home for a bit then the job...

Well, it has been another exciting year for me and I am just sitting at home with nothing really to do, but blog, so I'm going to. Anyways, so I'm at home for about a week and then back to the big T.O. That should be really fun living down there for the month of May. After the month I head up north for the summer to Muskoka Woods, where the day will come when my Megan will be with me again. I'm so excited. I've missed her so much and she is coming home. Anyways, that's about it. I'm not to exciting lately, but yeah. Ok I'm out. PIECE!

Andrew

To All my friends..read it please..

I can't believe it. Another year has come and gone in school; this year much faster than last. I can still remember coming back to Tyndale a week early to help Dave out and play drums for frosh week. What a year though. Many up and down times, a lot of growing experiences and all in all I have come out a better man. The first semester was a definite challenge with some tough courses, dealing with 3 worship teams and a part-time job, and with Megan away in Japan. It was a crazy first few months, but this semester has been a little less stressful because I slowed my work down, but even through it all there have been times when I would find time alone with God and just thank Him for putting people in my life that have been such a blessing to me this year: My best friends, Steve Wray, Dave Kentie, and Ryan Feeney, my, quote unquote, 'big sis' has been such a huge help with hearing my venting times about how much I miss my Megan in japan. To all of my friends in the Ruddington Appartments, rooms 426 and 627 and finally to all of my friends at Tyndale. Thank you for all the great times together.

This has been such an incredible learning year for me. Thanks to all who helped me along the way. I would like to specially thank Scott Bullock for helping me stay focused on my papers and the encouragement that he gave me when I was stuck on a paper. Thanks man! Also to my fellow cast members in 'Tyndale the Musical', what a hit! We had so much fun together; it was great; we all got closer and you all mean a lot to me. Another mention to my R.A.'s this year, Jesse James and Ryan Feeney, thanks for all the love. You really showed your hearts this year, so thanks.

One more before the most important,to my best friend of all time Tiffany for just being the friend of a life-time!! THANKS!

Finally, to my girlfriend Megan for supporting me in school and in my endeavors even though you are 13 hours away thanks for being that constant in my life this year!!

Ok, wow, it's almost like I'm saying thanks because I'm dying or something, but I'm clearly not. ahaha...I just wanted to thank everyone in my life this year because you all really mean so much to me. Thanks to all of you for making this year a big success for me!

Oh crap, totally forgot to thank the big man upstairs! ahah.. the big JC. wow...anyways, I'm out thank you all again. You are loved!

Andrew

It's been a while...

Well it's been a while since I posted last, so I thought I might as well post when I got the time and tell everyone what I have been up to. Over the past 2 months my life has been crazy busy and well I haven't had time to post or anything. Papers, reading, life with friends, and of course Tyndale the Musical, has taken over my life over the past number months and well, even though it has been busy, it has been really great! Everything is falling into place: school is finishing up, the musical was a hit, work is coming soon at Muskoka Woods and of course my beautiful Megan is coming home soon as well!!! I'm so excited for the upcoming months, there are so many things that are happening and all exciting. Anyways, a short post this time, but I just wanted to give an update. Talk to you all later!

Andrew

What ever happened to a home cooked meal...

Over the past number of years there has been a huge outbreak in terms of technology within society. The introduction to MP3 players, to gaming systems that are more life like than before, to laptops becoming huge within households. Has this stopped the youth culture from staying intimate with there families, or has it just provided an escape route for the kids to get out of a certain problem with the family. I have seen in the world, especially in the Western Culture, a loss of real family time; everyone is so busy these days and a lot of people don't have the desire to even have a home cooked meal anymore; that's why I named this blog the way I did.

The consumer culture is so much about what can 'I' get out of things and it's all about me, me, me. Even within a Christian culture it is the same thing; what can I get out of the service; this church isn't right for 'me'. Instead of the world being a place where people are giving up themselves to be with other people and such, the world, especially here in the west.

More often than not, families are now eating when they want and families are rarely eating together; they are eating out and not eating together; there is not a big sense of family anymore. I find this the case even more now with both the parents working and not having time to eat a meal together and be a part of the kids lives. The youth culture of today has lost a key and central point to a strong adolescent life, family. Families are just so busy with their lives that they forget about the people within the family that need that quality time.

I don't know if families are doing this on purpose, but it seems to me that it is just turning out this way. There are so many youth in the world today just thriving to be at home with their parents and family and eating together, talking about their days and everything. I don't know really what to do, but I think, as funny as it is, there needs to be a sense of family like "Leave It To Beaver." We need to get back to the point of family and being able to really love being with them. Youth need this for themselves, and I parents need it as well.

"What ever happened to a home cooked meal..."

From Saved by The Bell to The O.C.

Over the past number of years the TV industry has been putting different shows out that are near the unacceptable mark. Back about 10 years ago there were shows like Saved By the Bell, Family Matters, Full House, and Step By Step for young teens and teenagers, now there are shows like The O.C., CSI, 24, and many others. Although the majority of shows nowadays are relatively good, there are shows that come on TV that are very inappropriate for the age watching. I think the TV industry over the past number of years have just become more blunt with what they want to try and portray to kids and teenagers. TV shows in the past may have had bad shows, but the issues were subtle and dealt with pretty well. Now, the media is just so blunt, in everything. Sometimes it's just so tough to really understand the way the media and TV industries work, but right now it seems as though they try to cover up everything. For example, in the past years there have been shows that have portrayed things like, drugs, alcohol, etc., but it is not to the extent that it is used today. I think in most shows there is some form of abuse: drug, alcohol, physical. It's almost like the media has to try so much harder to get kids attention.

I think what I'm trying to say here is that kids and teenagers seem to be growing up so much faster and so the TV industry feels like they too need to grow up faster, by specifically putting on TV shows at certain times to attract the teenagers and influence them, sometimes in worse ways than not. The TV industry has advanced so much in the past 10 years by going from Saved By The Bell to The O.C. This is just an example of the attitude to grow up faster.

This might just go over everyone's head, but it is something that has kind of bugged me within the TV industry and how they are trying to push teenagers to be grown up quicker. It is really an issue, but not at the same time because the world pushed people to grow up faster and the media industries are just going along with the train; I would say they are even at the very front of the train pushing this.

Just a thought.

NBA All-Star Weekend 2007

Well this past weekend was one of the biggest weekends, if not the biggest weekend of the NBA season and is always a big hit in every NBA season. This weekend is big for all ages and people. I think it is especially huge for people in the high school age group because the people that are participating in the All-Star weekend are the people that the youth look up to and such.

Having watched countless All-Star weekends I found this one to be not one of the best. This All-Star weekend was packed with endless amounts of showmanship and fun times, but at the end of the weekend it just seemed like it was missing something. I think the thing that it was missing were the guys that I grew up watching. Guys like Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen (even though he did participate in one event), David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon, and many others. I guess I finally realized that the NBA has moved into a different time that is appealing to the youth of today.

There were your normal events, the rookie challenge, the slam dunk competition, the 3-point competition, and a couple newer ones, the skills competition, and the Haier shooting stars competition. The players involved put on a great show and there were a couple new winners in the events this year. All I know was that it was a great weekend to watch basketball even though there have been better weekends in previous years. This one was still pretty good. For more information on what happened that weekend check out nba.com

Hockey Hall of Fame

So yesterday me and my brother went to the Hockey Hall of Fame because we had an afternoon to kill. We finally got inside it after spending a while driving around trying to find the perfect parking place, but there wasn't one, so we settled. Anyways so we got in there kind of remembering what it was like as little kids and we both quickly realized that there wasn't much to it. It was a lot smaller than we thought and it turned out not being exactly what we thought. The upside to it all this was as you can see I got my picture taken with Lord Stanley's Cup. That's right. For all of you who couldn't find it as a kid and such, Pastor Jeff Hackett! ahahah...you might be jealous. I also took a few pictures of the trophies like the Vezna (Top Goalie) and the Art Ross (MVP of the Finals). Anyways it was a great afternoon hanging out with my brother and such. It was a good day. That's it for now!

Happy Valentine's Day or St. Valentine's Day for Megan

Well here we are again...another Valentine's Day has come...and I LOVE IT!!! Mostly because I'm with the bestest best person in the whole wide world!!! I think that's about all I'm going to say about this. It's just an awesome day. I sent Megan flowers all the way across the world, you heard me!! I found this place on-line called "Fleurop", and it's a flower place that delivers all over the world. It was a little bit over the price range that I wanted to spend, but it's ok, I know it's so worth the money. So if you want to know what Megan thinks about the flowers, check out her blog at www.heymeggie.blogspot.com. She is truly amazing and here are the flowers that i sent her. I think they are pretty and Megan does too. The funny thing about this all is the fact that I actually didn't know what I was sending her, but IT WORKED OUT PERFECTLY!!! I'm so happy with me and her...this is great. Anyways, talk to you all soon!

Half way there...

Well as many of you know it has been 4 and a half months since my darling Megan left the blessed country of Canada to go teach English in Japan. And this means that she is COMING HOME SOON! Well not that soon, but soon enough! She will, as it is looking, be home in approx. 4 and half months which means that we have hit the top of the hill in this long-distance time and we are on our way down the hill. This is so huge for me and her because we both feel a little relieved I guess. I don't know that right word to put there. Anyways I just thought I'd post about this because I can't wait until she and I see each other again. It will be a momentous occasion and it is COMING SOON! Anyways, that's it. Just wanted everyone to know that my beautiful Megan will be coming home soon! YES!!!

Have a good one everyone!

Andrew

Switchfoot -- Oh! Gravity

So I decided that I would talk about probably my favourite band in the past 5 years. This band as you can probably tell by the album cover is Switchfoot. There are many reasons why these guys have been able to be a major influence in not only my life but the lives of many other youth and young adults lives.

When Switchfoot first came into the music scene they weren't to big, but they got pretty big in the Christian industry with the album A New Way To Be Human. When they came out with their next album The Beautiful Letdown, this is where they made it huge. One big reason why people now know who Switchfoot is, is because they were the headline band in the movie, A Walk To Remember. After this movie Switchfoot just became just a big name in a the music industry.

The reason why I talk about Switchfoot is not because they are big, but because they are having such a huge influence on the world and not ashamed to tell anyone where they came from and what they are all about.

The new CD and pretty much all of their CD's are a good pick up. This new one is especially good because they took time this go around to make a really decent album. It is truly a great album. At first it may not be the best album, but it has to grow on you. You have to listen to it a few times before it becomes really good.

Switchfoot is really doing something good for this youth culture in today's day and age. They have great lyrics and provide an alternative, but same sounding music to a lot of the mainstream music around today. Truly great guys and great music.

The iPod Generation

Over the past number of years there have been many different mp3 players that have been put out in order to create an easier way to listen to music. Many different companies like Sony, RCA, Samsung, and even some no name companies have tried to be able to produce an mp3 player that will encompass all of the elements of music. Although these companies have given there best, Apple introduced something called the iPod. It first started out as just a normal mp3 player: nothing to special about it, but now in it's 5th generation has expanded to produce such a product that includes 80 Gigabytes of storage space and even the ability to play many games, have audio books, store contact information, and the best part of all, the ability to play movies and TV shows.

Now I know that the majority of people know what an iPod is and what it entails, but the amount people, especially teenagers, that have it is unreal. In fact last year within its 4th term Mac had shipped 8.1 million iPod's out that had been sold. This means that so many people have an iPod; it's almost like if you don't have an iPod you are on the outside looking in; you're out of the loop.

There was this one day recently, over the Christmas break, that I was in a store shopping and a mom and her son and daughter came in and I noticed that the son had some headphones in his ears and realized that he had an iPod. Now this may not seem like a pretty interesting story, except for the fact that this boy was no older than the age of 5!!! I couldn't believe my eyes.

The generation of youth today have grabbed hold of this phenomenon and show no signs of letting up. With Apple now coming out with there 30 and 80 Gigabyte Video iPod's, 2, 4, and 8 Gigabyte Nano's, and of course their tiny iPod the "Shuffle" all these iPods get the eye from a ton of people in the world today, especially that of the adolescent age group.

The only question is now, what are they going to do next. With 5 generations now done so well, what can they come up with next to entice the culture that we all live in today? We are all expecting more and have been satisfied with the company of Apple, but can they do it again.

I have heard of this one invention, and I believe it is from Apple, it is a computer within a pen. That's right, A PEN! If you want to hear about the starting of the invention just give me a shout and I'll et you in on the potential of this.