0/2 on Final Four...

0/2 on Final Four so far for the NCAA tournament. Duke Lost to LSU, and I picked the Jay Hawks over UCLA. Jay Hawks got knocked out in the 1st round. *sigh*.

In N Out's secret menu:

Posted at http://www.in-n-out.com/secretmenu.asp

Drove to LA and back in 24 Hours...

Drove to LA and back for a friends wedding on Saturday. Crazy! We left from San Mateo area at 7:00AM, and got to LA at around 1:30PM, went to V's wedding, left Burbank at 9:30PM, I got home at 4AM, just in time to feed Ethan!

*sigh* things we do for our friends! Crazy you say? I'd do it again in a heart beat!

nut

Ethan our son is now 1 month + 1week old. He is getting cuter by the day, of course, except:

1) when he fusses around and would not goto sleep at 4AM...
2) when he throws up a mouthful of the milk that he just drank (like he did this morning)...

Although, the innocent look on his face after what he did sure makes up for it...

john

WWJD

WWJD? That was a slogan made popular a while back.... What Would Jesus Do? Well, on Beej's website today, I came across another acronym for WWJD: What would Jesus Drive?

Why, a Plymounth, for sure! http://www.highrock.com/personal/WWJD/

hehehe.

Kiwa Hirsuta

Kiwa Hirsuta is a new species of crustacean that was recently found in the south pacific. It looks funky! Check it out... Anyways, can't wait to see it in a zoo in the near future!

john

Michelle Kwan, you go girl!!!!

If you haven't heard already, Michelle Kwan is making another run at the Olympic Gold medal. Yeah! I really enjoy watching her skate - I don't really think she will win the gold medal, but it sure is nice to see her on the olympic team. Who knows, maybe this being her last chance, the adrenaline will be good for her and she can give Slutzkaya(sp?) for the medal...

Mike Celizic of the NBC news (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11048886/) says that she should concede her spot and pass on the torch.... Do you think so? I don't agree. I think she's still one of the best skaters in the US, as evident by her recent groin injury - that during that span no one else seems to have stepped up to prove that they are worthy of the last olympic spot - otherwise, why are we even argueing over this?

Therefore, I wish you the best of luck, and I wish that you would grab that gold medal to prove to the world, that you are still the best skater out there.

j

Memoirs...

Saw Memoris of a Geisha this past weekend. Blah! I had such high hopes for this movie - it just wasn't dramatic enough... Kinda blend... *sigh*. Also, wasn't too impressed with Ziyi Zhang's performance.

Some positives: 1. The scenery was beautiful. 2. Michelle Yeoh is still beautiful, and 3. Gong Li is still an amazing actress. I guess that kinda made the $6.50 that I spent to watch the matinee not such a big loss.

Summary: video.

Read something really cool this morning, in a daily devotional...

"Worship is also bottom-up. We can start by observing our world, our lives, and our history and begin to find God’s hand in all this. This is what you would expect from a scientist. Scientists begin with observation at the most basic level. They start with particulars and try and build conclusions or theories based on those particulars. For a scientist to believe in God (especially one who helped discover the universe’s most fundamental elements) means he started by observing the universe from the ground up, and based on all the particulars he gathered, God become his final conclusion. There was no other way for him to correlate all the facts that have been gathered by all the scientists over all time. "

How interesting! I've never thought of it this way - I mean, to think that there are no other conclusion other than "God" through observing the world. Thats pretty powerful. I've always seen miracles around me, but never thought that this could be the conclusion to God.

hmmm.

john

Do we have the power?

Brain fart of the day: Do we have the power to influence others? Sure we do. Should we have the power to influence the others? Well, its too late now, cuz we do have the power. God gave us that power and commanded us to use it wisely. But should we exert our influence on others even if they don't want it?

I am reflecting upon why people "should" do something. There never is such a thing. We are free to praise God in the way that He wants us to praise Him. Isn't that true? If a person is old enough, and just wants to be left alone to praise God, why should any of us detract that person away from praising God with our thoughts?

Maybe, in the case of all that has been happening at church, I've spoken too much to too many people. They don't need it, they don't deserve it. Maybe they don't want to hear it, whether it'd be my complaints or anyone elses. Maybe they just want to praise God with other brothers and sisters in Christ. Who am I to take that away?

Lord, I come before you, and I repent for my sins with regards to my tongue, my voice, and my influence on others. May they seek you always, and may everyone be so in tuned with you that they follow you directly rather than being influenced by others. Amen.

*sigh* its almost 1AM, and I am still awake.
Why? Because I love God. Through thick or thin, through the times when He is carrying me, and when there are two sets of footprints, through the periods when Satan attacks. Because no matter what happens, God provides.

Church is going through crisis right now. 3 deacons leaving within a week. Thats not good, considering we only have about 8 deacons. Who said church was easy? Who said serving God is easy? It sure wasn't easy for Jeremiah, in chapter 12, as he complained: "You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?"

Church is not easy. But would I rather live without it? NO WAY!

Two interesting site I read about today from Darryl my good friend....
Where's George
BookCrossing
Similar concept, I like BookCrossing better. The idea is that you read a book, tag it with a BookCrossing number, and then give it away, donate it, whatever... then at some point in the future, when someone else reads the book, and discovers the book crossing number, they can goto www.bookcrossing.com and register the book, and you can see where your book ended up.

wheregeorge is the similar idea, using serial numbers on money bills.

Cool idea, kinda like when we were kids, and we attached these post cards to balloons and let them go to see where they end up and get mailed back from.... interesting concept.

That reminds me, if you haven't seen "Pay It Forward" the movie, go see it. :-)
john

SBC DSL internet.
Man. I installed SBC DSL yesterday at my home. I hope you are reading this, cuz it will ask you whether or not you want to merge your DSL account with your YAHOO account. Make sure you say no.

I made the mistake of saying 'YES', and now whenever I log into my.yahoo.com or mail.yahoo.com or any yahoo related sites, I get this annoying BLUE SBC DSL banner that just kinda makes everything look funny... Yikes! Its really annoying. Not only that, it slow down the browsing capabilities because SBC downloads a bunch of crap banners that I don't want (like news, weather..etc).

*sigh* I guess they're all in the business of making money... ok. gotta goto meeting. stay tuned.
john

Something I read today that I really liked. In China, they welcome new believers by saying "Jesus now has a new pair of eyes to see with, new ears to listen with, new hands to help with, and a new heart to love others with". Isn't this so true? Its so wonderful to be in God's kindgom and to serve Him. It has changed my life - and filled my life with joy and happiness. It can do the same thing to yours. :-)

j

Conflict of Interest.

How can a person be humble yet be ambitious in life at the same time? Is that a contradiction of terms? In terms of been a Christian, I think there is a really fine line between the two. Ok gotta work more on this later
john

Went to small group last night. We are doing this bible study that goes along with '40 Days of Purpose' book by Rick Warren. Its pretty cool - Pastor Rick offers quite a bit of insights to life and "What on earth are we here for?".

This week's lesson on discipleship is perhaps the toughest chapter to swallow. I think its very easy to be a worker for God, but I think its very hard to be a disciple of God. I mean, its easy to "do" the things at church, but its hard to "work" out our own salvation. After all, Paul did tell us to continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

I think its easy for me to do the things at church. Hosting small groups, hangout, hold/organize different events, participate in church organizing and planning. I've done all that, and thats a part of my life. But I realized that I haven't exactly been "working out" my salvation - that is, my personal relationship with God, and my reliance on Him. Its so hard!

The one thing that I heard yesterday that really hit me was when Pastor Rick asked "How do you know when you are relying on God?". His answer was to take a look at your prayer life. Whatever you pray about is whatever you rely on God for....

Hmm. Moral of the day? pray!
john

Man. It gets more sad everytime I read about the fire down in LA and all. Its so sad. My heart goes out to all the fire fighters and the people that have or are nearing the loss of their homes. I shall be praying for you all. I hope that things will turn out ok.

As far as I know, I spoke with Hsin today that most of our friends are ok. Can you imagine driving down the freeway and seeing the hills on fire? Thats what my friend Juliet told me. She said that from her house she can see the fire in the hills...yikes.

Thats just a bit too close. Hopefully, the rain will start to come.

Speaking of which, today is my 2 month wedding anniversary. We're going to goto a resturant recommended by our friend darryl. Its called Chez TJ. We'll see how things go. :-)

Keep praying for the victims and the situation in LA.
john

Its been a year since I have blogged. Although, looking at my last blog, at least the work situation is the same... Its still pretty busy here at Terayon - as we move into new projects and more development. Although, it defintiely is more fun.

Since the last time I posted, I have gotten engaged, married, moved in with my wife, went to Japan, and had a mini-honeymoon in Carmel. Talk about changes, eh? Boy I must say I've had a full year so far in 2003. Definitely looking forward to going to Australia before the end of the year.

:-) So much to catch up on, can't do it all today... Stay tuned!

john

Wow! its been a while since I've blogged! Sorries!

Yeah, life has been really busy here at Terayon. Partly because I am still kinda trying to learn the ropes, partly because there is a lot of pressure to produce results. I think overall eventhough I am stressed, things are going well. I'm learning and absorbing at a rate that I've never did before. Thats great news.

I guess I have some time to blog today because I've just proven an important concept here at work about the feasibility of a particular task... Therefore, now a lot of the pressure is off and I just have to do a lot of the busy work (to write the code) now. hehehe :-)

Thats right! call me a NERD!!!

yeah!

john

Alright. So I know now to speak correct english:

"Liz and I went to the park" as opposed to "Me and Liz went to the park."
"Liz gave me the ball" as opposed to "Liz gave I the ball..."

But I didn't know, and now I do know, that...
"Decimate" means to destroy 10%, while "obliterate" means to destroy 100%.
"e.g." is used to give examples, "i.e." is used to explain something.
"Irregardless" is not a word.
"Affect" is a verb. "effect" is used more as a noun than verb.
Its "6AM", not "6AM in the morning" because 6AM = morning.

All curteosy of the Encarta Encyclopedia.
Thanks Microsoft & Encarta!

john