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)