from me to you...

google people = creative geniuses

from the olympics to chinese new year, you can always tell when it's a 'special day' by looking at the google homepage banner.

exhibit A:

"happy birthday edvard munch!"

i'm always so impressed by their banners, and today...well today is no exception. how the google people come up with this great stuff is beyond me. here's how my happy birthday edvard munch banner would look:

"happy birthday edvard munch - please don't be offended."

...and this is why i'm not part of the awesome google people creative genius team. heh.

give me my picture back



i don't know why, but for some reason, the first time i saw this commercial last year there were freakin' tears in my eyes. t e a r s. i kid you not. it's hard enough holding it together when the grandpa pulls out the picture of "right wing" son, but when his grandson scores and he announces it to everyone in the stands all proud and everything...omg...

freakin' timmys and their freakin' coffee commercials. *sniff*

anyway, i was watching tv the other night and it came on again. this can only mean one thing. winter's coming/here. that, or the olympics are on again.

...and suddenly i have a craving for donuts.

snowdays



the more snowflakes created between now to the end of the year, the more money popular front will donate to the salvation army. (and who or what exactly is popular front? honestly, i have no idea. all i know is more flakes = more money given to the salvation army, and that can't be bad thing.)

make a flake, make a difference.
dang. i should be a slogan creator.

click here to be part of the snowflake-making goodness.

the worst kind of blogger

i switched over to blogger beta because usually anything associated with google is pretty good, but after seeing how useless the switch was, i really wish i didn't. and now i can't go back. stupid blogger beta. oh yah, and i guess my archives knew how bad blogger beta was because as soon as i switched over, they ran away and now they're gone. please come back.

don't do it. don't switch to blogger beta. consider yourself warned.

ok, i really need to stop procrastinating. haha. :P

two months in...



so i've been interning for about two months now and even though the pay sucks crap ($0/hr and no, that's not a type-o) i've generally been enjoying myself. most days work doesn't even really feel like "work" which i suppose is a good sign. haha. :) in retrospect, not getting into grad school was a huge blessing in disguise. sure there are days when i wonder what my life would have been like if my own plans for myself had become a reality, but at the end of the day i'm glad things turned out the way they did. i guess, at least for now, He has plans for me in this field.

there are still times when i worry about whether or not i'll be able to find a job after my internship is over, and other times where the thought of working as a music therapist scares me for some reason, but there isn't really anything i can do about it at this point. the only thing i can do is take things as they come, know that He is looking after me, and trust that things will be ok.

twenty-three and still silly

to the greatest boyfriend in the whole world,
you deserve nothing short of the greatest day ever.
happy birthday justin! :)

the feeling and the fray

on the left:the feeling; on the right:the fray
last night i went to see the fray concert at the kool haus in toronto. since the dvp was closed all weekend, the trip downtown (via yonge st) was a pretty crazy ride full of morons turning left and idiots stopped on the side of the road for no apparent reason. oh well, no matter. we managed to get down safely and even though we didn't get that free parking spot at least we got there and didn't have to wait in line TOO long (we stood in line for about 45 mins) despite leaving my house at around 7:20pm.

the opening band for the night was the feeling and they were wicked awesome! i am so a fan of theirs now. so incredibly entertaining. at one point the lead vocalist/guitarist got so crazy with his dancing he started kicking one of the drum crash cymbals with his foot. then at the same time the bassist went to the drums too and was bashing away at the set with another set of sticks while the actual drummer kept playing too. i was laughing so hard it was so freakin' hilarious. those guys were so fun to watch because it was so evident that they were having so much fun themselves. oh and did i mention their accents? they're from the uk so they had these great brit accents that reminded me of my cousins. i wish i had an accent.

honestly, after watching the feeling, the fray was less entertaining to watch. maybe it was because they generally seemed more into their music the last time i saw them live, but everyone has their off days i suppose. also, isaac (the lead singer) is at a piano so it's not like he can dance around and kick the cymbals with his feet. (haha that was so gold.) nevertheless, they still put on a great show though and they played two new songs which were pretty good. towards the end of the show this guy (i think he was groupie) came out because it was his 21st birthday. everyone sang him happy birthday then during the next song he proceeded to sit on the piano and drink. seriously, this guy must have been so wsted afterwards. he drank one kegger full and at least two bottles of beer in the span of like 4 mins. the drummer was laughing so hard that i was surprised he was still able to play. there was literally a stage guy whose job for that song was to hand the birthday boy more alcohol. that whole part of the concert was kinda dumb.

oh well, i still had a good time. :)

pictures from the night can be found here.

nick lachey | resolution

there's something about this song that gives me the chills. everything about it just seems so...vulnerable. poor guy. great song.



that high B nick hits during the verse...wow. simply, wow.

unnaturally green



as part of my birthday present from liz, we went to see wicked yesterday and i thought it was freakin' awesome!! from the minute i stepped into the canon theatre to the moment i stepped out, i was so excited!

in terms of our seats, i couldn't believe our luck when we purchased our tickets. never before have i ever sat in such good seats at a musical (orch row EE seats 25 & 26 - fifth row centre.) it seriously doesn't get much better than that. i swear one of the performers in the ensemble looked right at me during the musical! haha. it was awesome being so close. i got to see everything from facial expressions and stage make-up, to costume/set design and spit flying out of the performer's mouths. very cool.

as for the performance in general, i thought that it was done really well. the performers were great, and the musicians in the orchestra pit were right on. (omg i would LOVE to play in a musical.) i guess if you were to compare our performance with the original soundtrack you'd hear a lot of discrepancies, but i really liked hearing it live. i loved hearing how the performers really personalized their roles in the little things they did to tweak their part. seemed all that much more...real.

i waited a looooong time to see this musical and it definitely didn't let me down. the plot was great, the singing was great, and the music was awesome! i totally recommend this musical to everyone.

so what did i think of wicked? i thought it was well...wicked. ;)
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totally random...

so during the intermission i walked out of the theatre and into the main foyer area when i saw this guy who looked really familiar. i guess he thought i looked really familiar to him too because we just kinda looked at each other. then we kinda walked towards each other going "jeremy?", "sharon?", "jeremy ross?", "sharon man?" hahaha. i seriously couldn't believe the randomness of it all.

anyway, he was one of my classmates back in grade eight. it was cool seeing him again and hearing what he's been up to lately. i guess despite turning 23, i still look the same as i did when i was 13.

i'm still trying to decide whether this is a good thing or not.

one year older

today i turned twenty-three. i still remember when i first turned ten and went around proudly telling (and showing) everyone that my age was "two full hands". i thought it i was so old. haha. i can't believe that was thirteen years ago now. wow.

thanks everyone for everything. :)

i'm so excited!!!

after waiting for more than a year (we literally bought out tickets back in july 2005) it's finally *almost* here. in exactly one week from today, i'll be sitting in the canon theatre, orchestra row EE seat 26 (fifth row centre baby), watching wicked with my lovely sister, liz. :)

oh it's gonna be SO awesome. wheeeeeeeeee!!!

everyone deserves the chance to fly...

feeling jittery

ever since my music therapy internship started a two weeks ago, all i've really been doing is observing, going to orientations, going on tours, and more observing. tomorrow (yah, i know, working on saturday mornings suck) i'll be leading my first official music therapy session. it's my first time leading a session since i've been in school, and first time ever leading a group music therapy session on my own (at laurier they're done in pairs), so uhmmmm....yah. we'll see how things go. and hopefully they'll go well.

mandarin classes and othello

a super nice fellow at my church has started teaching people in the english congregation conversational mandarin. he is so nice. :) anyway, since my chinese is the suck (it is SO bad...i can't even handle cantonese very well) i decided to take up this offer and signed myself up for classes. at first, the lessons were focused on learning the phonetics of the consonants and vowels of mandarin and now we've moved onto actually speaking some sentences. oh dear.

i can now say, ni hao (how are you?), ta shi wo de baba (he is my father), Wo chi Zhangguo cai (i eat chinese food), and lo ren (old person), among a few other words/phrases.

yay! with my limited/broken mandarin, i can now have a very odd and random conversation with someone...given they can understand what i'm trying to say. ;)

anyway after mandarin class, adrienne, jo, and i, took a trip to toys 'r us. omg. i've forgotten how fun that store can be. i think we might have been the oldest ones there that were buying things for ourselves as opposed to kids. meh. it was still good. :P adrienne bought cranium, jo played a random paintball video game (which was kinda like duckhunt, only not as cool), and i bought this:

<-- othello, my favourite board game of all time!!

now that i've bought the regular sized version i'll no longer have to use the tiny miniature travel-sized version to play which is a good thing because i don't know what happened to it. oops. i guess it was too small to keep track of. :P

yay for big othello. i love it. :)

new beginnings

beginning #1:
evening course. today i started my evening course at ryerson. i suppose it's school, but it doesn't feel like it because i'm not a full-time student anymore. also, almost everyone in my class seems so much older than me so instead of feeling like school, it just feels wierd. haha. i suppose i'll get used to it. :P anyway, my prof seems pretty nice and easy to understand, and the people in my class are okay too, no complaints there. unfortunately, the same can't be said about ryerson's demented campus which doesn't make any sense. in other words, it sucks. it really does. from the time i got off the subway to when i tried to find the right bookstore (they split their bookstore into two different places...who does that?!) i got lost. then when i left the bookstore (with no textbook in my hands because apparently i was at the wrong bookstore) and tried to find my class i got lost again. good thing there are helpful people walking the streets of toronto because i had to ask a few for directions...yah. i miss laurier.

beginning #2:
music therapy internship. my music therapy internship starts tomorrow! i can't believe it's actually happening. my degree is finally going to be put into use, and i'll be one step closer to trying to figure out what i want (and not want) to do with my life. here's to trying to create a little niche for myself within the world of music therapy.

beginning #3:
worship team. the new worship team i'm on is meeting tomorrow. after three months of meeting up and playing with the summer worship team every single week it'll be wierd not seeing some faces and seeing new ones instead...weird, but in a good way of course. haha. i am so smooth.

beginning #4:
kingdom kids. i'm one of the counsellors for my church's fellowship for grades 1-5 (how did this happen?! haha) and we had our first official meeting last friday. it turned out pretty good, despite us not knowing what we were doing or what was going on, which ultimately resulted in us starting LATE. oooops. oh well, i'm always open to learning and i suspect i'll be doing a lot of that for sure.

so with all these beginnings i feel it's time for me to say good-bye to lazy summer days of doing absolutely nothing. they were great while they lasted, but now i'm moving onto bigger and hopefully better things.

a different kind of september

the "school bus" is here, but this time i won't be on it.

now that i'm no longer an elementary/high school/university student,

september just isn't the same.

so blessed.

1461 days . 48 months . 4 years
happy fourth justin, i love you. :)

runaway nose, never going back.

dear mr. ragweed,

when we first met you looked so harmless with your green leaves and 'branches' (which seemed to reach towards the sun and scream "hug me!"). at first i thought maybe we could be friends, but now i know it just wouldn't be possible; over the years, your true colours have shone through your little facade. portraying an innocent looking plant. ha! you should be ashamed of yourself.

i have come to realize that beneath your leaves and seemingly innocent demeanor lies an ugly monster whose main goal is to wreak havoc on the lives of others. i mean, this morning i woke up to find my nose packed and on its way out the door. you see, my nose had decided to run away thanks to you. sure there were times when i managed to calm it down and had convinced it to stay awhile, but then you showed up and i found myself back at square one again.

mr. ragweed, at the risk of being too blunt and abrasive, i feel it is in your best interest that you know that no one likes you. with that in mind, i suggest you stop trying to pollute my neighbourhood with your pollen, pack your bags, and get move on outta here before everybody's noses start dripping like leaky faucets. thanks.

sincerely,
sharon

p.s. you owe me money for kleenex.

chinese lantern festival

yesterday adrienne, gloria and i went to the chinese lantern festival at ontario place. we were able to get cheaper tickets thanks to my mom, so we went down with my parents, wandered around with them for a bit, split up, and then met up with them again at the end of the night.

i didn't really know what to expect from the whole thing to see on our way down. i was a little nervous that it would be super cheesy (i.e. a whole bunch of lights on strings in a parking lot or something ), but fortunately i was wrong. haha. it was actually pretty good, although it looked a lot more impressive when it was dark.

we watched two films at the cinesphere (one of the first emperor, and the other on panda bears), walked around taking pictures of all the exhibits, and learned more about chinese history and myths/symbols thank to the info cards that went with the exhibits and the films. the night ended with us watching the symphony of fire fireworks (yay!) from the lantern festival while standing on a bench under a tree which, minus the rain and the blaring traditional chinese music that at times sounded like a haunted polka house (haha), was the perfect way to end a great night. thanks girls. :)

story of the night:
so somewhere in the middle of the festival there was a cool chinese archway that was lit up that we wanted a picture of with the three of us. in order to make this possible, gloria asked a friendly-looking woman to take the picture for us. she said okay and took it, but it was obvious from her shaking and ("aghhh"s and "ohhhh"s) that she didn't feel comfortable doing it. as she turned to go she said, "usually people ask him not me" while pointing at her husband. turns out her husband was the guy standing there smiling at the whole situation while carrying around an SLR camera. darn, he was probably a good photographer.

anyway, since gloria's camera was a film camera there was no way to tell how good (or bad) the woman's pictures were (she took two "just in case".) we still wanted a picture of us and the archway, and a good one at that, so i scanned the crowd and saw a guy carrying an SLR camera AND a tripod. needless to say, i made my way over and asked the guy if he would take our picture for us. (i figured anyone carrying a tripod had to be good, because normal people taking photos just wouldn't.) so the guy took our picture, looked at the picture in my camera screen, and smiled at me as i thanked him and he gave my camera back.

as i was walking away i looked at the picture he had taken and let out a loud "WHAT". the picture that the guy, the "professional photographer", took totally SUCKED CRAP. i had set my camera to automatic flash, but i guess because the archway was so bright it didn't go off, and you couldn't see us at all because we were too dark. the guy wasn't a professional at all (or else he would have known what to do, yeh?) what a fraud.

so moral of this story (which has somehow become way long) is: just because someone carries around an SLR and a tripod doesn't mean they know how to take a picture. posers suck.

oh well, it was still a fun night. pictures can be found here. :)

east coast 2006



last friday we returned from our trip to canada's east coast. i've visited western canada before, and i live in central canada, but this was the first time i had ever been to the eastern side. we flew into halifax, rented a car and visited three provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island) in eight days. despite the fact that the all the maritimes provinces we visited were really boonie (even the bigger cities), there were still a lot of things to do, and a lot of things to see.

i don't know why, but for some reason i was really surprised at how many trees there were there. as we were landing in halifax i looked out the airplane window and, i kid you not, all i saw were trees. so. much. green. so. much. nature.

even though at times some maritimers were on the verge of being annoyingly slow (not necessarily dumb, but they just did things so slooooowly), most of them were really nice and friendly. we met a few people who were from ontario as well, and saw license plates on vehicles from all over canada and the states. there was even a biker posse from BC which had rode, literally, across canada.

one thing i really respect about maritimers is their need/desire to be environmentally friendly. seriously, they put toronto's green bins to shame. almost everywhere (including fast food restaurants) people are expected to separate their waste into compost, recycling, and trash, and while there are those kinds of things going on in toronto, people in the east actually threw their things in the right places. haha. :P as a result, everything there is generally much cleaner; the air is cleaner, there isn't as much garbage everywhere, there's minimal to no litter in the atlantic (that i could see)...the list goes on. even the hotels are in on the whole green power thing; they asked you to reuse your towels twice (although i'm not sure if its because they want to be environmentally cautious, or if they're just cheap. haha.)

anyway, this trip was a great trip and i had a really good time. yah i miss the beatiful huge eastern skies and sunsets, and the fact that you could see the ocean out the car window, but at the end of the day there's no place like home.

highlights of the trip:
- going to cavendish, PEI and seeing the REAL green gables (omg. i looooove anne of green gables)
- seeing Anne of Green Gables the musical in charlottetown
- going to my first (and second) ceilidh in cape breton. awesome, awesome music.

...there were a lot more things that we did that i liked, but those were my top three. :)

pictures from our east coast trip can be found here.

so easily distracted...



the other day, while liz was attempting to clean her room (and i was sitting on her bed watching her clean so i could procrastinate from cleaning mine), we found this huge shopping bag with a screaming/super excited little boy on it behind her door. she was holding it up trying to figure out what to do with it when i got an idea, took the bag, and told liz her to get her camera. the next 5 mins were spent laughing our heads off running around trying to think of other funny poses we could do with the bag.

i think our mom thought we had gone bonkers.

...and this is why it takes us forever to clean-up our rooms. bah hah. :P

the Land Downunder.

ahhhhh, Australia.

i've always told myself that i'd go and visit the country, which is also it's own continent, at least once in my lifetime, but lately the thought of going has been on my mind more often than ever before.

i'd love to jump around with the kangaroos, eat bamboo shoots (ermm, and by eat i mean drink bamboo juice from a chinese 'vitasoy-like' juice box) with the koala bears, listen to someone play a didgeridoo, visit the sydney opera house, visit the perth observatory, see a running dingo, put my feet in the ocean, and see the world from australia's point of view...

but most of all, i really love the fact that right now in australia it's winter, which means i'd be getting away from the brutally hot and abnormally humid canadian summer of 2006. :P

tastes like burning.

i've wanted to use listerine for the longest time, but could never put up with its foul taste. i mean, the original (yellow) tastes like ke-rap, the green one tastes like mint on crack, and the blue one makes me want to shoot myself in the head. needless to say, i was really happy when they came out with a new flavour, vanilla mint.

ah, vanilla mint. it sounded so non-threatening and even said 'less intense taste' right on the label, so the next time i was at shoppers i picked up the little bottle to give it a try.

the first time i tried it, i decided to swish around 20mL of the stuff (because that is what's recommended for "full strength") and for the first 10 seconds it was great, but then this burning sensation started happening which caused my eyes to water and my taste buds to cry out for help. i think i stood there spitting into the sink for a good minute afterwards. my conclusion: vanilla mint, the listerine with the supposedly less-intense taste, still tastes like burning. aghhh.

no matter, i've decided that i'm going to keep on using it until my gums start to callouse up. haha.

*shudders*

captivating

i just finished reading this book a few days ago and i think it's pretty good. i heard about it from hannah a couple of months back and had wanted to read it earlier but just never actually got around to doing so until recently.

the authors don't use many big words and there's nothing in the book that is too confusing making it an easy read. (actually, the most confusing thing was trying to figure out who was writing what because they both wrote in first person...but i guess that was more annoying than confusing. :P) anyway, although i found some of the ideas presented a little on the idealistic side, there were other ideas that were really solid and got me thinking. they also made up for those other ones. haha.

despite what others have said about this book (i've heard both good and bad things), i generally feel it's a refreshing take on the women's psyche compared to most other christian books on women.

"...but don't take my word for it." - levar burton, reading rainbow

to all you ladies out there (and men if you're interested), if you haven't read the book yet and you get the chance to, give it a read. :)

twenty-four

prison break, as much as i like that show, really hasn't got much on this one.

...and the music! i think 24's soundtrack has some of the best music written for TV that i've ever heard! everything about it is just so great! it's great work, it really is. sean callery is brilliant.

it's a good thing i waited until school was over before i started watching it; 24 is way too addictive for anyone's good. omg. i can't wait for season six!

oh well, at least i'm not in the uk. apparently they've only finished showing season two. haha, suckers. :P
_______________________
on a completely different note...

i can't believe that it's already passed the middle of july; this summer has gone by so fast! i didn't end up finding a job this time around (although to be completely honest i did give up on my job search maybe a little too easily...) so i've just been relaxing out the days of my last summer.

surprisingly, doing nothing is pretty tiring in itself. haha. i am so lazy. :P

BUT...even though relaxing has been good and sleeping in everyday has been really good, i'll be glad when september rolls around. why you ask? well, because in september my internship will begin, my days will become more productive, and my life will start to pick up again.

i wish my lungs were bigger.

i recently decided to pick up the flute again; i figure it's a good instrument to have in music therapy...flutes are small and therefore portable, unlike pianos which just aren't. i used to play in elementary school so i thought that relearning how to play the instrument would be relatively easy.

oh was i ever wrong.

the first day i got my flute i practiced for about 4 hours...and sucked for the first 3 and a half. (i think i might have blew my brains out a little too much that day because that night when i went to bed around 1:30 i could fall to sleep until 7:30am.) whoops. in anycase, i've got A LOT of practicing to do in order to get from where i am now to where i want to be by the end of the summer, and the start of my internship, but for now it's all about the little steps and mini-goals.

mini-goal #1: to be able to play the instrument without gasping for air, like someone who's drowning, every two bars.

hind's feet on high places

"Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vine; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. The Sovereign LORD is my strength! He will make me as surefooted as a deer and bring me safely over the mountains."
- Habakkuk 3:17-19a (NLT)

twenty-six and still kickin' it

to the best Jeh-jeh in the world, you deserve nothing short of the best day ever.
Happy Birthday Liz! :)

pics from her birthday party last saturday and dinner tonight can be found here.

from dooley's nights during finals, to spring convocation, to pics from the fray...

after putting it off for a few months, today i finally uploaded a crapload of pictures on both my imagestation and my flickr. all i have to say is, thank goodness for the imagestation XPRESS and flickr uploader. haha. just click on the links of you want to have a look, and so sorry for the delay...

...enjoy. :)

click here to go to my imagestation. (full albums)
click here to go to my flickr. (condensed version)

the westernization of asians

all the yamaha concerts i was talking about in my previous post happened at the japanese canadian cultural centre. while i was there, i had a chance to walk around the building a little bit, take a look at the beautiful artwork and pictures on the walls, and read stories about the lives of many past japanese canadians. the interior of the building itself looked really nice; it had a strong japanese flavour with bamboo/paper screens, really clean lines, and a sense of elegant simplicity in the space. it was nice to see how proud these individuals were of their japanese heritage and how they balanced this loyalty to their 'motherland' (japan) with their canadian nationalism as well.

being at the JCCC for the couple of days i was there made me realize to an even bigger extent how disconnected i've become with my own chinese heritage. i think the longer asians reside in canada, the easier it becomes for us to lose touch with our roots because we become more westernized. (well, i know this is true with me...i'm as jook-sing as a jook-sing can be.) believe you me i'm proud to be a jook-sing, but at the same time i'm conscious of the fact that i don't know many of the chinese legends, chinese history is completely foreign to me (i learned canadian and european history in school), and while i draw the line at chinese opera (my poor ears), i think it's pretty sad that i don't even know the chinese language very well.

now when i say chinese heritage/roots, i'm not talking about the 'new-wave' of chinese culture (i.e. the hong kong scene with bubble tea, pacific mall, and flashing cell phone lights), but the traditional chinese culture which slowly seems to be fading as even china is gradually becoming more westernized. don't get me wrong, i'm not saying this is a bad or good thing, i'm just saying it's a little sad to think of all the traditional aspects of chinese culture that might potentially become lost one day...

anyway, i did some research and found that there's actually a chinese cultural centre of greater toronto (which i totally had no idea existed). they have this cool summer camp thing you get trained by a shaolin monk master (how very kung-fu the legend continues-ish of them. bah hah.)...

too bad the camp is only for children aged 4-12. :P

another round of yamaha concerts

over the past week i had a chance to help out with year-end concerts for the students of the Junior Music Course (JMC), Junior Advanced Course (JAC), and Young Musician's Course (YMC) classes at yamaha music school. i haven't been to a yamaha concert since forever, but everything seemed strangely familiar even though the Junior Special Advanced Course (JSAC) concerts were done a little bit differently; some of the songs that the students played were songs that i had played back when i was still a JMC student, and one of the teachers there was my teacher way back!

i couldn't help but smile when i saw how nervous some of the kids were; i remembered exactly how it felt to be playing in one of those concerts. i remember being super nervous and wishing i had practiced more. (even at an early age i was a horrible student and hardly practiced...some things never change. bah hah.)

even though my job wasn't necessarily hard, the concerts left me feeling drained at because some kids, as cute as they might have been, were crazy. nevertheless it was a pleasure being able to watch little kiddies making music with their respective classes and to see how proud all the parents were of their sons and daughters...

...but if i ever turn into a crazy, rude, and incredibly annoying parent, someone slap me. aghh.

taken at the 1988 JMC year-end concert (i'm the one playing the triangle)
note: my mom made my costume. :) oh, and i'm a female lion, not a bear. :P


the last song in the concert with all the performers
can you find me? ;)

how to save a life

i went to see the fray live yesterday with liz and two of her friends. it was an awesome concert. awesome! yay for being 19+ so we could go to the balcony, away from the screaming members of the leguna beach fanclub, where there were seats and tables. sweet deal. :)

brandi carlile opened for them and she sang for so freakin' long. like, 2 hours long. aghh. she wasn't half bad, but she was definitely not the fray either. i liked a few of her many many many songs, although most of them didn't really appeal to me; some were just a tad too hokey (the last song sounded like a country hoe-down. no joke.) and she did this wierd country twang thing with her voice a lot that i wasn't a fan of. she DID, however, sing one of her songs that was featured on grey's anatomy, so that kinda made up for it. kind of.

as for the fray, they were great!!!!! :D the lead vocalist/pianist, isaac slade, sounded so great live; he sounded exactly like he does on the CD! i have no idea how he managed to sing so amazingly WHILE playing all this cool stuff on the piano. it was amazing! the electric guitarist did all this wicked cool stuff with his effects pedal, and the bassist even had an effect pedal too! (he made his bass sound like it was being bowed or something...it was very cool.)

all in all, a great concert. :)

pics from the concert can be seen here.

Laurier Convocation 2006



yesterday was laurier's spring convocation, which just happened to be justin and mine's. :) after four years of hard work, craploads of money, and living in student housing, it was now our turn to walk across the stage, get our degrees, and officially bring our time at laurier to a close.

despite the cold weather and the insane amount of wind, both our convocations went smoothly and were incredibly time-efficient (i kid you not, his was only around one hour long. ONE hour!) thanks to everyone who came out to the ceremonies/receptions, it was great seeing everyone again. it brought back memories of in the name of community...haha, i really miss you guys.

justin's convocation was in the morning (whereas mine was in the afternoon, because laurier's school of business and economics got their OWN...snobs!) so i went up super early in order to see his. even though i was really tired as a result of having to get up so early, it was worth it to see him convocate; i was so proud of him. :)

my convocation was in the afternoon; it was so nice getting the chance to see everyone again. i'll definitely miss seeing certain individuals, both fellow students and professors, whom i've grown accustomed to seeing on a regular basis. hopefully i'll be able to keep in touch with the cool kids (i.e. the people i like.) ;) hahaha
it's sad to think that many of our paths won't cross as frequently (if at all) anymore, but it's exciting to think of where everyone will eventually end up. i wonder where we'll all be in a few years from now...

is it just me or does time seem to be going by faster these days?

laurier SBE class of 2006


my family :)


really up close and personal: me and justin :)


from floormates, to housemates, to fellow graduates: sharon and amy


from l-r: dan lee, alex chow, justin, sharon, amy, dave

congratulations class of 2006, we did it. :)

music and bubbletea

tonight my church had a fundraiser for habitat for humanity. there were three performers and i was one of them...errr, to be completely honest, i was more like last minute add-in. oh well, at least i got to share my music with everyone. :) i ended up singing a song i wrote myself this afternoon (i was literally a last minute add-in.) there's something about performing an original piece of music in front of people that is so much more intimidating than performing a precomposed song. it's as if during the moments the music is playing, your heart is completely vulnerable and at the mercy of the audience. it was my first time singing one of my own songs in front of people so i was pretty nervous. i was scared that everyone would hate it or think it was cheesy, but it turned out ok. people actually liked it! (and no one said anything about it sounding cheesy at all.) *phew*

anyway, afterwards some of us went to tenren's for some bubbletea. yum! it was quite the entertaining conversation; we reminisced about old memories, uncovered juicy information about a certain someone (heehee), met new people, and saw familiar faces. after laughing until my cheeks hurt, talking until my voice started to get a little hoarse, and finishing the last of my strawberry milk tea, i decided to call it a night and head home. what a long day.

all in all, a great night. :)

trying something new.

i decided tonight that it was time to change the look of my blog. i was getting a little bored of the other one and was going to do something about it earlier, but just never got around to it. i've always wanted to try a white background so i thought what the hey, (do people still even say that anymore? i'm so hip it hurts.) i'll try it. as of now i don't know how much i like this "new look" but meh. at least it's different.
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on a completely different note:

liz is coming back from africa soon! tomorrow in the afternoon/evening to be exact. we're going to the airport to pick her up tomorrow. i can't wait for the stories and pictures, as i'm sure there will be many. :)

groan. ughh. sigh. shake.

these are the sounds of a frustrated individual who groans at the amount of job ads there are to sift through, goes ughh because about 95% are useless to them, sighs because upon a closer examination the majority of the remaining job postings aren't that great either, and as a result shakes their fist at the job market.

job hunting must be one of the most frustrating, tidious, and time consuming processes known to mankind, although i'm sure counting a gazillion tiny grains of rice only to realize that you've lost count with only about 10 rice grains to go would be worse. WAY worse.

haha, now THAT would suck. :)

counting my blessings...

an open door number three...

a couple of weeks ago i went for an interview at bloorview kids rehab (formerly known as bloorview macmillan children's centre) for the part-time music therapy internship position. at the time the supervisor said that there were other applicants, so she wouldn't have an answer for me until early may sometime (my interview was during the last week of april). bloorview was the only internship site that really caught my eye and attention, and as a result it was the only one i actually applied for. needless to say i was pretty nervous while i waiting for her answer. well, i got a call her from her on wednesday and it turns out that i got the internship! :D

*h u g e sigh of relief*

so after everything that has happened leading up to this point, i'm 100% convinced that God's plan for my life includes me working in music therapy for at least another year or so. two months ago i would have disliked this plan (my plan was to leave the field for good), but today i couldn't be any happier, excited, or feel any more at peace with the ways things turned out. sure at times i still feel a little nervous and confused over some things, but ultimately i know that i'm in good hands and that makes everything ok. :)
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'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
And to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, “Thus says the Lord!”

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!

I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.

goodbye waterloo...

seems like yesterday i was a froshie moving into waterloo college hall. now i'm graduating and moving out of the town which, over the past four years, has become my "home". it feels so surreal.

back in first year my floor don gave us all a sheet of blue paper with a poem written on it. i don't really remember what it said, but i do remember the last line which read, "university is about learning: learning how to live."

that statement is so true. many lessons were learned during my four years here. i'm thankful for all the experiences, good and bad, i've had during university as they have all impacted the way i live now in one way or another. some experiences were tougher to go through than others, but i can say that i've learned something from all of them and in the end, that's what's most important. anyway, these are a few of the lessons that God has taught me along the way. :)

top five life lessons i've learned in university:
5. learn to let things go: you can't hang onto everything, that will only eat you from the inside out. pick your battles wisely.
4. think before you speak: not only can words really build someone up, they can hurt a reputation, break a heart, and even destroy a person if you're not careful.
3. balance: balance is key. all work and no play is boring, but all play and no work is just dumb.
2. know your limits: have a clear idea of what your limits are and stick to them. some compromises just aren't worth it.
1. be REAL: don't be afraid to be yourself. people can usually tell when someone is being phony or trying too hard. eventually everyone's true colours shine through no matter how hard people might try to hide them. just be yourself and when you do, you'll know that the people who like you, like you for being you. :)

door number two is closed too.

i love music, i really do. i'm soon-to-be graduating with a BMT (bachelor of music therapy) & BA Psych, and in retrospect i'm glad that i chose the option i did, but the road to where i'm at now has been tough, long, and full of resistance...from me.

i realized today that throughout my whole life, i've constantly tried to run away from music. i've tried different things, but i've never been able distance myself from it. in elementary school i did this by refusing to fill out the arts york program applications until the morning of the day it was due (and even so it was only because liz made me); in high school i did this by originally applying for only science programs; and in university it was applying to masters programs in speech-language pathology for post-grad education.

well, all my attempts failed: i ended up going to unionville high school for their arts york piano program, then going to wilfrid laurier university for music (then eventually music therapy), and i didn't get into any of the schools i applied to for speech-language pathology. i don't believe in coincidences, so it's not by chance that any of these things happened. with all that in mind, i can't help but ask myself why i'm so reluctant to enter into the music field when He has guided me this far, and has equipped me with musical skills.

to make a long explanation short, i'm scared.

just call me Jonah. maybe this, my not getting into speech, was my big fish...

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
- Jeremiah 29:11

...but even jonah eventually learned that with God's help he could overcome his own personal baggage and follow God's plan for his life right? i suppose now it's my turn.

where You lead me, i will follow...

lccf grad night 2006.

9 grads + the greatest fellowship + the greatest alumni + great videos + awesome performances by froshies, tracy, and sam (euni and allie) + honest and from the heart sharing + cake + craziness in the caf + jamming and signage of books = a night to remember.

thanks so much everyone for making this night so incredibly special. thanks for all the preparation, thought, sweat, and love that went into making this night happen; i wouldn't have changed a thing. this community is SO special. i've said this before a million times, but i'll say it again: i love you all so much. :)

L C C F.

so yesterday was my last lccf as a laurier student. all i can is, wow. it is certainly something special, and i'm sooooo excited for them in terms of what's to come next year...and the year after that...and so on. God has been working in and through the people of lccf in both macro and micro levels, in terms of our growth as a community, and growth as unique individuals which make up our fellowship.

over the last four years i've learned over and over again that attaining a perfect community is impossible. lccf is not perfect; it's made up of a group of imperfect people so it will never be "perfect". there will always be struggles, and growing pains to deal with, but it is in our imperfections where true community is tested and developed, faith is strengthened, God's power is made perfect and as a result, people are transformed.

true community is not about perfect people coming together to form a perfect community. instead, i believe true community is about imperfect people coming together in love to help one another, live life together, and encourage each other to continue striving towards being like Jesus, the ultimate perfect being.

Love, Christ-centred, Community, Family...these are a few of the things i think of when i think of lccf - the fellowship comprised of people who, over the past four years, have been my community, my second family, and my home away from home.

LCCF winter retreat 2006 @ Camp Ganadoweh

thanks for all the memories, i love you guys. :)

two squished bugs, one grossed-out girl.

today i smushed two bugs. it was so grosssssssss. and now i'm going to share both stories with you!

bug story #1: "in the john"
so i was in the bathroom, when all of a sudden i saw a dark movement on my leg. i immediately started to freak out (silently so i wouldn't wake up any potential sleepers in the house because it was early), and hit and brushed off my leg. at that point this huge spider fell onto the floor (well, not HUGE, but big enough) so i promptly squished it with my slipper. then picked it up with toilet paper, threw it into the toilet and flushed.
bye bye spider.

bug story #2: "on my door"
i was walking into my room when all of a sudden i froze because there was this really wierd looking bug on it. it was kinda long, had long antennae and a few legs popping out of its body. *shudders* i almost dropped my juice on the floor, but somehow i managed to put it on my dresser. then i got some tissue, and was just about to smush the stupid thing and then it flinched. *AGHHH!* i gathered up my courage and promptly smushed it before i lost my nerve. i felt the guts explode out of its body. then i ran downstairs to the toilet, threw in the kleenex and flushed.
bye bye wierd bug on my door.

please let tomorrow be a bug free day. PLEASE. :P

"time to say goodbye to meeeee!"

heehee. this is what my client sang in our last music therapy session during the goodbye song. (the original lyrics go, "it's time to say goodbye [insert client name here]".) i was watching the video of our session as i was working on my session notes, and i couldn't help but laugh outloud.

i can't really go into any details due to confidentiality reasons, but believe you me, my client is truly a m a z i n g. :)

only two more sessions to go. i'm gonna miss them.

must. keep. swimming.

oh man, these next two weeks are going to be BRUTAL. so many things due, so many things left to complete. aghhhh. i made a to-do list for myself this week. it took up two post-its! hopefully i'll be able to stick to it. (haha. get it? post-it? stick?) man, i suck. :P

on a completely unrelated note: happy spring everyone! even though it's still freezing cold outside (sometimes it looks like it could be so warm...so deceiving!), i can see the tips of buds just waiting to pop out of the branches. :)

okay, back to work. bye!

weekend in the loo.

it's been a while since i've been able to spend a weekend up here in waterloo; i had almost forgotten how nice weekends up here actually are. :)

only two more weeks of class!

nation sharon's day

i have an announcement to make. *clears throat*

i dub today, march 10th, as national sharon's day! *cheering and applauding* :D

i'm thankful for the time i was able to spend today with spammie (aka "the other sharon"). in fact, it was so good we decided to make it an annual tradition, (hence the creation of national sharon's day.) heehee. from brunch, to the bus, to national sports, to mcdonald's...it was all good! thanks for the laughs and conversations throughout the day. pastey legs for life. BAH HAH. :P

...yay for sharons! :D

and now, a quote i really liked from women's cell yesterday. guys, listen up, this one's for you:

"Be very careful if you make a woman cry, because God counts her tears. The woman came out of a man's rib: Not from his feet to be walked on. Not from his head to be superior, but from the side to be equal. Under the arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved."

my biggest hurdle

letting go is something that is especially hard for me. it's an internal battle that no one sees from the outside, but one that i most definitely feel and know is real on the inside. it's too bad satan knows about this huge weakness of mine; he has used it to his advantage one too many times. aghh, he sucks and i hate him so much.

well, it's time to cut the strings connecting me to my load as i attempt to let go of it again. a part of me wants to hang on, but i know i can't. it's time to move on and resist the temptation of looking back.

goodbye load, you're no good for me.

Lord, continue to strengthen me so i can fight this...

cheeese. :D

incase anyone is interested, i've finally gotten around to uploading all my LCCF Winter retreat pics. looking through them makes me smile...such great times and memories. :)

For those who like typing in things and clicking around on their mouse my imagestation account is: jell-o108,
for those who like searching for things, the link to my imagestation is on the side-bar,
and for everyone else you can find my pictures here. enjoy! :)

march already?

wow. march. seems like yesterday was november.

i can feel the inevitable getting closer and closer. a huge blob of emotions has been circulating in my brain lately; excitement, nervousness, sadness, and anxiousness are among the emotions that have entered, exited or stayed put in this little emotional blob of mine...

1.5 months to go...let's make the most of the remainder of the school year, shall we? :)

for the love of...

tip of the day #165:
if you ever finish writing an exam early and there are still people writing, leave the room before you start talking/being loud. especially if the room is large, concrete, and super echoey.

for the last 5 minutes of my physiology midterm today, the room was louder than a chinese dim-sum restaurant before 1pm. aghhhh.

"everyday is the fourteenth."

i don't usually post videos, but i figure it's valentine's day and i really like this one so for today i'll make an exception. :) for your viewing pleasure here is "i'm yours" by wongfu productions, the same people who did yellow fever. (yellow fever is FUNNNY. check that one out too if you haven't seen it yet.)

happy valentines day to you, you, you, you, you, you (ermm...everyone!) and especially you. :)

woe is me. and my noodles.

story of the day:

so i was making instant noodles for lunch today. for me, cooking instant noodles is a three step process: 1) boil water and throw in noodles to cook. 2) drain the water from the pot using the pot lid, NOT a strainer because that means more to wash later. 3) reboil water for soup and whatever else is to be added to the meal (i.e. meat, veggies...etc.) anyway, step one was successful and i was about halfway through step two when BAM. the pot lid shifts and my noodles come tumbling out of the pot and into the sink.

it was horrible. i stood there in shock with the pot one hand and the pot lid which failed me for about 10 seconds. meanwhile, my stomach continued to grumbled as i watched the sink mock me while it ate my noodles. aghhh.

at first i considered just scooping everything back into the pot, giving it a good rinse and then reboiling the water. then i thought about it some more and came to my senses. (can you say, DIRTY DIRTY?) the good news: i managed to save some of the noodles (see third picture.) the bad news: it was definitely nowhere close to being enough for a meal. it was quite the sad little bowl of noodles. :( anyway, i ended up making another pack of instant noodles. bah hah. *sigh*

moral of the story: when you're too lazy to use a strainer and insist on using pot lids instead, BE CAREFUL!

r a n d o m n e s s.

i'm in the mood for some random blogging. it'll be interesting to see what comes out. here are the first 10 things that pop into my head starting...now:

1. these physiology pop quizzes are killing me softly with their song.
2. it was my cousin's birthday yesterday so i sent him an e-card and he responded with an e-mail. they call presents "pressies" in the UK! heehee. i thought that was funny. it was nice hearing from him. :)
3. i'm so sleepy.
4. "just keep swimming"
5. winnie. the. pooh! (i'm looking at my pooh mug. why "winnie"? it's a short form for winnifred isn't it? pooh is supposed to be a boy bear, so why not something more masculine? like bob, tom or frankie. haha. frankie the pooh.)
6. i went to area E for 3 years to represent my school in triple jump. bah hah. how did that happen?
7. where did that thought come from?
8. my gilmore girls download is almost done!
9. this is harder than i thought.
10. ten. ten. ten. what a round number. what a great number. i'm done!

wow. that sucked. it's hard to be random on purpose. hahaha. :P

flickering lights, sparks, and firetrucks...oh my!

whoa.

so i was working on my session notes from my individual music therapy placement this past tuesday and was in the middle of session note-ing our xylophone/piano improvisation when all of a sudden the lights in my room started flickering. at first i thought it was a power failure-ish type thing because of the winter storm warning in the waterloo region but the lights just kept flickering without them ever fully going out. then i realized everytime the lights in my room flickered i could hear a popping from outside my window, so i looked out the window and saw this:

SPARKS. and not just one, but a lot of them happening one after another.

i seriously thought that some idiotic kid had set off fireworks in the trees until i realized it was the hydroline in our neighbour's yard that was exploding. (aghh! the hydroline! AND their line goes through TREES.) ok maybe exploding is a little over the top, but sparking hydro lines are never a good thing although the green and yellow sparks flying everywhere were beautiful to look at. i think i sat there for a couple of minutes just staring at them. so dangerous but oh so mesmerizing. (it's like those blue bug lights that the bugs can't help but look at even though they must know the light could potentially kill them. yah, blue bug light = sparking hydroline, bug = me. haha. :P) it was quite the commotion: people living in the houses around ours went into their backyards plus there was yelling and everything. there were also some brave morons who tried to get a better look at the sparks by getting as close to them as physically possible (omg, so dumb.) thankfully the sparks didn't catch on fire. that would have really sucked as all the little war houses (including mine) in this area are made of wood. someone was definitely looking out for us tonight.

anyway, no more than 2 minutes later i heard a siren coming closer and closer to our house. at first i thought it was the police but it turned out to be a firetruck full of firemen coming to check things out at our neighbour's place. but really who cares, i'm still super impressed with 911 in waterloo and their speediness. i guess everything checked out okay and because within minutes the firemen left.

thankfully now the drama is over: the lights are fine, the sparks are gone, the firetruck isn't there anymore...and everything is back to normal in my little corner of the world. :)

when soul meets body...

i've been listening to death cab for cutie's latest album, Plans, for the past couple of days and i really like their stuff. liz introduced me to them when she showed me the music video for soul meets body. such a funny video complete with floating music notes that slowly run out of energy, get caught in electrical wires and fall into puddles. hahaha, so random it's great.

anyway, good news: they're coming to toronto in april! :) the bad news is our exam schedule hasn't come out yet, so i'm not sure if i can go. booooooooo. i already can't go to the fray concert this month on account of me being in stink town, waterloo, (it's the week AFTER reading week)...i'm missing out on everything!! but in exchange i'm getting my degree so i suppose it balances out. :P bah hah.

oh well, if all fails at least i have wicked to look forward to in october!! :D

in a rut.

call it a blip, dip, ditch or hole, it doesn't really matter. i've been in denial for the last little while (i was trying to fool myself into thinking things were going fine) but i'm past that stage now. goodbye denial, hello acknowledgement. okay, here goes...

i, sharon, am in a rut.

i suppose one could say i'm going through my version of the 3pm daily workday period of suck. you know, the time when you know your workday is almost over but every minute, every second, seems to be go by soooooooo slowly (and as a result you lose motivation and get real lazy.) yah, that's pretty much how i'm feeling right now. i've tried to tough it up and just DO things because i know there is an insane amount of things to be done, but at this point my overall drive/motivation is almost non-existent and unproductiveness levels are at an all-time high.

idleness and time-wasting are the worst. now if only i wasn't so good at it...*sharon pulls out a sudoku puzzle...* haha, kidding. :P

'jook sings' love jook

here it is: my post that is not about school! instead it's about something much better and more liked by everyone....FOOD, more specifically...JOOK! :D

i admit that when i was little i hated jook...until i discovered thin jook. my grandma made it for dinner one night when she was looking after me. it was SO good. just like that my congee hating days were over.
things got better in OAC when i got my wisdom teeth out. since i couldn't chew anything my mom made this THINNED out jook that was just scrumptiously delicious! (my mouth is starting to salivate. honest. haha.) i ended up affectionately naming this style of jook, "wisdom teeth jook".

none of this thick business, i like my jook watery and thinned out. ohhhh yeah.

mmmmm. i want congee wong now. :d

four things you might not have known about "jook":
- you can look it up on wikipedia (i'm telling you, wikipedia has everything!)
- the word congee was derived from the Tamel word, kanji
- it's considered part of traditional Chinese medicine food therapy
- some people make jook using brown rice

time for another quiz...

You scored as Art. You should be an Art major! How bohemian! Art 75% Philosophy 58% Sociology 50% Linguistics 50% Dance 50% Psychology 50% Theater 50% English 42% Anthropology 42% Mathematics 42% Journalism 33% Engineering 33% Chemistry 33% Biology 17% What is your Perfect Major? created with QuizFarm.com

hmmm i guess this explains why physiology is so hard for me.
i mean, it's a biology course and obviously bio is definitely not my perject major. at all.
...and these quizzes MUST be true right?

oh dear, these quizzes are the worst. (yes, i say this knowing full well i'll probably do another one eventually.) :P

ok back to reading physiology. i'm determined to get a non-crappy mark in this course this term. i want to finish off my undergraduate university career strong but i think more than anything, i just want to prove to myself that i can do it.
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ughh. two posts about school in a row. i promise my next one will be about something better. :P

done and done.

today i spent at least 3-4 hours going through each and every one of the entries on my online orpas application form again and again, then again some more. after checking, re-checking then going back to check my re-checked information about 20 billion times i got the courage to click the submit button...only to chicken out and recheck everything "one last time". what can i say, i'm paranoid. :P

anyway, i finally mustered up all courage i could find, hit the submit button and just like that it was finished. after months of talking about it, taking required courses for it and going through the tedious process of filling out all the required application forms, i have officially applied to graduate school.

now for the fun bit (and by fun i mean worst): waiting.
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p.s. more news on the street: it's someone's birthday today too! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADRIENNE!!! *gigundo birthday hugs* :D

aghhh.

i'm in need of some keyboard mashing.

zsdfjkd;fziof;sadjksadfjkl;lkjdsfl;kasadgjkwuerjk

okay i'm done...for now. heehee. :P
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in other news...

- word on the street is that someone's turning 23 today. heehee. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANNON!!! *massive birthday hugs* :D
- just got back from listening to the concerto competition (i stayed for piano as well as for voice). all i can say is, there is some crazy talent within the laurier community. wow.

...and now, i feel completely exhausted. time to clean my room. bye. :)

i hear birds.

the grass is green, the sun is shining, the snow is melting, the birds are chirping and it's the middle of JANUARY. at this rate it will be 60 degrees celsius this july. either that or it'll snow.

cord-less.

i'm currently typing this post while sitting on my bed which is across the room from my desk and all the cords that come with it. i love wireless internet. i love it even more when other people (neighbours perhaps?) provide it. some people are just so nice. bah hah. :P

don't worry, i'll eventually use our internet with wires again when my battery runs low and i have no choice but to go back to my desk and plug all the cords back in. how restraining.

there is, however, something i miss over on this side of my room: my speakers. laptop speakers have almost no bass, distort easily and have the potential to make your music sound cheesy (like john tesh cheesy). which leads me to my next somewhat related point:

i want a bose wave music system. :)

starfield | love break me

Mark me with Your grace
Shape me in Your wisdom
Place in me a heart
Of mercy
Open up my eyes
Let me see Your glory
Lead me to the place
You want me

Love, break me now
Strip me down
May Your beauty
Deep inside of me resound
Through me be found
Come break me now

Guide me in Your truth
Mold me in Your nature
Birth in me a hope
To hold on
Show me how to wait
Teach me how to listen
Be in me the strength
To let go

Break me now...

Love, hear my plea
Rescue me, bring Your peace
I have come to You on bended knee
I'm desperate for Your breath in me
Your ears to hear, Your eyes to see
Set me free, come set me free

Like rain flowing over me...

hello 2006...

it's the start of a new year, a new term, a new beginning, a fresh start...
are you ready?