.chris evangelista.

Did you know that Michael Jackson was raised as a Jehovah's Witness? Aparently his mom is really devout. When I found that out I remembered something that I learned in Hebrew class..

The term "Jehovah" is actually one huge mistake.. or well, at least a misunderstanding. It comes from the mispronounciation of a word in the Hebrew Bible.

Just some quick background in formation... Hebrew does not have any vowels at all, and so all of its letters are consonants. This was fine for the most part, because the ancients who read the Tanakh (the proper term for hte Hebrew Bible.. the Christian Old Testament) just knew how to pronounce the words without the vowels. Kind of like how people who txt msg alot cn cmncte wo lke ths.

But as time went on and Hebrew was spoken less and less, there was a group of Hebrew Scholars called the Masoretes who decided to add vowels into the text to preserve the pronounciation. The way they did this is to add what we now call "Masoretic Vowel Points". They're basically dots and dashes added either above, below, or inside hebrew letters to indicate what vowel should occur after that consonant...

Ok so back to the "Jehovah" mistake... The word is derived from the English transliteration of the personal name of God, which without any vowels is transliterated as YHWH. Now the thing is, Jews revered the personal name of God so much that when they read the scriptures, instead of pronouncing it, they would use another word "Adonai" instead, which meant "Lord" or "Master". What happened then was, when the Masoretes added the vowel markings, instead of adding the proper vowel markings on YHWH so that it's pronounced properly, what they did was add on it the vowel markings for the word Adonay ('DNY) ... which produced YeHoWaH which is the word we derive Jehovah from (I know adonay begins with an a.. but the vowel marking underneath the first letter of Adonay - ' or aleph is what we call a shewa, and becomes either a very short "a" or a very short "e" depending on what letter it's on).

No one really knows what the original pronounciation of the word YHWH is, but based on word comparisons and other arguments that I'm not in the mood to write out right now, the best guess of scholars today is that it is actually pronounced "YaHWeH". (I think in some countries the word for God is "Jah" pronounced "Yah").

Anyway, all that is to show that even in its name the Jehovah's Witness "religion" has got it wrong... Bah, hope MJ didn't buy in to all that. LOL.

Actually, well I'm not poor right now.. In fact I have a lot of money in the bank... Way more than I normally would. But... That money's gotta last me for the summer.

For the first time since I was 16, I'm going jobless for a summer. And here are some of the ways I've observed that I'm being careful with money...

1. I haven't eaten sushi in more than a week... more than 3 weeks now actually. I wonder if Christina misses me...
2. I'm just generally eating more at home. Of course that's easier now that I'm not out so much... but yeah, just eating more at home
3. When I do eat outside... it's all about MacDonalds. Well frig if they're the cheapest dinners out there, what are you gonna do?
4. I only pay for gas every other week right now... but oddly I still paid for the oil change I just had done...
5. Less coffees... which also is not such a big deal cause it's frigging summer... which means, I am naturally peppy in the morning cuase of the sunshine.. and I think only idiots drink hot beverages when it's hot outside.

Anyway... just some of the ways. What is occupying my time since I have no work? Well... about 2-3 hours of my day is spent on the piano practicing for my exam. Yup, that much. And then I'm also learning a new language... Hebrew. FUN!

I got my grades in for my non-examed classes ...  I had 2 of them.

I got a B ... 73 in my Modern Art class. Disappointing, but wholly expected. Expected cause I knew I wasn't doing all that well.. but disappointing cause I was really trying for at least a B+ in the class.

I got an A- ... 80 in my Music and Liturgy class. Which is great, but actually really disappointing. That's cause I was really trying for an A or heck even and A+ .. it would have been nice to have at least one. Anyway that was the best class I could have done it in - since all of the course work were writing assignments, and I had no exams or even midterms for the class.

Ahh well. I'm expecting a B+ or A- in my Christian History class. And I've upgraded my expected B+ to maybe an A- (cause I got an unexpectedely high grade on one of my major course work). What this all means is that I'm firmly on the way to rebuilding my GPA after my noobness last semester.

Not that it matters since I've already gotten in to Grad School... meh.

I got this message from some random guy who watched my tutorial of how to play "Over the Rainbow" on the Ukulele...

"Hey Chris, i am inb Hawaii for business. I've played guitar since i was a kid. I kept going be this ukulele store and kept hearing Bruddah Iz at the hotel. I just went down to the ukulele shop a bought a sweet Koa wood uke, went straight up to my room and googled your tutorial. I went back down to the shop about 30 minute later and played the whole song for the girl working there. We got a date tonight. Sweet!!!!!!!!!!!1
couldnt have done it without u. thanks bro. Doc D "

LOLOL

I finally have an exam today! Horay!

Wait... why am I so excited you may ask? Cause I've been done classes for TWO FRICKIN WEEKS now. Alas, my college (St. Michael's) is pretty down low on exam priorities at UofT, and so while the Engineering and noob Science students are all done their exams and are out of school, I gotta wait till the last frigging days of the exam period to write mines. 1 today. 2 more... NEXT WEEK...

Bah.

I was sitting in my car this morning, enjoying a coffee. I was really early for a job interview so I thought I'd just chill and take in the sights of Mid-Town Toronto. I was beside a couple of apartment buildings, and a bunch of old Victorian Houses that have been apparently converted in to offices.

Anyway, as I was doing so though, something caught my attention... There was this cute little dog (looks like Kyan, probably the same type) who was working on a bowel movement. I found it funny cause it would squat down, and I guess it was constipated or something, cause then it would get up, move around a bit, and then squat down again for another try. LOL. It does this a few times, when finally, I knew it was happening. Good for you boy! But what happened afterward kind of amused me a little more…

The guy who was walking the dog kind of looked around for a bit. I was watching him cause I knew what he had to do next (City bylaws…). He kind of looked a little dejected doing it, but eventually he does it… He pulls out a black plastic back sticks his arm in it, and down he goes! Yup, he picked up the dog crap…

I don’t know why I found it so amusing… Maybe cause buddy looked kind of.. gruff, you know. A beer-bellied, hoorah, I work in a factory and watch football kind of guy. Not exactly the kind I would see walking a tiny little pooch and picking up its crap.

Then I started thinking.. Man, what could possibly possess a person to own a pet? Now of course I’m severely allergic to dogs and cats, so I guess it’s an easier thing for me to criticize. But honestly, when you just sit and objectively think about it for a second… What’s so fulfilling about picking up dog crap?

Uhmm.. no. Actually I don't. BUT.. After one of the coldest winters that I can remember... I finally got to wear shorts today!!! HORAY! It was a lovely 16 degrees celsius... and even though there was a bit of a breeze tht probably made it feel more like 10, I knew I couldn't resist.

SWEETNESS!

Actually, not quite yet.. but I noticed last week that it wasn't pitch black anymore when I wake up. Which is great! No more half-asleep driving to the station.

One problem, Daylight Savings time next week... Which kinda sucks (I think it means I'll have to wake up to darkness again). But at least that means the days really are getting longer.

Anyway... horay, Spring is almost here!

Just some random thoughts I had when I woke up, as I was getting ready for school, and during the subway ride over...

1. Steven Page is leaving the Bare Naked Ladies. That makes me sad.
2. I really really really want to go to a Sophie Milman concert.
3. I finally made a new video lesson for the Psalm 150 Project, except I realized theres a really big mistake in it, so I have to fix that...
4. I decided I want lots of kids... maybe like 4 or 5. My mom'd like it... ahahaha.
5. I really miss watching Chuck.
6. I'm sick of school, and I'm getting lazy as a result..
7. I'm so glad I found my cool mouse. I thought I lost it after I came home from the Philippines. Then I found it a week ago in a bag that I hadn't opened since May last year! hahaha.
8. I gotta start applying for jobs for the summer. I was hoping I would get the summer internship at my church (I'm gonna be the intern starting in August though), but the guy from last year wants to do it. Theres a chance they might get funding to hire me as an assistant. But honestly, I'm really sick of working camps anyway.
9. I have a paper to finish. Ahhh.
10. But after that paper I only have like 6 more things to do for school...

The Ontario arm of CUPE aparently voted to "boycott Israel" today. Instead of ranting, I'm gonna make a nice ordered list of why I think this is idiotic.

1. CUPE is a Canadian national organization that has no place in international affairs.
2. The fact that it even has time to consider international issues means that it is trying to find ways to maintain relevancy in a day when unions in general are no longer needed.
3. A crisis remains in York University after its CUPE local of Contract faculty and TAs striked for 11 weeks. CUPE should have had that issue at the forefront of its concerns then, and it should remain so now.
4. Sid Ryan is an idiot and an anti-semite.
5. Their issue with Israel is its supposed apartheid agains Palestine. Yet, much less controversial (read, widely accepted) issues remain unnoticed, such as oh.. well how about Chinese human rights violations as an example.

But most of all... Sid Ryan is an idiot. Wait I said that already. Eh. Can't say it enough. Sid Ryan is an idiot...

Yes that's right. 6 hours from now, and I shall be free for Reading Week... Kind of. Because unlike most other students, I plan to actually do some reading. But nonetheless... The stresses of school shall be eased for a little while. I'm gonna catch up on some gaming in addition to that school work. Horah!

Spring is in the air, even though it's not gonna last too long. It's supposed to snow again tonight.. But ahh well, there's light at the end of the tunnel, and that's enough hope for us Torontonians to get us through the last.. 4 weeks or so of winter. Pretty soon I'll be back in my shorts.. Yehyah.

Random thought: I need to buy new shoes... Hmph, that'll be nice.