i'm the gingerbread man!

http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=mr_oizo

check the xanga for trip updates. blogger is a nono in china.

i suppose there, it's just food

there sure are a lot of chinese people in Beijing. i can't believe how large and sprawling this city is. it's crowded, but because it's also so spacious you don't really get a sense of the population. you do however, get a sense of space, and how much of it this city takes up. insane.

saw the forbidden city and tianamen square today. walking hurts my feet.

and food. goodness, food is cheap here. i almost feel guilty. we're paying literally pennies for food.

more to come as further updates warrant. i'm having a blast, and i'm safe and sound.

farewell from peking.

perfect situation

Nash beats out Shaq as league MVP

congrats stevie nash! he's deserved it all this year.

if pheonix can go all the way this year, steve nash is officially my hero, hahaha

how great is our god

ok, so i'm not actually listening to 'how great is our god'. i'm playing it on guitar.

bumming around my brothers place at the moment waiting to meet people downtown. took care of all the chinese visa stuff finally today, i hope it all goes smoothly.

currently blogging on my brothers new 15" powerbook g4. it's so nice! it's totally quiet, i can't hear a thing, and it doesn't seem to suffer from the memory spikes that my IBM has been having as of late whenever i start typing stuff. strange.....i wonder whats causing it. also, i wish i had ilife.....such a fun little suite of software. this one button mouse thing is really stupid though. in all my experience with macs, i just don't get it. it's like the j-gate in jaguars. signature isn't always a good thing.

so i got into toronto around 2am last night, finally having left london for the last time as a resident. hence forth, all trips will be visits, and not returns. what is it they say? there's no going back? good times. many thoughts swirl around my little head as i think of my time at UWO, but i doubt they would fit in one blog.

it's such a nice day today. after a really wet and grey week, it's nice to see the sun make a cameo. despite the franticness and fatigue of moving out and the busyness of prepping for the trip, i'm reminded of how blessed i really am. its no coincidence this tomlin song has sooo been stuck in my head as of late.

was listening to the radio today and the dj quoted a study saying that 90% of people fake a cell phone conversation at least once a month. can that possibly be right?? i don't think i've ever faked a cell phone conversation in my life -- although i can think of times i wish i had.....

close

i wrote this earlier today, but blogger was down this afternoon.

stripping your room bare brings to the surface a very distinct type of nostalgia.

sitting down and looking after each step, with every piece of sentiment and every memory packed into a box or bag, one can't help but wonder what's next, and fondly look back at what has been.

this room has been mine for two years, but it feels like so much longer. even further seem the two years prior, with first year but a mere echo in the recess of my mind -- discernable, but wispy.

i feel.....sad. as i reflect on the reality of the situation, this moment that i've been striving towards for so long, i'm reminded of the importance of the journey.

maybe i'm odd, but i'm one of those people that save every little thing that is ever given to me. every card, every note, every little scrap paper that someone writes to me, i save for some reason. i can't describe why i hold on to these things , but every so often i just look through these symbols of love and caring and am reminded of how lucky i am.

as much as i sometimes wonder and worry about the future, just looking at how bursting at the seams my grab-bag of thoughtfulness is, i know that God will continue to bless me well beyond my feeble expectations and cynicism. i'm reminded of my favourite bible verse in this poignant moment.

23Another time, Elisha was on his way to Bethel and some little kids came out from the town and taunted him, "What's up, old baldhead! Out of our way, skinhead!"

24 Elisha turned, took one look at them, and cursed them in the name of GOD. Two bears charged out of the underbrush and knocked them about, ripping them limb from limb--forty-two children in all!

25Elisha went on to Mount Carmel, and then returned to Samaria.

- 2 Kings 2:23-25 (The Message)

i already wrote one of these sappy end of year blogs last week when i ended class. i forsee yet another one when i move out my furniture next week.

the roller coaster of emotions continues. don't you just love that bible verse? who says God doesn't have a sense of humour? (and don't just look at the platypus)

and now, for hot pot!

all the trees of the field will clap their hands

i want to learn to play the banjo.

in other news, the process of slowly moving out of london has begun. it feels funny thinking i'll never live there again. i think. but at the same time there's a nostalgic sense of closure that i'm moving on to other things.

who wants some furniture? i have a bookshelf, some shelving units, plastic drawers, all that kind of neat stuff. i haven't started sifting through the piles of misc. collected items stashed in the various corners of my room, but i'm sure i'll unearth some gems.

the next few weeks will be split between london and toronto, kicking it in the forrest city, and getting errands accomplished in toronto. busy busy i guess, but all with an air of satisfaction and anticipation about it.

now....who wants trucker hats?

sentiments vs syllables

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.

~ Groucho Marx

and so it ends. i just finished my last class here at the university of western ontario. what a bittersweet experience this graduation business is proving to be.

for so long i have wanted out. no more classes, no more books....no more teachers dirty looks.

and yet here i am, almost wishing i could start all over again from square one. that i could redo my mistakes, and relive my elation. so much has happened in my four years here. i can't say i'm nearly the same person walking away from here as i was walking in.

God has blessed me so much, and given me such great friends and a wonderful fellowship. I feel like my eyes have been opened to life, and where i fit into things. That assurance is so invaluable. I know that i'll be moving on, but i recognize that i might not ever have the luxury this situation affords....for the rest of my life. absolute freedom, learning on my own, forcing myself to grow, great friends who are around all day every day and accessible 24/7.

so to all who've put up with me, and all who've helped me through the tougher times, and everyone i've met here -- thanks.

man, i'm writing a grad comment for my imaginary yearbook. i'm such a loser.

i want to know your plans

i've waited so long for this day.

our first steps towards building a gundam

mmm....side mounted gattling guns...

now everyone knows what i want for christmas:



a land walker.

the heavens

wouldn't life be more fun if everything had a live studio audience?

"i slept in for class"
"well, at least it wasn't MONEY class!"

*audience laughs*

wait...that's not funny.

dammit, i'm gonna go eat hotdogs.






*audience laughs*

two dedications

as cammie has pointed out, there is an abundance of good music rolling through town over the next few months. she has a helpful list on her blog.

i thought just for sharing, i'd list a few of the smaller (and cheaper) shows that are gonna be visiting toronto (many of which while i'm gone....dammmmmmiiiitttt.....) so those of you on a shoe-string budget like myself can catch some great gigs too.

april
7//damon & naomi, raising the fawn and a northern chorus//Drake Hotel, //$10
7//the kills//Horseshoe//$12.50
7//kathleen edwards and jason collett //Mod Club // $15
10//outhud //Horseshoe // $10
14//angels of light w/ m. gira, akron/family and picastro //Music Gallery //$13-$15
17//the shins //Kool Haus, //$21
18//m ward //Lee's Palace, //$12.50
19//m83 and ulrich schnauss //Lee's Palace, //$15
26//arcade fire //Danforth Music Hall // $20


may
9//prefuse 73 //Lee's Palace, //$15
11//the mountain goats //Lee's Palace, //$11
21//the decemberists //Lee's Palace, //$15
28//Sam prekop //Horseshoe, //$12

21//LCD Soundsystem & M.I.A //Opera House//prices unannounced

and although it's too expensive, i think it's important to list:
may 16//doves and mercury rev //Kool Haus, //$25.75

not to mention of course the Bloc Party this saturday. tickets still available if i'm not mistaken.

i'd kill to see the arcade fire and sam prekop. i'd also like to see the shins, but that's a bit pricey for me. i'm not even here for sam prekop, and LCD SOUNDSYSTEM AND MIA. that's going to be the funnest show of the year. dammmmmiiiiiitttttt.....

but ok. arcade fire -- i wanna go to that for sure. maybe out hud, and maybe m ward, and maybe the shins. why...why am i so poor....

so there you go. cheap but great music. enjoy folks!

marvelous things

goodness i'm hungry. i just realized upon waking up that it's been almost 16 hours since my last meal. i've gotta get used to those early dinner and no breakfast. oops.

it's another beautiful day outside. i wonder what it is about the sun that makes us so happy, so energized. if someone could bottle that feeling, they would have the worlds most popular drug on their hands.

an an unrelated note, the girls here at ACF have been doing a book for women's cell this term, and i'm not sure if i heard it talking to one of them, or perhaps from a speaker or something...but someone once mentioned that guys tend to compartmentalize their lives, while women's lives are more like spider webs -- one thing can affect every facet of their lives.

i wonder some days if that's true or not?

if we're suppose to have God in every facet of our lives then, does that almost mean the ladies have an advantage since they already are naturally inclined to paint their lives with one big brush? does that mean it's more natural for guys to put God in a box and harder for us to break out of that?

it sometimes feels that way i suppose. but i recognize that life being a "spider web" means it can also be harder to walk with God everyday because things can throw you off so much easier.

how much can we learn about ourselves before we start looking for things that aren't there?

to summarize, photoshop is fun. i saw billy use this effect on some photos he took, and i was like....i wanna learn how to do that, hahaha

caught halo

one of the downsides of being a musical fiend are that you spend a lot of energy trying to find specific artists. case in point, i've been looking for the entire jen wood discography in a high quality for at least the last 4 years.

and now.....now i finally have them all in glorious 192 quality. every last album and ep.

thank you...thank you. i couldn't have done it without bittorrent.

my mathematical mind

i figured since my move to blogspot seems pretty set, i'd spruce the place up a bit.

anyways, 3 weeks until freedom. 2 days until an assignment is due. 2 weeks until exams. i hope my time here is more than a mere countdown.

i can't believe how messed up this page looks on IE. stop using IE people. if you haven't jumped on the firefox bandwagon, hurry up.

grad night this friday at acf.....what to say....what to say....

i read an article in ad-busters that said the great irony of the modern cultural rift is that christianity is at the heart of the seperation between european and american culture.

because americans are predominantly a christian culture, europeans are alienated because modern europe is done with religion. centuries of the catholic church and two wars later, europe has -- amazingly -- become the first major culture of social conciousness.

the twist being naturally, that in the course of doing so, european culture may actually be more "christian" than american.

an interesting observation, though not full of questions.

however, maybe this explains why canada is so confused. in the schism of american conservatism and european socialism, perhaps we're trying to find a happy compromise.

that's an encouraging thought.

the news

bloc party on april 2.

ok go on april 5.

raising the fawn on april 7.

weezer on may 6.

decisions decisions.

why am i so poor?

right now weezer is pretty much a given, i'll be lining up saturday afternoon. bloc party tickets are cheap too, so i think i can actually afford that one.

who wants to join me?

hit the switch

i've gotten such good rest over the last two days. something like 24 hours of sleep in the last two nights or something along those lines. so nice....

here's a fun little tidbit: ever wish while roller blading that you could just go FASTER? well now you can. all you have to do is strap an engine and wheel to your ass. yes, someone finally invented it: the rollercycle

i was browsing around and i noticed that everyone is obsessed with pictures. i felt compelled to try and keep up, so i finally got around to uploading some photos. some of which are a few years old already. ah well, better late than never i guess.

it seems that the less i update, the more comments just start to accumulate. is it like a boredom thing? nothing else to do but create your own content? i like it. less work for me.

is it just me, or as each generation graduates from university, they become less and less concerned with finding a job and more and more concerned with seeing the world?

plans

waiting for tomorrow is a waste of today

so i read that quote from my bathroom reader while sitting on the john. i find that many realizations about life tend to come while in the washroom. truly, such a place of solace; a fortress of solitude.

not so much a realization i suppose, as much as a motivation.

it's starting to appear that i indeed will be going to asia right after school ends, and i officially begin the rest of my life.

between ivan, brian, and myself, i think we all have our own reasons for wanting to go on this trip. fun, reflection, excitment, experience, learning, shopping. the reasons are actually more than i can count. but i think personally, one bigh thing is i want to really see the world, and learn to experience god not just in the comfort of north america, but through his presence world wide. to drink in all his creation, and get an idea of how he is moving and working, particularly in poorer nations.

there's so much i want to learn. so much. to grow, to change, to be formed.

it's exciting, challenging, encouraging and daunting all at once.

show me everything you've got

paranoia runs rampant as i attempt to normalize my school habits. thankfully good news was in the cards today, and a big burden has been lifted off my shoulders. thank you God.

despite the fact that i do in fact have a short assignment due tomorrow morning (basketball at 8:30 anyone?), i'm feeling quite good about things right now.

life.....is better than i deserve, despite my attempts to screw it up.

here's something fun to tide you all over until i have more entertaining things to write about.

make your own superhero!

retreat! retreat!

i'm so sorry this slipped my mind, but a happy belated birthday to wendy! i'm really sorry i couldn't make your party, and particularly so because i basically had the date changed to accomodate me. errrr....oops.

either way, hope it was a blast and may you have many blessed years of auditing to come.

that sounded better in my head.

home for a few days! may the battle against procrastination commence.

i trawl the megahertz

i woke up at 4pm this afternoon, and almost assuredly only because connie called to see why she hadn't heard from me all day. whats wrong with me? haven't been able to sleep well altely. or early for that matter. not cool. anyways, quick update on whats been going on 'round these parts i guess

went to the stars/apostle of hustle show yesterday night, good times was had by all. it was alright, although apostle of hustle in my opinion stole the show big time even though they were the opener. stars just sound kind of anemic live i've found from both times i've seen them, although this show it was particularly evident that without a full stage of backing musicians they lose a lot of their punch. the viscerality of their songs are really defined by the textures and subtle layers that they create. stripping that away makes their live show seem kind of like....a cover band trying to play stars songs. it's odd. but all and all, it was still a fun show. the moment of the night however.....



me and joel are laughing about a bowel movement he had that he seemed strangely proud of. upon looking down, he asks me "simon. is that what i think it is?"

i particularly like the look on his face in this photo. it's like he just found an endangered species or something as he proudly poses with it. it was just classic. moreover, i just noticed that the random stranger is also posing and pointing along with joel, even though he's barely in the picture. way to be buddy! way to get in with that condom!

are these london teens that desperate to get it on that they can't even make it to the washrooms for their exhibitionist kicks? were they just filming a porno before they let the crowd in? was it "free condom night" the night before?

along with cricket and pop-tart filling, i guess it'll remain a mystery.

in other news, who wants to expand their musical library for free, and without the hassle of those pesky p2p programs?

the SXSW festival this year has compiled an archive of samples of EVERY artist participating in the festival this year. that's right! full songs! they're encrypted at a very decent 160kbs and available for free download at their site here

it's free, it's legally sponsored, and it's a great way to hear some great new music. the files are torrent files, so if you don't know what bittorrent is, the sxsw site has a quick primer on that too.

one note of warning, the main file is a 2.6 gig file, so it will take a while to download. there's an update file with about 25 songs that's around 85 megs as well, so enjoy all you can folks!

when they really get to know you they will run

so here's the new game: every post title will be a song title. guess the artist and win a cookie! the last two posts are actually song titles too. three cookies! what more could you ask for? and no, the song and artist are in no relation to what the post is about, but they ARE usually the song i'm listening to at the time of posting.

i'm...basically done this essay. but i must sleep now, for i want to make it to 9am class for a change. the corner must be turned before i crash and burn....ed. look at me go. i'm a rap master.

as i was disrobing for the shower (there's a mental image) i decided to flex my arm just to take a gander at how far i've fallen since i was sort of in better shape than i am at this exact current moment. am i an egomanic? or is that pretty normal? i'm sure other people do it. stop lying to me. anyways, long story short, i think i hurt my bicep.

have you ever tried so hard to focus on a task that your mind just shuts down? i think i've pretty much hit that wall tonight.

i think it's crazy how old we're all getting. i was just thinking about my own time here at western, hearing news of old aquaintances getting engaged, seeing my brother married, realizing that even my own life is pretty far out at the moment -- it's all pretty wild when you put it into perspective and step back. i mean, we're far from being old, but i remember a time when i used to think that i was also far from being grown up, more mature, all that crap. there was a time not long ago when i clearly felt i was still just a kid, and i didn't want to grow up, and i felt like i wasn't ready for the real world.

but here we are. on the cusp of...life. sure, there may be more school. sure, there may be more of the same routine down the line. but i mean, our whole lives are ahead of us. we don't have any more road maps to direct us where to go. it's in our own hands now, and thats something i'm starting to realize is as exciting as it gets.

the possibilities are endless. and i refuse to be pigeonholed. i refuse to let myself limit my own future, limit my own potential, by assuming i know whats best for myself. because i realize that the older i get, the more i learn about how little i know. that as brazen and sure as i was in high school, i must now make up for it with humbleness towards reality and life, acknowledging how fleeting and fragile everything we have really is.

and i'm thankful for that. for everything. and thats all i guess i really wanted to say. i meant this to be a short post, but my mind numbing fatigue has caused quite the ramble.

today, i was peeling an orange, and i threw a piece of rind all the way across the room. i find i eat a lot of stuff i wouldn't normally eat when i'm procrastinating or taking "breaks" from work. which just tells me that i'm not meant to write essays about politics for a living. or else i'd become terribly obese, and probably rather unattractive, and i'd fall down some stairs and discover that i'd become so round, i was actually capable of rolling down the stairs like a giant soccer ball.

but then the tragic would happen, and i would crush the old lady at the bottom of the fire exit who collected bottlecaps from the mid 50's in her single bedroom apartment that often smelled like gingersnaps and earl grey tea.

and it would be seared into my mind, as my revolutions down the stairs brought my head around and around, with every orbit her imminent doom drawing nearer, and i, unable to stop myself due to the inertia of my giant hamster-ball shaped body. the horror.

what couldn't it have been me dammit? why??

she had so much life to live....