Archive for February, 2006

Back to church

Published on Feb. 20, 2006 in Faith. 5 Comments

Yesterday, I went to church for the first time in months. I don’t even remember the last time I went - it must have been at least three, possibly four, months ago. Between work and school, I just didn’t have any time or energy to wake up early on a day I didn’t really have to. That coupled with the fact that I was just going through the motions of what I was expected to do whenever I went, I just lost all desire for attending.

For whatever reason, about half way through reading break, I decided that I’d go this week. It just seemed right for some reason. But on Saturday morning, my mom suddenly had a big fit and totally chewed me out for anything and everything, including the fact that I hadn’t been to church in a long time. She demanded that I go this week. With that, I didn’t really feel like going anymore.

But Sunday morning, I changed my mind again. Earlier in the week, I’d planned on attending my home church, but didn’t feel like it after the argument the day before. Instead, I attended Tenth Avenue Alliance by myself.

Maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t been for so long, but when I think of church, I think of a cold, uncomfortable sanctuary filled with mostly middle-aged upper-middle-class conservative Chinese evangelicals singing the same tired old songs week after week. It was surprising to see a more multicultural group of people, including a significant portion from a younger demographic, many of whom were bringing in coffee from their respective favourite cafés. Honestly, it just seemed so foreign to me for people to be bringing in food and drink into the sanctuary because it’s not done at my church. But now that I think about it, why not?

Singspiration felt eerily the same as at my home church, though different at the same time. Same because many of the songs were ones that I knew from my church, performed with the exact same arrangements. But at the same time, the atmosphere there was entirely different - it felt a lot more energetic and vibrant, like what they talk about actually has some real significance, unlike the sterile, stagnant faith that I’d come to know while growing up.

Overall, it’s hard for me to make any sort of conclusion on the experience because I have a lot of mixed emotions. I’ve been thinking about it a lot since then, but I haven’t been able to really sort out my feelings on it, which has been a common trend for me lately. I know I didn’t find the sermon particularly engaging, even though the pastor is an interesting character. I liked how the service didn’t feel slapped together piece by piece (e.g. 5 minutes allocated for singing, followed by 5 minutes of prayer, followed by a 30 minute sermon, etc.), though perhaps once I get used to the format, it might begin to feel that way again.

I guess I don’t really know what I’m looking for right now. All I know for sure is that my home church really isn’t the right place for me. I think I’ll continue to attend Tenth for a while just to get a better feeling of what they’re about and then I guess I will take it from there.

Hackfest

Published on Feb. 18, 2006 in General. 2 Comments

This is the twentieth hour I’ve spent writing my reimplementation of the UNIX ls command for my CPSC213 assignment because I seem to have fallen prey to an endless barrage of segmentation faults and bus errors. It’s times like these when I really miss PHP and Java. I’m defensively clutching my triple Americano.

It was fun working on this with San yesterday and today, especially the part when I got to eat pizza and chocolate and donuts. Thankfully, we got most of the hard stuff done. I hope my code doesn’t come back to haunt me when I have to implement the recursive call.

Today is a good day

Published on Feb. 11, 2006 in General. 4 Comments

Yesterday, I picked up my final paycheque. Although I was extremely nervous about going there, it actually went very smoothly and without incident. I am apparently “not welcome [there] anymore” though, which is unsurprising. I felt all my stress melt away while depositing that paycheque. I’m going to blow it all on unnecessary, frivolous items.

Today, for the first day since the beginning of the year, I don’t have to work. I slept for eleven hours last night, then awoke to watch the two hour series finale of Arrested Development, accompanied by two bowls of deliciously cheesy spaghetti and a homemade caramel macchiato.

This is the first time I have truly felt happy in a long time. There’s just been too much drama in my life, and with my two other jobs and school course load, I’ve been really stressed out. It’s such a relief to know that a chapter of my life has been complete - I don’t have to deal with it anymore.

Today is my day. I’m going to relax, read, listen to music, sip coffee, nap and revel in all my low-keyness. Even though I have things to do, I’m pushing it all aside for one much-needed day of rest.

I’m feeling lucky

Published on Feb. 9, 2006 in General. 2 Comments

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Next step: world domination

Published on Feb. 3, 2006 in General. 3 Comments

So, after UPS shipped my package from Texas to Colorado to Utah to Washington to British Columbia, they decided to send it on a week-long detour over to Illinois (?) before shipping it back to Washington to British Columbia to my front door.

But finally, I’ve got my Gaggia Carezza in my kitchen and it’s awesome. I was so busy Wednesday night that I only had enough time to free my little espresso machine from its packaging. Thursday night, I was equally busy, having only enough time to pull a couple questionable shots out of it, not yet having a good understanding of how to operate it to its full potential.

So today, I went to Specialty Coffee Solutions to pick up a 20 oz. stainless steel carafe, then to Starbucks for a cheapo steaming thermometer to add to my home barista kit. I forgot to look for a tamper - the plastic one that came with the Gaggia is passable, but I’d like a nice steel one. However, it shouldn’t be hard to find one, as I’ve got a standard 58mm portafilter. I practiced my skills by making a mocha for my brother, a latte for myself and a chai latte for my mom.

Although I’m using bad espresso that was ground a week (!) before usage, the Gaggia’s Perfect Crema disk was surprisingly able to produce some decent crema from it. I wasn’t impressed with the milk steamer at first, but after removing the “enhancer”, I was able to have more manual control over the frothing process, creating better foam.

I’m still in the process of figuring out how to get the most out of my Gaggia, but it’s already proven to be a great machine with my mediocre skills. Maybe some day I’ll get good enough to create latte art.