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. :)