Was in Kingston Tuesday. Was in Brockville, Maitland, Kemptville Wednesday. Was in Perth Thursday. Arrived in Ottawa Thursday night. Currently in Ottawa, in Nepean. Note to self: blog the great adventures.

It was that kind of day when a whole bunch of things happened that wasn’t normal. It was pretty random. These events all were just weird that contributed towards a complete day of surprises. Too bad not every day can be like this.

I had breakfast at the Golden Griddle with Darren and Lydia. I would say that it was pretty random. It was good to talk about fun stuff. We had intended on praying for each other a little. But we were having such a good time, I think we forgot.

As I was leaving for Aurora, I realized I had left something in Amac’s car, so I had to meet him in Richmond Hill, where he had an appointment. The weird thing was as I was getting off of the 404, there was a whirlwind swirling on some dirt field north of Major Mackenzie east of the 404. But there were no clouds or vehicles in sight! It sure made me intrigued. And then a massive barbecue type of party was held at the public works area just east of Leslie. A massive road sign was plastered over with a colourful sign stating “private function”. But it was a massive party! As I passed this party, there was some fresh roadkill raccoon sitting on the dotted yellow lane marker; I stopped right next to it as I waited for the light, and I realized the car behind me some lady was blocking her vision from its apparent nastiness. I kind of just looked at it carefully and noticed the bloodstain and the intricacies of its feet. Sorry, if that’s nasty for you, I apologize, but I’m not sure it really disgusts me more when an animal is dead than when it was alive. It kind if intrigued me that I had absolutely no disgust towards looking at the dead animal. Unfortunately, it happens. But I wasn’t about to go out there and clean up the mess, I’m not that comfortable!

And then I happened to see a supporter at the plaza — I was going to be presenting my vision and calling to his small group later in the evening! Random!

As I drove to Aurora to meet with Roz, I remembered vaguely the directions he had given me to get to his house. Feeling challenged, I attempted to navigate by memory to his home, although after driving through a bunch of roads, I decided to look up the street in the map and be wise in how I used my gas. We chilled at a local Second Cup and I got a frozen hot chocolate-style drink — I’m not sure if I’ll ever get this drink again. It was too much chocolate flavour and it kind of made my throat sore… it wasn’t soothing at all. Just chilly.

My way down from Aurora I decided to stop at a touchless car wash to give the Subaru a good shine. But after I got out of the car wash, I realized it did a pretty crappy job! I will never fully trust touchless washes again! Physical contact is important! So after spending that $7.99 at Esso, I proceeded to one of those self-serve coin-operated car washes to do the real deal. Unfortunately the nozzle timed out on me after I started soaping the car… and had no more change to rinse it off! It took me to all three corners of Major Mackenzie and Bayview before I found a gas station cashier who had enough change for my $20. How disappointing. Then I went back to the car wash and finished the job, properly. Next time I know. I’ll be watching the timer that I apparently didn’t see the whole time. And I’ll forget about the soaping spray and opt for the foaming brush instead.

I needed to dry off the car. So I actually went for a drive to dry off the vehicle. Somehow I ended up in a nice rural part of Leslie. Somehow I found a garage sale. And somehow, they wanted to get rid of their crap so much that the lady told me to take whatever I wanted for free. I guess that’s the benefit of going to garage sales so late… they just want to dump the stuff to Salvation Army, and if I take the stuff, it saves them space. Guess what? I picked up an old school set of golf clubs! They had been priced at $50 with some masking tape, but there was absolutely no one around after the lady told me to roam and acquire cheap things freely. So I am the owner of a new set of old school golf clubs. I have no idea how good old school or crappy old school they are. Ben you’ll have to take a look at them when I hang with you golfing or at the driving range. I’m starting to get into this sport. It’s one of extreme discipline and consistency, which I’m trying to work on. So it’s neat.

And there were other fun times happenings such as meeting a motorcyclist guy who stopped to take in the view of downtown Toronto from where I was sitting at around Stouffville Road, a small group presentation (my second using the VACA DVD) and a Kainos barbecue outdoors at the New Campus of my church.

Yep, I’m back into the time when I didn’t have enough mental stamina to bother with blogging or updating anyone about what has been going on. It’s kind of like I get busy and then I let go, and then I don’t properly recharge and then I let go more. Hannah reminded me to do something that takes my mind away. I relented and admitted my attitude. It seems weird but now it seems the temptation is just to ignore my own needs.

I tried on Sunday. But in some ways that whole day ended up being quite social. I was able to get away for a bike ride in the evening but it wasn’t one that I really enjoyed. I tried on Monday. In the end, I think I let ministry still get in the way of my recharge time. I don’t regret submitting the prayer cards and helping Lydia make a VACA DVD, but there’s a twinge of me that knows I was avoiding something. I tried on Tuesday. Oh, that was today. My VACA appointment with someone ran overtime comfortably, but it bled into an online Adobe eSeminar on Creative Suite 3. I caught the last 20 minutes of it but it was rushed. And thank goodness that in the end, this evening instead of making phone calls, I managed to force myself to drive to a Starbuck’s, grab a drink, read the Word, chase a sunset, and watch a movie on my own at the local Rainbow Cinema.

I’m not sure if it worked. I know that it’s easy even when I am talking to my support coach to inadvertently leave out the feelings of being drained. I kind of know what recharges me, but sometimes I don’t even know myself well enough to know just how much is essential. And then to get charged on the Word as well. I have a feeling that you can’t get enough of that.

So I’ve determined that the best place that God can use me is with the Canadian campuses. And I know that that plan is there so that God gets the most glory. But right now, I think I’m starting to realize that God can only use me to the best of my ability if I am constantly being filled with the Word, as well as consistently doing things that God has created me to enjoy and recharge. Otherwise, I suffer and in turn, my ministry suffers.

I’m surprised that sleep isn’t enough. Sleep rests the body, the Word rests the soul, what rests my spirit?

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (The Message)
May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it!

I have successfully converted my Vision and Calling Album into a DVD. I’m able to pop it into a DVD player and display it on my television or laptop. I haven’t tried it in front of a crowd just yet, but tonight is my first test, since I have been invited to a small group bible study to share with them what I’m doing with CCC.

Although I can essentially “flip” the pages, I haven’t had enough time to perfect it so that I can flip backwards or to specific pages out of order. Tonight will be a true test of my presentation skills, and the use of this new technology. I’m really excited, but kind of nervous as well. You can’t ever totally trust technology.

From what I understand, it seems like many of my friends are trying their best to get photos taken of themselves, portrait style. For some people it’s for their prayer cards, and for others, well it’s great to have a good photo of yourself to share with others. This is my post on portrait photography. It may have a tilt towards prayer cards, but most of it would be relevant for a variety of uses. These tips are not applicable for all kinds of photography, since of course if you like to have fun and take tons of photos and if you know what you are doing, it doesn’t really matter anyway.

I will use my most recent prayer card photo as an example to refer to. It is a fantastic photo. I take absolutely no credit for it, since it was taken by my fantastic younger sister, Sarah Joy Wong. She has learned a lot about photography really quickly in recent years.

1) Time of day/lighting. Many people think that when it’s really sunny outside, it’s perfect lighting. Wrong. Do not choose to take photos that shall be widely circulated when the sun is at its apex. The light is too harsh. Instead, choose to take advantage of the soft light around sunrise/sunset. The light will bring out the best of you. The above photo was taken just as the sun was going down. The light was starting to fade, but a bit of colour correction can fix that. But colour correction can’t really fix a washed out appearance (it might be able to but it really is a pain).

2) You are beautiful. Don’t think that just because portrait photography takes a bit of effort that you aren’t beautiful. God created you and you are a wonderful handiwork. If you don’t understand this, you will never be satisfied with any photo of yourself.

3) Make sure that the photographer focuses on your eyes. It really doesn’t matter if other parts of your face or body is out of focus. If your eyes aren’t in focus, then the audience will feel like you aren’t really looking at them. In the above photo, you will notice that perhaps my hair, ears and t-shirt are out of focus, but my eyes are sharp. For the audience, it makes a big difference.

4) Bring out the natural colour of the eyes. Still on the subject of eyes, it is possible to look into someone’s soul and motives through the eyes. If your eye colour is not brought out, then there’s less impact. It is less “you”. That’s also why harsh lighting is bad… your eyes are squinty (if they aren’t already naturally) and the shadows are harsh.

5) Do not place yourself in front of a busy background. Apparently this is a mistake many girls make — they think that pretty objects in the background lend towards a pretty photo. On the contrary, a background that is soft, not distracting, and neutral will bring out the beauty in the subject a lot more. The rule is, if something in the background is actually worth pointing out, then it shouldn’t be in there. At least for prayer cards. In the photo above, there’s a tree, but really the tree isn’t noteworthy. It’s just to balance things out and bring out the colour of my shirt.

6) Use depth of field to your advantage, if possible. One thing about professional portraits is the shallow depth of field. This means a particular part of or object in the photo is in focus, but other objects that are at different distances from the camera appear blurry. This is one criticism of compact digital cameras, that they usually make everything in focus. Digital SLR’s, film SLR’s, and occasionally point and click film cameras will allow for shallow depth of field (wider aperture, smaller f-stop), many compact digital cameras have aperture priority but most people do not know how to use it. Learn it! Your photos will appear more natural. When you look at stuff with your own two eyes, you are only able to focus on specific distances at a time — other distances will appear blurry naturally as your brain isn’t focusing on those things. The above photo probably was taken with an aperture of f1.8 or f2.8.

7) Take tons of photos. It usually takes a short while actually get truly smiling or laughing. Try photos with mouth closed, mouth open smiles, laughing smiles. With digital, it’s even easier to peruse through the shots and immediately correct the pose. The more photos, the more choice you have when some shots come back out of focus, smile slightly off, hair in the way, or other weird things. During the above photo session, we cleaned off a roll of film and did a bunch of digitals as well.

Oh, and use a tripod. It makes things so much easier and the shots are usually in focus as a result. Of course with wide open aperture and fast shutter speeds, it doesn’t matter as much, but it is still a suggestion.

9) Women, please be aware of your poses. If the end product is a prayer card, don’t go crazy and go supermodel during the shoot. Many females will think a pose is fun and all but don’t take into account how males respond visually to women. Go the extra mile and help us out by making sure your end photo is suitable. Run your possible prayer card photos through a few honest guys. They’ll tell you if you are standing or sitting or even smiling in a way that could possibly be interpreted as inappropriate.

10) Resolution. Know your end medium; if it is print, you need to be working with 4+ megapixels. If it is web, it’s not as big of a deal. Pixellated photos are unprofessional.