and the heart of the alvinator.
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Wednesday, June 30, 2004 GRX Hoops Final Recap Game2: The Damascus Geckos capture the GrX Spring 2004 Championship Title! Geckos 55 - Eagles 32 Leapin' Lizards!! Despite being outsized throughout the entire season, the Damascus Geckos' run 'n gun style of play made them giants on the court as they captured the 1st GrX Basketball League title. Blending skill, speed and chemistry, the Geckos were able to nullify the huge frontline of the Eagles from doing minimal damage on the inside. Big man, Louis Liang (13pts), Captain Dave Hiro (12pts) and Derrick Lee did an excellent of boxing out the Eagles' big men to control the boards. Key outside shooting and sharp cuts to the basket by James Chuong (12pts), Alvin Wu (7pts), Quincy Lin (6pts) and Billy Lo (aka "Billo, I made it to Round 3", 5pts) helped to balance the attack. The Eagles were able to keep the game close in the first half with strong efforts from Doug Koshiyama (10pts), Jeff Quock (9pts), and Eugene Pong (5pts). However, the Geckos were relentless in applying the pressure during the second half and closed out the victory in strong fashion. Congratulations to the Damascus Geckos in capturing the championship crown! And also a nice round of congrats to the Jericho Eagles for a very successful season. posted by alvin | Wednesday, June 30, 2004 Tuesday, June 29, 2004 Security Maslow's hierachy of needs begin with physiological needs, then safety/security needs. Safety/security is a core fundamental to having a healthy emotional life. It was children's ministry Sunday at church, and Pastor Harrison preached upon the key goal of the children's ministry: "For the children to know they are loved by God." Through knowing they are loved by God, they can feel secure and safe in who they are as a person, etc. I feel that all people are insecure to some degree. Guys, girls, everyone. Beit in their education, work environment, friendships/relationships, spirituality, etc. God loves us unconditionally, but many of us struggle with accepting his love (in addition to receiving his grace), because we have this "reward for performance," mentality, and always feel like we need to do something in order to then receive from God. The more we are able to receive God's love and accept his love, the more we can feel secure in Him. Of course, this is not a one time deal, and it takes time to be able to do so, and the ups and downs of life affect this journey. Everyone has issues, baggage, etc. Bring 2 insecure people together in a relationship/marriage...(read previous statement of "all people are insecure"), and there are lots of issues to work through together. =P. Receive God's love as an avenue to better emotional health. posted by alvin | Tuesday, June 29, 2004 GRX Championship Team Photos Pics of the 2004 Damascus Geckos. posted by alvin | Tuesday, June 29, 2004 Monday, June 28, 2004 Weekend Update I have gone away from weekend updates, as I discovered, that people won't usually read through all of it. But, this past weekend was fairly eventful, so wanted to post on it. RW is enjoying a new influx of people helping out with worship team, so Will and I are both fairly excited that new people are coming on board to help out. Yeah!!!!! For Sat. lunch, I co-coordinated a going away BBQ for Rick Lee who is heading out to Japan to teach English for 2 years. I prepared all of the food with the help of my mom. Go Mom!!!!! She always helps out quite a bit in these parties. It was pretty warm all day, and I got a pretty good tan. There is clear difference in skin color between my neck and my back. Played bball after the BBQ. Shout out to Dave King, who is officially 28 today. We went to Super Buffet for dinner on Sat. Food was alright, but a mystery occurred when paying. There were 24 of us, including Dave. 23 of us needed to pitch in $20 each, because the bill was around $450. However, we ended up $40 short, after everyone said they paid. What the heck? Didn't even make sense. So, everyone ended up pitching in another $2 to cover. Funny...weird math. Afterwards, we headed over to King's to play Hold'Em. This was my 2nd official time playing for money, and I cleared out two people. I could feel my heart pumping, saying, "All In." With Benny, I had a J-hearts, and 10-clubs, and I had a two pair showing after the Turn (J's and 10's). I went all-in after this, and Benny, who definitely is entertaining to play with as he shows passion and excitement, also went all-in had an 8 and 6 in his hand. Anyways, a 6-hearts came out on the River, and I won the hand. In another hand, I have a A, 10 of diamonds, and Alex had a A, K of clubs. On first round betting it was already up to 50 cents, so many people pulled out. Once the flop came out...a J, and 2 10s, I decided to go "All In" as getting 3-of-a-kind was rare that night, and I was getting ready to go home. Alex also went all in. I don't remember exactly which cards came out, but Alex needed a clubs flush draw, and didn't get it. So, I won. The entertainment value was definitely worth it. I double my money. Yeah...beginner's luck probably. One thing I learned, is that in the beginning rounds, it's important to bet big to "push" people out. Usually I like to check to keep people in, but if it's free to stay in, they will stay, and could get lucky on the flop, turn or the river. The most exciting hand, had Rob and Benny going at it. Rob had pocket K's, and Benny (Mr. Entertainment), went "All In" with Rob on the last card. It was fairly large bets going into the final card. Rob won, and knocked out Benny (who bought in after I knocked him out the first time). Anyways, I don't really expect to play much Hold'Em in the future. It can get fairly addicting after awhile. A birthday shout out to Mikey, who turned 25. I headed over to that party, which was a dessert party. I ended up being the last one there, with Julie and Mikey. After helping clean up, we watched "There's Something About Mary." I didn't finish the whole movie, as I was pretty tired from the rest of the days activities, and got home around 1:45 a.m. =P. On Sun...our GRX championship game. We won. Our team was firing on all cylinders. I will post the summary when they e-mail it out. We won gray sweatshirts with the GRX bball logo. I really enjoyed playing with my team. Tilden, Mimi, Ashley, and DaveS came out to cheer me on. They even made signs. Hehe...my fan club. Thanks. =P. The game was very physical, as two of our guys ended up bleeding, one had a huge scratch on my bicep, and I got clotheslined on this fast break, sending me to the floor. We neutralized their big man (Baby Shaq), with strong zone defense. Baby Shaq also tripped over me on this one play too, where I was already on the ground. I got a foul called on me on that play too. In the end, I scored 7 pts. my 2nd highest point total this season. It was a great season, and I will miss playing with those guys. I gave a brief announcement at RW on Friday for this game (in which I didn't want to give an annoucement, but Tilden encouraged me to), and said that I signed-up for this league to meet more "quality guys." I got a brief laugh from that one. Who else is looking for quality guys? =P. I'll post some pics soon. posted by alvin | Monday, June 28, 2004 Bill Clinton coming to SJ Former President Bill Clinton is coming to SJ, on Tuesday, June 29th at 8:30 p.m. He is on his book tour. I would consider standing in line just to talk to him, but you have to buy a book ($35). Not sure if it's worth the investment. =P. He'll be at the Barnes and Nobles on Stevens Creek Blvd, very close by my house. I think it will be extremely crowded there. I'm considering just driving by the store to see how crowded it gets. =P. posted by alvin | Monday, June 28, 2004 Thursday, June 24, 2004 Jeopardy So, I happen to catch some glimpses of Jeopardy on TV, and there is this 16-day champ on there right now. He has won over 500k. Crazy smart guy. The two times I have seen him on, he actually has missed the final jeopardy question, but since he had such a big lead, he didn't lose. Jeopardy use to only have 5-day champs, but now they let the person continue stay on the show as long as they continue winning. posted by alvin | Thursday, June 24, 2004 Tuesday, June 22, 2004 Name Acronym I took this from Blindman's site.
Name Acronym Generator From Go-Quiz.com Umm...very interesting description of me. =P. posted by alvin | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 God's Blessings I was just marveled today about how God desires to bless his children. As you can remember, back in '02, I decided to stop my career with HP, as they gave us an ultimatum of moving to Roseville (near Sacramento) or getting laid off. Although my mom insisted I stick with HP, I felt God clearly leading me in a different direction. He then opened the door for me at Broadcom. Check out the following chart of Broadcom's total stock history. Note the lowest point the company stock has ever been at... Yep, that's right, near Sept.-Nov. 02. I started working here at the end of Oct. '02. Crazy, crazy, crazy. I totally don't deserve this, as my work motto still is "underworked and overpaid." posted by alvin | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 Monday, June 21, 2004 Settlers Sabbatical Alright, so I going to spend some time away from Settlers. Last Thurs. I played 4 games with K-liu and J-sun after helping K-liu move. Fri. night, played one game with Mike and J-Sun after watching this canto movie, Silverhawk, starring Michelle Yeoh. Then played 1 game with J-Sun one on one. Headed up to Davis for a wedding on Sat. and between the reception and dinner, played a game with Vic, Chris and Howe. Went to the banquet, and came back at nighttime after banquet, to play with Chris and Howe another 4 games. Games seem to go faster in Davis (typically 30 min.). Sunday, after church, lunch and visiting friends, played another 2 games before heading home. All in all, in a span of 4 days...played 12 games. I used to play lots of Scrabble with Chris/Howe when in Davis, but now it's all Settlers. So, I'm going to fast from Settlers for about a month. To see if it has become an addiction. =P. posted by alvin | Monday, June 21, 2004 Being critical and verbal affirmation It's interesting that most Asians (probably more males than females), struggle with being very critical people. Isn't it sad that we are most critical on the people we love the most. Ironic...we should show the most grace to the people we care about the most. We justify that we are hardest on those we love, because it's our way of showing DEEP-ROOTED care. Good solid rationalization. Criticize because I care. Hehe. Anyways, I think a lot of our critical nature stems from the performance attitude of our culture. Does this situation sound familiar, "On your report card all A's...except one B. Your parents say, 'Hmm...why did you get this B?' 'But...but...I did get 7 A's though.'" Always focusing on the negative, never on the positive. Ever wonder why Asian kids have so many performance oriented issues? hahaha. =P. Gracefully, God accepts us exactly as we are. He offers us grace. However, it's difficult for us to accept, since we have been taught that it takes hard work to get things. Receiving from God is tough...receive his healing, his acceptance, his love. Sometimes it's very, very hard to accept, because we don't ever expect anything that is free to be of quality. Also, I realized that many Asians receive love through verbal affirmation (referring to the 5 love languages book). However, as Asian males and I would include Asian females, verbal affirmation is one of the hardest langauges to give. Our desire for verbal affirmation, stems from the need of feeling accepted and valued. We have lacked so much affirmation growing up that it makes us long for it. It's easy for Asians to give love through acts of service, but verbal affirmation is very, very difficult. Anyways, I'm going to work on being less critical and more affirming. posted by alvin | Monday, June 21, 2004 Thursday, June 17, 2004 Why? After a riveting Bachelor series, Jesse and Jessica B. have broken up. See article here. I told you he should have chosen Tara. posted by alvin | Thursday, June 17, 2004 Free Stuff So, yesterday they decide to call an emergency All-Hands meeting. Usually, they make some huge announcement or something like that, but this turned out to be a surprise b'day party for one of the top executives in our department who is turning 40 today. They also passed out some free laser pens (quite dangerous), and some mugs showing our new partnership with AMD. Serverworks is now making chipsets for AMD's Opteron processor. Anyways, they handed out free t-shirts a couple weeks back, and a funny e-mail went out later reminding people that they should only take one t-shirt. People would go into our marketing manager's office when he wasn't there and take shirts. I noticed yesterday, that people took multiple mugs, pens, and then went back for some more t-shirts. I was definitely tempted, but I refrained. I remember this motto growing up, "If it's free, take two." I realize these days, I have too much stuff, so free stuff doesn't interest me as much as it did before. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind free stuff, but my mentality has changed a lot since growing up. I remember the night I went clubbing, and they were throwing out t-shirts. They threw out a ton of t-shirts, way too much supply. Everyone in the club could have like 4-5 shirts if they really wanted too. Demand for t-shirts was very, very small. Coupled with the fact that carrying t-shirts around in the club was fairly difficult, people started throwing t-shirts back to the stage. Why did the free mentality wear off at the club? The simple economic phenomena known as supply and demand (guns and butter). But with these things given out at the company, they are in short supply, so people like to get as many as possible. So, let me start stereotyping engineers. Engineers are so into free stuff. They never like to spend their own money, even though they make fairly good money. Their mentality, "if it's free, take 5." =P. posted by alvin | Thursday, June 17, 2004 Wednesday, June 16, 2004 New Album My GRX bball team at TGI Friday's watching the NBA Finals. posted by alvin | Wednesday, June 16, 2004 Monday, June 14, 2004 Thoughts on Lakers vs. Pistons Well, quite frankly, the Pistons should have won the championship already. Game 2 was a fluke, as Kobe got lucky with that shot. The better team typically prevails in a NBA 7-game series. Frankly, the Pistons have been the better team all around. The Lakers seem very slow to me around the court, and their only dominating players (Shaq) is not getting enough touches. He should be able to go for 40+ per game. Kobe is getting manhandled by getting double-teamed and thus has had horrendous FG%. Malone carried the Lakers to the finals, with solid D on Duncan and Garnett in the past two rounds, but has been rendered ineffective with his ailing knee. Without his energy, enthusiasm and passion, the Lakers will lose. No team in history (27 times before), has come back to win from a 3-1 deficit. Although Game 4 was not a must-win, it sure seemed like it to me. I originally picked the Lakers in 5 games. I wouldn't consider myself a Laker-hater, or whatever, I'm a fairweather fan, although I like the Kings and Warriors more than other teams. However, what I really care about are good, close and exciting games. That is what makes it exciting. So, the Pistons have shown that the (eastern conference JV league), is performing above standards. Wallace finally had a monster game, and shooting over Slava looked way too easy. Anyways, once the Lakers made the finals, I wanted them to win, so Payton and Malone could finally get their rings. Looks like Larry Brown will finally get his. =P. So, maybe Shaq is setting himself up for a dream performance, doing something in history no other team has done (recover from a 3-1 deficit to win the NBA championship). Also, Phil Jackson has never been down 3-1 before. What will happen...tune in on Tues. =P. posted by alvin | Monday, June 14, 2004 Thursday, June 10, 2004 Update As people have been asking me recently what I have been doing, I give them this answer. Obviously this is much longer than my typical response. I find writing makes it easier to communicate ideas more clearly. 1. Work: I'm getting my first official board back today that I designed. Hopefully nothing went too awry with it. The "fire" test is always the best one. Smoke, smoke, smoke. Two other board designs in the pipeline based on this design. The board layout guy I worked with actually left the company last week, so I am now with with another layout designer instead. I have realized that I don't know that much about PCB/PCA design, as I didn't learn much about it in school. It's been a bit difficult motivating myself to read about the technology, so trying to force myself to print out technical documents and read them for my own professional development. Still, underworked and overpaid. They recently upgrade my computer to Windows XP, so it actually runs faster. However, they have installed some "Big Brother" software, so need to be more accountable on my web surfing. Been also playing more basketball with my co-workers to build some stronger relationships. The guy across my row, has recently moved downstairs. He was a huge extrovert that talked a lot, and would bang on my cubicle to say "hi." It's so much more quiet here. The guy who shares a cubicle wall with me, to this day, over 1.5 years later, still hasn't acknowledged my presence or said hi. Maybe I should initiate. 2. Fellowship/Church. I'm still going to CBCSJ as my home church, where I grew up. I basically go there for the teaching (Pastor Harrison is a DTS grad and a fantastic teacher), as my main young adult community is Real World, affiliated with Abundant Life Christian Fellowship. RW has been going alright, with lots of transitions. I am still coordinating Bible study for my small group, and helping out with worship occasionally. You can see the relationship phenomenon occurring in our fellowship, which is quite interesting to observe. I feel that overall, we deal with it in mature way. I feel that most people are actually more open in exploring relationships and talking about it, than in college, where people are so "hush-hush" about it. I appreciate the shift in attitudes. 3. Physical Activities. I'm still trying to get to the gym a couple times a week. My typical workout scheme includes at least 1 hr. on cardio equipment (30 min. precor, 20-25 min. stairmaster, 10 minute bike), along with some minimal weights to keep strength in my lower back, hips, and arms. As you know...I sweat a ton, but have been pleased with my purchase of the Nike Dri-Fit muscle shirts. Definitely worth the investment. I miss playing bball with RW, as I have been playing in the GRX bball league. It's been good getting to run with a new bunch of guys, and being 7-1 in our league too. That's always good. I'm continuing to discover and grow in my basketball identity. Swing dancing also is in the mix. Have been trying to go more often, but am dictated mainly by finding more peeps to go with. I still have trouble (i'm very shy), asking random girls to dance. 4. House. The house has been sporadic in terms of the work that needs to be done. The automatic sprinklers, took a couple weekends to fix (replacing the valves, and broken piping), so that it is finally up to snuff, and that my grass isn't dying. Projects never end. Next in line, replacing new furnace, adding gutters to one side of house, laying cement, remodeling kitchen, and remodeling master bathroom. If you don't know already, I have actually moved back home. My sister and Leslie currently live at my house. I have learned a ton from my father about home "fix-it" stuff. I have also learned that I work extremely fast when doing these things. I broke two shovels last weekend. Hehe. A lot of house stuff you apply geometry and physics. Understanding how a "lever"-arm works is very important. 5. Classes. I was taking the Biblical Counseling Course at Stanford, and that finished this week. I have been really encouraged by the life testimony of Steve and Erika. They are an awesome couple. I signed up this week for Chinese 50B at Mission College. This will be the 2nd half of the Chinese course I took last fall. 6. Missions. I am planning on heading out to China in the fall (late Sept./early Oct.) with PESI for a 2-week vision tour. Calvin will also be going on this trip. If you are interested in joining me, send me an e-mail, and I'll get you some info and the application form. 7. Next steps. I looked into the GMAT, and it costs $225. Pricey!!!!! GRE was only like $75. If I go get my MBA I would need to finance everything myself, so that is definitely not a motivator. Applying to Fuller is on hold right now, as I need to really pray about seeing if this is what God wants me to do. I feel a lot of decisions in my life now (long term ones), I need a ton of motivation and need clear leading from God. Grad school/working here at Broadcom, were very clear to me, and going to China in '02 was super clear, but heading to seminary or getting my MBA is not clear. Please pray for me and clarity of leading. 8. God. Okay, okay...I do admit my bias towards the NT vs. the OT. Jesus is the best teacher there is. I do love the entire Bible though. =P. I have been learning more about myself, what makes me tick, and what areas of refinement I need in my life. I have a ton of issues...and when those issues resurface, it hurts. As I take 2 steps forward, sometimes I can 3 steps back. It's frustrating, but exciting to be able to have motion in life. I'm glad that God calls us to be "in process", that we don't need to be perfect. I will never be perfect, and that is totally OKAY. Yay!!!!! What a gracious God we have. =P. 9. Settlers of Catan. This has been the latest craze in our fellowship. The game is based on a ton of luck, as it depends very heavily on the dice rolls. The values of dice rolls determine what resources you get. Although each dice roll is an independent event, the entire sample set (typically 50-60 rolls) is to small to have a legitimate probabalistic distribution. The greatest strategy is to cover the largest sample set of numbers to have the greatest probability in any independent event (dice roll). It can get fairly competitive. People need to realize that it isn't personal. =P. I have had to apologize to people for my attitudes and comments during playing this game. It sometimes doesn't bring the best out of me. Please refer to #8 (areas of refinement in my life). posted by alvin | Thursday, June 10, 2004 Thursday, June 03, 2004 Feeling Sore... Hmm...I apologize to my readers for not posting more often. I have just been posting pics lately. Anyways, I played bball last Wed., Fri. and Mon., along with playing yesterday. Back in junior high/high school and college, I could play sports many days in a row without feeling sore. Now I have to pace myself...yes, yes...I'm getting old. Let me talk specifically about my hip injury, which started as a freshman in college. During intramural basketball, I somehow fell on my left hip (i think probably some guy pushed me). As I compensated for my left hip, my right hip then also became injured. To this day, I still have trouble with soreness. It is like a muscle injury, and feels like I can't put full pressure on my feet, thus affecting walking, running, playing bball, etc. When this injury occurs, I have a lot of trouble pushing off my legs. However, as I have played lots of bball lately in addition to sitting on the floor or awkwardly on the couch, the injury has been reoccurring. I had trouble sleeping two nights ago because I was feeling sore. I found that I can stop the pain by strengthening the muscles around this area. I told myself that I need to work on those muscles at least once a week, but sometimes I forget and don't do it. Boo for me. I need to be more disciplined in that. =P. posted by alvin | Thursday, June 03, 2004 Tuesday, June 01, 2004 New Albums Posted Giants game and Decadance Performance. posted by alvin | Tuesday, June 01, 2004 |
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