Life after 787...

Had been super busy with work for the past month and cousin Jen just recently went back home after visiting us during the Christmas break... so things are slowly settling back down.

Faith Community Church is starting a new devotional campaign called the 20/20. Hopefully it can really help me 'see' God more clearly. Life had been kinda hectic lately.

I was kinda annoyed at work because supposedly I was picked to do more 787 work, but somehow office politics got in the way so that somehow got derailed. Oh well. I'm not really that particularly attached to that plane, it's just that 7-8-07 was our anniversary date and has a special meaning to me that's all.

Anyway, I was working on a particular part on 787 called the 'pickle fork' and that item was actually the 7th of all the rest of the item. So anyway, regardless what happens, I still kinda see that as if God's reminding me that He's still with me no matter what!

Today's 20/20 reading, this scripture verse came to my attention:

Isaiah 65
23 They will not toil in vain
or bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the LORD,
they and their descendants with them.


May God bless us... and cousin Jen... since she is a descendant of a blessed family! So hopefully she'll be able to have a blessed 'marriage' with some blessed guy! ;)

HD!!! Boeing 787 First Flight Takeoff of the Dreamliner - December 15, 2009

787 Almost Airborne

Suppose to be delivered on July 8th 2007, our anniversary date... after more than 2 years, it may be finally ready to take flight tomorrow... weather permitting... ;)

Blink...

Wow, past month seemed to have passed me by in a blink of an eye! Mostly been busy with working on the Dreamliner! Some called the plane the impossible dream, but we'll just have to wait and see... expecting the worst, yet hoping for the best! At least I'm earning some overtime money! ;) The part I'm responsible for is called a 'pickle fork' and was assigned an item number of 7! I will take that as a positive sign and things will go well in the end because God is with me?

I also finished reading a book called 'Blink'. It talks about how our subconscious mind can make rapid decisions without us knowing how it was made. Sometimes the decisions are good... other times it may be bad... so it all depends. I've been reading a series of decision related books recently. "sources of power", "predictably irrational", and now "blink". I think the main issue with my slow decision making process is simply because I'm too inexperienced with life! ;) Practice does make perfect. Furthermore, I think perhaps my subconscious mind is just somewhat damaged or something... Yes, the book mentioned that there is a specific area of the brain if damaged, can cause people to be really indecisive. They can list all the pros and cons all day long, but won't be able to reach a decision in the end! I don't think I'm that bad, but for sure wife thinks that I'm bad enough.

Anyway, another interesting thing I found out with their research is that our facial muscles do not just express our emotions within. We CAN actually make ourselves happier by activating the muscles we use to smile! Interestingly I read about this when Pastor Jim was preaching about sometimes we ought to 'act' good even when we don't feel like acting good. And this brings us to another interesting thing... that is... exactly which is our true self? The one that feels sad or feel like doing bad things... or the one decided to 'act' good and happy?

Of course in the real world, such as economist, whatever we actually 'do' is considered as what's the real us. Psychologists on the other hand would have problems identifying which is the real you..., but as for God, I'm sure He can figure us out easily for He truly knows our hearts!

Anyway, past month has also been filled with some difficulties too. Such as fighting with dear wife... But everytime after we fight, I do gain new insight on who my wife is... and what kind of man I am. So it's not like our fights were all in vain..., but hopefully someday we can grow without the fights! ;) Besides our own difficulties, one of our dear friend is current going thru some difficulties of his own as well. Is God really Handpicking this Tangerine for some special purpose? I'm happy and excited and at the same time sad and worry about our friend's future.

Oh well, we'll just have to continue to expect the worst(so that we may be prepared to handle all difficulties coming our way), and hope for the best! If God is with us, why wouldn't He give us the best? :) We may not be able to predict exactly what's going to happen tomorrow... such as we can't predict how the stock market will go tomorrow, but in the long haul, surely stockmarkets had been steadily growing leaping past even the worst depressions! So YEAH! Our best is indeed yet to come!

Oh, btw, I've temporarily quit sodas for a while... I think it has been helping me to lose some weight. Sure looking fwd to another sip of Coke soon. O God O God when can I sip on Coca-Cola again? Hopefully soon? In another blink of an eye?

(Gen 1-3, 171.0 lbs, $3.05)

F-22 Edwards AFB

Clam Chowder, NASCAR, and Air Show!

Had been real lazy keeping up with the blogs lately..., but not being too lazy with life though... for example, my goal of learning to cook my favorite American soups from scratch is now complete! After chicken soup, my clam chowder is pretty good! I surprise even myself! ;)



And for the first time in my life, I've attended a NASCAR race. I didn't really like NASCAR all that much, but hey, with free tickets, I'm there! I like fast and loud machines! Whenever they restart the race after some sort of accident... when all the cars going full throttle passing us with thunderous sound: 'zoom, zoom, zomm...' What an awesome feeling. But wife's ear drums were probably close to being popped even with ear plugs! ;)





Speaking of loud and speedy machines, we also went to the annual airshow at Edwards Air Force Base. Here's a simulated attach from the Japanese! ;)


Here's a picture with America's newest fighter, F-35. It's so new that it's not really flying in service yet! ;)


The most exciting part of the show has to be the next-newest fighter, F-22:


Anyway, watching these things are fun, but I think I enjoy doing things more than just being a spectator watching things... Just found out in a recent personality test that I'm a 'craftsman'. So I guess it all makes sense. I'm also continuing on my projects too... To build another stuff animal kitty cat for wife... to build an automatic feeder for our cat... and to continue to build myself to become a better husband too... So many ongoing projects, so much fun... hey, gotta live my life to the full, right? ;)

(1 Tim 4-6, 174.0 lbs, $3.199)

Arduino Tests

One small step for mankind, one giant leap for ME!

Yes, I've been in a creating mood for a while. Can't say that I've been very creative yet... as in creating cool new things, but just trying to create stuffs in general and gather up more experiences. With these newly gained experiences..., hopefully after some tinkering around, I could possibly create some cool new things in the future! Who knows? ;)

So anyway, I managed to prepare and cook one of my favorite soups from scratch over the weekend for the very first time! The Chicken Noodle soup can really take a lot of ingredients and time than I originally thought, some herbs and spices which I haven't even heard of..., but anyway, the end product was worth it! Maybe I'll try the Clam Chowder next time when we have another weekend with not much to do! ;)



I'm also slowly progressing regarding my robotic project! I actually hit a road block on that one and just couldn't build it from 'scratch' so far as I hoped I could... either I fried my micro-chip or has some other defective part or just didn't follow the instructions right or something... :(

Anyway, so I 'cheated' a bit... thanks to the Arduino Board, I've been able to get up to speed pretty easily quickly... finally able to turn on some lights when I program 'let there be light'... or when I say, 'let there be movements...' and then there were movements! ;) After I learned all the basics using Arduino, hopefully my actual 'robot' will begin to take shape and then become more fruitful and multiply as time goes on... ;)

(See above entry for video...)

Oh, another achievement which I'm pretty proud of myself was that I was able to tie my wife in a game of carrying conversations! ;) Yeah, not a very good talker... or conversationalist. This new game of ours requires us to not to drop the ball in a conversation within 45 mins of time... whoever drops it... loses!!! Well, hopefully I can beat her tonite... ;)

(Romans 7-9, 175.0 lbs, $3.279)

Mt. Rushmore and Lobster Fest!

Wife got some free tickets accumulated with the soon to be gone NW airlines... so we figured why not go some place where we probably wouldn't spend our own money going... like to the middle of nowhere in South Dakota!

So Mt Rushmore, here we come! ;)

We actually went on 9-11, so they actually lit up the presidents all night long in remembrance of that sad day in history....


Although these great American presidents were immortalized, one of the mountain sculptors who worked on Mt. Rushmore actually dedicated his life to pay tribute to one of the great American Indians- Crazy Horse! This guy started the project all by himself by the request of local Indian chiefs... and after decades, only Crazy horse's face is finished. They say perhaps in 7 more years, the horse's face can be done... we'll see. The story is very inspirational that's for sure. Although the guy is now dead, a number of his children continue on as their life mission... to finish this huge mountain sculpture... all funded by tourists like us! ;)



Oh, and last weekend we attended the world's largest lobster festival! We didn't like the amount of people who were there, but the lobsters were really good... and the price is really good too! Yum!!!!

Back to two of us again!

Yes, the little bros have all returned to Taiwan. Apartment will be emptier now... was actually hoping to put the little bros into good use to help us move and paint our new condo or something like that... too bad that didn't work out. I hope they at least had a good time over the summer here in America. It's also nice to get a chance to get to know them better.

Anyway, the hunt for a new place is still on..., we can only hope that God is still preparing for us something good! With low inventory and lots of folks trying to qualify for the 1st time buyer deal from the government, housing prices have actually gone up a bit recently! Pastor Jim did teach us to "SEEEEEEEE?" with faith! ;) Yes, may the Lord of Hosts help open our eys so that we can 'see' better and not to be too discouraged with our house hunting!

Last week, Pastor Dawn actually encouraged us to pray risky prayers such as the one David prayed in Psalm 139:

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

So I actually followed thru... and interestingly, God answered! Buying a house, God seems to be taking His sweet time, but testing me and showing me what I'm doing wrong... God answered pretty quickly! ;) Yeah, I'm usually a pretty mild manner person, but sometimes when I see idiot drivers on the road, I tend to want to teach them lessons by doing whatever they're doing to me or others! I'm actually okay with old ladies driving slow, but I can get real pissed at seeing people driving like idiots deliberately. So one day last week when I was returning home, I saw one such idiot driving on the road who cut me off. So I returned the favor by racing him and then cutting him off!!!

And then the interesting thing happend... that car was equipped with flashing lights and siren!!! It was an undercover police car!!! So I got pulled over... almost got a ticket, but I suspect undercover cops don't really have any tickets to write on! Anyway, the point is that I think God has answered my 'prayer' by teaching me a lesson instead. I think I'm going to think twice or 3 times or more before trying to teach other drivers lessons anytime soon! I know road rage isn't good, but sometimes it isn't that easy to control the 'rage'! May God help me deal with that better...

Another interesting revelation from last week due to the risky prayer was that I think God really wants me to get my act together!!! Yes, I've often complained that wife is too picky and she needs to learn to be more merciful..., but I think God has let me known that perhaps I should just get my act together better first! Before I want to help remove the toothpick out of wife's eye, why not take out the telephone pole in my eye first? Yes..., so thanks to God that I'm trying to focus more on myself and trying change myself by getting my 'act' together more. I haven't attained perfection yet, but at least so far this week, wife and I haven't really fought yet... fingers crossed! ;) My strategy so far is to get my act together so good and eventually wife will be the one end up screwing up more... and THEN I can properly show and teach her what 'mercy' really is! ;) Will I really become that good? I personally kinda doubt it, but by the Spirit of God, anything is possible, right? Can you "SEEEEEEEE" the new Billy? YES I CAN!

(John 19-21, 176.0 lbs, $3.159)

Long time no post!!!

Had been quite busy with wife's bros around lately... but luckily work has been kinda slow this week so I have some time to collect my thoughts for the past few days.

It's kinda funny to see a bunch of my older posts talking about how I pissed my wife off... well, I'm sure it's not that funny to the wife! ;) Anyway, even for the past month, the story really hasn't changed much. There were still fights. Well, actually not fights, just mainly wife pissing offs at me! Yeah, there's really not that much for me to fight about when I'm the one screwing up... of course sometimes occasionally I will 'fight back' when I think I'm not wrong, but I have to admit that those are rare occasions. ;) Anyway, wife seems to be pissed of against either me or her little bro..., the two of us is sorta on a rotating schedule to receive the wrath of WTF! ;)

Of course to prove that wife is not just an unreasonable person, the older bro had been able to stay on her good side most of the time! So this proves wife's theory that she just cannot get along with the irresponsible youngest siblings of the family... and interestingly most of her friends and even her students are usually the youngest siblings of the family! Yikes!

So moral of the story? We younger siblings really need to learn to act more justly... and wife also needs to learn how to be merciful with us irresponsible younger siblings... , but most importantly, we all must humbly follow God instead of each of us sticking to our 'old selves'. That's the commitment we all have to make.

Anyway, so I have been trying and demanding myself to change lately. Trying hard to do the things that wife appreciates and minimize the stuffs that she might find annoying! I'm also trying to learn to build new things by completing more sewing or robotics projects... I think I also need to be a better employee at work too!

So may God change me for the better. I will also try hard doing whatever that needs to be done... Hopefully the collaborative effort will show some real results! ;)

(John 1-3, $3.199, 175.4 lbs)

Better week!

The long July 4th weekend was relaxing and pleasant... except that at Ontario Mills, I was distracted by 'magic' that I ended up pissing wife off a bit... ;) She was tired and I wanted to see magic! So naturally things didn't end that pleasantly. But thank God the un-pleasantry didn't last very long though. I must be getting better at talking and comforting my wife! ;)

A bit of some more good news is that the condo we originally wanted to buy ended back on market again. So here's a 2nd shot, but I think the seller is really reluctant at selling to us at such a cheap price though... well, to us, it ain't that cheap, but compared to the previous offer, I can understand why the seller is a bit more hesitant. So far we still don't have a yes or no regarding our offer. I kinda like the place, it wasn't our most ideal nor 1st choice, but it is pretty nice. Hopefully we'll get it, but may God do what He thinks is best for us when it comes to such a big purchase!

Anyway, also finally saw the move UP. Pixar films surely have never failed to impress me. Not only are they masters of computer animation, but also master storytellers. It has the same old ingredients of how there's a battle to fight, and adventure to live and a beauty... or somebody to rescue..., but even with the same formula, I really love how they mixed everything up. I think the moral of the story is that we should all have dreams, but then we shouldn't get too focused on those dreams and completely lose sight of the journey along the way. And most importantly, I'm sure often times we don't 'feel' very loving at times, thinking that other people can be quite annoying..., but true love is really a 'choice'. When we choose to do loving things even against our natural 'feeling', surely only good can come out of it! I think this is for sure one of the ways we can harness the Spirit of the Lord behind our sails! May God continue to breath and blow on us... so that we can have an even better week next week! ;)

'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.
不 是 倚 靠 勢 力 ， 不 是 倚 靠 才 能 ， 乃 是 倚 靠 我 的 靈 方 能 成 事 。

(Zech 4-6, 176.6 lbs, $3.099)

Bad week

Last week seemed to be a pretty bad week.

Had a huge fight with wife. Somebody carelessly backed into my beloved S2000. Lots of celebs such as Michael Jackson ended up dead. There were lots of other little things too... Everything just feels all wrong!

Anyway, pastor Jim reinforced the idea of Jehovah Shammah... that God is there with us whether good or bad!

At least wife's bros arrived safely and we had fun... and we're not fighting anymore... and nobody ran into me... and nobody really close to us are dead yet...

Micah 7:7 But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD,
I wait for God my Savior;
my God will hear me.

So may God continue to be with us whether thru thick or thin... Below is a picture taken by wife's bro... using some special technique which made LA look like it's on fire! But may LA be revived or rekindled by the Spirit's fire... not the real fire or course! ;)

(Micah 4-7, 174.8lbs, $3.099)

Hosea 10

12 Sow for yourselves righteousness,
reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;
for it is time to seek the LORD,
until he comes
and showers righteousness on you.

Good and bad....

The couple of offers we made... none of the Condo owners decided to sell to us... Very disappointing, but all we can do at the moment is to continue our search and trust in God that He'll prepare a more suitable one for us later I suppose.

As a consolation prize, at least we were fortunate enough to book a relatively cheap trip to Miami at the 5 star Ritz Carlton resort! Hopefully it won't rain..., but even if it does, I guess we can still enjoy a relaxing time at our posh hotel! ;)

This weekend also had an opportunity to have dinner with Jo E whom I haven't seen for years! It was also nice to see some old friends from Kam Kwong Church..., but it's also kinda sad to see how we've grown apart. Just like the chinese saying, 'there are no banquets that won't ever end!' I'm thankful and appreciative of knowing them, perhaps we'll have more 'banquets' to come in the future... or not. All in God's hand I guess...

Pastor Jim on Sunday continued to talk about 'seeds'. He also prophecied over us saying that God's going to do 'something special' for all of us during the summer timeframe..., but of course it's conditional... he talked about 7 things that we can expect...
1) break up fallow ground, prepare our hearts thru repentance
2) plant seed(Word of God being the seed of course, we don't need a religious experience to get the Word... we can just as easily get the 'seed' from the 'seed bag' which is called the Holy Bible!)
3) nourish to flourish, just as Apostle Paul plants churches, Apollo waters it... just do whatever we can do so that God can ultimately grow it...
4) we also gotta be patient during waiting periods, but of course waiting doesn't mean we do nothing, revert back to 3 when necessary! ;)
5) of course if we carried on, surely we'll bear fruit!
6) expect to be pruned by God so that we may bear even MORE fruit!

There was also this point 7 which I either missed it or he's going to continue on next sunday... ;)Anyway, considering what happened to my former church, perhaps that's just God's way of pruning us... preparing us to produce more fruits later on? Besides that, even during day to day life now, I'm sure wife feels like she's getting pruned left and right by God because of me... ;) But we are indeed getting better and better though. That's for sure...

(Hosea 4-6, 174.0 lbs, $3.199)

Fight, fight, fight!

The stress of buying a house caused wife and I to have a pretty big fight again..., but at least everytime we fight, we managed to get a better understanding of each other, we managed to make the change, perhaps too slow for wife's sake, but at least things do get better! Another side bonus of course is that it helps wife lose some weight. She was in a pretty good mood recently and was complaining about weight gain, but I guess God indeed does make all things, whether good or bad, work together to benefit us! ;)

Anyway, the stupid fight was over... we're now left to tackle with 2 different condos to deal with. One of them we both like very much is more expensive... and the other one is less expensive, but we don't like as much... after talking with Aunt Jean and developed a best strategy to go forward, hopefully we can get the place we want... if not, then hopefully we can get our 2nd choice. If not, then I suppose we'll just wait some more if that is indeed God's will! Besides offering our best possible price, I also wrote a letter trying convince the seller to sell to us! If after trying our best and still can get it, we'll just have to trust God that place isn't for us I guess. But until Monday evening comes (that's when seller reviews all offer), we'll remain hopeful!

Pastor Jim also preached an interesting sermon today... explaining how our thumbs are like 'prayers', our index fingers are like the 'Word' pointing to us the way..., and our middle fingers are like ways to 'reach out' to others(to help, not to screw others of course), our ring fingers signifies our commitments or 'Convenants' and our little fingers represent being 'giving'... and it's thru all those 'fingers' that we can actually 'grip' securely God's seeds and blessings to us.

I suppose I have been using all 5 of my 'fingers' so far, but I just need to practice using them some more I think. May God can help train me how to grip better so that I won't let His Promises slip thru my fingers too much..., given my procrastinating nature, I'm sure I've let a lot of things slipped away... :(

Anyway, wife and I ended the weekend having dinner with her old high school friend at the Duck House again. We had a pretty good time and we probably gained some weight again... ;)

Tough call indeed... weight gain while in a good mood? Or weight lost while in a bad mood? May God help us to be able to maintain a healthy weight while in a healthy mood too! ;) Oh, also, may God help us get that condo! We believe both sellers are Christians, so yeah, our prayer is that may we get what's best for us! Surely He knows! :)

(Dan 1-3, 174.8 lbs, $3.099)

General Motors becoming Government Motors?

Today is a pretty historical day that an iconic company such as GM is declaring bankruptcy after 100 years! Such thing is probably unthinkable just a few years earlier! But amazing thing is that the market wasn't all that affected by it today and continued to climb pretty bullishly because of some encouraging financial data..., but I'm not sure if the economy is that fundamentally sound to warrant such a rise. People are just irrationally speculating I think..., but anyway, we'll see.

We also spent most of the weekend looking at condos again. Only saw a couple of properties that are decent... and we've decided to make an offer again to the same condo that we've already made once few weeks earlier..., but we'll see how things go on this too. Supposedly the seller is a Christian, actually both properties that we liked are occupied by Christians I think... hopefully God will influence them to lower their prices for us! ;)

Pastor Jim's sermon is getting a bit too 'pornographic' lately, especially for Jack! He talked about why God asked the Jews to be circumcised... because without the extra piece of flesh, it'll be easier for the 'seed' to flow thru... well, I'm not sure if that's really the case sexuallly, but I suppose it does make sense for us to have circumcision of the heart... to get rid of the excessive flesh that's preventing God's Seed to come into our hearts... when we are catering too much to our 'flesh', yeah, naturally we'd end up forgetting more about God. Anyway, so may God also help us cut away extra un-needed flesh off of us so that we can be closer to Him. Wife is complaining about a bit of weigh gain, so yeah, less flesh the better! ;)

Also still reading Ezekiel..., so many judgments and horrible prophecies. So haven't been able to find any more encouraging verses to remember... some atheists really hate God for being so judgmental..., but hey, if you don't want to get judged, then don't do evil! So I suppose the moral of those stories in Ezekiel is that we should not forget about God and should fear God... if we don't want to end up like them...

(Eze 31-33, 174.0 lbs, $2.939)

PUSH!

Memorial weekend is usually the biggest auto racing weekend, with Monaco GP and Indy 500, but the races had been rather boring..., fastest qualifier wins the race in the end..., but I still enjoyed watching them though.

This past LONG weekend has been pretty boring overall too especially for the wife, but we did manage to at least enjoy a new burger that I've developed that can perhaps rival the In-and-Out burger! We've also got a new work table for me from Ikea... we've also for the first time tried out the Metro train in LA! We've been on metros in lots of other various cities, but never around LA, so we figured we try go shopping in Hollywood while minimize pollution! ;)

Anyway, pastor Jim sorta did a rehashed sermon this past weekend. So that was kinda boring too, but still something worthwhile some meditation I think. He talked about dreams vs fantasies. I've had plenty of dreams..., but of course not all of them came true... actually, not all of them are capable of coming true... so I guess they were just fantasies. But nevertheless, I do believe dreams can help motivate us for otherwise, I'd often not feel like doing anything! ;) Wife disagree about dreaming, thinking it's a waste of time, worse yet, it can often times disappoint when it's unfulfilled! Anyway, I don't know who's right and who's wrong... surely if we're just mindlessly day-dreaming, for sure that can be a waste of time I suppose. But how do we know that we're dreaming a worthwhile and achievable dream?

Well, we can only hope that God will help us out on that I suppose. Like Pastor Jim said, we just gotta allow God's(seed) Word to penetrate us... don't allow our hardened hearts to reject the seeds... we also gotta nourish the seed, if our dream is in line with God's will, we just gotta have faith that it will be realized! And like delivering a baby, we just gotta keep on PUSHING! (Pray Until Something Happens!)

(Eze 28-30, 174.8 lbs, $2.839)

Whew!

Got super busy at work starting beginning of last weekend. Hopefully things can slow down a bit so that I can catch my breath a bit... About the only interesting thing that we did was watching the Star Trek movie. It's not bad, but it ain't that great either. I guess I was expecting too much!

Anyway, finally finished reading the book 'Sources of Power'. Not sure how long I've been reading that, just occasionally a few pages here and there while sitting on the toilet! ;) I was planning to finish reading that on the plane during my trip to Taiwan, but watching movies was the only way I could stay awake in order to deal with the different time zones... I've decided to read up on some books regarding how we make decisions because I'm sometimes known to be kinda indecisive! So, my conclusion for this book is that basically I'm just too 'inexperienced', that's why often times I'd consider too many options. "Experienced" decision makers often knows what to do that works at any given situation... So anyway, I guess the main point I got was that I need to gather more experience so that I can make more inform decisions faster!!! ;)

So I suppose I'm more appreciatieve of the extra work that I'm doing because it's adding to my 'experiece'! ;) I'm even 'experiencing' my wife more by having more 'fellowships' or digging into each other's brain kinda talks. Hopefully I can really gather and sort out these experiences and help me become a better decision maker! ;)

Pastor Jim also finished up with his 'Lamp' or 'Word' series. I'm kinda glad that I've been able to maintain reading the Word even when things got real busy! I do try to find verses here and there to try to remember by and then post them in this blog, but lately, I've been reading a lot of God judging His people... so I guess the main point is that we probably should just remember to NOT do evil like the Jews back then so that hopefully we can spare judgement!!! May God have mercy on us... and may we behave ourselves like Noah, Daniel and Job...

(Ezekiel 13-15, 174.6 lbs, $2.759)

Ezekiel 11

19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. 20 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

Lamentations 3

²² Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

²³ They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

²⁴ I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."

²⁵ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;

²⁶ it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.

Rancho del Descanso

AKA Descanso Garden... descanso meaning rest in Spanish. Haven't been there for a while and wife hasn't been there before... so I thought we take a stroll... and as it turned out it was much better than the LA Arboretum! We liked it enough to actually joining their membership! For a gal who doesn't like flowers that much, that's amazing! ;)

Anyway, also celebrated Mother's day at the Duck House. The food there was not so bad I guess, but not very impressed by their service. Not sure if I'll go again... especially when the duck not only made me fat, but also caused some extra pimples! ;)

Besides over-feeding on regular food, I'm finally done with Jerimiah. The book is pretty depressing and scary... and not very easy to find memorable verses which I'd like to remember... hopefully things get better later on... If God is with us, of course things will get better later on! ;)

Another interesting thing worthy of mention is the TV show Lost. It's actually dealing with how predestination is intertwined with free will... I was debating with some atheists on the forum about such topic just recently and it was cool to see a TV show demonstrate the paradoxical co-existece of both! One more season and it'll supposedly end... I wonder how the show is going to finish. Wife is usually pretty good at guessing the ending, but this show is just so unpredictable she's not even going to try! ;)

(Jer 49-52, 1772. lbs, $2.599)

Jeremiah 39

18 I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the LORD.'

Swine Flu...

This thermal picture's taken at JPL this weekend. We went to their open-house, I look like I have a fever, but that's only because it was kinda hot. So, no, didn't get swine flu yet, but I think we're getting fat like pigs all of a sudden over the weekend! Not sure what happened, perhaps it was the hotter weather causing us to drink too much... consequently caused water retention? We really should be eating more of God's Word as Pastor Jim was telling us... ;)

I think I'm going to try to pick out at least one memorable bible verse to remember everyday our of my devotional reading. But today's reading, I really wasn't able to find any particularly good verse that's all that memorable... the only interesting part of the story was about the Recabites who were really faithful to their fore-father's instructions... to never drink wine and to remain life as nomads... God was complimenting them regard their obedience... why couldn't the Jews be more like them?

Well, as nice as I am on the outside, I know I'm not always all that obedient myself. Hope I can be more obedient to God in the future...

Anyway, after drinking from our bitter cups recently, wife and I seemed to be making more progress regarding our relationships... may God continue to guide and inspire me to be able to keep it up! ;)

(Jer 34-36, 177.0 lbs, $2.499)

Bitter cup...

Speaking of better dish last weekend, interestingly pastor Jim talked about the bitter cup!

Actually this past week, wife and I both had to drink from some bitter cups..., but thanks be to God that we're able to get thru the troubles we were facing...

Yeah, often times in life we only see other people's glory... other people's good results..., but rarely do we know how much blood and sweat others have put in. We all want the glory... the nice life... sure! But are we willingly to pay the price?

If that something doesn't kill you, will it really make you stronger? Can love really conquer all?

Or are we doomed to die anyway... and can the various things of the world conquer the little love that you have?

Anyway, only we ourselves can answer these questions.

Like pastor Jim said, may we all be able to past the test so that we may have good testimonies... may we all be able to get thru the mess so that we can have good messages for those who are hopeless...

God is wonderful. God is great. God rocks! ;)

BTW, I tried out the new Kentucky Grilled Chicken today... it's not bad, but not that great either... still like it fried... I guess we should just stick to whatever we're good at and don't try to be something we're not!
(Jer 19-21, 174.6 lbs, $2.519)

Better dish...

Hmm..., my employer seemed to have stopped allowing people to log on to Blog or social networking sites... so I guess I can only blog at home now instead of at work. Oh well...

Pastor Jim's sermon last sunday was about choosing the 'better dish'... it was about how Mary chose the 'better dish' by spending more time with Jesus instead of Martha choosing to get done what needs to be done and missing out time with Jesus.

Yeah, it sure is easy to lose focus of what is really important in life. But of course the moral of the story isn't to justify our laziness... avoid doing what we're suppose to do and 'pretending' that you are busy with something else more important... For sure I have issues with being lazy or procrastinating... and I think I'm slowly improving recently, by setting myself with some to-do-list. I think my problem is that I just tend to lose focus, not only NOT doing what I'm suppose to do, but also not really doing anything important like Mary either!!!!

Anyway, this past week, I think I've managed to do what needs to be done both at work and at home pretty well, thanks for the "to-do-list", but of course I'm still missing out on important stuffs... such as paying more attention to the wife!!! The F-1 race at China last weekend was sort of the straw that broke the camel's back!!! We're already watching too much TV already..., trying to catch up to missed espisodes of recorded chinese shows..., and of Lost, and Heros, etc. At least those shows we can sorta watch together. But F-1 is really boring for the wife, plus it's just too much... and wife began to really feel like I'm not paying attention to her and the F-1 cars sounds was probably annoying her too!

And its kinda funny to find out that Pastor Jim's family suffer similar problems at his house. Pastor Jim would focus in on his sports games sometimes and forget about his wife! Of course this is definitely NOT the 'better dish', only shows that even the pastor is only human! ;)

We also talked about that movie 'Revolutionary Road' some more..., I think the troubles experienced by the characters were clearly caused by people focusing on the wrong priorities. The husband lost focus..., that's why he was unfulfilled at work and even had a stupid affair! The wife also lost focus and instead, really focused on moving the whole family to Paris... I guess often times realities will force us to lose focus of what's really important... may even shatter some dreams... like the song Susan Boyle sang on Britain's Got Talent! However, since there is a God who loves us and is with us, why should we lose hope?

May we all be able to enjoy our dish, instead of feeling that other people's dishes are better than ours! ;) Of course may God help us choose our dishes wisely too!

(Jer 4-6, 175.2 lbs, $2.519)

Happy Easter!

This Easter Sunday we actually got to church late..., and so we couldn't even get in! Even the overflow section was filled..., so we ended up listening to Pastor Jim's sermon in the coffee shop! ;)

Yeah, pastor Jim encouraged us to bury our old selves in the cemetery with Christ... in order to be able to be really born again and rise with the resurrected Christ! That'll certainly be my prayer...

I've taken steps to manage my time better, with God's help may I can soon become a better time manager! I even finished my taxes before wife came home on Saturday evening! ;)

Anyway, Sunday evening, we're also lucky enough to get free Laker tickets from cousin Wesley, who works at the NBA office at Taiwan... At luckily that's not first come first served... so we actually squeeze in a pretty packed game at Staples Center! Perhaps it was because of Easter weekend, we didn't really see any Hollywood celebrities at the game..., but at least we saw Kobe Bryant!

So it has been a pretty relaxing and fun Easter Sunday...

I also did a personality/career type of a test and found out that I'm rather philosophical! Kinda interesting..., perhaps I'm in the wrong field as an engineer! ;)

(Isa 55-57, $2.479, 174.6 lbs)

分析：您的性格類型是「INFP」( 哲學家 )

理想主義者，忠於自己的價值觀及自己所重視的人。外在的生活與內在的價值觀配合，有好奇心，很快看到事情的可能與否，能夠加速對理念的實踐。試圖瞭解別 人、協助別人發展潛能。適應力強，有彈性；如果和他們的 價值觀沒有牴觸，往往能包容他人。 INFP把內在的和諧視為高於其他一切。他們敏感、理想化、忠誠，對於個人價值具有一種強烈的榮譽感。他們個人信仰堅定，有為自認為有價值的事業獻身的精 神。 INFP型的人對於已知事物之外的可能性很感興趣，精力集 中於他們的夢想和想像。他們思維開闊、有好奇心和洞察力，常常具有出色的長遠眼光。在日常事務中，他們通常靈活多變、具有忍耐力和適應性，但是他們非常堅 定地對待內心的忠誠，為自己設定了事實上幾乎是不可能 的標準。 INFP型的人具有許多使他們忙碌的理想和忠誠。他們十分堅定地完成自己所選擇的事情，他們往往承擔得太多，但不管怎樣總要完成每件事。雖然對外部世界他 們顯得冷淡緘默，但INFP型的人很關心內在。他們富 有同情心、理解力，對於別人的情感很敏感。除了他們的價值觀受到威脅外，他們總是避免衝突，沒有興趣強迫或支配別人。INFP型的人常常喜歡通過書寫而不 是口頭來表達自己的感情。當INFP型的人勸說別人相信他們的 想法的重要性時，可能是最有說服力的。 INFP很少顯露強烈的感情，常常顯得沉默而冷靜。然而，一旦他們與你認識了，就會變得熱情友好，但往往會避免浮淺的交往。他們珍視那些花費時間去思考目 標與價值的人。

您適合的領域有：創作性、藝術類、教育研究、諮詢類等

您適合的職業有：

• 心理學家
• 心理輔導和咨詢人員
• 人力資源管理
• 翻譯
• 大學教師（人文學科）
• 社會工作者
• 圖書管理員
• 服裝設計師
• 編輯
• 網站設計師
• 團隊建設顧問
• 藝術指導
• 記者
• 口筆譯人員
• 娛樂業人士
• 建築師
• 社科類研究人員
• 教育顧問
• 各類藝術家
• 插圖畫家
• 詩人
• 小說家

Time after time...

Feeling kinda restless lately, not able to sleep as soundly as before... maybe jetlag is finally hitting me? ;)

Also, I'm really starting to notice that I'm not a very good manager of my time... I don't effectively use the time that I have and I'd end up not having enough time to do stuffs that I'm suppose to do... I still haven't file for taxes yet! And April 15th is approaching!!! I'm such a procrastinator!

What's worse is that I noticed this problem but I can't seem to fix it. Littlest things can sometimes distract me from doing what I'm suppose to do. Whether it's the internet... or the TV... or the PS3! ;) When I first got the TV back, I turned the PS3 on to try things out and then I'd lose track of time on the virtual race track!!! So I actually haven't turned my PS3 on ever since!!! ;)

I think perhaps I need to carry a to do list with me. List out all the things that must be done for the day. Anything that's not on the list and it's not an emergency... then I better just have the discipline to NOT do it! Will this work my Lord? Hmm... May God help me able to truly change... help me shake this thing off and be able to rise up and sit enthrone next to You!!!! :)

And a bit of good news... that is I'm slowly getting rid of the fat that I gained from Taiwan! Yipee!
(Isa 52-54, 175.4 lbs, $2.549)

Economy leveling off?

Stock market really surged again thanks to Wells Fargo. However, is the economy really getting better? The Baltic Dry Index, is still going down..., granted at much slower pace than before... down .2% at $1,463. So perhaps things are leveling off...

But suffice to say that people are really getting ahead of themselves..., feeling hopeful when there still not much international trade of the basic goods going on... People are acting a bit irrationally..., first they panic and sell off everything..., and now they all want back in again because of the slightest bit of good news... Investing in the stock market sure is annoying. I'm not sure what to do now...

Some say best thing to do is to go against the herd. When everyone wants in, that's when you should get out. Of course if you get out too early, you'll lose out on opportunities for more gain..., but then again, if you get out too late, then you'll be left holding an empty bag! ;) And reverse is true too. The best time to get into the stock market is when eveyone else are too scared to get it!

Anyway, I guess the best stretagy is to slowly get back into the market... no point just having my retirement money just sitting around not making a whole lot of interests... Tomorrow is Good Friday, so market's closed... so I don't have to worry about the unpredictable market ups and downs! Whew! ;)

I cashed out one of the 401k account from my previous employer near the end of the last year to stop the bleeding... and transferred to an IRA account in etrade... just to gain some control of my money I guess. I'm slowly starting to get back into the market since February..., surprisingly I've generated roughly 12% return just within the past couple months!!! Can I keep it up? Hope so..., this is money I can't touch until I retire anyway... may God give me the wisdom to be able to generate huge returns so that I can retire early! ;)

(Isa 49-51, 176.2 lbs, $2.519)

Thank God for Costco!

We bought our TV from Costco because they automatically upgrade the one year warranty to two. Sure enough, as 2 year limit is approaching, our Sceptre HDTV developed a "line" on the screen. So I sent it in for warranty repair, good thing they are close by so that I can save shipping charges...

Anyway, after couple of weeks, I finally had my TV back... they replaced the entire LCD panel. Things are looking good now! It certainly is nice to have a big TV again... So hopefully we're good for another 2 years? Of course preferrably more than 2 years... Hope they won't let us down again... or else we won't buy another Sceptre product again!

And wife, if you're reading from Taiwan, I just found out that we haven't recorded any show on the computer... because I think Sherry turned off our cable converter box. I just saw plenty of shows recorded on the PC that showed hours and hours of blank screen...

Oh well, too much TV isn't that good for us anyway. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. No matter what happens, His name is to be praised! ;)

(Isa 46~48, 176.2 lbs, $2.519)

How can we change to stay the same?

The book I'm reading recently..., thought I'd be done by now after flying to and from Taiwan... anyway, the book talked about something interesting... author was saying that often times in life, we don't really have a well defined problem. Main piece of the work is actually problem definition! Unlike in school..., we are used to dealing with well defined problems to solve... now in the real world can we even properly define the problems?

This is where experience and wisdom come in I guess. Experienced leaders will usually face the problem... and then just do whatever it takes to solve that problem. As he become more aware of the details, then he may decide to use different tactics. They don't really think and analyse all the options that he can do and then make a decision by picking what he thinks is the best... whether it's fire fighter or army commander. Experienced leaders will always instinctively know what to do in any given situation. (The instinct is developed thru experience of course) Only the less experience would actually take the time to think of what to do... and weighing all the different options! ;)

Of course as they face whatever 'problems' head on, they will be able to get to know the problem more. As more information is gather, the problem will become more clearly defined... If we don't clearly figure out what's the problem, what hope do we have trying to solve it?

So in school, the emphasis is more on solution. But we really need practice more on defining the problems in the first place! Once that is accomplished, finding the solution should be a easy part! Of course wife often times would like me to identify problems even before problems surface! That is clearly not possible. My problem is that I often don't see the problem when it sometimes is staring at me in the face! ;)

Of course life shouldn't be all about fighting fires or fixing problems. We can also act justly, love mercy and humbly follow God whenever there's no troubles whatsoever too! ;) I meant besides being so spiritual, I think our life goals also perhaps need to change as our lives become more clearly defined. I used to wanted to be a scientist as a kid..., then a race car driver..., then a car designer..., but I finally had to settle for an aerospace engineer.

I think Kate Winslet's character in Revolutionary Road simply all of a sudden become too rigid... and naturally when stuffs happen that caused her life goal to shatter, she was unable to cope with it. Anyway, the only thing that shouldn't change in our lives should be the love we have for God and for one another. As for all those other things in life... they're all subject to change at any given moment!

Did I get this right God? ;)
(Isa 43-45, 177.2 lbs, $2.519)

I'm waiting on the Lord...

Been quite busy at work a week earlier... and having just return from a week worth of vacation in Taiwan was actually very relaxing. I even adjusted to the different time zones very well. I just basically forced myself to stay awake on the planes... and the just goes right to sleep at the destinations! ;) I slept well last night after arriving LAX late last evening. Perhaps my jetlag is effecting me a bit, because I'm still not that sleepy! ;)

Anyway, during my busy work week and during my vacation, I haven't even done my devotions that much. I read a few chapters here and there... trying to keep up with that daily plan, but distractions is always around to foil the plans... and I also haven't blogged for about 2 weeks!!! I don't even remember where I was with regard to may reading plan!!!

Oh well, so I'm just going to start over where I left off 2 weeks ago! Today at lunch, Tigran showed up to buy us lunch again. So once again, not enough time to finish my devotional blog... So I think I'm just going to try to wake up early and read my bible early in the morning where there can't be any distractions!!! Unless if I over sleep... ;) Anyway, may God help me! Isaiah 40 talked about God promising strength to the weary... so may it be true!!! ;)

Tonite, I had dinner at parents' home. My nephew Daniel is there because he's on break or something... anyway, over dinner, mom started to complain about dad again... and then giving dad a warning... wanting me and Daniel to know that if someday grandma were to disappear, it'd be because grandpa annoyed her to leave! She was actualy kinda kind by saying that she won't divorce..., she'll just take off.

So I tried to be the mediator... I think I'm an improved mediator now because I 'know' what she's talking about... and I know what dad is feeling... because I've been on the same boat with my own wife!!!! ;) Hopefully I helped diffuse the situation a bit... and then I diverted our conversation to Dan. Talk about what he likes in school... what his friends are like... any girlfriends... no girlfriends? then is he gay? Hopefully a little humor also help defuse the situation further! ;)

On the plane, I saw plenty of movies, and one that stuck in mind is Revolutionary Road. The Titanic stars showed us how to fall in love earlier, now they showed us what real life is really like! I think my personality is well suited for boring life style, but don't get me wrong, even I want a little excitement from time to time. God also don't want us to just settle for a boring life, but a godly life. If eternal life in heaven is just going to be boring, why bother going to heaven, right? But on the other hand, is life all about having exciting adventures? Without exciting adventures, life's just not worth living? Solomon seeked and had plenty of adventures in his life. In the end, the world's wisest guy finally realize what is most important about making life meaningful is 'love', or God. Life can be boring... and exciting at times..., but life without love for sure would be hell.

May God help all of us to be able to be filled with love like the eagle is lifted by the wind. I didn't watch any TV tonite. All I did was take care of the cats, chat with wife in TW and sang this strength will rise when we wait upon the Lord song! My fingers were weary and hurting playing the guitar because I haven't done that for a while..., but I think my heart feels better now! :)

(Isa 40~42, 178.2 lbs, $2.499)

Losing or out of control...

Lately, I've been pretty busy at work... and it's also cutting into my devotion time. I think this is probably the main cause for my losing it. Whether it's road rage... or just falling asleep and forget to wake up!!!

Hopefully things can change for the better now. Today, I was able to get up rather quickly without the alarm even sounding off! I was able to send our TV in for repair and then still get to work on time! Wow! ;)

Anyway, there was a guest speaker this sunday at faith. Some hippie preacher who've one day decided to pick up his cross(literally) and go around the world for/with Jesus. He had some interesting tales to tell after his 40 year journey. I think he's probably the real life Forrest Gump... except that he's not dumb, just crazy! Yeah, for sure I'm not crazed or insane enough compare to the guy! ;) Arthur Blessitt for sure is an interesting character... and he reminded me that no matter where we're at and what's going on, our Lord Jesus is indeed with us. It's also important for us to keep the faith... and our love and zeal for him!

Today's reading of Hezekiah also reminded us of this fact. No matter what happens, for sure God will help us..., but of course we shouldn't become too complacent whenever our situation gets too good and comfy either. Yes Lord, help us maintain our relationship with you at a level that is healthy I guess... and I guess there's no better way to keep that relationship healthy than to just pick up our own cross and continue to follow Jesus! ;)

(Isa 34-39, 175.2 lbs, $2.279)

Losing control...

Today is kinda of a weird losing your temper day. In the morning I ran into some stupid driver... and on my way home, I ran into some other stupid driver. I don't really mind when people drive stupid when it's obvious that they clueless. I have no problems with old ladies driving slowly or people making careless and honest mistakes... What really gets on my nerve are the people who drive annoyingly on purpose.

So today I actually raced some crazy Mexican in my 70hp 19 year old Civic! Almost cause one of them to lose control on the road... I also ended up missing my connection to another freeway... causing myself to go extra distances to get home... on the surface streets while trying to navigate home, I even saw couple of guys fighting on the street!

What a weird day... it's kinda like losing our temper day!

In retrospect, I'm kinda stupid for allowing myself to lose control like that. It's not often that I get mad like that... maybe it's the lack of sleep and the extra work load..., but still, I should've handle myself better. So what if there are other crazy drivers on the road? It's not really my job to teach them how to drive...

Anyway, may God help me control my temper better when I'm driving. Perhaps I'm just so mild mannered most of the time, sometimes these kind of things could just trigger me to snap on the road!!!! ;) Whatever, it's stupid. I pray that it won't happen again.

Pastor Jim taught us that God wants to have justice for all and live a lifestyle of love. It's really not our job to bring other people to 'justice' using our own means. We should just make sure that we act justly... as for others, we ought to just learn to love them... instead of racing them on the freeway endangering ourselves and other motorists... sigh. I sure have a long way to learn from my Lord...

(Isa 28-33, 175.6 lbs, $2.299)

Uncertainties...

That God given chance for a breather during the end of February is still on... the stupid security issue is still left unresolved... so we're suppose to start testing a hardware soon but still can't do it until we are cleared to proceed... I hope they won't all of a sudden turn us back on just when we're ready to go back to Taiwan! Oh well...

Also found out that the program we're working on may be used by Obama as a bargining chip with the Russians. Perhaps this is the real reason for the hold up. Our program may get cancelled in the name of peace!

Well, hopefully we can win more big programs then... cancellation of this program could hurt us pretty bad.

Well, other good news is that I got a 5% raise recently and company rated me as 'highly effective!' So hopefully I won't be the first to go if there's a layoff, but then again, if the company has no money, then the company has no money... also, Daniel got a 7% raise... he must've been super duper amazingly effective! Anyway, he really needs the money to support his wife, kid and the stupid house that he bought at the peak of the market! ;)

Speaking of market, stock market seems to be steadily climbing back up. Have we hit the bottom? The stock market really rallied because Citi Bank posted profits. However, is it really all that impressive that you've shown that your paycheck can cover your grocery bills? What about the massive debts that you're carrying? The car, the student loan, the mortgage?

It remains to be seen I suppose..., and it seems mom's going to be in the market to buy another car... I guess she's doing her part at stimulating the economy! ;)

I wonder what God's planning for the world. Is this economic crisis just a warning to get us to not be so greedy... or is God perhaps really trying to drive us to the ground for being disobedient.

It sure would be nice to be Isaiah..., to be able to know things ahead of the time... so he can plan properly. Anyway, I don't think the Americans are really as bad as the Israelites at the time..., so my guess is that things won't go too badly... things are already bad enough... and may God deliver us soon. And may more and more folks repent soon so that God can begin His deliverance soon... instead of having to wait until we're totally devestated...

Anyway, whatever happens, whether God gives or takes, opens or close, we should just shout Halleluja anyways!!! :D

(Isa 22-27, 175.6 lbs, $2.319)

Heros...

Just when I was watching 'Heros' last night, mom called and said that she was in an accident! It turned out she was in a pretty serious accident... a big semi truck hit her and she spun out of control. It's amazing that the semi-truck didn't bother stopping at all. With an impact like that he should be able to feel it. Anyway, thank God she didn't hit other cars on the freeway. A guy behind her saw what happened when she spun across the freeway and stopped to help her call the police. He didn't have to do that but I guess there are everyday heros too. Thanks God for those people too!

The car's damage is estimated to be about how much it is worth... so insurance company is still thinking about what to do... whether to fix or total it.

Don't know why we keep on having car troubles. Good thing we fixed the Ford... but now the Toyota is seriously injured...

Anyway, besides the bad things that happen, at least we had a good weekend whale watching! I wasn't expecting to see any whales actually because I went once and saw nothing! However, I guess it's always good to have low expectations and then be pleasantly surprised! ;) They're probably more hi-tech nowadays... capable of using sonar or something to track the whale movements... wife was actually able to capture a few photos. Very impressive! ;)

(Isaiah 16-21, 174.6 lbs, $2.319)

The next big thing...

I read it from some investment email newsletter, Motley fools, saying that the next big thing would be 'cloud computing'. Buying those company's stocks now would be like buying Microsoft, AOL, Amazon, Yahoo, etc right at the beginning!!! They're going to revolutionize the industry again! Supposedly cloud computing will help companies or whatever users minimize IT expenses. Instead of buying software and install it on your PC, we can simply use whatever software we need remotely. Similar to surfing and browsing the net... essentially it'll be like doing everything over the net... all we'll be needing is just a browser! No need to buy additional hardware or software... basically we use this virtual services as if we're using electricity... as needed basis. Pay as we go.

Hmm, I wonder if it's really going to take off though. Wouldn't security become an issue? Even today, who knows what google or yahoo's checking up on us... keeping a tab on what we're doing? Even on this blogger site, even if we lock it up so that nobody else can read it..., surely blooger.com admins will still be able to read it, right? ;)

Anyway, I guess it won't hurt to buy some of those company's stocks. My 401k money can't be withdrawn anyway..., plus retirement is still a long ways away. Betting a few thousand shouldn't be too big of a deal. If Motley Fools were right, I should be reaping large rewards later on! ;)

Well, Lord, what will really be the next big thing? How can I make wise investments instead of just burying my money in the ground? Given today's falling market, one really feel like we ought to do just that..., but may God give us insight on various opportunities...

(Isa 13-15, 174.6 lbs, $2.359)

Final prop 8 drama?

California supreme court will make a final ruling on what 'marriage' is really suppose to be...

This proposition is really tearing a lot of things apart. Should voters have a right to change constitutions? Or should judges make sure the law is really just and fair and disregard the will of the people? And by which standard are the judges to decide whether or not if they are really fair and just?

CA justices have allowed gay marriage for a while before... prop 8 turned that around. Will the justices turn it back again?

I think it's likely. But then again, I didn't think the CA liberal voters would really pass prop 8... and I was proven wrong! ;) So maybe the judges will respect people's will this time?

Anyway, personally, I think homosexuality is obviously a sin according to scripture. However, scripture is also clear that love can cover up all sins. If we're just having 'sex' with one another, for sure God doesn't like that. However, if we are making love... if the love is true... will God really be upset by that? I don't know.

Human sexuality is pretty messed up that's for sure. All I know is that people should just focus less on sex or whatever physical of this world... and focus more on love. Instead of trying to judge sins committed by others... we ought to spend more time examining our own sins.

May we all be able to choose wisely.

(Isaiah 10-12, 174.0 lbs, $2.379)

Eggs-Wing

Can't believe they got my name wrong...

We could've won so overwhelmingly..., but I guess it just wasn't meant to be... What's worse is that they even got my name wrong in the photo caption!!!

Oh well, what's in a name... as long as God's name is glorified, right? ;)

Since nobody was glorified after our competition... who cares...

Wikipedia has some cool info regarding all the X-planes in past history. X-20 actually never flew... and given that our Eggs Plane has 20 eggs... maybe that was a bad omen. Next time we better pick a number that was a huge success! ;)

Market was up sharply today..., but still very low. Isaiah also mentioned a lot of doom and gloom that's about to come. Anyway, how else can we face the defeat and failures of today? Instead of feeling depressed, might as well face tomorrow with hope! Of course not just to hope in vain, but hope in the LORD!

(Isaiah 7-9, 174.6 lbs, $2.379)

3x3=9

Today is square root day. Next square root day will be April 4th 2016! ;)

Hopefully by then the economic crisis will be over with.

I also heard over the radio today that bee keepers and tangerine farmers are having their problems getting along... the bees are causing the undesirable cross pollination which caused the seedless tangerines to create seeds!!! Consequently causing their tangerines to drop in price.

So we all have our various problems to deal with.

I think it would certainly be nice to be able to actually witness the return of our King Jesus before the next square root day!!! That way, all of our problems will go away!!! ;)

Anyway, considering all the problems that I have experienced so far in my life... sometimes I feel like my problem is nothing compared to other people's...

We all have our own problems to deal with. God's grace is indeed sufficient for us to deal with our problems properly. May God's perfect power indeed can be shown thru our weaknesses. One day, God is going to hand pick the tangerines and enjoy it whether if it has seeds or not! Only us humans are that picky about those kind of stupid issues I guess. ;)

(Isaiah 4-6, 175.2 lbs, $2.379)

More slides of the stock market...

The problem with the insurance company AIG caused the market to REALLY slide today. I guess there's really no end in sight so far... Americans have really over-spent themselves this time. Our debt to Gross-Domestic-Poduct ratio is now at 100%. It means we can produce just enough to pay back our debts. The last time the ratio was at 100% is right before the Great Depression.

I did a rough estimate of how much I've put into my 401k plan since the beginning of my career... and I guess I'm pretty lucky that I'm about even now. It's as if my money is just sitting in the bank with 0% interests for the past 13 years!

Anyway, I'm glad that I rolled out one of my plan from a previous employer earlier this year so that I stopped the bleeding a bit. So now I'm slowly getting back into the market again. It's cool to be able to buy stocks so cheap, but it's also scary to see the stocks that I've already bought continue to slide... well, I'll probably be working for 2 more decades... surely things have to climb back up, right?

Right Lord? ;)

Pastor Jim is talking about the series 'justice for all' again. Kinda similar mood is also present in Isaiah... Have we really been 'just' lately? Financial greed..., war in Iraq..., torturing terrorists... I guess although no financial analysts saw this fiasco coming, this really shouldn't come as a big surprise for us believers.

Here's hoping that people will learn their lessons... repent... and THEN we'll be able to once again enjoy God's infinite grace and mercy once again! :)

(Isaiah 1-3, 175.2 lbs, $2.379)

God given chance for a breather...

Yes, work load has been quite heavy lately and amazing enough that all of a sudden, due to some political reasons, we've been asked to stop working for a while...

Yeah, it'll impact our schedule if they don't figure out what to do soon, but oh well. At least it's a good chance for me to take it easy for a while...

I've been meaning to spend some more time to figure out what the heck is wrong with my robo-project. I also want to make some more pillow cases... that are not just rectagular in shape! ;)

Anyway, hopefully weather will be good tomorrow for whale watching... fingers crossed.

We had a good bible study with parents last nite, but I have to confess that I've been slipping on my devotional time lately... just rushing thru the scripture passages and not really reflecting on it much. Reading songs of solomon only made me think of sex more. ;) Wife also doesn't like that book because she thinks Solomon isn't really qualified to talk about love because he has had some many wives...

Whatever, what's more important is that we learn how to really really love! :)

(Song of Solomon 1-8, 175.2 lbs, $2.379)

Getting busy at work lately...

In a way that's good I suppose, considering the current state of our economy, stock market at a 12 year low, 50% off the peak of this year... At least company still pays overtime... so the extra money can't hurt!

We're suppose to go whale watching over the weekend, but the weather was not ideal... for sure the pictures won't turn out well... so we re-scheduled... hopefully weather would be better... the rain and the clouds are really getting annoying now... This is suppose to be LA... not Taipei! ;)

So I took the time over the weekend to try to fix dad's car with the 'magical' steel seal! Not sure if that really fixed dad's car, but at least dad's car appears to be running fine for now! So at least there'd be no more need for us to buy a new car! I'm also afraid of dad driving my old Civic... because I worry that he might break my Civic as well! ;) Poor old dad, always driving my old cars... ;)

We also went to uncle Frank's 70th birthday banquet on sunday... I was stuffed, but luckily I didn't gain too much weight! I've been trying to maintain an exercise routine... just a simple 20 pushups and 20 sit ups everyday. I think so far it's working. Sitting on my office chair all day without exercise for sure isn't healthy... and speaking of health, our cat Hades seems to have caught a bad case of eye infection Sunday evening... hope things will turn better soon...

Anyway, this sunday pastor Jim talked about 'justice for all'. One thing that caught my attention was that he talked about being conservative or a liberal... Those who are theologically conservative are the ones who believe bible is fundamentally true... that Jesus is truly the Son of God and died and risen again in 3 days... those who are liberals theologically tend to believe bible taught us great things..., but they wouldn't take the 'miracles' that seriously or literally.

Of course there are also political conservatives and liberals...

Personally, I think I'm a theological conservative, but a liberal politically. I personally think that's how Jesus would be too... anyway, I'm not sure what pastor Jim is trying to get at so far, but I think this new series of sermons should in interesting...

(Ecc 10-12, 174.8 lbs, $2.419)

Eggs-20

X planes has traditionally been air force's experimental vehicles... for example X-1 was the first plane Chuck Yeager flew to go break the sound barrier...

Anyway, so this week, a few colleagues of mine have taken on a challenge of building a brand new X-vehicle... or Eggs-Vehicle... for engineering week's egg drop competition! We ambitiously aimed to carry 2 dozen eggs, but later on found out we miscalculated and can only legally carry 20 eggs.

So Eggs-20 was born.

On Wednesday, Eggs-20 could've easily won the competition by being the most accurate, the most eggs survived and the most creative... we ended up breaking 5 out of 20 eggs... the 75% survival rate wouldn't be able to win in that category...

Anyway, to make long short... our dream and hope was dashed when our broken eggs leaked... so we were disqualified on the spot... :(

Oh well, perhaps next year, we'll be more successful with Eggs-36. ;)

We really didn't have a whole lot of free time, I think we're all pretty busy with work... and 2 of our teammate actually bailed on us... so it's really a miracle that we were able to finish at all. It was fun at least... eventhough we didn't win..., but technically we didn't lose either. We were just practicing and giving folks a preview of what's to come next year! HAHA! :D

Anyway, now it's time to catch up on real work and my daily devotion too!

Although everything is meaningless, I still need to prioritize better which meaningless thing is more important! ;)

(Ecc 7-9, 175.2 lbs, $2.459)

TibetanGenerator... ;)

Saw this from uncle's forwarded email and thought it's kinda cool. To bad it isn't really Christian related...

http://w3..mecolor.com.tw/find.html

Apparently these are my colors:
　。自 覺 橙 色：正　向
　。潛 質 藍 色：行動力
　。原 生 紅 色：浪　漫

What's yours? ;)

Anyway, pastor Jim actually didn't prepare a sermon for this month... and decided to just pray over us... and have us pray and praise God too. It was actually pretty moving...

I also finally got wife an iphone over the weekend. It is pretty cool... hopefully soon apple will offer a $99 version so I can get one for myself... heck, perhaps I'll wait til it's free. ;)

(Ecce 4-6, 176.0 lbs, $2.479)

Friday the 13th...

My co-worker's hardrive and cell phone both crashed today! Lucky for him! Perhaps there is some truth to this legend after all! ;)

Last night was kinda interesting... that because there were guests at our house, mom sort of made all of them sit down and do bible study together! ;) Hopefully they all enjoyed the story of Joseph.

Hopefully God can also give me more dreams that can be beneficial to me... kinda like in Joseph's case...

Anyway, starting to read the Book of Ecclesiastes today... it seems even wisdom is meaningless. Of course wisdom is better than no wisdom, but in the end, it really makes no difference..., plus, it'll suck if it'd actually make you feel sad by knowing more things! Given my more positive attitude, perhaps I should have more wisdom and wife should have less... so that she can be happier... instead of always having the ability to see trouble coming even before trouble comes...

This ability certainly is nice to have... of course ideally, we need to pre-emptively deal with problems if we can, but we certainly don't have to pre-emptively feeling depressed before trouble comes, right? ;) Of course what really sucks would be knowing that something bad is going to happen, but have no power to really stop it...

But perhaps that's not all bad..., the bright side to that would be that we can get better prepared and enjoy while we can I suppose. For example if we're diagnosed with cancer... should the patient be informed of this information? I'd think an optimist will be able to better deal with this blow... and we can probably hide that info from a pessimist... cause he might die prematurely because of depression instead of cancer! ;)

Anyway, since I'm an optimist, I guess I shouldn't fear about having too much wisdom. As pointless as it may be, yes Lord, please give me some more!

(Ecc 1-3, 175.6 lbs, $2.419)

Happy birthday to them!

To who???

Abe Lincoln and Charles Darwin! They are both 200 years old today!

It's interesting that nearly 70% of Americans don't subscribe to Darwin's theory of evolution. I don't think solid evidences can really be found yet... to prove either creationism or evolution..., but I'm glad most Americans still believe that we didn't just evolve out of dirt all by ourselves! ;) And I wonder how Lincoln would've reacted to president Obama...

Anyway, sure enough, had been real busy at work... AND at home lately. It's also interesting that I think God, or somebody, gave me 3 dreams that kinda dealt with my past, present and future all together! I think I was able to understand that 'adultery' dream a little better earlier... It's kind of a mini inner healing session in my dreams I think... helped me deal with the past guilt, shame, and hurts better. Helped me get to know myself better too! Unfortunately it has also effect wife lately..., probably shouldn't have shared too much info... but in the name of being more opened and honest, I think I've done the right thing. What doesn't kill us can only make us stronger... no pain, no gain, right? ;)

Agur in Provers prayed that God won't make him too rich so that he'd forget about God... also not to make him too poor so that he might steal... He wants just his proper daily amount... well, similar things can be applied to "pain" I suppose. For sure if things are going too well, I just might end up becoming too complacent, but too much pain... who wants that? Make God administer just enough pain in my life that I can handle so that I can really grow properly I suppose. Of course, I hope my pains won't be in vain... I pray that my pains can be translated to increased wisdom!!!

(Pro 25-31, 176.4 lbs, $2.399)

A new week!

Work is going to get super busy in the up and coming months... my robot project also stalled because I couldn't get my PC to talk to my robot!!! I'm also suppose to help design and build something for the egg drop competition... perhaps I'm just biting off more than I can chew again...

Just need to chill and start managing my time more wisely.

Perfect opportunity for me to gain more wisdom I guess! ;) Halleluja!

This week will also mark the week when we'll first begin to track my marriage relationship by using some sort of index... kinda like how government tracks unemployment... gross domestic product... so that they can get an idea of the economic health of the nation... I think I need something to help me make sure I keep on 'growing' my marriage too!

Anyway, it's been raining so hard for so long lately..., I don't remember anything like this in LA for as long as I've been living here... I'm sure everything is going to be super green afterwards... I also hope that other things besides grass and trees will be growing too.

Of course it'd be nice to have a revival for our town, but I need a revival too! Sunday's sermon was actually kinda moving... Pastor Jim talked about how we often times wander, worry and whine when bad things happen to us. But besides just not doing those things... and besides just waiting patiently and even praying... can we really praise Him when times are bad? Of course often times God puts us in this waiting mode to get our attention. To get us off of our fantasies... so that we can really begin to dream dreams... do things we're really meant to do! But besides accomplishments, can we be happy to just be with God? Can joy of the Lord really be our strength?

Well, I'll try! ;) I'll start by saying thank You and I praise You!!! Halleluja!!!! :)

(Pro 22-24, 175.6 lbs, $2.399)

Steel seal...

Dad's car busted a head gasket... caused coolant leaks into one of the engine cylinders. Today, I researched around internet a bit, trying to find out how easy or hard it is to replace head gaskets... and the verdict is that it is not EASY! Head gasket itself is relatively cheap, it's all the labor involved. If I'm a real mechanic, I guess it'll probably be worth doing it myself... most mechanics probably want to make money doing easier jobs than replacing head gaskets... all the disassembling... and then reassembling. So more research needs to be done if dad and I are really going to go down that route... we just might end up spending time and money and then still junk the car anyway!!!! That'll suck! ;)

Murphy's law: if something can go wrong, it'll always go wrong! I thought my robot project would be simple, but right now I'm still stucked on software issues... point is things are never as easy as we think it is... better just park that Ford Escort in the garage for a while...

Still, by accident, I found some thing called the steel seal... some sort of liquid that can bond to cracked engine parts and fix the leak!!! Sounds too good to be true, but there are some favorable testimonials... for $50 and the money back guaranteed... I'm now tempted to give that a try first! It's cheap... and within 30minutes, I'd know if it works or not!

Anyway, bible said,

It is not good to have zeal without knowledge,
nor to be hasty and miss the way. (Pro 19:2)

So, I'll spend a bit more time seeking more 'knowledge' about it first before making the purchase I suppose! ;)

Another verse that kinda caught my eye today was the part about sleep... since wife has not be able to sleep very much lately...

Do not love sleep or you will grow poor;
stay awake and you will have food to spare. (Pro 20:13)

It's funny I don't recall ever reading this verse before!!! I kinda love to sleep... I guess I better watch out!!! As for the wife, I guess she's going to be rich!!! ;)

Anyway, I don't want to be super poor nor super rich, but may God help us to be able to sleep just enough so that we can remain healthy I guess. Can you help us out, my Lord? Thanks! :)

(Pro 19-21, 176.0 lbs, $2.369)

Mintie the cat, formerly known as Sabrina!

Yes, we've settled on a new name for our new cat. Mintie's green eyes is a good match for her name I suppose. Will Mintie be able to truly refresh her husband Hades? Or will she continue to agitate poor Hades with her 'scent'? Only time will tell I suppose..., and according to the Humane Society later, in the end, it'll always work out...

We just won't know exactly when! ;)

Tensions with the kitties at home... along with some of the attitudes wife has to face with her students... and along with my inability to communicate well ended up causing us to fight again!!!

Yes, it can be pretty frustrating to basically fight about the same things all the time. It can especially be frustrating when I try to talk and open up more..., often times I end up talking about things that wife's not very interested in... or disagree with. Reading thru the Proverbs also made me feel quite 'unwise' sometimes...

When will I be able to gain more wisdom?

Don't know. All I know is God's promise that fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. I know I'm going to get it eventually..., just don't know exactly when. ;)

Plus, often times wisdom is gained thru past failures of our own... or perhaps we can learn from others' mistakes if we are really that wise! Pastor Jim also commented that often times rebound..., revival..., born again... can be hard... because those things denotes bad things must've happened! One can't rebound back up if one's never down. You also can't have a revival if you were never dead! We also wouldn't want to be born again if our lives are just perfectly awesome! No pain..., no gain, right?

Hopefully I am getting wiser by the day... Am I getting wiser everyday, my Lord? ;)
(Pro 13-18, 175.6 lbs, $2.339)

Sabrina...

Having an addition in the family definitely stirred things up a bit. Of course I never really want another cat in the house, but since wife wants one... and since I think Hades needs a companion when we're not around... I figured it's a good idea to have another! So of course now I end up as the 'legal' owner of this new kitty!

However, wife is still doing most of the work of course... taking her to the vet, showering her, feeding her... ;)

I think Sabrina has caused quite a bit of stress on everyone's part... one interesting thing is that the two cats seem to reflect their 'owners' personalities quite a bit! ;) Sabrina is actually pretty mild manner... and pretty capable of adapting to new environments. It's also much easier for her to purrrrrr... so she's probably an optimist. But she can get spooked... and when she does, she'll take off quickly hide and retreat somewhere where noone could find her. It'd take a lot of 'extraction' to get her out of her shell. She's also not as smart as Hades... we think.

As for Hades, besides being smarter, he's just meaner sometimes... and it's hard for him to adjust to new environments... even when a new cat shows up at his house, he's still having a hard time getting used to that. And considering that Hades can sometimes lick himself to the point of bleeding, for sure he's a pessimist. But when if he's spooked and decides to run..., at least he'll usually still let you catch him... or in the case of taking showers or eating medicine, he'd still reluctantly take it whereas supposedly 'mild manner' Sabrina would stubbornly fight with you to her death! ;)

So I think there are interesting parallels between these cats and their respective 'owners'. For sure I'm also a very 'nice' guy, but can be seriously stubborn. When problem hits, I would often retreat emotionally too. I think wife is also smarter than me too! Reading of proverbs today made me feel even less 'wise' sometimes... Hmm...

O God O God, how can I be a better human so that I may not only be Your beloved child, but also someone whom You are well pleased with? Will the 2 cats get along?

The counselor at Humane Society claims that things always work out between cats in the end..., its just a matter of time... That counselor sure is a wise lady..., and with God's help, I'm sure I can shorten the time a bit, right God? ;)

(Pro 10-12, 174.6 lbs, $2.299)

Happily ever after?

Wife and I had an interesting fight during the weekend..., it was interesting because it wasn't set off by 'other' things... so the good that came out of it is that I guess we are getting better at dealing with our issues 'head on' instead of relying on 'other things' to start talking about our issues! ;)

Of course once again, the bottomline is that I'm still not communicative enough, but I thought I've made improvements! Anyway, what I thought about myself isn't important, what's more important is that I ought to improve at a faster pace!!!! So may God help me!!!!

Of course God has always managed to help us thru our fights. We may lose some sleep, and it may feel unpleasant, but we always managed to get thru it thanks to the grace of God! ;) Pastor Jim also commented that often times we're so used to fast food and we don't appreciate slow cooking home meals anymore. Anything good will take time! I felt like God was using Pastor Jim to encourage wife to be more patient! But of course, in the end, I better have a delicious meal for the wife too! ;)

Another interesting thing Pastor Jim brought up was that often times when we're waiting on God is probably because God is waiting on us! Inside this 'wait-room', it's kinda like a 'weight room'... instead of just doing nothing, we ought to continue to exercise our spiritual muscles! Never be tired of doing good!

Lately, it seems like God wants us to wait around a lot. Wait for the house... wait for the vacation... wait for this and wait for that... This Saturday when we showed up to the Pasadena Humane Society, we thought God wants us to wait more... because the cat, Sabrina, is no longer in her cage!!! We thought she's disappeared once again just like Romeo!!! But luckily we found out that she just had a 'field trip'! ;)

So we were able to adopt her over the weekend... this addition to the family took a bit of getting used to actually... especially for Hades! He's really not used to sharing anything with another cat! But luckily Sabrina is pretty passive and able to quickly adapt to new enviornments.

So will the new cats get along? Will wife and I get along and live happily ever after?

Well, you'll just have to stay tuned for another episode of... My Life! ;)

(Pro 7-9, 176.0 lbs, $2.279)