I'm a survivor! I'm gonna make it!! :)

I guess I've been complaining about my job a lot since I first got it. However, for the past few weeks now, I've been silenced from complaining. I think I'm getting used to it all. It's still challenging....don't get me wrong. I've got a lot on my plate over the next few weeks and I'm trying to hurry to get things done. The thing is though, this week I've had no energy to do anything. Maybe it was becuase of the double long weekend haha. Happy Belated Thanksgiving and Eid everyone! :P

I thought that changing my attitude about teaching could help me enjoy it more but despite my happy happy feelings, I'm still coming home pooped! It makes me wonder if the saying, "10% of what we go through is situational, 90% is attiude" is true. :P Lame!!!

On a somewhat related note, do you ever feel like an imposter? Do you ever feel like your friends, coworkers, and everyone else around you will discover you're a fraud? Maybe you're not really a fraud? Maybe you just feel that way? Still...those feelings occur. I am not having a breakdown or anything. However, sometimes, even as a teacher, I wonder, "am I REALLY a teacher? Or am I just someone who has no idea what he's doing and everyone who's around me can see that I'm not really a teacher.....only they're not telling me!?! LOL...I feel that way once in awhile about worship leading too and various other things.....hmmmmm.... :) Too bad the fad of blogging has died because I would've liked to have had some people's insights on this subject matter! :)

Getting Things in Order

Today was pretty cool because I didn't know that the new season of Beauty and the Geek started but when my bro flipped to The CW, we caught it right on! This year, there is a 'surprise' twist at the end and whether this is good or bad, it is hard to say haha. The show has a lot of Engineers this season and one REALLY creepy guy. *GULP...he seems like one of those guys that could snap and kill someone....:P

Things went well today in my class. One of my kids was absent because he was serving a suspension. The whole dynamics of the class was different. Hmmmm....I don't want him to get too far behind but I am thinking that when he comes back, the pleasantries I've been experiencing in my class will be short-lived. :P

I have been praying about all of this teaching stuff a lot lately. I am starting to accept the fact that maybe there is nothing else for me at this point and this could be where God wants me to be. My class is coming together more: I'm getting Scholatstics orders soon, visuals with words of the picture are going up all over my room and I've received almost all my supplies. :) Heck, I'm even 1-1.5 weeks ahead of schedule planning wise! That puts me more at ease. I'm not as anxious about all of this teaching stuff...though I am still a bit. Most of my other teacher friends who graduated with me and have their own class also feel the jitters about all of this. Everyone's been telling me of the late nights and all. I've been having less and less of thoses I have to admit. I'm trying not to overdue things. Almost done the FIRST month!!! 9 more teaching months to go!! Woo-Hoo!!! :P

With the business I've recently experienced...

....I'm amazed that I have found time to blog! :P

So what's new with me? Well, I'm teaching grade 2 and even though it really isn't where I expected I'd end up, here I am! :P

It's been a great test for me these past few weeks and I've been stretched in various different ways.

I wish I could say teaching has been everything I've imagined but it hasn't.

I've wanted out on various days over the past few weeks...even this morning I was whining to my bro.

Right now, I feel like I'm okay. I looked over my lesson plans for the next week....been working on them for the last few days. I feel...calmer.

I'm sick because one of my students coughed on me and now I have the same cold as he does. I want to get better ASAP! :P

So in conclusion to all of this, God help me to love this if this is where you want me to be because I can't do this without you. I feel like I truly need you and I'm crying out...you're turning my eyes upon you again in my darkest hour.....

You've been served!

Arg! So tired! Service was AWESOME today. Anyone else agree? I felt like I got 4 sermons in 1 day today. Even though Karl Feltmate's message was quite meat filled, what really is sticking with me is when he said, that there is a cost to intimacy. In a human relationship, when we are committed to friends or family or a significant other, we have to make those sacrifices to maintain that closeness with them. It is simple not enough to say we care for each other but we show that we love each other by giving time to each other. This requires time...even if we're tired and exhausted and feel so stretched.

And isn't that same cost to intimacy true with our relationship with God? How much more is this relationship to us? It requires us to make plans and actively do things to increase our intimacy with God...like planning a date or meeting up for dinner to catch up with friends. If we want to be intimate, we have to give that time--intimacy requires us to do this to do this!

And given that I'm tired right now and am blogging, this must mean I have intimacy with my blog because I'm making time to update it! :P I've neglected you for too long blog....but I'm ready to rekindle our love! :P

PS On an unrelated note, I don't know if you anyone has ever heard a pack of cyotes howl at night but they're going at it right now and it's totally freaking me out!!! :P

"DIG"

This one's by Incubus! Lyrics below!! :)



We all have a weakness
But some of ours are easier to identify.
Look me in the eye
And ask for forgiveness;
We'll make a pact to never speak that word again
Yes you are my friend.
We all have something that digs at us,
At least we dig each other
So when weakness turns my ego up
I know you'll count on the me from yesterday
If I turn into another
Dig me up from under what is covering
The better part of me
Sing this song
Remind me that we'll always have each other
When everything else is gone.
We all have a sickness
That cleverly attaches and multiplies
No matter how hard we try.
We all have someone that digs at us,
At least we dig each other
So when sickness turns my ego up
I know you'll act as a clever medicine.
If I turn into another
Dig me up from under what is covering
The better part of me.
Sing this song!
Remind me that we'll always have each other
When everything else is gone.
Oh each other....
When everything
Else is gone.

Are you not Digging this song like I am!? :) Mwahaha! See ya'll at Campfire tonight!!

I heart You....

....Jesus! :) Man, after 2 or 3 years, this is still one of my favorite Christian songs ever! I've been listening to this one by Shawn McDonald a lot this week. Well until I see you in concert, this will have to do....Enjoy!

Everyone's Looking for a Saviour...

Looks like the crossover for the HUGE X-Men event will be titled "Messiah Complex" and it will be 13 parts spanning across X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, New X-Men and X-Factor for 3 months. This looks GREAT and I can't wait to pick it up....now to wait patiently until October...:P

Learning the Truth

I stumbled across this exact picture in the men's washroom above the urinal at a middle school I subbed at today:
This comic cracks me up. It reminds me of the fact that sometimes in life, other people around us are aware of how things REALLY are when we ourselves are so oblivious to these exact truths! :)

Francophones = Jerks?

Today I was so exhausted from work that I came home at 3:30 and passed out on my bed!! Well, now I'm awake and am feeling really groggy...

I subbed at the usual school for the morning but I was a floater today. I subbed for 3 different classes in 1 hour increments today so I had to be quick on my toes in reading lesson plans and everything. Some teachers suck because they leave horrible plans for subs! :P

In the afternoon, I went to my second French Immersion school to sub and the staff I must say was quite unfriendly! What, you people can't say, "hello" or something? The Middle School I subbed at last Friday was also French Immersion and they were just as bad. I just asked a friend if she could confirm what I am saying in generalizing teachers who teach at French Immersion Schools and she had similar experiences. When I worked at the After School, it was a French Immersion school and same thing! Those teachers are snobs! :P

The funny thing about the kids in the grade 3 class at the French Immersion school I subbed at today was that they were having a hard time spelling easy words in English or even knowing the meaning of certain words. For example, I was asked, "Mr. Wong, how do you spell the number four?" or "Mr. Wong, how do yo spell the word fruit?" and even "Mr. Wong, how do you spell the word high? Like it's high up there!?!" Now, I'm not saying these kids are dumb because that was hardly the case. I know first hand that just because you're a bad speller, it doesn't mean you can't write....but I wonder how the kids fair once they're older when being compared to other kids who came from pure English speaking schools....? I'm sure it's pretty equal. I just hope they don't become snobs like their teachers! :P

Here's a hot new toy that will be exclusively limited in numbers and can also be purchased at San Diego Comic Con...too bad Catherine's wedding wasn't later in the month of July or Kenric and I would be there and I could pick this up. Now I have to pay lotsa $$$ for it since it's an exclusive figure and very limited in numbers! :( I want my Street Fighter Dan figure!!!! :P

4's a lucky number right?!

So today I got called in to work at a new school in Airdrie and man, there resources are nice! Their apple computers even have flatscreen monitors! I would love to work there but I heard the principal is very picky. To fill his 19 positions there, he went through about 120 applicants! I know I have no chance of getting into that school anytime soon! :P

What was funny about today at that school was the fact that I was the literacy/resource teacher and I was working on a game with some grade 4 kids. The kids were spelling words for me and then they'd write the word on the whiteboard to show off their spelling skills. We were writing about Charlotte's web and some kid wanted to spell horse on the whiteboard. It was funny because she spelt it wrong and spelt "hore" instead. Even though it's not the correct spelling on "whores," that's the word I was thinking. Then she bragged about it and then she thought it was incorrect so spelt it again but just added the letter s to make the world "hores"...haha...I don't know why this was so funny to me....remember, I'm not laughing at her...with her!! :)

Oh another note, I just want to state how much I hate cars who have one tail light off because it always throws me off and I sometimes can't tell when a car is breaking. This leads me to slam harder on my breaks than I usually need to and it causes a lot of adrenaline surges to my body! LOOK OUT; WORLD BEWARE!!! :P

And lastly, here is a preview of what's to come next month...World War Hulk # 1!!! :)

Let's go for 3!

Hey gang,

Today was an interesting day at the zoo with Sarah's Kindergarten class. I have to admit that the trip was as exhausting as I thought it would be but it was super fun too! Sarah's kids are crazy and their names are hard to remember! It was nice to see some diversity when the schools I've been to are predominantly white in Airdrie! Totally different when you don't have to factor in ESL kids into the whole equation!! :P

I think I've started to change my mind about Viet subs. I use to think they were so great but lately, they've been really annoying me. I find that if you put onions in the subs, the taste of onions never leave your mouth for the whole day. I've tried chewing gum and that usually helps with any awful taste but it doesn't work against the power of onion! :P Today I took the onions out of my Viet sub but there was still an awful taste in my mouth which gum didn't get rid of! I couldn't get it out of me for the whole trip at the zoo! ICK!!

I got called into sub in the morning as well tomorrow for another school in Airdrie before tackling the terrible grade 2s again. It's cool 'cuase I got a full day's work but I don't know where this school is! The directions aren't in my sub package and I can't find it on mapquest. I wrote an email to my sub lady Joy so I hope she replies to it by tomorrow morning. And to make things harder, this school starts at 8:10am! I have to wake up at 6am and leave by 7am and pray I find this place!! Wish me the best! GULP!!! :P

Kicking the Kids' Butts!!!

What's this!? Two posts two days in a row?! YUPPERS! I must like blogging or something again! :P Anyways, I just realized I forgot to mention a few things about YC yesterday and the first is this: Lincoln Brewster was amazing!! I love his guitar skills and it was nice to have him play during worship.

Another thing is, I didn't get a chance to see Barlow Girl. And it's not that I love them like crazy or anything LOL but they have about 5 songs I listen to all the time and just to hear them do one of their songs would've been nice. Would you believe that the hall where they were playing was full and there was a huge line up to get in? JEEZ!! :P

And lastly--in regards to yesterday's post--I forgot to mention one Christian Artist whom I'd REALLY LOVE to see and that's my favorite male artist: Shawn McDonald!! DANG I wish you'd come to Caglary!! :P And you're only in Seattle too! :(

Okay and as for today...how did it go with the kids? Actually not that bad as it was only a half day with them. I ended up waking up early to meet them in the morning LOL so imagine how ebarassed I was when I realized I read the email wrong and showed up for work in the morning! :P

At the end of the school day, I was asked to help the teachers out in the teachers v.s. grade 4 floor hockey match. I ended up getting 2 goals as a defencemen on the kids and I wasn't even trying to score. Well...the first time I was because we were losing at first. However, we wanted the kids to win so we didn't try as much and I ended up scoring when I ddin't even mean to haha. We were only suppose to play half an hour but we wanted the kids to come back and win the trophy so we kept going and it took so long for them to catch up. One of the teachers said, "it appears that even doing something like finding a job would be easier than seeing the kids win this game" becuase they were just taking so long to come back. It came to the point where the principal said "next goal wins" and we actaully came close to scoring a few times lol. When the kids FINALLY scored the winning goal, the took the trophy and all crowded around and touched it. The girls were being all snobby and bragging and I was thinking, "I can't believe they seriously thought they beat us without us letting them win!!" Do you think I burst their bubble?! Hmmm...you tell me!! Haha!

Off the Hook Weekend!

So YC was a BLAST this year! Mike Pilavachi was amazing as usual and even though I've heard some of his stories before, they're still funny everytime I hear them LOL. I think he would be a cool pastor to have becuase his humour is so similar to mine haha. My favorite concert definitely was Toby Mac as he sang his best stuff and yet sang two of the best DC Talk songs too! Awesome!!

United was another highlight...they're so amazing! How annointed is this group?! I can really see that they've changed focuses a lot as I guess they've been travelling and that has impacted what they're about. Too bad we only had them for 2 of the 5 sessions but I guess they'd be pretty exhausted. I heard they recorded their latest album in the studio as they've been all over the world doing missions and such! CRAZY!!

My favorite sermon came from Hillsongs youth pastor Phil Doolie though. He just reminded me of a lot of things like how we don't have to have it all together and have it all planned out before we start serving. God can heal us as we go but we have to be willing. And isn't that an important principle to apply to our lives in other areas too? Figure it out as you go....just go and do it!!!

David Crowder was pretty cool too and now I can take him off the list of Christian Artists I wansted to see and add him to the list of Christiian Artists I have seen. There's still maybe a handful of big names in the industry I still want to see but haven't. Matt Redman. Chris Tomlin. Mercy Me. Jeremy Camp. That's to name a few that I'd really love to see live at one point! Well I want to see the first two but the latter two I just want to see so I can say I've been ALL the BIGGEST NAMES in Christian Music! :)

And on to other news, I'm anxiously waiting for X-Men 200 where my display picture up at the very top of this page is featuring a picture of 1 of the 3 covers for this special anniversary event. This picture of Gambit and the Mauraders is the other half of the cover and both pics connect to make one. Writer Mike Carey said he was bringing back the Mauraders as he feels they're the scariest villians in X-Men history and with some of the X-Men betraying the team to join up with Mr. Sinister and his gang, this forsure I can predict will be a huge storyline and won't disappoint fans! This storyline is a set-up to the huge crossover starting in November between all the X-Men titles!!!

And on a final note, I got called to sub tomorrow and Thursday for the class full of hellion grade 2s I subbed for in my first week for 3 straight days. Oh how will I survive this?!!? :P SAVE ME!!!

Mess Me Up

I've been subbing all this week at AE Bowers in Airdrie. On Monday, it was for a kindergarten class in the morning and a supplementary resource teacher in the afternoon. The kindergarten class went super well and now I realize why Sarah likes it so much haha. I actually wouldn't mind being a teacher of one of these classes. The supplementary resource teacher was okay but I can't picture myself doing that over even a short period of time..not my thing. Again, now I realize why Sarah wasn't very keen on this type of job. :P

After that, I had a grade 2 class for an afternoon and the kids were pretty good but then on Wedesday, I got a different grade 2 class and after that experience, I wanted to quit teaching...FORE REAL! And the funny thing is, I had the same class today and I have them tomorrow too! The teacher fell on the stairs and injured her tailbone so it's ironic that the worst of the 3 classes I've had, I get the worst one the longest. It's funny in a terrible way! :) One of the other teachers visited me and asked me what I thought of this classroom and I told her the truth and she said, "This class is quite the handful! However, they don't represent our school! The rest are pretty good!"

Anywho, just one more day of these hellions....hope I survive! :)

CLONE TROOPERS PREPARED FOR BATTLE?!?!

I came across this today while looking at the Marvel Legends Toys Forums and it makes me realize that I'm not as crazy as some people about toy collecting.....:P

So am I Still Waiting...?

So I'm back from Saskatchewan and it was a good trip. The visit with my grandma was a bit saddening because she was defiinitely not anywhere close to what she once was. It's hard to see her that way because it's like she's only the fraction of the person she is suppose to be. She seemed to remember me by saying my name but some of my family insisted that she mistakened me for my uncle...but at least she smiled at me and reacted to me as I held her hand....

My visit in Regina was pretty good as I had some good quality time both with my cousin and her kids. And this time, I didn't give all my attention to Alexis but actually talked to Jarrett a lot when he was around. I never saw him pout about how we weren't playing with him for once! :)

I got my temporary letter of authority to teach so now I can start subbing...it should be any day now that I can start! Here's hoping it'll be soon and that I will be able to get full time work for the fall!

Not much else happening right now...just taking it easy and relaxing and hanging out. In a way, I want to start working 'cuase it's my career and all and I need the money...but on the other hand, this has been a nice break from the business of life....:P

Where it's been and where it's going....

The miles are getting longer it seems
The closer I get to you
I've not always been the best man and friend for you
But your love remains true and I don't know why
You always seem to give me another try
I'm going home
To the place where I belong
Where your love has always been good enough for me
I'm running from you know I think you got me all wrong
I don't regret this life I chose for me
But these places and these faces are getting old
So I'm going home

Lyrics from "Home" by Daughtry

So I got around to ordering these today and I hope they come in the mail soon because I've been waiting for them to come out for months now! I can't wait to add The Blob to my collection of Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants LOL...yup, I'm a nerd! :P Thanks to http://www.marvellegends.net for the pic that I can look at everyday until these figures arrive!! :)

So Spider-man 3 was pretty solid overall! ***Don't worry..no spoilers on any plot details here so read with pleasure....:P*** I really enjoyed the film because some things were so cheesy and yet funny at the same time. Maybe it was just because the audience was mainly a 16-230ish group of people so we laughed at even some of the sobbing parts but it was a very enterntaining movie. I always hated movies like Batman that had more than one villian because everything was so rushed and character developement was poor but this movie seemed to be able to balance all the characters quite well. I think it could've been better if they cut the number of characters even by one but given what we had, it was done excellently. Given the pros, Toby's really annoying at times and throughout all of the Spidey flicks, even I can't help but to hate Peter Parker at times becuase Toby is just such a pathetic dork! And one last complaint, I didn't even see one hint of the use of a Spider-sense!!! What the heck is with that?! I think this was the best of the 3 Spidey's though....although I'll have to watch the first two again 'cuase I don't remember much about them...I've only seen number 2 once!!!

Freaking Vancouver! You guys were TERRIBLE and Luongo did his best given that he was the only one who kept you guys in the series *SIGH*....the threat of the Ducks remains....let's hope San Jose or Detroit can take them out! :P

Does life ever stop getting confusing?! I swear, once things start to make sense, something comes in and shifts the equilibrium! Friends are telling me of their life plans and what plans do I have? Friends have been giving me things to think about....like do I even want to stay in this city forever...where would I go? If my friends left, would I go with them? What if my family left? Could I go? Oh Calgary, how great you once were and despite how I love thee, you're getting really annoying to drive in!!! :P

About Faith

It's difficult sometimes to trust that things will go the way they're suppose to when we have no control over it and when we can't see the big picture. It's difficult to do NOTHING and just rest easy in the arms of The Father. Why do we always feel like we have to DO something about closing the gap between where we are and where we want to be?

Hmmm..the sermon on Sunday wasn't the most dynamic sermon I've ever heard I can tell you that but the message was loud and clear. I feel like it's the same message that I received at last year's Summer Camp and even before that haha. It's great to be diligent at doing things and hard working but I find that God's been telling me to just sit and rest easy in His grace. Even with that message being told to me time and time again and me promising I will do exactly that, I've never been able to do that. One of the things I promised to do in my prayer life was to sit and let God speak to me rather than me being the one to do all of the talking and yet I haven't been able to fully emerse myself in that practice at all. What kind of a relationship is that where one person does all of the talking?!?

Even when things didn't work out with the CBE, I HAD to get off my butt and start applying everywhere ASAP...it was about what I could do to leviate the problem...not necessarily what God could do. I scrambled and did everything I could...it was about me finding the opportunities....and not resting in the fact that maybe God had a plan for it all.

And yet God taught me a lot through this whole CBE ordeal and that doesn't only include the lesson that God's got things in store for me, but I CAN pass up something like GCA...even if I wanted to hold onto this "sure thing" which didn't necessarily feel right. God gave me peace about going with Rockyview even though I didn't necessarily have the "sure thing of a full time job" lined up right away. I always wondered how people were able to reject a great job up front and hold out for "who knows what." And yet "who knows what" was the thing they were meant to do. I love those stories because the faith these people had in making these decisions are admirable. I always wondered if I would ever have the strength to do that and yet God has shown me that I can. And that principle applies to more than one area of my life. I don't need to hold onto the second best and yet "sure things" in life but I can have the faith that God would fulfill His promises on giving me the best and nothing but the best in all areas of my life.

Thank God that He's still teaching this fool of a man and that even when I've thought God's finished with me, He reminds me that He's got so much more to show me....

R and R

Does anyone remember this episode of The Simpsons? Haha...it was quite a sick one. The best is when Marge beats the snot out of the guy who tried to mug her and when she dominates Homer :)

Anyways, I've just been so looking forward to The Simpsons lately...hence my blogs being about them lately. The episodes this season have been excellent and the movie is coming out soon! I was tempted to buy some new figures at Toys R Us yesterday, but chose not to...I may buy them today or tommorrow. It's of Itchy and Scartchy!!! :P

So it seems like everyone is blogging less. I check my Facebook a few times a day but blogs I'm checking maybe 2 or 3 times a week now. My bro said that the inventor of Facebook is some 22 or 24 year old college student. I bet he sleeps in piles of money surrounded by many beautiful ladies now!! :)

So what's new with me? Just relaxing since my part time job is done and school is finished! I'm just recharging for teaching. I can't wait! I think I'll be starting midMay which is great since I'm going away next weekend. I get to visit the Grandma and see how she's doing and see the cousin in Regina. Good times....

Frazzled!!

Oh how Lost is driving me nuts...but in a GOOD way! There was a point in midseason where I was feeling a plateau but that has long gone. The first 6 and the latest 6 episodes have been super! I watched some clip on youtube which had the actors being interviewed and they said at least 1 character will die but today I heard on the radio that 5 characters were getting axed! Does that mean 5 regulars or 5 characters which is a mix of regulars and frequent appearances? Oh how my mind is trying to put these pieces together!

Well one thing I'm not frazzled about is my choice in not taking GCA's offer and hence looking to Rocky View for a full-time position. Thanks to everyone for your input! I appreciate your support and guidance but ultimately, this was the decision that gave me peace in my heart. So here's hoping I get my subbing package soon so I can start within a week or two! :)

There are some hot tunes on the radio right now--songs I'm not sick of yet!! I've been digging the latest tunes by The Fray, Nelly Furtado, Timberland, The Killers, Avril Lavigne, Gym Class Heroes, Daughtry, Katherine McPhee, and Justin Timberlake!! :) Summer is coming and these songs really suit the change in seasons quite well! :)

On a final note, there have been some updates on the latested Marvel movies. Edward Norton will be playing Bruce Banner in the next Hulk movie and Laurence Fishburne will be the voice of The Silver Surfer in FF2!!!!! :)