Backstage

Hillsong United Concert

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:56:48 -0800

If you happened to be here last night, you probably witnessed an awesome worship night with Hillsong United.

Without going into too much details of last night, I strongly encourage everyone to listen for yourself. Check out www.hillsongunited.com and YouTube/HillsongUnited.

Enjoy these pics on Flickr.

Thank you for all of your prayers and friendships and to that, Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

“⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” — Philippians 4:6

A Slice of Heaven?

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:15:12 -0800

So last night a couple of my friends decided to check out Gumba's Italian Restaurante, in Cupertino. We decided to meet there at 7:15pm and all of us were driving separately.

I got there first but let me tell you I almost missed the location. Wished I had a GPS device but you see the restaurant is hard to find. You pretty much have to look for a small wood structure that says "Stanley Square". I recommend parking in front. Otherwise there is plenty of parking on the side, too.

Once inside it is small and quaint. As a new owner, Katie is still renovating the place but as she said, "we have added a few feminine touches."

The place seats around 48 people and when you walk in you see the ordering counter, looking into the kitchen. There is a wine cabinet as well as pastries bin with cookies and other sweet stuff.

So I just sat around waiting for my friend and did my thing--reading a book. My friends come in a little later and we all started on the menu. Besides thin-crusted, hand-tossed, pizzas there are sandwiches, calzone/strombolis, pastas, and salads.

We (three of us) ordered the Med. "combo" pizza, which is just enough for three IMO. For appetizers we got garlic bread and spicy buffalo wings. We also ordered drinks--beer/soda.

So the appetizers arrived shortly after our orders. Then the pizza arrived...all within 10 mins. (Bare in mind it wasn't that busy so timing may vary).

My first impression of the garlic bread...FRESH. And yummy! The cheese weren't too much and the garlic/cheese combo tasted well together. It is what you would expect eating at an Italian restaurant...if you were in Milan/Roma. It is that authentic.

The buffalo wings were okay. I wished it was crunchy like the buffalo wings I had in college, but it was fresh and hooooot! I mean temperature hot. So eat them with a fork if you can. My friends would maneuvered to grab-and-bite in one felt swoop. Nice!

The pizza was the reason we were there. And let me tell ya it was very good. The thin crust baked just right with enough meat (the combo) and marinara sauce, yet still has that NY thin crust quality to it. I think we could have ordered the large and that would have really pushed us over the edge...but the medium (16 inch) was just right.

Interspersed with our pigging out of the yummy pizza, Katie would come by to check up on us, asking us how everything was.

So in a nutshell if I would rate Gumba, this being my first time eating there, I would give it a . (View Yelp review | View menu.)

View Larger Map

Gumba's Italian Restaurante
21678 Stevens Creek Blvd Cupertino, CA 95014
(408) 255-2423

Food quality:
Service quality:
Affordability:

Dress: casual
Ambiance: very homey. bathroom is extremely clean.
Special party: reservations for party; tends to be on Saturdays so it may be busy on those days. FREE delivery (within 1 mile). Catering service.

I highly recommend this place.

Fab Four

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:20:39 -0800

My niece turns four today. She is the world's cutest four year old. I talked to her last night and it warms my heart to know that she is growing up so fast. Her vocabulary is ever expanding, and her sense of humor is apparent even at such a young age. Lauren at four is a Lauren full of contradiction in emotions, how she express herself, how she wrinkles her nose, the way she keeps her distant at her disapproval of my "too-short" haircut to how she creates her own "bzzzz...did the bee die" game, Nooooooooooo!

She is a bundle of joy on her weekly Wednesday visits and sometimes I wished on those "work at home" days, I wouldn't have so much work so as to enjoy her. Grandpa is hecka enjoying her company, though.

Lauren if you are in fact reading this—you never know how net-savvy kids are these days—happy birthday to you happy birthday to you HAPPY BIRTHDAY dear lauren happy birthday to you. LOL.

(Lauren in her chef custom given to her by her mommy, my sister Katie.)

Vivre la tradition

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:39:32 -0800

Ever watch "Fiddler On The Roof"? There is a great monolog from the beginning of the film:

Main character: A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask "WHY do we stay up there if it's so dangerous?" Well, we stay because [it] is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: tradition! Traditions, traditions. Without our traditions our lives would be as shaky as, as... as a fiddler on the roof!

TRADITIONS, TRADITIONS

It's easy for me to relate to that scene. My motto used to be live for the experiences. I want transformative experiences, and I want it now. Rite of passages, the climatic second act, joie de vivre, carpe diem, and so on...

But as I get older I want to be drawn to something constant that I'm willing to go back to time and again. I want rituals with depth, traditions with a meaning behind them that runs richer the longer I go on.

The closest thing to traditions in my life right now is my faith, church, and Sunday school. (Note to self: work on community, ie relationships.)

Last week in smallgroup I learned about asking what do I want? What is it that I desire?

Instead of asking that I should be asking what is His desire for me? I need to learn from the silence and stillness, to hear His small voices.

All I want is not to break my neck.

Taking Back Thursday

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:06:08 -0800

Rain!!! It's coming down hard!

Things I liked from last night in no particular order:

the strong voice of the guys worshiping backed by the soft lilts of the girls
laughters intermingled with seriousness
sharing and insights
a can of refreshing milk pearl tea

Go rent and watch "An Inconvenient Truth". Why? Because Al Gore just won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Peace out!

Better Faster Easier...Stronger?

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 17:24:28 -0800

Yesterday I downloaded Movabletype 4.01 and installed it. It went from this to the much more standards xhtml and css compliance this. (YES that means you folks using IE to access this site). The new blog should be faster and leaner since there are now simpler ways to do things. It was fun although I wouldn't recommend working on an upgrade moments before you're supposed to go to sleep. I'm sure the color scheme will change...or make that needs to change but alas that is for another day.

New site. New laptop. New tires. (Edited: I actually returned the Lenovo laptop and am seriously considering the MacBook Pro. One day I'll be able to say, "Hi I'm Mac." We'll see...)

I also drew something for my sister's catering restaurant 3 Chives, (not to be confused with her other restaurant Goomba in Cupertino) which she will hopefully use for her takeout menus. We'll see....I'll see if I can upload to flickr.

So much time on my hand now, more time yet to get more stuff done—like work on my very old portfolio site! Woot!

The old site will be phased out eventually. Time to move on!

Who's Yo Daddy?

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:33:20 -0800

My Kidzone class learned about Heroes this Sunday—heroes give God the credit. We asked them to make "trading cards" of their heroes. These colorful trading cards were cartoony, some with your "normal" super-powered heroes, others not what you expected. Kids are pretty imaginative. Here are some samples of what they drew.

Isabella: Ice, the super horse with frosted power, in bright neon blue
Auriel: Lion (which represent God although she was too embarrassed to admit it was any good so she crumbled it up)
Susannah: Jesus with lava coming out of his finger as his power
Daniel: Moses with superspeed
Caleb: Cow, because he gives us milk, cheese, and meat
Keila: Jesus with shining love power
Jessica: Jesus with smiling power

The last two are pretty cool power, if you think about it. Imaging SUPERJESUS in this scene

Generic Villain: "Blah blah blah monologue about total world domination blah blah blah"
SUPERJESUS: turns the other cheek and unexpectedly a RADIANT LIGHT of GOD'S INFINITE LOVE AND MERCY hits Generic Villain in the stomach
Generic Villain: (throwing up a couple demons) "My LORD and my God!"
SUPERJESUS: "He's yo Daddy."

[Generic Villain walks offscreen RADIATING BEAMS OF HAPPINESS AND PEACE FROM HIS FACE!!!!]

Fall cleaning and FREE computer parts

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:35:49 -0800

If anyone wants computer parts, send me an email at mikelang at gmail dot come and I will give it to you. Actually they are two desktop PCs, one is a P4 and the other is a Dell Xeon dual processor with plenty of HD, memory, and other niceties. Both are running WinNT 2K servers but you could use it for Ubuntu and such...

If you know of how I could donate these, to a school perhaps, let me know, too.

Oh hopefully you'll lemme know soon since I'm planning to haul it to the Sunnyvale dumpster this Sat.

Thanks

Good Ole Boring

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:25:47 -0800

So I finally took the plunge and purchase a Lenovo laptop. I think I'll enjoy using it. I have been thinking about it for several weeks, but when it comes down to it I just wanted something reliable to replace my Dell. I compared Apple, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. Dell and HP are okay. So it actually was a decision between Apple and Lenovo. After talking to several people at church my decision was made. I think I made the right choice. Apple is still such a luxury item I think and the limited softwares totally pushed me towards the Lenovo. My only concern now is Vista but oh well, let's give it a try.

I heard on the drive back from work yesterday of the story of the real Delilah. So apparently the song "Hey There Delilah" is written after the songwriter was introduced to a girl named Delilah. He thought she was really cute and wanted to get to know her. She, however, has a boyfriend. So he went home, threw some chords together, wrote a song for her--"Hey There Delilah."

The story continues. Delilah would go to the gym and the song would play on the loud speakers. Half of her wanted to admit that the song is about her and let the whole world know about it. The other part of her was so sick of hearing the song and regret ever meeting the guy.

Kinda romantic, though if only they actually end up together because he wrote a song for her. I really like the song and the story behind it. Haha.

Team Debrief Tonight

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:07:20 -0800

My first missions presentation tonight at FCC. I'm a bit anxious as I don't like speaking in front of crowds, but hopefully God will give me strength as He always does in these circumstances.

Shouldn't be that hard because these are people I know from church.

It should be exciting! And wait til you taste Kenyan tea.

LBNL (last but not least), pray for me for tonight. Asante sana Go Team Kenya! (a cheer?)

(From left: Paul, Mike, Kevin, Terrence, Sean)

Kenya Sharing and Debrief Prepping

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 18:23:21 -0800

Some good advice from Chinese proverb:

To talk much and arrive nowhere is the same as climbing a tree to catch a fish.

What would you specifically like to know about the Kenya missions?

Here are some topics to look forward to:

- Team dynamics
- House/Kitchen staff
- VBS
- Slums
- House visits* (what I'll be sharing)
- Orphanages/ rehab center
- Deliverance Church

What's in a weekend?

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 11:32:54 -0800

I rolled my ankle playing basketball this past Sat. As a result I got plenty of rest through the weekend. Some of the things I did: watched plenty of NCAA/NFL football, tried to read a Churchill memoir of WWII, cleaned my turtle tank (read: replaced filter), watched Pan's Labyrinth (excellent)!!!

Oh and I also uploaded some "albums" (flickr calls them sets). Team Kenya photos on Flickr:

Team Kenya will be doing a presentation this Fri. at 7pm at Foothill covenant. Click on this link to view the invitation. I will be talking about our poor housing visits along with Helen. Hopefully you guys will be able to make it. Map it.

Team Kenya Meeting

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:00:58 -0800

Out: Worry about how I would share my Kenya experience with people. Partly due to my selfish reasons, particularly, I didn't want to forget those feelings. They were mine. Another reason, I didn't want to get defensive when others react in ways I didn't expect them to react.

Very encouraged by Mel's sharing last night...

Melissa: I went to love them and pray for them, not convert them.

Isolation, detached, withdrawn. (It's...okay).

T: Not necessarily know what God wants me to learn. It could take a year, a couple of months...

I guess each of us process these things differently. It's crazy how God works!

A pretty good meeting.

Team Kenya Full Video

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:25:09 -0800

Over the weekend, Kevin posted this full version of our Team Kenya 2007 video on YouTube. I didn't expect him to finish it so quickly, and to have it turn out so awesome. Also while you get a chance visit other videos posted by TeamKenya2007.

Can't wait until we meet up this Wed. for our de-brief/reunion. WAHOO!!!

Team Kenya 2007 Intro YouTube Video

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 10:36:36 -0800

Where have I been? I feel very out-of-it after coming back from Kenya. Among other things were just trying to adapt by to work here. I don't know if I'll ever be that motivated to work having seen Kenya. Life is so different over there. (I know two weeks and that is all I can say? More to come...)

I'll update more, specifically filling this blog with my journal. If you look on my right handbar, you'll see a Kenya Missions link where I have more info about the missions. However, for some reason not many people are clicking on that. So from here on out I'll update about the Kenya missions on my main blog.

Check out Team Kenya intro video done by Kevin Hu. Nicely done!

Thank you for your prayers and support!