Wow check out this Eastern Canada ultra cheap deal~!! http://www.aircanada.com/en/offers/air/springpass/springpass.html
For the low price of $599 you can fly as much as you want for one month.  I do believe each flight would only cost the airport improvement fee/taxes after the initial $599 payment.  I wonder if this would be worth it.  I’ll be going to Toronto at the beginning of April as well as at the end.  And then I could also fly somewhere just for a weekend to visit Boston or Montreal or NYC or even Florida or Gander if I felt so inclined.

It’s news like this that amaze me, for their global yet subtle influence.  The world is changing and I am glad to be alive at a time like this.

Check out the news of the event of the NYC Philharmonic in Pyongyang North Korea, and a video of the final touching song linked below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-OUt3IFlzk

Woop, my attention span just reached its end point.  I am preparing for a talk I’m giving this Friday.  Now for something totally different.  I’ll have to find a variety of things to switch to and from for each hour.  I can’t sit on one task for more than that.

I’m also emceeing tonight for the weekly meeting.  This is not something I do very often.  It’ll be fun.  Now to think of something witty to say.

Tonight after a long day on campus I decided to go with some rez folks to the caf at Res Commons.  Turns out they have some pretty good food for a residence on campus at a university.  The students keep telling me they are sick of it, but hey, after 8 months of similar offerings, I’m sure I would too.  But man, it was actually pretty good.

The caf for these students at Carleton is all-you-can-eat for a certain time frame.  They have a certain number of meal tickets that they can use towards different meals during the day, and they can’t take food out of the caf (except for a piece of fruit).  They also have four guest passes that they can use liberally to invite friends, family, or themselves if they happen to run out of meal tickets.  I believe it is all on a swipe card as well.

Initially I was going to swallow the cost of the meal ($11 for the all-you-can-eat meal) but as I went to the caf with one of the students, another student arrived and she found out she had an extra guest pass.  SWEEET!!  I smiled quite big.

One lame concept is that you are not allowed to bring backpacks in the caf.  I had to leave mine out at the entrance, where there were cubbies for coats and bags.  I didn’t like this policy; next time I will leave my backpack in someone’s rez room for fear that my stuff will be stolen.  All of it.

There is one popular offering at the caf that is pretty darn unique.  It was a Mongolian grill-style stir-fry area.  You filled your plate with veggies and then you handed the plate to the cook, who put your choice of noodles and meats on a circular central cooking surface (stone deal) and bathed it in your choice of sauce.  The cooks didn’t use massive wooden chopsticks but used large metal spatula things instead.  They didn’t offer nearly as much variety for veggies, meats, sauces, or spices, but it was a surprise indeed.

I like the idea of a buffet-style caf when I’m at a campus, but I really wonder how I would fare as a student in such an environment.  I’ve expressed my distaste with buffets in the past.  This is probably because I would likely indulge in its temptations too often.  In my first year in residence, I likely gained weight, and it wasn’t even buffet-style.  How would you live in a residence knowing that every meal you wanted to get your “money’s worth” if what you really intended on doing was eating healthily and in sane quantities?  (the close proximity of the words “in” and “sane” was not intentional)

I did not know until today that it would take 7 hours to drive from Ottawa to Boston.  That is so doable!  It is approximately the same time to drive to London, Ontario.

People do not enjoy being corrected for simple things like grammar and spelling.  When I was in Grade 4, I was Mrs. Wronski’s spell-checker.  She enjoyed it.  But unless someone specifically asks to be corrected, I do not bring the issue up.  Even if it bothers me a lot.  I had a post drafted about spelling and grammar errors that are common, but I’m going to wait until it gets longer before I post it.  And for the record, I really don’t mind if you ever correct me on these kinds of errors.  I want to improve in my abilities…. but not at the expense of getting my message across, if the errors are intentional for the idea to be understood (eg. making up words).

Produce was scarce at Loblaws today.  I have this cookbook that I borrowed from Robyn and near the end there is a recipe for Ratatouille.  I decided I would try it.  However, when I arrived at Loblaws to pick up some groceries for the recipe, I found out they have no zucchinis or eggplants at all right now.  Normally I wouldn’t even eat these vegetables, but right when I actually decide to try it out, they aren’t there.  This looming price-rise for groceries and foods is hitting closer to home!

Instead of ratatouille I decided to make an alfredo cream sauce chicken penne.  I observed this evaporated milk/flour technique when I was at the Strongitharm’s place once so I tried it out myself…. it worked, although it was a bit dry.  Maybe more milk next time.

Gas prices are starting to soar.  I haven’t seen anything less than a dollar per liter for the past couple weeks.  I’m going to try to avoid filling up in Quebec as much as I can, since it’s usually around ten cents more expensive there!

Does the proliferation of original worship music from Hillsong affect church music negatively or positively?  The Hillsong music quality is typically off the charts.  The musicianship is unparalleled (sample some drum techniques here and some guitar techniques here) and most normal people in worship bands cannot pull their stuff off without tons of practice.  The quality of the live sound mixing on their CD’s and DVD’s as well as the live music videos really have no equal in the Christian worship music world.  And yet the accessibility of the music to the general church populace means the taste of  the average worshipper has risen.  This means they come to expect better quality music from their own churches (or at least their ears are more accustomed to such quality).

Now I’m all for quality music.  However, when worshippers have unrealistic expectations (I struggle with this sometimes) they can be distracted and the focus on God is lost.  For example, whenever I hear the song “Mighty to Save” played out by a full band, I actually listen and watch to see if the guitar technique and the drum technique is as sickeningly amazing as the original Hillsong bunch.  But of course, this is me and I’m pretty obsessive-compulsive at times.  With the average worshipper, is this happening to them?  Do they worship as “whole-heartedly” in church as they do at a live-concert worship performance by Hillsong United when they come to town?

This is where I see a need for an increase in the quality of music (to enhance the experience and also to glorify God more, simply), and yet an ironic need for a decrease in the necessity of quality music by the worshipper so that even in unpolished circumstances they are able to enter an attitude of praise.