Steppin' It Up A Notch

New blog

2010-07-24T09:53:00.001-06:00

To anyone who follows my blogging, please visit my new blog @ http://philipchan.tumblr.com

Dear God: I'm doing the best I can

2010-05-28T17:32:00.004-06:00

As my life progresses, I can't help but feel a bit like an alien. What I mean is that it seems everywhere I go/have gone, it's like I'm just passing through and I don't really fit in. I don't know if I've ever felt like I belonged. Is this normal? Maybe life is just a series of "passing through"s? Will I ever find a place where I belong? A few months ago, I came to the realization that I really don't belong here, but also that no matter where I go in this world, I won't belong there either and it's because deep down, my spirit knows that I belong in heaven with my Lord Jesus; even so, for whatever reason, that offers me no comfort now.

Maybe Carrie Underwood has got it right; check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LraOiHUltak

I wonder if Carrie Underwood is a Star Wars fan; I wonder if she realizes that after she marries Mike Fisher, she will be Carrie Fisher... :D but I digress; I really must have ADD.

Oh, I am such a fool. Why do I keep making the same mistake again and again? A part of me just wants to give up, the other part doesn't; if you were in my shoes I believe that you wouldn't give up on me, so why should I give up on you? I just don't know what to do. I don't know why I can't seem to let God have this part of me.

And I am so tired; tired of running; running from the things that scare me; running away because I'm afraid of getting hurt.

Oh, I just don't know what I'm doing. Well God, you've definitely got your work cut out for you.

Testing, testing, one, two, three

2010-05-18T22:49:00.003-06:00

So, this blog post is supposed to automatically upload to facebook, but my last 4 blog posts have not automatically posted. So we will see what happens this time around.

I read an awesome quote the other day that I'd like to share:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. - Nelson Mandela

Back off! Get your own sandwich

2010-05-09T13:35:00.004-06:00

I slept in today. It has been quite a while since I have done that, a very long while. It was almost 10 when I got up. I remember last week sometime, don't remember which day, it was probably Sunday, or maybe it was 2 Saturdays ago, well it was a day I didn't have to work, anyways I got up thinking it was probably pretty late (ie. after 9) and that I should be up getting ready to do whatever and when I looked at the clock it was 7:30! So today when I got out of bed, I expected it to be similar because it felt the same.

Where did this phrase "Back off, get your own sandwich" come from again anyways? I vaguely remember it being in a commercial from the 90's, but I can't remember what it was for. I think it had something to do with mustard... Anyways, I should get back to studying, my exam is tomorrow.

Used cows for sale

2010-05-01T07:27:00.003-06:00

I am a terrible student. I find no motivation to study. Granted the last 2 weeks, er make that 5 have not been the greatest and so my studying has pretty much been non-existent. I'm pretty sure I have ADD. Or it is more than likely, as Leeland Klassen put it: "I have a learning disability; the technical term for my disability is called lazy."

How is it that I have survived the last 4 months? The only answer I can give you is: only by the grace of God. There really are no words that can adequately express how great my Jesus is. But I am reminded of the lyrics to a song by Relient K, the chorus goes like this:

Never underestimate my Jesus.
You're telling me that there's no hope.
I'm telling you you're wrong.
Never underestimate my Jesus
When the world around you crumbles
He will be strong, He will be strong

Finishing off my practicum was physically draining and unfortunately doing it as quickly as I did provided me no benefit. Moreover, by my calculations I should have been flat broke at the end of February. My part-time income came in around $700, my fixed expenses totalled close to $600 and variable expenses between $50-100. But then I found myself having to cover for one of my roommates as he lost his job and had difficulties paying rent and utilities. Where did that money come from? I don't know but somehow I was never short.

By now you can see that the title of this blog has nothing to do with its content. But you have to admit that you probably read this because you were curious as to what I had to say about used cows for sale :P Well I don't have anything to say except apparently it was an actual sign somebody put up :D

What's for dinner?

2010-04-23T20:14:00.002-06:00

How about a BBQ burger? And BBQ chicken! And BBQ Pork Chop! All with rice :) It rained today, but not enough, we need more rain. Now we can tell that it's spring, the flowers are starting to grow, the trees are budding and the grass is green, no longer brown! The sun was out for the better part of the day so I decided to throw some meat on the BBQ for dinner. There was no wind, or at least very little when I lit the BBQ and the sky above me was clear. 10 minutes later, the wind whipped up, blew the fire out and it started to rain very lightly. As I'm relighting the BBQ, my roommate Andrew comes home and says "Philip! Crazy chinaman... BBQing in the rain!" Well it wasn't raining when I started, lol.

Now I'm stuffed, that was a lot of meat.

First ride of the season/Training Day 1

2010-04-10T21:40:00.002-06:00

Well, I pulled out the bike today and completed the first ride of the season/training day for the Ride to Conquer Cancer. It was not a very pleasant day for riding but I had to do it. High of +1C and winds up to 60km/hr. I rode from my house to the University, where I stopped to check out my friend's group project for his computer engineering course. Then I rode home again, but took a different route to stretch out the total distance travelled, which ended up being about 16 kms. The ride to the University had an uphill, but the trip back was harder because I was riding into the wind. I made up a tentative training schedule for myself last night and it will be quite intense, no easing into it. I'm hoping to do 3 days of riding per week with increasing distances each week. Once I get into May, I think I'll have trouble finding the time to ride the distances I am wanting to. Here's hoping I figure something out! Hmm, I should probably do weight training on the off days.... Another thing I'm wondering, should I implement some kind of dietary program to go along with this training? Can't say I've ever watched my diet; I normally eat whatever I want when I want. Oh well, something to think about another day!

Lead me

2010-03-27T18:23:00.002-06:00

So I bought the new Sanctus Real CD yesterday and I am really enjoying it. I don't own very many CD's mostly because I find that most of the time there's only 1 or 2 songs that I like and so I don't think it's worth buying the whole CD. Fortunately Sanctus Real has in my eyes, produced very good CD's. The last 2 albums of theirs I have purchased after only hearing 1 song, well actually this last one I didn't even really listen to any songs; once I found out they had a new CD out, I pretty much already knew that I was going to buy it, it was just a matter of time.

Anyways I cried when I heard the song Lead Me. It's just that lately I'm noticing that with the (older) people that I come into contact with, there's so much brokenness in their family lives. It pains me to see that but it breaks my heart because it's a reality in my own family. I know that it is a result of a fallen world, and it is absolutely devastating. The way I see it, man (as a gender) EPIC FAILed in the Garden of Eden, not for eating the fruit but for DOING NOTHING when Eve took it. At that point he gave up/lost everything he was supposed to be. Ever since, men have been failing to be the leaders they need to be, especially in the home and the result is the screwed up society that we have today. It is disheartening but the great thing is it doesn't have to be that way. As the latter part of this song states, we need to rely on God to help us. It is the hope and prayer I have for myself, for my dad, and for my friends.

Freedom!

2010-03-07T20:16:00.003-07:00

Hooray, as of today I have officially completed my power engineering practicum at the Glenrose Hospital! So in that sense the craziness has ended, but I still have 5 more days before I really get a day off as I am going to work at my paying job this week. I actually managed to knock a week off the "no day off" marathon by doing some extra shifts and I am glad I did otherwise I'd still have another week to go. The last 3 weeks have been rough, my studying has gone down the crapshoot, I got sick just over a week ago (my attempt to fight it was interesting to say the least, I will tell you the story if you ask me) and there were quite a few days that I did not sleep well, oh yea and I got in a car accident with a city bus 3 weeks ago. I will definitely not be doing something like this again ever... if it ever comes up, somebody please smack me upside the head. I definitely did not do this on my own strength, I have no doubt that God was with me all the way; I can barely remember most days of the past 6 weeks, but I do know that everyday that I can remember waking up and praying for God to help me get through the day.

As for the car accident, not a really big deal, I lost my driver's side mirror to the bus, at this point I do not know if I will be fined or have to pay for the glass on the bus door. Technically speaking, he hit me but I should not have been where I was when he did so it'll probably end up being my fault. It probably hurt my pride more than anything, which really isn't that bad of a thing.

Day 13

2010-02-06T18:55:00.002-07:00

Day 13 of craziness... This week has been tiring, there were a couple of days last week that I went to bed too late and that came back to bite me this week. I know that I definitely have to rely on God to give me strength because I am pushing the limits of my own abilities. There is no way I am going to get through the next 5 weeks without His help. I am learning to hand over control of every aspect of my life to Him. It's strange because out of necessity, I am wanting to do so. Only 36 more days to go.

Going AWOL for a while.... or is it AWL...either way I must be crazy

2010-01-24T18:41:00.004-07:00

Well if I didn't have much of a social life before, I definitely won't have one for the next 2 months. It looks like I will have the opportunity to start working as a licenced power engineer in April provided I can get all of my work experience hours and pass the provincial exam beforehand. In order to do so, I must work everyday for the next 2 months. I will have my 2 days of paid work and the rest of the week at the Glenrose Hospital volunteering to get my hours. Add on top of that studying for the provincial licencing exam and I pretty much have the equivalent of 2 full-time jobs, if not more. Yes, I must be crazy.

Reflections

2010-01-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like it’s time once again for my year-end reflections. I was actually going to write this about 2 months ago after I had celebrated my 10^th spiritual birthday. Well maybe celebrate isn’t the right word since I really didn’t do any celebrating; it was more of a time of reflection. It is hard to believe that 10 years has gone by since I found new life in Christ. As I look back over the years, I am ever so thankful for God’s mercy and grace and His unfailing faithfulness. I am especially thankful for His presence and guiding hand in the last few years as they have been tough ones; For a while, I know I really wasn’t actively pursuing God and as I wandered through the deserts and stormy seas of life, battled lonely and discouraging times, He was still there patiently waiting for me.

The year that was 2009; church and spiritual growth.

2009 was a blessing and a year of tremendous growth. I started attending a different church right at the end of 2008 because I really needed a fresh start, a new perspective not only in my walk with God but also on church. I had been in a place where I felt like I was no longer wanted; that was a shock to the system, I didn’t expect that, I had nothing to prepare me for it and it confused and discouraged me. I felt like I was wandering alone lost in a forest and nobody came looking for me. I know I probably could have done something to make things better but as is often the case in those dark times, one needs to be reached out to and given a light to follow; unfortunately there was none there.

So I found myself in a new place and even though there was going to be an undetermined time of transition, I thought I’d give it a try. After only a few months, I found myself signing up to go on a mission trip with the church. I was still very new and getting to know people but the fire to do overseas missions that God had birthed in me through eMi still burned. Boy was I in for quite a ride. God really solidified my faith in His providence as I really had no idea how I was going to get the money to go on the trip. In the end God provided through a friend who had money he wanted to put into something meaningful, tangible and that would be a blessing to others. The amount that he had was almost exactly my cost for the trip.

God also had a mighty work to do in my heart. Probably the hardest thing I learned was to forgive. About 3 months before the trip, I was forced to look back over my life in the last two and a half years and it was not easy. But it was time for me to deal with the hurts of feeling judged and unwanted, and to forgive and move forward. I had reaped a lot of negativity and discouragement over those two and a half years and it really wasn’t healthy. But I have discovered what I consider to be a glimmer of blessing through it all; as my world had been shaken up, it caused me to seriously question everything that I thought I knew, that I thought was real and that I thought was true. I still find myself asking the question, “What if everything you thought was true, isn’t?” I do not have an answer for that question but it challenges me and my faith because it causes me to really think things through instead of just accepting it.

In the four months leading up to the trip, I also learned to trust God more and also to trust people again. I had lost a lot of faith in people and unfortunately mostly in the people of God and their ability to show care and compassion.

Also before the trip, God led me back to a ministry I had been involved in before, but I had allowed the words of some people in my family and spiritual leaders to speak too loudly in my life and so I lost the passion to be involved. Not only did God reignite the passion I had for ministering to homeless people, He also got some of my friends involved and it has been a joy to see the passion they now have for it too.

Mission trip.

I really didn’t know what to expect on this trip; all I can say is that leading up to it, I felt that God was preparing me for something big. I really can’t say whether or not this “big” thing occurred. I mean, when I think of something big, I tend to think something spectacular or some great revelation. I would have to say nothing of that sort occurred. So what did happen? Well, we went down to Mexico with Hungry for Life for a build project in Rio Chico. At the base camp there, we did a lot of painting, some helped put in windows, and we did more painting, oh did I mention we painted? At times, some of the painting seemed like a futile endeavour as we painted non-smooth rocks (I think only those who were there can truly appreciate and understand what I mean). So we really didn’t do anything spectacular or any profound work but God reminded me that our role there was to be enablers; the simple and sometimes tedious work that we did freed up man-hours for Pastor Tomas and his workers so that they could concentrate on doing things to further their ministry to the native Indians living in the mountains. The work we did also helped make the base camp look beautiful.

I really enjoyed the devotional times we had. I was encouraged as Phil Yee presented his heart and desires to see each of us grow in our walks with God. Each day, what we talked about was relevant to me as it was something I was seeking for in my own walk and it made me happy knowing that there was someone else wanting to see others pursue the same things. God also reminded me of His great love for me. Across the road from the base camp, on the top of a hill, there was a cross. We climbed up the hill on the first and last days. In between those days, God stuck a song in my head, it was actually two different songs but at the time I had the words from both going and I thought they were the same. Both are by Third Day, the main song I had stuck in my head was Love Song; the second was I’ve Always Loved You. God used that to remind me that it is His love that carries me through everything, and provides the healing for my heart.

God also greatly encouraged me through Pastor Tomas’ testimony of how he started his ministry. Following in the footsteps of Christ, he ministers to those often overlooked by society and most in need of basic necessities. It’s so simple to do, anybody can do it.

An experiment in community living.

In July, me and my friends Andrew and Jimi had a discussion about community. I had already been increasingly dissatisfied with the prospect of “living the American dream”. It just seems like that’s what everyone does even if they don’t realize it. As I looked ahead to what life should bring my way in the next few years, I wondered if it’s possible to do things differently. Me and Andrew had, a couple years back when we were roommates, joked about each of us buying one half of the same duplex and living next to each other later on in life. Back when we first moved in together, we had the opportunity to get a glimpse of true community living as we had moved into a basement that wasn’t quite ready and we had to share a room as it was the only livable space available. Eventually we started to share a lot of our stuff too. Anyways, at the end of July, Andrew moved in with me again and Jimi came in October. The 3 of us currently share a room and I guess the goal is to see how far we can take community living. One thing we have already learned, community living doesn’t work well with a married couple. This is obviously because they don’t buy into our concept of community living; we will have to wait to see if it will even work with a couple that does buy into it, but I have no idea when/if that will happen. I think our other roommate Ben has pretty much bought into our concept of community living.

Career

Well, I’ve finally finished my 4^th Class power engineering course I have been taking. I know that at times I slacked and could have finished much sooner but it’s all done now. In a little more than a week I will be writing the first of 2 provincial licencing exams. I am currently getting my work experience hours at the Glenrose Hospital’s power plant on a volunteer basis but that’s better than nothing. I have to finish all my hours, which should be in April, before I can write the 2^nd exam and get my ticket. So things are starting to fall into place. Having done the 4^th Class course through correspondence, I’m quite certain I don’t want to do another course through correspondence again. I know that I need to get to at least a 3^rd Class ticket so I’m currently thinking that I will probably go back to school for real come next fall.

So that’s all for 2009, now onto 2010, time sure goes by quickly. I was just looking on tsn.ca and noticed the countdown timer for the Olympics, that’s only 41 days away, crazy! Anyways, other than going back to school next fall, plans for 2010 include going back to Mexico and that’s pretty much it. Not much on the radar for now but I’m sure there’s plenty of adventure in store!

Lost inside the wonder

2009-08-17T12:10:00.003-06:00

I have much to say about what God has been doing in my life lately, prior to my missions trip to Mexico, during the trip and after but this is just gonna be a quick little note, just something neat that happened last night. Lately I've been learning to hear God's voice and last night as I was spending some time with Him, I did an exercise that forced me to ask Him some questions. Honestly, I had actually been putting off doing this exercise for about 10 days. Anyways, Jesus spoke and what he said just brought me to my knees in humility. One of the questions I asked was "If my heart is your home, what does that home look like?" His response: "Right now, it's a mess, but I want to clean it up for you but only if you'll let me." Talk about intense! In one sense it's like "D'oh! I am such an idiot!" but at the same time the peace and gentleness of Christ just overwhelms! So, just as the title of this post says, I'm lost inside the wonder of how amazing God is. I don't think that there has ever been a point in my life when Jesus has just been so real to me. I am so thankful that his promise holds true: that I will find Him, if I seek him with all my heart. He wants to work in my life but gives me the choice whether I'm going to let him or not. So one final thing before I wrap up this post, this one's quite funny. One of the other questions I asked was "If you could play a game with me what would it be? Why?" I laughed when I got the response. My roommate and best friend Andrew asked me what was so funny so I told him that I asked God what game he would play with me and that God said Hide and Seek. So here's the kicker: Andrew tells me he asked God the same question some time ago, and God said the same thing to him!!

UP

2009-06-28T18:31:00.002-06:00

So I went and saw the movie Up with a few friends last week. If you have not seen it yet, please please STOP reading here and come back after you have seen it. So if you haven't stopped reading by now you probably have seen the movie; it's not like what I'm writing will ruin the movie, at least I don't think so, well maybe one of them, but I'd like to present a few moments from the movie that were thought provoking and it's better to have seen the movie first. *edit: ok so after writing below I've come to the conclusion that what I'm writing may ruin the movie so if you haven't seen it yet and are still reading, PLEASE STOP NOW!!
So here goes nothing; the first thought provoking portion of the movie: after Carl meets Ellie, the movie goes into a fast forward kind of mode and you see them getting married and living their lives and growing old together. They have this dream of some day having this grand adventure and going to Paradise Falls but as you notice, the years go by and something always comes up that prevents them from realizing their dream. Eventually, Ellie passes away and Carl is all by himself, *sniff, anyways as I watched this unfold the thought that came to me was just that at the end of my life, I don't want to end up like Carl at that point in the movie. What I mean is that I don't want to look back on my life and realize that I haven't lived a grand adventure. I mean I have my dreams and things I want to achieve and hopefully you do too but life can get hectic and especially here in North America it's easy to just go with the flow of the rat race and live the "American Dream". But for me, I hope that I don't get trapped in that; it's kinda easy now because I'm still working on starting to build my career and I don't have a girlfriend so "settling down" isn't even close to being on my radar, although my parents are trying to subtly hint that it's about time I found a girlfriend. It's not really a big deal, I'm just going to keep doing my thing and I'll take whatever God throws at me, and if he decides to throw a girl into the adventure that is my life so be it. Well, back to my discussion of the movie, this next thought was one that my roommate brought up when we were discussing the movie afterwards but it was going through my head as well; so Carl eventually makes it to Paradise Falls and he takes out Ellie's Adventure Book and puts a page into it as if checking off an item in a To-do list. This is another *sniff moment but also a Yay! moment. As his hand brushes the "Things I'm going to do" page, it lifts and he notices that Ellie has put something there that he didn't know was there. He flips through the pages and sees that Ellie had put pictures of things they've done together and at the end she wrote "Thanks for the adventure, now go have one of your own!" The sad part was that Carl was so focused on Paradise Falls as the destination and beginning of an adventure that he kind of missed the journey and adventure of life with Ellie. So taking into account what I wrote earlier, it is also my hope that I don't get so focused on my goals and dreams that I miss the journey along the way. Similarly, we can also easily miss the little blessings and miracles that God gives us each day. So those are just a few thoughts I had after watching Up; time to continue living the adventure of life ;)

Cleaning and hot air balloons

2009-06-20T07:10:00.002-06:00

So I was cleaning my room the other day and I found this piece of paper that I wrote a lament on probably about 8 months ago. I'm going to share it here and also write a response to it. On an unrelated note, I just looked out my window and saw 2 hot air balloons take off almost right across the street, if I lived one block over it would have been across the street. Doh! I should have taken a picture, oh well, maybe if/when they come back I'll snap one. And yes I am awake at 7 AM on a Saturday, I've actually been awake since before 6:30, during the summer, I tend to wake up not too long after the sun rises and I will only be able to get back to sleep if I'm really tired.
Anyways, here's the thing I wrote 8 months ago, at the time I guess I was feeling abandoned:
Have I lost my way? I don't even know what to think anymore.
Is this the way things are supposed to be?
If you thought that maybe I was lost, why didn't you come after me?
I guess this is just the way things are supposed to be.
Or maybe you've given up on me?
Why have you given up on me; I haven't given up on you.

Today's response:
Looking back I can see I was not lost, I just took a different road and walked into an unknown forest.
Maybe you thought I got lost, maybe not, it doesn't even matter anymore.
This is just the way things are.
So I've emerged from the forest into a wide open field and maybe someday our paths will cross again but for now I'm heading for those mountains in the distance.
I don't know if you gave up on me but you have to know I forgive you if you did.

Serving an awesome God!

2009-06-01T23:18:00.002-06:00

God is so awesome and faithful, I am in awe of how He takes care of me. Words are hard to come by to express it. In 2 months I will be heading to Mexico on a missions trip. Before today I did not completely have the means to be able to pay for the entire trip up front within the next few weeks, which is what needs to happen. But God has blessed me with a friend who was looking for some way to spend some money he had on something useful and tangible that would bless others. So my cost for this trip is now completely covered all because of Jesus! Praise Him, all glory to Him! :D

Soundtrack Of My Life

2009-05-14T22:14:00.002-06:00

Every now and again, I hear a song that describes my life in some way. I will add this song to what I call the "Soundtrack Of My Life" and hopefully when my life in this world is through, people can listen to my soundtrack and know what my life was about.

There are also times when a song perfectly describes something I'm going through at some particular time. One such song at this point in time is the song "Whatever You're Doing (Something Heavenly)" by Sanctus Real. This song may yet make it onto the soundtrack of my life but right now it describes my life. God is doing something in my life, with my spirit and soul and sometimes, like this song says: "it feels like chaos", or like a heartache of conflicting emotions. This process is described in the Bible, somewhere I'm sure, as like gold being refined in fire. It's tough, it sucks but it's necessary. I know God's in it; He's having me work through things I've swept under the rug and I hope that at the end of it all, I will get some closure on certain issues.
Anyways, here are the lyrics to the song:

It's time for healing time to move on
It's time to fix what's been broken too long
Time to make right what has been wrong
It's time to find my way to where I belong
There's a wave that's crashing over me
All I can do is surrender

[Chorus]
Whatever you're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
but I'm giving in to something heavenly

Time for a milestone
Time to begin again
Reevaluate who I really am
Am I doing everything to follow your will
or just climbing aimlessly over these hills
So show me what it is you want from me
I give everything I surrender...
To...

[Chorus]

Time to face up
Clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out
That I've wanted to say for so many years
Time to release all my held back tears

Whatever you're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but I believe
You're up to something bigger than me
Larger than life something heavenly

Whatever you're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but now I can see
This is something bigger than me
Larger than life something heavenly
Something heavenly

It's time to face up
Clean this old house
Time to breathe in and let everything out

Time flies....

2009-02-07T11:27:00.002-07:00

... when you're having fun, so they say. Well, I can definitely say for sure that January flew by waaay too fast, but I can't really say it was fun, at least the last couple of weeks weren't that fun at all. There were some fun moments, but overall not a very enjoyable last few weeks, all I did was work, sleep and eat, literally. I was going to post this a few day ago but never got around to it and now that I am getting around to it, I realized that one year ago today, I was walking around in London, England sightseeing, just a day away from being in Rwanda. Well, I don't really have much else to say.... I just woke up and am still pretty tired....so uh ciao

Year End Reflections

2009-01-01T23:39:00.002-07:00

First of all let me apologize to all who consistently check my blog for updates, as you can see, I have not written on it in a long time. Anyway, here are my thoughts on the year that was 2008.

I can still remember waking up on Jan. 1, 2008 and the first thought that crossed my mind was that 2008 was going to be a great year. And it definitely was, along with being filled with plenty of adventure. It also contained its share of ups and downs as any period of time will. Looking back there are things I should have done that I didn't do and things I did that I wish I hadn't. I won't elaborate too much on that, well, because I can't change what is past, all I can do is move forward and hopefully I have learned from my mistakes.

If there is one thing I learned this year, it is that God is my Jehovah Jireh, my Provider. God provided for me in the good times and in the difficult times, sometimes at the last minute but was undeniably faithful in doing so, and often when I know I didn't deserve it. He provided for me financially, which allowed me to have some awesome adventures. He gave new friends along the way to share in the adventures, and more recently the most awesome new roommates, who are also my new brothers (which really required me to do no advertising on the availability of rooms in my house). I don't think I will ever understand how or why, God, being who He is, can bless someone like me, who fials Him everyday, with His love, presence, and guidance. But that's who Jesus is; He's my God, my Saviour, my friend and the one I serve.

Looking ahead, it definitely seems troubling times face us all; with the growing global economic crisis and political unrest in the Middle East, as well as here in Canada (albeit a different kind of unrest, but who woulda thought eh?). A few months ago I was thinking about the economic crisis nd it occurred to me that I never would have imagined that a recession or depression would occur in my lifetime. Supposedly, experts on the subject say that we have learned enough from the Great Depression of the '30s to avoid one now.... I wonder if this really is the case.

Even so, I have no fear of what lies ahead, whether good times or bad, because my experience from 2008 has taught me that God will be faithful, no matter what. I hope that you will be able to find faith and put trust in God to be with you every step of 2009 and pull you through whatever circumstances may come your way.

Happy New Year to you all, may you truly be blessed with God's love and presence in 2009.
I believe 2009 is going to be even better than 2008 was, WHY?! (Well that's a silly question.) Because we are going to Step It Up A Notch! (or maybe even a few notches) :)

An epic ride

2008-05-26T21:30:00.002-06:00

I just spent an amazing weekend in the mountains with my two best friends: Jesus and Andrew. Even though it was raining, we had an awesome time mountain biking. Another epic ride to add to my log, not that I'm really keeping one, it seems all our rides are epic in their own right. I am always amazed when I am out in God's creation, I love it out there and I am always drawn closer to Him. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring a camera and the one on my phone doesn't produce very high quality pics. So you'll just have to use your imagination on this one.
Friday night, we camped in Didsbury and Jesus was so good to us. When we got there, it was raining lightly. We found a decent spot to set up our tent and it stopped raining. Pretty much as soon as it was set up, the rain started coming down again. On Saturday, we decided to go to Kananaskis Country instead of Drumheller. The rain was coming down real good in this part of Alberta. We were soaking wet before we even started riding. We didn't travel a long distance but it took a little while, partly because I'm out of shape, partly because it was wet. Even though the ride was short in distance it was good because we didn't break our bikes or ourselves. Afterwards, we went to Canmore and sat in Tim Horton's to warm up, read some books and talk about life. I finished reading a book that I have been reading called "The Shack", it is an excellent book, I definitely recommend it.
On Sunday, our ride began at the Canmore Nordic Centre. There are so many trails there, I don't know how many we were on. Some of the views are fantastic! There was one spot that I must tell about, it wasn't scary but after it happened it was like, 'Whoa! did that just happen?' So, we're riding down this trail and I can hear the sound of water running downstream. And sure enough we come to it and it is what it sounds like. Andrew gets to it first and crosses to the other side on foot to see if there's anything rideable on the other side. So I'm standing near the water's edge looking around, taking in the scenery. Andrew starts throwing some rocks into the water to make a little bridge to make it easier to get across. So I look around to see if there's anything on my side to throw in, next thing I know he's pushing over a dead tree from the other side towards me. I look up when I hear the crack and instantly raise my hands to cover my head as I realize the height of the dead tree. The tree falls quicker than my reflexes and is on the ground before my hands get any higher than my shoulders, and just barely grazing the side of my arm. Had it fallen six inches to the left, it would have hit me square on the top of the head. After a few seconds, I thought to myself: "Whoa! I just almost got hit by a falling tree!" Unfortunately after riding about 50 feet on the other side, the trail becomes unrideable so we have to turn around.
Normally, I'm more wary of the technically challenging parts of the ride because I know I'm not that good and rain always makes things more challenging but this time, I found myself more frustrated with the straight parts because they were the parts that were uphill and aerobically challenging. We got in a good 4-5 hours of riding and once again headed over to Tim Horton's afterwards.
Today was our lazy day, I know I was pretty beat from the ride yesterday and neither of us really slept all that well so we decided not to ride. We decided instead to drive. We drove up from Canmore towards Nordegg on Hwy 40 which ends up becoming one of them logging roads. After the paved road ended, we were on gravel and it reminded me of driving in Rwanda: very bumpy. We were pretty much the only ones driving on the road and the guys we passed going the other way were workers and I'm pretty sure they thought we were crazy especially since we had bikes on the back of the SUV. We saw a lot of deer and even though it was bumpy and slow going at times, some of the scenery was magnificent.
Spiritually, some of the things I'm taking away from this trip: a little bit better understanding of who God is, and re-learning how to let Him "BE" part of my everyday.

My car is rockin'...

2008-05-20T18:36:00.006-06:00

... to the tune of 54 mpg (4.36L/100km), booya! Take that Prius hybrid (supposedly the most fuel efficient car available: rated at 48mpg or 5.1L/100km). If I can pull off this kind of fuel efficiency with my regular driving style, just imagine what kind of numbers I can roll in if I actually tried this thing called hypermiling.

Anyways, I can't believe May is almost over, it's gone by way too fast. So I'm currently working at Totem Building Supplies while I continue my search for engineering work. Someone in marketing or whoever sets the price obviously failed grade 3 math. Why would anyone buy one of these:
(a 2 pack of BBQ lighters)

when you can buy 3 of these for less?

It's Spring and I must be crazy

2008-05-03T23:06:00.019-06:00

Hello! Well it's springtime, and the proof: I killed my first mosquito of the year. So far, spring weather has been pretty funky, three weekends ago it was +20C, the following weekend we got a foot of snow, last weekend was pretty normal, now we're looking good.

Onto the craziness: I am known to transport things in my car that you think wouldn't fit but I do it anyways and my latest one is pretty crazy (if you don't know, I drive a 2 dr Geo Metro). Some things I have transported in this tiny vehicle in the past (and how I managed to do it): 10 ft long 2X4's without anything sticking out the hatch (had the front passenger seat taken out), a 12 ft long copper pipe (had part of it hanging out the window), a mattress that was used as a sled (on the roof of my car). Today I transported 2 7ft cedars in my car, both at the same time, I considered making 2 trips but really didn't feel like it.
So here's the first one in the front seat.

And here's the second one in the trunk.

So last weekend I was in a Chinese supermarket and I saw 2 things that I thought were kinda disgusting and since I am now the proud owner of a camera phone, I took pictures (I think I am the last person in the world to upgrade to a colour phone, that's right, 3 weeks ago my phone did not have colour)

Ok, so normally when you think of swiss rolls, you think of chocolate, or strawberry flavored, or lemon, or something sweet, anything but butter! I mean butter is salty or flavorless, and greasy. Who wants to eat a salty swiss roll? Not me. I'll keep my butter flavoring to popcorn thank you very much.

Yum! Doesn't that sound appetizing? Crab fat paste.

So gas prices are stupidly high and it's just gonna get worse. For all you Americans complaining about $3.65/gal (well that's what I saw it at last time I checked) at least you aren't hovering around $5/gal. I heard a rumor that we could be at $5.70/gal ($1.50/L) within 3 weeks, I really hope that doesn't happen, that would not be cool.

Who's the man?

2008-04-09T17:10:00.002-06:00

Jesus is the man!! One week ago, I experienced my 3rd hard drive failure in 4 years. I am thankful to Jesus for keeping the hard drive going for the last week; I've been able to recover about 80% of my stuff. The first time I had a hard drive failure, it was so bad that the computer would constantly lose contact with the hard drive. I think this failure I just experienced was worse but it has miraculously been going for an entire week and only disappeared off the grid twice. You know it's bad when the drive makes clicking noises and beeps when you're trying to access the files. I had issues with ownership of the files: Windows wouldn't let me access the files with the drive plugged into a different computer because it detected that the files belonged to the user on that dying drive. I was able to get around it by taking ownership one folder at a time and copying files out with the only useful thing that Microsoft has ever made: DOS. With what I've recovered, I've been able to get back to pretty much where I was one week ago. The biggest thing I was working on was the DVD of my mission trip to Rwanda. Although I was unable to recover the movie files I had created, I was able to remake them and I think my DVD is going to be even better now than before. Lesson learned: don't be lazy and think you can back stuff up later when you've gotten rid of stuff you don't want. Not having a computer to work with at home could very well be a blessing in disguise. I can now spend more time practicing my guitar playing and reading the bible.... now if only I didn't have a TV.

Lunar eclipse pics

2008-03-16T17:41:00.017-06:00

I took some pictures of the lunar eclipse that happened on Feb. 20, 2008.

This first shot is a look through the trees in the park across from my place in Calgary at 6:45.

The moon at 6:51.

Moon at 7:27.
Moon at 8:07.

Zoomed in view of previous.

What is this white substance falling from the sky?

2008-03-15T16:13:00.003-06:00

Hmm, where have I seen it before? It seems familiar and yet foreign. Oh wait, it's snow! Yup, it's been a while since we last got any snow in Calgary.

Well time is just flying by, I can't believe it's almost been a month since I got back from Rwanda. The weekend after getting back, we went to Edmonton for Missionsfest. I got to see some of my friends who came by the eMi booth, which was nice. I went to some booths to see if there was anything that I might be able to get involved with in the near future. I would like to do a mission trip that's at least a couple months up to a year long. I think something with Interserve might be possible.

I've been trying to put together a movie of the trip to Rwanda and it's taking a while. Windows Movie Maker just doesn't cooperate, it crashes/freezes after what seems like every 5 things I do. Then it takes at least 5 mins to reload everything and if I forget to save after every step, I have to redo the last x-number of steps. I am almost done, just have some audio editing to do. Unfortunately, movie maker isn't helpful with this. I have to do it all with Nero Wave Editor. If I was able to get Adobe's Premiere working, this movie would so be done. I downloaded the trial version but it wouldn't import the audio of the videos I captured. I don't want to risk corrupting the captured video by trying to split the video files into smaller pieces (Premiere will import audio of the smaller video files but not the big ones, don't ask me why).

At the office, I've worked on bits of the project report, just waiting for more of it to come in. Last week, the staff went to Missionsfest in Toronto so Jason and I were left to run the office for a few days. This past Wednesday, I put together a new computer at the office, it wasn't until Friday morning that it was fully updated and all the software was installed. Never in my career in building computers (I've now got 3 under my belt) did I have as much trouble as this one. USB 2.0 didn't install properly and I racked my brain trying to figure out what went wrong. In the end I found out that the drivers that came with the motherboard tried to install USB 2.0 before XP's service pack 2 was installed and so it screwed it up. When all was said and done, there were 143 updates for Windows downloaded and installed. I also fixed the internet/network connection issues we were having.

Last Friday (7th) afternoon, Jason and I went to the zoo with Kevin's (civil engineer on staff at eMi) wife and kids. His two little girls are really adorable. It was funny with the younger one, Kaisa, she kept saying "I want to go home" then we were about to leave and she wanted to see the dinosaurs, so we went to the dinosaurs. Part way through she started whining about going home again. Afterwards, Jason had his cousin's ball game to watch but I went to play Lego with the kids, it was fun. We built some houses, cars and I built a very simple airplane.

The last couple days has been a hoot with the e-mail conversations bouncing around amongst the small group I joined. I won't go into the details but there was talk of dismemberment of body parts and holding of captives, it was all quite hilarious joking around.
Last night, we had an awesome bible study and had excellent discussions about what it means to follow Jesus and persecution. Afterwards, we had a very involved discussion regarding facebook that went almost an hour and a half.

I'll be posting some pictures soon, right now I'm going to the auto show.

Time for a rant

2008-03-06T22:28:00.002-07:00

As the title suggests, it's time for a rant. Two things in particular are bugging me right now.
Firstly, I was flipping through channels on TV today and saw on CNN what I thought was another campus shooting, thank God it wasn't. But it was still shocking to hear that the student body president at UNC was shot to death in what looks like a carjacking. My prayers go out to friends and family of Eve Carson, may you find comfort and peace in Jesus Christ. I know this is a rhetorical question but, what is wrong with this world? I've got a jumble of words in my head that I can't get straight right now...uh....I guess I'm extra sensitive after having gone to Rwanda; just seeing and being at some genocide memorials has had a profound effect on me, I can't put it into words, I went to WWII genocide memorials in Europe but they didn't affect me nearly as much as Rwanda has.
Second rant: I thought people who worked for the government needed to be smart, oh wait I forgot, only morons work for the government. Which reminds me of a quote I read the other day: "There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president. - Kurt Vonnegut" here's another good one from today: The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'. - Larry Hardiman
Anyways, morons at the National Student Loans Service Centre obviously don't know how to read. I'm trying to apply for Loan Relief and if this keeps up, my internship will be over before I get it. So I needed to send proof of my income for the month of December, so I sent copies of my pay stubs along with my application. They sent me a letter saying they couldn't process my application. This is what it said: "No proof of income or insufficient proof of income was provided... Actual amount of your income is required for (no supporting documentation required): Dec. 2007." Ok so you want proof of income but don't need supporting documentation, but the reason you can't process my application is because you don't have the supporting documentation. What?! So I called them and they said I didn't give them enough information, I asked what I didn't give, they said proof of income, I said I sent it with my application, they said they didn't have it. How do you go from me sending it in the same envelope, to them not having it, but they have my application form? So I send it again, this time by fax, clearly marking the dates and income amounts. This was 2 weeks ago; I was supposed to get a response within 5 days. So I called them yesterday and they said I still didn't give them enough information. I found out I was "supposed to" send proof of income for Dec. 29. I only got paid on the 1st and 15th, there is nothing for me to send for the 29th! It says on the pay stub "Pay period: Semi-monthly (24 pay periods per year)" READ WHAT I SENT YOU MORONS! ARGH!!!!

Back from Rwanda

2008-02-26T22:34:00.002-07:00

Well it's been just over a week since I got back from my short-term mission trip to Rwanda. We didn't have internet at our guest house, nor did I really have the time to write and post something when we did go to internet cafes. Now that I've had some time to process some of my experience, it's a good time to make a post, also, today is my birthday. I am now a quarter of a century old. I know that people are going to ask me "how does it feel to be 25?" and I think that it's the age when you know you're still young but you also know you're old (or at least getting there).
So, Rwanda.... there's so much to say and yet words will never be able to convey what I experienced. In terms of the project work, I got a little bit involved in almost every aspect: I helped with the surveying, putting together the model (it's like playing with Lego) and helped with the water test. I have to admit I was amazed at all that was accomplished in one week's time. In reality, there were only 4 days spent doing the work. There were also many times when I was just observing the other team members working and I wondered how they knew that whatever it was they were doing was going to work. But that's what you get with years of experience; you just know. The highlight of the trip for me was hearing Eddie's response after we gave him the presentation of our week's work. It was a special moment, that's all I can say. I am excited for him and his ministry. I would love to go back to help build it or to see it when it's fully built; Lord willing, I just might.
This trip is the best thing to happen to me since finding salvation in Jesus Christ. Even so, it was overwhelming at times. Visiting the genocide memorials was.... difficult, yet necessary given the scope of our project, and I'm glad we did see them. We were at one of the churches where people got massacred and afterwards I was dazed, I couldn't really think and the second church didn't really affect me much because I was still stunned from the first one. It's hard to explain but I was stuck in this rut, almost like a depressed state and some of the team saw it on my face when we went to get food. It took me 6 hours to get out of it, with some help from Jesus. I'm so glad I have Jesus to help me, unfortunately for a lot of Rwandans, they don't have that.
More to come on my experience, it's pretty late now.

Pictures!

2008-02-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

Hooray! I've got pictures. I spent most of Saturday fixing up and uploading pictures to the internet. One thing I noticed while fixing the red-eye on the pictures from orientation was that Connie and Tammi almost never had red-eye problems (as well as myself but I think that's because I'm wearing glasses). Anyways here's the site where I posted some pics: http://philipchan.myphotoalbum.com/

So we're making our final preparations for our trip and here's some fun that we had with that, a couple of pics from the office:
This is my desk, complete with mosquito net and sign, practicing usage of the net for when we are in Rwanda haha :)

Here's one with me at my desk: The doctor is IN, haha. Jason thought it would be fun to put up that sign; ironically, some of my UofA buddies call me Dr. Phil, which he didn't know until after he put up the sign.

So, I'm considering writing a book: How to fly Ethiopian Airlines for Dummies. The last couple of days at the office, I had been trying to get information to deal with some possible luggage issues we might run into on our flight over to Rwanda. By the time all is said and done, I'll be an expert!

Last night, I watched the Super Bowl, what a game! It'll go down as the biggest upset in Super Bowl history. Even though it would have been great to see the Patriots make history, I had to keep with my tradition of cheering for the underdogs. But in one sense the Patriots did make history, they'll be remembered as the team that fell just short of the perfect season. I also got to watch all the real Super Bowl commercials (my American friends probably don't know that here in Canada, they sub Canadian commercials in place of the real ads, lame-o) Some of my favorites include the Fed-Ex Carrier Pigeons (mostly because it has my car in it, the little blue car is a Geo Metro), Charlie Brown Coke and Bud Light Wine and Cheese party. But I think my favorite has to be the Budweiser Clydesdale Team.

I'm not sure what's happening but ever since getting back from Colorado Springs my internal alarm clock has been messed up and everyday I wake up around 5 AM (I don't know the exact time, I've never actually looked at the clock but it definitely feels like a long time) I can't fall back to sleep until just before my alarm clock goes off (on weekdays). I get to talk to Jesus a lot which is good but it cuts about 2 hours of sleep away. I guess I could try going to bed at 9 just so I get enough sleep. One day last week, I was so tired when I woke up that I almost put the cereal box back in the fridge instead of the milk.

Is it possible...

2008-01-31T23:01:00.000-07:00

Brace yourselves for this one, what I'm about to say will probably shock you. It may have you thinking that I've gone crazy or have you crying "occult" or "false teaching". Anyways, I believe I received a vision from God this morning. It gets tricky because I can't remember all the details. Here's how it went: In this vision, I was reading Brad and Alisha's blog (link on the side under 'Crawford family') and no there's nothing on there that's part of what I read. Then there's two lines that stick out but they don't stick out while I'm reading them, because I just keep on reading; they stick out after I've woken up. So I finish reading and I wake up (I know I'm awake because I hear the furnace start up); immediately I can see those two lines and the first thing that goes through my mind is "This is from God" if you were in the room at that moment I could have read those lines to you. Unfortunately I can no longer remember what they are but it was something only God would say. This is one of those "I can't tell you how I know, I just do" moments. Here's where most of you will say "Aha! if you can't remember it, it can't be something from God." but let's play a little game of "What if..." What if I can't remember it because I'm not supposed to share what was said but only the experience? What if it was God showing me that He still speaks in this manner? What if God was just using this to prepare me for something bigger? Is it possible? I believe that with God, anything is possible. Some of you may be wondering where did this vision stuff come from, I mean it's not like I've been talking a lot about hearing from God. Well, I have been reading a book titled "Can you hear me?" by Brad Jersak. All of what I've read so far is biblically sound, don't believe me, go read it for yourself, I picked it up at Christian Publications. On Tuesday evening I read pages 53-60 where he talks about hearing/seeing, imagery and spiritual blindness. I like what he says on page 57 "Must we truly blindfold our spiritual eyes for fear that seeing anything at all is dangerous?" and "Should we not be far more alarmed that we don't see at all than by what we may see and test by God's Spirit, his Word, and his church?"

Last night, I watched "Sometimes in April" one of the movies about the genocide in Rwanda. It was a sad movie. I can't even put into words what I'm feeling. The main character watched as his friend was shot while he fought within himself because he was given a machete to kill his friend. The brother watched helplessly as his nephews were killed. The movie depicted Westerners with no compassion whatsoever, not even a drop. So much hurt, but from what I hear, they are healing. Praise God for that, and our project trips to Rwanda will help with that healing process. It's hard to believe we leave for Rwanda in less than 6 days.

Phil is a'swingin'

2008-01-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

So I took up swing dancing, first lesson was last night. It was fun. Mythbusters is cool, but it's much better to get out, meet new people and have some fun rather than sit in front of the TV. I'll try to get a picture next week or something.

Wow it's cold!

2008-01-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

Definitely been a while since I've experienced cold like this. -31C (-35F) and -42C (-41F) with windchill. I'm glad to have a garage to park my car in; but I'm told it was still -27C (-33F) in the garage this morning. Jason's car didn't start so he didn't make it to work today. Not really anything new but I just had to announce that I had the best lunch today: Vietnemese Sub! YUM! They are so tasty, if you've never tried it, you're missing out. It's very good value, but I think they cost less in Edmonton. There's a Vietnemese sub place directly across the street from the office, I can't believe I didn't see it until Friday of last week! Before coming to Calgary, I was hoping that there would be one close to the office and wouldn't you know, right across the street.

First weekend in Calgary

2008-01-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

So this is my first full weekend in Calgary since arriving on the 6th. On a somewhat side note, I'm starting to get used to driving in Calgary, so that's good. There's not really a whole lot for me to do after getting off work, but that should change after this week. I've been watching Dukes of Hazzard DVD's on my computer and Mythbusters on TV.
Since it's my first full weekend here, today I got to check out a church. I was really hoping to be able to check out a couple of churches but all of them had their services at 11 so I couldn't go to an early service then go to a later service at a different church. I decided to go to South Calgary Chinese Evangelical Free Church because it was relatively close to where I am living and when I checked out the website, I really liked the fact that they have a clear vision and an established four-year plan that focuses on community and discipleship.
So I went in fully expecting not to know anyone but it turns out that a guy I knew (Eric) from Engineering Christian Fellowship at the U of A goes there. It was a nice surprise. It was pretty random; I randomly pick a seat to sit in and I end up sitting beside the one person I know (well there was one guy between us). So I met about a dozen new people and we went for Dim Sum after church and had a good time of fellowship.
So that's pretty much what's new for now, I know I'll have plenty more news in the next few days so stay tuned.

Try something new?

2008-01-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

So I spent all of last night trying to make my own blog template but it didn't work. Oh well, maybe some other time, after I learn more html/xml. I am self-learning AUTOCAD at the office; I found a copy of AUTOCAD for Dummies online which I am working through; after 1.5 days, I'm almost done reading 100 of 400 pages. Well, my lunch break is over, back to more AUTOCAD! :)

First post and safe in Calgary.

2008-01-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

Hello! Welcome to my blog, this is cool. I tried to get "Step it up a notch" but it was already taken. For those who don't know, the phrase "Step it up a notch" has become my trademark phrase and only after 2 days. I'll tell the story some other time.

I have been relatively out of touch with the rest of the world since last Saturday, but this past week has been so much fun. Sat. Jan 12, I left Calgary (for Colorado Springs) at about 9 AM with Jason. The drive was relatively uneventful. One thing we saw that I thought was strange but cool was a wind farm. On one side of the road, the turbines were turning clockwise but on the other side of the road, the turbines were turning counter-clockwise. We stopped overnight in Buffalo, WY and the nice lady at the Super 8 motel gave us a discount for apparently no reason. Thank you Jesus! The next day we continued driving and arrived in Colorado Springs at about 3:30 PM where we met a bunch of really cool people.

The next 5 days were spent learning with and getting to know them. It is so cool how the commonality of being followers of Jesus Christ brings us so close so quickly. It was sad to have to part ways but I am so looking forward to seeing them again either sometime in this lifetime or in Heaven.

The drive back to Calgary was much more eventful. We decided to take a detour to see Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. On the way, it was so windy that when we stopped at Chugwater, WY for gas, the wind just about took the passenger door off my car, well not quite but you get the idea; it was probably gusting to at least 100 kph (60 mph). Approaching Mt. Rushmore, it looked foggy but I knew that God would bless us with a clear view when we got there and He did, yay praise Jesus! Afterwards, the drive got quite a bit more interesting. We drove the I-90 back to Wyoming from Rapid City, SD. What was cool about this part was that my radio picked up a Christian radio station from Rapid City even though we were 100 miles away and my radio often can't even pick up stations less than 10 miles away because I broke the antenna back in December while transporting a mattress on the top of my car. It was snowing by then but nothing major by Canadian standards. At first, we were thinking of driving straight through the night but after some difficult driving, we decided against it. Now it's time to apply some culture training! After having arrived back in Alberta, I figured out why it was more difficult driving in the US even though I have driven in much worse weather conditions here. Here are some differences between driving in Canada (Alberta at least) and the US:

1. we noticed that at night, the interstates (main highway) are much less frequently used than the main highways in Alberta. For example, if you were to stand on the I-90 at 10PM you would probably have an average of one car passing every 2 minutes; if you stood on Hwy 2 at 10PM you would average one car every 30 secs or less. Less traffic = more snow accumulating on the road.

2a. on the side of the highway there are those reflective posts. In the US they are flat reflective diamonds on the top of the post, in Alberta they are completely cylindrical with the reflective tape wrapped around the top of the cylinder. On the flat diamonds, snow sticks to it and you can't see it anymore, on the cylinder, snow can't stick to the entire surface so you can still see it.

2b. again the reflective posts. In the US (at least in Montana), the posts are all along the side of the road, one every 15 feet or so. In Alberta, the posts only mark the road when there is a curve, when the road is straight, there are no posts.

Ok, so difference #1 is the major contributor to us ending up in the ditch somewhere around Wyola/Lodge Grass MT. I'm not sure about #2, you'll have to ask Jason since he was driving at the time. Anyways, we're driving along and a semi passes us on the left side kicking up so much snow that we can't see anything for a good 5 secs, enough time to put us in the ditch. We also came within less than 1 ft of taking out one of those reflective posts, or maybe I should say it came within 1 ft of taking out my mirror. We started clearing a path (there was a good foot of snow on the ground) to drive the car out when a guy from Calgary stops and helps pull us out. So I took over driving and had some difficulty because of difference #2. I'm used to only having reflective posts when there's a curve so I'm fully expecting the road to curve when I see the posts but it doesn't neccessarily happen. It doesn't really help that I only see some of the posts. So we make it to Billings, MT but not before one more event. A big thanks to God for keeping us safe. So I go to pass a semi not realizing that it's driving partway into my lane (remember we can't see the road that well). I'm about halfway past it when I roll over the rivets that let you know you're off the road, 1 second later the left side of the car is rolling on grass, to keep it from going further off road, I crank the steering wheel to the right and put my foot down harder on the gas to keep up my speed knowing that slowing down would likely mean going into the ditch again. All this time, we are still right beside the semi going 100 kph (60mph) so if my car had suddenly jumped back onto the road, we would have driven right into the side of the semi. With some pretty obvious divine intervention, I got the car back on the road and we ended up at a totally ghetto inn. It was inexpensive so we took it. It was so hot in the room we had to sleep with the window open. I looked at the thermostat that was in a locked box outside the room and it was set to 80F (26.6C)!!! We got breakfast at Denny's and went on our way again. I think Jason was getting a little nervous when we passed the little town of Belt just outside of Great Falls and I didn't stop for gas. We were pretty much running on empty, I ended up putting in 9.656 gal (36.5L) when we got to Great Falls. I didn't even know my tank could hold that much (I thought max capacity was 9.25gal/35L). Needless to say, we cut it really close but it definitely took some faith especially on my part, I knew that we were going to cut it close and I didn't bring a jerry can. The night before, Jason gassed up in Sheridan, WY and we made the 200km/120mile trek to Billings, MT. I figured that another ~220miles/350km wouldn't be a problem since we were averaging 45mpg. What I didn't take into account was how windy it would be since that put us down 5mpg the day before. I also put us into a snow bank, which I thought would be better than the rear end of a van. We were in some small town and I have to admit that I was following too close so it's partially my fault, there was a semi completely blocking one side of a two way street and the van in front of us decided to stop at the last possible second. Getting stuck twice (once today and the one last night) and having a heavy head wind ate up more gas than we should have had to. I know that the gas gauge in my car is pretty inaccurate but I watched as the gas needle came down more and more. It was in the red zone and we still had a good 60-70 miles to go and I was sure that there was no way we had more than 1 gal left in the tank, well that's what I thought anyways. So, if some crazy driving conditions and almost running out of gas wasn't enough fun, when we got to the border, they decided to search my car. The lady who searched it was really nice though. It was kind of funny because we had to empty our pockets and she looked through our wallets. She looked at everything in Jason's wallet but only glanced at what was in mine.

So, that was our eventful drive back to Calgary. Wow, that was long, now I have to go to bed. Good night, keep it real and if the opportunity arises, step it up a notch.