A Prayer for...

¹⁴For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19)

a playlist: "Lifted Up"

1. Sweetly Broken
2. Heart of Worship
3. Let Everything That Has Breath
4. Grace Like Rain
5. From The Inside Out

Going Offline For Forty Days

I should probably do this anyway but starting Mon. October 9th to Sun. November 19th I will be going on an internet fast for forty days. This means I won't be able to read emails, blogs, or the WSJ after my work day.

Awhile back I went without coffee for 7 days. I don't know how I survived those mornings without my coffees, but I did grow closer to God.

This time the fast is a bit longer, and there is a sense of urgency about it. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but I got saved here. Well, technically Jesus saved me, but I got baptized here. GrX is my home church so I do feel a sense of ownership.

It remains to be seen whether the Unstoppable Campaign is a "God thing", if it will succeed or fail (see Acts 5:38-39) but I'm excited to hear what God will say to me during those 40 days.

Exactly what will I do with my time sans internet? This will sound hokey but I plan on spending more quality time with my gf, more face-to-face time with friends, read the Bible/devotionals, reflect/meditate on the campaign itself.

One other update: I'll be running in the dark in a few hours with some friends and folks from smallgroup. I did this last year and it was fun. Sandy is running it, too. I have to remember though to stick around and cheer her on.

Thought Provoking Al Gore Doc For $1

I thought I'd pop in to jot down a quick "I'm still here" entry as well as to say that Sands and I saw "An Inconvenient Truth" last night. In the tradition of docs like "Super Size Me", "Fahrenheit 9/11", and "When We Were Kings" this one posited some very interesting questions, but remains both entertaining and intellectually stimulating.

Here are some notes from what I learned:

- The previous decade from 1998 - 2005 recorded some of the hottest days on Earth. (Al Gore couldn't have hired a better PR to spin this movie as we in Cali just had some crazy heat wave couples of weeks ago.)
- For 650,000 years carbon dioxide (CO₂) level has been pretty consistent. Starting in the year 2000 it jumped A LOT!
- the US produced the highest gas guzzlers while the Japanese produced some of the lowest. Even China is outpacing the US in terms of emission standards and miles per gallons set for their cars.
- Gore's black-and-white point of view is just that. Of course there are lots of gray areas about global warming (as the corporations would like to add) but his main point is still: we have a moral responsibility, no make that obligation, to curb global warming so that our children will be able to survive on this "pale blue dot".

Do yourself a favor. Go see it. It's only $1!!! At the very least it will leave you with a better understanding of the consequences of global warming as well as the diminished quality of life for future generations (our children) should this pattern continue.

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Blood, Guts and Church Basketball

This past Sunday I was blessed with a "godly elbow".

It happened during a GRX basketball playoff game between my team—the Geckos—and Pastor Andy's Goats. This is what went down: someone shot the ball, Andy and I struggled for the rebound, Andy's flying elbow, I started bleeding. Nice. Next I was rushed to O'Connor Hospital for ER (see pic). Here I talked to two receptionists, two nurses, then was dumped into the triage area awaiting my doctor...about 1 hr. The doctor showed up and in less than ten minutes "stitched" me up.

With super glue for the skin.

Isn't technology wonderful?

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Rediscovering New York

Wow it's been awhile since I updated. Since time is money, here is my quick update of the 'rediscoverd NYC' trip in digestable bite-sized bullets.

- Manhattan is amazing. Go. Go there now.
- There are plenty of real coffee and bagel shops, not those Starbucks/Noah's Bagel hacks. Even the restaurants are terrific.
- subnote: Soon to come to New York—a first!!!—a Starbucks will be opened within a Starbucks. Haha. Just kidding...
- Smiling at the crowds is futile, even deemed madness.
- Real walking requires a nice pair of running shoe, like Asics. Doesn't matter if they are old or new. Oh and only tourists wait for the "walk" sign.
- Peace can be found nearby, at Central Park.
- A camera phone won't do when your camera dies, especially when you stumble upon a film shoot that involves Jodie Foster.
- Oh if you can make it to Joe's Shanghai, go. We promise it's totally worth it.
- I uploaded the ONE day pics here: the New York Trip, June 7-11, 2006.

A Splendored Six

Happy six months hunnie. Thanks for keeping me grounded in our friendship, our relationship, and our journey thus far. Thanks for your continuing prayers and patient, thanks for listening to me and lighting up the room with your smiles. God has really blessed me with someone like you. I <3 U.

A: Boy Meets Girl: Say Hello to Courtship
B: Boundaries in Dating: Making Dating Work
C: Dr. James Dobson's Video: Gender Communication, For Women Only: What You Need to Know about the Inner Lives of Men (I was just browsing through this...really!!!)
D: Choosing God's Best: Wisdom for Lifelong Romance
E: The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Can I Get A Witness Sandy?

The last few days Sandy has been out of town. Her three-days trip started in Cleveland where she had to recruit patients for the carotid stent clinical trial.

Her next visit after Cleveland was Pittsburg where Sandy played the good cop to her boss's bad cop "strong-arm" tactics. I am sure Sands presence calmed the doctors somewhat and helped them signed up for the study. This morning, at 9:30am PST, she called me from Pittsburg airport.

Sandy: I am coming home early tonight. We'll be flying into Midway Chicago and then back to San Jose.
Me [groggily]: That's great!
Me [remembering something]: Awww...I forgot to ask you to get me a LeBron "Witness" tee-shirt.
Sandy: Huh?
Me: LEBRON. He's a basketball player.
Sandy: Does he play for Pittsburg?

My Sandy. I miss her. She's coming home. Yay!

Click on image above to view larger video. SWF SOURCE: ©nike and is a property of nike.

Enterprise Chinese Food

The Panda Express officially opened at the office. Well sort of. This entire week my company is training customers who use our enterprise software. This happens at least once a quarter. For someone like me who is budget conscious this is a blessing. Nevermind that the office is much quieter and security around here has beefen up, the thing I most enjoy is the FREE lunch (read leftovers).

Today it was chinese food á la Panda Express. Nice and cold.

Yesterday it was sandwiches from "the Bay Area's best"—Le Boulanger.

Coincidentally I know of someone who resides in a condo *ahem*castle*ahem* above Le Boulanger in Cupertino. In fact there is a petition to make residents there be more aware of "the danger of Condo-tino". You can read about the hilarious entry here, here, and here. The condo-tino effect goes well with the white flight effect and if the trend continues condo-tino will be inhabited by mostly well-to-do asians. Sandy can probably relate to the reverse of the "let my people go" line.

Back to FREE lunch, who knows what tomorrow's lunch will be? But IF the people at work catches on to this I may have to hurry to the "lunch" line to avoid the stampede. Although I did get the last pot sticker today.

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Peking Acrobats Blues

VP (Vietpower, ie Alin, ie MD) came through for us, scoring us primo seatings to a grand night out at the San Jose Performance Arts Center last night. Why were we (Sandy+me) there? Oh to watch the Peking Acrobats, of course.

Before checking in to the Peking Acrobats, we made a dinner stop at E&O Trading Company in downtown San Jose. A few weeks ago on our way to the Melting Pot we noticed this quaint restaurant with a name more like an investment company than a 4+ star restaurant (according to Citysearch.)

E&O Trading Co. is basically an asian fusion place. Their menu you can download and view for yourself off of the website I provided above. I read through it and came up with these choices with the priority of getting the most varied foods out there without spending a lot of money. This is what we got in order:

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Follow The Greenbelt Road

I am stuck in code freeze limbo, at work that is. So I decided to notch up the fun factor a bit by planning on a short run. So I approached one of my co-worker with the intention of telling him of said run and get his go-for-it motivational speech. Didn't happen.

"You are delaying the inevitable...a year from now BAM! you'll be in the same shape."..."it's a downhill road for us"..."just eat healthy"...and my personal favorite..."that's why we play ping pong."

Did Christmas arrived early or did the bah-humbug bug bit my friend early this year?

And so with that motivational speech lodged in my brain I decided what the heck it IS a nice day for a run. And run I did nearby where I live, a brief one way out and back down the John Christian Greenbelt, a familar haunting place for another runner clieu. In any case it was a struggle of a run and I hated it. Or in Christian terms I strongly disliked it.

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March Madness, Made Easier

Speaking of the tourney, I went ahead yesterday to set up our company's official NCAA® Tourney pool.

I used Bracket Manager over at CBS Sportsline. Really the whole process was just too easy, enabling my product manager to say, "even a monkey can do it." It makes me wonder...

Now from March 16 to April 3 I will be extremely busy with "work." Please do NOT bother me or IM me, unless it is an emergency. (Oh and if your brain magically turns off like mine during those dates, you can go here to recharge your brain for FREE!) Also if anyone is interested I am "working from home" Thurs. this week to watch the opening rounds of the tourney.

Bring on the Madness!

Oh and Sandy just started her new job at Guidant. Wish her luck! =)

Post VDay

Don't really have time to go into the details but yesterday was lets just say fiasco-like. I blew it simple as that. Sands know what a "gosh-idiot" guy I was yesterday.

That bares repeating: Gosh IDIOT!

Actually on another note does any guy feel like a chump during Vday? Like its a big competition for the girls to see whose got the biggest bouquet, gifts, chocolate? For another take on the crazy-stress and the gnawing feeling of inadequacies generated by some unknown little "holiday" that was yesterday go here

As an explanation I told her why can't every day be Valentine's day? Sands has forgiven me. Thank goodness she got an offer letter from Guidant this morning so that's GREAT news. (Whew I'm somewhat off the hook. I'll make it up to you Sands!)

Okay now that I fessed up to you the general audience I feel somewhat better about it. Let's move on.

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Happy VDay

Happy Valentine's Day Sands!!!

May you spend it with the one you love or go write a love letter to GOD.

Carmel Getaway

On Saturday Sandy and myself went for a quick getaway to Carmel-By-The-Sea. It was one of the best trip ever! (In an earlier post I mentioned using Yahoo!'s Trip Planner to create a Carmel & Montery trip. On Saturday I decided to visit only Carmel since there were not enough time for both. At some point I will reuse the Yahoo! trip.)

One Peaceful Day for A Stressed-Out Couple

Pre-Trip—Morning:
Having arrived at Sands place 1 1/2 hours late I quickly made concessions by complimenting on how beautiful she looked and gave her a big hug. That seemed to help matters.

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Too Many Ministries

There is so much going on right now I feel in terms of church activities. Relationally I'm so blessed with Sandy for her support in these ministries as well as meeting new folks and kids. But my only complaint is that I'm spreading myself too thin and I feel like I don't know if I am as effective with more rather than less ministry.

Busyness is self glorification masquerading as service rendered to God. (Pastor Dave)

For those considering where they would fit into what ministry that is appropriate for them any advice would be good. That is how do you know which ministry to serve? One where you enjoy or one where you feel you can be effective? Here are the list of my ministries and my thoughts of them. Okay some of these are more volunteer than ministries but...

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Sausalito Getaway

I am finally posting photos from our Sausalito getaway. Below are two places we ate at while siteseeing in Sausalito.

Sandy and I visited the Lighthouse Café where we had brunch. I think it is owned by a Swedish owner as evidenced by the Swedish flags. This probably explains the simplicity in decor and menu as well. I ordered the three eggs omelette with pancakes and bacons. Sandy ordered the corn hash which came in huge chunks. The food are quite good and generous. The place is tiny so expect a wait.

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I Saw An Angel

I saw an angel, of that I am sure.

On fruits, of this I am sure.
Conversing over a sautee dish somewhere in Channing Way
"We are more like peer to peer," she said.
I can see from her face reflected on Laura's face.
Shaped by friendships of times past
Rooted in love which does not detract.
"You will always be her discipler," I said.
Of that I am sure
Because your love is pure.

Happy third hun!

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The Uninformed Single

Sandy and myself went over to downtown Palo Alto last night for my company's Insight 2006 dinner at Il Fornaio. I had the sea bass while she had the chicken. According to their outdated 2001 menu both of us would have to hunker down $52.95 per person for our meals. Luckily my company footed the bill. The chicken was tasty but the fish were, according to Sands, "fishy". I like their hors d'oeuvre as well as their ambience. I'd like to think a certain someone would benefit by taking his future date there. =P

During dinner I sat next to a CEO from Manhanttan whose former careers as a chemical engineer, a director of an investment bank, and now running his own venture capital firm has earned him his rights to tell me these advice:

Don't be afraid to change career. Kids in your generation can have five careers. What matters is not how smart you are, that helps. It's how you work with people and if you get along with them. (—David J. P. Meachin)

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Nanoed Nanoed

Woohoo!! I got a Nano from Sands as a result of her company giving them out. I'm now the proud owner of a new 2 GB iPod Nano.

Running with this sleek black baby will be soooooo cool. Hooray for biotech companies Holiday giveaway, which my sweetie so deserved as a result of much last minute travelling and total lunacy dealing with her manager.

Thanks hun! =)

For the Big Sur folks let's go running already.

Chasing After Comments

Sometimes rather than thinking of something to write I like to just rummage around the various blog sites to see what everyone else is writing. Sometimes I like to leave comments on these sites. An idea occurred to me—and folks bare in mind I haven't really thought through these things—someone could write a way to aggregate the "most recent comments" that we leave after reading wuboy, drewboy, kat15812, jeeyoungi, clieu, jimmyjam206, laurenine , mdw, and someone I really really like site.

Think of bread crumbs trail in Hansel and Gretel. A comment here, a comment there, some more at blahblahblah...there ought to be a way to sweep up all those crumbs into a "container"—most recent comments by so-and-so. A blogs comment thread if you will.

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My Life Is Brilliant

My life is brilliant.

Its 2006 and well my life so far has been quite good. Got to stretch my legs a little bit. A year ago I came to GRX and I was broken, a fool actually living for the accolades of this world.

In any case this entry won't be long and sad but is...dood I'm excited. I'm looking forward to this year. Looking forward to sharing and learning more about my sweet Sandy. Oh well of course before that there will always be a place in my heart for God.

So yeah up and down life goes round and round but all in all I can't say its been a bad 2005 year. Thank you Lord. Now lets keep stretching those legs.

Happy New Year folks.

Mona Lisa Smile

There's a story I tell about my first time meeting Mr. Lee. We drove up in my car. I am a little nervous as expected. I turned to look at him on the passenger side. He turned to look my way. I think he saw me, you know, five seconds has gone by. Just to make sure I waved at him and smiled. I don't think the wave registered with him since he just turned and looked the other way. I turned to Sandy on my right. I'm sure she saw the confused look on my face. She was simply playing it cool and smiled. Me I'm ready to cry. As we get out of the car I expected the entire family to burst out laughing and Sandy would wink at me and say, "haha...we're just kidding with ya."

I mean I didn't expect Mr. Lee to jump for joy and to give me a big hug while fanfare music plays in the background. It's just that he seemed indifferent about it. (I'm sure he was just being cautious, maybe a little skeptical about meeting the guy who's dating his daughter.)

He's just a reserved kind of guy. But mostly tight-lipped.

What a contrast compared to my dad. He is always smiling when friends visit. Sometimes I'm a little embarrassed cause I think he's trying too hard. But no that's not the case. He's just friendly, easy going. As far as I know most of my friends walk away feeling comfortable.

In regards to smiles it's amazing how one's facial expression can affect others. And well as far as I am concerned Sands has one of the best smiles I have ever seen. And that folks is good enough for me.

The Gift from God

This has been a very special Christmas season for me. This is the first year where I felt blessed by God first with putting me at the right place and the right time to meet my sweetie Sandy. He also blessed me with work where I can commute within a ten minute drive and friendly co-workers/managers. I feel like God has answered many of my prayers (a great community and church, friends and a ministry where I can serve.) That's why this is the first year where I see Christmas as a time to give back because Christ has given me so much.

This year the Nativity scene that is set up in my neighborhood has a more personable meaning. God came down to our level as a tiny vulnerable little baby in a manger and declared all who have faith in Him righteous, and to a restored relationship with God.

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Act Fast and Carry Cash Update

I finally got what I have been wanting for a few days now—the GRX Xmas banquet tickets. In my normal sneaky online fashion, I signed up on the wait list with two different email addresses. Ssshhh please don't tell the banquet committee.

What's the big deal anyway with the banquet? Well for one I missed last year having arrived at GRX in Jan. thus missing out on the ruckus. For another, I am looking forward to spending Christmas with my hunnie & homies. Okay but if you must know I will be donating some things to the banquet's silent auction and would like to see those go to better use, hopefully benefitting both the winner(s) and City Team Ministry.

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Rain

Please be careful in your commute today. I know I'm not your parents but there are some ominous looking clouds ahead. Windy and rainy, rainy and windy. Do drive carefully yo! If you're the few lucky ones who get to telecommute today do heat up a hot cup of chocolate and enjoy—for me!

Does anyone know of any talent competitions? I know this is silly (and cheesy) but my sweetie could recite all sixty six books of the Bible. Sweetie what comes after the Book of Obadiah? Haha. Not only that but at the end of it all she has the cutest smile. Me I cannot even remember all the NT books. But I do know that all the "Ts" bunches together.

I miss basketball. The other day I ran with Sandy for two miles and I thought my lungs would collapse. So we do the ellipticals and even that was difficult. Guys lets get back in shape: pickup bball at Sony/Altera. Wuboy make something happen already. Get your contacts, get a game, lets run!

To my friends in SoCal are you excited about this weekends matchup between UCLA and USC? When I was at SC during rivalry week the students walked around campus with a bear tied to a string that was dragged around. These bears looked really sad and pathetic, especially when they were dragged in the rain. NOT COOL!

UCLA at USC 12.03 1:30pm PT on channel 7 (KGO/ABC).

GO BRUINS!!!

New York City

I've been back from New York since last Saturday and here are some photos taken from my 4 year-old Fuji Finepix. I wished I took more photos but was not able to bring it along with me for most of the tour. Aside from the hustle and bustle, the numerous taxi cabs, the tall buildings nestling next to Central Park, New York is one beautiful place. As Sandy likes to put it, "Doesn't New York [City] feel like the center of the universe?"

With that in mind, I have this humble Flickr set of our trip to New York City. Sandy and myself (along with her friends Julie and Erica) were very blessed by the weather there as well as the chance to visit New York together (my first trip and Sandy's third.) Good times. Good times.

Reflections About Willow Creek SGC

When I first decided to attend the conference it was merely a way to get out of the office, a chance to grow closer to the cores of my small group, and to attend a FREE conference!

Something different happened while I was there. In the span of 3 days my attendance at Willow Creek Conferences became more of a personal and spiritual journey. It was as if God's purpose for me in those three days was to open my soul up to yearn for a deeper community with God and brothers and sisters in Christ. I didn't realize it but deep inside I long for that intimacy.

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Boot Camp Wk 2

Second week of boot camp. Topic du jour: "How to Develop and Lead a Great Bible Study." Yah not the easiest subject and of course coming from Dave everything seems easy. (Note: Dave is the Lead pastor, very enthusiastic, and I think he studied theology and have gone to Fuller Theological Seminary (thanks Wuboy for the correction) Talbot School of Theology in SoCal.)

What did I learn given that we only have 1.5 hours to unpack and deconstruct this topic? Here are what I got from the class.

1. Methods
Two ways to approach breaking down a passage:
A. study the heck out of it. (Dave took 6 hours to come up with two study questions for the passages in Luke 23:26-49)
B. rely on commentaries and experts (G. Fee/D.Stuart)

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