Shhh... a secret.

Don't tell anybody, but I'm hiding from the world... heh
posted by G at 11:07 PM   | (0) comments

I wish I could say I slept a solid 12 hours... but I didn't.

Hope everybody has wonderful and safe holiday... don't get too faded/ wasted/ slammed/ trashed/ hammered/ pissy.

Bye bye 2002... hello 2003.
posted by G at 2:39 PM   | (0) comments

Lately I've had the strangest feeling...

I just got back home from going out and singing karaoke with the AACF folks at SBK... pretty amusing to always sing with everybody. I hopped a ride with someone I haven't seen in awhile, G-Sak (I call him that because his name happens to be Garrett too, except he spells it "Garett"). We went to the same high school, but he's my sister's age, 2 years younger. We have this funny habit where if we go to karaoke together, we almost always make like Jodeci and sing a duet of "Lately".

The highlight of my night though was definitely just talking with him in the car - sharing, having a good conversation - stuff about college fellowships, servant leadership, career, and life in general. Some people, no matter how long it's been since you've talk with them, you just click with and can have an instant "deep" conversation. I really appreciate those kinds of people.

I know you're not an "internet junkie" and you probably will never read this, but props to you, G-Sak. I enjoyed our talk.

Good stuff.
posted by G at 2:50 AM   | (0) comments

It's 7:00AM... stupid tossing and turning...

aiyah.
posted by G at 7:23 AM   | (0) comments

The Birthday Dinner, Part 3: Return of the Beef...

Just like yesterday's Saturday night feast, I got to eat out again... oh man. Talk about serious food overload. This time was nice though, because it was just Josh, Val, Chris, and Olivia, so the crowd was a bit smaller and even more casual (like I'm such a formal person anyways, haha). We ate this all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ restaurant in Bellevue called "Olympic", which was not too bad. I enjoyed the food, but I think to really enjoy all-you-can-eat, a little bit more of an appetite is required...

Time to chill, digest, and nurse my bloated belly...
posted by G at 9:54 PM   | (0) comments

Laughing is good for the heart...

Well, contrary to my original plans, I didn't pull off a hermit move and hang around my house like I planned. Instead, I went out to eat with the usual AACF (and ex-AACF)suspects at this Chinese restaurant on the eastside in Bellevue, which was aight. On account of my birthday, I got eat free... whoohooo!

Afterwards, we hung out at Sol's house, playing a game of "Mafia" and the infamous "Loaded Questions" AKA "What the..." - the latter turned out to be a hilarious game. For those who don't know, the game is pretty simple... people divide into two teams, and write up a bunch of open-ended questions. The questions are thrown into a hat, and pulled out one by one - when the question is read, each person writes down their answers and then hands the paper with their answer to their team's spokesperson. The spokeperson for Team A reads aloud the answers, while Team B tries to guess and match who guessed what on Team A. Then the teams rotate and switch...

We played several rounds and I was laughing so hard, my sides were hurting. It felt good to laugh that hard. Some of the funny questions and answers:

---

question: What sidekick would you be?

answers: "Al Gore", "Spiderman's sidekick: Spiderkick", "Jong-Sun, Chongsun's Sidekick"

question: If you were a Chinese basketball player, what would your name be?

answers: "Sum Ting Dope", "Mai Tee Hung Gai", "Xiao Pengyou", "Big Confucious", "Chinese Basketball Player"

question: If you were a new type of smurf, what would your smurf name be?

answers: "Full Clothed Smurf", "Smurf the Magic Dragon", "Fo Sho Smurf", "Rob Schneider Smurf", "Mini-Me Smurf"

question: What names would you give your first daughter and first son?

answers: "Little Mookie and Big Al Loraine", "1 of 1 and 2 of 2", "Barbara Anne and Oops, I Did It Again"

question: If you had a useless superpower, what would it be?

answers: "Toliet Paper Hand", "Interchangeable Butt Cheeks", "Kick myself in the butt on the first try", "Fly in water"

---

Well, you get the idea. I suppose it doesn't look too funny just reading it, but it was hilarious at the time.

Now, I'm just chillin' with a pint of Sparks and bowl of Nut Clusters. Happy Birthday, Garrett... enjoy the little things.
posted by G at 2:11 AM   | (0) comments

That's right, I'm 24 sucka... check my ID.



Well, as of 5 hours ago, I'm officially 24 years old. It's scary to think that I'm now closer to 25 than I am to 20 and I keep passing the signposts on the road of this thing called life... I've already lost a parent, I've graduated college, I have no grandparents, my best friend is engaged to get married. Crazy stuff.

Funny, I think as a kid, I envisioned 24 being much cooler than it is right now. Oh well, heh.

Did I mention Friday went well? Helped Chong and the crew start shooting for the new video project - managed to get stuff in the can at three different locations - the UW, a McDonald's, and Chong's own house. Of course, filming is nothing. If experience has taught me anything, the REAL work is in the editing.. whooo boy. Afterwards, I had dinner at the house of Fong... my Mom brought over more of the prime rib leftovers. That's like prime rib 3 times this past week for dinner... nutty. Chris and Jay bought me some DVDs for my birthday... the first discs of "Cowboy Bebop". Sweet.

I feel the late night munchies come'n on... time to stalk me a bowl of cereal...
posted by G at 5:21 AM   | (0) comments

Bad bad bad War-crack... I need to stop getting persuaded into playing late nights, heh.

Ugh, I need to go to bed. Gotta get up in time to stop by the bank and then go meet the crew for homie Chong's new video project up at the UW at 12:00pm. We're filming a sequel to our infamous Legend of Gee-Fei Hong, an advertisement we made for our college fellowship group's retreat (warning, it's a big file... don't try to watch it unless you got broadband. Right-click and choose "save target as").

Straight ghetto fabulous, but we had a lot of fun making it... something about the corny dubbing and bad English that adds that special sumthin' sumthin' to our spoof of Kung-Fu, Wong-Fei Hong folktales, and old kung-fu flicks. Call me weird, but I think it's hilarious to hear somebody else's voice come outta my mouth.

OK, time for bed. For real...

...after a bowl of cereal. =)
posted by G at 5:59 AM   | (0) comments

So... full...

I just got back from my birthday dinner at Pasta Freska... oh man. The food was delicious... Old Spaghetti Factory and Cucina Cucina can kiss my pale Chinese behind - I'm never eating at those places again voluntarily, now that I have eaten at the promised land. Off the top of my head...

• 1 Fried slice of eggplant with mozarella & spinach
  
• 2 Lettuce and romaine salad with fresh cut tomatoes, cheese with freshly roasted garlic bread
  
• 3 Bow-tie pasta insundried tomato cream sauce
  
• 4 Pounded chicken breast filled with cream sauce in sweet gravy
  
• 5 Spicy red sauce seafood spaghetti with king salmon and shrimp
  
• 6 A dessert plate with a slice of cheesecake, a slice of fudge tort, and a slice of cinnamon pumpkin cheesecake... plus birthday candles =)

I think I'm just slouch waaaaaaaay low for awhile... and let out a notch in my belt.
posted by G at 10:48 PM   | (0) comments

You know you're stubborn if...

...you stay up to play TacticalOps just to beat the X-Mas pack single player missions, because you can't stand the thought of a few lines of wacky AI code getting the best of you.

My Mom and sister want to take me out to dinner for my birthday since my sister will be leaving for her urban missions trip on my real birthday (Saturday). I haven't decided where I wanna go, but I'm thinking Pasta Freska, the phatty Italian joint that Josh and Val took Shiv and I. I'm actually craving Japanese food, but since my mother and sister aren't big fans... Italian it is.

Gotta call and see if they're open... it's reservation only.
posted by G at 7:05 AM   | (0) comments

Merry Merry Christmas...

Gone are the days of waking earrrrrrly... my lazy self didn't rise until like 12:30ish today. My mother was cooking up a storm, because my uncle, aunt, and cuz are up visiting their son (my cuz) Johnny. We had dinner over at their house, which normally would be cool... except there was a bunch of non-family folks. Normally, I wouldn't hate on non-family folks, but there was some people there that gave me a weird feeling - nerdy whiteboy office monkies and their asian-fetish girlfriends. Or maybe it was the gross PDA that I constantly caught them engaged in. It's my cousin house though, so I wasn't about to start any drama... I ate my food, shut my mouth, and just nodded my head to the shallow dinner conversation. Still, I caught all sorts of stupid manners-esque stuff that bugged me - like not immediately offering my uncle (who's in his 60s) a seat on the couch when we were watching a movie. I had to say as nicely as possible, "GIVE HIM A SEAT".

White American culture has produced some pretty damn unmannered people. Let an old man sitdown... the couch isn't for you to sit there and cop a feel on your GF in public, especially in front of her friends.

Anyways, Imma shuddup about that right now... there's enough Asian men blogging in the world right now who've already whined and complained about the WM/AF disparity. It's a tired topic in my opinion... people will do what they want to.

In happier news, I'm about to pop some popcorn and enjoy my Xmas present from my sister - two widescreen Bruce Lee DVDs, "Fists of Fury" (The Big Boss) and "The Chinese Connection". Good 'ol Bruce...
posted by G at 12:08 AM   | (0) comments

Keepin' a lookout...

...but no fatman in red has snuck down my chimney yet.

Well, Christmas Eve was nice. My mom made a phatty prime rib dinner with mashed potatoes and freshly baked sweet rolls. My sister is also home for the holiday, so we had ourselves a nice family dinner. After dinner we went to Christmas eve service at my sister's church, University Presbyterian.

University Presbyterian is a pretty big church - my sister tells me that it's the biggest Presbyterian church in the country, as well as enjoying the attendance of some pretty famous people like Mariner's catcher Dan Wilson. We attended the contemporary service, which was pretty impressive - a professional sounding band, a vocal ensemble... even a trio of bell players! Everything about the service seemed to be polished to the Nth degree.

I didn't hate the service, but still, I missed not being at Chinese Baptist. Even with all the flaws - the sometimes fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants production, the recent decline in attendance - it's still home to me, my family. When I sat down inside the massive congregation at U-Pres, I couldn't help but feel like a number, like a face lost in the crowd of the wealthy yuppies who sat around me. To quote a corny line from 'Cheers', I like to be "where everybody knows my name"...

Well, time to sleep...

Merry Christmas, BLOG and everybody else... =)
posted by G at 2:30 AM   | (0) comments

TV at church?

Dave showed me this online site by a church called LA Hanmi. Our friend Yun is going there while he's attending seminary. He's in the "College Retreat" video doing the funky chicken... Sea-town represent!

Man, makes me jealous... I wish we had a phatty media ministry at my church. It'd be a lot of fun, as well another medium to communicate with people. Maybe I should write up a proposal to the board of deacons for a grant... heh ;)
posted by G at 6:10 PM   | (0) comments

And Monday went by...

Well, after a week of fun and games, Dave left my house today to go back home. It was cool having a "roommate" around again to make fun of music videos, give the occasional ride, and just kick it with. I'm sure I'll see him again, probably when he has to drive back up north to return to seminary.

I had a meeting with Chong today to discuss a new video project, a trailer for AACF's upcoming retreat. It'll be a sequel to our original "Gee-Fei Hong" story, so I met with him at the U-Village Starbucks to kick around some ideas and storyboard the scenes. It occurred to me that the U-Village would be a den of filthy commercial chaos being that we're so close to Christmas, but Seattle and the University District is sort of the mid-way point for us, being that Chong is as far north from Seattle as I am as far south.

As I walking through the U-Village, avoiding the rabid shoppers, my eye for some reason was caught by a young Asian couple walking into Pottery Barn and it made me think of Josh & Val. Though it doesn't weird me out that they're officially engaged now (I've been expecting it), it does make me feel pretty old. I mean, Josh... my best friend... is getting married. That's some serious change-of-life-stages stuff. We've been friends since I first moved up from Cali when I was 5 years old and he's probably the closest thing to a brother that I have.



The wedding will be something nice to look forward to. Yet another reason to hurry and find a job... gotta get him a good wedding present. I don't wanna diss my best friend by just showing up and not bringing anything... I'm not that American.

posted by G at 12:51 AM   | (0) comments

Eh...funky computer errors.

Well, Christmas Sunday went off without any major snags. We started out a little rough, but the choir finished off "Unto us a Child is Born" and "Hallejuah" with some pretty impressive execution, if I do say so myself. There's always something nice about a large choir, the way all the voices blend together and just seem to fill a room. Our church sanctuary has some weird acoustics at times, but yesterday was one of the few times where I didn't notice it at all.

Besides the music though, one of the highlights of Christmas Sunday for me is the baptism services. While the quality of Christmas sermons seem to fluctuate every year, I always enjoy baptism services because the people getting baptized share their testimony about how they came to know God and make a decision to commit themselves to faith in Him through baptism. To me, there's no greater evidence of God's existance than the ways in which people's lives are changed by Him. The stories people tell in their testimonies - often about the problems and difficulties that in normal conversations would seem awkward to share - are often heart-wrenching, yet it is often in the most painful stories that the most genuine tales of faith are told.

It's a good reminder to me, especially in these days of gray.

In less meaningful and shallow news, I hung out with my friend Jay and indulged in a day of War-crack at his house after church. Our 2v2 rhythm was downright lethal... we perfected two kinds of tower rushing, a funky mass footies/wyvern combo, and a double undead bruising, combining for a 10-0 record last night. Boo yeah.


posted by G at 11:33 PM   | (0) comments

Busy days...

Today was a full day. Siobhan came over for breakfast as usual, but this time she brought it - coffee and donuts. Since she wouldn't be in-town for my birthday, she also wanted to take me to lunch, so we headed up to Seattle to eat Hiroshi's (formerly Tommy's), but it was closed. =( No problem, though... we ended eating at the same family Mexican joint we ate at about a month ago and we were happy. Yum. Did I also mention she got me a big LEGO set for my birthday? Nice... =)

After dropping Shiv off at the airport, I headed out to go high schoolers' Christmas party. Dave somehow got roped into driving the church van, so when I got there, the kids were already at the house. We sang some Christmas carols, played games, and had our "under $5" white elephant gift exchange (snagged me a phatty yo-yo, heh).

Friday's Maplewood Christmas went well too... tons of food, laughs, and hanging out with the old gang. For our gift exchange, I got this book of gun pr0n, complete with fold-out, exploded views of some the world's most well known small arms - everything from the good 'ol AK to ever visible H&K MP5 series. Steph got me a book by Kazuo Ishiguro, so that'll be some brainfood for the holiday.

Ah, it's good to have friends that know what I like... ;)

Gotta get early to sing for choir tomorrow... there's gonna be two morning services at my church, one English, and one Chinese... so that's 2x the singing for me. Wh00t.

posted by G at 11:20 PM   | (0) comments

Rise and shine...

I've been awake for two hours.

Cleaned up old doggy "accident".

Took a shower.

Did a load of laundry.

Made a burger for brunch.

Looking to start the prep-work for tonight's Maplewood Christmas party...wh00t.
posted by G at 2:28 PM   | (0) comments

More movies...

I caught another movie today, thanks to my sister's job. It was a Spanish film by Pedro Almodovar, called "Hable Con Ella" (Tell Her). Interesting stuff - the premise of the movie is that two men, Benigno and Marco, both love women who end in catatonic comas - Marco's GF being a bullfighter, Benigno's girl being a ballet dancer. Siobhan loved it, but then again, between her and me... she's the only one that speaks Spanish, haha. Actually, there was just one really bizarre scene that weirded me out... other than that, I thought the movie was interesting, but not my cup of tea.

Maybe I've been spoiled too much by watching "Equilibrium" and "The Two Towers"... sci-fi and fantasy...
posted by G at 10:59 PM   | (0) comments

my preciousssssssssss...

I just got back from seeing the Lord of the Rings sequel, the "Twin Towers". Though long, the movie was a great followup to the first movie... more insights into the main characters, more action, and a BIG battle.

Good stuff.
posted by G at 5:17 PM   | (0) comments

Borrowed from Ms. Sojinator while I eat my late night cereal...

RANDOM STUFF
[ x ] Spell your first name backwards - tterrag
[ x ] The story behind your lj user name - live journal, nope.
[ x ] Are you a lesbian - I would think and hope not
[ x ] Where do you live - Seattle, or more accurately... Reeeenton
[ x ] 4 words that sum you up - unassuming, prodigal, brooding, paradoxical


DESCRIBE YOUR
[ x ] Wallet - black leather straight from Brasil
[ x ] Hairbrush - unneeded
[ x ] Toothbrush - Oral-B
[ x ] Jewelry worn daily - gold ring with Chinese family name, righthand; silver chain with templar cross, neck;
[ x ] Pillow cover - Blue flannel
[ x ] Blanket - green wool
[ x ] Coffee cup - undescript mugs, though I prefer tea
[ x ] Sunglasses - not used much in Seattle
[ x ] Underwear - boxers
[ x ] Shoes - usually crosstrainers/running shoes, dressy stuff on Sundays
[ x ] Handbag - what the hell
[ x ] Favorite top - blue shirt with bruce lee as DJ
[ x ] Cologne/Perfume - none
[ x ] CD in stereo right now - Rage Against the Machine mix
[ x ] Tattoos - chinese character for "faith"/"devotion", right shoulder;
[ x ] Piercings - none
[ x ] What you are wearing now - flannel PJ pants, wifebeater, hoodie
[ x ] Hair - shaved and proud
[ x ] Makeup - ummm, no


WHO or WHAT (was/is/are)
[ x ] In my mouth - toothpick
[ x ] In my head - deep and not-so-deep thoughts
[ x ] Wishing - for a purpose, a sign, a job, or all three
[ x ] After this - sleep
[ x ] Talking to - myself, at the moment
[ x ] Eating - cereal, frosted shredded wheat
[ x ] Fetishes - girls with guns, hats, pigtails, or all three
[ x ] If you could get away with it and murder anyone, who and for what reason - No one at the moment, but most pop music icons come close.
[ x ] Person you wish you could see right now - my father.
[ x ] Is next to you - a Gouf Custom action figure, ooh... I'm a nerd
[ x ] Some of your favorite movies - Godfather trilogy, Star Wars trilogy, Army of Darkness, Friday, Fist of Legend, Seven Samurai, Enter the Dragon
[ x ] Something you're looking forward to in the upcoming month - not my birthday
[ x ] The last thing you ate - cereal, you forget?
[ x ] Something that you are deathly afraid of - disappointing my father, failing those whom I love, not following the path God has set aside for me to walk
[ x ] Do you like candles - only when I discover the Amazon brown snake in my porcelain throne
[ x ] Do you like hot wax - nope
[ x ] Do you like incense - nope
[ x ] Do you like the taste of blood - only from cooked steaks and my enemies
[ x ] Do you believe in love - without hesitation or doubt, yes.
[ x ] Do you believe in soul mates - yes
[ x ] Do you believe in love at first sight - nope.
[ x ] Do you believe in Heaven - yes.
[ x ] Do you believe in forgiveness - yes.
[ x ] Do you believe in God - yes.
[ x ] What do you want done with your body when you die - cremated.
[ x ] Who is your worst enemy - doubt, lack of confidence
[ x ] If you could have any animal for a pet, what would it be - a big Akita to name "Tomodachi"
[ x ] What is the latest you've ever stayed up - you don't want to know... how about when most people eat dinner
[ x ] Ever been to Belgium - no.
[ x ] Can you eat with chopsticks - yep.
[ x ] What's your favorite coin - quarter.
[ x ] What are 5 cities you wouldn't mind relocating to - random order: New York, Honolulu, San Jose, LA, Jerusalem
[ x ] What are some of your favorite pig out foods - cookies, dim sum, sushi, tonkatsu, popcorn
[ x ] What's something that you wish people would understand - the character of God
[ x ] What's something you wish you could understand better - Why am I here?
[ x ] Anyone you miss that you haven't seen in a long time - my father, and I suppose, Mr. Jack Daniels
[ x ] What's one thing you want to make happen for tomorrow - good seats for LOTR
posted by G at 2:42 AM   | (0) comments

Out and about.

My old roommate Dave is in town, fresh off his first semester of seminary. He's staying at my house, so I hung out with him while he ran errands today. Afterwards, we ended up hanging out at the Greenwood house again for pizza and a movie. We watched "My Sassy Girl" again, because my friend Helen was around to give the full-on Korean cultural commentary. Heh, it's great to have the 'ol Maplewood crew back together again...

Ah, just 10 more hours until LOTR... nifty.

Random note:

I read an interesting article in the Seattle Times about a pastor's lesson in forgiveness here. It's nice to see vocational ministers portrayed in a positive light for once in the media...
posted by G at 1:33 AM   | (0) comments

Done. Finished. Mission Complete.

I'm finally through with all my Xmas shopping, so I no longer have to journey out into the throngs of half-crazed soccer moms and screaming children. My last Xmas purchases have officially reduced my assets to the financial equivalent of two Jumbo Jacks from Jack-In-The-Box. Or maybe not even that much. I woulda thought feeling broke would have made me more unhappy, but I guess I'm coo with it.

In happier news, Siobhan graciously accompanied me on my errands, so all the traffic and masses of people was more bearable.
posted by G at 1:59 AM   | (0) comments

Longer day.

Man, Saturday was nothing... today was a REALLY long day. Of course, the usual eight hours at church sometimes can be tiring, as much as I enjoy being there. This morning, I sung "In the Bleak Midwinter" with the choir. A very nice song that revolves around a soloist, one of my fellow tenors... an older, grandfatherly type of guy named Sam. His voice reminds me of a Chinese Bing Crosby, haha.

Choir practice after church was especially long today since next Sunday will be Christmas Sunday and the choir will be doing two selections from Handel's Messiah - "For Unto Us a Child is Born" and "Hallelujah". It's a real beautiful piece of music, and I'm amazed that I am actually singing it. Of course "Hallelujah" is the most famous of the pieces - it used to my favorite to play after finals week in school.

Handel - Hallelujah

In the evening, we all congregated at the Greenwood hzzzouse to watch this Korean flick subtitled in English called "My Sassy Girl" (I'm not sure if that's an exact translation). Normally, romantic comedies are NOT my sort of movie, but I liked this movie a lot. Maybe I sorta identified with the bumbling, good-intentioned guy who's the main character in the movie. Along with that, I was cracking up at all the craziness of his relationship with his "sassy girl" - whose frequent mantras of "You want to die?" and "...or I'll kill you" reminded me of our friend Helen, everyone's favorite rage'n Korean girl. Too bad Helen wasn't around and I don't speak Korean... I have a feeling the movie would be even better if I could understand all the little cultural nuances.

Anyways, the movie is revolves around a college student named Kyung-Woo and a girl he randomly runs into on the subway - who happens to be drunk at the time. In her drunkness, she blows chunks and calls him "honey" - making everyone around him assume that he's her BF; he's chastised by an old man who got hit with her puke to "take care of her". Feeling sorry for her, Kyung-Woo carries her all the way across the city to a motel and for his trouble, gets thrown in jail - thus starts the story and the beginning of their relationship.

But yeah... the movie was good stuff, maybe because it managed to do more than just be another romantic comedy/melodrama. A definite must-see. Heck, there was even a short kendo fight (the girl won, of course). You don't see that in movies too much. ;)

Found a good review of the movie here.

After the movie, we hit up everyone's our favorite cheap-eats bar, McCormick's, which with the purchase of a drink, offers some niiice $2 entrees. Had me a tall glass of Guiness and some deep fried cod. Yum.


posted by G at 11:46 PM   | (0) comments

Ooof...

It's been a long day... a laid back day... but yeah, a long day...
posted by G at 12:20 AM   | (0) comments

How I spit it.

In the land of haves, I rep the have-nots/
occupy'n the no-income slot, I'm in a neglected spot/
world-weary wounds I nurse from battles fought/
I'm the fatherless once fallen angel even God forgot/
left to roam alone, there's no place for me to rest/
gasping for breath, I feel the emptiness in my chest/
stumbling across landscapes, this ol' soul is shackled/
despair has grabbed hold and I can't break the tackle/
longing for a sign of favor, I check every verse/
worst comes to worst, don't the faithful come first?/
prayers lifted up, as I try to stir the silence/
the answer given is cryptic and I struggle to define it/
more than just me, my brothers wanna cross this Jordan/
dreams of Canaan, but we're stuck in the desert scorch'n/
I never labored looking to get ahead, it was all outta love/
we trusted in the promise that we'd be taken care of/
can it be those who have given all will get no reward?/
like a broken sword flung in a gorge, I ring notes of discord/
they say the man in the mirror has talent and great potential/
but if that's true, why he's caged inside his family's residential?/
Biblical tales say that suffering always breeds a hero/
but they never write what it's like when passion passes to zero/
not an average Joe or Tom, I'm just want to know my position/
for when righteousness rings hollow...

...I'm wishing I had walked a road to perdition.
posted by G at 4:56 AM   | (0) comments

Fridays...

Today was not a very exciting Friday, but I ain't crying about it, though I did miss "Freestyle Friday" on "106&Park". Spent my evening visiting an older member of my church, shooting the breeze over various spiritual issues relating to CBC, but specifically, the needs my church has in ministering to people in my age group - the college and newly post-college crowd. The topics were pretty serious, the mood was very light and easy going, so I didn't find taxing in the least.

Tomorrow... or technically, today, is the children's Christmas program at my church. Should be lots of fun to watch.

Random note:

I finally made a wishlist on Amazon.com. I suppose it's a little late since Christmas and my birthday are only about two weeks away, but oh well... haha.
posted by G at 12:34 AM   | (0) comments

Urrrrrr... brains...

I just saw the movie "Resident Evil" this past night with the guys from Bible study. It was aight, not that bad and not too great... the experience was sorta akin to eating generic potato chips. Plenty of zombie blasting action, I noticed the Special Forces team carried mostly H&K guns - MP5k submachine guns and G36 rifles. That makes it the second movie I've seen this past week with the G36k - "Equilibrium" had it too. Not a very common rifle to see in movies, at least compared to the good 'ol AK-47, M16, or M4. A picture of it:



Simo remarked how frightening it was I knew so much about the guns just by looking at them. Heh heh.

In any case, tonight's Bible study was a short devotional on "spiritual gifts". For those unfamiliar with Christian doctrine, "spiritual gifts" are special talents/abilities that a person gains the moment they become a Christian. These gifts are given by for the sole purpose of ministering to others, caring for their emotional & spiritual needs, and glorifying God. So while they can encompass natural talents, spiritual gifts can also exist outside the realm of natural talent.

The guys and I had some interesting discussions about the various kinds of gifts, but we had a pretty lengthy discussion on the more "controversial" ones - things like speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing, and miracles - and whether or not these gifts are given to believers in this day and age. It's a hard thing to judge.

It occurred to me today that the modern world has raised a population of skeptical people, myself included. Our idealism often is superseded by our suspicion of anybody claiming supernatural authority or power. Just think of Jesus Christ was born first in this time, rather than in Imperial Rome... I doubt people would accept him now any more than he was accepted back then. He'd be out and about, preaching, ministering to the needy... and I'm sure we'd be out there booing him, calling him a fake and a charlatan, searching for scientific explanations for anything miraculous he might perform. In short, Jesus would probably get dismissed just like we would dissmiss Madam Cleo. People have no faith.

I wonder sometimes if I would have the faith in him myself if I saw Jesus in person, healing and speaking to the poor and have-nots - all while being scorned by greater society and being told by everyone around me that he's just a pretender, a fake. It's a humbling thing to contemplate, but it's something every person who claims to believe in Christ should have in the back of their minds, to measure their faith and consider in wonder that despite every doubt, God has still given humanity the capacity to believe, have faith, and hope.

As a end note, the inventory test my group took gave me high scores in the spiritual gifts of pastorship, discernment, teaching, servanthood, and leadership. Funny, I don't feel much like a leader. =P

Random:

Song of the moment is "Lost Cause" by Beck. More mournful sounds of an acoustic guitar for me, at times a human lost cause.
posted by G at 3:15 AM   | (0) comments

Mmmm... cereal.

Nothing like a big bowl to start off the day.

My favorite online gear shop, Digital Gravel is having free shipping until Christmas... niiiice. Plus, they got in a whole new load of stuff from Milkcrate Athletics. Phatty...
posted by G at 10:43 AM   | (0) comments

Hrm...

Played lots of war-crack today, some 3v3 and some really fun 4v4 action with Chris, Mel, and Drew Cho, our token gosu Korean player. I don't why I had such a strong urge to play today, maybe it's because as my birthday approaches, I get pissy.

I know birthdays should be a happy thing, but I don't have a great amount of happy memories around my birthday. They're all muddled up with my Christmas ones, which I suppose is bound to happen when your birthday is 3 days after Christmas. I swear if I ever kids, I'll do my darndest to make sure they're not born near Christmas. Cheapskate Chinese friends and relatives always pull the "here's a present for BOTH your birthday and Christmas". Yeah, stories of my neglected childhood... pssht.

Today started it off so well too. Maybe my brain was still warm with the memory of spending Tuesday evening with Shiv shopping in downtown Seattle and watching "Equilibrium". I forgot to mention that we also got to ride the merry-go-round they have down there every Christmas. We rode it last year and had so much fun, we did it again this year. Such a simple thing... riding a wooden horse round and round... maybe I'm easily amused. Maybe I was feeling grouchy today because I know I won't see her until Saturday. Poo.

In other Chan family news, we also got our Christmas tree. Last year we got ours like 2 days before Christmas, so this year, I wanted to make sure I took my Mom and got it early. My Mom likes real trees, so that's what we got. The tree was a real pain to put up this year though, the trunk being a little bit less thick than usual - making it a bit tougher to put in the stand and brace between those screws. It was also super sappy... had to wash my hands really well afterwards to get it all off.
posted by G at 1:49 AM   | (0) comments

Gun kata...

I just got back from an evening out with Siobhan... I got to see the movie "Equilibrium", starring Christian Bale and Taye Diggs. Normally, Tuesdays are kendo nights, but being that my grinch-itude was putting a big damper on my spirit, I needed to see something fun and "Equilibrium" turned out to be it.

You may ask why I chose to see a movie that got pretty bad critical reviews... normally, I'm a film critic of sorts, but there's definitely one genre of movies I rarely trust most film critics to judge right: action movies like "XXX" and "Blade 2". Perfect examples of action movies that got crappy reviews, but were plenty of fun to see. Plus, a fellow action junkie I know said it was better than "The Matrix"! Pretty high recommendation if you ask me.

The movie has been compared to "Fahrenheit 451" and other movies set in 1984-ish, totalitarian futures, but that's an unfair comparison considering that "Fahrenheit 451" is more drama than action. The story in "Equilibrium" is similar though - in the future, there's a third world war and survivors create a city where all emotion and feelings are outlawed, along with any artifacts that can stimulate them - paintings, music, poetry. The entire population of human beings has been reduced to conformity, helped along by daily, mandatory doses of "Prozium", a drug that suppresses emotions and conscience.

Christian Bale's character is a "cleric", a member of the elite enforcers who beat, shoot, and burn any underground rebels who dare to defy the new world order. They're also charged with destroying any artifacts they find, be it the Mona Lisa, copies of Yeats, or recordings of Beethoven. But when Christian Bale's "cleric" accidentally misses his daily dose of Prozium, he begins to have a change of heart and starts to see the world in a different light... mayhem ensues.

Anyways, the movie has some pretty awesome action sequences, easily on par with the best of "Blade 2" and "The Matrix". The art of pistol use has been elevated to a mythical status - one of the cooler parts of the movie, is the explanation of the "Gun Kata" - a scientifically designed martial art taught to each of the "clerics" where the weapon is double-fisted pistols and sweeping arm motions that remind me of tai chi or wushu. After watching this movie, everyone and their mother is gonna want spring-loaded pistol holsters for their trenchcoats... heh.

So yeah... the movie didn't grow any wrinkles on my brain... but I was thoroughly entertained nonetheless. Even Shiv dug it. ;)

Time to dig out the Desert Eagles and practice some gun kata...
posted by G at 3:23 AM   | (0) comments

Grrrr...

Feeling like a grinch today.
posted by G at 9:33 AM   | (0) comments

Bed, bed... crawling to bed...
posted by G at 2:10 AM   | (0) comments

Guerilla mechanic...

After several hours of war-crack, I took a break by going in the garage and finishing up my bike project... I re-attached the wheels and front reflector, and pumped up the wheels. I took her for a test drive and found the rear brakes locking up, the seat too high, and my bald head without a bike helmet... heh. I busted out the tools and fixed the seat height easy, but the brakes took a bit longer to figure out. After figuring out the problem, it took me another 15 minutes just to find the correct wrenches to remove the certain lugnuts, grease some moving parts, and then re-tighten. Everything is fine now, though... I can't believe I actually finished one of my projects.

Now if I could only become a ranked Warcraft RT player, then that would be 2 projects done... heh
posted by G at 2:01 PM   | (0) comments

Too damn early.

My sleeping schedule is all outta wack from getting up at 7:00AM for two days (had to go to leader's meetings during the youth retreat). My throat feels sorta nasty, I hope I didn't catch some wacky haunted woods death virus... I'm drinking some tea my mom bought, but it kinda sucks. It's de-caf... =P

I hate weak tea.
posted by G at 8:00 AM   | (0) comments

Oof...

Just got back half-hour ago from the youth retreat... stupid transportation woes. I swear that someday, I will live within walking distance to my work, my church, and my favorite restaurant. Grrrrrr. =(

But yeah... youth retreat... good stuff. Working with the kids was refreshing, encouraging, challenging, and exhausting at the same time. Maybe I'll write about it later.
posted by G at 5:41 PM   | (0) comments

Time for camp...

Well, the CBC Youth Retreat is finally here. I'll be heading out with Kristie K at about 1:30pm this afternoon to go. It should interesting working with a lot of the kids from my church... I'm not sure what God has in store for this weekend, but I'm hoping some good things will come out of it. In the very least, I want to get know my kids better and find out how best I can keep them from making the same stupid mistakes I made when I was their age.

I was shuffling through some of my stuff and I finally got a chance to dig out the appreciation CD I got for helping with the JEMS Warm Beach junior high camp this past summer. It was packed with a bunch of fun pictures...


Here's one of the boys in my cabin, Dan Yokoy from the infamous Yokoy clan. All the girlies were chasing him around the whole camp... man, who knew junior high girls were so lusty! I wonder where he got the liking for toothpicks from... heh


Here's another one of the boys in my group, Greg. He was a bit of discipline problem, sorta one of those attention hungry kids... but he got better as the camp went by. Making him do punishments from my patented "punishment bag" helped with that. ;)


Picture of me teaching the kids during my creative/interpretive writing class...


Here's the same class outside. "What do you mean you don't know what to write???"


The guy counselors and the speaker.


My friend Steph, turning red because two guys touching her is two too many... heh. However, if you're a suave super-spy with a cool accent, she'll date you. HA! =)


Lunchtime with the speaker Kyle Shimazaki (left) and Allan Tsai (counselor). Kyle was an awesome speaker... I actually became friends with his younger brother back during my trip to Brasil in 2000. Check out his ministry, Seeds of Life.


Myself and the boys from my cabin.


Another shot of me and some of the guys, during late night snack.


Some of the boys and me, cheese'n it up Japanese style (most of boys are of Japanese American ancestry).


Group shot of the whole camp.
posted by G at 1:17 AM   | (0) comments

Of milk...

Mom: "Hey, you know that the milk we drink isn't natural?"
Gar: "Um, yeah... I've known that for awhile, Mom. It's from cows."
Mom: "Nonono... I don't mean that. I was watching TV..."
Gar: "uh-huh..."
Mom: "...and they showed on the news all the chemicals in milk! Bad hormones!"
Gar: "Ummm... OK. And you want me to..."
Mom: "For now on, only organic milk, OK? If you go buy groceries, nothing else? Just organic!"
Gar: "Alright. You do know it costs more, don't you?"
Mom: "It does?!?! Aiyah..."
Gar: "Just think of the hormones... mmm, yummy hormones..."

-pause-

Mom: "OK, I guess it's worth it."
posted by G at 1:50 AM   | (0) comments

"Was I asleep? Had I slept?"



"If you could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could you wake up as a different person?"
posted by G at 6:51 AM   | (0) comments

Relics from the past...

Was thumbing through my choir folder and I found this... one of my fellow tenors, an older guy who's been at my church for awhile, said he found it laying around his house and thought it might be interesting to me... he was a deacon back when my father was first applying for position as youth pastor of CBC.

My eyes squint to read the yellowed paper with its typewriter etched words...


---

CONDENSED RESUME OF GARLAND CHAN

PERSONAL INFORMATION:

-Born March 31st, 19-- in Oakland, CA
-Married 9 years; 2 children


EDUCATION:

-Calvary Bible College, BA in Christian Education with Honors, 1963-67; Kansas City, MO
-Dallas Theological Seminary; Master of Theology degree, majoring in Christian Education, 1967-71.


EXPERIENCE:

Chinese Bible Church, Oakland, CA
Full-time Minister of Youth, 1976 to present. Responsible for entire club ministries (children, jr high, sr high, college, career & married couples). Campus Bible studies expanded from three to nine; meetings are weekly on one junior high, four senior high, and four college campuses. Sunday School Teacher - 6 years in Adult Dept., 2 years in College Dept., and 2 years in High School seniors class.


The M-2 Sponsors, Hayward, CA (coomunity based organization working with people in prison)
Regional representative. Major responsibilities included speaking to churches and various groups to enlist volunteers to correspond, visit, and help people in prison and ex-felons; also worked with individuals in prison directly.


Lake Highlands Methodist Church, Dallas, TX
Minister of Youth and Associate Pastor, 1970-73. Ministry covered junior high, senior high, college age groups; also included visitation and follow-up.


MAJOR CAPABILITIES:

Preaching -- I have been involved in more preaching from the pulpit for the last few years. I also speak to our clubs on a formal basis as a speaker. I have developed a greater love for preaching in the past few years.

Teaching -- I believe I have the gift of teaching as this has been one of my strongest areas of ministry. I have also been teaching at the Bay Cities Bible Institute of Oakland for over a year in their accredited Bible Dept.

Evangelism -- I have developed a great love for souls of people and a desire to reach them. My desire is to continously enlarge this area of my life.

Counseling -- This has been one of my most effective areas of ministry among the young people and young adults.

Administration -- I believe this is also one of my gifts. I have been able to develop by God's help an ability to work with people, organize, direct, and train others.

PERSPECTIVE OF MINISTRY:

My perspective of ministry is to serve God wherever God leads and places me. God led into the ministry to preach and teach His Word. He has led me through different phases to train me and give me experience which I needed for His work. I have presently been in youth work for more than 13 years. I believe, this speaks to some of the gifts God has given me espeicially with young people. However, I believe God is now directing me further to assume a pastorate of my own. It is at this point that I am exploring possibilities for other ministries.

---


Man, my Dad has a better resume than me...
posted by G at 8:06 AM   | (0) comments

No rest for the wicked... or unemployed.
posted by G at 4:22 AM   | (0) comments

Hrmmm...

I was just thinking that I'm a very back-ward looking person. I suppose it's not a good habit to think about the past quite as much as I do, but I guess not having much to do in the present and having few expectations for the future sorta does that to a person.

In any case, Saturday and Sunday were as busy as I thought they'd be, but especially Sunday. The birthday party I threw for Siobhan went off without any major hitches - everyone came, brought the dishes I ask them too, there was enough cups, plates, and forks... but I couldn't help but notice that Shiv wasn't having the greatest time. Sure, there was a smile here and there, but I think the primary mission of the party, to give her a happy birthday, was a failure. I feel like a bad boyfriend, wondering if I could have done something else besides throwing the party to help her feel more happy.... argh.

Anyway, it's still a busy week... 4 days until the youth retreat...

Random note:

Had a weird dream last night, that instead of staying in cabins at the youth retreat, we camped out in an underground cave with a huge vaulted ceiling. Every morning, we would have to crawl out of the cave... and every night, we'd have to jump back in. Other weird and bizarre characters in the dream: two whiteboy lumberjacks in checkered flannel trying to kill/hurt the kids, and a gay black guy who looked like Sisquo chasing the lumberjacks. In the dream, I had to kill all three of them and stuff their bodies in the church van so the kids wouldn't see.

Sheesh, I hope it's not prophetic... >=P
posted by G at 6:06 PM   | (0) comments

If I were a painter... I would paint my memory...

Found a link to a gallery of Caroline Young prints here. Interesting to see more of her work.
posted by G at 4:04 AM   | (0) comments

in?scrip?tion (n-skrip-shun)n.
1. The act or an instance of inscribing.
2. Something, such as the wording on a coin, medal, monument, or seal, that is inscribed.
3. A short, signed message in a book or on a photograph given as a gift.
4. The usually informal dedication of an artistic work.
5. Jeremiah 31:33