Watching “End of the Spear” with the Thursday group

Just watched End of the Spear with the Thurs Bible study group. In 1956, five young men risked & lost their lives so that an Ecuadorian tribe (with whom very few had ever had contact; a tribe known for their violence and killing) could *perhaps* get a chance hear and understand a message that Jesus wanted them to know. They placed themselves in an imprudent, vulnerable situation with wives and young children who needed them – why? Because of their conviction that the reconciliation and cessation of hostilities between the Waodani people and God was assuredly more important than keeping themselves (and their families’ interests) protected and safe.

When contrasted against my life now in 2012, it makes me wonder what I am convicted of and whether I am risking anything for things that are assuredly worthwhile. Like something even as small taking several minutes to even talk to and hear from God – or maybe I’m too busy for that…? :O

Screencap from End of the Spear (2005)
(Credit: Every Tribe Entertainment, Bearing Fruit Entertainment)

My journey to the NASL S3 Grand Finals (in photos)

(this blog post was originally written and posted on TeamLiquid.net – many of the photos will be cut off or the links won’t work, so it’s recommended that you view the original post here: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=355307)

Hi everyone! This is my first TL blog post, and it’s a week “late”, but I’d like to share my journey and photos from the NASL Season 3 Grand Finals near Toronto, Canada.

I ended posting a LOT more photos here than I’d thought I would, but I hope you enjoy them!

The full gallery is viewable here: Link <= there are a few more photos there, so feel free to browse the album!

– Journey to Toronto, Canada

The first part of my journey began with a flight from Vancouver, British Columbia all the way to Toronto, Ontario. That’s #YVR to #YYZ if you know the airport codes. From there, it was a quick airport shuttle ride (which I missed, at first) from Pearson International Airport to the Four Points Sheraton hotel where the NASL people would be staying.

Flying Air Canada to #YYZ

An airborne iPhoto

– Waiting for NASL to start

Line-em up!

Morning line-up for Day 1 of NASL Grand Finals

 
Entering the venue (International Centre – located in Mississauga, Ontario (next to Toronto))

As I was walking around before the festivities began, I came across some computers that they were using either for WCS Canada or the CSL Nationals 

 
GoSu.Ostojiy // Quantic’s DdoRo

Clutch started amping up the crowd, and Mr. Bitter and Rotterdam took their seats at the casting desk. It was almost time to begin!

Mr. Bitter getting a camera photo of the crowd 

But first, some Day[9] crowd control 

Day[9] wants YOU.

– Day 1 NASL quarter-finals and WCS Canada

The first match up was SK.MC vs EG.Puma

MC coming down the red carpet for the first time

Awaiting the President Protoss // MC, the boss Toss, coming down the red carpet

And then I whipped out my camera just in time for a random iNcontrol & IdrA sighting 

Leaders – n. Visionaries who go against the crowd for the greater good (of #esports)

And then it was time to hear the iNdrA (IdrA / iNcontrol) casting duo. I thought they were on a roll that weekend. I remember thinking to myself, “Man, IdrA is totally in the casting groove right now”. Good stuff!

iNcontrol and IdrA getting ready to get their casting on

NASL had matches from WCS Canada (and maybe CSL Nationals) in the back of the venue up on a big stage so that people could watch them there.

Root (Slush?) vs… someone? Man, I only know DdoRo, Ostojiy, Huk, and Scarlett (and DdoRo has his name on his back)

What they DIDN’T show you on stream was the hot dog guy with his food stand in front of the entrance. There was a concession area inside the venue, but I’m sure this guy made lots of money as well. I went outside and snapped that pic, and then when I came back in it was time for… LIQUID’HERO  Since I came from the outside, I decided to wait from the back instead of returning to my seat up front. In the end, I got to get REALLY close to him (almost right next to him, if I remember correctly)!

NASL hot dog guy // Liquid’Hero getting ready to walk the red carpet

Liquid’Hero fighting!

But Stephano ended up taking out Liquid.Hero 

Dat guy…

SlayerS.Puzzle vs Liquid.Ret was up next. Here’s Liquid.Ret coming down the red carpet.

And then it was time for what all of Canada had been waiting for…

We’re waiting for him!

…but first, SlayerS.Alicia 

He’s so cute and cuddly 

Not the ‘Hero we deserved, but the one we needed?…

/cuemusic Here he comes, to save the day!

Magnificent in triumph…

But sadly, SlayerS.Alicia is a PvP monster and HuK’s aggressive style failed to find any cracks in his armor  And thus, our beloved Monsieur Loranger went out 0-3 to Alicia.

Devestated in defeat  – you’ll get ’em next time, HuK!

– Day 1 NASL semi-final matches
And with that, we had our top 4 NASL semi-finalists. First up, SK.MC vs Mill.Stephano *shivers*

Stephano and the Boss Toss

In the midst of the carnage and destruction that is MC vs Stephano, I found a brief spot of peace

We found love in a hopeless place…

When I found this photo yesterday, I found it extra hilarious (after reading about all the complaints from stream viewers after the event) and I knew exactly what to caption it:

NASL sound guy? :O

The other semi-finals match was SlayerS.Alicia vs Liquid’Ret. SlayerS.Alicia ended up taking the PvZ match.

SlayerS.Alicia trying to give MC a run for the title of “Boss Toss”

Oh, and look who decided to show up in front of me? Soe and Day[9]  I tweeted this picture last night and Soe retweeted me! *swoons*

Soe + Day[9] = Doe 

After the event finished ~10:30PM, Day[9] told the crowd to not crowd around inside but to wait for him outside the venue. And lo and behold, after a short wait, a wild Day[9] appeared!

Day[9] with some random fans

That guy looks SO scared, lol // There’s one more photo, but I don’t think we need to see where this leads…

Day[9] signing my friend’s phone and making a drawing of his favorite Starcraft unit for my other friend

I bought some $1 store Canada flags and wrote on them for various people. Here, Day[9] is holding one I made for him and one I made for Megumixbear (who wasn’t able to make it to the NASL Grand Finals). He also signed my Canada flag that I was waving on both days in front of the casters’ desk.

See? I fit under his chin 

Day[9] is one intense Starcraft personality. The event ended around 10:30PM and he stayed past 1AM I think to sign things for fans. He was really interactive, too, and would chat and be really friendly with EACH fan. He’s definitely good to his fans  And then he retweeted me after the weekend, too *swoons again*

– Day 2 at the NASL Grand Finals

WHEW! Ok, that does it for Day 1. Day 2 was actually quite a bit lighter in terms of NASL content. At least, my photo count went down quite a bit for that day (and I made more signs to hold up for the stream viewers)!

There was the Tribes: Ascend Grand Finals match, cast by HiRez.Bart and Fishstix. I actually quite like Tribes: Ascend and play it a bit, too. You can check out the main gallery link for those pics, though.

First up was Liquid’Ret vs. SK.MC, cast by Soe and Day[9], I think?

Fusion core dance

Frodan and Day[9] // Camera phone pic of Soe, Day[9], and the flag he signed for me 

Liquid’Ret, the people’s champion

neobowman sitting on the red carpet

MC is good at vortices. GG!

I know what you’ve all been wondering – “What does the NASL hotdog guy like? They never showed him on stream!” Well, never fear, I’ve got you covered:

NASL hotdog guy, up close and personal

And then it was time for the Grand Finals match! Here comes SlayerS.Alicia…

Refueling the BitterDam

And in between a break, here came one of the most memorable moments for me this NASL. I was already sitting in the front row (SO thankful for those seats!), and while I was standing up I asked Rotterdam if I could get a quick picture. He happily obliged, which resulted in the following:

Rotterdam and Mr. Bitter – not just really, really, ridiculously, good-looking #Zoolanderquote

Maybe they SHOULD quit their day jobs…

And then it was time for Stephano to come down!

Clutch & Lauren // Comment allez vous, Stephano?

And as quickly as that, it was over. 4-0 Stephano over Alicia. Protoss’, cover your eyes!

Stephano right after shaking SlayerS.Alicia’s hand (as Stephano wins NASL Season 3)

And thus commenced the first inaugural NASL post-finals on-stage DANCE PART-AY :O

Let the champagne flow (I got hit by champagne in the front row, heh heh)!

Stephano after winning NASL Season 3 and $30,000

Champagne, champagne everywhere…

…and not a drop to drink.

I also have a photo of one of the NASL organizers scrambling to throw a black cloth over the caster computers to save it from the champagne, lol  (you can check my gallery link for that one)

The infamous on-stage dance party…

I don’t know if this was shown on stream, but a little bit into the “dance party”, Stephano actually crouched down and had to stay down for I think at least half a minute because he was so overcome with emotion. I managed to snag this shot during that moment:

Stephano overcome with emotion (he had to stay crouched down for maybe half a minute to regain his composure)

He likes to move it, move it… (from Madagascar 1 & 2, which my 2-year old niece here in Ontario has recently educated me on)

Gretorp and NASL ❤ Canada

NASL <3’s NASL

Yup.

– Some extra stuff from behind the scenes

I wasn’t allowed onto the top level of the stage after the event was over, so I had to reach up high and get the best shot I could of inside the stage booth. This is the one Stephano was in.

A sneak peek inside the NASL stage booth

Look who I found in the normal spectator area! It’s Mr. Bitter! There weren’t too many fans around at this point, and only myself and another guy seemed to be interested in getting his autograph, so this was a great time for me to give him my custom $1 store Canada flags I made for him and Rotterdam (which he passed along for me  ).

Mr. Bitter! With my custom Canada flags for him and Rotti!

I found Liquid’Hero just outside the curtains to the back stage area, so I asked him for a photo before I lost my nerve!

Who’s photobombing me and Liquid’Hero in the back? :O

And my fellow Canadian, Chris Ostojic! From the University of Western Ontario (I’ve visited their campus, before) 

GoSu.Ostojiy – go Western! (UWO)

THE END

Epilogue: So, since I was staying at the NASL featured hotel (and since @JawesomeArt was telling me that he had drinks with IdrA and iNcontrol at the hotel bar for a few hours before the first day of the event), I decided to stop by the hotel bar and see who I could “run into”. Well, I was able to run into (a somewhat tipsy) Rotterdam and Quantic.DdoRo while I was there. And then I found IdrA and iNcontrol at a back table and gave them the Canada flags I made for them! They were chilling with Scarlett and Liquid’Ret  Oh yeah, and x6.MaximusBlack was there, too.

If you look carefully, you can see EG.iNcontrol & EG.IdrA (back left table) and x6.MaximusBlack (center screen) 

So, in summary, NASL was a GREAT experience for me. It was especially great for me as a Canadian, and this was my first ever esports event, so it was a bit of a dream come true to be able to break into the national anthem with my fellow Canadians spontaneously (on Day 2)  I was able to get WAY closer to the “celebrities” and SC personalities than I had hoped to be able to, and it was surprising how being here at this event in person was a bit of a springboard for me to interact with a few of them on social media after the event, too! I was able to get on Inside the Game with djWHEAT, IdrA, and iNcontrol last week and talk a bit about it (and they remembered my $1 store Canada flags *swoon*).

So I was definitely very thankful to everyone involved with putting on the NASL weekend and felt very blessed to have a good experience there 

Smooth Gestures (Mouse) for Chrome

This was my favorite part of Firefox-  being able to use mouse gestures as a plug-in for the browser. When I switched to Chrome, I don’t think I was able to find any extensions for it that let me use mouse gestures, but I stuck with Chrome anyways because of it’s super fluid feel (e.g. dragging tabs around feels OH so quick).

But for some reason, I decided to Google “mouse gestures for Chrome” today to see if anyone had developed anything. And voila, here’s the best one that I’ve found:

Smooth Gestures – https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lfkgmnnajiljnolcgolmmgnecgldgeld

It’s free and it works pretty well!

My thoughts on the Rogers Reservation System

My (i.e. potentially mine) iPhone 4S finally shipped. It just left Mount Hope, Ontario. Who knows when it will get here… *facepalm*

I was #245 in the NATION for a pre-reserved Rogers iPhone 4S 32GB (Black) and now my phone will probably arrive almost a week later (Edit: It’s the next morning and my phone appears to have reached YVR airport) than the ppl who walked in to Future Shop this afternoon to get a (surprise) Rogers iPhone 4S…

Good thing my hope for happiness is not invested in a phone 😛 (but I AM upset about how the Rogers representative on the “Rogers Red Board” blog is deflecting all blame for their reservation system’s poor execution)

See: http://redboard.rogers.com/2011/rogers-reservation-system-iphone-4s-update/comment-page-6/#comments
(click on “Show Comments” at the bottom)

Not that I’m promoting materialism or anything…

But I’m #245 in Rogers’ online reservation (pre-order) system for the Black 32GB iPhone 4S 😛

(from www.rogers.com)

I pre-ordered about 3 minutes after the Rogers system came back online (3AM PST/6AM EST). I guess I could have been earlier in line if I hadn’t read through all the terms and agreements before clicking “Accept”, just to make sure, hee hee.

Anyways, it’s a $40 deposit and it’s fully refundable. So now I guess it’s time to see if I can get my just expired 3-year contract renewed. It’s a Rogers retention iPhone plan from 2008, but it’s apparently better than anything Rogers offers now of days. If not… I may have to cancel this iPhone 4S order and start rethinking my phone plans 😛

Oh, and did I mention that I LOST MY iPhone 3G last Saturday, I think somewhere in Coquitlam? Yup. What timing, eh?

iPhone 2012 rumors

So today the iPhone 4S was unveiled by Apple, much to the disappointment of those who were hoping for a (physically) redesigned “iPhone 5”. But along with that disappointment comes a much more serious problem looming over the next months…

What are we supposed to Google to find out the latest rumors on the next iPhone from Apple?! The newest iPhone is called the iPhone 4S, and so presumably the next phone could be called the “5”. But technically, the iPhone 4S is already the “5th” iPhone model ever made, so shouldn’t the next iPhone actually be named the “iPhone 6”?

But surely Apple wouldn’t jump names from a “4S” model to a “6” –  that would just seem (to a consumer such as myself) too much like Apple over-hyping the next iPhone. Not only that, but jumping from an iPhone 4S to an iPhone 6 sounds too much to me (a bitter, jaded iPhone follower) as an implicit admission of guilt from Apple that there’s an iPhone 5-sized hole in their product line-up! (Lol, I think I need to calm down…)

So, to address this monumental crisis, I propose a new search term that will carry us through to the next (and most likely only) iPhone to be unveiled in the coming year. A hash tag for our habitual iPhone rumor rehashing, if you will. A tag line to end all tag-… well, you get my point 😉

#iphone2012

Short, simple, and hopefully trending.

P.S. That was a little more cathartic than I anticipated 🙂

The short version

I think all my life, I’ve always just done enough to get by. Even when it comes to spiritual things, that’s been true.

This is most clearly seen (literally) when you look at my room. As my cousin Sam has put it, “it looks like a bomb went off in there.” Ouch, lol.

But the short version is this: I think I’m starting to realize that life actually is broken – that it’s non-functional (even dysfunctional?) – when you don’t give all of your heart and life to Jesus.

You may think, “yeah, obviously. Didn’t you learn that in Sunday School?” But it’s not exactly intuitive. Partial commitment should yield partial fruit, shouldn’t it?

Yes, the Bible usually doesn’t use language that supports the idea of “partial” devotion to God. But if you think about it logically, what person can claim that they have ever been able to give all of themselves to God? (see Phil 3:12a, which supports the idea that we’ll never have “arrived” at that point of devotion. On this side of Heaven, at least…)

And if it’s theoretically impossible to give all of yourself to God, without holding back, then surely it’s understandable to just do “whatever you can” in your walk with God? Surely, God who knows us better than we know ourselves – surely He understands? (Even if you know deep down inside that there’s a lot more of yourself that you could surrender to Him; you’re just unwilling to…)

So, I guess I’ve always used that point to justify “just getting by” with giving God only whatever I could spare, heart-wise, to Him. It’s kind of like the mindset of the person who saves up for retirement or a college-fund for their kid by depositing whatever they can spare at the end of each month, instead of clearly setting out exactly what they are going to set aside to make sure they end up with enough at the end of the day.

But the point is that I’m starting to realize that, yes, I may never be able to truly give my all to Jesus in this life, but there’s still a certain quality or attitude of heart that God must want from me now, that I’m not yet giving Him.

I think as I do start doing that, God will come through. It will be worth it. (It’s scary to put one’s trust and belief in that, though)

Here’s a verse that I need to start believing and living out:

1 John 2:14b (ESV) –

I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God abides in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.

(Jesus speaking in a vision to John in Rev 2:7 is pretty cool, too)

Overcoming is an idea that is sometimes a tricky concept for the Christian. How much of my Christian life is supposed to depend on me and my effort? How much is it supposed to be dependent on the One who works in me, “both to will and to work for his good pleasure?”

I’m not exactly sure. But I don’t have to be. I think it’s clear enough that what I am to do is to pour my my energy and effort into this – into pressing into Him – in every facet of my life.

So I’ll do it, and all the while plead with God to do His (necessary and enabling) work in me. And perhaps that is how God will choose to display His amazingness at this particular time.

Only time will tell.

P.S. Oh, and for those of you wondering what this practically looks like for me, I guess it can be summed up in one imperative: “Stop doing a half-a**ed job of everything.” Or as Russel Peters has put it, “Be a man! Do the right thing!” (in every task, and at every time – see how impossible this is?! But it’s the attitude and the mindset which I’m after…)

Team Liquid shirt – Batch #2 (first 800)

I just got this confirmation e-mail today:

from notifications@teamliquid.net date Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 1:55 PM subject Order Confirmation

Your order has been accepted

Your Order Number is: ________

The following items were ordered:

               *** In Stock ***
Qty  Offer Id  Description
—  ——–  ——————–
1    TLJB-S    Blue T-Shirt – Small

Thank You for shopping at Team Liquid

If you’re wondering what I bought, it’s the Team Liquid t-shirt (it’s like a universally recognized symbol in the Starcraft world – especially the “foreigner” [aka non-Korean] scene). They did a first batch like a couple of months ago? A 1000 shirt run, and it sold out in about 14 hours. This time they made a second batch of 800 and I think it sold out in like 6 or so hours 😛

Good thing I caught wind of it on @TeamLiquidnet right when they tweeted it. I had ordered a Small within minutes!I am really looking forward to the conversations that it will undoubtedly start. That’s the main reason I got it 🙂

I think I’m going to wear it during Frosh week(s) at UBC and SFU, assuming I get to volunteer there with Campus for Christ this September.Think about it – the two Canadian universities with perhaps the highest Asian and Korean populations by %… there are going to be TONS of Starcraft 2 geeks there for Frosh week. Hopefully I will become the ultimate geek magnet (that’s just one step down from being a chick magnet… yeah, really…).

Lol.

On an unrelated note: Oh, broccoli. How I have missed you! May I never be separated for so long from green, leafy vegetables again.

Seat-O-Sky Parks.com

Lol, I just got off the phone with BC’s Discover Camping Call Centre (1-800-689-9025) because some friends and I will be camping at Cultus Lake’s Maple Bay campgrounds this summer. Before ending the call, the person helping me out on the phone gave me an e-mail address where I could get an answer from the Maple Bay campgrounds people directly (about how competitive the lineups are for their “first-come first-served” campsites during the time we’d be going down).

The funny part is that when she was reading me out the e-mail address, this is how it went down:

(read the following in “quotes” phonetically)
info – [at] – seat – “Oh” – sky – parks – [dot] – com

When she was reading that, I was thinking… “ok, this is a bit of a strange domain name for Cultus Lake’s Maple Bay campgrounds. Why would someone have the word “seat” in their URL for a camp site? But I typed it into Notepad as she was reading it out to me.

And then I was like, wait a second – info@seatoskyparks.com? I’m pretty sure I’m hearing her right and spelling it right… (cause the audio connection wasn’t the clearest).

So to double check, I was like, “Oh, ok – so that’s sea to sky parks dot com?” But I think I was saying it too quickly, because her response was to try to clarify and say, “Yup, it’s SEAT – ‘Oh’ – SKY parks dot com”, making a point to pronounce each word separately! 😛

At this point I was pretty sure she was that she was, indeed, saying the word “SEAT”, the letter “O”, and the word “SKY” 😀 Which is a pretty funny misread, because like I said, what does the word “seat” have to do with camping? Hee hee. But in any case, at least this meant that I had the spelling right.

So before I said good-bye I just re-read the e-mail address out a bit more carefully, making a point to pronounce my words a little more distinctly and clearly:

“Ok, so that’s info at SEA to SKY parks dot com, right?”

And that’s when she realized that the e-mail address was saying “Sea to Sky”, not “Seat-O-Sky”. As in, the Sea to Sky highway 😛 So she started stifling a bit of a laugh, because, come on – it’s a pretty funny goof-up, amirite?!

So I laughed a little (cause I figured, hey, at least she can know I think it’s funny too and hopefully know that I don’t think she’s an idiot). Lolz.

And with that, I said good-bye.

But before I ended the call on my computer (I was phoning them via Gmail’s chat/phone feature), I could hear some background laughter. At first I thought it was a co-worker in the room laughing at her, but then I realized she was chuckling to herself over how silly that last phone call was! But I guess she didn’t know she hadn’t hung up yet, lol. Wow. Talk about the joke that keeps on giving!

So with one last soft chuckle of my own, I hit the “End” button. I would like to say, though, that she was extremely helpful all the while before giving me that e-mail address. So kudos to my phone representative and BC’s Discover Camping Call Centre for another satisfied customer 🙂

P.S. After visiting http://www.seatOskyparks.com I just realized that Sea to Sky Parks has a direct phone line as well! Whoo hoo. Score another win for the inter-webs 😛

(Sea to Sky Parks)
By Phone: 604-986-9371
By Email: info@seatoskyparks.com 

Name, Campus, Year, Dreams in 2011-2012

I just wrote the following in a FB group related to Campus for Christ (C4C – it’s a student club in almost all major universities across Canada) as an “introduction” to myself. I thought it was pretty interesting… it made me think through some things as I wrote it…

Name, Campus, Year, Dreams in 2011-2012:

“[Paulman] is my name and I live and work as a computer engineer about 5 minutes away from SFU, which is my alma mater. I’m C4C alumni (active 2004-2009’ish) and my dream in 2011-2012 is to still be involved in supporting/discipling students from my Church (Willingdon) in living and sharing the Gospel here at SFU and UBC, and maybe even get a chance to get my hands dirty a bit on campus, too.”