00.000-08:00

January 3rd, 2007

I know, it's been a while, can't really say I'm surprised that I haven't posted in a while. My Christmas break/new years was pretty uneventful. Relaxing, but nothing too special. Perhaps it's mostly my fault, but it's something I won't concern myself with. I was pretty impressed with the speed of gift shopping this year. It usually takes me a week to get everything I intended to get. This time my cousin and I managed to get gifts in no more than 3 hours. I think the secret is...preemptive gift buying. As in...think before you buy. What would be a good gift for this person etc. Since I am a student, and only working 8-10 hours a week, I don't have the money to buy all my friends presents. I've developed a system called the "You'll get yours" system. This year, it was Roni (Lauren) who got hers. Next year, well I'll think about who to get a gift for. So one friend per year, and well, family. Well this Christmas, I did pretty well. I got guitar hero II, cashmere sweater, jeans and Flames tickets!! As great as Flames tickets are for a gift....it's kind of a scam. Especially if you get 2, cause you're obligated to bring the person that got you the tickets...especially if they're a Flames fan...like my sister. Scam I tell you.
I know that a previous post stated that I would get only either a Nintendo Wii or Sony Playstation 3, and not both in one year, but thanks to the holiday season and thanks to my uncle, he managed to hook me up with a PS3...so I couldn't really say no to that can I. So there, an unplanned turn of events provided me with both a Wii and a PS3. I'm quite happy about that.

Speaking of video games, many of you already know that I'm a big fan of RPG's and more often than not, hunt rare RPG's in stores and stuff. I came upon you tube video, which is absolutely hilarious. It's a real life final fantasy story, which is separated into four episodes. If you intend on watching this, please be sure that you have sound, cause the sounds are mostly the best part. Here is episode one.

I laughed pretty hard cause they actually got the funny things that RPG's do, like repetitive non-player characters, music, turn based battles illogical things like...how a chair can block your way. So enjoy!!

-JP out
"If you see a ninja, he's not a ninja"

A List Pt 8: I Better Not Get Any of These

2006-12-05T12:52:00.000-08:00

December 5th, 2006
Well, it's the time of season...as I said before...your VISA bill will be...in the 5 figures, but here are somethings you shouldn't use your VISA on or hope not to get...

JP's Top Ten List of Worse Christmas Gifts
0. ...So bad it deserves this spot. Perishable Goods.
1. Getting gift you gave out last year...
2. Ironing board cover
3. Ironing board
4. Diet plan
5. Co-op/Safeway/Fast Food joint gift card.
6. $5 gift card for anywhere.
7. RAM (As in computer memory)
8. Socks
9. A case for something you already have.
10. Fake jewelry.
- JP out!!!!!
"You'd like to think I have it easy."

A List Pt 7: I Swear, I Haven't Done Any Of These...

2006-12-04T12:48:00.000-08:00

December 4th, 2006

Well, I can't for sure say if these are stuff you shouldn't do...having not tried them, but I've imagined the scenario and situation it would/could cause if it ever happened. If you try any of these, good luck and I'll hope for the best.

JP's Top Ten List of Things NOT To Say On A First Date...
Note: These could apply to one gender or the other...even both sometimes.
1. Saying all of the below in 3rd person.
2. I'm 40, I live with my parents.
3. Should you be eating that much?
4. I'm glad my parole officer let me out tonight.
5. Girl: You look nice tonight.
Stupid Man: Thanks, my mom picked it out for me.
6. I'm a sanitation engineer.
7. I love kids, how many do you want?
8. General: Talking about any bodily functions.
9. Oh...so, you got this one right?
10. Will you marry me?

There you go! Thanks guys!

-JP Out
"Even when my soul is tired, I will lift my hands to you."

Rest for the Weary

2006-11-30T23:26:00.000-08:00

November 30th, 2006

Happy December...tomorrow...friends and acquaintances. The month of large Visa bills, frozen feet, and eggnog. I decided to take a break from the list thing. Perhaps in a day or two I will post another. I've noticed that some people have....natural effects if you will on other people. Their appearance and posture gives off an impression of sorts. Sometimes it's laughter...sometimes it's anger. Some people have a way of even making someone else feel special. I, for one, don't believe I have a "natural effect" unless it's inflicting anger or frustration into someone's mood. More often than not, it seems to be planned. Looking for the right thing to say, thinking ahead of what kind of reaction I would get. "Will it be funny? Will it cheer him/her up?" What am I to do when someone comes to me for help or advice...God forbid. What if I am a makeshift psychiatrist for the hour. I...can't help you. I'm terrible at cheering someone up...giving advice. I give wrong advice honestly. At least...that's what I think. I noticed this about me when a couple of friends of mine came to me with problems or complaints. Life, school, work, all our daily routine stuff that seems to fill our lives. They talked and talked and I honestly don't mind listening, I'm attentive and always thinking about what I could do to help. It's when the talking stops...I'm screwed. It's over, I don't know what to say besides..."Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." I would also tell you that I would be praying for you. Sure that's the truth...I will be praying, but I understand when you're stressed, angry or just hurt, you want answers from someone you see now. Right now. It's natural to feel that way cause honestly, you probably don't want to feel the pain anymore, and you don't want the stress, so you want results NOW! Forget it, I can't give it to you. That was before now. I know what to say to you now. I personally can't help you. I can give you to someone else. He's smarter than me. He's wiser. He's around more than me.

"Hey, it's me. I'm sorry it's so late. I can't sleep. I know you'd be awake. You're always home, waiting by the phone, for nights like these. When I'm feeling alone. I wish it didn't always have to be like this. I wish that I could talk to you, face to face, but nothing compares to the way you always listen and know just what to say. Hold my hand, I can't stand alone. Here I am, waiting for you to take me home. Oh, I just want to sing, I only wish there was a word for what you mean to me. I would only say it once, in hushed tones, so it would not grow old, because all I have is 'I Love You'. You're my Jesus, You're my hero, everything I wish that I could be. You're the One who comforts me, when everyone has gone away. I can't stand alone. Here I am, take me home. I will keep on singing, because You hear me, and I will keep smiling, because You're near me. I'll sleep well on a promise tonight."

It is my prayer for you that you know this, a person who expects answers now...to consider my answer. Not a direct answer...more of a push in a different direction. What more can I do? Well, if you know of something, tell me.
-JP out
"Grace of...heaven...find your way to me."

A List Pt 6: Outside...That's the thing with the legs right?

2006-11-27T08:22:00.000-08:00

November 27th, 2006

Well....I don't have much time outside....but I can tell you this much...there are a million things that are worth doing outside when you get a chance.

JP's Top Ten Things You Should Do Outside (Depending On Weather)
1. Play Soccer
2. Jump On a Trampoline
3. Make a Potato Cannon...and well, you know the rest.
4. Walk through a drive-thru
5. Bike through a drive-thru.
6. Ultimate Frisbee
7. Football
8. Hockey (Ice or Road)
9. Water balloon fight...(house wars, as in 10 people in one house, against another 10 in a different house)/Snowball fight*
10. Capture the Flag

*Note: Don't mix the weather up with these events...water balloon fight is highly recommended in summer/spring weather and not winter, unless you want to...whatever makes you happy.

-JP Out
I won't let go

A List Pt 5: Orange anyone?

2006-11-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

November 21st, 2006

Last night I ate eight Christmas oranges. I know it's not much...:S but it's my record so far...and it's hard to eat that much actually. Around the 5th one you're like....ugh...but here's another list.

JP's Top Ten List of His Favorite Fruits

1. Mandarin Oranges (NO SEEDS)
2. Papaya
3. White Peaches
4. The Regular Peach
5. Gala Apples
6. Kiwi
7. Honeydew Melons
8. Cantaloupes
9. Purple Grapes (No seeds)
10. Pineapples

Banana was a close 11th but I just can't peel those things :D.

-JP out
You're Unbelievable...

A List Pt 4: School....The Bore

2006-11-24T13:01:00.000-08:00

November 24th, 2006

Props to Jen (Faye's friend) for coming up with this topic.

JP's Top 10 Things To Do While You're Bored at School
1. Play Kitten Cannon
2. Make impersonations of people you don't like.
3. Look at other people's homework and give them advice on what to do (this works well if you don't know what you're talking about.)
4. Play Text Twist
5. Go eat. (Ordering Pizza to a computer lab works wonders)
6. Steal other people's food.
7. Throw monitors or chairs across the room.
8. Light your classmates on fire.
9. Skip classes and watch hockey at a bar.
10. Complain about how useless your teachers are.

Sweet....
-JP Out
"The Man with a purpose."

A List Pt 3: Lets Go Eat

2006-11-23T17:58:00.000-08:00

On my little dinner break here, I've been inspired to share my top 10 favorite foods. Note that this list may include entrees', condements, and light snacks.

JP's Top 10 List of His Favorite Foods
1. Finger Sandwiches
2. Cheese
3. Mom's Chicken Noodle Soup
4. Almond Ice Cream
5. Honey Mustard
6. Lamb w/ Rice Noodles and Soup
7. Salt and Pepper Wings
8. Perogies
9. BP's Mountain Speghetti
10. Gold Fish Crackers
Note that there are no fruits in here. I hold fruit very highly thus, I will devote a list entirely to those guys at some point in the mere future. Please...let me know of your favorite things, does some strike you as great as well? For this is half of the reason why I post these.
:D
-JP Out
Tis The Season To Get Fatter...

A List Pt 2: My Evilness

2006-11-22T08:12:00.000-08:00

November 22nd, 2006
Ladies and gentlemen, I come to you bearing another list.

JP's Top 10 Reasons Why Not To be Friends With Him
1. He's a computer scientist.
2. He quotes "Friends" way too much.
3. He thinks the Flintstones might have actually happened.
4. He didn't like Lord of the Rings as much as he said he did.
5. He's never seen "The Godfather"
6. He can't peel a banana properly.
7. He'll eat your food if you leave it out in the open for too long.
8. He's not really into photography, and will attempt to keep it that way.
9. He's always tempted to skip a gathering of friends to watch hockey.
10. He thinks JP is a cool nickname for him.

There you have it :P.
-JP out
"Getting Into You"

A List

2006-11-21T01:01:00.000-08:00

November 21st, 2006

I've decided to start a little series of Top 10 or so lists. Give me a chance to share and to actually think about stuff I like and dislike...so here's the first one.

JP's Top 10 Favorite Songs

1. How Many Times - Common Children
2. You Always Say Goodnight, Goodnight - The Juliana Theory
3. Obsession - Delirious?
4. Tumbling After - Starfield
5. Invitacion Fountain - The Violet Burning
6. Constellation - The Juliana Theory
7. Trance - The Juliana Theory
8. The Last Night - Skillet
9. There Is Nothing Like - United Live
10. In The Light - DC Talk

That's it folks...it's tentative...and subject to change over time, but this is how it stands as of now. :)
If you wanna get any of these songs, let me know.
-JP out
"Jenova"

The Last Night

2006-11-15T01:47:00.000-08:00

November 15th, 2006

You come to me with scars on your wrist
you tell me this will be the last night feeling like this:
"I just came to say goodbye, I didn't want you to see me cry, I'm fine"
But I know it's a lie.

This is the last night you'll spend alone
Look at me in the eyes so I know you know
I'm everywhere you want me to be
The last night you'll spend alone
I'll wrap you in my arms and I won't let go
I'm everything you need me to be.

Your parents say everything is your fault
But they don't know you like I know you they don't know you at all
I'm so sick of when they say:
"It's just a phase, you'll be o.k. you're fine"
But I know it's a lie.

The night is so long when everything's wrong
If you give me a chance
I will help you hold on tonight.

I won't let you say goodbye
And I'll be your reason why
the last night away from me.

-JP out
"Looking for Angels"

Bush Vs. Britney Spears

2006-11-09T00:35:00.000-08:00

November 10th, 2006

The day I let the general public rave about events in my life is the day I become leading scorer in the NHL. Let me re-phrase that. The day I am famous first.
I've started to wonder about when our so called society began to rely on another human being's life for entertainment. I wonder why people concern themselves with things that are not of relevance to their own lives. Do you know Britney Spears? Does it matter that she got a divorce? Do you know me? If you do, how much would it effect you if I got a divorce? At the very most, you'd feel sorry for me right? Alright, maybe I might have to sleep on one of your couches, but let's be honest here for a moment...I don't think Britney Spears will be sleeping on my couch any time soon. My confusion can go further down the rabbit hole. We've heard it before. Magazines. Celebrity gossip. "I still love Jenn!" Ugh. Well I still love jam. I despise the idea of the word "celebrity". Since when have any of us have become so bored with our lives that we must resort to these people for sustenance. Media tells us to watch these people because they're interesting. Media tells us what is defined as ugly and beautiful. Let me tell you one thing. Magazines love to tell us what to think, but for once let me tell you what I think. I think these magazines make you all forget how incredibly beautiful you really are. Maybe I'm crazy, and maybe I have no clue what I'm venting about.
The whole point of this vent is in fact lies in the lack of eloquence and intelligence in the news. The day after the election...top story..."Britney Spears files for divorce." What...? What happened to the story about the thing that happened that will effect the entire nation!? Or as far as the world? What...the...hell. I'd like to thank my friend Dave who saw this on a website...that sparked some thoughts in my head which eventually led to this. I gotta say something don't I?

-JP out
"Underwater Theme"

Remember, Remember, The 5th of November

2006-11-05T11:35:00.000-08:00

"Allow me first to apologize…I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of the everyday routine, the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke, but in the spirit of commemoration where by important events of the past usually associated with someone’s death or the end of some awful, bloody struggle are celebrated with a nice holiday. I thought we could mark this November the 5^th, a day that is, sadly, no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit and have a little chat. There are, of course, those who do not want us to speak. Even now, orders are being shouted into telephones and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why, because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will ALWAYS retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning and, for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth, and the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country isn’t there? Cruelty, injustice, intolerance and oppression, and where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting submission. How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Certainly there are those who are more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again, truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only to look in a mirror. I know why you did it, I know you were afraid, who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease, there were a myriad of problems, which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you. And in your panic, you turned to the now High Chancellor Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night, I sought to end that silence. Last night, I destroyed the Old Bailey to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than 400 years ago, a great citizen whish to imbed the 5^th of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice and freedom are more than just words…they are perspectives. So if you’ve seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you, then I would suggest that you allow the 5^th of November to pass unmarked, but if you see what I see, if you feel what I feel, and if you would seek as I seek then I ask you to stand beside me, one year from tonight outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a 5^th of November that shall never, ever be forgot."
-V for Vendetta

-JP out
"Nocturne"

Never Thought It Would Come To This

2006-10-30T11:17:00.000-08:00

October 31st, 2006

Before the semester began, I was under the impression that I was prepared for it. I understood the difficulty of University life and how it effects my...regular life if you will. I also understood the difficulty of the course content heading into my 3rd year of computer science. The superiority of Mount Royal College over the University in my opinion has convinced me that my experience at the College will follow through and even begin to help me in my studies here. As this is true thus far, there was one flaw in my assumption or observation for lack of better word. I never took into account that the majority of the professors at the University are completely useless in terms of teaching style, advice, and even course content understanding. Their "lecture notes" which is made in power-point by the way, makes me feel like I am in grade school again: with pretty colors, cartoons and the occasional cookie if you behaved well. Though it may seem that the resources at the University are abundant, that is just merely an illusion in which the prestige of this act is created by the vastness of the campus, and the name..."University". I have one word for any of you who are fooled by this illusion, "Google". This is beside the point. My point for this "bitterness" as my friend Matt would call it, is that I, for the first time in my post-secondary career, have considered dropping a class. This is certainly a big deal for me because I try to keep my integrity and fight through ordeals such as this, but there is a point in time where I have to analyze a particular ordeal and realize that "I am fucked". Now I asked my friend Sean to finish that phrase for me, because I want to refrain from typing that myself, but it is true. I've come to this conclusion on Saturday, that I'm in trouble when I read about a certain topic in one of my computer science classes for about 7 hours WHILST I was trying to figure out why a part of my assignment in a different computer science class wasn't working, and only got half a page of notes. Seven hours...seven. I thought seven was great. 7 grueling hours and I don't understand this topic that is the bane of my existence called Queuing Theory. The name alone shakes my soul like a Calgary winter. My midterm is tomorrow, and I know nothing. My assignment on queuing theory is due tomorrow as well. Clearly, the option of dropping this class has lingered in my mind for some time now. Last night was the turning point. I was at school until 3:30am and I haven't eaten in nearly 24 hours so I do have to consider my options regarding this course. My only light at the end of this tunnel is the Big Man upstairs himself...and well the fact that the rest of the class has no clue what to do about queuing theory. My sanity saving phrase that I've been counting on all semester: "Your light will shine when all else fails." Oh boy, that would be nice right about now.

On a more happy note, my skepticism of the new Final Fantasy game for PS2 has been dissipated after a nearly unanimous vote by critics and reviewers about the quality of this game. The press gave it 98%. "Best RPG of the year for PS2." Now I'm not one to always follow critics especially after reviews about M. Night's "The Village" stating disappointment but ended up imbuing meaningful thoughts and questions to my mind...much like why is jam so good? They don't know what they talk about. Needless to say, I hope my favorite game series does not disappoint my $50.00. I'm done for now.

-JP Out
"What A Friend I've Found"

The Hole Card

2006-10-16T07:25:00.000-07:00

October 16th, 2006

Ever done this before? Trying to make up rules so YOU win? I've noticed that it doesn't only apply to games...in fact, the whole games part of the rule making is analogous to our innate being as people...as cheaters. That's the beauty of this country...no matter how good you are at something, there's always someone better than you, or at least trying. It is the basis of North America's appeal. Come to our country, blow up stuff and be better than someone.

Perhaps it's not always a bad thing to try to be better...especially if it's for your own acheivement. I know some who strive to acheive the best in themselves...you know for that self-confidence deal. I'm not trying to be sarcastic, surprised? As much as I love it, I'm no Pato, the sarcastic duck. I'm being truthful here, self-confidence is a factor in your own mental health and I believe that you are striving to do something right for yourself only because you saw someone else do it and you want to be better. Haha. ☺ ...but who am I to say what's on your mind. Well, I'll take a wild guess..."This guy's a moron. He doesn't know what he's talking about." You know, you're probably right, but I'm the one doing the talking right now because there's no way you can interrupt me. Don't you dare click that close button.

Going back to the former paragraph...why are rules the first thing that comes to mind when you learn a new game? Why are rules enforced? Sure, rules tell you how to play the game...then why do we make up house rules. I believe I should be able to put 3 hotels on Boardwalk WITHOUT Parkplace, thus you owe me 40 billion dollars everytime you land on it. I win. Lets take this a step further. Football...hockey. When you first learn, they tell you not to kill anyone...fair enough. Then they tell you, you can't put your stick between their legs and trip them. Alrite. I know that now. So if they tell me whilst I'm learning this sport, why do they still have people throwing players into a box for doing it...cheaters is who we are. Despite the fact that we know we can trip someone...we still do it. Come to think of it...even though none of us play it that way, I will still try to put 3 hotels on boardwalk. It will be your demise.

Speaking of people being better than others...the picture above shows a dude who's awesome at what he does. That's right, that is Mr. Dion Phaneuf, hammering a guy named Hamal. I'm sure by the end of that hit, it's just..."Ham". It's for reasons like this, I love the game. The guy is only 21.

The quality of today's blog is not worth mentioning...I agree with you Lauren, too much on my mind, to even write it down. 1 miterm, 3 assignment, 2 quizzes. I love it. So stressed I'm getting the cold. Back to the books.

-JP Out
"Moonlight Sonata"

Finally, Some Information

2006-10-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

October 2, 2006

The information has finally been released on Video Games Live. For those who showed interest from the start, tickets will go on sale, TUESDAY OCTOBER 10th!!! The price of the tickets is still unknown BUT let me know if you’re interested so I can start gathering money from everyone. Why am I getting tickets? I’m getting tickets for people because first off, I’m off school at 12:30 and I don’t have to work that day, and #2, I’m too nice, but not nice enough to actually buy it for you with my own money…I need your money. The day of the concert is not for a while; it is on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 and Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 and it is in Edmonton. I strongly urge that we go on Tuesday because I get off school at 11 or so I can prepare things like my mini-van. I do realize that all of you or most of you have to work. I’m not sure what your options are…which is why I am letting you know of the concert date now, perhaps if you give enough advanced notice, you can book it off. People like Jonny, Nathan and Lauren, who have full time 9-5pm jobs; you should try and make it. The probability of this event coming back to Canada is very low. A quick flashback…what is Video Games Live? Video Games Live is a concert that features music from the most popular games such as Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Tetris, Donkey Kong and much more. The music is played by the top orchestras and choirs of the nation and also includes videos (probably of classic video games) and solos and much more. So if you’re interested, please comment on this blog, or email me at mhoa@ucalgary.ca or mandlorianFFXI@hotmail.com or phone me. I will be driving my parent’s mini van out there and have seats for…3 more.

Please note, that this is NOT the surprise…since it was planned before the dates were announced ☺.

-JP
We’re So Far Away

Surprises Come in Many Fashions

2006-09-18T23:35:00.000-07:00

September 26th, 2006

Perhaps it's my repulsive nature that brings the worst in people. Perhaps it's just the way they are no matter what, or perhaps I'm looking way too deep into it and there is a logical, and also acceptable reason for the things they do. Or maybe, there is no reason, and what I have started to believe, some people are just pure assholes. Forgive me for using that word but I am not a writer, I am Michael, a musician, a computer scientist. Let me tell you something else that I have begun to believe...obvious, blunt and outward jerks are less of an asshole than those who pretend. They lie, they put on a fake smile to cover up their smirk, their unjustified sense of accomplishment and their belief that they've actually influenced someone in a positive way. I suppose they may have, but as far as I can see, I can't imagine how. I want to make it very clear that I don't think this of 99% of you. The 1% whos name(s) I will not mention, probably do not know who they are, and for this reason, I am afraid to continue on this topic, because I'm afraid any of you will begin to suspect that you are part of that 1%. So instead of talking about you, I will talk about myself...just for a little bit. I will admit, I can also be a bastard, and I lothe myself for it. There are times where I put myself before others...even before God. I dont' understand why I do it and I'm sure I'll do it again at some point in the future. I'm sorry if I've ever done that to you without even realizing it, because lets be honest here, jerks usually don't know when they're being jerks. It's in our...innate nature if you will to behave in such a way.

I begin to wonder how I've gotten to be so lucky to have friends of this calibur, and it is because of your unmatched behavior enriched in delight, sarcasm, support, love and the occasional inappropriateness, I decided to put together a little surprise for you all. Obviously, I can't tell you what this is until the right time has befallen us and only 2 of my friends know about this. My family doesn't even know. I will not divulge the names of them for the sake of harassment which we are all known to do at times, nor will I answer questions of this matter, but I will tell you this...this surprise is for you...even though some maybe part of that 1%. I hope everyone realizes and understands that this will hinder me further in planned hang out times, and I would appreciate the no question policy as mentioned above.

A hot topic in the past couple of weeks is in fact the next generation Nintendo console...the Wii. Terrible name by the way. They might as well have called it "Fag". Although the stupidity of the name is not the centre of the reason to dig up past conversations, I thought it was worth mentioning...probably to make this blog look a tad larger. The arguement is that stands for the Wii is first off, the price. First generation release is half the price of the X-Box 360 at present. Although this is true, there are many things to take into account. Package content. I do not mean man package for those who are aware of this inside joke. The certainty of the contents of a Wii console package is unknown, but thanks to the wonderful world of statistics and the knowledge of the past, I would like to take a wild guess that a typical package would include the console, memory card, a controller and Wii Sports as promised by Nintendo. Price ranging from $250.00-$300.00. Seems pretty familiar doesn't it. There is something that I must mention about that though. The attachment to the controller or numbchucks allows you to move a character or an object with one hand and do actions with the other hand is easily $50.00 or more. So in total, you might be spending seventy to eighty dollars per controller. Many of you have played Super Mario Strikers, or Super Smash bros., or even Mario Party 1-what are they at now? 17? And it is easy to agree with me that the fun factor of each of these games lies in the multiplayer play. So investing in more controllers is generally a good idea. Nintendo...best reason to have friends haha. As I was saying, despite the cheap price in the core package of the Wii, tack on another $180.00+ and you've got yourself a full fledge system for $400.00. It's steep, but who says you have to buy ALL 3 controllers at once? Since the most recent video of gameplay on the Wii, it convinced me to not wait 3-4 months before getting the Wii, I will probably try to get it at launch day. That was my standpoint...up until yesterday. As hardcore as I may or may not be when it comes to console play or whatever, buying 2 console systems in 1 year is way past my limit. Although sitting there listening to little kids play piano pays well, I still need to drive and eat and well...study, I suppose. Thanks to the wonderful world of advertisement and my devotion to the Penny Arcade web-comic, I stumbled upon a video of a game, called "White Knight Story"...released by Sony for their new upcoming PS3. Now, it is widely known that the PS3 is RIDICULOUSLY overpriced, but seeing the in game features and graphics and battle system of this game makes me reconsider my decision on which next generation console system I should buy. In the words of Tycho Brahe - "This is how you sell me a goddamn PS3". Needless to say, I'm extremely impressed and my jaw is still hanging out of my mouth. In all honesty, despite my recent excitement for the Wii, I may cave and start to consider the PS3 as my new console system. First off, Nintendo has no third party support for their systems, that is, they make all their games themselves. PS3 and even Microsoft (X-Box) have their own support, such as Acclaim, Atlus, Square-Enix, Rareware, Namco and much more. If even half of these companies went over to Nintendo, it's over for the competitors. Moving on, besides all this lame and boring arguments on which console to buy, I will eventually have both. Ultimately. Thanks for reading dudes and dudettes.

-JP
Give me your pants...

Heroism At The Tip of My Fingers

2006-09-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

September 1st, 2006

The general population of our group is quite familiar with the letters, DDR. They are fully aware that this means Dance Dance Revolution, as made famous by Jordan, Dan and myself within this group. I owe a long and overdue apology to those who did not enjoy the presence of DDR at hang out sessions and/or youth events in the past. Although this apology is sincere, it is with a heavy heart that I must say that there is a new game having to do with music, and pressing buttons at the right time. Guitar Hero is the name and instead of a dance pad, you actually do have a guitar. This isn't a guitar you would want to use during worship practice or a concert of sorts. It has colorful buttons much like skittles. The idea is to press the colorful "fret buttons" and "strum" the guitar at the right given moment in the song. The selling point of Guitar Hero and the thing that allows it to surpass DDR with flying...fret buttons, is the fact that the rhythm it requires you to play actually follows the rhythm of the song and the guitar parts that fill it. If you miss, the song will sound terrible. I fully understand the concequence of introducing such a phenomenon to this group of mine...and by concequence I mean great fun and great music.

Going to EB games with a wallet full of cash is dangerous, even if I am going there with a purpose. I picked up Xenosaga III, and Disgaea 2 with the temptation of buying Starfox: Command for the DS but deciding against it mostly due to the fact that I had to buy Nintendogs for the little one. I'm not going to lie to you, it's a surprisingly fun game. I've tried it when she's not playing it. For those who have the DS, they should most definately try out Starfox: Command, because the multiplayer is a dogfight, essentially. I'm glad I was able to get Disgaea 2 because they only ordered the amount of preorders they got. Talk about being rare. Perhaps I should beat them both then sell them on ebay for 400 bucks for both.

I realize that this blog is mostly about games and I apologize, the gamer in me increased after my weekend at PAX.

I remember me saying that I will be seeing a lot of you less due to school. Now even more less since I was recently hired at a music school to teach 3 nights a week. Shameful. I propose we have a night where we sit somewhere and hang out even if it's for an hour or so just to talk, and pray for each other. I refuse to not see my friends for 4 months. Tell me what day is good for you guys and we'll figure it all out. Let me know ok? I must depart for now! Hope you enjoyed this.

-JP
Bark At the Moon

PAX '06: All Hail The Ball

2006-08-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

August 29th, 2006

On behalf of the so called "English language", I must apologize in advanced to the readers of Jester's Blog who don't take swearing lightly. It is an unfortunate fact that throughout the years, people have been accustomed to these swear words because they simply don't have anything more intelligent to replace their vocabulary, but because I am a musician and not a writer, I must use certain curse words in order to maximize the full feeling of my weekend in Bellevue, WA. Thus I believe it is safe to continue, but be warned, some of this content...is disturbing.

PAX, or Penny Arcade Exposition was this weekend and I went with 2 of my school buddies, Dave and Sean. For those who don't really know what Penny Arcade is, it is a web comic...essentially. The main goal of most of the comic, if not all, is to express their own opinion on video games, game developers, game critics who talk trash and don't know what their talking about and they just goof off and have fun and it's pretty darn funny. www.penny-arcade.com

In my whole life, never have I seen the stereotypical "nerd" before. That's right, I'm talking about the big glasses, the video game t-shirt that is supposedly clever but just simply retarded, the acne, and odd nasal voice. Oh, and of course their choice of conversation material. Better yet, their vocabulary, when the manage to fit everyday happenings with table top gaming vocabulary. It was shocking. I wanted to cry. There was something that I knew was going to occur...people that don't shower. Multiple instances of...bad smelling people. We were waiting in line for a Question and Answer session when this really bad smell came around and some guy yells out "sick, someone shit themselves." It honestly did. Then some guy walks by and as he walks by everyone looks down and covers their face. It was...like the wave at a hockey game. It disgusts me how some of these people really don't know how to shower or take a dump in the toilet. It's like "Oh good, you won the Mario Kart tournament, too bad you shit yourself in the 3rd lap." I say next time, instead of passing out bags of free games and stickers and other such paraphernalia, we hand them some soap and shampoo and a note telling them to take a shower.

There were many things available at PAX, such as panels, free console play, tournaments, concerts and a small area full of extremely large bean bag chairs to sit down and play wireless play on your DS. The most played game at PAX was the waiting game. You waited to play games, sit down, watch other people play games, waited for doors to open, and I also believe that you waited inline to wait inline again. I think that happened once. The only thing you didn’t have to wait for was to use the damn toilet. The waiting in line would have been much worse if it wasn’t for our Nintendo DS’s. Out of the twenty thousand people there, I believe over fifteen thousand had a Nintendo DS. The drummer from a band called the “Mini-Bosses” whipped out his DS between songs due to technical difficulties. Honestly you can hit the DS Download play option and there will be at least 6 games in your range you can choose to play with other people. Amazing. The other option was to go to Pictochat. Pretty much a small chat room where you can type or draw/write pictures. Unfortunately, due to a Penny-Arcade inside joke or trend, all that is drawn are pictures of penises. The most popular of events was the Penny-Arcade comic strip panel. This pretty much let the audience see how a typical Penny-Arcade comic is drawn, scripted, and also the thought process. This was one of my favourite events because watching the illustrator work his magic on my favourite comic series was simply amazing. On the 30^th of August or tomorrow, you can read the comic they made at PAX at www.penny-arcade.com/comic

Speaking of amazing, the video game pianist was there. This guy is like the Chopin of video game music. His set included: Kingdom Hearts, Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Brothers (all themes, including water theme, underground theme etc. He also did part of this blindfolded), Super Mario Brothers 3, Super Mario World, Final Fantasy X, Tetris, Final Fantasy V, and others I can’t remember or recognize. Sometime in November, there is a symphony called “Video Games Live” playing in Edmonton, where they will be playing music from over 40 video games in full orchestra, and choir. The video game pianist will be there too. Please let me know if you’re interested in driving up there for the concert and coming back the same night. I know I will try my best to go.

While we were all waiting for the doors to open to the PA comic strip panel, the area was way too tight to play Nintendo or really to move around. I believe my friend Dave called it a “Cluster Fuck.” So being the geniuses we all were, we decided to throw around a big huge ball around which later became a large game of “Get the Ball up to the 4^th floor.” The ball would be bouncing around and people would hit it up to the 2^nd floor. After that, the strategy was to throw the ball up to the little corner, which was the third floor. Which then in turn would lead to the fourth floor. This never happened…a lot of people are very…stupid or unwilling to cooperate. The ball ended up on a ledge and did not come down. This ball provided us all with over 30 minutes of entertainment and became the icon of our weekend. The footnote of Monday’s Penny Arcade News Post said “All Hail the Ball” in size 4 font. Thus, being the title of my blog post.

http://www.kevinfreitas.net/journalPicView.php?date=2006-08-26&item=030

That URL is a link to the picture of the blue ball we all held so dearly…trapped on a ledge.

PAX was fun, I wish I could have competed in the Omegathon. What is it? 20 people, 6 rounds, people eliminated at each round. For each round they play a game. The game could be from any platform, from table top games, to the original NES, to the x-box 360. The final game is also top secret until it is time for the 6^th round to start. This year, the gaming line up goes as follows: Diceland (Tabletop), Geometry Wars, Quake II, Guitar Hero II, Mario Kart: Double Dash, and original Tetris was the final round for the 2 finalists. First one to get to 30 lines or wins or first one to go “game over” loses. Best 2 out of three. First prize was a Scion, which isn’t a very expensive car but they “pimped” it out with another 10 grand onto it…which also include a built in x-box 360. Second place got an x-box 360 and a guaranteed spot in next year;s omegathon, since the players are picked randomly from those who signed up. I had a lot of fun. I want to go next year. Anyone else interested? Let me know.

-JP

All Hail The Ball

From China To You Part 3:Back From the Orient

2006-08-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

August 21st, 2006

I actually finished this post on the 9th of August but I had no internet connection to send it to someone to post for me. I also refuse to rewrite the whole thing. So this is what I have as of August 9th.

Again I write this from a world of no sun and weather hot enough to iron a shirt with a rock. Funny how that works.

We finally did something that didn’t involve shopping, which is a nice change. We went to Disneyland Hong Kong. It was pretty fun, especially because I made my sister go on a rollercoaster ride for the first time in her life. I even have the picture to prove it. Trust me this isn’t a picture you want to miss. This is one you want to blow up 400% and frame for it is priceless. I would like to remind my readers of my blog about “stupid” people. I want to introduce you to someone I call, The Muppet Killer. The Muppet Killer is a woman with red hair…short enough to be a man’s haircut. The Muppet Killer has no sense of wrong and I believe has the mission to destroy all that is dear to children. We were standing in line to take a couple pictures with Winnie the Pooh, and he had to take a break to…eat some honey. So he was walking back to where all the honey was, the Muppet Killer decided to hit Pooh on the side of the head, which I thought would be a funny idea…until she did it. It was a pretty hard hit because I didn’t see her do it but I heard it from a far. I’m not sure about some of you, but that’s not a very nice thing to do to a honey overdosed bear. She did apologize when asked. It was after when Pooh came back to his position of taking pictures was when she showed her…Muppet Killing attributes. She claims she was playing around and the employees, which by the way for your own peace of mind, did not yell at her, shouldn’t have yelled at her. She also insists that they give her an apology for her retarded behavior. I was in some shock.

Calvin, my 10-year-old cousin arrived in Hong Kong a couple days ago, so it was nice to see him, but it also reminded me how much I actually missed Natalie, the little sister. I have a picture of her in my wallet, but I don’t think that’s enough. I could not be more homesick, and I am willing to bet that that statement is not exaggerated. I’d like to thank my buddy Jonny though for sending a few pictures of each of you. It made me feel better! It reminds me that I couldn’t even be half as happy as I am now if it weren’t for all you guys. God’s blessed me with the things I need, and I can’t imagine anything else. Which in turn reminds me to say that I’m also thankful for water, and air conditioning. I think I almost died of heat exhaustion yesterday, never have I been so eager to go to a gift shop. We went to a crocodile park yesterday and it was easily 35 degrees and ever so humid. Overall the park pretty much blew but it had its moments, like throwing chicken head into a pile of crocs and watch them fight over it. I think the major reason for why it sucked was probably due to the hellish heat. We also went to some sort of garden with stone bridges, water everywhere with fish in the high hundreds. The neat thing was seeing the old culture in China. I’m talking big hats with the “ears” sticking out of it. Also got to see some paintings and old Chinese scrolls with a lot of writing so small I can barely read. It was a shame that we had to leave early. I wanted to look at more. I must mention that when driving around to get to these place we used the horn more times in 1 hour than I have used in my whole life and probably the rest of your combined too! I learned a little something a couple days ago that made the whole horn thing make sense. In China, there are different kinds of license plates. The one that is particularly interesting is the white one. These license plates have a military status. People affiliated with the military, or police cars have these license plates and it is especially scary. In fact people with these plates can sometimes get away with murder. It is creepy. The van that we sat in to get to the croc park and other places that day had one of these plates. Thus we had a siren and a big horn that you would only hear from police cars. So basically we honked at people to stop for us and get the heck out of the way. We didn’t have to pay parking fees, tolls etc. It was pretty awesome.

Last night we went to Banana Leaf. It is probably one of my favorite restaurants now. It’s a Thai restaurant. The curry is spicy but sweet. The fruit is fresh and the atmosphere is so loose but classy at the same time. People singing all the time, it’s like a mix between Montana’s and…some…fancier restaurant.

I checked out the “Broken Saints” DVD website last week to see if I wanted to buy it when I get back. I read the plot line and some videos and sample pictures and I got my friend to buy it for me instead…in case it was gone before I got back. Needless to say I’m pretty excited about that. I’m also excited about the Fall Line. No, I do not mean the Ralph Lauren fall fashion line. I mean the PS2 gaming line for the upcoming month. Six RPG’s within the span of 3 weeks and at least 3 will be discontinued within the first 4 months of sale…must…have rare games. I know, it’s not good but hey, I’m a gamer…I would like these things. I also took a look at the Mario Hoops 3 on 3 for the DS and was very impressed with the details put into this game, as well as the characters. With the genius of wireless multiplayer on the DS 3 on3 will be pretty sweet. Anyways, I hope to see you all when I get back. I’ll post a blog on Japan when I get back to Calgary!

Thus begins a new chapter or part 4 if you will.
I realize that I've complained about the hot weather in Hong Kong and China before. There was one "glass is half full" outlook to the humid weather of China...no sun. In Japan, there is sun, lots of it. The majority of my stay in Japan was full of walking, eating and visiting historic sites, such as Osaka Castle and Nijo-jo Castle. Not to mention the invisible mesquitoes. Yes, I crap you not, you don't know that they are there, until they get you, you cannot see them. Speaking of crap, did you know that Japan's toilets have a feature which I like to call, a butt washer. No, I do not mean falling into the toilet. I mean, that there is a spray that sprays your bum.
I would like to take a little time to pay my respect to Japanese people for they are incredibly...honorable, kind and patient. There was an old man dressed in what looked like a fairly expensive suit who attempted to throw his cup of coffee away but some of it spilled and got some on the floor. He asked the shopkeep for some tissues and kneels down and wipes it off the floor. I'm sure that a majority of us would have no done that in a large public area like the airport. Anyway, just a small example of what they are like. Well, most of them.

I would like people to understand that even though 3 blogs is not nearly enough for a 6 week trip to the other side of the world, but there were many...little things that are for sure worth mentioning, such as a fight to the death in Kimonos, almond ice cream, green tea ice cream, creepy buildings and fun conversations in the near hundreds, but if I were to mention 1 or 2, I would need to mention all of them. This could take a long time and frankly I honestly I don't want to.

Needless to say, I enjoyed my time there. I am also happy to be home and cannot wait to see you guys. I am also enjoying my new phone. My cell number is broadcasted on my MSN name, so those who have it are free to record it. Some of you, whom I will not name names, Cyler, think I'm nuts because I'm driving down to Seattle on thursday after this long trip, but the gaming side of me demands me to go to PAX. www.pennyarcadeexpo.com.
Next post will most likely be on this 3 day event. I shall enjoy it thouroughly. Take care, good night and arigatou gozaimasu.

-JP

From China To You Part 2

2006-07-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

July 24, 2006

Part 2 of my adventures in a region where tea is poured for you, where you merge from the left and Pirates of the Caribbean 2 comes out on the 3^rd of August. I feel that I’ve seen enough or…experienced enough to write a second time from the orient.

On July 17^th I saw the blue sky for the first time since I arrived here. It wasn’t a lot of sky. Like a patch of blue…as if clouds were blue here…blue on grey, lovely, isn’t it? And when I went to Hong Kong this past weekend…I saw the sun. My sister described it as, a large weight being lifted from her shoulders, just one sighting of the sun. Despite the fact that this place is completely lacking in sunlight and the color blue, the streets are virtually…litterless. Yes, I know Microsoft, I know that litterless is not a word. I went to a place, which I believe was China’s own version of Time Square. You know, lots of shopping malls and stores etc. Perhaps hundreds of thousands of people walking the streets of this area and I honestly did not see a piece of trash. Amazing. It makes me think about the trashy places of Calgary, and how some of us take a city such as Calgary for granted. I love that city. There’s sunlight, there’s rain, there’s snow. It’s got it all. I’m ashamed to say that some people treat the place like a dump. Sometimes I leave my house to find fast food bags and slurpee cups (slurpee is a real word Microsoft!!!!) on my lawn. Why aren’t the streets of Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver, like the streets of Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing, etc. It most certainly is a crying shame, but I am only one man. What can one blog change right?

My next point is shopping, and traveling. For the fellow readers that don’t know the contents of my family, my cousin Wayne is the only guy close to my age. I don’t have a brother, two sisters. I hope some of you will understand me when I say that traveling around and stuff as the only guy in the group is rather difficult. First of all, my cousin doesn’t really go with us anywhere, neither does my Dad. After a time, I start to realize that there is only so much shopping a guy can really do. I mean face it…I’m a guy. I enjoy shopping more then most guys. I don't really know if it’s my place to complain, and maybe I’m totally unjustified in complaining but I’m sorry, it’s the way I feel. It also doesn’t help that 80% of the stores here are all girl stores, so I find myself standing outside awaiting the two girls. The whole mall is like one giant La Senza or Le Senza heh heh. One cool thing is that I bought Nike shoes for 60 bucks Canadian. Rather than 170? So the basis of my weekend in Hong Kong was really shopping and eating. Oh, and finishing the book “Three” in the span of 2 days. I think I’ll try to finish “Piercing The Darkness” in the same amount of time. It’s about the same length.

I must comment on one thing in Hong Kong that I experienced. Of course it is on the subject of food. I went to a hotel called the Nikko Hotel where their Sunday nights feature a multinational buffet. There was raw salmon and sushi and wonton noodles. There were almond peach pie, and stuff like that. What I found really delicious was the mini beef burgers with mushroom sauce. That was a great...greatness and a half. Fantasmic. Beautificent. Pick a word :D. I also did something that was rather genius. Or two things. Genius thing #1: There were cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce. Your regular salad bar, so I mixed those together…then something caught my eye: a platter of smoked salmon. I couldn’t resist that, so I just took some pieces and slapped it on my salad. Then I tossed some thousand island dressing on there. Holy cow was it great…greatness.

Genius thing #2.: There was a cold meat platter, Chinese style, and a station where you can get stuff like beef satay with onions and black pepper sauce :D. MMMMMmmm. Of course, me being the genius that I am, found 2 pieces of bread…stacked it with cold meat…satayed a little beef and onions and black pepper sauce and made a sandwich. So good…my mouth was full and I turned to my sister and said…”I’m so happy.” Other than that the buffet was only decent and the desserts were not really that good. Either too sweet or just plain…”eww”.

That’s all I can really think of to share at the moment. I can’t seem to think of anything else. Here’s a good riddle for people who haven’t read the book “Three”.

“What falls but never breaks, and what breaks but never falls?”

No cheating ok? Comment if you think have the answer!!!

-JP

From China To You

2006-07-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

July 16th, 2006 (Calgary), July 17th, 2006 (China)

Don't worry, I know you guys like to be surprised, so I won't tell you what happens on the 17th ;).

China is a scary place. China is a dirty place. I would like to introduce you to a key word that explains about 75% of where I've been in China. "Eww". As recently developed and bloomed into a word that has been used throughout this trip of mine, my thanks to my cousin Nina. Even my aunt who doesn't speak english that well, has picked up the unlikely trend. The 2 cities I've been to are pretty scary. Including the traffic. I swear the traffic rules are just don't kill anyone and stop at the lights. You got buses to change lanes to pass people and they have gotten so close to our car so many times I could touch the bus by opening my window. The people are creepy too. Guangzhou isn't bad people wise, because it's more of a downtown business kind of atmosphere. When I went to Shenzhen, I thought I was going to be robbed about 3 times. The second I got off the train I had people swarming me asking me if I needed a ride, to a certain place. People asking me to get into their car. Creeeeepy. When I was in a shopping mall in Guangzhou, this woman came up to me with her daughter whom I believe was around 17 or 18 with a planned and shaped sad face. Now, I don't understand Mandarin very well, but I believe this woman was trying to sell her daughter's body to me. If I would pay good money I could go ahead and have my way with her. I felt sick to my stomach. I prayed for them. Everyone is trying to make a dime, and will stop but nothing to get it from you. I went shopping with my sister, cousin and aunt a couple days ago. Pretty nice mall I must say. Expensive stuff that's for sure. It's a tad cheaper if you convert the prices to the Canadian dollar. My aunt taught us how to...haggle...or bargain. Using our knowledge that these people will stop nothing but to make money from you, we found what we wanted and told them our price and will not go higher. Keep arguing...and you will find a way to buy something for 80% cheaper. I bought something that orginally they asked for about 380 bucks china currency. We wanted to pay 90. She went from 380 to about 350, to 275, to 200 then to 100. I walked away...still wanting to pay 90. Within 10 minutes, she came running...chasing me down telling me to come back. 95 she says. Nope. No good. After 15 minutes I was victorious. It was so funny. My cousin Nina laughed pretty hard at the fact that she actually chased me down. This happened at multiple instances. We would walk away and they would peek out of their store waving us back yelling a cheaper price and finally at our price or something extremely close to it. We bought an extremely nice and large Samsonite suitcase for 27 bucks Canadian. I also found my new phone. I'm going to hong kong to buy it cause it's cheaper that way. If any of you are interested it's the LG KG90. I know, I know, it has a camera on it, but the rest of it is too gorgeous to pass up.

I've been spending most of my time at my uncles office, where he is the big boss man, which is kind of neat. We were brought here to learn and to work for my uncle. One month isn't that long of time to learn much, especially for my part. Majority of programming in this company uses .NET programming. Which I have not learned. If I really tried, I could learn within the week, but since if I started to program, they would actually use the software, and well they can't run that risk. Plus they have many people programming anyways. I believe the ultimate goal of this "learning experience" is to gain experience in speaking Cantonese more fluently and more...often and to pick up some Mandarin in the process. I must say the Cantonese has come quickly, going back to my roots is a good feeling really. Don't you worry, I still miss you guys a lot. My friends, my parents and my sister Natalie...aka "The Nat". I finally found time in my traveling to sit down and think about a blog. My trip from Calgary to Hong Kong was a long process. 1 hour flight to Vancouver, a 5 hour wait, 9 hours from Vancouver to Japan, another 5 hour wait, then a 4 hour flight from Japan to Hong Kong. So almost an entire day worth of flying and waiting around. Did I mention that there is like no sun here? It is still 35 degrees celcius on average. The air is so polluted. Someone tell me that the sky is still blue and not...lung cancer grey. I should go and buy some pencil crayons...color a piece of paper with sky blue. So I can stare at it. Anyways, I think I have to cut this one out short. Get back to work. Goodnight to you Calgarian folk! Go Flames GO!

-JP

Dear Lord, What Have I Done

2006-06-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

June 9th, 2006

Months after the hype of the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. I've been skeptical of either handheld console. Anything that powerful is bound to screw up in some way. Sure enough the PSP sometimes simply stopped functioning much like my brain from time to time. Nintendo as per usual stood out to be the better of the 2 evils, but much like nintendo, games for such a console were scarce for the exception of Worms, mario bros, mario kart and brain age. For those who don't know me that well, I like my video games to be fun and difficult. I don't find games such as Power Puff Girls or Scooby Doo very difficult, nor fun in the long run. This skeptism of the Nintendo DS partially went away when I saw the previews for the *New* Super Mario Bros. It's almost like the original...made better. I didn't know what to do. I went into EB games and tried it on their Demo DS's and learned that a new DS lite was coming out. Sold. I caved. Oh boy did I ever cave.

I was recently looking at the EB games website for titles that will be released for Game Cube in the near future. The sight was unbearable, it was just as I thought, Power Puff Girls, Scooby Doo, Jimmy Neutron etc. Oh the glory of games for kids, and don't forget, the games from movies like Superman, X-Men 3, ...Divinci Code. Movies made from games don't tend to work...ever. Except for Resident Evil and Silent Hill. It turns out that games made from movies aren't neccessarily a sexy party either.

On a happier note, I'm registered for my 3rd year of Computer Science. 4 classes in a semester. I've read the description of each of my classes. I don't really know if I'll be seeing any of you in the upcoming fall. Alrite, so I suppose it's not a happier note, but there are some of you that I don't see anyways. (Whose fault is that by the way, probably both ours for the exception of some). I will occasionally see my sister from time to time. We're in the same school, for the first time in about 13 years. Granted the school we're in is about 40 elementary schools put together but still! I have read what I am to be doing for my classes, I will be nothing but a 6-digit number. For now.

JP

Everything's Changing

2006-06-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

June 6th, 2006

Everything's changing. People getting married, people getting engaged, people moving. There are people graduating, and finding their careers. There someone that hasn't changed much. Me. I can't really explain how I feel about this...non-change of mine. I honestly envy some of my friends. I wrote a rant about 4 years ago, about routine. How people are so caught up in their own routine driven lives. I think I'm beginning to become one of those people. I don't really have that much excitement in my life which sometimes is pretty good. It's familiar, safe. That's kind of what I am like as a person anyways. I'm not saying that my life sucks, cause it doesn't. Not the least bit, but everyone once in a while I sit down and look at myself and wonder where I could be going in 20 years. Nevermind 20 years, maybe in 4 years. I talk to a lot of people on MSN and stuff, and they ask me what's new or what's up. I really don't have anything to give them. It's either school or summer. I don't mean to bore them but it's the truth. I suppose an education is a good way to start change. I do want some change in my life, but for now I think it's baby steps, and prayer. That's important. Let me finish my computer science degree. Bring on the change, but I'll be ready when God throws that curve ball at me. If he does. Pray for me guys, and gals, for I am not alrite.

JP

We All Have It

2006-05-28T01:34:00.000-07:00

May 28th, 2006

I want to take a little bit of time to talk about what happened today. Well, the 27th. It has come to my attention that the Edmonton Oilers have made it to the Stanley Cup final. Now, most of you don't care about hockey and don't care about the Edmonton Oilers nor the Calgary Flames. I've come up with a terrible analogy to describe the bitterness, anger, and well blind hatred I have towards this fact. The restaurant "Boston's Pizza" serves nachoes with either beef, chicken or just plain nachoes. Suppose that you love chicken on your nachoes since you're...allergic to beef. You could eat something else besides nachoes but you decide that it's too fun to eat and is better than any other dish offered by this restaurant. Now let's say that the BP's some how...ran out of chicken. Isn't that devastating? How bad would that be for you? Well, you could eat the nachoes with just the regular stuff. So you decide to do that...but the restaurant decides to force you to eat these nachoes with beef!!!!!! Worse yet, they are charging you $13.00 to eat it. You can piece this together yourself. I know what some of you might be thinking. Yay, canadian team, alberta pride. I tried to see it that way. Nope. I think that hockey fans...REAL hockey fans should be devastated about these...Oilers. I must say that the band wagon jumping Oilers car flags and jerseys are very discouraging when last season all you can see is red. The car flag is a huge symbol of wagon jumping to begin with, which is why during the regular season and playoffs, I did not have a flag. Just my jersey (which by the way now I have Yelle on the back!) Now that the Flames are out, and the Oiler flags are in, I put my Flames car flag up. That's right. Can you flames fans really be satisfied by saying "at least an alberta team won." What a load of crap!!!!! We got beef from alberta...good enough for me. No relation to my analogy earlier by the way. This is about 2 cities. I really don't believe I saw that many calgary flames flags in Edmonton when the flames made their run! Why should WE support THEM! 2 cities that have been long rivals. I didn't see Germany hold up canadian flags or US flags when they started to get owned in WWII. The point is, I'm not impressed with how this has played out. I'm not impressed with this city. They call Whyte Avenue "The Blue Mile!" Fag faces. They steal from us! Blue is stupid, it's the color of the sky, it's the color of the ocean. It's not fire, or blood. It's the Red Mile, the one and only mile. So get out oiler wagon jumpers. Two for me, two for you....get out. Go Eastern Conference!

I went to see X-Men 3 a couple days ago. Decent movie, won't see it again though. Bryan Singer should have done the movie. If you're expecting a very close to the comic movie, don't see it. You'll cry. I find it funny how the only people who dressed up as super heroes had to sit at the VERY front. I mean come on buddy, show a little commitment. You should have middle seats. No the chump row. Which reminds me of one of the best parts of going to see a hype movie on opening weekend. Watching people show up at the theatre about 10 minutes before it starts and act surprised that there are not good seats available. Just shows how stupid some people are. Want more proof of the stupidity of some people? I was driving down a highway last week and saw that a car wanted to merge. Now this car was merging in a little slow so I sped up so he can get behind me. All was fun and games until we get Mr. I'm too self centred here to look around me comes into play. He's driving along on the other lane. As I move up for the car trying to merge, he CHANGES lanes and blocks the other car from merging. Almost caused an accident. Couple cars back had to break suddenly because this fag was too stupid to look to see that someone wanted to merge. Wow hey, just..wow. Just quit driving. Anyways, I'm tired right now. Goodnight. Boo oilers, boo stupid people. I bet they're oiler fans. Boo.

JP

The Truth

2006-05-23T13:42:00.000-07:00

May 23, 2006

My apologies for not posting recently. Busy. I suppose that would give me more to talk about. Wrong!

The truth is that I don't have much to say! You can probably tell from my recent posts...not much is really happening. This past weekend was Lauren and Nathan's wedding. I spent about 70% of it complaining how tired I was. It goes a little something like this. "Dan I'm tired, dan, dan, tired, I'm tired." You get the picture. I'm surprised I'm still alive in fact. About 20% of it was me in a suit...looking hot haha. Just kidding. Another 15% was geared toward actually doing something in the wedding. This means encouraging Nathan's desire to play with the boundaries of social conduct. Also known as our march down the isle whilst he "dances" behind us. I also had the honor of walking Lauren's mother down the isle. Which was pretty special. I know what you're thinking. Haven't you described 105% of the wedding? Well, yes, I have, because this wedding needed 120% from everyone. My last remaining 15% was geared towards staying awake, having a good time, eating, and not ripping my pants when I fall down as I get shot by nerf guns, which by the way are larger than regular guns.
The fact that 2 of my close friends has just gotten married didn't hit me until I think half way through the reception. I didn't know how I felt after that. A part of me told me not to care. That's no good. I reminded myself of the song by relient K. Something about apathy and how it's a pathetic way to be. So that works haha.

The Truth
I've collected all these thoughts,
And I'm dying just to lose them.
And if your words are true or not, I'll die trying to prove them.
And I'll just have to accept, that my mind is so inept.
And the only thing that's left for me to do is to trust you.

Convince me, because I really need your help.
Convince me, because I can't see this for myself.

I'll put the emphasis on the evidence, begging for the proof.
Sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth.

This is so unnerving, I know you've never lied to me before.
But the things you're telling, I can't yet believe, yet can't ignore.
But I'll just have to accept, that my mind is so inept.
And the only thing that's left for me is to trust you.

Put the empasis on the evidence, begging for the proof.
Sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth.
Attempt to put our lives into your hands, confide in what you'll do.
Sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth.

It's a world full of cynics. Who say "to stay alive in it, you gotta stick with what you know."
But the soul is always aching, for the heart to start taking, a chance by letting go.
So let go, let go. Sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth.

Attempt to place our lives into your hands, confide in what you'll do.
Sometimes when you're trying to sleep,
and all your doubts and your faith don't agree, it's cause,
Sometimes the hardest thing to believe is the truth.

I don't know how many times I've listened to this song. The colored portions really spoke something to me. I always think that I don't know what I'm doing. Turns out, I really don't have to know.
Confide: To give as a responsibility or put into another's care; entrust:
Entrust. That's a done deal for me. What do you guys think of this song? Colored parts? I honestly think we all ought to take a chance by letting go of what we just know. Our own comfort zone. People tend to panic when they see or feel something they are not familiar with. Which is in another blog all together. I hope this song says something to you too. Take care!!

JP

Appliances

2006-05-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

May 18th, 2006

Shopping for Nathan's and Lauren's wedding gift was an adventure in itself. Well it's an adventure when Dan is with you. We learned that the gift that we were going to get was already bought. It is highly likely that the reason for this is we waited too long to buy this gift. After a long discussion we decided to go with the water cooler. After deciding on this, we weren't exactly sure where to go. Should we...buy the thing? Cause it's a was a water cooler. It's pretty huge. We didn't know whether to "order" it to be sent to their house and we get the bill sometime next week or something or what. you can imagine how this went. 2 guys, in need of help or "directions" if you will. Fun filled time. So we finally got someone to go look for it. Whilst we were waiting we found some really cool appliances. Like the ice maker. So weird. We discussed registering for that icemaker, but 2 guys registering for it is kinda weird haha. We decided that when we ended living together we would just buy it. We found really cool fridges. Dan has his heart set on buying a very expensive fridge when he moves out. So much for our icemaker. There was also come confusion regarding an air conditioner. One side of it was blowing out heat, the other side blew out cold air. He thought they air would cancel each other out. I taught him a lesson by slapping the side of his head. Finally they came out with the gift. All was done even the gift wrapping. I hope they like their new vacuum. *DIS* in a gift registry means discontinued.

-JP

Divinci Code

2006-05-17T21:46:00.000-07:00

May 17th, 2006

On May 19th, 2006, it could be the day where the world will go crazy as if they found gold. Or everyone will treat it as any other day, some birthdays will occur, anniversaries etc etc.
My hope rests on the latter. Any other day. What happens on May 19th? The release of a movie. The Divinci Code. Released first as a book by Dan Brown. I first heard about this book when I was at a church and the Pastor did a 2 part sermon on this book. It was at this time where I learned that people have been taking this book WAY too seriously, as if they found to the answer to Christianity and the flaws it may contain. People believe that it is the answer to the question that have been driving theologists, scientists, atheists etc crazy. Please. Two for me, two for you, get out. Dan Brown clearly states in the description of the story plot that it is fictional. I believe it is within the first paragraph of this description. Yes, he did do extensive research but he twists it, to make the book fictional. Listen, I maybe wrong, but I KNOW the book is meant to be fictional. I only hope and pray that people do not take this movie seriously. Nor take the book seriously. I do intend to read this book because it sounds extremely interesting! I also want to see the movie because I like Tom Hanks. Go read the book, tell me what you think. See the movie as well. I implore you to not take it so seriously! Take care, and good night!

JP

Hockey Pool

2006-05-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

May 16th, 2006

During my school year of 2005 - 2006, there were 2 things that kept me going, Mug Rootbeer, and the NHL. I love watching hockey, I would take "study breaks" to watch the Flames play. For this season's playoffs, I organized a hockey pool consisting 16 members including myself and my sister. As the playoffs progressed I grew more and more worried about the pool results, rather than enjoying the beauty of playoff hockey entertainment. It wasn't just me, no no, my sister was a pretty insane as well. She honestly did not care who won. She wanted points, who scored? Who cares!!! I began to regret doing this, and contemplated whether I should do that same next year. Now that the playoffs are almost done, I see that there is no chance for me to win nor my sister. Now all of a sudden I enjoy the awesomeness that is hockey. Maybe I will do it again next year, but I won't join it. Hmm...interesting. What should I do?

Comments please!!

JP

Room Cleaning

2006-05-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

May 15th, 2006

It never really occured to me until yesterday that my room was extremely...well, unclean. I started my dusting out my computer...using air in a can, which by the way is one of the best inventions since sliced bread and pizza, in my opinion. After about 30 minutes of shooting air out of a can, you can still see the dust in the air outside. Anyways, the point is that my room was terrible. I found stuff...like my horn for Flames games! Yes yes, I am a Flames fan. As I was cleaning my room, I looked out the window and saw a cat staring right at me. Man I hate cats :S
I tried to shoo it away but it kept on clawing at my window screen hissing at me. My apologies to cat lovers but I wanted to kick it.

You never really know what you're going to get out of animals. You can see a huge dog, but it'll be the sweetest thing and a little pooch which will bite your ankles off. I started to blast some Relient K to scare the cat away. It was a happy song, I thought it might start dancing, but I realized how useless some cats are. Just as I thought, it ran. Continuing on the room cleaning, which took over 4 grueling hours, my frequent visitor came by a second and third time. I think came back for more Relient K. Can't get enough of them, hey cat? I think he just wanted some more music goodness. After doing all the cleaning and now posting this blog, I realized that my new keyboard does not have a Num Lock Key. I'm in big trouble haha. I got nothing else for today.

Thanks guys.
JP