Christmas Dream

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
And if I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

Ah yes.... dreams. I love it when they come to me and they are wacky. This particular one I unfortunately forgot the ending to, but the middle parts are interesting as well.

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Me and some friends are heading to an amusement park. It isn't Canada's Wonderland because as we arrive the layout is way different and there are different rides. I'm not sure what it is though, but there is a parking garage at this park instead of a large area parking lot. So we drive up in a spiral to find our spot, park and then head into the park.

As we get through the entrance, a sinister fellow grabs me and leads me away from my friends to an amusement that he runs. My friends just keep walking and don't notice I've been taken away. This particular amusement is very curious... basically I have to stand in a circle on a grassy knoll and swing a large model airplane on a chain and let it go so that it can hit a target on the ground ahead of me. The targets look like a children's hopscotch game, with numbers inside squares. So I agree to the game, but unfortunately the guy running it tells me it costs something extra (outside of the park entrance fee). Curiously, he doesn't tell me the exact price. I panic and fumble through my pockets, but all I can produce is a 5-dollar bill. The man is really upset and angry, and tells me it costs $30 to swing the large model airplanes into the targets. Just as he is doing all this, I remember I forgot my parents' dog in the car! The scene ends.

I am now standing in front of a parking garage stairwell entrance. As I enter it, I realize it isn't a stairwell after all. It is a small bathroom! But there is no toilet or sink, just a bathtub with a shower and curtain. My dog is in the bathroom as well, and instead of being a mixed-breed beagle like he is supposed to be, he has become a small black terrier dog! "Bandit!" I say to him, and pet him. I decide to take a shower, and I remember it takes me a long time to finish. But as I finish, I look down in horror to see a black furry splotch down at my feet... it seems the dog has melted in front of me while I was in the shower. I panic again and look around, yelling his name. I then notice out of the corner of my eye that he has run out of the bathroom and is running away in the parking garage.

I chase after him yelling his name but to no avail. Then I remember a trick that always makes him come to me. I yell, "Bandit, come eat it!". This make him run to me hoping for food, but as he gets close I grab him and throw him into the bathroom to lock him up. This is when something odd happens: suddenly my kid brother is standing in front of me. He says he wants to join me and my friends in the park. But I tell him no, you are too young, and I lock him up in the bathroom. As I turn around and leave I hear him yelling and banging on the door, begging me to take him with us. But I am stubborn and refuse to look back.

When I am with my friends again - I don't remember this part of my dream vividly - they question why I did such a cruel thing, and that him being 12 years old, he could have joined us no problems. I ponder what they said for a while, but soon ignore it as we have fun on the rides.

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So that was my dream, well, what I can remember of it. I have no clue what th interpretation could be, but I'm sure it's something interesting. I really should start to have a notepad beside my bed so I can remember all the key details of my dreams, cause there is some wacky stuff that goes on in them. But sometimes I wonder why can't I just dream of beautiful women like normal guys do? Oh well that's life, can't control what I dream about. Hope everyone has a good Christmas break!

-JoRAM

Dream Last Night

I always love it when I have dreams and I can remember most of the details within the dream after I wake up. Mostly the contents of the dream slip away as I slowly gain consciousness. But this one I had last night is as vivid as a real memory. And here it is.

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Me and about 10-15 friends are on a bus ride to a destination known to us. We know what the destination is but I'm the only one that has been there before. I describe this place to my friends and they look on in interest as I list all of it qualities. We are going there for a seminar. We want to learn about Yoga and mystic beliefs, and this seminar will enlighten us all.

As we arrive and get out of the bus, I realize we are in the Czech Republic, in Prague. I don't know what language my friends are speaking but I know I can understand them. It is night time and the building we have arrived at overlooks the old city and it looks beautiful from up there. All the centuries-old buildings are illuminated with various colours and it is something out of a dream. All my friends are ecstatic and note that we will all have a great time.

The actual building is square and painted white. Even though it is late evening, I can see it being lit by coloured lights and there are magnificent gardens surrounding it that we are currently walking through. All kinds of different flowers and plants are arranged together in intricate patterns. We descend some stairs and turn the corner and enter the building. There are lots of other students everywhere as well, chatting it up and busy running around finding their classrooms. It seems like this weekend there are students from all over the place wanting to learn about various subjects.

As we enter the classroom, the room is small and there are chairs arranged in a circle. The teacher introduces herself and we begin to learn. This is where I forget some details, but I just remember lots of 'red flags' going up as I learn this teaching. The next part I remember is I am sitting in another chair in the room. It's almost as if I dozed off and someone transported me to another chair. But as I'm waking up, I feel someone nudging my shoulder. It is Mariusz, a guy I used to live with a few years ago. He is a really spiritual guy, and always really gets into it in church services. Anyway, he hands me a 345mL bottle that says 'Jäger' on it. It take it from him and leave the classroom.

I turn left out of the classroom door and make my way out of the building. There are still throngs of students outside the classrooms being noisy and sociable. 'Shouldn't they be in their classrooms?', I wonder. One of the rooms I walk by, I peer inside and see mathematical formulas on the blackboard. 'Now there is a learning that is based on science and fundamental logic', I muse to myself. Who needs this hocus-pocus mystical learning, right?

The whole time I am walking I sip on my drink, dunking it back to get a good swig of it. The bottle never seems to go empty. It tastes like carbonated apple juice. I finally make it out of the building on the opposite side we entered. There are many smaller buildings on the property that I walk by. It is a busy place, many people walking about, and there are merchants trying to sell their goods to people. They are yelling out to everyone about their good deals, since it's almost closing time. As I'm walking I realize I am heading towards a large church.

As I enter the church I realize it is on top of a hill sloping down. So the main sanctuary goes along with the natural formation of the hill that I am on, descending down very steeply. It looks like one of my old lecture halls in Guelph university. Only the front podium is lit up. I walk slower and slower, so slow that people behind me have to pass me by. To my far left I see some students I used to go to Guelph with that I never assumed were Christians. 'Why are they here?', I wonder. But the closer I get to the altar, the more scared I get. I realize this isn't a place for me and I turn around and head back up. As I'm leaving, I think about two 'demons' that I have. The first one is Unbelief, and the second one is Lust. These are 2 things that I struggle with the most in my life, and even though I need them exorcised from me, I still leave the church with a guilty conscience.

As I'm heading back to my classroom, all the buildings I passed before are different. One is now an expensive restaurant, and I see all the tables set up with their fancy tableware and waiters rushing about. Rich patrons chat their idle chatter and drink their expensive wines. I realize that my drink is almost empty now. I quicken my step, hopefully I'm not missing too much of the class that I was supposed to be in. But as I get closer and closer to my classroom again, I become more and more afraid. What awaits me in the classroom? I can't just sneak in the back, because my chair is right in the front. I am so scared of the teacher making a comment that I wake up from my dream.

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That is the dream. I don't know what I means right now, I'm still trying to sort it out. And I think I forgot some details of it, which sucks. Hopefully one day humankind will invent devices that record our dreams, but until then, we will have to rely on memory alone.

I think a lot of things in the dream are manifestations of my real life. I was in Prague, and I have been questioning my Faith the last few years. I am leaning more towards Atheism as I listen to lecturers such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. I have read websites that try to prove that Jesus never existed, particularly by Earl Doherty, who makes a good case. I am starting to lose my Faith very slowly, but I don't want to turn to mysticism either. That sort of thing is even more bogus than Christianity. Either way, I hate thinking that we all evolved, since our minds are so complex and full of imagination, everything in our universe has such perfect constants that allow us to live here, nature has such a divine aesthetic to it that I can't help but think there was a Creator that imagined it for His pleasure and to ours.

End of the summer

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

h

Well it has been a decent summer. It started in May when I quit my job (one of the stupidest things I have ever done, why didn't anyone try to stop me??), and it's just kind of slowing down now as we head into September. I know we still have some weeks left, but give me my moment here, ok? 'End of Summer' sounded like a good title that sort of jumps out at you amidst all the silly applications that facebook has been offering us recently.

So in May I went to an intense bible study thing at York University for about a week. We went thru the first half of the Gospel of Mark, doing a 'manuscript style' study that really opened up the whole world of Jesus life to me like I've never seen it before. The miracles of healing and everything that I have known Jesus for all my life sort of fell into second place after discovering what a great humanitarian he was and how radical his ideas and parables were. Although I didn't make any real new friends, it was nice to be in a place where people were focused on one thing and we had no distractions.

Moving back with the parents was a big nightmare for me though. After living semi-independently for about 2 and a half years, living with them was not fun. Everything came back, the having to do chores and getting nagged by mom almost every week got on my nerves. And I'm sure I got on my parents' nerves as well. My brother Tommy enjoyed the new 42" plasma HDTV with the xbox360 and wii, but I kept getting the vibes that I should move out of there.

I met some new people playing volleyball at Ash Bridges Bay. That was fun, and through it I got to go to one of the guy's cottage one weekend. What a great time! Although I didn't enjoy the fact that everyone now knows I snore like a MOTHER. Curse my bent nose of shame! It was up in Muskoka Lakes area, and I got to ride on a very sweet motor boat and jump off a boathouse into the water. The food was great too that we had. Some things going on that I didn't participate in but only observed included: drinking games, poker playing, swimming, wakeboarding. So I missed out on a lot of fun, but I'm a big BAWK BAK BAK BAK BAAAAAAAK, so no surprise there really.

In June I got to go to a dance club for the first time ever. I was a bit freaked out by the experience, and probably will need to get forced into one again. Lots of nice girls but once again just sort of danced on my own trying not to make body contact with anyone. The music for the most part was decent, not too much hip-hop and rap, but lots of remixed top-40s hits. I don't think I drank enough to have a good time though, because everyone I was with seemed to be enjoying themselves a lot. I guess I'm just a stick in the mud. But it's amazing how girls you see every day who look so plain almost look like models when they get all dressed up and make-up, why can't they look so good all the time? Does it take that much work to look beautiful? For me I just wake up and I look like a million bucks, as you can see in my current profile photo.

Then I went out for coffee with someone that shall remain nameless, but knows who they are. It was a giant hour-long awkward moment for me, and I hope it doesn't happen again. I wish I was more of a sociable person than I am, I hate the long pauses where nothing is said for what seems like minutes at a time. That just led me to believe the coffee is from the devil himself, and I will just drink tea for the rest of my days.

At the end of June my previous company that I quit from called me back to do work for them again that I hadn't finished when I was there (d'oh!). I reluctantly agreed and made the stupid decision to help them out. And that's where I am now, 1 month of doing hardly anything and wasting time with work that I thought I'd never do again. They pay me the same as before too, and to top it off I have to drive back and forth to Mississauga from Waterloo every day which adds to the annoyance. It's like I never quit, and my dad whom I'm supposed to be working for now instead is getting upset that I am back at my old company again. Why didn't they hire a replacement for me I shall never know... after all I gave them a 6-WEEK NOTICE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!! Maybe there's nobody stupid enough to do my job for such low pay.

My Europe trip was just so-so. My dad drove us around for like 2500 km all across Europe in 10 days. All I remember from the trip now is the boring driving bits. Even though it was nice to see the different landscapes and road signs, those got tired after about 2 hours. What else can be said than, don't go on vacation with an irate sibling and a father who is completely opposite from you in every possible way. 3 incompatible people does not a happy vacation make! Even though we all share some similarities, there are key differences that make us all annoyed with each other. I'm a big whiner and don't want to walk a lot, therefore hiking sucked when I was with them. My sister is very no-nonsense and just wants to see the sights and leave, while my dad wants to take it slow and go about things in a more relaxed style. Plus visiting his (our) relatives in Czech Republic was the most excruciating experience for her, since she understands none of the language and my dad would go on for hours speaking it with relatives I didn't even know existed. I understand it a bit, but not enough to really keep a decent conversation going. So I was always stuck in the middle.

This summer was also a pretty decent summer for movies. Although Spider-Man 3 and Pirates 3 were a bit disappointing, I loved Bournce Ultimatum, Knocked Up, and Superbad. Great movies that just made me fall in love with movies all over again. Simpsons was ok, and Ocean's 13 I didn't see. Transformers was just a big spectacle of computer graphics plus some good old fashioned charm, and the girl was pretty hot too (looked like a younger Jennifer Connoly). I saw Mr. Bean and that sucked hard, way too kiddy and not enough of the annoying Bean that pisses people off for me to like it.

So that was the summer pretty much in a nutshell. I'm sure I left some things out, but I don't want to bore people anymore. I applaud anyone that has read through this lengthy note, and I hope it doesn't get lost in the shuffle of application notices and advertisements have have recently clogged up our favourite addiction.

Peace out, and enjoy the rest of the summer everyone!

-Joramee

Europe Trip 2007

June 21-22: We left on the plane and got to Vienna in 9 hours or so. We got the rental car and visited the town of Mikulov before heading to my uncle's wedding hotel, the Hotel Moravia

June 23: This was the wedding of my Uncle Paul to our new Aunt Marcella. I gotta say she is the nicest girl I've ever seen him with and I hope it lasts!

June 24: Today we went to the most famous caves in Moravia, Punkva Caves. This is where a famous Abyss resides called the Macocha (=Step Mother in Czech). It looks nice but the picture my sister took sucks, sorry :-(

June 25: This was Prague Day. We visited the city and took lots of pictures. It was a cool city to visit, I recommend it to everyone.

June 26: This was Dresden day. We visited the museums there and saw Raffael's Cistine Madonna (the one with those little angels in the bottom).

June 27: Today we went to Karlovy Vary, the famous spa city of Czech. Some nice sights as always, the Europeans really know how to do fine architecture.

June 28: It was time to leave Czech Republic behind and go to Germany. We had lunch with dad's old college buddy and headed to the grandparents. We probably did something else today besides that but I've forgotten already :-(

June 29: We went to Stuttgart in the morning and to some relatives in the afternoon. Also saw my grandpa's gardens.

June 30: We headed down south-east to view the Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangau. At the end of the day we rested at a bed & breakfast in Berchtesgaden.

July 1: We went up to Hitler's old house, the Eagle's Nest, and saw a great view of some of the Alps. Then in the afternoon we visited the Salt Mines, which was pretty cool.

July 2: We took the long trip from Salzburg to Vienna. This took roughly 3 hours by car. By the end of this week my dad was tired from driving so many kms. The plane trip lasted long too, about 10 hours or so in total and by the time I got home I was dead tired.

hopefully I'll post more pictures of my trip once Anna lets me have them.

-j

to Europe again...

Ah man.

I don't know what I was thinking paying over $1000 to go to Europe. But it's my Uncle's wedding and he's turning 50 the next day, so it's a special occasion. The last time I was in Germany I really screwed it up. I was there for 4 months and didn't even go travelling. I just sat glued to a computer screen all day and then went and hung out with my grandparents afterwards. It was the worst 4 months of my life and it was also the hottest summer Germany has seen in a long time, or the whole of Europe for that matter.

I got angrier and angrier, and wrote a blog every once in a while. I let some friends view it as well, and they wrote me words of encouragement from time to time. But I fear I went insane during that time, and I don't want to repeat it. This time I want to take pictures, make friends, enjoy life a bit more. I will be going with my sister Anna and my dad, so it will be an interesting mix.

Our trip will take us to Prague, Vienna, Dresden, Munich, and Stuttgart. It will be amazing landscapes and centuries old architecture, it's just so refreshing seeing such a rich culture after living in such a new country like Canada for a long time. It will also be nice to get away from the games and movies that I seem to be addicted to.

I was also made to practice some piano songs to play at the wedding. I haven't played piano in ages so I hope I will have enough time to practice and put out a half-decent performance. I definitely don't want to screw it up, even though it will only be about 40 people or so.

A bad thing happened though once I came back to Canada in September 2003, after my trip: I accidentally gave someone I met a link to my web space where I was complaining about my trip to Germany! SO I really got in trouble for that and he shared it with other friends I met and they kept bugging me about it on ICQ for a while after that. But I haven't spoken them in years since I gave up using ICQ. So it will be interesting to meet those people again, albeit briefly, to see what they have to say to me face-to-face.

Also I'd like everyone to get into a big circle, hold hands, and just pray for me. Do it now. Get up from whatever you are doing and just join hands. Pray to whichever god you pray to. Or if you're not religious look into your inner-self and pray to it. Just send me your good vibes... yes, I'm feeling them. Thank you, thank you.

I have finally gone mentally insane right now. Anyone know of any good Insane Assylums in the area? Drop me a line!

-jorameeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

e

LOST - Through the Looking Glass

Wow.

That's all I can say about this 2-hour long season finale. Definitely the best episode this season. Everything came together, there were massive twists, and I was left thinking about the episode for a long time. Even now! For those who haven't seen LOST yet, don't read on because there are spoilers coming up!

----SPOILER ALERT---

This episode had it all: moments of great emotion, explosions, guns, character development, questions answered, new mysteries to solve, surprises, FLASH_FORWARDS!!

The only clue I had for Jack's flash-forward was that he was using a RAZR phone at one point, which wasn't out during the time of the crash or before. And who is in the casket? Why is Jack all depressed and drinking like his dad was? Is his dad still alive? Why did nobody come to this particular person's viewing? There's just so many questions now and I think it was bold of the producers to show us that at least two of the castaways made it back to civilization. It was unprecedented and just took a lot of balls to do it, so I applaud them for it.

I also love how the line between good guy/bad guy is blurred in this show. Now I'm not so sure if Ben is the enemy or not. He obviously knew that Naomi meant trouble, and so did Locke. I was almost yelling at the screen, Jack don't be so stubborn, just listen to your people for once! If John has a suspicion just listen to him!

I was a bit saddened to see Charlie kick the bucket, but who knows... they might bring him back somehow. His purpose was fulfilled though, and he made the sacrifice... but was it the correct thing to do? Jack in the future wants to go back to the island because he is tired of lying, about what? Did they have to cover something up when they were rescued?

ARRHGHGHHGHGH

I can't wait 3 more years for this show to end, I must have the answers NOW!!

--- END SPOILERS ---

HA HA oh well, I guess I'll have to wait until February 2008 to find out what happens next, just like everyone else. I'm just glad they dug themselves out of a hole with bad stories and apparent filler episodes. I am definitely with this show for the long run, and all you out there who haven't seen it yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR IT'S AWESOME!!

I have all the shows on DVD so drop me a line and I'll hook you up.

-j