As Bryn Sees It

I Think I've Finally Found It

2010-09-17T03:07:00.004-07:00

My last post, as far away as it seems, was about my new quest to find my true passion. I can happily say that I think I have actually found it! I thought it would take quite a long time to discover, but after spending almost 3 months teaching preschool in Egypt I have realized how much I truly love my job. I can talk about it nonstop, I can make preschool plans for an endless amount of time, and I find myself looking forward to my work. That being said, there have been some very difficult situations, some extremely hard days, and some instances where I have just wanted to give up. But through it all God has helped me try to stay positive, shed His character to those around me, and keep up my motivation. In reality, every job will have its ups and downs, but until now I have never found something that I continually hunger for and never grown weary of. Yes, there are days that I am ready to just come upstairs to my apartment and forget the worries of the preschool, but after I bounce back I am ready to step on the gas pedal again. I've realized that teaching preschool is an area that I am passionate about, and I believe that God chose for me to be here this year and that this is right where He wants me. I am learning so much, enjoying my job and my life, and growing in areas I never could have imagined I would. I thank God for sending me to Egypt and to this job, and I am so thankful for all of the preschool families, and the children especially. I have found my passion...my quest is complete!

PassionQuest

2010-06-19T16:32:00.013-07:00

Last weekend I was camping with my siblings and some friends. We went on a long quading/dirt biking trek up a mountain and took a break when we got to the top. Somehow during this break my brother Tyler and I got into a discussion about passions...if we had anything in life that we were truly passionate about. I quickly realized that I couldn't think of something that I had a continuous drive to constantly be doing. I have many interests, but I don't find that most of them pervade my life or that I have a never-ending thirst to be taking part in them. I really want to find something that I constantly yearn to do, that I strive to improve in, and that I can attain a high level of expertise about. I started mentally going through all the things I enjoy, and these are what I came up with:

Volleyball, football, racquetball, hockey, soccer, swimming, quading, boating, snowboarding, snowmobiling, bike riding, frog hunting (just finding and releasing!), music, learning new instruments, traveling, missions, cooking, shopping, blogging, creating videos, children, teaching, being the subject of pictures, and school-learning from thought-provoking classes.

Of all of these, I definitely have the greatest thirst for traveling, yet it's not the type of area where one can become an expert in. It's more experience-based, simply sightseeing and traversing to new places. Yet it's something that I always want to do, and could basically be up for after a moment's notice. I also greatly enjoy missions, although I don't know if it's something that I yearn to make my permanent lifestyle. I want to find an area that I can become proficient in and that truly means something to me. Something that I find a deep meaning in. Something that burns within me. Something that others notice as a true passion of mine.

I'm wondering if teaching preschool in Egypt this year will bring about this type of passion. I know I enjoy working with children and I know that I liked teaching violin lessons when I was in high school. When I return from Egypt after spending a year teaching in a school setting, I hope to find a community music school in BC where I can teach violin lessons. I sent my resume to some music schools this week to see if they thought they would have any openings for a violin teacher beginning next school year. I've received 2 replies so far...each one saying that there's a possibility that I could get a job after I return. I'm really happy about this, yet I don't know if simply teaching private lessons is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I wonder if maybe one day I might combine my musical skills, my teaching skills, and my love for children into one complete package.

The other day I found a website for a center that combines music and music lessons with child care and preschool. I was quite fascinated by this concept, since I didn't know centers like this existed. It seems as if it's a daycare and preschool that uses music as a focal point and where lessons are also offered. I think that if I feel passionate about early childhood teaching after this year, then maybe I might be interested in getting a masters in some type of education area, such as early childhood education or special ed...which are both areas that intrigue me. Then maybe I could mix my work into different fields, or work in one area on certain days and another area on other days. I think it would have more of an interest factor to me if I taught at a community music school for a couple days a week, then worked in a school setting on the days that I wouldn't be at the music school. These are only thoughts, but if I find that my passions lean more toward this area after this year, then maybe these thoughts could eventually become reality.

In the meantime, I want to take part in all the activities that I can and really put myself out there to try new things, because I never know if something will catch my interest or if a new experience will become my lifelong passion. I plan to travel as much as I can throughout my life and keep up all my interests, and hopefully somewhere along the way I can find at least one single true passion that will enrich my life more than I could ever imagine. This year marks the beginning of my PassionQuest...I'm going to follow my heart and see where it takes me.

TV Show Episode #1

2010-05-26T01:12:00.003-07:00

Danielle and I made a few episodes of a TV show during our last year at Southern. The show is called The Gniriuq-Alapprak Show (our last names backwards). We were planning on showing a bunch of different places where lonely freshman go on campus, but we only got one in on this episode, so more are to come in later episodes. This one didn't go exactly as planned but we still had fun anyways. So enjoy!

my future: the next 12 months...

2010-05-22T00:34:00.003-07:00

so i've realized that a lot has changed since my last blog post. i don't know why it's taken me so long to finally post again, but for some reason it has. last time i wrote, i was trying to decide between a potential job teaching violin next year and going as a student missionary. now looking back on what i wrote i realize how much has happened between then and now. i decided against the job even though it would have been a great opportunity, because i didn't want to compromise my wish to serve as a student missionary. if i didn't take this chance now, then i think i would have a harder time trying to make my missions dream a reality in the future after i had already got settled into a post-graduate life. so all in all i feel at peace with my decision to let the job opportunity go and instead spend my upcoming year at a location very far away from home, doing something i've never done before. things have fallen into place quite nicely. yes, it's taken me a long time to get all the student missions paperwork in and get the process merrily on it's way, but i finally did, and now i'm looking forward to spending 12 months in egypt! i know it's going to be very different from what i'm used to. i've traveled a lot, but none of my trips have been anywhere near this extensive in length. i think the longest trip i've been on has been probably somewhere around 3 weeks, and the longest i've been away from home has been a semester, which i've done 8 times throughout my years at southern. but nothing will quite equal the experience of being in a foreign country for a year. i'm really excited about what's to come throughout the next year that's coming upon me so fast i can hardly believe it, but i also am getting a sense that this may very well be the first time i experience homesickness. i never felt homesick in the least while i was at college or on mission trips i've been on, but i'm wondering if the feeling is going to rise throughout my year. i really hope it doesn't, because i enjoy new experiences and being independent, yet i just have this feeling that my world is going to be so far from what i've known that i'm going to be feeling things i've never felt before. it doesn't help that my favguy will be across the atlantic ocean from me for an entire year too. i'm gonna miss him immensely, but i hope that with God's help i will be able to get through this year and come out a better person from the things i have experienced. i also want to be a witness to those that i meet in egypt, but i realize that it may be hard to witness in the typical sense of the word since egypt is predominantly muslim, and i may not be able to speak freely about God. yet i want to serve as humbly as i can. i will be in charge of running a preschool...something which i've never experienced, and which i have no professional training in. i've worked with children in different areas of my life and i've love it, but it has never been in a school setting. i just hope i'm able to do the job and be the willing person that God will want me to be. this year will be tough i'm sure, but i hope it will also be the most rewarding of my life thus far. i'm looking forward to it with a hesitant eagerness, if that makes any sense at all. i just ask for your prayers as i venture out into this new life that lies ahead of me...

new developments...

2009-12-30T00:25:00.002-08:00

i am currently at a loss for what to do with my life next year. i thought i had a plan, and i did, but now there is potential for more than one pathway that i could take next year. my plan for as long as i can remember was to be a student missionary, if possible the year after i graduated from college. so i have kept this idea in the front of my mind all throughout my college experience. i was planning to figure out during this coming semester where i want to go as an SM next year. but now it seems that i have to decide what i'm going to do in a very short amount of time. i got a message from a girl who used to take violin lessons from my former violin teacher. she's been teaching at the community music school in my hometown of kelowna for the past few years i believe. so she told me that saw i was studying music and graduating this school year, and then she said that the music school is looking for a new suzuki violin teacher for next school year...to start teaching in the fall. the music school is apparently having a meeting in a couple weeks to discuss this issue, which means that i need to make a decision pretty quickly. i realize that it's not a job that i for sure would get just if i say i'm interested, but if i do say i'm interested then there's potential for me to get the job. so now i don't know what to do. i hadn't wanted to come back to my hometown right away after graduating, but since this opportunity has come to me, i'm wondering if it might be an opportunity from God. my first thought was that although it was pretty cool (seeing as that's exactly the type of work i would want to eventually do) i still wanted to stick to my plan of being an SM. but after thinking about it and talking to my family i'm wondering if maybe i should tell them i'm interested. then i can leave it up to God...if i get the job then that will hopefully be what he wants me to do, for the time being at least...and if i don't then that will be my sign to be a student missionary next year. anyways that's the new news in my life recently. my plan for now is to pray about it this coming week and see where that takes me...

new himym site from last night...

2009-10-13T12:13:00.004-07:00

video on the website:

the website:

http://www.itwasthebestnightever.com/

anthem by 6, 7, and 8 year old singers...

2009-10-01T18:51:00.003-07:00

check out this video...

canada's got talent...

2009-09-23T21:31:00.010-07:00

because of the popularity of britain's got talent and america's got talent, maybe there should also be a canada's got talent. this could be a great act for it, haha. i'm sure some of you have seen it, but i'm also sure some haven't. oh and we don't say "about" the way she says it. i don't know why that stereotype even exists. anyways enjoy the canadian 90s...

blogging time: random things...

2009-08-05T13:29:00.009-07:00

it's time to blog again. i miss southern! i can't wait to go back, except for facing the humidity. it'll be nice to get away from the smokiness of kelowna though, due to kajillions of fires in the area. well ok, not quite THAT many, but everywhere you go there seems to be another fire. the weird thing is that the biggest fire currently in bc is at this mountain which i quaded to the top of a mere 5 weeks ago. when the fire started it was only 2 weeks after i had been there. anyways at least i have pictures on the mountain proving i've been there. on another note, im sipping the world's biggest slurpee right now. tyler got this humongous slurpee jug at 7-eleven and filled it up the whole way. he couldn't drink it all so he passed it off to ali and me. by now it's basically orangey water. at work i'm inserting a bunch of new cabinet sizes into spreadsheets. extremely thrilling i know. oh well. my playlist just changed to owl city, so that's a bright spot in the day. which reminds me that a bunch of us are going to an owl city concert in atlanta in september! it's gonna be AWESOME! what isn't awesome is that i have my rcm music history 4 exam in 2 days. when i did theory and history in high school i always did the courses in lessons over the span of a year. but this time i'm doing it on my own and i started about a month ago...ya procrastination loves me. so i'm a little freaked out, but i hope it'll go ok. once the exam's done (if i pass) then i can finally get my official certificates for my grade 10 violin and grade 10 piano exams...so yay for that! anyways the last random thing i have to say is that i ate some watermelon the other day. that's it for now, so goodbye till next time...

logoeing...

2009-07-07T18:53:00.010-07:00

ali and i created a new sport called logoeing (basically canoeing, but on a log and paddling with your hands), we logoed halfway across this lake on our faithful log steed henrietta, from an island in the middle all the way to one of the ends...it took us about 45 minutes, (it probably would have taken less than 5 if we were swimming)...

singing cats...

2009-06-12T09:34:00.009-07:00

budget brake and muffler...

2009-06-05T13:59:00.022-07:00

the ultimate coolest brake and muffler store, budget brake and muffler, has been a favorite of mine and ali's for years. not because we ever go there, cuz we don't, but because they have the coolest song ever on their commercials. the radio song is slightly better than the tv song, but all i could find was the tv version. so you can be entertained by 2 budget commercials and one budget presentation:)

Commercial #1
Commerical #2
Presentation

to find out more about budget, visit their website here!

inspiration...

2009-06-03T08:59:00.006-07:00

my siblings keep telling me i need to start blogging again. well anyways, here we go. i'm back home for the summer and it's kinda weird. i like being at school, and when i get back home and there's no schoolwork or anything like that i just get restless and wish i was back at college. i love college, it's so many millions of times better than high school, and i'd rather go to school any day than work. it's not necessarily working i guess, but it's the whole summer job thing. once you're out of college you have the freedom to pursue the type of career that you trained for, doing what you want to do. but in the summer, well for one thing you have to work to make money for college. if you didn't, you would just be plain bored doing nothing. but it's only a summer job so it's hard to find a job that really means something to you, motivates you, and interests you. the best parts of summer are definitely when i have chances to go on any type of trip. ty and my dad are on their 2nd work trip of the summer already, they went to a woodworking show in germany and now are at software training in montreal. so far i've been to vancouver/whistler. it was fun, but i want to go on a big exciting trip. my mum wants to go somewhere with me and my sisters, but so far there's not really anything planned out. in the meantime, i want to have some type of project this summer to keep me busy and so that i have a goal and something to work towards. i'm hoping that me and my siblings will make a cd that will rock everyone's socks off. tyler has recording equipment so i need to start thinking of some killer musical ideas. anyways that's all of my ponderings for now. seeya next time...

southern 08/09 video...

2009-04-14T21:04:00.005-07:00

this is a video of pics of me and my siblings and friends throughout this school year. if you watch it, you might see yourself...

my composition...

2009-04-10T22:45:00.007-07:00

so for analysis of musical forms class i had to write a canon the other week. a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration. a simple example is row, row, row your boat. anyways, i wrote it between my classes on the day it was due and finished it on time to hand in. it's a 2 voice canon in c major, with the 2nd voice coming in at an octave below after one measure. so now i will let you hear this amazingly inspired composition, haha...

now we have to write the exposition of a fugue, which will be millions of times harder. it's supposed to be kind of like the equivalent of a term paper. so we'll see how that goes...

animation pictures...

2009-02-20T20:12:00.013-08:00

ali gave me the idea to post an animation pictures blog...so here it is! now, for all of those who don't know what in the world animation pictures are, let me tell you. or rather show you. or how about both. ok, animation pictures are a set of at least 2 pictures (or sometimes 3, maybe even more) that are similar but slightly different. they are taken one after another, with slight or more varied movements from some people or objects in the pictures. in order to see the animation, you have to go back and forth between the pictures as fast as possible. the key here is not just going forward and then stopping, but after you reach the last picture, you have to press the back arrow and see them backwards, then go forwards, then backwards...and so on for quite a few times to get the full effect. they can get really funny sometimes, especially with ali's computer since it has the ability to go from picture to picture basically at the speed of lightning.
animation pictures were first discovered during orchestra tour to europe last year, when ali and danielle discovered 2 very hilarious pictures that we got of a fellow orchestra member. thus these types of pictures were called animation pictures. i'd love to show you this particular set of pictures, but it may cause embarrassment to this person if they found my blog. but i'll show you some others that we have happened upon. i wish there were a way to put them on here so you could arrow back and forth between them, but i guess if you wanna do that you can drag them to your desktop and try it from there. anyways, here are some examples:

this first set is of ali during this past christmas when we were getting our christmas tree:

next is from orchestra tour last year...the main animation is me going from sitting up to lying down:

also during orchestra tour is this group of 3 jumping pics in gronigen, holland...the first picture was an entirely separate jump from the last 2 pics, but i think they kinda work well all put together, mostly looking at AJ (the guy who's jumping really awesomely):

to end off, here's a set from last summer when we drove 2 hours into maine from new brunswick just so we could get to our 43rd state...so this is ali and tyler demonstrating "hip shifts" that was shown on a sign at a welcome center, telling you to change your position when you're driving for long periods of time...so first the sign, then the animation pictures:

tucker's 6th birthday...

2009-01-11T19:53:00.015-08:00

so today we had a family birthday party for my nephew tucker. he turned 6 on january 6. whoa i just realized he had his golden birthday!! wow! anyways here's ali and coral and me playing with legos first off:

then we ate...and tucker's mom made him this awesome magic treehouse cake...

i don't know how she did it cuz it looks super hard to create. coral ended up with a really chocolatey mouth:

tucker got a stomp rocket toy so we were all playing in the backyard with that for like an hour. that was the funnest part. here's tuck about to try it out:

and here's coral with her quiver:

tucker and me:

and now i shall show you a couple videos of me and tuck teaming up on the stomp rocket:

#1:

and #2:

christmas break current events...

2008-12-20T21:33:00.008-08:00

wow i haven't blogged in so long! for over a month! hopefully i'll have a chance to update this thing a little over christmas break. so um...ok here are some current events:

1-got through christmas concerts, gigs, my violin jury, and finals...
2-got home for christmas break yesterday morning after being stuck in seattle airport for awhile due to weather...my dad came to rescue us cuz our flight to kelowna was canceled...we got a flight arranged to vancouver for friday morning, but instead my dad drove 6 hours to seattle to pick us up, got there in the middle of the night, turned around and we headed home...
3-one of my suitcases got lost on the flight from minneapolis/st. paul to seattle...so i'm waiting for it to get here, and in the meantime i have no shoes cuz they're all in that suitcase (i was wearing some of ali's shoes on the trip home), so anyways, for now i have to rely on ali's shoes till my suitcase finds me...
4-kelowna is very cold and snowy! yay! right now it's around -20 degrees, but fluctuating up and down between -10 and -30...
5-i have an organ now! our church got a new organ, and one of the organists at our church got the old church organ, and so she gave me her old organ! i've been playing it tons since i got home...very extremely fun!...
6-i got a viola loaned to me from the music department at southern since i'm playing viola in a quintet next semester, so i brought it home and am trying to learn my part for the trout quintet...
7-i'm freezing constantly cuz my room downstairs does NOT really seem to get warm no matter if the heat is on or not...
8-ty moved to the room downstairs across from my room (he used to be upstairs)...so now we're just across the hall from me...it's pretty awesome having him down here...
9-it's hard not having my own car here and having to plan things out all the time since ali's, tyler's, and my cars are all at southern and we just have my mum's car and my dad's truck here...to split between 5 people...
10-i still have basically all my chrismas shopping left to do...so i have just a few days left to get everything!...

well merry christmas to you! have a great holiday season...

oh and here's a picture of tyler piggy-backing me to my room last night when i was too tired to walk down by myself, haha...you can tell from my eyes being basically shut that i was sleeping before this...i fell asleep upstairs and woke up enough to get down to my room...

remembrance day and poppies...

2008-11-09T16:18:00.007-08:00

this video was created for remembrance day in memory of the veterans who served in the war...by honoring them with 2 minutes of silence, as is practiced at 11:00 am on november 11 (remembrance day) in canada...

this is another remembrance day video that reminds us to wear our poppies (a canadian tradition) because of the poppies in flanders fields...

an example of how to unsuccessfully chop wood...

2008-10-23T20:29:00.003-07:00

this is me trying to chop wood at tim's brother's place during midterm break...as you can see, it didn't produce the desired results...

the art of art...

2008-09-30T10:53:00.024-07:00

im at work right now, and mildly wishing i was somewhere slightly more interesting. so i thought to myself, why not share something from psych class with you all?
these are drawings from the dutch graphic artist escher. he is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs (a method for printing using a plate or stone with a completely smooth surface) and mezzotints (a printmaking process, technically a drypoint method). these feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture and tessellations (to quote from wikipedia, haha). so anyways, his drawings are very strange, and like mentioned above, impossible to real life. so i'll share some with you and you can see if you can find the impossibilities of them...

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

-now, if you look at #1, you will see that the water leading to the waterfall is going uphill instead of downhill...
-in #2, you don't know if you're looking upwards, downwards, or straight ahead in the picture, and also, the cones hanging in the open spaces are hanging from all different directions...
-looking closely at #4, you will see that the pillars are all mixed up, from where they are connecting from the top to the bottom...
-#6 is a still a mystery today...did escher draw himself holding the ball and being reflected off of it, or is he drawn from inside the ball looking out? his left hand is holding the ball, but in the picture in the ball, his right hand is the one that is outstretched...

of course, there are probably many more things to notice and realize when you study the pictures more closely, but these are some of the ones we discussed in class...

if you want to look at more of escher's art, go to http://www.mcescher.com/...

a blog post about something...

2008-09-12T21:47:00.013-07:00

i need to post again...but i don't know what to post about!!!!!!!!!! this is a real dilemma. i had an idea and i completely forgot about it...and now i can't think of anything else. what would interest all of you blog-readers? i don't know how many ppl actually read this, but i'll just pretend that it's so popular that i have a million viewers on a daily basis! pretending can be fun sometimes. so anyways, now that i'm pretending i have a million viewers, i have to make sure to catch all of your interests! now how can i do that? that's a tough one. let me think for a minute, or two or five or so.....................................................................
......................................................................................
......................................................................................
........................ok, maybe i'll tell you a little about my musical life this semester. first of all, i'm learning the barber violin concerto, which is amazing! if you want to listen to it, here are the links:

-1st movement: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=t2ifFuF3FoQ&feature=related
-2nd movement: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=uql9IV5M_j8&feature=related
-3rd movement: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=p_cbnyWG4Fo&feature=related

currently i'm learning the 1st movement, and man i love it!

so besides that, i'm also working on a bach gigue and it's going pretty good. i like bach, but i'm continually liking him even more and more all the time, especially throughout college. both on piano and violin. so anyways, i'm sure some other pieces will come along soon, but those are the two main ones for now.

speaking of piano...my piano teacher has a bunch of new piano majors to teach this year and wasn't able to fit some of the non-piano majors into his teaching schedule. and the other piano teachers aren't exactly the type of options that i'm looking for, since they tend to teach students that are more at a beginning-learning level. so we'll see if i can take piano from my teacher again next semester, and if not, then next year. in the meantime, this semester i'm taking organ lessons instead! i had my first lesson this past thursday, and it was really cool. the lessons are on the really big and awesome pipe organ in the college church. it was really cool to play using the pedals, and i was kinda getting the hang of it by the end of the lesson. so i'm doing some exercises to get used to the articulation you need to play the organ with, and to get used to the pedals. then i'm also starting two preludes. one of them has a pedal solo, which is gonna be so fun to learn! so i'm pretty excited about it. the main thing that i'm sad about is stopping my streak of taking piano lessons from when i started when i was 6 until i graduated from college, since i can't take lessons this semester. at least i'll have my streak of taking violin lessons from when i started when i was 3 till i graduate from college. plus i'll be getting some organ-playing learning and experience, which will be good and also hopefully beneficial. oh and i'm also sad cuz i learned the 2nd and 3rd movements of beethoven's pathetique piano sonata last year, and i love the 1st movement so much and started learning it on my own this summer, and i was ready to work on it in piano lessons this year so that i could know the whole sonata. but now i'll just have to keep working on it on my own until i take piano again.

so here are the links for the pathetique:

-1st movement: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=lq4G3KRAuXc
-2nd movement: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=n2nG1bt7IBM&feature=related
-3rd movement: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=qRkr7WgQ_Y4&feature=related

i call the 1st movement the alex macarthur song...because i always heard this guy alex macarthur playing this song in his piano lessons or practicing it when i was at the music school where i used to take violin lessons at home before college. so ali and i dubbed it the alex macarthur song. the main alex macarthur part that we remember him playing is the fast part after the descending chromatic scale. i love that part so so sooooo much! when i play it, i get thrilled to the bone. i played that section constantly throughout the summer, haha.
anyways, i call the 2nd movement the milo and otis song...doesn't it sound like the milo and otis movie music?

now for symphony...we're playing the hary janos suite by kodaly, which is really cool. especially the 5th and 6th movements. so here's a link:

-5th movement: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=zSv5CvhOEsA&feature=related

i can only find a good one of the 5th movement...too bad cuz the 6th is really cool too.

we're also working on beethoven's 7th symphony. here we go with the links again:

-1st movement: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=s1qAWcd4rr0
-2nd movement: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=bqtPVEuAbzM&feature=related
-3rd movement: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Td3mRRne39I&feature=related
-4th movement: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=VLkZvsp62iU&feature=related

alright well maybe that's enough music for now. i hope you enjoyed at least one of them! bye...

cheek puffs...

2008-08-30T22:50:00.000-07:00

so this summer i had a dream...i don't remember much from the dream other than that it had one aspect very similar to anne of green gables. remember thomas, rachel lynde's husband? well, my siblings and i always used to laugh whenever we saw him on the movies, (which sadly, was very seldom). so the reason why we laughed at him is because of this, if you'll take a look at this picture of him:

he had cheek puffs!!!

well, getting back to my dream...in my dream, i had cheek puffs too! although mine weren't white and fluffy like his...they were long and silky and sleek! like this:

haha...well they didn't look exactly like this since i have basically no drawing talent...but hopefully you get the idea. so anyways, i remember thinking in my dream how hopeless the situation was because even if i shaved them all off, i would still have stubble on my face...and then they would keep on growing back. when i woke up, i frantically rubbed my cheeks to make sure there were no puffs there, and when i realized none were there, naturally i was relieved. so there's the story of my cheek puffs dream...as much of it as i can remember...

wow i'm back at southern...

2008-08-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

describing:

S-tudying...already
O-utstandingly beautiful campus
U-nlimited potential for this year
T-oo hot and humid outside
H-ousekeeping now cleans my shower!
E-nviable new room in girl's section of guy's dorm
R-eams of new freshman
N-ew wellness center building almost completed

it should be an awesome school year! so far it has been at least...

ramblings and thoughts and questions...

2008-08-21T23:31:00.000-07:00

i don't really know what this post is about yet. i thought maybe for once in a long time i should actually write something instead of posting a video or pictures or something to that effect. so, maybe i'll just ramble until i can think of a clear focus and goal for this post. in the meantime, have you ever wondered what life would be like if there were other added dimensions? such as if there was not only male and female, but also a third gender...symale? i don't really know. but wouldn't that just turn the whole entire world in a completely different spin than it is now? how would marriage work, or would we even have marriage? if we didn't, how would we repopulate the earth? it's all very confusing and mind-boggling. on a lighter and even more pointless topic...what if there was naturally a different style of hair? instead of just straight, curly, wavy, frizzy, and i guess corkscrew...what about diamond hair in the actual shape of diamonds hanging from your head? or maybe having naturally jagged hair that looked kind of like lightning bolts? can you even imagine how hilarious that would look?! i'm sure everyone's thought of the possibility of having only one eye in the middle of your face...so i won't dwell on that one. but what about if we had ten more letters in our alphabet? that would completely change our whole language...not to mention the fact that i can't even imagine what other letters would be like and what they would sound like. i hope one of them wouldn't be a rolling-your-r's sound because i wouldn't be very good at english then! one of the ultimate wondering in my thoughts, however, is what if we were incapable to feel or show any emotion. this world would be the most boring and unworthy place to live. emotion is what connects us to other people. we can detect what they are thinking through their emotions and feelings. if we had no emotion, i guess that also means that we also would be extremely limited in our methods of communication. you would have to directly tell someone what you were thinking, but even then, since you have no feeling, you wouldn't be happy or sad and etc. you could think thoughts such as, "i'm going to go outside now," but it wouldn't be linked with any reason other than that's what you decided to do. not because you felt like it...because you don't have internal feelings. i'm not talking about feelings such as the sense of touch, but feelings in your brain...being exuberant or bored or ecstatic. all in all, i'm glad that God thought of all these issues when he created this world. and if only a few differences in our world could throw it off so much, think how many trillions more He had to think through to make our world work. it's pretty amazing! just imagine how much MORE amazing heaven will be and how many more things God has and will think through to make it spectacular! it will be something i don't want to miss out on, and i hope you don't either! so i guess this is where my thoughts have lead me...hopefully at some point throughout this thing my rambling became an actual focus. in any case, i think wondering is good for the mind. once you wonder once, it becomes addictive and your brain gets flooded with many more wonders. see where your brain leads you when you allow yourself to wonder...i dare you to try it...

pictures pictures pictures...

2008-08-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

self-explanatory title...pictures mostly from the past few years, but also some from many many years ago...

water water everywhere!...

2008-08-18T08:35:00.000-07:00

episodes from 3 different lakes in one day...

at the bottom of the sea...

2008-08-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

wow!! ok so here's the story...when ty got an mp3 player years ago, one of the songs that came on it was "at the bottom of the sea." we found it quite amusing...especially the "swim-swim-swimmy-swim- swimmy-swimmy-swim-swim"...(etc.) part. so anyways, one day i researched the song and found out that it was one in a collection of songs by this guy ralph. he writes and performs songs for kids, and i found this video of "at the bottom of the sea" and thought it was pricelessly hilarious...so maybe you will too...
and check out his awesome (haha, not...) website at http://www.ralphsworld.com/...

my life on video...

2008-08-12T16:03:00.001-07:00

a mix of random video clips...and i guess that's about it...

a peek into the life of me!...

2008-08-01T08:28:00.001-07:00

so i made and put together this movie...clips of me and my family and my house and instances and etc. also on it is the answer to an earlier post on my blog!! the one entitled 3 green lights. i said maybe i'd let you know if we got 3 green lights on the way to work...and we DID the day i took that part of the video! WOW!! but only on the way to work...not on the way back...so a total of 3 out of 6 lights. ohhhhh so exciting...i know. haha. and also, i know the ending is really corny...but anyways ya have fun peeking into my life...

whipped cream...

2008-07-23T00:04:00.000-07:00

ali squirting whipped cream into my mouth at fairmont...

laughing baby...

2008-07-15T15:33:00.001-07:00

hahahah ok so i stumbled across this awhile ago and have been trying to figure this out...his laugh is hilarious...but more importantly, it's IDENTICAL to this midget actor who was on 7th heaven years ago for a few episodes. i swear, like nobody else in the world can have a laugh like this, but this baby doesn't look like a midget at all. and also i have no idea who that actor was and can't find him anywhere when i try to research it. so ya anyways i can't figure it out. BUT, enjoy this laugh!...

an angel??...

2008-07-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

well this past Sabbath, ali, ty, my dad, my friend rachel, and i went up to my uncle's cabin in the mountains. we took our quads and dirtbikes and took off on one of the trails up there. we made it through this really fun trail that i had only been on once before (last summer). when we got to the end of it, instead of heading back to the cabin right away, we decided to go look at this other lake that ali and my dad had been to before. we got there and took some pictures before starting on the way back. well, me and rachel were on a quad together, and we were the last ones to get going cuz i had to put the camera away. i tried to tell ali and tyler to wait for us cuz we weren't quite ready to go yet, but they didn't hear me and they took off. anyways, by the time we got going...they were nowhere in sight! usually we wait for each other till we're all ready to go, but i guess they thought we were right behind them. so we decided to go back in the direction that we had come since that was the way to get back to the cabin. we thought that they were just a bit ahead of us and would be waiting for us. we drove for awhile and didn't see them anywhere...then we found ourselves at a fork in the road that we didn't remember from our way to the lake. we realized that we had taken a wrong turn, so we turned around and decided to go back to the lake in case they had gone back there to find us, but in trying to do that, we took another wrong turn that led us to a different fork in the road. (needless to say, i didn't know this particular area very well, and i also don't have the best sense of direction in the world...haha). so anyways, we were completely and utterly confused at this point...had no idea where we were or which road we should take or what we should do, and we were all by ourselves. at that very instant, i looked up and saw this guy on a motorbike. i hadn't seen him come down the trail, but all of a sudden he was just there. he was like "are you lost?" and we were like "yeah we're kinda confused about where we are." well he talked to us for probably about 10 minutes, helping us figure out where we had been, which wrong turns we made, and how to get back to the lake we were just at and also my uncle's cabin. he was extremely helpful and knew the area really well, and he told us if we got lost again to just call "help" and he might hear us and come help us again. we decided to go back to the lake just to see if they were there looking for us, and if we didn't see them there, then we would take the logging road that the guy had explained to us was the road we had come from on the way there, which would eventually get us back to the main road that led to the cabin. we thanked the guy a lot and turned around to head to the lake. rachel said later that she didn't turn around right away, but she did after we had started going and she didn't see him anywhere behind us (even though he had said he was heading in the same direction). we had to wonder...was this an angel? he seemed to appear right when we were the most confused and had no clue what to do, he knew exactly where to tell us to go, and he told us to call help if we were lost again. how could someone on a bike hear the word help through a really big forest? maybe he was an angel that was right beside us the whole time. we don't really know, but if he wasn't an angel, he was for sure someone sent from God to help us when we needed help. well anyways, we didn't find them anywhere at the lake, so we headed back on the logging road which took us back to where we came out from the first trail we went on. luckily i remembered how we got back to the cabin from that trail since i been on it last summer. there was one place that i couldn't quite remember if we were supposed to keep going straight or take this trail that veered off to the left, but rachel reminded me that the guy said the logging road would take us back to the main road, so we kept going straight until we came to a distinct place that i remembered from last year...cuz last summer we had gone through this insanely huge puddle and gotten really dirty, and i saw the place where the puddle had been. then i knew we were on the right track. we finally made it to the main road and saw a sign for dee lake, which is a lake just after crooked lake, where my uncle's cabin is. man i was relieved at that point. my only concern was that my dad and ali and tyler were probably out looking for us and i didn't know how they would know that we had made it back, since we had no way to communicate with them. when we were pretty close to being back to the cabin...we saw my dad and tyler on the other quad. they were just gonna start going back on the trail to find us. we were sooo glad that they weren't out on the trails looking for us, since it was really close to dark by that time. we explained to them what had happened, and they told us they had blindly followed ali as she was exploring a different trail to waste some some time while everyone was getting ready. they thought that we were right behind them, until ali turned around to go back in the right direction. they got ahead of us when we took one of the wrong turns, and we had probably just missed them by a few minutes. once they made it back to the cabin, ali stayed there in case we came back, and ty and my dad headed out to find us. that was when we saw them on the road, so we all headed back to the cabin and told ali what had happened. after our little adventure, we made a fire and had some hot dogs before driving back home. we told them all about the random guy that was there, and they also thought it was quite possible that he was an angel. either way, someone helped us find our way back...otherwise we might have been stuck out there in the dark. so anyways, that was my experience from the weekend. the end...(and sorry it was so long!)...

so here are some pictures to trade off for all the words...

she must go in!...

on the first trail...

muddy lips from quading...

making a fire after we got back safe and sound...

ben mulroney...french overpronounciation...

2008-07-07T12:10:00.000-07:00

i found this video that "vote for the worst" made of canadian idol host ben mulroney over-pronouncing french singers names...

and whoaaa...i just found out that ben's birthday is march 9...only 1 day before mine! man, sooo close to being birthday buddies with a former prime minister's son! but oh well...

3 green lights...

2008-06-05T11:24:00.000-07:00

SERIOUSLY...how hard can it be to get 3 green lights in a row??? everyday on the way to work, my siblings and i try to get through the 3 traffic lights while they're still green...not to mention having the same goal for on the way home...for a total of 6 green lights in the day. now, that doesn't sound so hard, does it? no, i don't think so either...especially because it's not even like a super busy section of the city or anything. but usually we either end up getting like 3 red lights, or what's even WORSE is when you get all but one. oh that is just so maddening! and yes, i know it sounds like quite a stupid game, but you should try it...it can actually keep you quite entertained!...

and just cuz i know you're SO interested...here's the view of the roads...

View Larger Map

maybe i'll even let you know if we get lucky enough this summer to get 3 (or 6!) in a row...

you know you're a music major if...you get this joke...

2008-06-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

Three notes go into a bar.

C, E-flat, and G go into a bar. The bartender says, “Sorry, but we don’t serve minors.”

So the E-flat leaves, and the C and the G have an open fifth between them. After a few drinks, the fifth is diminished; the G is out flat.

An F comes in and tries to augment the situation, but is not sharp enough. A D comes into the bar and heads straight for the bathroom saying, “Excuse me. I’ll just be a second.”

An A comes into the bar, but the bartender is not convinced that this relative of C is not a minor.

Then the bartender notices a B-flat hiding at the end of the bar and exclaims, “Get out now! You’re the seventh minor I’ve found in this bar tonight.”

The E-flat, not easily deflated, comes back to the bar the next night in a 3-piece suit with nicely shined shoes. The bartender says: “You’re looking sharp tonight, come on in! This could be a major development.” This proves to be the case, as the E-flat takes off the suit, and everything else, and stands there au naturel.

Eventually, the C sobers up, and realizes in horror that he’s under a rest.

The C is brought to trial, is found guilty of contributing to the diminution of a minor, and is sentenced to 10 years of DS without Coda at an upscale correctional facility.

On appeal, however, the C is found innocent of any wrongdoing, even accidental, and that all accusations to the contrary are bassless. The bartender decides he needs a rest - and closes the bar...

memorial cup breaks...

2008-05-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

on sunday, may 25, the spokane chiefs won the chl memorial cup...when the captain receives the cup and then is about to pass it on to a fellow teammate, low and behold...it breaks and falls to the ground...hahaha...poor captain...

towel expansion...

2008-05-17T17:29:00.004-07:00

this little tiny mint looking circle was supposed to turn into a towel when placed in water...so naturally we thought that meant a regular normal sized towel, which we found quite impossible...therefore, we decided to try it out, and to our surprise...(watch now)...

beginning...

ending...

alternate ending...

it was a cloth, not a towel...

the ultimate canuck sacrifice...

2008-04-26T22:23:00.005-07:00

this video was one of the winners of last year's search for the ultimate canucks fan...

weirdo girl violin accident...

2008-04-26T17:35:00.004-07:00

i found this crazily hilarious video...make sure you watch until the end...and catch the girl's expression as she...CONTINUES TO PLAY! (for quite awhile)...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=StBe3m4gI2g...

dorm shopping...

2008-04-24T22:49:00.013-07:00

so, to explain...this is a video series of shopping in the dorm...in the giveaway boxes...we found some AWESOME treasures...don't you think?...

arrogant worms...

2008-04-19T22:41:00.012-07:00

enjoy a song by the patriotic canadian musical comedy trio-arrogant worms...this song is entitled "canada's really big"...
ooo and especially enjoy the part of the video that says "the rest is kinda bumpy"...

update on assassins...

2008-04-19T22:23:00.002-07:00

ya...i got out around #22 or something...so i made it almost into the last 10. so ya, i was assassinated in a very sneaky way. anyways it was fun...and a girl ended up winning so yay!...

assassins...

2008-04-07T16:40:00.010-07:00

........iiiiiiiiii'm still alive in assassins!! (currently)...yay! i got my first target and now i'm onto my second one...if ya wanna know what this game is all about, click the link below...anyways 32 people at southern began playing assassins today, (monday, april 7/08), and a bunch of people have already been assassinated...so we'll see how far i can get...

http://sassins.com/assassins/rules...

beware of the socks...

check it out...

2008-04-05T23:17:00.001-07:00

click the danielle link on the side of my page to check out my friend's blog about buxtehude posted on april 3/08...

homestar runner...

2008-04-05T17:35:00.008-07:00

click the link below to watch the strong bad email cartoon about trogdor on the homestarrunner.com website...

http://homestarrunner.com/sbemail58.html...

and then click the next link to listen to the answering machine of marzipan...when you get there, click the forward arrow twice to listen to message 4...

http://homestarrunner.com/answer12.html...

spa water commercial...

2008-04-05T14:46:00.000-07:00

a commercial we made on the bus ride to brussels during orchestra tour...filmed by ali...

live from the rijksmuseum...

2008-04-05T14:38:00.002-07:00

a hello to tim's family on the video maker at the rijksmuseum in amsterdam. the video got cut off before it was done though...

candy throwing...

2008-04-05T13:49:00.001-07:00

one afternoon ali and i were bored in our room, so we thought up a new contest...candy throwing...we decided to see who could end up with the most candies that landed on the bunk bed after throwing handfuls backwards behind our backs...here is a video of me throwing candies at ali...i think i threw them too hard and hit her in the face...haha...