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Wednesday, December 31, 2003 Happy New Year I would like to wish all my readers a Happy New Year. As I am helping to host a New Year's party tonight that has semi-formal theme, last night, Kathy, Luchin, Nancy, Jonathan and myself were discussing what to wear to the party. Somebody suggested to Jonathan to wear jeans and a t-shirt. He said it was too cold for a t-shirt. Out of nowhere and very non-chalantly, Kathy says to Jonathan, "why don't you go like Chippendale's?" I was drinking some water when she said that, and right then, I spewed water onto nancy's kitchen's table and South Africa scrapbook. The water almost came out of my nose. It was so freaking hiliarious, I was busting up like crazy, and had to get out of my chair to compose myself. To my readers: Don't imagine Jonathan dressed as Chippendale's. Maybe you had to be there, but I guess I didn't expect statements like that out of Kathy. Too freaking funny. posted by alvin | Wednesday, December 31, 2003 Monday, December 29, 2003 Christmas Weekend Recap Alright, just a quick recap. Wed. 12/24: Cousins from texas (dad's side) and cousins from my mom's side also came over. I discussed the EE profession with my cousin who is graduating from UT Arlington this may, showing him stuff that I did at work and such. During dinner we had interesting discussions, as I explained my cousin "ranking" system in terms of intelligence and basketball. After dinner, just chilled a bit, and we played monopoly. i was game emcee, and taught my cousins the necessity of playing monopoly quickly. Afterwards, watched Fight Club with Nancy. Interesting movie, but kinda' disturbing. Thurs. 12/25: Woke up to go to my coordinated bball/football event. Since it was raining pretty heavily, I was thinking of not going at all, but since I sent out the original e-mail, felt obligated to go. Only King and I were there, so we defaulted to going back home away from the rain. Ended up at home, and mom, dad and me headed over to my house to start painting. We ended up painting from like 11 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sis came over around 2 p.m. to help too. Bro also stopped by to paint a closet. =P. We headed home and had christmas dinner and ended up watching "League of Distinguished Gentlemen." i kinda' fell asleep during the movie. We also watched "Cradle 2 the Grave." Entertaining, with lots of action scenes. Fri. 12/26: Woke up and drove my bro to the airport, at like 7:30 a.m. Walked around Valley Fair some with my mom and then headed home. Will picked me up at 11:30 a.m. and we headed up to Randy's place in San Leandro to meet up with Victor (PESI pals). Ate lunch at Randy's house and then we headed to Muir Woods. Since I never remembered going to Muir Woods, I was wearing shorts and a light long-sleeve shirt. I was freezing. Since it was so crowded, we ended up parking extremely far away. We tried to get in for free because coming in with a handicapped person the whole car can get in for free. However, since Victor is not an U.S. citizen, we had to pay full price. Only $3 an adult though, so pretty cheap. We had some good conversations in the car, as Will and Victor were pretty open to talking about relationships. Always nice to hear other people's thoughts. The highlight was definitely seeing the salmon since they were spawning. Something I have never seen before. Afterwards, Will dropped me off for my family gathering at my aunt's house in Castro Valley. I got there a bit early. Had some great convers with my cousins about life and such. Many of the guy cousins were checking fantasy bball stats and such. Highlight of the night was when we were opening christmas presents. Now, since many of us are older, we don't really have gift exchanges anymore, but many of us got gifts for the new youngest cousin Deanna. This was her first Christmas with our family, as she came over from China back in Sept. She is 1.5 years old. She is such a cutie. As she opened each present (with the help of my aunt of course), she would get wide-eyed, seeing what it was. It was so cute when she opened a Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animal, and hugged it. My bro got her a bus, like Lego building blocks inside a bus and she sat on the bus and rode it for awhile. My aunt got her a drum-set and she sat on the little stool and started playing it. She was the center of attention for a good 45 minutes. Already, I can sense that she is a very intelligent and determined little girl. Last year's Christmas, we were in mourning since our grandmother passed away. She would have loved to have been there sharing these moments with us. I miss her. Sat. Dec. 26: So, we needed to finish more painting. I woke up and went paint shopping with my mom at Sears. It's actually pretty cool how they create colors for paint. Anyways, bought paint, and ended up painting from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Went home. Cousins from Texas came over, and we ended up going bowling at Moonlite Lanes. Bowling quite pricey these days, $3.75 shoe rental, $5.50 a game. Yes, $5.50 a game, crazy...=P. Went home afterwards, and my sis and end stayed up watching "Tears of the Sun," starring Bruce Willis. Not that good a movie, as it was extremely slow. Sun. Dec. 27: Went to church and had lunch with Ivan. Ivan is my bro's age, and is now currently living in Minnesota. Always good to chat with Ivan to see how things are going in his life. After lunch, mom and I went to Ikea because I knew there was a sale going on. However, the products I was interested in weren't on sale. Oh well. We bought some kitchen-ware stuff so that was good. We then headed to Target to buy more stuff. So much stuff there is to buy. Crazy. =P. Had dinner at home and chilled. All in all, a good christmas vacation. posted by alvin | Monday, December 29, 2003 Wednesday, December 24, 2003 Merry Christmas So, it's Christmas Eve and I'm still at work. Yeah, yippee!!!!! I just found out that most of the system team will be out next week, and I'll be one of the few still in the office. Yeah, yippee...Light week next week. Anyways, wanted to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas. On a side note. Today in the lab, these two engineers started to yell at each other. "What are you talking about?" "What the ... are you doing?" etc. Quite interesting. I have never seen that before. My mentor stepped in and took one of the guys out before they started physically fighting. The high pressure cooker that is the Silicon Valley. Honestly man, is it really worth it to fight over work. =P. posted by alvin | Wednesday, December 24, 2003 Monday, December 22, 2003 Weekend Recap On Sat., spent most of the day with my dad working on the house. Man, I was exhausted. So tired. We basically needed to patch up a piece of the closet that had water damage, and do some other odds and ends. The stuff doesn't stop. We worked from like 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and didn't eat lunch. Mom came over around 11:30 a.m. and sis came over around 1:30 p.m. to also help. I feel a special bond with my dad now as we get to use power tools together, and I feel like he is passing on some of his mechanical know-how to me. After working on the house, we headed home, and I showered and headed up for Party In the City 2003 part 6. As I drove up to SF, there was a blackout. It took me 1 hr. and 45 minutes, and I arrived an hour late to the party. I walked in just as they were getting ready to start dinner...perfect timing. The night was very romantic, as it was entirely by candlelight. Even when I drove home, the street lights were still out. Luckily, Mel and Vern bought food this year from some place on Irving Street, so that was convenient. Also, Mel's mom had a gas stove, so they could reheat some more of the food. It was a good time as I had to catch up with lots of college buddies. There were also 3 babies this year, Alison, Miles and Ben. They are all less than 1 year old. It was fun carrying them around and playing with them. We had the white elephant gift-exchange over candlelight, and a huge flashlight sitting on-top of the entertainment stand which was good. Since there was no drawing numbers this year, they did it alphabetically, by first name. Argh...nice. I went first. I picked the biggest box, and it was an "auto-baseball" thing. I thought I would end up with this, but someone stole it. So, I took a gift that already got stolen once, so I knew I could get it without it getting stolen from me. It was Cranium "Hoopla", some board game, that Mark stole first from Lily. I stole it for safety, so I was guaranteed I would be able to keep something that I would enjoy. Pretty fun though. Not enough stealing. Lily had like 5 gifts stolen from her...hehe. She ended up with this orange long-sleeve t-shirt. Vic got a bit upset with me, as she had a $10 blockbuster gift certificate. Natasha just had some cups stolen from her, and I reminded her that Vic had the blockbuster thing. Vic pointed at me and said, "Be quiet...don't say anything." hahaha. Natasha ended up stealing it from her, and then Vic got a remote control car. Anyways, afterwards, when I wanted to give myself some eprops from Natasha, and said, "It was good I reminded you of the blockbuster thing," and instead of giving me eprops, she said, "i really wanted those cups." Oh well. After Natasha stole the blockbuster thing, vic said to me, "I told you to be quiet. Look what happened....etc." Too funny. Good times though. I had a good conver with Cindy, as we talked about home remodeling. She said if I was doing any remodeling project, like perfo flooring or tiling or something like that, she would help. Anyways, after Sat., drove home and went to church on Sun. morning. I didn't go to Sunday School and headed to Union City with my parents to pick-up the sofas that my uncle is giving me. I borrowed a truck from PESI pal Randy, and driving a truck is an interesting experience. We took most of the afternoon to finish, and ended up stopping by Lowe's in Union Landing to look at other home furnishings. Lowe's prices are actually better than Home Depot, but there really aren't any close by. We ended up eating dinner at a buffet place, Uncle Sam's in Fremont. Kinda' ghetto, but cheap, only $12 a person. They charged us for a drink, when we didn't ask for it. Oh well. Anyways, they had lots of seafood, and quite a lot of variety. I wouldn't say the place is very sanitary though, and the seats were a bit tight, and it was warm inside. There is this one station of food where they bring out tons of variety, and everyone goes to this place when the waitress brings out new stuff. Since our table was somewhat close, we could look and see what they were bringing out. Honestly though, my mom wanted to eat oysters, and they would go fast, so I would stake out the waitress, and then get up to see what she was bringing out. I was so paranoid we would miss the oysters, that I had trouble enjoying the rest of dinner. Pretty funny though. Lots of food. We went home and I chilled. I drove like over 7 hrs. this weekend, (3 hrs. SF and back on sat.), (4 hrs. moving stuff on Sun.). Crazy, pretty tired. =P. Need more sleep. =P. posted by alvin | Monday, December 22, 2003 Friday, December 19, 2003 PESI pals and LOTR Had dinner with PESI pals last night, Will, Iris and Christine after I finished my Chinese final. Let's just say that when native Chinese speakers cheat on a Chinese exam, it's so lame, especially to when they are 40 years old. What type of example do they set for their children? So lame. Anyways, dinner was interesting conversation. Will again commented on my clothing and said I need a new wardrobe. He then gave Iris and I some more relationship advice as we waited in line for LOTR. Go Will. You gotta' love this guy. 2 eprops for him and his honesty. I dropped off Christine at the SJ airport, since she was going to Boston, while Will and Iris waited in line for the movie. When I arrived we waited for another 20 minutes outside and then headed in. It was a sold out show, but there were still empty seats. The movie started at 10:30 p.m. There were so many freaking previews...too many, that the show started 20 minutes later. Overall, I felt the movie was much faster paced than the second one. Since there were less characters to develop in this movie, since some of them died in the 2nd one, I felt they did better character development. I guess my fav. scene was Legolas and his elephant surfing. That was pretty freaking cool. I love seeing the scenery too. Who else thought the hobbins are very "touchy-feely" type of peoples. Anyways, a good entertaining movie. However, not for the faint of heart, as lots of killing and death themes are touched upon. FRODO, FRODO, FRODO!!!!! Got home at like 2:15 a.m., went to bed at 3...crazy. =P. posted by alvin | Friday, December 19, 2003 Thursday, December 18, 2003 Unprepared for chinese final... okay, so i have senioritis, or chineseitis. i am going into my final exam tonight the least prepared i have ever been for a final exam. i studied for like 15 min. hahaha. oh well. i think i will leave work early today to study. of course, i don't think i told my readers this...but i took the exact same material 4 years ago at de anza college. what we covered in a quarter at de anza, took us a semester at mission college. =P. however, de anza met 2 times a week for 2 hrs. a class, while mission meets one time a week for supposedly 3 hrs., but actually only 2.5 hrs. So, de anza: 10 weeks x 4 hrs = 40 hrs. mission: 15 weeks x 2.5 hr. = 37.5 hrs. so, i guess overall de anza had more class time. but check this out...if we actually met for the total amount of time at mission (3 hrs. 10 minutes per class): 15 weeks x 3 1/6 hrs. = about 47.5 hrs., so it would have only been 7.5 hrs. more. anyways, i felt much more rushed at de anza, and learning material over a longer period of time improves retention. alright, enough analysis, time to study...=P. posted by alvin | Thursday, December 18, 2003 Tuesday, December 16, 2003 New Albums Posted See right column for new albums. 1. RW, Spencer/Julie's B'day combo album. 2. Family Thanksgiving. 3. Nancy/Mel's company party. posted by alvin | Tuesday, December 16, 2003 Monday, December 15, 2003 Business Job Opp? I guess I forgot to mention that Nancy/Melanie's company is looking for new college grad level, or just a few years experience to be financial analysts. People with a business background and such. If interested, please get in touch with me, and I'll provide you more info. posted by alvin | Monday, December 15, 2003 Weekend Recap After work on Friday, I visited PESI pal Iris. She was feeling sick, stomach flu from KFC, and I was bored at work, so went over to her place before heading to the RW talent show. I really enjoy watching bball, but know that if I get cable it could be a major time drain. I ended up watching some bball with Iris, IMing random folks that she IMs, and then headed off to RW talent show. The talent show was good. Lots of bold people doing pretty cool acts. I guess my favorite was the little girl singing Lord I Lift Your Name on High. She is so cute. Mike Ho was the emcee for the night. They had a raffle and it was pretty fun. Jenny won a DVD player, which all of us first thought was fake, but it was actually real. Everyone got pumped for the raffle after that...too funny though. Other gifts included M&M's, goldfish crackers, santa ornaments, etc. I will incorporate this raffle idea for my wedding though. Gets everyone pretty pumped up, even though some of the gifts were gag gifts (actual gifts Lani has received from her high school students that she donated for the talent show.) After RW, I headed over to Americana Arms for a cocktail party hosted by 8 peeps, including Jeannie and Josh from RW. I didn't know many people there, and was trying to see how good my real world game was. Yeah, I discovered I don't have real world game. Oh well. Anyways, met Mike Ho's roommate, and talked a bit to him. It is refreshing to talk to a new believer who is hyped up for his faith. After the party, headed home, and just chilled. Next day, woke up and went with mom to work on the house. We closed escrow last week, and still need to take care of remodeling, so basically, I'm paying mortgage on a house in which I haven't moved in yet. Not so practical to me...but...oh well. =P. Anyways, my main goal on Sat. was to clean the rain gutters, and man, it was so nasty. I was reaching into the gutter and had two layers of gloves...and it was still very gross. =P. From last week's rains I noticed that the gutter wasn't working, so wanted to clean them out so they would work. Mom was cleaning the kitchen and kept mumbling, "your wife should be helping you clean this stuff...not your mother." Oh well. No wife yet, so my mom will have to do. The stove was pretty gross as there was lots of good stuck on oily stuff. The previous owner was an Indian family, who frankly, in my opinion, weren't cut out for home ownership. 2 eprops for mom though and her cleaning abilities. Still so much stuff to buy for the house. Mom has been great in helping. I went out to lunch with mom/dad at Miyake's, and then headed home to get ready for Intecap company party in Sausilito. Since Nancy and Melanie both work at Intecap, it was cool that Mike Ho and myself were both able to go. It was actually also an overnight party, so Mike and I stayed in one room, and Nancy and Mel stayed in another. Anyways, we arrived late to the cocktail portion of the party. I went to the bar, trying to impress the bartender, with my breadth of alcoholic cocktail knowledge. He actually couldn't make a fuzzy navel, nor a midori sour, so I ended up with rum and coke and then a screwdriver. During the cocktail party portion there was a game played, in which a famous person's name was put on your back, and you would have to ask "yes/no" questions and then guess who the name of that person is on your back. I was stuck on Johnny Depp for the longest time, like over 30 minutes. It was terrible. I haven't seen Pirates, so I totally didn't remember or think about him. I figured out that the person was voted the "sexiest man" by Time this past year, but I couldn't put the name with the face. It wasn't until I found out the latest blockbuster action movie took place on a boat, that I came to think of Johnny Depp. Argh. That really put me behind. I finished Robert Redford, Winston Churchill, Johnny Depp, Babe Ruth, Charlie Chaplin, Elton John...Rocky Balboa was the last name I had, and then it was dinner time. Argh...the winner finished 10, I finished 6. Stupid...argh. Oh well. It was actually a good way to get people to mingle and mix. I never heard of some people like Gloria Stein, huge women's right activist or something like that and some guy had Maya Angelou which was also very difficult. Nancy finished one person, and got Mark Twain next. She was trying to figure who the person was throughout dinner, and still when we told her the first name was "Mark"...she couldn't get Twain. It was pretty funny though. Dinner time conversation was interesting. I think the small company feel makes it very easy for people to interact. I don't really experience good, solid relationships in my own workplace. However, Nancy and Mel are pretty intentional in making friends, so that is really encouraging to see them build solid relationships at work. Mike and Mel sat at a different table. Our table conversation went from traveling, to winning the Lotto, to the company culture at Intecap and such. It was nice actually when one guy intentionally asked for opinions of people around the table. I was pretty quiet during dinner though, and actually, when talking with 1-2 people, I function well, but a larger party, and it's difficult. =P. Anyways, it was pretty fun, and good food. Honestly, I taste about 10% of food due to my allergies, so having a nice meal, although is nice, sometimes can be wasted on me because I won't enjoy the full-taste of them. =P. However, if people ask if my food was good, I'll always say yes. hahahaha. Post dinner, we still just sat around and mingled. I felt pretty comfortable around the people there, so that was good. Alright, so post dinner, we hung out in Mel/Nancy's room and took a bunch of silly photos. Their room was freaking huge, like cottage style, kitchen, living room, bathroom and bedroom. We sat around, and talked till like 3 a.m., about the typical young adult issues...=P. As we said, "everything that was said in saulsilito, stays in saulsilito." hahahaha. The next day was beautiful. So sunny and nice. We had the hotel continental breakfast, and then headed around to walk around downtown. I can't say I appreciate seeing galleries that much, but it was good to walk around and broaden my own horizons. I need to build my appreciation for the liberal arts side of things. Anyways, I discovered I really like vivid colors...with some type of theme in the painting. I also liked going to the photography store, where this guy takes all these landscape photos and they were super beautiful. I was reminded just how amazing God's creation is, and how He has creativity close in His heart. We ended up sitting outside for a long time, looking over the water to SF and oakland. Very peaceful. We got our stuff back from the hotel, and then headed for lunch. After pondering lunch options, we headed over to Pacific East Plaza in El Cerrito to eat dim sum, which was actually the original idea Mike had...hahaha. Too funny how things come full circle. After lunch, I dropped everyone off and headed home. I ended up taking a 1.5 hr. nap, ate dinner, and then watched Pearl Harbor (which is like a 3 hr. movie). Pretty sad movie... After Pearl Harbor, just took care of some errands, and headed to bed. Good shared experiences, friends, good fellowship, good fun. A good, but exhausting weekend. Pictures to come soon. posted by alvin | Monday, December 15, 2003 Friday, December 12, 2003 On Work Hmm...Things are pretty slow here for me at work. Like, super slow. Sometimes I feel very underutilized, and my education seems to have gone to waste. Anyways, that's why I have been having so much time to blog this week. Yeah!!!!! I know I have very faithful readers, and have been getting some encouraging comments about my marriage/relationships posts. posted by alvin | Friday, December 12, 2003 Thursday, December 11, 2003 Keys to Marriage from Younger Couples Alright, so some more class stuff. Here are some keys to marriage from couples who have been married between 2-4 years. Partner is good listener. Partner understands how I feel. Easy to think of things to do together. Leisure time vs. separate time exists. The way they communicate with one another is effective. Creative on how to handle differences. Making financial decisions are not difficult. A satisfying/fulfilling sexual relationship. Partner willing to make adjustments. Able to express opinions. Understands partner's ideas and opinions. Other interesting tidbits: 90% of all US people marry. 50% end up in divorce Average marriage lasts 9.4 months. Sternberg (some psychology dude says 3 components for successful marriage) 1. Intimacy 2. Commitment 3. Passion Definiton of Empty Love: has commitment, but no intimacy, no passion. Final Funny Quote: "Love is blind, and marriage is an institution for the blind." posted by alvin | Thursday, December 11, 2003 Long-Lasting Marriages So, last night in class, we studied successful relationships and marriage. Married men/women were asked to rank the following statements for their marriages lasting. The married men/women who answered these questions were married at least 15 years, and usually closer to 30 years. If you have extra time, take and rank yourself and you will be surprised with the results. Why do women say marriages last? a. An enduring marriage is important to social stability. b. We laugh together. c. I want the relationship to succeed. d. I like my spouse as a person. e. My spouse has grown more interesting. f. We agree about our sex life. g. Marriage is a long-term commitment. h. My spouse is my best-friend. i. I am proud of my spouse's achievements. j. Marriage is sacred. k. We agree on aims and goals. l. We agree on a philosophy of life. m. We agree on how and how often to show affection. n. We discuss things calmly. o. We have a stimulating exchange of ideas. Why do men say a marriage lasts? There are a couple different statements from above, but rank them too. a. An enduring marriage is important to social stability. b. We laugh together. c. I want the relationship to succeed. d. I like my spouse as a person. e. My spouse has grown more interesting. f. We agree about our sex life. g. Marriage is a long-term commitment. h. My spouse is my best-friend. i. I am proud of my spouse's achievements. j. Marriage is sacred. k. We agree on aims and goals. l. We agree on a philosophy of life. m. We agree on how and how often to show affection. n. I confide in my spouse. o. We share outside hobbies and interests. Okay, now if you finished ranking them...Here are the results. For women: 1. h. My spouse is my best-friend. 2. d. I like my spouse as a person. 3. g. Marriage is a long-term commitment. 4. j. Marriage is sacred. 5. k. We agree on aims and goals. 6. e. My spouse has grown more interesting. 7. c. I want the relationship to succeed. 8. b. We laugh together. 9. l. We agree on a philosophy of life. 10. m. We agree on how and how often to show affection. 11. a. An enduring marriage is important to social stability. 12. o. We have a stimulating exchange of ideas. 13. n. We discuss things calmly. 14. f. We agree about our sex life. 15. i. I am proud of my spouse's achievements. For men: 1. h. My spouse is my best-friend. 2. d. I like my spouse as a person. 3. g. Marriage is a long-term commitment. 4. j. Marriage is sacred. 5. k. We agree on aims and goals. 6. e. My spouse has grown more interesting. 7. c. I want the relationship to succeed. 8. a. An enduring marriage is important to social stability. 9. b. We laugh together. 10. i. I am proud of my spouse's achievements. 11. l. We agree on a philosophy of life. 12. f. We agree about our sex life. 13. m. We agree on how and how often to show affection. 14. n. I confide in my spouse. 15. o. We share outside hobbies and interests. OBSERVATIONS: As you can tell, the first 7 in both lists is the same. I found that quite surprising. The #1 factor in successful marriage is finding a best friend. =P. Since this is a secular psychology class, the aspect of God doesn't factor in, but in Christian marriages, God is the most important reason for a successful marriage. posted by alvin | Thursday, December 11, 2003 Wednesday, December 10, 2003 What I'm Looking for in a Life Partner... Since I know that writing on relationships generates more comments, I thought I might write some more. I have been asked recently by a couple people what I'm looking for, or what's important to me, so I thought I would humor my readers by providing some thoughts. I think in a previous entry I wrote a bit about being a bit more refined in what I'm looking for in a life partner, and I think the older I have gotten, yeah, the requirements have gone up...go figure. They should go down. Oh well. Here are some thoughts, and definitely this is not a complete list. I better preface all of these things is that this is definitely a wish list, and these are things I'm working on too. I view life as a process...becoming more Christ-like daily. These characteristics are what I would consider ideal. =P. 1. Passion for God: Love for God, His Word and prayer. Commitment to meeting with Him and having Him speak truth into her life. Putting Him above all other things in the world. Desire and action of exercising her spiritual gifts. Committed to Christian community. Committed to spiritual growth. 2. Depth of Character: I am really drawn to deep thinking people. I think depth of thinking also speaks to maturity level in life. Doesn't need to be deep all the time, but at least has some component of depth to her life. I don't feel core character changes much in a person's lifetime, so, solid Godly character is important. 3. Honesty/Authenticity: I am really drawn to honest/authentic people. Since one of my core values is authenticity, and being honest and open, I definitely value that a lot. 4. Able to challenge me/Help me become a better person: I need someone who I respect that can come and put me in my place sometimes, because...drum roll please...sometimes I'm wrong. =P. And since I do value growth and can accept constructive criticism well, someone who can speak truth into my life and challenge me to grow in new ways. 5. Someone I respect: I think respect can come in many different forms in terms of situations or expertise, but definitely someone I can respect, and is well-respected and regarded by her peers. 6. Missions-Minded: Missions has been on my heart, and someone who is open to doing long-term missions somewhere. =P. 7. Capable/Independent: Although it's sometimes nice to be needed, I feel like I need someone who I can count on in coming through. If I ask her to do something, I can have total and full trust in her that she can and definitely will come through. Someone I can trust to be a good financial steward of what God has provided. 8. Emotionally safe/Totally accepting of me: I need to feel I can share with her my greatest weaknesses, and still feel that she loves me for all my brokenness, problems, baggage and issues. Knowing that she accepts me for who I am, but then at the same time, feeling like she wants me to become a better person, and encourages me in that character refinement journey. 9. Low maintenance: Refer to my college website for info on maintenance. Since I'm pretty un-emotional, emotional high maintenance is okay with me, but not too overly sensitive. =P. I guess when saying physical low maintenance...is that living a simple lifestyle and still being happy/content with life. 10. High-energy level: I think in social situations, in where I feel comfortable, accepted, loved and goofy: I am pretty crazy sometimes. Someone who can at least match me in energy level. 11. Sense of humor: Well, someone has to laugh at my jokes...and someone who can make jokes too and of course, be able to laugh at herself when she makes mistakes. 12. Understands my love languages and can fill my emotional love tank: alright, may sound cheesy, but I guess someone who can express love in the way I need to receive it. Basically, someone who can care for me in the way I want/need to be cared for. 13. Chemistry: Gotta' be some physical attraction and chemistry in there. =P. 14. Open to adventure: Open to new experiences and growing from them. 15. Treats other well: Someone who is able to care for different people in the way they need to be cared for, and being willing to care for others. Treats her family well. Is a girl I can bring into my family and can fit in. Alright, so those were some of the seroius ones. Here are some silly ones, that I would appreciate, but not necessary. =P. a. Athletic: willing to workout with me, can hit the 3 pt. shot, go hiking, running, play tennis, etc. willing to do stuff outdoors. b. Smart: so we can have intelligent conversation c. Cooks/Cleans: hmm...never hurts to eat good food and have a clean home, but this can be learned. d. Dances: willing to go swing dancing with me and open to taking ballroom dancing stuff. =P. e. Is computer literate: knows the importance in my life of the consistency of e-mail and IMing. =P. f. Musically inclined: knowing something about music is good. Alright, I think I'll stop there. I know there's a lot of stuff I just wrote. Enjoy. =P. posted by alvin | Wednesday, December 10, 2003 On being shy... One of the synonyms for being shy is timid. Timid is defined as "lacking self-confidence." Hmm...that is interesting. I wouldn't say I'm a person who lacks self-confidence (i have a very healthy, but fragile ego), but I guess more to the core issue, it's a sense of the fear of rejection. I think it happens a lot in my friendships and why my evangelism is weak. Rejection is defined as "to refuse to recognize or give affection to (a person)." Why am I so afraid of rejection? I have a couple ideas, so I need to think through this some more. I guess "reject" is a pretty intense word, but I guess in taking risks, there is an aspect of safety and acceptance, and where I feel things are safe I'll step out more to try to build deeper relationships. I do desire deeper relationships with people. However, usually when things are safe, a certain timing has already passed where the friendship can form well. So, I guess bottom line is that I need to step out and take more relational risks early on when I meet people. I need to work on my extroverted side. Some practical steps I will take: 1. In the gym, I will try to be more initiating in conversations. I rationalize that I don't talk to people in the gym because I'm focused on working out. I am especially weary to not talk to girls, so they don't think I'm hitting on them. =P. 2. At work, trying to talk with more co-workers about life and what is going on. Being more relational. 3. At fellowship/church, being more willing to talk to people that I know as an acquaintance, but being willing to get to know at a deeper level. posted by alvin | Wednesday, December 10, 2003 Tuesday, December 09, 2003 Interesting Verses I came across this during my devos today: "Then the cover of lead was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman! He said, "This is wickedness," and he pushed her back into the basket and pushed the lead cover down over its mouth." Umm...no comment. However, it's important to put these verses into context, and I encourage my readers to find out where these verses are from. =P. posted by alvin | Tuesday, December 09, 2003 World Christian Conference Taken from their website: "The World Christian Conference (WCC) is a conference to encourage believers in their efforts to become strategically involved in God’s plan of making disciples of all nations. WCC addresses practical issues of integrating the World Christian vision into the life of the believer. Many conferees have been encouraged from WCC to take steps of faith such as going on short term mission trips, participating in local outreach ministries, regularly praying for the nations, and rallying their churches for missions." I have been to WCC the past 3 years, and this will be the 4th year. I have been really blessed by WCC, as I get to interact with many like-minded believers. The task of integration is very difficult, as the idea of intentionality comes into play. The key questions are how do we purposefully live with kingdom values in our daily lives, and how is that reflected in the choices we make? I'll be serving this year for WCC as the small group coordinator, basically forming and organizing all the small groups. Looking forward to another great conference. The dates are from Feb. 13-16, 2004 in Santa Cruz. Honestly, the conference is pretty intense, as they pack in tons of stuff, but definitely worth it. Typically, around 400 people go. It takes a long time to process all of the conference when you get home. Please let me know if you have any questions. Hope to see you there. posted by alvin | Tuesday, December 09, 2003 How to Find a Stolen Dog? Good article. How to Find a Stolen Dog? I know Susan who is mentioned in this article. She'll be at WCC. Next post. posted by alvin | Tuesday, December 09, 2003 Weekend Recap Alright, sorry about all the slacking to all my faithful readers. I know you miss me. Weekend was more relaxing than anything else. It seems like people leave RW pretty early these days. Not many peeps into hanging out as much. Oh well, we must be getting old. Our group continues to always be the last ones to leave. As we were praying, people were knocking on our door to get us to leave. =P. Study was a good one on idolatry through Genesis 16. On Sat., I decided on not working out, and then taking care of some things at home, preparing for home ownership and such. It's been a busy process. I headed over to Mel's in the afternoon to do some pottery painting. Overall, a pretty good time painting pottery. My first time at this experience. Good chatting with Mel, Josh and Tom. PESI Pal, Tom came up from LA, and I met up with him at Stanford mall. Tom is very laid back, very chill. He is also one of my most faithful readers. I didn't realize he is 6'1", and I haven't seen his bball game...so, no comments on his bball game. We walked around pottery barn, played a game of chess on this huge chessboard, in which I lost. 2 eprops to Tom for beating me. We walked by A&F, and man, they had some sketchy ads of scantily clad folks. Very interesting. Anyways, we synced up with Watermelon Will and Doug, who came down from Oakland to hang with Will. Tom and I walked briefly around University Ave. and ended up at Magnolia AV. We just sat in their home theater watching the beginning of "Finding Nemo" and that home theater system rocked!!!!! Will called, and we headed to Miyake's. Will made some pretty funny comments during dinner, in which he gave me relationship advice and told me to get a new wardrobe. He said I dress like I was in high school. Since I went to paint pottery at Mel's I was wearing shorts and a sweatshirt, since I knew I was mainly staying indoors. If I knew I needed to dress up to see him, well, that's a different story. Anyways, after dinner we wanted to go to Santana Row, but it was raining pretty hard, so we ended up at Westfield Shopping Center (Valley Fair). We went to this Lego's shop, and man, Lego's are so freaking complicated these days. They have like very specific Lego sets, like Star Wars, NBA, etc. They even have collectible NBA figures made of Lego's. They also had this snowboard one, in which there were ramps and such. Man, amazing what kids can play with today. I'm looking forward to having kids so I can pretend to buy these toys for my kids, but really want to play with them myself because they are so cool. On Sunday, went to church. Pastor Harrison is a very gifted teacher. Although he is an introvert by nature, one of his spiritual gifts is teaching. He's so solid. I have a lot of respect for him. After church, I ran a couple errands, and then headed home, to head over to the house with my parents to clean-up some stuff. We headed over around 3 p.m. and it was the first time my sister saw the place that she would live in. We did some cleaning because a person is coming to haul away the garbage soon. After that, headed home, started on some of my final papers, and watched Alias. Ended up chatting on-line for awhile, and then went to sleep. Good chill weekend. =P. posted by alvin | Tuesday, December 09, 2003 Friday, December 05, 2003 Scott Song Articles So, I had a good time and laugh reading these articles. There's a lot to read, and I can't say I agree with all of it, but I guess the humor and exaggeration of the writer makes it entertaining. Check out: Church Game vs. Real World Game posted by alvin | Friday, December 05, 2003 Final Papers I just signed my finals papers this morning at the escrow company. It took like an hour to finish everything. Crazy. =P. Huge step of faith for me. God has brought tremendous peace through this process although there has been so much stuff to take care of. I will receive the keys on Tuesday. Then, I'll spend some time re-painting, cleaning, etc. Lots of small things to do. =P. I had reservations in the beginning of my house hunt with my father being my real estate agent. However, he has surpassed all expectations, and has done a stupendous job. There is so much paperwork and stuff to take care of that he was very prompt and responsive on. He had my best interests in mind. Fantastic job dad. 2 eprops. If anybody is interested in buying or selling a house, you can contact me, and I will put you in contact with my dad. posted by alvin | Friday, December 05, 2003 Thursday, December 04, 2003 Eulogy Umm...so one of our class assignments yesterday was to write a eulogy for ourselves, assuming we have lived till like 90 years old. We only had about 10 minutes for this assignment, and honestly, it's pretty difficult to write on something like this. Overall, I hope that in my life I would have made "impact" on people. Of course, realize that in this eulogy, I basically give myself like 20 eprops. =P. My eulogy is given by my son, Alvin Jr. ****** My father Alvin was a great man. He was a man who followed after God's heart. He was always passionate about growth, and living life with zest and energy. He was always open to new experiences and cared deeply about his relationships with people. He impacted others through the life he lived. He was a loving husband and father, who cared deeply about his wife and children. He always spent time with us to talk about deeper issues in life and pray with us on a consistent basis. He was a man of character and integrity, highly respected by his peers, and valued for his insight. He realized his dream of serving God in China through tentmaking in his 30s, being a professor at a famous university. He came back to the States in his 50s and along with some of his high school friends, helped to fund, charter and teach, at an inner city high school. One of his greatest joys was coaching the high school basketball team to the state championship in his first year as coach, turning around a 1-15 team program. I will miss my father very much. ****** posted by alvin | Thursday, December 04, 2003 Sleeping In Class So, last night during Psychology class, I started dozing off during lecture. The teacher called out my name during lecture, "Alvin". The whole class gave a brief laugh, and I was embarrassed. I promptly stopped dozing and said "Sorry." She said, "Must have been a long day." Some other funny dozing off stories. a) During a brown bag lunch event at Intel, one of the senior guys came to lecture about some technology. There were only like 15 people in the lecture. I sat near the back after finishing my lunch and started dozing. After the lecture was done, the guy asked if there were any questions, and said, "How about that guy sleeping in the back?" The intern director was also there, so after the whole thing was done, I promptly hid my badge and walked very quickly back to my office. Later that day, the intern director said she was cancelling the rest of the brown bag events citing lack of interest, and also mentioned that there was some guy sleeping during the last one. hehe. that was me. b) I sat in the front row for a signals and systems class back at Davis, and chew gum to try to keep myself awake during lecture. I started dozing off, and since I have trouble breathing through my nose, I usually breathe through my mouth. My head was tilted, and I started dozing. I wake up as the gum starts to fall out of the mouth onto the floor. The gum lands on the floor. My friend who was sitting next to me, laughs. =P. c) I don't fall asleep at church anymore, but back in college sometimes I did. During communion service one time, I remember singing songs that had 4 verses and stuff. I remember, I started dozing during the song, and that was quite interesting. I was zoning in and out and sometimes missed whole lines. Pretty funny. I think even when I get enough sleep, when I'm not engaged in something, or it isn't interesting, it's hard for me to stay awake. I think it's a combination of interest level and also amount of sleep. Lately I haven't been sleeping well as many things have been on my mind. Need to discipline myself more to sleep earlier and also to push myself less. I have a hard time reconciling how I finished grad-school part-time while working full-time. Crazy. God's grace pulled me through. posted by alvin | Thursday, December 04, 2003 Monday, December 01, 2003 Vacation Update Wed. night: Left work early and picked up Liwen to head out to Great Mall at like 5 p.m. for dinner at Fresh Choice and a night at D&B's. Interesting comment by Liwen after asking me my opinion on gifts for her co-workers. "Alvin, would you be excited receiving this gift for Christmas?" Before I even answer, she says, "Umm...I forgot, you're Alvin, you don't get excited for anything." And yep, I agree with her, and didn't have to make a comment on the gift...hehe. We finished walking around the mall and went to Fresh Choice around 6:45 p.m. About 12 people were there for dinner. And about the same amount of peeps at D&B's after. Fun times at D&B as I haven't been there for over a year. Still as pricey as usual, but the ticket redemption area is much nicer. It's like going shopping there. Thurs: I organized some bball in the morning at Prospect High, and overall, with all the peeps there at different times, probably around 25 peeps. Pretty fun. I ran probably 6 games, and ended up there from 9:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Crazy. Went home, got a haircut, and watched movie "Hard-Boiled" with family. Ate dinner with immediate family, and then browsed ads for Black Friday. Fri: Woke up at 5:30 a.m. and headed out to Fry's to buy a microwave and DVD player. Let's just say, only in the freaking Silicon Valley are there over 2,000 people in line at Fry's at 6 a.m. Once I got inside the store, I got the microwave/DVD player, I thought about walking around trying to get some other deals/bargains. However, I didn't have a cart and walking around with these items were pretty cumbersome, so I decided to pay for these items, put them in my car and then go back into the store to get some other stuff. By this time it was 6:30 a.m., and the check-out line was so long, I just left. I called my sister, who woke up earlier than I did, went to Kay-Bee, JC Penney and Sears. I asked her where she needed me to go next, and I headed over to OfficeMax. I stood in line for a good 20 min. outside waiting to get into the store. They only let 20 people in at a time. They opened at 7 a.m. We got into the store, got our items, and got in line, for a good 45 min we waited, joking with other customers. I recounted my Fry's story with others, and they were amused. We finished OfficeMax around 9:15ish and then headed over to Westgate to Target/Kay-Bee's again, and then Old Navy. I didn't find anything at Target worth buying, so I headed to Kay-Bee to sync up with my sis. Ended up at Old Navy where they had cheap scarves, only $1 each, but limit 2. However, we didn't realize that it was $1 each with some additional purchase. As I headed up to the cashier, he said I needed a purchase to get the scarves at $1. He goes, "How about some mints?" I'm like...okay. My sis does the same thing. $1.50 for the mints, $2 for two scarves. Not bad. =P. After shopping, I headed home and then relaxed a bit, but then headed out to have lunch with Lisa. We ate at some Italian place, and then headed over to her parent's dry cleaners in downtown Saratoga. We then headed to downtown Los Gatos and walked around a bit. Let's just say way the shops we went into were too high class for me. =P. Nice to walk around a ritzsy area though. Headed home and then took a nap to get ready for evening festivities are Jason (my cousin's place) in Saratoga. It was great to play with my youngest cousin Deanna. She is starting to talk some, so I was trying to teach her some words. I love the curiosity of babies as they look around different things. She loves to touch different things like plants, stuffed animals, pictures, etc. Very laid back and low key...I like that. Always brings me happiness when I see her and hold her. Dinner was good and we ended up watching some of the Lakers/Spurs game and then playing Jason's new karaoke game. Check out Lizz's summary of the activities. Pretty fun with that karaoke game. I realized that I am a goofball, and am very open to making a fool of myself in front of people I know. =P. Sat.: Pretty chill as I woke up and did my devos and then filled out all these mail-in rebate forms from friday. It took me like over an hour to fill out all these forms. Crazy. Anyways, went furniture shopping with mom later that afternoon, to get an idea of what I like and such. Pretty tiring. At Costco, my mom got into a random discussion with the check-out lady. This lady asked if I was married, and then said I was too picky. What's up with that? This lady knows me for like 30 seconds, and decides I'm too picky. Too funny. But yeah, I am picky...=P. Was debating whether or not to go swing dancing on Sat. night in SF, but decided against it. After deciding against swing dancing, hit the gym for 2 hrs. to work off some thanksgiving food. Chilled at home after, and watched "Shallow Hal." I liked the movie as it had some redeeming qualities of acceptance, and going against societal norms. However, was quite sad to see how society depicts unattractive people. Sun.: Church. Interesting discussion with some older brothers at church. They asked about my social life, more specifically if I was dating anyone. This guy said my expectations were too high, and if I truly wanted someone who could challenge me in life. He said, "Be careful what you wish for." The questions to ask. "Can I accept waking up next to this person for the rest of my life? Can I raise my children with this person?" Good thoughts from older brothers. After church, more furniture shopping at Ikea with my parents in EPA. Had a mild headache as there was so much information to gather in. Ikea actually has some pretty good stuff. I signed off on them before due to thinking that their quality is low, but some of their product ideas are pretty good, so I was impressed. =P. After Ikea, had hot pot with family and then watched "Alias" which doesn't make sense anymore. Oh well. Overall, pretty good times, although still pretty tired. 3 more weeks of classes left...yeah!!!!! looking forward to the end. posted by alvin | Monday, December 01, 2003 At a Crossroads... I have been at this type of decision before. Stepping out to something new or remaining with the status quo. The joy of life is having choices and being able to step out in faith in those choices...Soon I will make a choice. posted by alvin | Monday, December 01, 2003 |
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