The end is so near, yet so far....

*LISTENING TO:*
Song: Center
Artist: Charlie Hall
Album: Flying Into Daybreak
Quote: "Christ, be the center of our lives. Be the place we fix our eyes. Be the center of our lives. We lift our eyes to heaven, we wrap our lives around your life. We lift our eyes to heaven, to you..."
* * *

Hrm... alrighty, well not much happening except the usual (school). Some midterms are filtering back in... didn't do as well as I hoped but I don't really care at this point, as long as I passed 'em. Upcomings weeks, it's gonna be hectic once again, with big group end-of-the-semestre projects, assignments, and presentations due dates approaching. Throw in a few midterms in there and a few incompetent team members in the mix, and yeah, you've got a recipe for stress. Gonna try to take a course over the summer that will let me finish in June... then, it'll be serious job-searching time as I (hopefully) can start my career in the workforce. I am soooo hating school right now... can't stand it... can't wait to get out and just work. I'm definitely looking forward to supporting myself and being independent and living on my own... don't get me wrong, I love my parents and they have been absolutely awesome... but I'm definitely feeling the urge to take the next step and be on my own. Definitely trying to listen hard to hear where God wants me to be after school. Note to self: more prayer time needed.

Oh, and if I end up finishing my degree in June, my parents are already talking about a number of possible summer vacations the family can take. An option includes a cruise in June/July and a possible trip to Europe in August, where my dad's having a conference! If that materializes, that'd be awesome! I've never been overseas and it'd be nice to explore the world and see new places, new people, new cultures, new environments, etc. So yeah, would definitely be looking forward to that.

Tried cooking today for dinner... gonna hafta get practising on that if I'm to live by myself someday right? Decided to go asian and tried to make a chow mein dish from scratch. Popped by the local chinese grocery store to pick up a few ingredients and then I just let the experiment begin. Oddly enough, I have fun when I try to make food without recipes and just go with gut instinct... I think I got that from my dad... it's served me well in the past with my past experiments such as the Steph-revered Beer Chicken at Cal's place, Maple BBQ chicken at CCCO Iron Chef, and the Stuffed Chicken Breast at Snowflake Gala that have all turned out ok, I hope. Heheh. :) My latest concoction?... guess I'll call it Spicy Satay Chow Mein w/ Chicken, Shrimp, Bean Sprouts, and Onions. Haha...rolls off the tongue doesn't it? :S Anyhoo, surprisingly, it actually turned out quite well for my first time making chow mein and didn't take long to make! I thought it was pretty tasty and my parents actually liked it too. A tad too spicy though and needs more veggies, so I'll hafta revise the recipe... oh who am I kidding, there IS no recipe... haha. But yes, hopefully, this dish take-two will be even better. Still, I was rather pleased. :)

Oh, on a different note, 24 is getting insanely awesome again! Dunno how they do it, but they've got us excited yet again... just when ya think they've exhausted all the possibilities... Gotta love that show... but how do they expect us to wait a whole week before finding out what happens next?!? That's such torture... heheh. Oh, and my favourite movie of the year, Crash (as reviewed in an earlier post), was the surprise winner of the Best Picture award at the Oscars!! Woohoo! Great movie... a must-see.

And on another different note (F# anyone, j/k...oh man)... what's been on my mind recently? Well, recently, I've been thinking about my old addage, the philosophy that I've stuck to all these years and kinda governs my attitude about people... that "actions speak louder than words". One of my pet peeves is people who "talk the talk but don't walk the walk"... and I've always tried to be the one that lets my actions do the talking, ya know, be the silent worker, get the job done, lead by example. I've also always thought that actions, even the most subtle ones, can tell a lot about a person's real intentions or attitudes. Lately, I've been noticing things about the people around me regarding this statement in both positive and negative ways that's kinda altered my attitudes about them a bit... I won't dwell on the negatives, though they have bugged me a bit... but there have been definitely a few positives that have allowed me to respect some people even more. For example, my friend Frank may enjoy talking and say what you will about him, but I've really appreciated his selfless actions lately. Two instances, one on New Year's eve, and the other after fellowship a coupla weeks ago... he took the time to invite me to his home just to work on the songs that I wrote and give me advice on 'em, not to mention just share openly about personal stuff... all this late into the evening... I mean, he totally didn't hafta do that but he chose to give his time (and his family time, no less) to really encourage a young guy like me and my attempts at songwriting. I really appreciated that. Similarly, the sense of appreciation and encouragement I'm getting from Celebration Church has really been amazing. I can probably count on one hand the number of encouraging e-mails I received when I was at EACO all those years... and yet I've been receiving a number of them from the folks at Celebration, namely from the Ashleys, Percy, Joel, Serena, Merlin, etc. While I don't seek accolades or praise as a worship leader, it's encouraging just to receive such e-mails that bless me in my ministry there and affirm that God is at work through me when I'm leading them in worship. It means all the difference to me knowing that when I'm up there, they are not focused on me but focused on God and worshipping whole-heartedly... While their words are very nice in the e-mails they've sent, just the fact that they took time out of their days to write them to me, a new guy at Celebration... I've really appreciated it. Again, "actions speak louder than words"... These are just two small (maybe insignificant to you) examples but it's just proof that the above statement speaks volumes. And it has challenged me in my faith... reminds me that I need to live out loud and really be a follower of Christ in my everyday life... to act... That's why guys like Percy really inspire me because I can see that he actively strives to live according to God's will, always placing God first and it shows in his actions... I hope that that'll be said of me someday... that I wasn't all talk, but the guy who worked quietly and diligently in the background... who was the first to get up and be a servant to his peers... doing God's will with a joyful heart. That's how I'd like to be remembered. :)