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jonchant.com

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A few posts ago, I commented on the current state of the Canadian government. There was (and still could be) change coming to Canada’s political world. The same is definitely true for our friends south of the border. After many grueling campaigns, over $1.5 billion, and 131,237,603 votes, change was elected to the United States presidency on November 4.

It was a very interesting campaign and election to watch. First seeing who would receive the democratic nomination (the first female or African-American presidential nominee) and then the actual historical presidential campaigns and election. Many things were said, dug up, promised, revealed, and shown. All in all, a spectacular ride.

What struck me the most were the speeches made, especially those from Barack Obama. Before last year’s presidential elections, I always thought it was unfortunate how disproportionately the speeches and debates helped guide who the voters would vote for, whether it’s to elect a country’s leader or a high school’s student council. I use to think, “Public speaking isn’t really a good indicator of someone’s leadership skills. What does public speaking have to do with leadership?” But after watching some of Obama’s inspiring speeches, I realized just how important a leader’s speaking skills are, especially for those who are heads of state.

What does a leader do? Lead people, right? What if nobody follows the leader? Is he/she really a leader then? That’s why I now believe it’s essential for great leaders to have outstanding public speaking skills. One of their responsibilities is to inspire those they are leading. It isn’t only the leaders of a country or organization that make an impact, it’s everyone that’s a part of that group. If the leader cannot inspire or motivate their group to greater and better things, then he/she isn’t really much a leader.

So that brings me back to Barack Obama. He was able to inspire and motivate not only Americans, but people from all of the world (myself included) like no presidential candidate has done in a very long time. His campaign was based on change and millions of people bought into it, believed change is needed & is coming, and that Obama is the man to lead it.

Now on the eve of his inauguration, people all of the world are waiting to see if this inspirational family man from Chicago will make good on all his words and lead this awe-inspiring change. Expectations are high and hope is in the air. I for one cannot wait to see what’s in store for America and consequently the rest of the world in the next 4-8 years. Exciting times!

“Change we can belive in”

I have just discovered the most delicious Mexican fast food ever: Chipotle! They’ve got a really simple menu, fast & efficient assembly line style service, huge servings at reasonable prices (not cheap, but not expensive either), simple modern decor, and the most important part: scrumptious food.

I kind of just stumbled upon it this evening as I was looking for someplace at Yonge & Dundas to eat after window-shopping a bit at the Eaton Centre. I happened to notice this new place I never saw before called Chipotle. Probably wouldn’t have gone in if the name hadn’t sounded so familiar for some reason. Took a second, but figured out that I heard about them from one of Wong Fu Production’s video blogs. Noticed that inside wasn’t anything too special, just that it looked fairly new by the look of the furniture and decor, some tables and chairs and the counter where the food magic happens. Looks like it’s a decent chain in the States and this new Toronto location is the first one in Canada.

Menu is simple enough: pick your meat (chicken, steak, barbacoa, carnitas), pick your style (burrito, taco, fajita burrito, burrito bowl, salad), and finally pick your toppings (pinto or black beans, varying spicy levels of salsa, sour cream, chili-corn salsa, cheese, guacamole, & lettuce). Add a drink if you’d like, and that’s it! What you end up is an absolutely GINORMOUS serving of tasty Mexican food. Just take a look at the burrito I ordered! Ingredients were fresh and the servings were plentiful. I think this is the first burrito I’ve had where I couldn’t fit my mouth around the whole thing.

Small detail that I found nice is their pricing. It seems like they’ve priced everything so it comes out to an even dollar amount after taxes. My carnitas (pork cooked in some special way, I forget how) burrito & bottle of Corona came out to an even sixteen dollars. Another fun little detail was the instructions on how to eat the burritos on the back of the napkins.

So if you’re ever close by the Yonge & Dundas area and are looking for a fast & delicious meal, I highly recommend Chipotle!

Figuring out what I’m doing next has left me a lot free time on my hands right now and to pass some of the time, I’ve been watching some Gossip Girl. Not particularly proud of admitting that, I don’t even like the show, but it has this weird way of drawing me in. But in spite of my dislike of it, I must say that its Thanksgiving episode was alright and was the surprising source of an invaluable reminder of what real love is.

Jenny is a teenage character on the show and leading up to this episode, she has been on the rise in the fashion scene as a new designer but has alienated all those who care about her in the process, including her dad, Rufus. She even moved out of her home, away from her family. In this particular episode, she is trying to start the process of emancipating herself from her dad so she can start her own fashion line. Rufus eventually finds out and is initially furious again with his daughter. But after a calming talk with his son, he approaches Jenny in an unexpected way.

Jenny: …and you’d be really mad.
Rufus: No, I’m out of angry. I miss you too much.
Jenny: Dad, please don’t try to guilt trip me right now, ok?
Rufus: Your brother helped me realize that I haven’t told you something, something important.
Jenny: What?
Rufus: I love you Jenny. I love you so much, I’m willing to let you go if that’s what it’s going to take to get you back. When the time comes for a court hearing, I won’t stand in your way. But there is nothing you can do to make me stop loving you.

Reminded me of a post I read in a friend’s blog last year. Another illustration of real love from TV.

Can you feel it in the air? The time is upon us again. It’s coming. It’s inevitable.

No, I’m not talking about Christmas. I’m talking about change. Change in the government.

For the first time in a while (or possibly ever), Canadian politics is more interesting than American politics. A coalition government may form in the the next couple of months and the current prime minister could become the next opposition leader. All of this in the midst of a global economic crisis.

Now, what do I think about this? Do I want a coalition government? I’m not sure yet. One thing I know for sure, is we need change and a coalition government would definitely be a change. Is it the right change though? I don’t know. I’m still divided on the issue. One thing I do know for sure is that we need action, immediate action. So what in the world is Steven Harper doing proroguing parliament for 7 weeks? At a time when we need to act, the government is shutting down. I must say I am deeply disappointed that governor-general Michaëlle Jean’s decision to grant Harper’s request. Some government officials have stated that they disagree with her decision to grant the prorogue but respect her decision. I’m a little confused with those statements. How can you disagree with a decision but still respect it? Aren’t those two things the opposite of each other? Yes, disagree with the decision and still respect Michaëlle Jean, but how can you respect the decision if you disagree with it? But I digress. One reason I’ve heard (this is purely speculation, so I don’t know for sure) on why she granted Harper’s request is that he would resign if she didn’t grant his request. I really hope this isn’t true, because that is a very selfish attitude, one that you shouldn’t have when you have the most servant-leadership job in the country as prime minister. The prime minister’s job first and foremost is serving the country, not his/her own self interests.

So what we’re left with now is a country without a government and a country deeply divided. Polls are showing that Canadians are split on the issue and the recent election shows that our support is divided among 4 parties, with no real strong backing of one party. This is exactly what we can’t have right now. To be able to confront this economic challenge, we need a united front in our government. I was glad to see that 3 of the parties were able to drop partisan politics to unite together to combat this challenge, but I think this is only a good first step. It would have been much better if all 4 parties could come together to solve this problem together. For it does not only affect the politicians, or even Canadians, but this affects the entire world. Unity and action is desperately needed in this country. I can only hope in the coming 7 weeks, before parliament resumes, time and resources will be spent more on facing the issues Canada is facing rather than campaigning for or against the coalition.

United we stand, divided we fall.

P.S. for those of you who don’t know why I picked “delta” for this post’s title, “delta” is the Greek letter than represents change.

How does news travel so fast? I know we’re well into the information age and with all sorts of communication technology, information can travel at the blink of an eye. But it still astounds me how fast some news travels, especially things that involve myself.

For example, just tonight at worship practice, one of the vocalists, Beth, mentioned how she heard that I have an interview next week and that she’d pray for me. Sweet! But I was once again surprised, because I had only gotten the call about the interview earlier that day and only 3 other people knew about, or so I thought. Apparently my mom had talked to her between me telling my mom and me seeing her at practice.

And just last week, same thing. This time, when I was volunteering at school, the secretary inquired about an upcoming opportunity for me. She was of course referring to an interview I had later on that week, but again, I had only found out the day before and had only mentioned it to 3 other people at that point. Still haven’t figured out how she found out so fast.

So news does travel at the speed of light I guess, even when you don’t expect it.

“Hey, I’m not even sure there’s such a thing as the Internet. It might just be Jeannie telling everyone stuff.”
~ Matt from the TV Show, Studio 60 ~

Some very important decisions will be made in the next two months on both sides of the border. Yessiree, elections are coming to both Canada and the US. So who are you going to vote for and how did you come to that decision? If you don’t know who you’re going to vote for yet, how are you going to decide?

Well, you can definitely (and should) look at each party’s platform on the issues like the economy, education, health care, job creation, tax increases/decreases, etc. Those are absolutely important factors in deciding who you vote for, but I challenge you to look at more. The aforementioned issues really only deal with our own country. What about the rest of the world? And I’m not just talking about foreign policies/relations. What about AIDS? What about poverty? What about all the injustices in the world? As one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations in the world, we have a responsibility to those countries in need. Our leader must be one who is committed to this responsibility and acts on it. Not only should he/she look out for our country’s best interest, but also the world’s.

So when it comes time to cast your ballot, I hope everyone will consider not only the domestic issues, but also the world issues.

“Never forget, JUSTICE is what LOVE looks like in public!”

I’ve got a confession to make: I love the internet. I absolutely do. It’s the greatest thing ever. I don’t know what I’d do without it. Really, I don’t. There’s just so many things that are possible with it: communication, entertainment, purchases, music, the list goes on. Here are a few things I love about it.

Communication. Things like facebook and MSN messenger are great. You’re able to communicate with people around the world. Distance is no longer an obstacle. Don’t forget about e-mail and blogs as well. Simply awesome. I’ll admit, I hated facebook when it first came out. I joined initially because a friend told me it was great. Truth be told, it sucked when I first joined. There were only 3 Canadian universities on facebook when I first joined and no features. Except poking, the most useless facebook function ever. No photos, no videos, no cool apps. It was basically an online popularity contest. But I have to admit, over time, facebook has become an excellent communication tool. Catch with old friends you haven’t seen in years, plan events and parties easily, share your pictures and videos with friends effortlessly. Good stuff.

Purchases. Get anything and everything from the internet. No longer are you bound to buying what’s close by. If you can find it on the net, you can buy. How very convenient! I especially love buying a lot of my music online now through iTunes. I’ll still buy CDs whenever I find a good deal, but iTunes is great. Not only is it cheaper, but often times, if I pre-order, I get bonus tracks that aren’t released on the CDs. Sweet!

Entertainment. With sites like youtube, how can you go wrong for entertaining yourself. Who know how many countless hours I’ve spent watching stuff on there. I love it. Not only can you entertain yourself, but you can also discover new things. One thing I never thought I’d use the internet for is discovering new music talents. I’ve always found out about new artists through the radio and friends. But now I’m discovering cool artists by just browsing the net. My personal favourite right now is Jennifer Chung. A sweet girl from Cali with an amazing voice and songwriting skills to match. Here’s my favourite song of hers:

Speaking of entertainment, check out Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Joss Whedon + Neil Patrick Harris + comedy + musical = awesomeness. Seriously, check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

Now, unfortunately, it isn’t all good. With all this freedom opened up with the internet, it’s also given voices to people who frankly shouldn’t be talking. Hate groups and hate websites are unfortunately on the net. So are disgusting things like child pornography. I’m pretty sure this stuff only makes up a very small sliver of the internet, but it still saddens/angers me that people would put stuff up like that.

Back to the good stuff. There are many more communication tools that I haven’t mentioned, but there is one I’d like to highlight before I end this post: twitter. For those of you don’t know what twitter is, it’s basically a tool where you can post short messages about what you’re doing at that moment. Friends can subscribe to your feed and be in the know about your doings. It’s suppose to let people know what you’re doing in between blog posts. Now I’ve received a few invites for this over the last few months, but I’m still skeptical, seems like it’s a pretty thin line between twittering and stalking. Do I really want people knowing what I do on a hourly basis? Do I want to know what others are doing on an hourly basis? I just don’t know. What do you think?

Just got back from one my many visits to Toronto 2 days ago. I made the trek up with my parents for yet another wedding. The last one for me, at least for this summer. It’s been kind of a wedding blitz for me these last 2 weeks. First, 2 weddings in 2 weekends, and then finding out in between those 2 weddings, 2 couples I know getting engaged (congrats to Alex & Austen and Kat & Mike!). As always, very exciting and awesome to celebrate with friends and family!

The last wedding I went to this past weekend is one that I’ll probably always remember. I had the privilege to help out the happy couple (Teresa & Caspian) by being one of their ushers. Not a difficult task, but was glad to help out in any way possible. But it isn’t this that made it so memorable, it was how the couple made the day that could have been (and rightfully so) all about them into a day about God and others.

The first thing that stuck out in my mind is their first act, besides the first kiss, as a married couple: to lead all of us guests in musical worship. That’s right, the bride in her bright white dress and the groom all decked out in his tux standing on stage with their band, leading the church to worship God. Just awesome. :)

It didn’t stop there either. Later that evening, during the banquet, there were the usual speeches from the maid of honour, best man, families, and the newly wed couple, but during the newly weds’ speech, they invited Trevor from Compassion to speak to the guests about sponsoring a child. Teresa & Caspian themselves had started sponsoring their second child through Compassion a couple of years ago and not content with just that, they decide to open up their special day to encourage others to do the same, to join in something that is close to their hearts. Wow.

Again, a brilliant day that I won’t forget because of how two people diverted attention that they could have drawn to themselves onto God and helping others in need.

“There will be books written about Harry – every child in our world will know his name!”

Anyone know where that quote is from? If you guessed Harry Potter, kudos to you!

I just started reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone again for like the 5th time (you could say I’m a fan of the books) and came across this quote from the first chapter. It’s when Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall are waiting for Hagrid to deliver little baby Harry to the Dursleys, and McGonagall says this to Dumbledore. Kind of ironic when you think about it, cause it’s pretty much come true in this, our real world.

But it got me thinking, what will I be remembered for? Harry’s known for being the “the boy who lived” and defeating Voldemort; JKR’s most famously known for writing the Harry Potter series. But what about me?

I guess I’m thinking about this because I’m at yet another crossroads in my life. Just finished university and have the rest of my life before me. Exciting times, definitely, but it would be nice if I had a clue about where I’m going or what I even want to do. There’s only one thing I know for sure, I want to be of service to others. Unfortunately, that’s about as vague as you can get when it comes to direction in life. I’m sure I’ll discover my niche in this world sooner or later, but I’m hoping it will be sooner rather than later. Here’s to the beginning of the rest of my life. :)

What about you? What are your passions? How would you like to be remembered?