Of Guitar Chords and Hebrew Alphabets

Today was definitely a day I would rather not repeat......I basically worked non-stop from 8:30 to 5, with a very rushed 15-minute lunch break at around 2:30......tho it was by all means just a typical farm day, where we head over to the UBC farm to pluck another doomed frame from the bee colonies and ransack it of all available eggs. Those unfortunate eggs are now crushed and basking in cell culture media at 32C. We all know full well that the eggs are now enjoying their final moments before they all succumb to inevitable death under my hands. Sigh......the path to immortality is indeed treacherous........

But back at home, I've had the luxury of time to sit and fiddle with my guitar for the second time, and I must say, I was surprised I remembered all the chords I learnt on Sunday =P...A.... E.... G.... D.... Em...... F#m......and I've also added C#m and G#m under my belt today.....tho i must say, the sharp minors don't sound very nice, and now my fingertips are sore XD



and i think it is now time to admit that my musical talents are much greater than my language ones......I'm been wrestling with Hebrew and all I've got down is probably just a handful of letters..........it is rather shameful that I can't even remember the first 10, considering the fact that I now have an actual Hebrew bible on my shelf and I'm really no closer to understanding it than before I started trying to learn Hebrew.......it looks just as foreign, if not more now that I have had a closer look.......



Next on the list of things to learn? French, Greek, and I have to take up piano again if I'm still going to buy my $90,000 Steinway Grand......my technique has actually gotten disgustingly rusty....=__="

New Word - Workaholism

You know, I'm starting to realize that I may be a workaholic.....

I've always thought the term applied to people who spend all their time at work. To me they were always those people who spend a ridiculous number of hours sitting at their desks in their office. To me the purpose was always to earn more money, and in the process they neglect their wives and their kids and are generally frowned upon....

but now, I'm thinking there's something deeper to it.....that maybe they are not working for the money or just to climb the corporate ladder......but maybe it's a cowardice of sorts, because I see it in myself

Maybe it's just like how people are addicted to alcohol and drugs. True there is a physiological side to all of it, but part of the reason (and I suppose here, coz I've never been addicted to those things) is that they see it as an escape from their problems. It's something they can immerse themselves in and not have to deal with their circumstances.

And more and more I'm thinking that's how I approach my schedule. I fill it up to the brim with things to do not because it's truly essential or because it's truly important, but it's an excuse for me to ignore all my actual problems. I have an excuse to shove them aside and say I have more pressing things to deal with, and I have an excuse to neglect things because I have more urgent things that demand my time.......

Cowardly? Yes, very much so..........

Becoming a Guitar Hero

Well, after the piano and the drums, I have decided that the guitar would be a good next step in my musical endeavour.

Driven partly by the fact that every youth pastor knows how to play the guitar (not that I am one, but there just might be a chance somewhere down the road), partly by the fact that I do have some extra funds stemming from co-op, and overwhelmingly by the fact that most of the songs that i know of sounds sooo sooo much better on the guitar, I have decided that I will venture into that unknown realm with not a single guitar chord in my belt (and maybe rudimentary strings knowledge from grade 6)

So, dropping by Long and McQuade the other day, the sales suggested this:


The Crafter GAE6/N......original $999, now on clearance for $399.......now, having absolutely no knowledge of guitars, I only had his words that it was a great deal.....I knew i was looking for an acoustic guitar that can also be plugged into an amp (just in case there ever was a need), but asides from that and having done some preliminary research online and finding one for $315, I really had no clue and was hesitant to dive directly into the deal.

So I placed it on hold, and asked Dot, our trusty choirmaster, to pull some strings with her musician friends and ask if it was worth it. After all, $399 after tax means $450, and it was more than my initial budget of around $350. But she got back to me and said it was a "fantastic deal", so I shall go ahead with the purchase.

However, there is one catch.........I do not know when I can actually get it.......They close at 6 Mon-Wed, and there's no way i can make it there after work. They close at 9 Thurs and Fri, and I'm busy both nights. They close at 6 on Sat, but then I'm busy all Saturday since it's the last day of Chinese School......and since they will only hold it for a week there really is no other time......I'll give them a call tomorrow to see if I can pay for it over the phone and Jenn can get it for me......either that, or I'll see if i can get them to hold it for another week........

Upped

It was actually quite the miracle I had time to go watch Up tonight, and I'm even more happy to say that I definitely was not disappointed =P True, Monsters vs. Aliens was not exactly bad, but when you compare it with Up there is not a doubt that Pixar really is the better animation studio =P


*Spoiler warning*

I actually found the beginning mini clip very cute =P....with the little animals and the pink clouds. But i thought the idea of that sad grey cloud who always make those unconventional babies very neat =P....I suppose the world needs those grey clouds, doing the necessary but not very popular things with the best of intentions.....in a way that's how i feel sometimes.....just maybe not with the same sort of innocence the cloud had with the alligators and the electric eels......

Onto the movie proper, it was definitely a very cute movie. But what really caught my attention was not so much the animation or even the story line, it was the turning point. I thought it was such an "awwww....." moment....with Carl on the verge of tears thinking he had brought the house to Paradise Falls (ironic name, ain't it?) in vain when he had failed to help Ellie realize her dream when she was still alive, and yet all along, Ellie had treasured every moment she spent with Carl and thought that to be the best adventure of her life.....

*Spoiler ends*


And really that got me thinking......as I stood up when the credits rolled and the house lights came on, and I stared at Jenn's back as we walked towards the aisle, I just couldn't help but think: God willing, I'll be spending the rest of my life with her......and it was at that moment, despite the fact that I was never much of a fan for adventures, I felt an inkling of excitement in me when i realized that it probably will be the best adventure of my life as well.

The Scarcest Commodity

I was wrong.

I thought co-op would have been a nice break from school. I thought it would give me a chance to see what I've learnt put into practice developing something completely brilliant and totally wicked. But the wrongest thing of all, was that I thought I would get more time.

There were great plans for this summer. To read. To play during the weekends. To swim. To bike. To polish my piano skills once again. But as the days turn into weeks and the weeks stretch into months, I've come to realize that most of these would not come to past.

I'd be lucky to get home by 6 in the evening, and with Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Friday nights occupied, along with the many meetings and engagements scattered over the weekends, I feel like I'm being more starved of time than I had been when school was still in session. There is Up to watch, along with various Bards.......and I really really REALLY want to swim. Maybe I should just randomly go one evening rather than waiting for the weekend. I miss doing laps and I hate how my shoulders have gotten so tight and hunched from bending over some computer or some honeybee frame all day....

Though I suppose this summer has had its purpose. It's making me rethink a lot of things.....that of course, is another post altogether (maybe even a couple of posts).......maybe I'll describe a couple of those things the next time I have the luxury of indulging in a little spare time

The Happier Times of Days Gone By

you know.......I feel so old.........not in the sense that I've put on another year of my life and my joints are starting to protest, but just that I feel like I have all these weights on my back that I never realized was there before

Today was probably the first day during the entire week when I had some time to wind down (hence me reappearing after the last post)......but so much seemed to have changed since then...it doesnt seem like it's about being a rebel anymore, but it seemed to have stirred a deeper question - where do I really belong?

I always thought that Vancouver had been my home, and that church had been more a family to me than anything.......but something seems to have changed this week. Maybe it's a mood thing, maybe it's not, I don't know

Having been traumatized with a few half-way-across-the-world moves as a kid, I have been quick to attach myself to this church. True it's no secret that our church is plagued with problems, and it still is, but over the years something seems to have changed. In our effort to move forward and improve we seemed to have lost something along the way. The spontaneity, the genuine care and support. Everything seems to institutionalized and sterile now. This felt especially so after the Sunday school meeting today

Despite the current system being "better" than what it was, there is a great part of me wishing it would somehow just go back to the way things were. I don't even remember how I became involved with Sunday school. But it just happened one summer. For some reason it was just me and henny teaching. There were the Saturday nights pouring through websites frantically trying to think of what to do with the kids the next morning, because there was no cirriculum. There was the blue sky over our heads and the green grass under our feet, becuase it was summer and we spent much of the morning outside, seeing as no one really cared about how we did things, so long as the kids were taken care of. I suppose that was where I found the childhood that I had lost. But now it all fades into distant memory.......

I must say, the new Sunday school arrangement is our finest yet. It's a great program and I'm surprised myself that it was this elegant. But it is just a program, no matter how perfect or how elegant it is......We seemed to have travelled down a road that is now completely irreversible. In our ambition to become as successful as other churches we've traded spending time with the kids because we want to be with them for a teacher rotation. We've traded the fun and games and let God work His magic along the way for curriculum that seems to be geared to all the other kids in the world but ours. We've given up the random trips to all over the place for consent-formed activities, and we've let legalities and parental consents cloud over our hearts to care for and help the kids.

What have we done?! What have we done...........

Lutheranism - Old, Male, and Lifeless

OK, I'm prepared to be offending a lot of folks with this (I mean, just look at the title, it's not the most politically correct), but hey, i guess it takes some overarching generalizations to get the point across and maybe draw some attention.

I was graced with the pleasure of staying all day at UBC yesterday. After the busiest day at work yet (I filled out 7 whole pages of my lab notebook, the most yet in a day), I somewhat reluctantly stuck around for the opening service for the LCC ABC District Convention (Lutheran Church of Canada, Alberta-British Columbia). And I must say, it was quite the experience that got me thinking....


Moo was saying how there was a certain air that defined us Lutherans.....white-haired, slightly hunched, with general lack of momentum......and i must say, this is true......it's not only the general lack of youthfulness, which Flo later pointed out, that seem to define the denomination, but more of a stubborn unwillingness to change.

True, we are the oldest Protestant denomination, and no doubt we are the closest to Catholicism you will get without throwing the Pope and all the saints. But I'm beginning to wonder, has our adherence to tradition gone a bit overboard. It's not news that different congregations adapt and omit different bits and pieces of the liturgy (basically preset dialogs you speak or chant as the worship service progresses) because of complaints that service would drag on for too long without anything really meaningful. But the problems don't end there........

I'll admit here that me and pastor are not on the best terms. There just seem to be some uneasiness between us that we mask with superficial friendliness and goodwill. I suppose the reason being that I've always challenged our church traditions. I have no problem with the theological views we hold, but it's the unspoken traditions that make no sense to me.

There seems to be a general snobbery, especially amongst the older generation, that you are not truly Christian unless you are a Lutheran. Despite this thought being less verbally expressed, there is still a ridiculous amount of hostility toward other denominations. More than once have I experienced this first-hand as I tried to push for more collaborative events. Concerts, city-wide youth rallies, joint fellowship with other churches.....and time and time again the response I received was that we were allowed to go as individuals, because the church has no control of our actions, but we were not allowed to go as a fellowship or as a church, because the events were not Lutheran and we were not to have any dealings as a church with other denominations. There was some brief mention of differing theological views and conflict avoidance. But this was made most clear during a pastor's meeting last summer where all the pastors from metro vancouver met up. There was an overwhelming tone of resignation and defeat in the announcement that there was to be no Lutheran evangelical effort for the 2010 Olympics. We had to join up with the collaborative More than Gold effort put on by the rest of the churches in Vancouver. Is it truly such an appalling thought?

And then there just seems to be a general disregard for the youths in the denomination, as very evident by the lack of them last night (I can almost claim that I had the most singular hairstyle in that room of 500-ish people). It's not that they are not concerned about us, but we seem to have very little say in the direction of the church and even less so in the direction of the district. Even the government has a Youth Parliament, but as obvious in the delgates present in that opening service, the people chosen to attend the convention is doniminantly older, Caucasian male. Ask anyone if youths are important and I'm sure they will more than agree we are the future of the church, yet all they really seem to care about our growth and maturation is that we follow their example. Anything new, anything different, begone, devil! This was evident when a student at a Lutheran seminary became so frustrated with his professor because he basically demonized the whole contempory Christian music movemnt. It was evident when I attempted to convince the church to purchase a drum set. It was evident when pastor introduced me to a seminary professor yesterday, saying, in an apologetic and he's-weird-that-way-please-don't-mind-him tone, that "He like the modern praise songs."

Sigh.......increasingly i feel like I'm a problem that the larger church is trying to fix......that I'm a rebel that needs correction becuase I'm unwilling to conform to the way things have been done since the 1500s......and the sad thing is that whenever there is an idea brought up by our fellowhsip, there is always a general verbal agreement that it's something that should be done. But the support ends there, and any deeper conversation with any of the older members would only have them point to some higher person in-charge that would oppose the idea. And so despite them verbally giving support, they are in reality against the change in thought and in deed. They just very cleverly disguise it as an opposition from someone else.

We Lutherans, however, do have one redeeming quailty. We sure can sing. The overwhelming operatic male voice we sung the hymns in cannot be described in words. It simply has to be experienced. (If only our congregation can sing like that.....)