suddenly, the wicked witch doesn't seem so "wicked" anymore...

after listening to my sister's soundtrack of the broadway musical, Wicked, (it's coming to toronto in october/november! :D) and reading a little bit about the plotline in the CD insert, i discovered that the musical was actually written and composed after gregory maguire's book, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.

a spin-off of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (which was adapted for the classic film musical "The Wizard of Oz"), the book is pretty much a biography of the wicked witch of the west. from what i could tell from the lyrics in the musical, the whole story is pretty sad. poor elphaba (the wicked witch of the west). :( i was teary eyed from listening to one song on the CD at one point. (okay i admit, i actually cried. :P i'm turning into such a sap. i haven't even seen the musical.) how embassaring. haha.

i really want to to read this book now.

i went as far as looking up its availability at the library but there are a ridiculous amount of holds on this book now...*waaaaah*.

should i wait? or just buy it? hmm, maybe i'll do the next best thing: anyone up for a trip to chapters? ;)

oops, excuse me!

today i had my final exam for the phonetics course i was taking at UT. since i had my exam i basically studied all day, which would have been okay except my allergies (when did i start getting allergies?!) were pretty bad today and i kept sneezing every 2 minutes...

fortunately i was able catch the majority of my sneezes before they happened so i didn't get myself into too much trouble (i.e. making sure there was no food in my mouth before sneezing, making sure i wasn't holding anything that would spill when i sneezed...etc.)

unfortunately i wasn't able to catch every one of my sneezes. the result: my super demented "m". hehehe. i was writing "egressive glottalic airstream" when all of a sudden my sneeze came out of nowhere. oops. heehee. i couldn't help but laugh outloud.

i just added in the tissue mountain because i thought it was funny. a little gross, but funny. :P
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on a completely different note...

my sister is 25! :O heehee. (please excuse the blurry picture, i guess i was a little too excited. haha. :P)

her birthday was technically "yesterday" (June 27) even though it's still "today" to me, because i haven't gone to sleep yet. :P since she has moved back home (she's the "great and totally worthy cause" i was talking about earlier with regards to my cleaning of the house) some of her friends took advantage of that fact and threw her a surprise birthday partay. :) plans got a little sticky with the whole meeting her in the park thing as the mosquitoes were vicious (so i heard), but nevertheless when liz got home she was super surprised, and really that's all that counts. this year there were no tears (heehee, remember?), just laughter and good times all around.

happy (belated) birthday liz! :D

procrastinator me.

the past 24 hours have been crazy; i've been cleaning like a mad person on crack. (haha okay so i exaggerate.) i know i really should have done this earlier instead of waiting until the very last minute...but really what's the fun in that? :P

i generally don't enjoy cleaning, but this time i don't mind as much. why? because it's for a great and totally worthy cause...

more on this later. ;)

www.fredflare.com = most random products ever.

from green bug luggage tags to librarian pins, this website has got it all.

look what i came across...iPOD hoodies!!

hahahha i think they're funny. hhehehehe

i'm not sure how these really stack up to iSkins (or other protection products) in terms of actually being able to protect your iPOD (mm...lemme see, flannel vs. silicon...) but they're really cute! :P

look what else i found on the site! a plush pb+j sandwich!!

so random...haha.

a good mistake?

so i purchased my tsoundcheck tickets today and instead of giving them only $20 for the two tickets, i mistakenly donated an extra $20 to the toronto symphony orchestra. ooooooops. i didn't catch my mistake until i received an e-mail from the tsoundcheck people thanking me for my donation. i'm sure my facial expression must have been an interesting one. hahaha. ah well, at least i'll get a tax receipt, the board of directors will match my donation, and i get an invite for me and friend to watch an open rehearsal during the 2005/2006 season.

oh yah. and i made a donation to the toronto symphony orchestra... ;)

to be completely honest with everyone, i was a little upset with myself for making that mistake, but at least it was for a good cause...geez, i could slap myself right now. i was upset at myself for accidentally making a donation for a good cause. man, i really need to be more giving. donating definitely shouldn't be viewed as a mistake. ooooops. as for my "mistake", i guess it could have been worse; i could have mistakenly donated $200 instead of $20, which i suppose would have been great for the TSO but not so great for myself - i just don't have that kind of money...i'm a student! :P

on a more serious note, i'm actually really looking forward to this concert. we (my mom and i) are going down to roy thompson hall to see the thursday night show featuring music by debussy and ravel, my two favourite french composers. i'm pretty excited...it'll be a good concert for sure. :)

big school, little school.

i'm taking a course at the university of toronto this summer as a visiting student from wilfrid laurier university. oh me oh my, i can't even begin to tell you how different these two school are from each other. here are some observations i've made (they're pretty obvious, but i thought i'd put them in anyway):

- size: UT is massive, Laurier is tiny. (anyone could told you that. :P) for the first time, i actually feel like i'm in a "real" university. hahaha. sad, but true.
- buildings: UT has some really nice historical-looking buildings. laurier on the other hand...i think that the john aird overpass thing has been compared to a firestation, or hospital. either way, that overpass is ugly. some of the newer buildings are nice, but...they're new so they can't really be compared to the old buildings with the ornate architecture and historical value. but i guess laurier itself (est. 1911) isn't even old enough for ANY of the buildings to be considered historic anyway.
- cultural diversity: this is the first time in my whole university career where i haven't been one of the few chinese people in my class. in fact, the majority of my class in chinese. it's kinda refreshing in a wierd way...
- class size: well, it's a summer course so i'm thinking that during the year most classes at UT are bigger than the number of people in my class (there are maybe about 50, maybe a little more?). at laurier (in my year), there are 6 of us (including me) in the music therapy PROGRAM. hahah. enough said.
- the commute: it's a hassle. i like that i live 5 mins (walking) away from campus at laurier. when i leave, i know how long it will take me to get where i'm going. the commute sucks because you're at the mercy of traffic and subway delays...not to mention, walking from the subway stop TO the building you need to go to would probably take at least 5 minutes in itself.

at the end of the day, they are both great respective universities that are each good in their own way; one is a more established, sophisticated and a little cut-throat, while the other more is community centred and small-town-ish...i'll let you decide which one is which. ;)

in any case, education is education and i'm happy for the opportunity to be at either. :)

if You are willing.

i'm currently reading through mark and since the night i began and read in chapter one the story about the man with leprosy, i haven't been able to get it out of my head. (mark 1:40-45). i feel God was teaching me something here; something big...something i needed to hear.

during mark's interpretation of this story the leper comes to Jesus, falls on his knees and begs, "if you are willing, you can make me clean." (please note, the leper did not ask whether or not Jesus COULD make him clean. he was asking whether or not Jesus WOULD. i emphasize this because this distinction was what struck me the most in this story.)

Jesus' response to the leper's begging?

"Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said, "Be clean!" (v. 41, emphasis mine)
i read this story on monday night, and still i can't shake it from my mind. to me, it's incredible. a humble request from a leper who absolutely believed Jesus could heal him if he wanted to, brought a beautiful response from the Creator of the universe: "I am willing".

so what does all this have to do with me now? well, i went to campus challenge this past weekend and while i'm still trying to wrap my head around everything, i can't help but think what my next steps in general will be. naturally my first response is to ask God for things; for unity, for barriers to be broken both internally and externally, for my heart to be softened, for my soul to be cleansed...the list goes on. like the leper, as Christians we go to God with absolute belief that God is capable of everything. however, unlike the leper sometimes we forget the most important thing, that it is ultimately up to Him whether or not He does anything.

God is completely able to do the impossible, however it is only IF HE IS WILLING that the impossible will become reality.

*cheeeeeeese....click!*

finally, i got off my butt and uploaded a crapload of pictures today...

queens @ laurier, LCCF retreat/ice skating, easter weekend, campus challenge...you can all these pics here. :)

i'll blog about campus challenge soon...but for now, it'll have to wait. i'm so tired, i need to go to bed. :P

p.s. is it just me, or did some of my comments mysteriously disappear? where did they go? oh the insanity of it all.

one thing done...

as of next tuesday, i'll officially be volunteering at York Central Hospital in the aphasia program (which is affiliated with the York-Durham Aphasia Centre). i went in two weeks ago to observe, then this past tuesday i went in for my YDAC orientation and then the following day i went back to york central for my actual hospital orientation. it was good meeting other volunteers even though we're all volunteering in different parts of the hospital. it's my first time volunteering at a hospital, and i'm looking forward to it - it'll be an awesome learning experience for sure.

...and as an added bonus, i can now cross one thing off my to-do list. yay!! :)

"whooooo are you..."

this is for all the CSI fanatics out there.

oh that jerry bruckheimer. how does he manage to produce everything good?!

enjoy. :)