Dave Mathews
ahhh..... relief, christmas is over (im such a killjoy) I just got the new Dave Mathews CD, and im putting it on my iPod right now. Its live and studio, 2 CD's. But everyone is putting down what they received for Christmas, so, i'll follow... i guess:
iPod Skin
Rugby style shirt from The Gap
Laptop/book bag from MEC (YESS!!!)
$90 Cash
American Eagle Jeans
Subsciption to Road & Track
Cool stripped club-ish style dress shirt
Red Sweater from Eddie Bauer
Cool comfty sweater
Christmas this year was diffrent because i approached it with a different attitude than previous years. I didn't really care what i got, because i was getting something. I didn't want anything in particular and that also made a diffrence. I was genuinly happy with everything i was given. I also put a lot of time into finding gifts for my family, instead of a CD for so and so, and a gift card for him... i hate giving gift cards. Well thats all for now
- don
bah humbug
i feel like a jerk cus im not into the whole christmas thing as much as everyone else. let me elaborate. 1) Christmas Music sucks! Probably the worst part of christmas. Its like the liscense for any artistic laws went out the window and everyone can feel free to write crap music. 2) Now everyones gonna hate me but... Christmas Movies are lame. I just dont get them. Why are they so happy, i know i know because its christmas, but do they have to be so corny? bah! 3) How wishy washy everything gets. Everyone has to agree at christmas everything gets so... well... fake. People pretend to be happy and joyful, but really they are just putting on a front. They should be living this way all year round, then when reality comes back from its vacation, its not such a shock. 4) This is the biggest one really. Why is everything so commercialized? This is drifting dangerously close to cliche territory so i will back off a bit. But c'mon, this is not what christmas is about people need to seriously get some perspective.
Ahh...
Merry Christmas Everyone!!
peace,
don
Snowboarding
On a lighter note, i can't wait to go snowboarding, it should be lots of fun. That is as soon as school is done. Three test left. 1 today, and 1 on monday, and wednesday. Then im done till january 9th YAY!
awesome lights
On a more positive note... things that i really enjoy!
1) Warm Winds
2) Big Muscle Cars
3) Video Game Parties
4) Golfing in Simulators so you can take re-shots
5) Spring Snowboarding
6) Walking through the mall at Christmas
7) Getting money from the Government
8) Seeing people you haven't seen in a long time
9) Jazz Clubs1
0) Salsa Music
11) Driving around with friends
12) Playing piano
13) When you make a green light
14) Catching an elevator as the doors are closing
15) Laughing at Profs
16) Ben Folds
17) Having a full tank of gas1
8) Looking at a sky-line of lights at night
19) Telling stories with friends
20) Christmas Dinner
21) Getting a good grade on a test
22) Arriving home after a long trip
23) That feeling when you wake up and don't have to do anything
24) Hiking in the Rocky Mountains
25) Taking walks after it has rained out
26) Watching a student perform
27) The smell of baking bread
28) Roller Coasters
29) Laying down after a long day
30) God's Grace
31) Ice cold pepsi when your golfing
32) The excitment when the movie starts at the theatre
33) Playing with kids
34) Going Mud bogging
35) Christmas morning
36) smell of fresh cut grass
37) Bacon
38) sound of snow crunching under fee
t39) laughing at Monty Python
40) Funny touqes with pom-poms or braids
41) Talking on MSN
42) Smell of Cigars
43) Riding bikes with friend
s44) Listening to new music
45) Climbing trees
46) Riding the train downtown
47) People watching
48) Walking down the beach in bare feet
49) Winning at ping-pong
50) DDR
51) jumping out of hot-tubs into the snow and then back in the tub
52) tubing on the river
53) Thunder Storms
54) Busy Markets full of people
55) French style accordian playing
56) Trying to talk to people that don't speak english
57) Walking around campus
58) Hanging out downtown
59) Meeting new people
60) Kayaking
61) Christmas Tree Cutting
62) Grand Piano's
63) Passionate people
64) Tree houses
65) Bonfires
66) Riding horses
67) Mini Donuts
68) Nice Sunsets
69) Motor Boats
70) Cooking Steaks
71) Listening to old radio shows
72) Standing in the shade on a hot day
73) S'mores
74) Full moons
75) Star Gazing
76) Snowball fights
77) Finishing a workout
78) Playing Guitar
79) Spanish
80) Rodeo Clowns
81) Peanut Butter
82) Riggatone
83) Catching the C-Train right before it leaves
84) Absurdly big sunglasses
85) Flowers that just blossomed
86) Conga lines
87) Gliding
88) Seeing a beatiful girl
89) Two stepping
90) Playing Hockey
91) Delivery Pizza
92) Flying in big Jets
93) Water Fountains when you're thirty
94) Banjo playing
95) Sunshine
96) Finding shortcuts
97) Figuring out something that has been bugging you
98) Remembering where you left something
99) Going to hockey games
100) writing list of things i like
so much to say, but i don't know how.
i think Trent Reznor says it best (and this will probably be the only time i quote him):
"what have i become?
My sweetest friend.
everyone i know goes away, in the end
And you can have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt"
-hurt
Sometimes i feel like all i can do is let people down, its really depressing. I can't let myself get pulled down by it though.
Such is life, im not alone in this i know. Thankfully
not so negative this time... well maybe a bit
so my friend rob is home right now. rob is awesome, last year he deceided to go to ethiopia with a NGO called Food for the Hungry International. He lives in a small village in a area called Sasiga District. He is so on fire right now, its very exciting.
have you ever just sat and listened?
im trying to do that more, just sit and listen.
its exciting, and scary. Try it some time
why is life so hard sometimes
i guess i'll ask the question again, why is life so hard sometimes
hmmm
this week was hard
sometimes i just wanted to stop and sob, thats how bad it was
fortunatly i have awesome friends
one week left
It would be cliche to wonder if i could get through it because i know i can...
but sometimes its so hard.
I really need His peace right now
really nice, really true
Girls are like apples on trees.The best ones are at the top of the tree.The boys don't want to reach up for the good onesbecause they are afraid of falling and getting hurt.Instead, they get the rotten apples from the groundthat aren't as good, but are easy.So the apples up top think something is wrong with them, when in reality they're amazing.They just have to wait for the right boyto come along, the one who's brave enough to climb
Why?
My school seems to be some sort of matchmaking school i think. All of the students seem to be so focused on dating. Im not saying that there is anything wrong with dating, but if your yearbook has a engagments section as well as a wedding section something is seriously wrong. Its bad enough that one of my friends just got engaged, and the girl that sits in front of me in philosophy is already married, and she is 18! oh gosh, looks like even the Christian school isn't immune to the ridiculousness of the world
This makes me REALLY mad
so i live in outside a small city (17,000) but its had such rapid growth in the past few years that it still has a small town attitude. Hear is the problem though. So im on the stage at church this morning and im singing as usual and i look out into the congregation as i usually do and i see this man in the second row dressed very messaly with hair all over the place. My first thought was 'huh, he should have combed his hair before coming to church' and i continued looking around to find my friends. My eyes come back to the messy haired guy. I realize then that this guy is homeless. I was encouraged by this though. This man came from calgary, i don't know how, to attend a church. He was obviously seeking out God, or at the very least some help. Partway through the singing i noticed that he looked over at the door like someone was talking to him, then he got up and walked out the side door.
Now i find out later, that some of the people in the church were uncomfortable with a homeless man in their church and wanted him to leave. GAH!!! Church is not a place to sit and be comfortable!! He has every right to be there. Is he not human? did Jesus not die for him as well as me? Or did Jesus die for middle class north americans that can afford to drive nice cars and that make $60,000 a year. Thankfully i saw him return to his seat a few minutes later. I guess someone thought the same way i did. What is happening to this world?
I don't know why im writing about this
I don't really know why im writing about this, but for some reason its really been on my heart the past few days.
Self-Esteem. When i think about that what comes to mind is those self help tapes that you play when you go to bed, you know "
I am worth it, I am a good person..." well recently i've really noticed a slide in self-esteem. Not as much in guys, but mostly in girls. Now being a guy, you girls out there are thinking: He has no idea what its like to be a girl. And they would be right, maybe i have not right to be writing about this (wow, what an over use of right and write) but im going to write about it anyway.
I guess the thing that really put me off, was when one of my students called herself stupid in front of me. She was playing and she got frustrated and apologized to me for being stupid. I almost yelled at her, i really had to restraing myself. See, she is only about 8 years old and already she has a negative view of herself. I can see this reflected in her whole demeaner. As soon as she said it, I stopped her and told her to apologise. She asked "for what and to who" i told her to apologise to herself for being mean to herself. I said "you are not stupid, don't let anyone ever tell you that" After that her attitude changed. She is getting better, i keep telling her how good she is and how much potential she has.
Another case, another student, another girl, but a diffrent age. This student is 24. She didn't outright tell me that she is stupid, she didn't say that. But she just has this attitude that she will never be good enough and that no matter how hard she trys its never gonna happen. I get mad at her because of this, she is so musical and truly has a passion for music. I guess todays culture of 'i want it now' really effects us more than we thought. She wants to be so good, but she wants it now and can't understand why she can't just be good. And this really seems to be effecting her self-esteem. What i do each lesson then is play a song for her that i like. Its nothing really hard, just a good song. What i'm attempting to do with this is show her that the fruits of music are so worth the hardship of practice.
I don't know if much of this self-esteem problem is our (guys) problem but if it is, im sorry. I don't know if we put too much pressure on you or what. I don't know what im trying to accomplish, but if i can help some girl feel better about herself, i would feel better about myself i guess.
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