OH that's better

Man, feelin' like a ton of bricks was just lifted off of me...

Yesterday was just such an awful day... couldn't get everything done smoothly and all these deadlines came crashing down, but all is well... the CDL testing is over... I'm licensed and I've got my CPR stuff... and I'm leaving with Elliot and Ian saturday morning... the papers are done (except Christian Life, but it doesn't count)... sweet times...

keep checkin' back.. i'll post photos on the internet of our 3 day trip through BC / Yukon.

visitation

I just had the most wonderful time with the Lord and wanted to share. After I finished the last post, I just felt like playing my guitar. While I was playing, I just began to sing my prayer to God. I've sometimes tried this before, but always get so caught up in the fact that I don't like the way it sounds or something, but today... my heart was just desperate. I've been feeling like hard desert clay for a while and if any of you have talked to me lately, I'm just kind of yearning for God to be more real in my everyday life. Anyway, as I began to sing... it became almost prophetic. I don't mean telling the future, but what I was singing/praying was exactly what was in my heart and what I was playing went along with it... It was an honest to goodness, decent impromptu song to the Lord... Have you ever had a moment when you prayed and God answered you instantly? I cherish those moments... This was one of those moments, where I prayed this prayer and instantly I sensed that the Spirit's presence was manifested in the room and I stopped playing and simply began to weep.

That was just a special moment for me and I felt like it would be encouraging to some of you to read. Christ is real and present. It many times doesn't seem like it, but he is. I don't think I'll say anything more about that. I want to say that it should be like this or that, but I think that it's best left to mystery at this point.

Birthday's and Baseball

Busy busy day yesterday :) In all my organization wonder, I strolled quietly (and unobservantly) down 10th Ave to go to Enigma to a surprise party for Billy Vo. Little did I know that when I walked in I crossed the street and walked in right in front of Billy, Liz, and Sara... so much for the surprise, but I guess he was surprised when he saw me walk into the restaurant. :-p

After the B-day bash (and a darn good bowl of Mulligatawny), Josh, Sheryl, Tai and I went down to Seattle to watch the Seattle Mariner's get their butts kicked by Oakland. It was sad, they won the day before I think... Josh didn't seem to care if the Mariner's won anyway... He's more interested in his fantasy picks winning. So, it was a good night for him as his pitcher from Oakland didn't give the Mariner's any points. Jeez... he sure didn't.
Aside from the game, we had some really good conversation, which is one reason I like baseball games because you get to relate to each other while your at the game. Good place for a good chat. And Seattle is a good place to get some Ivar's (pronounced Iver's if you're wondering [or so I'm told]). We made the mistake of sitting outside next to the building rather than in the cover area and the sea-rats were all over the place man. Seagulls make you go, "Man God, did you purposely make them this annoying. Maybe they're meant to exemplify our sinful nature :-p" Anywho, the fish was good... but their squaking was about to make me break some animal rights laws.

Farewell to Duncan and Hugo

Alas, another farewell to more good friends... sorry to see you guys go... here's some photos from today's litte take over breakfast at Sophie's (I do mean takeover - we told them 10 were coming, and 20 showed up... woo hoo) [just click the photos to get the huge versions (I do mean huge)]

and for those of you that like to have the full quality picture - here's the 2.2MB biggy of Tai's Farewell party...

Big shouts out to Matt Jones for hosting photos and other random stuff for me :) Thanks man... check out www.jonesverbiage.com

Gizoogle.com

Found this hilarious site called Gizoogle.com that translates sites to some form of ebonics... funny stuff... here's an example of what it did on one site... try some of these links for it too...
[warning: gizoogle, in the interest of cultural education of course, uses profanity in some of its "translations"... so don't get mad at me... i warned ya]

• My Blog Gizoogled
• Jack Handey Quotes Gizoogled
• CNN Gizoogled
  

When I die, I would like ta go peacefully, in mah sleep, like mah grandfatha did dogg. Not scream'n n rhymin' like tha pimp in his car.

- J-to-tha-izzack Handey


I hope an animal brotha bores a hole in mah heezee n lays its eggs there coz I mizzight T-H-to-tha-izzink I have a good idea but its really just tha eggs ballin'.

- Jizzack Handey


To me, pimpin' is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreogrizzles n tha baller hit each brotha so sit back relax new jacks get smacked.

- Jizzle Handey

Super Luu's Farewell Shindig

Super Luu's Farewell Shindig
Originally uploaded by phritz.

We sent Dr. Tai off in style last night with a service length that put many pentecostal churches to shame, clocking in at four hours. I had that, "I've been in church for four hours" light headed feeling. Maybe that was the communion wine though ;).

If you want to download the full-size picture posted here, click on it and sign up for an account on flickr. Then you can access the almost-full-size shot (i didn't post the 2.3MB original).

save me opus

Just finished my New Testament exam... what a bear that was... but not as bad as I expected... my only consolation is to go home and read a little of one of my favorite comics: Outland. My real favorite is Bloom County (same comic, but different). The book I have at home is called "Politically, Fashionably, And Aerodynamically Incorrect" - I just love that title. I feel like I can relate to it so much. My other favorites are "Farside" comics and "Calvin and Hobbes." Ahh... click the image to get a closer look at what Opus is reading and wearing. :)

Joyous Blues Memphis...

Had quite the bluesy evening last friday. First off... it's been like a year and a half since I've had some good BBQ. And I'm telling ya, I love sushi and all, but a man needs BBQ. It's in the blood. At least in the southern man's blood. I may not have an accent, but I needs dat bah buh que... Enough slobbering, oddly enough, Vancouver happens to be the home of an incredible BBQ joint called Memphis Blues (review)... They even had honest to goodness sweet tea in the house.. well it tasted a little fruity, but it was almost as good as tea from back home. $40 buys you enough BBQ for 4 people and it's severe. So, go there... they have two locations. One at Granville and Broadway and I forget the other... Anywho...

The next part of the evening was a really awesome concert at Regent. Peter la Grand played a sort of mellow, bluesy, folky kinda music. It was really moving music and the musicians were very talented. I would say go check out www.peterlagrand.com, but they don't seem to have a website up on their domain yet. So, check it later :). Good times though. The band featured all Regent folks and my personal favorite song was Hell Hound... good tune. The CD I bought off them was good, but I prefer them in person.

NT Foundations Notes - Winter '05

I'm feeling pretty generous this term and some people really helped me with OT last term with their notes... so here are all my notes from this terms NT Foundations course. These notes are all the handouts transcribed, combined with all the info from the PPT slides, and any other comments I was able to add. I plan to post a study guide on sunday which will take Derrenbacker's study guide and I'll organize the information for each of his questions into a single document.

NT 2005 Notes (Word Doc Format) [10.1 MB .ZIP Archive] - Hosted by our good buds Julio and Lisa :)

Sunset Panorama

20050403 - Sunset Pan - 2_1
Originally uploaded by phritz.

Hey check out this sweet pan I took from my bedroom window :) I admittedly played with the levels a bit in Photoshop...