Almost never do I have a good photo of myself, since I rarely take photos of myself. And rarely do I have others take photos of me. But when we were at the airport on Sunday night, my younger sister Sarah and I were snapping away trying to capture ourselves in the airport, mainly trying to show how nice it is in the airport.. new Terminal 3 wing. We ended up with a few fun shots of ourselves. Here’s a photo that my sister took, and I lightroomed it up to make it look like it came from a film camera.

And then a photo that I took of my sister and a bit of lightrooming and photoshop to give it some lens blur and clean up to warm up the room.

On Heather Rush’s blog I noticed her recent post about Josh Groban and his new CD, Awaken. There is a song called “You are Loved (Don’t Give Up)” that I highly suggest you take a good listen to… it’s fantastic. He doesn’t hit any absurdly high notes, but holds some words for absurdly long times. His website is here and you can view his newest song on video.

As I told Heather, I like his music a lot and so do my sisters. I viewed the Josh Groban Live at the Greek DVD and he can really sing. I think some reasons why so many mothers and daughters like him so much is because he’s so accessible, down-to-earth, and normal-charming, with no real agenda to sweep anyone off their feet. He just sings and does it because he likes to. He’s not like John Mayer, who makes a big deal about the performances and amazes you until you’re flabbergasted and produces CD’s that are really poppy. And he’s not like Michael Buble, who sings in a manner that I can only describe as “look at me right in the eyes when I’m singing to you”. Instead, Josh Groban sings like he’s at a recital, and then just kind of smiles and walks off the stage. It appeals because it’s just so… normal.

You can now syndicate my blog through RSS (Really Simple Syndication) using the link http://www.singforever.ca/rss.xml. The link is also found at the bottom of my links sidebar. The RSS logo is even there!

It’s only a partial feed so it forces you to come to visit my site. That’s because I update other parts of the site that don’t show up in the feed, like the photo galleries, the featured photo, and occasionally the videos section.

After my morning and early afternoon, I had the rest of the day off. Most Tuesdays are like this. So I biked to the mall to pick up something I had been meaning to grab for a while now. It was a plastic table cloth from the dollar store — I’m going to use it to make a huge wall banner in my room with a Bible verse on it. I want to make the words so huge that I can read it without my glasses when I wake up in the morning. Some Bible verse that I will read each day and remember God and what he has done and his saving grace so that I will wake up knowing why I’m still alive.

As I was at the mall, I visited the new SportChek that is in Stone Road Mall where the theatre used to be. It’s brand new. I looked at the new winter jacket stuff they have in stock and noticed that they have Burton board pants and such, but no Burton jackets. They only had Columbia, Ripzone, and Firefly. It seems that some of the lower-end softgoods companies have started making increasingly stylish clothing, complete with polyurethane-sealed zippers and other utilitarian features. I don’t know about the quality of the clothing, but they are taking cues from upper echelon companies like Burton, Bonfire, The North Face, and 686 Enterprises. Although I’m not sure if I would buy one of those jackets, because I put my outerwear to so much wear when biking in the winter.

It’s been two years since I bought my Burton jacket that I love so much, but it’s showing its accelerated age with chain grease marks (carrying my bike every so often), pocket holes (poked by keys when falling in the winter), worn-out Velcro (constant doing and undoing of wrist straps), and reduced waterproofness (not sure if I can revive it much). I don’t want to toss it out because it has so many good memories and it’s still a great jacket that I love. Which reminds me that I once was walking through MEC and realized that I might want to try getting one of those winter jackets.

At SportChek I also tried on the Nike Free Trainer 7.0 and the Free Runner. These two shoes are really comfortable. They fit like a sock… you actually don’t wear socks when wearing the Free Trainer. The shoes are pretty hardcore and I don’t think I would ever wear them outdoors if I got them, as they are made with mesh and extremely flexible materials in the sole and last. The guy who served me was named Nigel and he is an endurance runner. He didn’t know everything about the shoe, and was honest enough to admit it. But he knew his general stuff about anatomy and exercise. I hate it when salespeople act like they actually know what they are talking about when in actuality they are just reading the box or making up information. In the past I’ve done sales and honesty is the best policy. No one ever got mad at a salesperson who admitted to being less knowledgeable.

When I arrived home I saw a package for me on the kitchen table. It was the MEC messenger bag and Nalgene 3L water bladder I had ordered online. Not having great experiences with Speed River Bicycle downtown when trying to buy a Timbuk2 messenger bag, I decided to check out some cheaper options at MEC.ca. They have a full money-back satisfaction guarantee, so I felt no pressure… I can return it if I don’t like it. I like companies like MEC. They care about the customer first. Instead of telling you “how long” the refund policy pertains to, MEC tells you “how to” return items specifically. They don’t even tell you how long the refund policy is. If you aren’t satisfied, you can return it.

After examining the MEC messenger bag in extreme detail for about 30 minutes, I was quite satisfied. The bag had pretty much all the features the Timbuk2 bag has, for about half the price. Timbuk2 is known for the original bombproof bags, using ballistic Cordura for some messenger bags. But although I need waterproof and durable, I don’t exactly need ballistic Cordura. However, I am quite specific about how the stitching is done, the waterproof zippers, the strap/cross-strap/strap padding system, the quality of Velcro, a laptop sleeve area, and the positioning of compression straps. Now we get to see how the MEC bag holds up. If I’m relying on previous experience with MEC product, it’s going to last me forever. And I think it’s ok that some of the products are made in Vietnam.

And then for dinner, I cooked rice. I thought of doing that earlier in the day, and followed through with it. Made a simple minimal fried rice with some vegetables and mortadella sausage I almost forgot about in the fridge. Good stuff.

Ok, I know that I have to totally get to a post sometime on “why I decided to join staff”. For my sake and for the sake of other friends who are kind of just waiting patiently. But I’m not sure that it’s time to write all that out yet. I just talked to my parents about it last night and such.

However, I will blog about an easier topic — what I want for Christmas!! Now I know that from previous post experience, it can get a little out of hand and I can easily start including stuff about desiring an ultra-light aircraft that costs $30,000. So I’ll try my best to keep it realistic. And if you wanted to know, the reason I’m posting about this is because by telling people what I desire, it makes gift-giving easier and also less likely to result in undesired or useless gifts. The world doesn’t need any more junk… and by “world”, I mean “my room”. This list does not imply that I expect any of these things as gifts; they are only suggestions. It’s the stuff that I would buy if I’d won the lottery.

Here we go:

Hammond organ $75-199 - an old school organ, good condition, seen at Gordon Taylor Music in Guelph! I’ve always wanted to learn to play the organ, now this might be my chance! Pretty sweet.

Strathmore Sketchbook $12-20 - my sketchbook has run out of pages already! Since March… so I guess 9 months is a fair amount of time. Here’s my tattered and well-worn sketchbook… I draw, doodle, take sermon notes, journal, everything in here. I don’t like lines when I journal.

Guitar TRIC case $79-100 - the current guitar case that I have is falling apart because… it is not a great case. It is not really that water resistant, it leaks a bit and the fuzzy stuff is really not doing much at all. In fact, the fuzzy stuff is not very puffy. And I don’t trust it to hold my guitar tight frequently — it could possibly fly open at any moment when in transit.

Bible ESV Compact Battlezone $29 - my thinline Bible is actually quite tattered and duct-taped also, from putting it in my backpack each day and getting water leaked on it sometimes or going to Africa and back, and other travels. A metal-cased compact will hold up to the brutal use that I put to my handy carry-around bible.

Lobster winter biking gloves $39-39 - during the winter I usually wear gloves when I bike, but they are way too big. I also have the neoprene ones, but they are only good for moderate weather or wet weather. Lobster gloves (size S or M) allow for warmth while accommodating brake levers.

Pantone Huey monitor colour calibration $100 - it’s extremely difficult to calibrate two or three different monitors when working at home, office, or in different lighting conditions. Designing print and web media require optimal colour representation on the monitor so that the design on-screen is similar to what will appear in the end product. The Huey detects light adjusts the monitors to varying lighting conditions in a room.

CD/book gift certificates $20-30 - I am a lover of music and I constantly feel like I need new music to stay refreshed and rejuvenated. New legal music can also be multiplied in its use in videos, events, and promotional media.

Support-a-friend $20-100 - a Christian friend of mine is in desperate need of some cash because he needs to move out of his current house that hosts keggers and leaves porn magazines lying all around. The landlord will not let him just pick up and go; instead, my friend must pay the landlord two months rent in order to leave and move into a healthier environment. That’s about $800 he can’t afford. Give him a gift by not giving a gift to me.