Thoughts

NEW YEAR'S EVE
This day used to have real meaning for me. I used to be fanatical about New Year's Eve. I used to spend the countdown time not watching Dick Clark or waiting to kiss a girl. Instead, I would pray to God so that my last words of the year and first words of the next year would be directed to God. And I would be walk around the house at night before going to bed and say, "This is the last time I'm going to see this room this year." Stupid, I know, but that's what I did. And even stupider (if that's even a word) was that I'd make sure I listed to a good song to end the year and to begin the year. The last song I heard in 1989? Debbie Gibson's Lost in Your Eyes. First song of 1990? Paula Abdul's Staight Up. Why do I remember these things more than 10 years later? Who knows. Like I said, I'm fantatical about this day.
Happy New Year!

GARY'S BACHELOR PARTY
We had a great time roasting and toasting Gary in preparation for his upcoming wedding in April. The company even made World's Buffet taste good (no small feat!). We played some exciting 1-on-5 basketball and Gary won. That made Michael convinced that the groom always steps it up for his own bachelor party (read: Jason and Jacob). Afterward, there was the appreciation/encouragment time, which is always funny and meaningful. I would say those are probably my most favorite moments of any Christian bachelor party. Too bad I was filming the whole thing and didn't really get a chance to really get into it. The evening was spent in Staples Center, not watching the Lakers live, but on TV at the Fox Sports Bar and Grill. The food was good, the game was a blow-out in favor of the good guys, and a great time was had by all.
Who says Christians can't have fun at a bachelor party?

FOLLOW-UP TO PREVIOUS BLOGS
Regarding Bad Feng-Shui: We also found out that our wedding videographer had a problem with his camera and only recorded a small amount of the wedding and even less of the banquet. Hopefully we can get our money back. But either way, we are both very upset and disappointed about this.
Regarding Perversions: While we were in Northern California, we stayed with Karena's aunt and uncle. They read the excerpt and all the comments left on the guestbook and were shocked that our church would even allow such a thing to be printed. But they were quick to agree with both Simon's and Jesse's assessments. As for me, I know that while I served on three church committees, I often felt like the church was run more like a business. And maybe that is becoming a necessity. I often thought that we were a small church with a small church mentality that became a big church and then we didn't know how to deal with that. And maybe that's true of the church in general. But either way, we should never confuse church and our relationship with God.

GREETINGS FROM SAN MATEO
Merry Christmas! Karena and I made it up here in 4 hours and 30 minutes. Needless to say, we were going a little fast! =) Seriously, have a great Christmas everyone!

BAD FENG-SHUI?
I don't know how much we believe in feng-shui, but we have to admit that since we've moved into our house, we've had a lot of bad stuff happen. Here is a recap of just the last two days:
(1) My electrical car seat broke down and Glendale Nissan said it would cost close to $1200 to repair because the motor is defective. So, for now, it's stuck in a position that's too close for me. Plus, he was unable to manually move it back so I have to drive up north with it like that.
(2) My car's battery died again and had to be jumped ... just four months after buying a brand new battery.
(3) This morning, I woke up to find a van had apparently lost control of his car and slammed through our protective cement poles and came within a few feet of our house. The driver fled the scene so it's being considered a hit and run. The cops came and it took about 2 hours for the tow truck to pull it out since a quarter of the car was danging in the air. (If you're confused, you'll just have to ask us about it later.)

Bad feng-shui? Karma? God teaching us a lesson? Or just plain bad luck? You make the call.

P.S. More great guestbook entries (including Jesse and another one by Si). Please visit and comment on this or a previous blog!

CHRISTMAS SERVICE
Sunday turned out to be a great day. We had breakfast with Nathan at Sunday Cafe. (It was good to hang out with Nate Dogg. And he didn't even say "eh" once!). We enjoyed Sunday service where we got to witness Wendy and others get baptized. (Congrats, WB!) Afterward, we got to do what we do best -- stand around and talk to friends. Finally, the evening was spent driving to Laguna Beach with Raymond and Sandra for a quick family vacation with my parents, grandparents, aunt and cousins. We were pleasantly exhausted by the evening.

In other news, please check out the guestbook. It's been burning up with some REALLY quality entries (aka, there goes Simon again disguising HIS website within my guestbook! ) =)

UCLA FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT
UCLA was in the air yesterday. In the morning, Karena and I found ourselves at a Sportmart looking at caps. When I noticed many of the USC caps were in front, I began covering them with UCLA hats until they were virtually all covered. Of couse, Karena had to change them all back. And there we were, changing caps like we were playing a game of Othello. I lost.
Afterwards, I had the privilege of going with Ko, Nikki, Enoch, and Ryan's parents to the UCLA vs. Michigan State game. The atmosphere at Pauley Pavilion is always magical because of the 11 national championship banner that hang there. But last night was even more majestic because there was a ceremony honoring John Wooden where the court was named in his and his wife's honor. Many former players and other basketball celebrities (and some pseudo-celebrities) from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Walt Hazzard, Gail Goodrich, Mike Warren, Jerry West, Magic Johnson, Elgin Baylor, Jelani McCoy, Jim Harrick were in attendance. Plus, we won the game, which is no small feat these days. It was nice being a Bruin again.
UCLA fight, fight, fight!!!

PERVERSION
In our church bulletin, our interim senior pastor gets a blank slate every week in which he fills with words of encouragment, biblical truths, pespective on today's world, etc. But the one he wrote on December 7th has been a hot topic in our household, even two weeks later. Please share with us your thoughts by writing on the guestbook. Thanks.

Perversion (with an apology to Psalms 23)
The church is my shepherd. I shall not think.
It makes me stay in the best company.
It leads me in programs bright.
It leads me in the paths of tradition for its namesake.
Yes, though I wade through the valley of restructuring, I have no growth.
But it stays with me. Its words and its staff, they confuse me.
It prepares a budget before me in the presence of my rivals.
It fills my head with figures, my schedule runs over.
Surely mailings and reports shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the clutches of the church forever.

- Hoover Wong

CHRISTMAS SONGS
Every year, one Christmas songs seems to stick out in my mind. And I deem that song "The Christmas song for this year." It's not really much of a distinction, but it's amazing to me that every year there is always one song that gets played over and over or hits me in a certain way like I'm hearing it for the first time. Here is some random thougths and Christmas song trivia for me personally.
1. I haven't even heard Wham's "Last Christmas" or "Christmas Wrapping" by the Waitresses yet.
2. This year's Christmas song: "Grown up Christmas List" sung by many, including Amy Grant, Celine Dion, Kelly Clarkson to name a few.
3. The most inspiration Christmas song moment for me was last Friday. After hearing the "barking dogs" version of Silent Night, it bothered me like crazy. Even while leading worship in Koi, it still hurt me to think about how those dogs ruined that song. So, on the spur of the moment, I felt it was right to sing Silent Night acapella. So, we did. It was a touching moment, and I believe God was glorified.
4. One of my most favorite Christmas songs and I don't know why: Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You."
5. Most hated Christmas song: "Santa Baby." Yuck!
6. I love Christmas time because it is the only time when my parents blast music in the house centered around Christ.

MOURNING INTO DANCING
One of the NBA's all-time greatest centers was Alonzo Mourning. Now, before you dismiss this as "just a sports story," I encourage you to read on.
'Zo, as he was nicknamed, has muscles the size of Texas. You could study anatomy off him. And he was always a fierce competitor on the court, and a gentle, giving soul off it. But because of all the physical abuse he endured while playing basketball, he was forced to take many anti-inflammatories over the years. And this led to him contracting a kidney disease that requiring him to retire from the NBA recently and prepare for a necessary kidney transplant.
So, I couldn't help myself. I sent him the words to one of our all-time favorite church songs about hope and joy in the midst of despair:

He's turned my mourning into dancing again
He's lifted my sorrows;
I can't stay silent,
I must sing for His joy has come.

When there was once only hurt, He gave His healing hand;
Where there once was only pain, He brought comfort like a friend.
I feel the sweetness of His love piercing my darkness;
I see the bright and morning sun as it ushers in His joyful gladness.

He's turned my mourning into dancing again, He's lifted my sorrows;
I can't stay silent, I must sing for His joy has come.

You've turned my mourning into dancing again, You've lifted my sorrows;
I can't stay silent, I must sing for Your joy has come.

BRIDGE:
Your anger lasts for a moment in time,
But Your favor is here and will be on me
For all my lifetime.

Hey 'Zo, our thoughts and prayers are with you.

TAKING A WALK
On most days when I have to wait for Karena to get off work, I try to do something constructive or fun: Work out, go read some newspapers or magazines at the nearby Rite-Aid, go eat, rent or buy a movie, etc.
But last week, I felt the sudden urge to take a walk. It was a beautful, crisp evening, especially since all the Christmas decorations were all over Beverly Hills. I walked up and down Wilshire and around Rodeo and had a great time.
Hmm ... maybe I'll do it again today.

KARENA'S WORK CHRISTMAS PARTY
The traffic was terrible the entire way to Disneyland. But when we finally got to Downtown Disney, all that was forgotten. Who knew there was this huge hotel there? We had dinner at the California Grand Hotel. Plus, we had a great time with the gift exchange. I ended up bringing the gift I got from my Christmas party gift exchange: a shower radio. And what'll you know? The gift got picked and stolen. I guess one man's trash IS another man's treasure. Karena and I did well this time, getting a Best Buy gift card (yes!!!) and some nice picture frames.

ALIEN ABDUCTION
One of my co-workers is really good at getting his patients better, especially if they have pain in their spine. He usually a combination of physical therapy, chiropractic, and some other crazy methods that I just call "voodoo."
It's definitely weird and a little scary, but it seems to work more often than not. He doesn't always use the "voodoo," but he's not afraid to try it with us. In fact, he recently treated my chronic back and leg pain without even touching me. But the real kicker happend a few weeks ago when he treated Karena, who was 5 miles away at her workplace, just by closing his eyes and moving his fingers around. He was able to identify exactly which joint was causing her pain in her neck (he was right). Afterward, he had me call her and she felt a little better.
It was all good until he told me what he did to make her feel better. He says (although he was taught this and doesn't really believe it) that he removed an alien inplant from her neck. She apparently had been kidnapped by aliens and they were tracking her from the inplant.
The truth is out there ...

CHRISTMAS PARTY
No offense to Kaiser, but we had our Christmas party and it was pretty sad. I have to admit that I wasn't looking forward to it. After all, it was held in our gym during the last hour of work. There was food and there was music, but it was still a little disappointing. But the best part was we had a gift exchange (like a white elephant, but with real gifts). I had a bunch of good gifts certificates -- Best Buy, Blockbuster, Borders, Home Depot, etc. But I ended up with something horrible. But I can't say in case I use it for a white elephant gift exchange!

A VIEW ON LIFE
Life is ...
fixing things when they break.
going from one errand to another.
going to work and coming home.
thinking about what to eat for the next meal.
enjoying the highs and struggling through the lows.
satisfying the next need, whether it be food, clothing, bathroom, etc.
trying to better yourself daily.

Life may be all those things, but it's not solely those things.

"But there's more to this life
Than living and dying
More than just trying to make it through the day;
More to this life
More than these eyes alone can see,
And there's more
Than this life alone can be.

CASE OF THE EX
When I'm around you, I feel strange. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to act.
We had 5 great years together. It could be said that I gave you the best years of my life.
You were there for me. And I was there for you.

But now, I feel weird around you. Uncomfortable. You were once one of the biggest priorities in my life. And now, you still mean a great deal to me, but it's a little different now.

The bottom line: We're not as close.

Koinonia, the post-college church fellowship group that I served for 5 years is now like an old girlfriend. We haven't learned yet how to fully interact with each other.

GONE IN 60 SECONDS
This week, we called our satellite TV provider and called to cancel our free HBO and 100-channel package since the 3-month free promotion was over. And after hanging up the phone for just one short minute, everything was gone.
No more HBO movies. No more Fox Sports Net for Lakers games. No more Discovery Health (Karena's favorite channel). No more FX, no more lots of channels. I almost shed a tear in sadness.
But I just have to remind myself that this is a good thing since I was watching too much TV anyway.
Besides, I still have ESPN. =)

PERSPECTIVE FROM A PATIENT
One of my patients was telling me a story about how his brother bought the domain .web and thought it was going to be the next big thing after .com. Well, it didn't work out that way and he was offered $1 million to walk away. But he got greedy and turned it down and went to court. Well, he lost and left with nothing.
Greed and vain conceit leave you with nothing.

LET THERE BE LIGHT
I spent all of yesterday afternoon in a futile attempt to put up our Christmas lights. Karena had bought some plastic hooks from Target that we could use to attach the lights to our rain gutter. But since there were some hooks already in place around some of the house, I thought I'd try to use those and put in a few nails to cover the rest of it. What a big mistake that was!
It took me all afternoon and I was only able to put up lights for half the house. This process was complicated by a set of lights burning out (probably because I had strung too many together) and by our lack of a ladder and by our lack of a few more boxes of lights. We went to Home Depot afterward and they were sold out of lights. Bummer.
So, there is our house, Fantasy Island, only half decorated. Half a fantasy ain't bad either, I guess.

CELEBRATING BUFFET STYLE
In honor of my grandmother's birthday (which was last week) and my sister's birthday (which was Saturday), we had a huge family gathering at Alhambra's World's Buffet. Basically, this place was a Chinese downgraded Hometown Buffet. I wasn't all that impressed with it, except for their green beans and their deep fried crab claws. Everything else was pretty disappointing. But I did enjoy hanging out with some of my cousins and to get a chance to catch up with Raymond and Lynn and Sandra and Gabe.
One embarassing moment was when I ran into an old friend from church Stephanie Cheung as I was piling loads of food onto my plate. It was good to see her, but all we did was have some brief small talk. I was embarassed because my plate was staked super high with nothing but meat.
Needless to say, a good time was had by all and I think my grandmother and sister felt appreciated nonetheless.