Birthday soon...

The following is a list of some cool or less cool people who have the same birthday as me.
I suppose somehow this makes me cool too.

Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans, brother of Charles VI of France
Pope Innocent XII
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (His name is Picard's favorite tea, so I had to include him)
L. Ron Hubbard
Donald Duck
Adam Clayton
Common

Ok.
Uhm...
I'll be 29 in two days. That's wierd.
That's all I have to say.

Do ya ever...

... wanna sit in front of the TV doing nothing all weekend but then get called in for an overtime shift? I do, but I worked. Now I can pay rent.

... think that maybe when you see blue, you're actually seeing what someone else sees as red? Maybe you just use a different word to describe the same colour. Maybe men actually do see the opposite as women!!! (but i guess then we'd see green, or like, they'd see orange... I don't know...)

... wonder if maybe Walt Disney actually is cryogenically frozen and stored in a secret chamber underneath The Pirates of the Caribbean ride? Wikipedia tells me it's an urban legend... but I say it's a conspiracy that it's an urban legend... like, reverse psychology stuff, you know? They create the myth of the frozen body of Walt, and then everyone thinks its a myth, but then it actually is true, but because we all think it's a myth, none of us are going to don scuba gear and abandon ship at the bottom of Davey Jones' domain to check it out!!! (plus, we probably spent three weeks wages just to get on the one ride)...

... wonder why people tailgate or drive 140 km/h on the trans-canada, even when it's snowing? I have a theory about the instant-culture we have inadvertently created via the internet. Yup, the internet is responsible for the reckless tossing away of reason when we are on the highway. We don't have time to wait, we want it now!!! I want my fries hot, and fresh, but I want them 28 seconds after I order!!! I want to download the latest music or software instantaneously, not sit staring at a little bar waiting for the little green squares to fill it all the way up!!! I want to get to Vancouver in 20 minutes flat, and I can't see the car in front of the car in front of me, I just know that if I tail-gate I'll be able to get there faster!!!

... wonder why it can be minus 15 in Abbotsford but plus 5 in Vancouver? Dan Bryce would tell you it's 'cause vancouver is an urban heat island, and he'd claim the evils of anthropogenic thermal distortions in the city have upset the one time equilibrium of the planet's biosphere. I say nay, the biosphere is in a constant tension leading the smallest fluctuation to hurtle it into a state of chaos, and that regardless of what any fancy-pants french-enlightenment-modern scientist may say, the world has on any given level been constantly in a state of chaos since its creation. Any uniformity present can only be the consistency of chaos. This is why I am not necessarily opposed to the city's effect on the globe. In the realm of geography, specifically as it relates to the creation of the world, I am a catastrophic uniformitarianist. Uniformly consistent catastrophic events were what shaped the planet (by the Hand of God, of course). Chaos. God loves it.

... wonder why I wrote all that stuff? ... me too...

Later.

Bam!!!

And just like that, I post a new post-cool post. I'm married now.
This has been about the longest I've ever gone without updating my blog, and it feels like I should go about updating this thing.
What has happened since May...
Uhm, had a summer. Worked and planned wedding.
Got married Aug. 4th. Good times were had by all.
Went to Thailand with Andrea Hendy. Got sick, crashed a motorbike, came home a month later, good as new.
Started my Masters. Lost touch with my brain cause I was also working full time. But I finished the semester.
Stopped my masters. Too much work... I'll finish later once Andrea can work.
Uhm... and now...

...

later.

Props

My nephew rules.

Pics

It's been a year or more, but here's some pics from my trip to Thailand that I just put up on the intranest. Pictures!!! Yeah, enjoy them.
later.

Emo-schmeemo post

Blah.
I'm feeling lame. It's probably a whole collection of reasons I feel lame, the latest of which is that the sun has hid its face behind a cloud, and the warming yellow has shifted to the cooling grey. I hate the grey light of cloudy days. I mean, it's good for filming or pictures or whatever, if that's your thing. But it doesn't make me happy like the yellow light of the sun. There's no shadows and the greens are all dull and nothing reflects. It's all just kinda bland. The sun shows up for a few minutes while the clouds shift, but before I can soak any of the sunlight up the next cloud moves in and the sun disappears again.
Well, I'm listening to Sibelius, so that makes the inside of my dungeon-esque house feel a bit more alive, but the fact remains that there's no square section of bright on my carpet near the window. So the room feels dark.
I have three exams left, then a summer of stupid work and some other things, and then I can get married and move to a basement suite that isn't a cave. Don't get me wrong, I love my suite, but it's just always so dank. I pine for sunlight.
This winter has killed me. Last winter I was in the Asian sun for 2 months, making it a bit more bearable. This winter, however, has been so long, cold, wet, dreary and sad that I can't take it any longer. I need a week of good sun, but the forecast says rain. And even today when it was sunny, it was only 13 degrees outside so it was chilly with the wind, and I wasn't quite as comfortable as I wish to be. A week ago it was 25 degrees, and I was happy. I need temperatures outside that are 18 minimum. None this week though. This week sad.
ยุง is sad too. He needs to go out for a ride, perhaps. Well, that settles it. Even typing that sentence made me feel happy, and so I'm putting the motorbike helmet on and going for a cruise on my moped. Perhaps that will cheer me up, and maybe get my sorry brain back into final exam mode.
Alright... whatever... see you later.

My Nephew

My nephew is awesome. Plus, he's big and tough, so don't mess.
Here are some pictures.
He's about 11.5 hours old in these pics.
His name is Wyatt Richard Brand, and I love him.



That's me and Wyatt. I'm Uncle Kyle.


That's my fiance and Wyatt. She's Auntie Andrea.

That's all I have to say.
I am happy.
later.

For All You Whiners and Winos...

Here's a post.
Andrea and I got engaged.
I'm getting married in a smallish number of months.
Fair thee well.
Kyle.

Is This Goodbye?

Tonight I will be re-formatting my hard drive and installing everything I want to keep, and not installing everything else that I don't want to keep.
If for some reason, it all goes wrong and I can't be with you anymore, here's a tentative good-bye.
Also, tomorrow morning I will be getting in a vehicle with Andrea and her family and driving up to the rockies where I will be snowboarding and hot-springing my brains out. I'll be missing a week of school, but it's ok, cause I go to Bible College. And even if it wasn't ok, it would still be OK because I would just tell them that I am going on a retreat with the director of the Mennonite Brethren Board of Church Extensions, since that's what Andrea's dad is. So, either way, I'm off.
Fare thee well, dear readers, and until I see you again, take care.
later.

Amazing!!!

I'm not gonna lie. I stole this link right off of derek furtney's blog and it is amazing. Watch it now.

later.

Chicken Night at the Girls' House

For those of you who care to see this, I present it.
Derek Furtney stars in, "Pinch the Thighs: The Shake and Bake Saga".



enjoy.

An Addendum

I drove my moped home from my parents' house this afternoon.
I am officially 'wheeled' again.
No longer the pedestrian.
No, now I'm a mopedestrian.
Riding to the mopedestination.
Yoong is the man.
later.

YOONG!!!!!!!!!

You guys won't even believe how excited I am. No, I'm serious.
I had kind of mentioned back in the day that I was thinking of fixing my moped near the end of January and perhaps insuring it as well. I was only going to insure it after it was fixed though, so I didn't really expect it to be insured for a few more weeks.
However...
I went over to my parents house yesterday afternoon to see if I could start sorting out the problem, and I totally fixed it. Just like that. I totally didn't think it would be that easy, but it was. Basically, as best as my non-trained-mechanic mind can figure, the carburetor was leaking gas, so not enough was getting to the cylinder to keep the little guy running. So... tighten a bolt or two, and we're up an on our way... I put the most expensive gas I could find in it (mostly cause at $3 a tank, I can do what I want), kick started for about 10 minutes, and let it run for quite a while (once I actually got it going). Then I whipped up and down the street a million times to 'test' it, all the while enjoying myself very much, and then went back and cleaned all the dust and grime off the little guy.
So this brings me to today.
I have my old insurance information in my bag, and after class I'm gonna bus over to the insurance place, then to my parents and drive Yoong home.
That is the end of my story.
Oh, and Jess, don't believe anything they tell you... I never said anything bad about Albertans last night... Uhm, I gotta go to school now.
later.

Sheesh...

I'm even getting flak from my own sister.
Apparently I have a heap of loyal readers, some of whom check this blog every day, and I never update.
In the words of my sister "It's been disappointing lately..."
Sorry guys.
I would fill you in on my boring day, but I need to go eat and then continue reading so I can write a paper or something.
Oh! Today Andrea and I (notice my A+ grammar) went on a restaurant adventure. We found one of those small 'hole-in-the-wall' Asian eateries and walked in for our lunch. It was great. We have now vowed to try that more often. Andrea said, "We'll have to try every small independent restaurant in Abby,"... and my retort, "all three?"
This is a town of box stores and franchises... but there's some pretty good family run businesses out there that would be good to you if you'd just go there instead of wal-mart or earls.
That's my two bits...
out.

OK, I seriously need to admit that I'm not a blogger.

I don't blog.
That's right, I just don't.
Go ahead and look at the date of my last post. Go for it... I dare you.
November 20th, 2006.
Uhm, it's not just blogging though... I don't do any sort of journaling or diarizing or any other sort of narrarative of my life, either the inside or the outside.
So, I'll fill you in as best as I can for the last little bit.
I'm a CBC student now again.
I'm taking intercultural studies... a fancy-pants word for missions.
I'm still dating Andrea and things there are great.
I'm still at Vintage 242 Church, and things there are great. We're trying to purchase the old post office in downtown abbotsford, but it's gonna be a miracle if we get it, and then heaps of hard work and pain after we do. I'm excited.
I dreamt last night about fixing my moped, and I think I might do that next weekend. The weather is getting nice.
Derek Furtney is the snow-locust.
I am now officially a snow-boarder. I got given a board and I went and bought bindings and boots and have been boarding twice. I'm good. I'm hurt right now, but I'm mostly good still... relativity my friends, it's all relative.
I did a jump and landed on my butt. It hurts to sit in class.
I also fell off the chair lift and entered into a strange and somewhat anomolous roll, where I was rolling over on my side so slow... then my back... then my board stopped rolling cause it got wedged in the snow. I thought I was ok, but since I wasn't strapped in right (this whole fiaso took place on the dismount from the chairlift), I only had one foot in the bindings and when the board stopped I tried to stop my body too, but in a moment of pure Newtonian imbecility I watched as my body continued it's lethargic roll and I proceeded to make another 3/4 rotation with uniform motion over the temporal period of no less than 30 seconds. How is it that I didn't stop? I don't know. I just didn't. Then I realized that only 3/4 of me was making this 3/4 rotation, and the remaining 1/4 was strapped into the board. All this culminated with my vociferation of the words; "My knee is ouchey!!"
So...
Uhm, now you know the whole story. No flips, just rolls and ouchies.
Kylo?

I got sucker-punched

Derek Furtney owes me a new arm.
Just joking, he doesn't owe me too much... but still...
Here's how it went down:
Apparently Landon was describing to derek-the-one-dimensional-being how to punch with force, after church yesterday. I am supposing that up until this day derek probably couldn't have even hurt a kitten with his punch. It's not that he's not strong... well... yes it is, but he's got good reach, and Landon is a guru.
So Derek wanted to try this out straight away, and he saw me cleaning up after the meeting in the church and decided to try out his new technique on me.
I am giving him the benefit of the doubt in saying that he was aiming to hit me square on the shoulder, which would have been a solid thud, and though I may have felt it for a few minutes no serious damage would have been done. However, while Derek's technique may have been enlightened by the Landon Sessions, his aim did not and he made contact with my arm right in the front on the litttle spot between your bicep and your deltoid.
I proceeded to kick him two times squarely in the seat of the pants. For this he was sorry.
Anyways, I have named my new-found arm-bump. It is my Unicep, and it has been reminding me all day at work that I should never underestimate the power of a weakling. Even Derek.
Farewell.

Homeless?... Really?!?

Firstly, I'm sorry for the lack of posts these last few months. I'm kinda always busy or out these days. Having a girlfriend is awesome, but it means the internet gets less of my attention. (...I don't mean it that way, Derek, grow up). But here I am, and here's a post.
*****
The 'upstairs people' at my house got a puppy. It's a beagle named Bailey. I can hear it bark, but only when I'm awake, and it's kinda quiet so far. I'm happy for that.
*****
I had to work on a Saturday once, and my foreman who usually gives me a ride couldn't make it. ยุง is still on the fritz, so I had to get a ride somehow. So, I asked my friend Mike to meet me at the starbucks and we could commute across town to work together. He obliged.
However, the night before, Andrea and I had been hanging out at her parents place in Langley and on the way home she decided it would be easy for me to take her car and drive it to work since she lives right near my work and then since we were going to see Damien Jurado play a show in Seattle that night I could just pick her up and we could go from there. So I no longer needed a ride.
But what about Mike?!?
I drove early to Starbucks and waited for him to arrive. I got out of the car and was standing in the parking lot so that he could see me. I was in my work clothes and my beard was the only part of me exposed to the elements. Then he didn't show up so I was crouched down on the curb since I was cold. Finally he showed up and I offered to buy him a coffee for his trouble, since I no longer needed a ride.
At the cream table he was stirring his drink when a lady came up to me and upon looking at my jacket asked me if I truly was a coach at MEI. I said yes. She said really? and I said yes some more.
She then started laughing, and explained that she had some free coffee vouchers and was thinking she should give me one when she saw me in the parking lot cause she thought I was homeless.
Mike lost it. He definitely thought it was the funniest thing he had heard that week.
We all had a good laugh and then Mike and I went to work. So this poor old Christian lady had told me I look homeless to my face, and then still didn't give me the coffee vouchers. Oh well. Whatever... I'll take one for the homeless team.
*****
We had a spectacular time in Seattle at the concert and at Thai food beforehand. It was the first small indie show date that Andrea and I had been on. I mean, we went to see Sufjan Stevens, but that (in my books) was a larger show... I might even call it a concert. This was just a show, and it was awesome. Very creative. And Damien is a folk legend. Ok. Uhm, I'm gonna go now, cause I feel more like reading than writing.
later.

Indeed...

I need a job. I really, really want one. I already have one, but maybe I want a new one. My sister told me that the MCC warehouse might need someone to head up their shipping and recieving area, and I thought that that was the kind of job I would totally be into. You see, I don't mind the actual job of logistics, and the ministry side of it would be awesome cause I would be shipping important goods like foods or clothes to people that need them instead of $1700 pressure washers to people that want to keep their driveways clean for their shiny BMW's. So yeah, MCC might be the sort of direction that I would rather start steering my life. Useless company politics and the increasingly obvious lack of upward mobility at my current job have started to wear me out. Not to be conceited or anything, but I'm so much more than that job lets me be. Wow, that does sound conceited, but it's truly not. It's kinda like when they interview track stars on TV, and everyone thinks that they're arrogant weasels when in fact, (and anyone who has run and raced at higher levels of competition will tell you) there's a huge difference between arrogance and confidence, and confidence is essential to winning the race. They just kinda look the same on TV to the untrained eye. I refuse to settle into this job thinking 'it's my lot in life' when I know that it's not.
I think I will eat grilled cheese sandwiches for supper.
Anyways, we (my sister and I) later discovered that this job posting may have been comfused with another, and that there might not actually be an opening where I thought there was. Oh well. Whatever, the motivation has been awoken, and I think I might want to look into finding a better job, or maybe even going back to school or something crazy.
Also, those of you who know me close know that I'm going through a crazy amount of stuff right now, and any notion I had of growing up with the white picket fence and 2.3 kids has been trampled. Obviously, nobody knows the future and so maybe that's still in store for me, but I think I'm getting out of here. I'm looking into missions full time, and these last few days I have pined to get out and travel and see things and experience the world as fully as I can, cause really who knows when my time here is over. Riding a moped in Abbotsford has definitely reminded me that we all could die at any time. Abbotsford drivers are about the worst ever. Maybe not the worst, just pretty careless and negligent. Oh well, maybe I'll die while I'm out and about, or maybe I'll die of gunfire in Northern Africa or landmines in Cambodia or maybe of malnutrition behind bars in Laos. Whatever, what does it freaking matter? Every day is a gift from God, right? So yeah, Im thinking of doing an MBMSI Trek next September. So that gives me a year to make a bit of money so that I can continue paying off my debts even while I'm away. Or maybe I can get it considered as school and get a year off of paying the stupid things. I mean, that's the 3rd year of CBC's missions program anyways, and I've had the 2 year diploma since 19-[party like it's...], so maybe I can just jump in and finish the degree or something. Hmmm.
So many options, and so many roads I could go down. But in the end I have to slow down my brain and focus on the task that's in front of me. Today. Today is hard enough, and so I gotta look out for today and let tomorrow get thought out when it finally becomes today. So yeah, on that note I'll let it be and sign off of here.
Take care, all.
Shalom.

Return of the King

I'm back. In so many ways...
I had my intranest disconnected for the last few weeks, or maybe a month, I can't figure how long... but now it's back up. It's still kinda sketchy, but maybe it's gonna be ok. It seems to work fine right now.
Also, I'm back from Kelowna... another great trip to K-town, complete with swimming in the lake, frisbee wars, late night loud laughter, and tubing down a river. No, not the lame canal... a river with real rapids... like one was almost a foot high. Scary... I stayed at Andrea Fleming's sister's house. What a great fun group of people was there there there. I wil be there again in a few weeks, so I'm looking forward to that.
Also, I'm going to be returning to my former kingdom soon... like Dan and I were the co-kings of UCFV, and as soon as Casey's on Campus re-opens we will once again sit on our thursday night thrones at the pub. We rule.
And so I have nothing else to say for now. I will add that my 'GF' is coming over. I add this strictly for the sake of derek furtney. Chapleos is not pronounced Kapleos.
I gotta go.
peace.

Greatest occurence yet...

So, I had an hour to kill this morning, and I decided to go for a ride on Yoong. I figured that if I drove for an hour, it'd only cost me 25 cents or so... But anyways, on the ride, the greatest thing ever happened. I buzzed around this corner only to see two police officers standing beside the road with a radar gun. As I got closer I saw the one officer wave the other officer over and point at the gun. Then they were laughing. Yeah, I had that bad boy up to about 48 kph, so I reckon they were pretty amused. They nodded in my direction and chuckled as I passed, and I rode on.
peace.