Invested in some kind of fruit company…

Yeah. I did it.

I caved.

What do you guys have that is made by Apple?

How old were you when Toy Story came out? How old will you be...?

Well, the title says it all.

I was 11 when Toy Story came out.
I was 15 when Toy Story 2 came out.
I will be 25 next summer...

Man, how time flies.
Somehow, I'm having this fond appreciation for all things in the childhood days.
From Sesame Street to Super Mario Bros. to all things Disney.
When it comes to computer-animated films, Toy Story was no different

Kids these days have no idea how revolutionary these icons were to the world today.  At least not now...maybe until they are adults.  Haha.

But I digress. I can't wait for this film to come out next summer.




So how old were you when each of the films were/are released?
Sound off.

A Poem for a Special Mom

I found a poignant poem for this special day.


It seems to sum up a lot of things up.




The Lanyard – Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

A fellow blogger wrote that the gift to any mother is her child.



I hope I have been a good gift in return.


I hope you know that you are someone's gift in this world.

I'm Still Here. Are You?

Man, the weather heats up one moment and cools down the next.

And so has this blog.

I was always bummed when a blogger would suddenly disappear.
And here I am, hypocritically abandoning my post (pun entirely intended).

My justification (i.e. excuse)?
Being too busy. Excuse me. I mean, lazy.
I was close, right?

But seriously. The past four months have been wild. Recap?

Chris Tomlin / Israel Houghton concert with youth worship team. Plain awesome. Connecting with people at my workplace. Singing my heart out. Confidence growing. Worship leading is an honor. Learning and loving it more and more. Counseling and teaching youth group. Time is flying. Feels like my kids. Watching friends get engaged/married/have kids. Celebrations. Meeting old friends. Fixing my eyes on God. Played Simon Peter for Good Friday service. Cried onstage. Someone broke my car window and took my work bag. God is good all the time. Computer crashes. Fixing and/or laptop? Mac? Led in worship by Starfield and meeting them afterward.  Fun. Retook second half of engineering exam. We'll see. Need for raw community. Where will I be in ministry next year? Wherever You lead me.

Truly, I have been stretched, challenged, excited, and confused by and about so many things.It's awesome to be living in the life of my Savior.

The one thing I'm taking away after four months?

Without God at the center of everything I do, things lose meaning.
That it's so easy to get caught up with yourself and the world we live in.
I guess I'm just realizing that dying daily to oneself helps to start over.
To refocus my eyes on Christ, who died for me.

At any rate. I'm still here.
Thanks for keeping up with me and my dusty blog.
Hoping to keep it cleaned up. Might even wax it soon.
Much love.

Caption Please

Caption please.

Green Day 09

So tell me…



…did you wear green today?  What was it?

Love by the book

Sometimes, I wonder if I got it all wrong…

Like I should not have listened to my friends and all those "Dating for Dummies" books.

Instead, I should have turned to the ONE book that had ALL the answers I needed…

As presented by Rick Holland, the college ministry pastor at Grace Community Church, 'lo and behold:

These are some of the ways that people found a wife or a husband in the Bible:

• You could find an attractive prisoner of war, bring her home, shave her head, trim her nails, and give her new clothes, and then she’s yours. (Deuteronomy 21:11-13)

• Hey! Go find a prostitute and marry her! That’s what Hosea did in Hosea 1:1-3.

• Find a man with 7 daughters and impress him by watering his flock. Moses did that in Exodus: 20:16-20.

• Here’s one for the ladies; ladies pay attention:
  Find a man who’s sleeping, lay down by his feet, uncover his feet so that he gets cold, when he wakes up, you propose. That’s what Ruth did in Ruth 3:3-9.
  

• Go to a party and hide. When the women come out to dance, grab one, and carry her off to be your wife. That’s exactly what the Benjamites did in Judges 21:19-25.

• Just have God create you the perfect woman while you sleep. Now this will cost you a rib, men. Adam did that in Genesis 2:19-24.

• Agree to work 7 years in exchange for a woman’s hand in marriage, (some of you guys worry about 7 days), but if you perchance get tricked into marrying the girl’s sister, which has happened, then work another 7 years for the woman you really wanted to marry in the first place—that’s right 14 years for that special bride. Jacob did that in Genesis 29:15-30.
  

• You could cut off 200 foreskins of your future father in law’s enemies, and get his daughter for a wife. That’s what David did in 1 Samuel 18:27.

• Even if no one’s out there, you just wander around a while and God will find someone for you. That’s what Cain did in Genesis 4:16-17. It’s all relative, of course.

• Become the emperor of a great nation and have a beauty contest, Ahasuerus did that in Esther 2:3-4.

• When you see someone that you like, go home and tell your parents, “I HAVE SEEN A WOMAN.”…”NOW GET HER FOR ME.” That’s what Samson did in Judges 14:1-3.

• Find a woman that you like who is married, and kill her husband and take her for your own. That’s what David did in 2 Samuel 11.

• You could wait for your brother to die, and take his widow—that’s what Boaz did with Ruth. Ruth 1-4.

• Or don’t be so picky. If you want to do it the way they do it in the bible, just make up for quality for quantity, and marry 700. That’s what Solomon did in 1 Kings 11.

We all want to do relationships biblically. But when you begin reading about relationships in the Bible, there is no one single, transcendent path that comes to the surface—they all didn’t do it the same way."

So that's what I've been doing wrong…=)  Read and learn.


So who do you think had it the easiest?  hardest?

Cute or Disturbing?

I'm not sure if this is the cutest or most disturbing baby costume I have seen in a while.

What do you think?

"Tips"

What's your favorite SuperBowl Ad for 2009?

Where Do You Sit?

I'm looking around around the room right now.
But when the lights go down…so does my consciousness.
Failure.


So tell me…

…where do you sit?

Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2009

I'll be honest.  I'm finding it hard to add more to what I wrote last year.

It's almost ridiculous that I try to describe on this blog how he lived his short life or how big his dreams and visions were for people everywhere, whether they believed in God or not.

So without further ado or delay, here is the defining moment of this great man in it's entirety:

Amen, Dr. King.  May your dreams live on in us.

AOW Retreat 2009

I just bounced back from my second retreat of the new year…and it's only the second weekend of the year.

Just nuts.

Some highlights:

• The whole sleeping-bag thing with 7 other guys in our director's office was full of jokes and interesting to say the least.  Ask me if you want details.
   
• Playing dodgeball in a random park in Monrovia.
  
  
• Doing monologue scenes with only 10 minutes prep time, and nearly pulled off my first crying scene.
  
  
• Renting out a yoga studio to try some body worship and dancing moves.  You might see some of that in future skits.
  
  
• Having spontaneous worship in a South Pasadena park…and performing our first gig at a coffeehouse across the street.
  
  
• Going on the mother of all donut runs to "Donut Man" in Glendora.  Everyone felt like a donut after eating one.
  

What are some fun things you did at your last retreat?

Looking Ahead To 2009

Currently A Grateful People By Watermark A Grateful People (Bless the Lord) see related

The amazing adventures never seem to end …

If 2007 was having more of what I love in my life, then 2008 was learning to take it all in and appreciate those blessings.  Once again, thank you all (whether you are in the pictures or not) for being my blessings and making 2008 the fastest and treasured year to remember in a while. =)

Bring it on, 2009.

Caption Please

Hope you had a fun, love-filled Christmas...

I know I did.

In Christ-mas Alone

I spent my first Christmas Eve alone with Jesus.


No tree this year.
No colorful decorations.
No big feast.
No family or friends around to celebrate (most were on vacation or with their families).


I went to work in the morning and came home in the late afternoon.
Ate leftovers Mom left me.
Did some chores around the house.
Stared at my friends' holiday cards lying on my bookshelf.
Glanced at the small set of gifts in the corner of my bedroom.

Up to last night, I was secretly hoping something would come up.
Maybe someone would be kind enough to invite me to their place to celebrate.
Maybe Mom & my sister's flight will be canceled and they can spend the holiday with me.

Maybe it would start snowing and I could sleigh down my hilly street. (Snow in LA....pray that God will do it, ok?)

But none of those happened.  Just me and Jesus for the night.

I cracked open my Bible to read my devotion (and it's admittedly been a while).  This caught my eye:

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." ~ John 15:9-11

Notice the first-person references Jesus makes with the word "love".  Notice how direct and personal He makes it for anyone reading.

In the midst of being on my own this holiday season, if I confessed my need for God, I would imagine He might respond with:

"Could it be that all these things were stripped away so you can be closer to me?  It's what it's all about. I love you so much that it's the only thing I want you to see this season: love.  It's this love I have for you that I crossed over to your life with my only son.  Don't try to cover this fact with anything or anyone else.  Let my love be your joy this year."

I brought out my guitar and worshiped.
I prayed.
I gave out free Facebook gifts w/ notes to people I haven't seen in a while.
I browsed through the many pictures I had with friends.
I was blessed with a great joy & peace I haven't felt in a while.

I don't know how you're celebrating Christmas.  You might be spending it alone or with someone(s) special,  at home or elsewhere, with many presents or none.  But I'm beginning to think that more than anything, God wants a closer relationship with us and His love through the Son is the greatest gift that can bring us the greatest joy.  And all those trees, families, and decorations can't nearly wrap a present that beautiful.

Merry Christmas, everyone. =)

Rose Bowl Half Marathon 2008

A nod of thanks to those who have been following and/or cheering me onwards in my training.  It feels more worthwhile when I find we're in this together.

I've come to learn that every race, even if it's the same course, has a story of it's own to tell.  The longer the distance, the more there is to share.  This one is no different and none more unique than other ones I've raced.

So about a week before race day, I developed some sore muscles in my left leg above my ankle.  I had to cut my last couple workouts to give it the rest it needed.  I ran my last few easy runs with little pain, but I wasn't sure how it would hold during showtime.

On that Saturday morning, it didn't really matter.  The minute the gun went off, I found myself surging forward with the crowd.  Some were well stretched, some needed more emptying-time in the bathroom, some were just determined to finish no matter how they felt.

It's always the first couple miles where you're letting out the creaks and tightness in your lower body before you find your rhythm.  That was a good thing because it was the three-mile stretch of Orange Grove Blvd that felt like a treadmill missing an off-switch.  Just road, road, and more road.  When we looped around to the Rose Bowl, I was relieved because the first half of the race was done in good time (~ 46:58).

The trails, hills, and gravity took its toll as we ran higher ground.  My left leg started acting up again.  I felt like I 'm going to pull something on my other leg and then it'll be all over.  But the green change of scenery and knowing that really, most of the race is done, pushed me forwards through the nagging pain.

The support came in good time.  Pasadena Pacers were manning the 10th mile fluid station, and I was greeted by several racers from last year's race!  Their smiles, cheers to press on, and applause became mine to take with me to the end.  And of course, there was AOW on the 12th mile to give that extra boost to the finish line.

Final time:

Going back to the 12th mile station w/ AOW.

On a separate note, it was good to be home for the holidays with the rest of the AOW family:

There's been thoughts in my head about running more races in the future.  Anyone interested?