Akeelah and the Bee

So I've been wanting to see Akeelah and the Bee for quite some time now. Actually, I've been wanting to see it since I saw it advertised all over Starbucks a couple of Christmases ago... I've been sucked in, I know. Anyway, I was pretty impressed. I'd get my kids to see it... if I had any.

There was a powerful quote in the movie:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

The quote has mistakenly been associated with Nelson Mandela. Well, there's a connection... the quote is actually by Marianne Williamson. Claimed Christian with Jewish roots, I'm not sure I know enough about her to make an informed comment about her books. But I can say that the quote has an innate truth to it.

We all project God's glory. And our false definition of humility will often make ourselves hide the glorious image that God has placed in us. Our being forgiven for our sinfulness allows us to take pride in the cross of Jesus and allow God's glory to shine... and the result is liberation for all around us.

I often find myself shrinking, like I want to be a martyr.... the dirty secret to someone else's success. But this is not truth. God grants us a special confidence because leaning on him changes the way we approach the world. We are born to emit God.

"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven." THAT'S the meaning of life. :)

Kimu Cast

Hey, check it out.... had an interview for the Kimucast. :)

Click here to go the podcast.

Building a Bear

Well, she built a cat, not a bear. But it was so nice to be able to be Auntie Somi for Kayln for her birthday. She's pretty much been reminding me of this trip since October of last year... and I hear it every week!

Truthfully, I've been looking forward to it almost as much. And how could you not with her being SO excited about it! There are times when you just feel like it's totally worth it, despite the expense.

The Real World

I enjoyed a long-desired past-time today... curling up in a Starbucks armchair with a latte and a geeky book. Yes, it was awesome. The book "The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative" was a book I had wanted to delve into for quite some time. I've started it at least three times.. I'm committed to finishing it this time!

Something in it struck me today. There was a section that talked about the way that Scripture had always been read. It was not that it was trying to reconstruct the whole ostensive (tangible) world of the past. Rather, it's trying to paint the appropriate perspective by which we should understand the past... God's perspective.

It's like watching a film. The writer and director is creating a particular world for the viewer to accept. For example, in Spiderman, we simply accept that it is possible for people to morph into monsters simply by scientific experiments going array... we accept that someone can fall several stories from a building and hit their head on a dumpster and result in just a bloody cut on the side of the head but still can run away from the scene without any broken bones. Or let's take it a step further... we can accept that even killing someone is an acceptable form of revenge so long as our hero remains "right" and the one killed is considered pure "evil."

Directors simply establish a set of truths, and if skilled enough, have the ability in that to redefine what is right and wrong. And if they are good at their craft, audiences will believe it for those 2 hours in the theatre, enough to lose themselves in the story. (which makes me cringe at the world we introduce to young minds when they watch horror films...)

In our every day world, we are bombarded by the world's standards of right and wrong. In our world today, premarital sex is just something everyone does for fun. Hating someone is OK if they "deserve it." Smoking is acceptable as long as you don't impose it on someone who doesn't like it. Swearing is totally a right every person has for themselves. The goal in life is to get married, have kids, buy your home, your car, your life... This world has painted its own moral strokes and every day, we get sucked into it.

The Bible does a similar thing. The difference is that it paints the world from the eyes of the One Who created it. God presents to us the accurate picture of reality -- the only true reality. As readers we accept that reality. As Christians, we must go one step further.... we are responsible to align our lives according to that reality -- and therein lies great freedom.

When we go too long from reading the world through God's eyes, we lose the sense of reality and get sucked into a false reality that takes us far from where we should be. And at moments when we stop to see where we are, we can find ourselves lost and far from where we should be. We find ourselves hating instead of loving our enemies. We choose self over others. We find ourselves criticizing rather than encouraging. We consent to lose our battles, instead of feeling energized to continuing to fight the good fight.

Somehow, we need to grasp the absolutely vital role that Scripture plays in our lives. God has allowed us to get a glimpse of His world His way... and what a tragedy that we stumble around in life feeling lost, when the real world is only a page turn away. We need to continue to remind ourselves of the way the world really is -- and it is a world that God has given His life for... a world damaged by sin -- but so loved by God.

Season Ending Blow

So that's the season. The Canucks laid a stinker for most of the first three periods until Burrows bailed them out with a sharp-angled goal. But I guess there was a glimpse of hope that made you think that you could see one more game in Vancouver.

I guess it wasn't meant to be.

And being the avid Canucks fan that I am, I'll mourn a bit, lick my wounds, transition into my denial stage, and in about a week, I'll be back to getting pumped up for the next season. I mean, after all, being a Canucks fan, this is my annual ritual. I'm just glad I got to do it a little later in the year than I have in the past few. :)

Good things that happened this year:

1. We got Bobby Lou!!
2. Bieksa is our new young up and coming prospect
3. Vigneault DID know what he was doing!
4. I've never seen the city rally around the team as much as this year.
5. Linden showed some evidence that he may end his career well.
6. Sedins are finally easier to watch.
7. Pyatt's a babe.
8. No "Bertuzzi" incidents this year
9. The best run I've ever seen from the Canucks from Dec 26th on!
10. First time watching hockey games in HD (dang!! you can never go back!)

The team gave me something to cheer about for the last several months. And now, I'm back. (Julia will be glad.)

We Are All Canucks

Looks like everyone's into the craze... I get to see this sign every day on my way to work.

Go Canucks Go!

Gotta hate those Leafs and Flames...



www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18167&id=588895197&ref=mf

(thanks for the photo laughs, preston... needed that after our disheartening loss last night...)

Moved By the Cup

So the rumors are true. I went to the Hockey Hall of Fame while I was in Toronto last week, and I actually cried. I was watching the movie on the development of the Stanley Cup and they took us all through the quest for the cup through the experience of the Carolina Hurricanes last year... and the shots they had of the players holding up the cup was too much for me to handle.

OK, so I didn't MEAN to cry. I was just moved, and the next thing I knew, I felt something trickling down my cheek. I touched it, it was wet, and I thought, "What the heck is this?!?!"

If you want to psych-analyze me, I supposed you could say that I was imagining Naslund or Linden holding up the cup. But truth be told, I cry in movies, OK? ....leave me alone!

Take 'em Down Boys!

Good ol Marty let one by him again. I have to admit, he's pretty brilliant in goal. The moment he touches the puck on a dump in, I know the Nucks'll end up in their own end in a few seconds. But it's always that one just-less-than-brilliant miss to stop the puck that seems to put the rest of his brilliance into the shadows. And that's too bad.

But hey... I'm a Canucks fan, so Turd-co can go ahead and let in some soft goals. I don't mind.

Actually, the next round is what worries me. Looks like we may be matched up with Anaheim. All I can say is "Go Minnesota". (though Calgary did win tonight! dang.)

Canucks Practice

So I finally got to sit in the club seats of GM place. I mean, I had to reserve a free ticket to the Canucks practice at GM place, but at least they were great seats! I was lucky because I went alone. So I didn't have the hassle of having to look for two seats together. I could just go in and find some lone seat that someone left between then and another party. Thank goodness for people-phobics! hahaha!!

Imagine it.... the place almost packed with fans.... JUST to see them practice. They cheered every time a player came out on the ice. Funny, there were no jersey numbers but everyone still recognized the faces. These are fans!

GO CANUCKS GO!! (man, i love this team!)

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

OK, so did anyone else notice a welcome absence on the Canuck defense line Wednesday night? If you haven't heard, Brent Sopel threw out his back just before the game.... PICKING UP A CRACKER!! What the hey? You're supposed to be a finely tuned athlete for cryin out loud! I sometimes wonder if I'm the only one not excited to have him back on our team...

erik Mongrain

This is just too cool... (up and coming Canadian artist)

Feeling Sorry for the Enemy

OK, so I've never been an Oilers fan.... OK, well, I saw the playoffs when Gretzky was in, but that was like in elementary school! Anyway, they lose Ryan Smyth... and they've pretty much been on a losing streak ever since. I mean it's one thing to sized up your own home team to another one in your division, but I can't help but have a painfully sinking feeling in my heart when I see Edmonton try to recover such a loss. And you can't help but think that Ryan is feeling for his old team. Oh cmon, who are we kidding? He's SO coming back to Edmonton when it's all said and done... he's to Edmonton what Linden is to us...

Auntie Somi's Computer

I got this little virtual aquarium on my computer, and I was the most popular kid on the block! heh heh. Auntie Somi's got such a fun computer! I was like a kid magnet!

We are all NHL...

OK, so somehow, they finally figured out how to turn hockey players into actors. This is a great commercial!

oscar thoughts

So I finally got a chance to see Dreamgirls a couple of weeks ago. I'm still surprised that Jennifer Hudson is up for an academy for SUPPORTING actress. The movie seemed to be all about her character. So if she really was just "supporting" the lead actress, then she definitely took over the screen! And it's probably the reason why she's being handed all of these awards. I'm still skeptical about whether or not this will lead to other acting roles. I'm still of the mind that this is a one-shot wonder role. Still, she's deserving.

On another note,the recognition I saw The Queen just shortly after it came out... before any expectations were created. I wanted to see this movie because it was hard to imagine that anyone could portray accurately the Queen of England. The result would either smear the Queen's reputation, or have the actress fall flat on her face trying. The Queen is like an untouchable on the silver screen.

But I was pleasantly surprised to see that Helen Mirren pulled it off, allowing us not only to see the Queen as a person, but humanized her in way that still allowed the movie to end with her full dignity intact. It was a feat that deserves the minimum of of an Oscar nomination.

innovative void

OK, so SFU decided to come out with a new logo for their school. It looks oddly familiar with another logo...

Go to SFU's website and look at the logo change they've come up with. Oh yeah, you guys are brilliant...

one last look

So I finally threw away the ipod I received in the mail from a friend back in August of last year. If you didn't hear what happened, a friend kindly bought me an ipod as a gift and sent it up to me through the mail. It arrived at my doorstep freshly wounded (meaning that it was still warm from the damage), obvious from fast moving wheel that shaved the poor thing down to its wires.

I only looked at the box. But when I opened it, I had hoped that perhaps I could salvage some stuff. Well, I got myself a second pair of earphones, which is kinda cool (not sure exactly why I need a second pair... maybe to sell on eBay or something). But the damage pretty much ate through everything else, as you can see.... the cover, the CD, the USB transfer cords, and of course, the iPod itself. It's was very thoroughly damaged.

Oh yeah, and the best part of this story? The plastic bag that it came in with a note from Canada Post. Let me summarize it: "Oh, this was found the way you see it now. But we're trying to better, honest!" Thanks Canada Post. Next time, try saying sorry first.

Epilogue: I finally saved up enough to buy my own ipod a couple of weeks ago... yeah!

on the Hawks game

So that was one crazy bounce into the net in our game against Chicago tonight. Bieksa was just tryin to help... and ended up helping the wrong team. Everything seems to get worse from there. The Hawks were like they had just received a gift from the hockey gods and rode the wave till the end... and the expense of the home team.

But did anyone notice how many times Bulis coughed up the puck... the guy just had no finish to his puck battles tonight. As if it's not enough that he's already the black sheep of the team, and the fans are probably growing weary of his lack of finish. It's amazing how one moment of verbal diarrhea takes months and months of repair. It's kinda like how he plays sometimes... with lack of thought.

In my opinion, the canucks mistake was over-analyzing the opponent. Lalime, the standings, their win-pride... They should've just went out there like it was any other team and take it to them. Instead, they played to the level of what they thought of the opposing team, and the Hawks took advantage big time.

Canucks are not bustling with talent this year (though there's moments where you wonder if it's there in the undertow). But they are finally proving the age-old truth that hard work can pay off. I'm with them all the way to the playoffs. This year, let's give the fans more to cheer about. Luongo has earned his chance to show what he can do when the heat's turned up in the playoffs... and I for one will be there cheering all the way...