Saturday, March 25, 2006

Frank Shamrock / Cesar Gracie Knockout Clip

The two fights that pumped me up the most were the Shamrock/Gracie and Hughes/Gracie matchups. I found the video highlights to the Frank Shamrock/Cesar Gracie fight here. Frank sure looks good in the standup - guess his time with Cung Le has paid off. Well that fight's over. After Royce's classic line to Matt Hughes "this is my house [referring to the Octogon], I built it", I hope his fight lasts longer than his cousin's (upcoming on UFC 60 May 27). BTW, it is interesting to note that Matt Hughes placed Psalm 60.12 on his official website:

"With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies" (NIV).

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Favorite TV Shows

I don't know why, but someday I will reflect back on this post and soak up the wisdom and growth that occured between then and now. Here's my list of favorite TV shows:

The Unit (CBS) - a special ops army unit that answers only to the president
NCIS (CBS) - Jethro Gibbs, former Marine sniper, cool as ice
E-Ring (NBC) - everything Special Forces, the Pentagon, and politics
Battlestar Galactica (on SciFi or Space) - raw, fracken raw
Restaurant Makeover (Food TV Canada) - kooky jingle polka music
Holmes on Homes (HGTV) - "If you're gonna do something, do it right the first time!"

Now you know what I'm about, peace.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Watch March Madness for FREE!

Okay, everyone calm down. CBS has finally done it, they have FREAKED out! Yeah, that's right they will offer FREE streaming video of the NCAA Men's Basketball Finals FREE! Did I say Free, yes I did say FREE! "All 56 games from the first three rounds of the tourney will be available for FREE!" Get the message? For you bad boyees at work in some cubicle someplace, somewhere - bosses beware! HA, click here for the dealz. Man, that's just crazy!

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Calgary Housing Market Getting Hotter

Taken from the CTV News site

"It's almost hard to believe, but Calgary's housing market is now even hotter. It's great if you already own a home, because prices are still going up. The average sale price of a single family home in Calgary hit $342,000 last month, up 29 per cent over last year. The price of condos is also way up. In February, the average price was $217,000, up 22 per cent from the same time last year. The skyrocketing prices are making it hard for first time buyers to afford a place. Ironically, the hot market is also making it tough for realtors. There are approximately 5,000 agents in the city, clamoring for between 1,500 and 2,000 listings."

All I can say is . . . wow and darn. I'm moving into the highest real estate market in all of Canada (Greater Vancouver Area), click here for their real estate market stats. I also found a great blog - the Vancouver Housing Blog - that offers good, thorough market insight into the Vancouver real estate bubble.

A side note on this real estate boom - healthy province (thank you Uncle Ralph), healthy city (thank you 25,000 people moving into Cow-town a year), healthy economy (naturally a money maker . . . I also know that gas and oil won't last forever). Calgary has all the right ingredients for a healthy real estate market at this time - it makes good sense for it to boom. But what's up with Vancouver? Is it truly a developer's paradise? What gives in Van-city?

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Dr. Wafa Sultan: Freestyle Battle #?

Anyone ever heard of Dr. Wafa Sultan? Well you should, the Arab-American, Syrian expatriate took on a certain Algerian Imam Jihadist named Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli on Al-Jazeera TV (February 21, 2006) in a freestyle battle of the intellectual type. Did I mention that Dr. Sultan is a woman? All I can say is . . . she got MAD skillz YO?

Click here for the video clip.
Click here for the transcript.

Monday, March 06, 2006

You know the world is different when . . .

I recalled a quote I heard a few months back with Chris Rock,



"You know the world is different when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the 3 most powerful men in America are named 'Bush', 'Dick', and 'Colin'!"

Yo Chris, how much fo' jus' one rib?

Saturday, March 04, 2006

What's Your Vocation Worth?



I finally found something that substantiated a theory of mine regarding the low investment and high expectations of pastors. Unfortunately, this theory is now a fact. Keep in mind that Canadian Chinese churches consistently come well under the average in terms of pastoral salaries and packages - this is yet another fact that my denomination has made yearly reports on (from time to time, our denomination's districts will collect info regarding pastoral salaries and benefits for reporting purposes).

Anyhow, aside from the fact that most respectable Chinese parents will not allow their children to pursue liberal arts degrees (and just because 1 parent out of a thousand releases their child into Bible school doesn't justify the disillusionment of the 999) - let alone chase dreams of full-time Christian ministry - what kind of a message are we sending to our next generation (a message that has been repeated a few generations already)? Low pay, a hostile and discriminatory view of ministry, the added parental guilt and manipulation of financial success . . . end result, a non-sustainable and underdeveloped vision for local-born Chinese ministry . . . in other words, no future.