Random thoughts....

Had dinner at Guy's house last night. Quite a meal I must say, four entrees with soup. Real soup, not Chunky's or Campbell. Then we had fruit, ice cream and redbean pie for dessert. Absolutely amazing. Great food, great environment, but most importantly great company. Where you see Guy, you're bound to see Rebecca (more often than not). TallKen was also there, and just like the former two, wherever you see TallKen, SoChi is probably within a 10 foot radius. Not to mention Guy's new family member, Sao Tao. BTW, rumor has it that the main course for Thanksgiving dinner is rabbit meat. Hrm.......curious.

I don't remember the last time a friend invited me to their house for dinner and the dinner wasn't a potluck.

Didn't realize the broad spectrum of age within our fellowship. Now that I think about it.... we cross three generations: Generation X, Generation Y, and that generation raised between Baby Boomers and GenX - who are so often unidentified cuz they just flew underneath the radar. I don't particularly see any pros or cons with this, except when the subject of inter-church dating came up, we had a plethora of gossip coming up. Including even, cross fellowship activities and events involving SFCAC.

One of the cross fellowship events that's coming up is the Singles Retreat in July. Makes me wonder if there's a double meaning behind the "retreat." =) Stuck in Tahoe for three days with a bunch of single girls.... *sigh*...to be a bachelor again.

Another possible event that is less thought provoking is good ol' team competition. Turns out some of the girls in the English Young Adult fellowship are pretty gung-ho when it comes to volleyball. Some of the peeps in Joseph know a thing or two about bunt, set, spike. We'll see where this goes. Maybe we can bring some people from the different fellowships and form a SJCAC team.

Speaking of volleyball, we had the playoffs in our league tonight. We won our first match, beating the #5 seed, but eventually fell victim to the #4 seed, barely. It took 8 weeks for our team to jive...I think if we keep this team going, we can actually be a force to reckon with.

On another note, Ken and Guy were talking about discipleships for our church. I started wondering, that's great!! But who's going to disciple Joycie and me?? We have a couple in mind...but they're super duper busy. On the flip side of the coin...if they discple us well enough, we can possibly inherit some of their work and ease up their bandwidth. HA!! I tried that one time when crashing a class freshman year of college, "Dr. Bailey, your class is already full with 150 people. What's another one or two? With me in your class, I can tutor students on the side and ease up your office hours." It worked....she let me crash. But I never tutored anyone...heh heh heh....

Liar? Nah...I'm just a natural businessman....

Where a kid can be a kid....

TV commericials are great. You see kids playing with two or three GI-Joes, but it'll be the most fun you've seen anyone have! You buy the same toy, open it, and realize, darn...this is stupid. You don't get all the cool mountains and background that was on TV. Or a stinken Hot Wheel race track. The dinky little car goes round and round. That'st dumb!! Why are the two white boys on TV having the time of their lives?? I'm sure everyone's fallen for that trap...and eventually learn their lesson.

Not the case with one particular commericial - Chuck E. Cheese. Oh no. There aren't any sceneries to enhance the fun. The pizza that rolls across your screen is the juiciest pie you've ever laid eyes on. The Chuck E. Cheese mouse DOES exist and is your best friend. The plastic ball pool is the size of Arkansas and it's bottomless. But with my upbringing, I had to settle for the fact that places like is for rich families only. I do not deserve to play in places like that...the world was created with a hierarchical structure and I wasn't anywhere close to the top. I wouldnt' even know how to ask mom and dad to take me there...cuz there's absolutely no justification to go to a place like that, when we can do the same things at a public park.

This Sunday, Joycie and I took Francisco and Issac to a local Chuck E. Cheese. For $35, we had a large pizza, four sodas and over 60 tokens ~ with some coupons I found online. The kids standing by the token dispenser were looking in awe as the coins kept dropping like it would at vegas when you hit jackpot. I literally had my entire coat pocket full of coins - felt evil...that I was spoiling the kids. They oughta learn the value of a dollar..that it takes a lot of hard work to enjoy themselves. Anyways...so we sat down, I passed out some of the tokens and they were gone within a second. 10 minutes later, they came back and started hanging out with me and Joyce. Now why would they choose to hangout with us?? Oh...I get it...they needed a refill. =)

Joyce and I couldn't fight off the wave and wave of kids running around. They'd run into you, cut in front of you, steal your Skeeballs. I guess when you're small, you keep your eyes focused on the big shiney lights...and disregard everyone else around you. Best part of Chuck E Cheese wasn't the arcards, nor the food...but seeing the kids squirming their ways around each and every corner in that Jumbo Maze thingy that I can longer fit into. =(

We were there for about 2 hours and amazingly, the tokens lasted us for the entire time. We ran out of things to do and just played games that won us tickets. The prizes they had available were the absolutely ugliest POS in the whole wide world. How anyone can afford to win those prizes is beyond me.

If someone were to ask me what I think heaven is like... Chuck E Cheese would be a valid valid answer.

Another dream down....another million to go.

Happy Valentine's Day

Once a year, I along with the other 50% of the human race (rough estimate - nothing scientific like the election polls) would flock to the closest florist, Tiffany's, Victoria Secrets, Sanrio in an attempt to not be typecasted as the modern day "Al Bundy." How much money have I spent on Valentine's Day since the inception of the concept in my adolescent mind?

Not counting the dumb 2x4 Valentine Day cards sold at Walgreens for $2.99 a box, I remember my first Valentine's Day present being around 6th grade. The night before Valentine's Day, I went to Walgreens (hrm...that worked out well) to buy a $5 chocolate heart. It was a red box, about the size of a binder, with the word "Love" handwritten across it. I was tiptoe-ing all night that night...worrying that mom may discover my miscalculated investment. And to think, I didn't even have the courage to give it to the girl. I made my friend deliver the package for me. Sixth grade...that must've been when I was 12?
Many moons later, when I was a sophomore in high school, a $2 investment was made on a rose sold by one of our school clubs. The recipient, my first high school love. The deliverer, "Secret Admirer." I didn't even have the ballz to let the girl know it was me. I wonder if I should let her know now??
Then there were the next 5 years that I've successfully eliminated from the memory banks, for better or worse. Ah...how I wish I was single...
Just the past 6 years with Joycie can singlehandedly lift our nation out of the red. Give or take a billion here and there. Our first Valentine's Day was the first time I sent a dozen long stemmed fully blossoming roses in a vase. That's when I truly experienced the pain and agony of being a man..aside from having a baseball hit me smack in the balls. The last several years, I've eased up on the flowers and gone with handmade flowers - whether they're ribbon or orgami. This year, I've completely skipped the traditional dozen roses. Am I getting less romantic and more mainstream humdrum...or is it just wise-cash saving?

Come to think of it, I haven't spent a Valentine's Day - single - for the past 10 years. And what have I gotten out of it?? An "EXCELLENT" on my credit score.

What do I have planned for this year? With all that's been going on lately, a night at home with a nice book and a hot cup of tea would be more than I can ever ask....

May the Lord bless all who seeks love, and may love fill the hearts of who have seek the Lord.

And may my poetic phrases actually make sense....

Chinese New Year's Celebration

Oh Mylanta!! The performance by Carmel Fellowship blew the rest of the competition out of the water!!

It was the most entertaining amateur performance I have ever witnessed. From concept to deliverance is way beyond one's imagination. And here I was thinking Joseph Fellowship's commericials were going to steal the spotlight from everyone. Only to see that Carme's commericials were not only funny and nostaligic, but was technologically sound! The older the ginger, the spicier the ginger.
To extend that saying further...Faith fellowship consisted of a few elderly women. They didn't do anything extravagant like Carmel, anything funny like Bethel, or anything hip like Joseph. They merely stood up there as a group, sang a New Year's Celebration song, and wished everyone a Happy New Year. More is Less. They had the simplest of performances, but won the hearts of everyone by their demonstration of sisterhood and fellowship. We have so much to learn.

It was the first time Joyce and I took part in a Cantonese Congregation celebration since we never go to Prayer Meetings. I was actually amazed to see that our fellowship are the babies of the church. Not counting the real babies. There were but a few teenagers and adolescents. I guess all the "kids" are ABCs and tend to flock towards the youth fellowship - done in English.

A Happy New Year to all...and to all a Happy New Year.

Black black. 2005 hasn't been going too well. I shouldn't complain...since it can only get better. How? Well....it can't possibly only get worse.

Last week, mom landed in the ER with chest pains. No biggie, but being in that situation and environment simply ruffles my feathers. Hopefully, the cause is something simple like acid reflux and not angina.

Yesterday, while driving back from lunch, my transmission stopped working. I got into the parking lot and the shifter won't go into any gear! Luckily a buddy of mine was walking by and helped me push my car to a parking spot 30 feet away. Leaky clutch fluid? Mangled clutch? Lose linkage? I didn't know how to start fixing this thing....so I started with the simplest. Made a run down to pepboys for a bottle of clutch fluid and filled up the almost empty reservoir. It seemed to have done the job....so I started driving to work. About halfway there, the shifter started crapping out again, my car was stuck in neutral. I was lucky enough to have found an empty garage in the middle of nowhere to pull over. After playing around a little, I found out I can shift to any gear with the car engine off. But once I turn on the car...the shift knob was stuck in no man's land. So that's what I did, I started the car in 2nd gear and drove 5 miles to school, all in 2nd gear. When I got to school, I had to make a 3 point turn in which I turned, killed the engine, put the car in reverse, started the engine, moved, killed the engine, put the car in 2nd, started the engine, moved, killed the engine, put the car in reverse, PARKED.

Why didn't I go home to get the other car? Why did I go directly to school?? So dangerous. So stupid. I guess I was hurrying to get to the lab. Anyways....upon finishing up at school, I decided to drive home on the freeway, figuring if I can stay in one gear, I'll be fine. Be safer to drive on the locally, but more of a booch cuz of the stop lights. Ended up taking the freeway. The drive home was as smooth as rolling a new car off the lot! Amazing!!! See...the cup is half full sometimes.

Joycie had till today to send in an $80 rebate. Of course, she had all of the last two months to do it, but decided yesterday was the best day. She calls me last night and told me she took my last stamp. I vaguely remember I just bought a new book...what was she talking about, last stamp. Upon further investigation (ie digging through my piles and piles of junk mail), I see that she took my Statue of Liberty stamps...the ones they used when stamps went from $0.25 to $0.27!!!! The stamp doesn't have the number written on it cuz it was an intermittent stamp! And she took my last one, the one I kept all these years!!! Not only that....we run the chance of the mail man noticing it and NOT sending not sending in our rebate in time.

Black black.....

帳 幕

詩 篇 15
1耶 和 華 阿 、 誰 能 寄 居 你 的 帳 幕 ． 誰 能 住 在 你 的 聖 山 ．2就 是 行 為 正 直 、 作 事 公 義 、 心 裡 說 實 話 的 人 ． 3他 不 以 舌 頭 讒 謗 人 、 不 惡 待 朋 友 、 也 不 隨 夥 毀 謗 鄰 里 ． 4他 眼 中 藐 視 匪 類 、 卻 尊 重 那 敬 畏 耶 和 華 的 人 ． 他 發 了 誓 、 雖 然 自 己 喫 虧 、 也 不 更 改 ． 5他 不 放 債 取 利 、 不 受 賄 賂 以 害 無 辜 。 行 這 些 事 的 人 、 必 永 不 動 搖 。


Can I do this? Will He invite me into his home? I solemnly believe that I can not fulfill the aforementioned requirements. I need help. And I know, if I ask for help, He will send help. Thank you Abba!!

Year in Review

It's been 10 days...I started working on this post New Year's day. I really wanted to do a year in review, a countdown of my 2004. But other than December, I didn't remember much from last year. I resort to my handy livejournal only to realize between the months of February to May went post-less. That's three months, a quarter of the year, a significant piece of the pie.

So...2004. What was so special about it?

It was a leap year. Every leap year has been an election year. Every election year coincides with an Olympic year. In the Lunar calendar, it was the year of the monkey. It was "Double-Spring plus Smooth-Month." Mom's Roman Calendar birthday landed on the same day as her Lunar Calendar birthday. In a country that covets primetime soap operas, support bombing of innocent citizens, and promote end-zone celebrations, the "people" decided that values were key in bringing our country back together. Not so much the people, just the Electoral College, who knew one of two words, "Blue" or "Red." Never since 1999, when the Dot-com bubble burst, have the words "You're Fired" been used so often. Donald's Trump two-words rang louder than "How you doin?" and "The tribe has spoken" but had no such luck against, "She Bangs!" And as powerful as William Hung banged, it was Joyce's "Of course!" that gets the gold in 2004.

America saw gold in Greece. China emerged victorious as Liu Xiang hurdled his way into Olympic gold...and hurdled the world into Beijing for the 2008 games. Amid victory and defeat, judging and drugging controversy clouded over Mt. Olympia. Not to be outdone, our very own San Francisco Chronicle released transcripts of Barry Bonds' grand jury testimony.

There I stood, April 12, 2004, opening day at SBC Park, formerly knowns as Pacific Bell Park. Both Houston and San Diego came out saying that Barry will not hit 660 in their parks. Giants down 4-2, bottom of the fifth. 2 on, 2 outs. Bonds walks to the plate. With 45,000+ cheering him on, Matt Kinney lays a fast ball down the middle and within seconds, the baseball is lasered into the stands. Giants take the lead. Bonds takes a trot around the diamond. Willie Mays emerges from the bullpen with the Olympic torch he so solmenly carried 8 years ago for the Atlanta Games and performs the proverbial "passing of the torch" to Barry. That may have been a Monday, it may have been a payday, it may have been tax day. But for me, that will always be 660-Day.

86 years of frustration was lifted up of New England as Doug Mientkiewicz caught the final out of the final game of the 2004 baseball season. The same year the Patriots win their 2nd Superbowl in three years, the Red Sox found a way to reverse the Curse of the Bambino. The rest of world, though, still needs to figure out how to reverse the Curse of Lance Armstrong as he dominated the Tour de France, again.

The year started off with a "BANG!" landing dad in the hospital with his acute heart attack. 2004 ended with a "BANG!" when the Wrath of God attacked the heart of South East Asia, landing more than 150,000 people permanently. Wedding bells rang loud as 4 of my closest friends tied the knot, paving the way for me to become the next Non-bachelor. Google IPO'ed at $180 and is still hovering around $200. The stock market seemed to finally pick its way out of being a bear and as lady luck would have it, Mark was able to earn enough cash to buy his way out of living with me. I lost a roommate, but Joyce and I discovered a new family, a spiritual family that we can call home. Joining my first fellowship and exercising my gift as a peer mentor has led me to believe that I indeed have a purpose in life. Rediscovering this lost facade of me has made me a much better person. I lose my temper less, I'm a lot happier, I'm a lot more virtuous and with Francisco looking up to me, I've made myself a better role model. Originally, I set out to help someone. Turns out he's done for me, much more than I can ever do for myself. Workwise, I've finally got my first promotion and am slowly climbing that ever growing corporate ladder.

Somewhere in between all that, I finally made the committment to spend the rest of my life with Joyce.

Best memory of 2004: June 27, 2004 on top of Cuesta Ridge in San Luis Obispo, I got down on my knee and asked the king of all questions.

Would I expect 2005 to be any better? As Joyce would say...."Of Course...."

Ctrl-Alt-Del

Am I succumbing to the world of blogs and xanga?