Johnathan Sum says : so yeah, that's the core of what we talked about today
if you have any input, i would like to know what you think
tell me i'm wrong tell me i'm crazy or stupid or blind or disillusional

Friend says : quite the convo, and yes I'm sure it is a bit more difficult to find someone...but perhaps you need to look past that acquiring of materials goods and ask maybe...what it stands for...or what it represents?  
let me ask you something...what material goods make u happy?

Johnathan Sum says : my blanket
my car
short of those two, if everything else were taken away, it would not make an ounce of difference to me
and i think i can speak on jeff's behalf and say short of a small handful of items, if all his other posessions were removed, he would not be greatly affected

Friend says : well...hm...I think that the acquiring of material goods...could be an issue of self-worth...or....just fitting in...or they just really like the functionality or it...or perhaps its all aesthetics...but I think...as long as it brings that person happiness just by having it, I don't think it makes them less dte. I'm not sure... (not defending myself btw...I would not fit under your def'n of a dte girl b/c I AM guilty of wanting some ridiculous material goods that I could really live without) but I feel like there's nothing wrong with wanting better things so long as it's just a want, and it doesn't affect your satisfaction with life if you do NOT have it.  
and I think these girls....that it's great that they are committed to volunteer work within the church community but why can't they spend their earnings on things that will bring themselves joy...even if it is temporary?  

Johnathan Sum says : i don't think temporary joy is bad. but to the degree in which they pursue it i think is excessive

Friend says : that, i wouldn't know

Johnathan Sum : i look at their clothes. i look at their cars. i like at the sort of material goods they own and the sort they talk about amongst each other and there is no satisfaction to be found in anything else. only in having more stuff.
it's always more more and more.
and it must always be more of the newest stuff. i remember a friend talking with me once. the conversation went like this

Friend says : ahhh...hm that might be a bit obsessive

Johnathan Sum says : her : i don't know why i bought my civic. it doesn't make sense to me. i should have leased it.
me : why do you say that? you love your car
her : i only drive new cars. i will not keep a car if it's less than 4 years old
me : o...k....

Friend says : :S oh wow.

Johnathan Sum says : granted
this was not a christian friend

Friend says : okay didn't think it was like that...but okay
okay

Johnathan Sum says : although sometimes that difference is not even important sometimes
chasing trends, overloading closets, throwing away a perfectly good item when its only fault was being manufactured 1 year prior
i see this all too often in the asian community not to say the least about the asian church community
being chinese, and most of us of HK parentage, 90% are well to do and have never had to truly understand suffering and the feeling of not-having the way most ppl must live with on a daily basis
this is not to say that i know what the world out there struggles with no not at all
in fact i'm just as far removed from that as the people i'm talking about
i too indulge myself at times. you saw my shelf of toys. what good does that shelf of goods serve me? none really. yet i have put in the energy to chase such things because at the time, they did provide me with a temporary sense of happiness
and i'm not saying it's wrong per se. but people need to open their eyes and understand the real reason why they do the things they do. especially in the regards of consumerism. at least be conscious of one's actions. although i may be saying that simply to justify my own behaviour

Friend says : so then...why do u judge those girls in ur community? as long as its NOT obsessive chasing trends, and throwing them away b/c its 1 year old and what not...I think its reasonable for them to want material goods the way u accumulated ur toys oui ou non?
i think u should still give them a chance...if everything else seems to be good...to see where it may go

Johnathan Sum says : well, amongst the girls at church at least, it is quite obsessive.

Friend says : which is ironic...

Johnathan Sum says : it is..
a trend i see repeated all too often
not a lot of ppl know this about me but
one issue that moves me greatly is that of poverty
i'm getting teary-eyed right now just thinking about it
if all people are born equal, and we as a people/country/christian-faith can speak it openly, why are things the way they are? and what does that say of us when we so wantonly do the things we do? again, with respect to material posessions?

Friend says : it would be nice if we were all born to be equal...but we're not...

Johnathan Sum says : exactly. we're not. but people are hypocritives for saying it and even pushing it on others.
hypocrites*
i'd like to say that i am a 'man' of integrity but even i know deep within that i am not. for i fall prey to the exact same whims that everyone else experiences

Friend says : so then why set such high standards for the girl ur to date? not saying you should LOWER your standards but perhaps you shouldn't be tooo quick to judge...and perhaps u two can grow with one another... i will never speak as eloquently as you but...meh....

Johnathan Sum : i've had the privelage of being tutored by an oxford phd graduate for 3 years in english. it was definitely one of the most rewarding experiences of my life

Friend says : privilege *
:$

Johnathan Sum says : oops
thank you
i'm not immune to mistakes in spelling though. i do require constant corrections

Friend says : nice, how did you get that opportunity?

Johnathan Sum says : if you met me in grade 9, you'd be appalled at my level of verbal and written communication
i was a brat growing up. i was better than my peers and so i became complacent
i never sought to advance my skills in anything
until i became the standard for below-average in just about everything
my parents knew of an old british man from where i know not
but they enlisted his services in teaching me english. i had a thorough straightening out
funny that despite all his magnificent tutoring, i still managed to fail OAC english
i never told him. it'd probably kill him.

Friend says : :S

Johnathan Sum says : he always called me his brightest student. i don't know if he was only jesting and using compliments to push me harder but i think he was sincere

Friend says : whattt? lol

Johnathan Sum says : if i could write script that would make him tear, i must've done something right

Friend says : well yes he did a great job =)

Johnathan Sum says : thank you ****
going back to your earlier statement, it's a standard that i believe i must hold in order to achieve some a certain degree of mutual understanding between her and myself
that is not to say i won't befriend someone who doesn't agree with me on the topic
but if i were to date, i can say that it would almost certainly definitively be a source of sandpaper in the relationship
and that it would take A LOT of work to smooth things out
i do not wish to aggravate anybody. i am more than happy to sit on the sidelines and wait my turn. i just get anxious every now and then wondering when my turn will arrive

Friend says : it will
and yes...I guess it would be a big problem in the relationship if you were to get into one already knowing and hoping for her to change...

Johnathan Sum says : i would not want someone to change just because i ask them to. i would want someone to change because they have come to a realization for whatever reason for whatever topic on their own. i do not want to influence someone because to make them "fit" my ideals.
er, drop that because*

Friend says : right

Johnathan Sum says : i have too many thoughts running much too quickly in my mind to put them down into text

Friend says : and through my paper, I've learned that as well.
this is a really engaging convo...but I'm afraid I have to end it here for now, I have to get to bed =(

Johnathan Sum says : well thank you for having listened to me up till now
there are not many other with whom i may speak so freely not even **** i will tell you

Friend says : when ur turn comes, it will definitely be worth the wait I'm sure. It just might take a longer time for the same girls to mature out of this phase or until u meet a girl now that sees things the same way

Johnathan Sum says : for that matter, not even ****
but before i keep you any longer you had best be getting to bed
i will too once i've done a bit more reading

Friend says : thank u for being open with me and taking a chance even though you thought u may have offended me, I will admit at one point...I felt like I was being judged by you and still do but no matter how you see me, this is who I am and I'm happy with myself. So I guess when I think of it that way, I'm not offended at all.  
sorry to have kept u from ur studies...I guess it wasn't the best time to encourage u to tell me after u dodged it the first time lol

Johnathan Sum says : well that's quite all right. that's why tomorrow exists afterall hehe
again, thanks for listening. and i do apologize for any sort of negative emotions that may have arisen through this. you're a wonderful friend and i am grateful for you as you are
now really. off to bed. at this rate, you will be up after noon
it will appear as if the moon had never left the sky and kept the sun from rising

Friend says : thank u...I really try to be no, I will be up at 9:30am! going to bus down to see **** tmr
Gnite John

Johnathan Sum says : Goodnight ****.

How much does it weigh on its own once you've placed it in someone else's hands to hold?

As usual, always late to throw my thoughts up here. Let's recap Thanksgiving before America gets theirs.

Thursday - Just a random hangout night with Willio and Wes. Went up to meet them at Yorkdale and bummed for a bit before we all decided to head up to D&B for a couple hours. We ended up staying for more than a couple hours. We played NASCAR quite a few times, I'm perpetually in 2nd place to either of them. Dang it! I'm supposed to be the car/racing expert here! Also played Deal or no Deal, a few random shooters but the highlights had to be Monopoly, NX Absolute, and Skee Ball. Skee Ball is the game where you roll a ball up a ramp and try to get it into different holes with point values on them. I claimed ultimate victory as the undisputed winner of that game. On to Monopoly, wow what a credit-sucking game. One of those coin-drop type games where the player hopes that by putting in money, more will come out at the bottom. That's rarely the case but it also had a bonus feature. Light up the Monopoly lights by timing your drops and you get to be a witness as the computer plays Monopoly for you and watch how many or how few reward tickets come your way. Once Willio got on that one, it was over. He ended up playing that machine for the whole night. Bye bye money! Was able to pull him away for a few rounds of NX Absolute, a Korean version of DDR, and destroyed him in that. Victory once again! He went back to Monopoly shortly thereafter. All the while, Wes was on a game called Stomp Troopers. A game that tests your ability to time yourself and hit a button when a circle of individually-lighting lightbulbs lights up in front of you. If you time it right and stop the light at the lightbulb directly in front of you, you win 300 reward tickets. For everytime you fail and stop the light on a lightbulb to either side of the one in front of you, you get the number of tickets written in front of that bulb. It ranges from 2 tickets to 8 and that count adds itself to the prize total. So say it lands on a 2, then the total ticket prize total becomes 302. Well, he won 10,000+ reward tickets... Yeah I think he totally broke the system and can now milk it for points. Sick! I did not manage to win once. Lame! Eventually called it a night.

Friday - After work and class, got home to prep for Amy's b-day party. Where was it? D&B! So up to D&B I went again for a night of partying and silly gaming. The night was made more awesome when Priscilla decided to have her b-day bash at D&B as well. Ended up spending a lot of time floating back and forth between both groups. I think I spent more time searching for b-day girls than I did playing games. Good times! Also saw Erica there for another b-day party. Floated towards her too. Ha! One of the best parts of the night was buying credits. Yeah buying credits doesn't sound like much fun but paying $50 and getting $300 worth of credits is pretty win! Haha! With the money "saved" I bought a couple rounds of drinks for both groups. Fun times.

Saturday - Uneventful day but had a few friends come over and spent the latter half of the day goofing off. Settlers Cities & Knights online for a while before moving onto video games. I should have been working on a paper but hey that's what tomorrow is for! Baked a pie and it blew up in my face. Enough said!

Sunday - Failed pie and missed service. Ah well. Caught up with Wes after he got out of church and went for lunch. Got called up by Pris and Sam and picked them up for lunch part 2 at Popeye's. Went over to Fairview together and went for a walk to digest the greasy chicken. Caught up with a few ET'ers too. Apparently they were still hungry after Thanksgiving tri-congregational lunch. The same lunch my 4 failed pies were meant for. Ha..ha..! No one has to know! Getting kind of late and so we went to drop off Pris and Sam at home. Got back, got prepped and out the door for TG dinner with extended family. Got there late and wound up at the far end of the long table. Good food at 369 and went to Grandpa's house afterwards with everyone for fruits. Good night.

Monday - Out again! This time to watch Toy Story 1 + 2 in 3D at Fairview. The usual suspects; Wes, Pris, Sam and I met up and wow, TS1+2 was awesomely good! It's a lot different watching it as an adult compared to when I was watching as a kid. Go watch it for yourselves. You'll understand. Went home after to get ready to go back out again. This time for hot pot with old Mitsubishi coworkers. Good times bashing the managers and recounting stories about how much we hate the company. Glad to be out of there! Finished up and headed uptown to meet up with the Super Apostles and play board games for the night. Apples to Apples for the win! Too bad the long weekend was coming to a close. Went home again to get ready for work the next day. Boo.

What a long Thanksgiving weekend! Thanks...