Sleeping Beauty, Not

For those concerned, I've been able to sleep pretty well for the last two nights! You see, it wasn't alcohol or turkey that made me sleepy, but it was MOVIES! Yes, how weird is that, eh? I watched King Kong at the cinema two nights ago and some romance comedy DVD last night, and I slept so well!

I wish I could be a sleeping beauty, then maybe my Prince Charming will come soon to wake me up with a kiss.

Unfortunately, I'm no sleeping beauty.

Never once drunk

We had a really good Christmas Dinner here yesterday. My aunt's friend, Bobi is just such a good cook, and she spoilt us with yummy salmon and cream cheese spread appetizer and a traditional turkey dinner. There were lots of drinking throughout the dinner, and a lot of laughter at the "kids table." You see, the "old" people sat at the main table and the young adults at another...I think we were way louder than the adults.

I had some to drink, possibly 5 glasses of Bacardi with Coke...but really, it didn't have much effect on me. Sure, I felt a little high, dizzy, sleepy and happy (I think I was loud too, but then again, I'm not sure)...but no, I definitely wasn't drunk. What was worse was that I've been having insomnia all week and I thought the alcohol would definitely put me to sleep. Sighs, to no avail...I woke up about 3am and found it hard to sleep. Weird, ain't it. Maybe I really do have a high tolerance for alcohol...and maybe I should get drunk so I'll get a good night sleep soon!

Christmas Eve

I had two cups of coffee today, and it didn't work at all...sighs. I went last minute Christmas shopping today for some stuff, and I was sooooo sleepy. Sighs. And then guess what, as it hit 5pm, I pretty much "woke up." Sighs...I sure do hope I can sleep tonight.

I'm on MSN...and this friend of mine in Malaysia is telling me that she is getting engaged next May, during her birthday. And we are only 21, OMG. It doesn't stresses me out THAT MUCH, but OMG...I can't imagine getting engaged or married at this time in life. Well, to do that, I guess I have to find a boyfriend first, or more like he has to find me since I don't see any potential guys in my vicinity, sighs. The first acquaintance of mine (from high school) who got married first, was at age 19, and still pursuing a medical career - that's SO SCARY...getting married at 19...I can't imagine it at all.

You know, everyone seems to be getting married and having kids, it's scary.

Sighs.

Well, anyway, I'm counting down Christmas with this dog, who seems to be asleep (snoring away)...there's an hour and a half to Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Solace

The last four days in Calgary has been tough, seeing how my aunt's health is deteriorating. There are no words to describe when an event like this happens; the pain, the suffering and the tears.

A dear friend of mine Joli emailed me yesterday to tell me that her mom has been diagnosed with advanced lymph node cancer. It is so devastating for me to hear that...of the path that she and her family will go through.

But, I was reading the Bible yesterday, and Psalms 112 spoke to me.

This is for you Joli, and others fighting cancer or has a loved one fighting it.

Psalms 112:4-9

"When darkness overtakes the godly, light will come bursting in. The Lord is generous, compassionate and righteous. All goes well for those who are generous, who lend freely and conduct their business fairly. Such people will not be overcome by evil circumstances. Those who are righteous will be long remembered. They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the Lord to care for them. They are confident and fearless and can face their foes triumphantly. They give generously to those in need. Their good deeds will never be forgotten. They will have influence and honour." (NLT Translation)

There is hope. The Lord will take care of us here and now, and eternally.

Sufism - Islam Mysticism

"Your hope in my heart is the rarest treasure, Your Name on my tongue is the sweetest word, My choicest hours - Are the hours I spend with You, O Allah, I can't live in this world Without Remembering You, Without Your Guidance, Without Your Blessings, Without Your Love."

Rabia al-Adawiyah (d 801)

I truly admire her! Such love for Allah. May we learn from her.

Where are you dear?

I have two neighbours who are really nice, and I thought of giving them an early christmas present. So off I went to the bakery to get those nice shortbreads that I had in mind. However, oops, no shortbreads today, so I got those christmas tree looking butter cookies. No problemo.

So, came back, put those cookies into a nice red christmas bag, and went to hunt for the pack of christmas cards I got two months ago.

I searched high and low, ended up making more mess than my house was already in (books piling up and papers flying around due to exams) and still no sight of those nice designed christmas cards which I can't remember how they look right now. Ugggghhhh...it was extremely frustrating, to buy those cards and yet not being able to use it (this year).

Moral of the story: Never purchase christmas cards two months in advance, you may not find them.

The Christmas Story

What exactly is Christmas all about? Is it about the big great fat santa claus with presents coming down from the chimey in the middle of the night? Nono, christmas tree you say! Or just a nice annual family gathering with a turkey dinner and an exchange of gifts among loved one?

Indeed, the real meaning of Christmas has become so watered down that sometimes, it's just treated as another special family holiday. Of course, that is good, but this special family holiday comes with a special connotation.

Why not take some time to read and reflect the meaning behind Christmas as you celebrate it with your loved ones.

The Christmas Story goes like this:

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about; His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" - which means, "God with us."

 


p.s. please click on the title for the extended christmas story.

Disappearing Ice

I'm reviewing the last topic for my Management Science Final for tomorrow...which I don't quite understand since we only spent two lectures on it and no lab. Anyway, it's called congestion management (how interesting, eh?!)

It's ermmm, as dry as the ice we're studying.

Here's a problem I'm thinking on how to solve:

Aqua Fria Ltd. (AFI) is a manufacturer and wholesaler of packaged party ice. A special machine freezes ice in AFI's Nanton, Alberta plant and crushes it into small chunks. As the ice emerges from the machine a human bagger measures and bags the ice into ten-pound bags. Cole Waters, the company's production manager was going over some figures one frosty Alberta morning when he noticed that the weight of ice shipments the previous month was only 90% of the weight of the purified water used in the machine. Some loss was to be expected but a 10% loss was alarming. He hurried down to the production floor. The machine was operating at its usual setting of 1200 pounds per hour. Ice sporadically spilled out of the machine onto a bagging platform, which could hold 40 pounds of ice. There it was scooped up into bags by the bagger. Both the machine and the bagger varied in the time it took to do their tasks. It appeared that the bagging platform was filling up with ice according to a memoryless arrival process. The time it took the bagger seemed to follow an exponential distribution. On average the bagger could fill 160 ten-pound bags per hour. Cole went back to his office and opened up the waiting line analysis template he had remembered using in his B.Comm. program and set about to model his problem as a waiting line with each ten-pound bag of ice being a customer and the bagger as the server. Using an arrival rate (out of the machine) of 120 bags per hour (or 2 per minute) and a service rate 160 per hour (2.67 per minute), he ran an M/M/s model with 1 server. He got the result that on average, ice was on the bagging platform for only 1.5 min. (W=1.5) so this ruled out melting as a source of the loss. Was someone stealing the ice? Can you help Cole find the disappearing ice?

(Taken from Management Science 352 Course at the University of Alberta)

Anyone any guesses how to solve it? Thiefs or what??

Exams Exams

My first final exam is gona be in 12 hours 45 minutes.

Here's the schedule so you can pray for me!

Monday, December 12th, 2005
Finance 412 ; 9am - 11am
Econ 292 ; 2pm - 5pm

Tuesday, December 13th, 2005
Management Science 352 ; 2pm - 5pm

Friday, December 16th, 2005
BLaw 301 ; 9am - 11am

Monday, December 19th, 2005
Religion 220 - Islam ; 9am - 11am

Am dreading it, but can't wait to get over with it.

Hungry?

Wana try some exotic Ethiopian food?

Langano is the place to go!

 


 


Hungry Jacks waiting for the food.

 


Finally it is here:

 


(colourful, ain't it?)

 


 


How do you eat it?

Tear a small piece of ethiopian "bread" and dip it into the platter filled with yummy things (yes, with your bare hands!)

 


Now you see it, now you don't. All wiped clean!

 


So, now you ask, where is it situated?

It's at:

9920 82 Ave
Edmonton, AB,
T6E1Y9

Do try it out!

Michael W. Smith

Christmastime with Michael W. Smith and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra!

I wanted to get tickets for his concert around a month ago, but, alas, it was all sold out :( So I sulked a little, and thought nah, it's okay. Then guess what? So happen, this lady whom I go to church with - Gwen, has an extra ticket! Yay, God is so good right.

So we went to the concert yesterday, and it was marvelous! He played many ensembles from his Christmas CDs well complemented by the symphony orchestra. Some traditional Christmas songs like Joy to the World and Joyful Joyful were played in a quiet serene manner while some songs were played on an upbeat note. Angels We Have Heard on High was very well done in an almost rap upbeat arrangement. But my favourite were his two worship songs: Healing Rain and Above All. Listening to him play the piano and sing live was quite an experience - a very special time for me and Healing Rain really spoke to me last night:

Healing rain is falling down
Healing rain is falling down
I'm not afraid
I'm not afraid...

Healing Rain

Healing rain is coming down
It's coming nearer to this old town
Rich and poor, weak and strong
It's bringing mercy, it won't be long

Healing rain is coming down
It's coming closer to the lost and found
Tears of joy, and tears of shame
Are washed forever in Jesus' name

Healing rain, it comes with fire
So let it fall and take us higher
Healing rain, I'm not afraid
To be washed in Heaven's rain

Lift your heads, let us return
To the mercy seat where time began
And in your eyes, I see the pain
Come soak this cry heart with healing rain

And only You, the Son of man
Can take a leper and let him stand
So lift your hands, they can be held
By someone greater, the great I Am

Healing rain, it comes with fire
So let it fall and take us higher
Healing rain, I'm not afraid
To be washed in Heaven's rain

To be washed in Heaven's rain...

Healing rain is falling down
Healing rain is falling down
I'm not afraid
I'm not afraid...

By Michael W. Smith

I'm dreaming...

Brrrrrrr...it's -25c out, and frigid cold.

I'm dreaming of a warm Christmas...

White Christmas

Background Music:

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know,
Where the treetops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
With every Christmas card I write,
May your days be merry and bright,
And may all your Christmases be white.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know,
Where the treetops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
With every Christmas card I write,
May your days be merry and bright,
And may all your Christmases be white.

© 1942 - Irving Berlin

I woke up to that at 7.30am, then I looked out my window. Yikes, it's snowing very HEAVILY, and everything is really white outside! Nope, guess I don't need to dream of a white christmas, I'm gona have it for sure!

Traffic was bad this morning with snow blowing everywhere! With the white wintery background were sights of people in thick coats complemented with scarfs and mitts.

We've been spoiled with a "mild" winter in the last few months, and now...it truly looks like Canada!

White is the colour to go.

January 23

Election news all over the place! The Liberal minority government came crashing down in Parliament after a no-confidence vote on Monday. Since then, the media has just been focussing on the federal election that is going to take place on Januar 23 2006.

With that, many speculations came as to which party will win in the coming election. Personally, I've just been dabbing on and off in the political situation and haven't come to analyze the situation with depth.

But here's my "prediction" at this point of time (I mean - the campaigns might change the dynamics of a party and their support):

I think January 23 will either bring about the same political situation Canadians were in for a year plus - having a Liberal minority government OR if Harper does well enough, he might garner enough support for a Conservative minority government.

What do you think Canadians??