Blog: Entries Tagged With 'friends'

We last visited the Bay Area in October for me to say goodbye to my coworkers and for us to see friends and family. We thoroughly enjoyed our time up there, but we thought it would be longer before we visited again. However, last week we found ourselves visiting again.

The main reason was to go to my uncle and aunt's place to retrieve our guitar and keyboard, which they had graciously let us store there during our move. Priscilla needed those to practice since we're starting to help out with worship at our church, with Good Friday being our first time serving in this way. We always had a feeling that we would reprise our roles playing piano (her) and drums (me) for worship after joining a new church.

So the previous Friday, after our morning gym session, we drove up the 101, stopping at our new halfway spot in Atascadero for a short break. We got to Mountain View in the afternoon and I joined up with Frank to go running. We ended up running 8 miles on the Stevens Creek Trail like old times.

We stayed up in the Bay for four days, which gave us plenty of time to see people and get stuff done. We stayed two nights with the Chans, having breakfast with them on Saturday, then two nights with the Leongs, having breakfast with them on Tuesday. We also caught up with the Yehs for a late-night hangout, did lunch with Albert and Ruth, dinners with both pairs of my uncles and aunts, and dinner with Tracy at Google. Plus talking to a lot of people at church for 3.5 hours until our voices were sore. Whew. Thankful for all the people we've gotten to know and their generosity in letting us crash at their houses (several families had previously offered).

We also had time to get the prongs on Priscilla's ring adjusted at Shane Co, and also hike Mission Peak on Monday. Hiking Mission Peak once a year has been our annual tradition, so we (I) thought it would be cool to do it again this year during our trip. Will we keep up this tradition going forward? I guess we'll see. Priscilla is as thrilled about it as I am about traveling in general.

We've also been busy helping parents, both remotely and in person. The cadence for now is to visit Priscilla's parents about once a month, and we saw them yesterday and fixed a lot of things around the condo.

Her dad's dementia is getting progressively worse, and during the last visit we helped them fill out and get notarized a Durable Power of Attorney and Advance Health Care Directive for each of them. We also bought her dad a medical ID bracelet which he lost within a day. We also ordered a bracelet with a tracker that's difficult to remove, so hopefully that will be better. There's the doorknob cover to prevent him from wandering that I mentioned in a previous post, and yesterday I installed a keyed lock for her mom's bedroom to help prevent her dad from going in there and taking things. He's also been breaking things around the condo because he can't figure out how they work. He seems to have clarity less than half the time, and usually when he talks, his communication is all over the place and nobody knows what he's trying to say. It's sad seeing him decline and not be able to do a lot of the things that he used to, but I have to remind myself that this happens to just about everyone as they age - whether it's our bodies or our minds breaking down. I myself have been having a lot more aches and pains in the last few months, so I'm getting to experience things through a new perspective.

Things are the most difficult for Priscilla's mom, of course. She feels like she's being driven crazy daily due to his actions and him frequently talking about seeing/hearing people in the condo. Priscilla and I have it easy, relatively speaking, though I'm sure that will slowly change as we start helping them more. We have to remember that we're here to love and support them, and this is what we signed up for when we decided to move back down.

I've been thinking a lot about purpose lately. It's now been four months since I left my job with Pure, and being free of a job has afforded me time to actually do things like think.

But kidding aside, in some senses I've been busier than ever. I've definitely had my hands full with fixing things around the house, doing things for parents, working out, researching health, relearning science concepts, and fellowshipping with people at church and in our small group.

I reckon that most of us won't find our "grand purpose" in lofty ideals like changing the world or becoming the top ranked in something. But, to loosely paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, we can all do a bit of good where we are, with what we have.

To say that life is more about finding purpose in the day-to-day rather than living out some "grand purpose" is helpful. But, for followers of Christ, I think that doesn't capture the whole picture. We are called to a higher purpose, and that is to glorify God and find joy in doing so. Our purpose should be the one that He has set for us. Nothing more, and nothing less.

So we continue to live each day - learning, laughing, and loving. Finding small doses of purpose in enjoying life and helping others do the same. All the while, allowing Christ to work in us and wanting the same for others. That, I submit, is our grand, glorious purpose.

It doesn't feel like it to me, but it's now been over six months since Priscilla and I moved back to SoCal, and over three months since I left my job with Pure. Where does the time go?

This has been an eventful time for sure. We've seen my parents on 11 occasions, her parents on 5, and Aaron and his family on 8. The most recent time was just last Sunday when we saw my family to celebrate our nephew's 5th birthday. Wow, he's 5 already?? Time really does fly.

Back in August, we signed up for lifetime memberships at our local gym. We go 1-2 times per week, depending on Priscilla's schedule. I'm usually lifting while she goes to the Pilates/yoga and Zumba classes, though I might be going to Pilates/yoga with her more often (I've already gone once) since my back has been acting up and I need to strengthen my core. Gary from our church usually joins me at the gym biweekly since he gets every other Friday off from work.

We've committed to the church in Thousand Oaks that I previously mentioned, and we submitted membership applications in November. We're still waiting to be approved, as applications are supposed to be reviewed at the next elder meeting, but this is just a formality and we're already somewhat involved in church life. We visited four fellowship groups and ultimately joined one that has people similar to us in life stage. There are usually 8-10 people in the group and we meet weekly, with one week per month set aside for an outing to a restaurant (we haven't always gone to those). We value the discussions and getting to know people in the group.

Despite not having a job right now, I feel as busy as ever. Since 2013, I've been using a spreadsheet to track my notable daily activities, but last October I started also using Google Sheets to track a breakdown of my activities in five categories: Mind, Body, Spirit, Others (i.e. other people), and House. I don't always do something in each category every day, but it's a good goal to have. When I feel like time has gone by without much to show for it, I can look back at the sheet and remember that I did do meaningful things, even though each of them might've been fairly small. I've learned that life is less defined by grand acts and more by small but cumulative actions. I gave the sheet the title "The Next Right Thing," the name of a song from Frozen 2 - not a very memorable movie, but the song has a powerful message about just putting one foot in front of the other, especially when things are hard.

We've spent a good amount of time with family and friends (both new and old). We've met most of our immediate neighbors, though our relationships haven't developed past the quick hello on the street yet. We've gotten half of the house set up the way we want; the gym and master bedroom still need to be done. I've been brushing up on various topics like chemistry and biology, and every time I learn something, I put it on the sheet and highlight it for easy reference. Fitness has been okay, but there's still a lot of room for improvement and I still have my near-term goals that I want to hit. I haven't quite found my "grand purpose" and perhaps I never will, but I've been getting little doses of purpose in daily life. Maybe that's enough.

We also had a memorable time in November when evacuating due to the Mountain Fire (as I talked about in a previous post), and this month there have been a lot of wind-driven fires in SoCal, most notably the hugely destructive Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire in LA. Challenging times ahead.

Speaking of challenging times, Priscilla's dad's dementia has been slowly getting worse. He seems somewhat okay during the day, but past the evening his clarity diminishes and he gets more confused - this apparently is known as sundowning. Priscilla's mom asked us to buy a door knob cover so that he can't leave the condo late at night; he had already wandered out twice. Two weeks ago, we stayed three nights at their place to help them with various things, and it was somewhat challenging. We're going to stay with them one night next week in order to help them with more things, including driving them to a doctor's appointment 45 minutes from their place. A sign of things to come, but this is what we knew we'd have to deal with when we decided to move down.

Overall, we're glad that we moved down and still glad that we settled down in Camarillo, even though it's an hour drive, give or take, to get to parents. It's nice to have a little bit of separation, and we like our house, neighborhood, and city. Retaining a bit of comfort will be critical when we find ourselves helping parents more. But we'll deal with that as it comes, one day at a time. Doing the next right thing.

We're not even a full week into November and already this month has turned out to be one for the books.

Last Friday, Priscilla and I visited my parents and then her parents. We stayed two nights at her parents' place so that we could drive them to the memorial service at CCAC for Priscilla's uncle William, since her dad can't drive anymore and her mom isn't comfortable driving far. It was a nice time seeing parents and the memorial was really touching. We didn't know Uncle William well, but we learned about his great faith and his love for others and desire to see them come to Christ. He had a quiet spirit but such a profound faith in the Lord. His words of "Be a Christian on the inside," as recounted by his granddaughter, were such an encouragement to us all.

On Sunday, we drove over to Hollywood and stayed at the Lexen Hotel. We joined Gina, Weber, their parents, and Gina's friend Sally at the Hollywood Bowl for the concert for David Foster's 75th birthday. A lot of the songs were too old for us to recognize, but it was cool to hear and learn that he had produced songs like Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You," Celine Dion's "All By Myself," and Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up."

Fast forward to this morning when news broke that Donald Trump had won the presidential election in a landslide. I consider myself a moderate, and my views on various issues generally fall closer to the middle than towards either end of the political spectrum. That said, in terms of character and moral fiber, I think Harris would've been the better person by far to represent this country, and had I lived in a swing state, I probably would've voted for her out of fear for what Trump's presidency means for the country and for the world. I really hope that Trump will serve with integrity, humility, and fairness, and that he will submit to the perfect Judge who gave us the ultimate example of love.

With a Republican majority in the Supreme Court, Senate, and possibly the House, I'm concerned about issues like the environment. But regardless of who's in power, I think massive repercussions of climate change will be inevitable. Society is just not willing to make the drastic lifestyle changes needed to avert a crisis, and by many accounts it's already too late. As followers of Christ, we know that this world is temporary and will eventually pass away. The book of Revelation talks about hail and fire and a third of the earth being burned up - metaphors for climate disasters and nuclear warfare, perhaps? It saddens me how many people, some Christians included, don't seem to act like stewards when it comes to taking care of this world. Nonetheless, our ultimate hope must be in Christ, knowing that only what is done for Him will ultimately last.

And on that note, I'll finally mention that there's currently a wildfire blazing in parts of Ventura County including Camarillo Heights. We lost power this morning when the power company shut off power to tens of thousands of residents as a precautionary measure. The Mountain Fire, as it's now called, quickly grew to over 10,000 acres due to the strong winds that are expected to last until tomorrow afternoon. We had to leave around noon when the evacuation area expanded to our neighborhood. On the fire map, the fire boundary appears to be 2,000 feet from our house. Supposedly, many homes to the north have already burned, but that area seems a little more remote with more vegetation. Some of our neighbors stayed behind and one of them just texted a photo showing the sky lit up in orange behind the hill that's close to us. Power was restored around 3:30pm, which is encouraging. I have confidence in our fire crews and I know they're working tirelessly to contain the fire. We know that the Lord can (and does) give and take away, and that He is sovereign over all things. It's hard to not be anxious, though. And I don't think that anxiety will just go away. We just need to trust, and pray. In all things.

This past Friday was my last day with Pure. Since moving to SoCal, I've been fortunate to have been working remotely for 3 months. But alas, the company denied my manager's request for me to be permanently remote, as the executives have been pushing to have everybody back in the office and are apparently not granting any new requests for permanent remote positions. We knew that this would be the most likely outcome when I decided to move.

I could've stayed and made them fire me, but I didn't want to make life difficult for my manager, and I gathered that they probably would have fired me with cause due to non-compliance, so I left voluntarily. This means that I don't get severance or unemployment, but I do get 90 days to exercise my stock options. A dismissal with cause would've meant losing my options (as well as no severance or unemployment).

So for my final two days, I visited the office in order to see my coworkers one more time. Priscilla and I drove up Wednesday, this time taking the 101 because it's now the most direct route for us, and the drive wasn't too bad save for a couple places where there was construction.

I had lunch with some team members on both Thursday and Friday, and my manager arranged a farewell get-together with our combined team Thursday evening. Some team members even came into the office when they would normally be working from home, just so that they could say goodbye. It was great to hang out with people one last time, and people were really kind and encouraging. Our team has been the best part of working at Pure and we've always supported one another. I'm going to miss everyone but I hope to visit again.

When people would ask me how I'm feeling, I would say that I'm wistful but optimistic. I've been with the company over 11.5 years and have been part of its culture and growth. There's so much that I didn't get to do that I wish I'd had the time for, and there's so much more that I did get to do that I will treasure forever. I enjoyed the ski trips, holiday parties, board games with my team, foraging for leftover lunches with fellow-minded teammates, the fun antics, mentoring 8 people, and being part of the amazing work that my team has done to make the rest of engineering more productive.

At the same time, I've been feeling somewhat burned out for the past several years, feeling like the work that I do often doesn't really matter. I'm planning to take at least a few months off before thinking about finding another job. It will be nice to finally be able to sleep more, train more, and have time for all the things that I've been wanting to do. Work would often leave me drained by the end of the day, lacking the energy to do things requiring much effort. I have a lot of things that I want to do now that I have an extra 30 to 40 hours a week.

We're fortunate to have reached our goal for financial independence, largely thanks to my job at Pure, and we're incredibly grateful for that. I'm hoping that I will be intentional with how I use my time and that it will be not just for bettering myself but also serving others. I don't know for sure that I will actually want to find another job, but if I do, it will be because I want to rather than because I have to. If I do find another job, I'm hoping that it will be at some sort of Christian/humanitarian non-profit, ideally still doing software development, where I feel like I'm making more of an impact in people's lives. Regardless of what I end up doing, I hope that it will be purpose-driven. If it's not working at a job, then that time should be spent doing something even more purposeful.

While I was working on Friday, Priscilla hung out with old church friends. Saturday, she had lunch with old coworkers and then we brought dinner to my uncle and aunt. And yesterday we visited our old church, caught up with people there, had pho for lunch with Randy and Eva, and then brought dinner to my other uncle and aunt and picked up some stuff that we'd left at their place.

It also seems like we're entering the season of helping parents more. Priscilla's uncle passed away last week and the funeral will be at CCAC later this month. Priscilla's dad can't drive and her mom isn't comfortable driving that far, so we're going to be staying with them for two days so that we can all go to the funeral together. Eventually they will need more help more frequently. So part of living purposefully will mean being more involved in parents' lives, particularly through the hardest times.

We'll have a lot to figure out. But for the first time in a long while, it feels more manageable now.

Well, it finally happened. This afternoon, Priscilla and I moved out of our house and out of the Bay Area. I'd been living in this area for 16 years, and she'd been here for 12 after we got married.

This past week has been crazy with loading the pod, tidying up the house, and packing up our cars to conclude our move. Packing and loading was a huge ordeal, and suffice it to say that I should've had us hire movers at least to load the pod. We had such a stressful time doing everything ourselves, and Priscilla made me agree to let us hire movers when it comes time to unload the pod when we have a new house.

Saying goodbye is hard. During the past weeks, when people asked how we were feeling, I'd respond by saying that we were feeling mixed emotions and it's a bittersweet time. Today, however, there was no sweetness, only deep sorrow. Sorrow over leaving this house that we've been in for 10 of the last 12 years of our marriage, leaving our wonderful neighbors and neighborhood, leaving our church and the so many people we've gotten to know there, and leaving the Bay Area which we've come to love. I'm a pretty emotionally stoic person, and I think the last time I cried was when I moved up to the Bay Area and my dad had just left after staying with me for a week to help me get situated up here. But today I was sobbing involuntarily when getting the final things ready for us to leave the house for good. Priscilla, the less stoic one, was in tears as well. There's something about a sense of loss that really cuts to the soul.

Indeed, there's so much we're giving up as we begin this new chapter of our lives. The last chapter can be defined by growth and accumulation. It was our first years of working after college, building adult relationships for the first time, cultivating relationships in the church, and building a life together after marriage. Now we are starting over, venturing into the unknown both in terms of life events as well as community. The main reason we're moving down is to be closer to family, and our parents are getting to the point where they're going to need more help with things, and their health will only just eventually get worse. We've been fortunate to not have really had to deal with significant trials in this past stage of life, but the next stage will undoubtedly be marked by them.

But as Priscilla's coworker said to her, it is a privilege to be able to spend time with parents, whether they are healthy or otherwise. God has gotten us this far in life, He's given us strength and many mercies during this move, and He will guide us in the future from now until the rest of our lives. Our hope is that we honor Him in all that we do, in where we ultimately settle down, and in the relationships placed in our lives.

We closed escrow on our house last Monday! It felt so good to finally be done, and closing and having the money wired to our checking account (the most cash we've ever had and probably will ever have) felt like turning the page towards the end of this chapter of our lives.

It's hard to believe that we only started the home selling process with Susanna two months ago. It certainly has been a journey, and it's gone by very quickly. The buyers gave us a month of free rent back, but we're planning to have everything packed up over the next week and drive down to SoCal on July 3. We ordered a container from PackRat that's supposed to be delivered tomorrow, and half of our stuff has been packed up in the garage ever since we did the house showings.

We've been constantly looking at Redfin listings for houses in Camarillo. There were two houses that we were considering: a single-story house in Camarillo Heights that's far from everything, and a two-story house in Mission Oaks that's close to a Vons and 10 minutes closer to parents. But talking with some church friends about their and their parents' experiences with two-story houses convinced us that a second story can be a major obstacle later in life. Having just one bedroom (or in some cases no bedrooms) downstairs just won't do for what might be our forever home, especially if we ever have parents come live with us. Unfortunately, that rules out most houses in Mission Oaks.

We're quickly passing through a season of "lasts." Today was Priscilla's last day going to the office; Thursday will be mine. Sunday will be our last time at this church. Over the past few weeks, we've had over a dozen get-togethers with various people/families from church, including a dinner with many people who've been in Family Fellowship with us. We/I have had just about as many get-togethers with other friends (old friends who used to come to our church, old coworkers, current coworkers, and more). There is just not enough time to say goodbye. In a way, this is showing us that while we haven't felt close to many people, there are actually a lot of people whom we care about and vice versa.

We'll have a lot to think about when we move down. Like whether we really want to live in Camarillo, which house to get, where to go to church, how to serve our families and others. Aaron had a serious health scare a couple weeks ago and was in the ER/ICU due to meningitis. I guess he ate some old food, and having a compromised immune system plus additional risk factors due to lifestyle caused him to get a brain infection. He ended up being in a coma and was intubated, and tests revealed that he also had a small clot in his brain. Apparently he'd also had a mini stroke. When he woke up, his speech was a little slow and he would sometimes exhibit minor confusion and occasionally forget that he'd had some conversations. There was also indication that he might need dialysis.

Fortunately, he seems to have made nearly a full recovery (and continuing to get better by the day) and didn't need dialysis. He'd started trying to take better care of his health before the hospitalization, and we hope that he continues doing so. Maybe I can use his guest pass at 24 Hour Fitness to go work out with him, and hopefully we can have a deeper relationship in adulthood than we had as kids. Even though it would be a 30 minute drive, maybe we'll want to go to Priscilla's old church in Woodland Hills, partly because it's familiar and we know some people and partly because Aaron and his family go there.

We'll have a lot to think about and work through. But we'll have a whole new chapter of life to figure it out.

This past Sunday, I got to do the Monterey Spartan Sprint at Toro Park with 4 other guys from RBF: Joe, Wilson, Kelvin, and Frank. It was the first time doing a Spartan Race for all of them. I really enjoyed the camaraderie of doing the race with a group. During the race, we repeated the infrequently used joke that RBF stands for "Really Buff Friends" - somewhat fitting given that we've been training together (well, sporadically at least in my case).

A few of the ladies from our church did this race last year (go them!), so this year was the guys' turn. I haven't been training as much this year, definitely not as much as I was two years ago when I did a Spartan Trifecta with Dan, and I had gotten injured at the gym earlier in the week due to overstressing the joints. So I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to do some of the obstacles, but I ended up having no pain on race day and was able to complete all the obstacles successfully except for the spear throw. During practice in the morning, I stuck the spear 3 out of 5 times, but I just couldn't get it during the race.

Overall, the race seemed less difficult compared to what I've done before. The men's sandbags were definitely 60 lbs since that's what it said on the bags, but the gravel buckets for the Bucket Carry felt around that weight or slightly lighter, which is odd because I thought they were supposed to be 80 lbs. And my bag for the Hercules Hoist felt noticeable lighter than I remember it being before. Or maybe they had heavier weights for the Super (10k) but reduced them for the next day's Sprint (5k)? Some of these impressions are probably subjective, but what was definitely true was that all of the major obstacles had penalty loops (where you run a short distance) instead of burpees for failing obstacles. Kind of takes some of the challenge and the uniqueness away, IMO. But I can appreciate that Spartan wants to make the race more appealing to more people, and the Sprint in particular tends to be the first Spartan experience that first-timers have.

Everyone in our group failed at least one obstacle, but we all did great overall. And the training paid off - for instance, thanks to our practice with the rope that Joe bought, everyone was a pro on the Rope Climb!

After the race, we hit up The Butter House in Seaside for brunch. Everyone else headed back home afterwards in order to be able to make it to Sunday Evening Fellowship, but Priscilla and I drove over to Monterey so that we could walk around the area one more time before our upcoming move. We walked almost 7 miles between Old Fisherman's Wharf, Cannery Row, and Lovers Point. The weather was perfect and we got to see sea lions, harbor seals, otters, and got to relax and enjoy views of the ocean.

The weekend was nice - spending time with people, conquering the race together, and seeing some sights like in years past. What a great way to spend one of our last few weekends before we move.

The last week has been a flurry of activity for the home selling process. We had open houses on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday a week ago. We stayed at the nearby Granada Inn from Friday to Wednesday in order to leave the house vacant for the open houses as well as the private tours with people coming by with their agents. On Friday, we had a private tour that was scheduled at the last minute and we were running around trying to get stuff straightened out and were out the door one minute before the tour's start time. We saw what looked like an agent waiting in his car; he was probably shaking his head at these people who obviously didn't have it together.

On both Saturday and Sunday, we had 30-35 people come by the house. Our agent Susanna said that a few people from Saturday came back Sunday to take a second look, so that was a good sign. Based on conversations with buyer's agents, she had expected 5-6 offers. We had priced low ("only" 1.569 million) in order to attract more bids, and in the end we had 4 offers, though she didn't bother mentioning one of them since it was too low - "just" 1.65 million, even though it was a cash offer. We also had an early offer of 1.68 on Thursday, but we turned it down because we thought we could get more by seeing the process through.

So this past Wednesday, when offers were due, we had basically 3 offers to choose from: Offer 1 at 1.68 million, Offer 2 at 1.71, and Offer 3 at 1.83. The third offer was by far the best, but they had opted for 3 days to transfer the deposit to escrow, which Susanna said was too long and needed to be changed to 1 day. I thought the 3 days indicated that the buyers might have another bid on another property and were considering backing out of ours. Offer 1 was from a couple who work at Google who stopped by Thursday morning before the open house and chatted briefly with me when I was outside sweeping. They've been renting in the area for 10 years and they're familiar with our neighborhood. I told Susanna that I'd be fine with giving it to them for 1.75 since Offer 3 didn't seem like a sure thing, but she told me to wait.

Susanna got Offer 1 to increase their bid to 1.828, and similarly she got Offer 2 increased to 1.825. She also got Offer 3 to change their terms to specify just 1 day to transfer the deposit. So now we had three comparable offers and were leaning towards giving it to the Google couple since we liked them. However, Susanna then sent us another update saying that Offer 3 had been increased to 1.85! Offer 3 was also giving us a month of rent back for free. So this was the best offer overall, especially since they had offered such a high amount to begin with, so we accepted that one. As much as we liked the Google couple, we were also concerned that the amount they would be paying for the down payment was nearly all of the amount in their proof of funds. It felt like they were getting emotionally tied up and probably bidding more than would be good for them long-term. Though it benefited us, I felt bad that Susanna got the buyers into a bidding war. I guess she was just doing her job and this is just how the market is, though. There's a reason why houses are going for this much in our area. And our area is still cheaper than Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Cupertino, etc.

At the end of the day on Thursday, after an agonizing wait, Susanna informed us that the buyers had taken a cashier's check to escrow and that we were now under contract. Whew! We're really blessed to have gotten such a high offer, and we're blessed that the process has been so smooth and that we have a shrewd agent who knows the market and knew what improvements to make to have our house appeal to today's buyers. We'd had doubts about whether anybody would want our house and whether it would even go for 1.6 or 1.7 million, so this has totally exceeded our expectations.

We're supposed to close escrow within 21 days, so we'll probably move around the end of June. We want to move down sooner so that we can start touring houses in SoCal. The hardest part is over and we're in the waiting period, but we've been trying to do small things like pull weeds so that the buyers don't think this place is terrible and get buyer's remorse when they move in.

We've also been spending more time with old friends from church. So far we've done dinner with Ryan and Steph (they bought us El Pollo Loco), dinner with Uncle Kenway and Aunt Susan and their family, dinner at Google with Tracy, dinner with Ruth and Albert with Richard and Michelle joining, dinner with Jerry and Vivian (she's an amazing cook), and brunch today with Tim and Irene. Coming up, we have dinner plans with James and Charlotte, a going away party with people from previous Family Fellowship groups organized by Emily, a going away get-together with the people on our worship team, a Korean BBQ meal with Jeff and Eleanor since we won their service auction, and a meal with Jean and Brion that we'll have to coordinate when they get back from traveling. Plus probably a final hangout with Tracy and my uncles and aunts, respectively. It's too bad that we're only spending time with people now that we're leaving. When we're in a new place, we need to be more intentional about meeting with others and cultivating relationships.

For now, we're enjoying a little bit of respite and a slower (but more intentional) pace of life. Priscilla and I did our annual hike at Mission Peak yesterday, followed by dinner at an old favorite, Layang Layang in Milpitas. I ran at Rancho with Yang last Saturday, and I trained at the park today and last Saturday with Joe and Wilson; we have our Monterey Spartan 5k coming up next weekend. We're learning to make the most of our time as our time in the Bay Area is rapidly coming to an end.

After signing the listing contract to begin the process to sell our house, the work to do hasn't let up. Our agent Susanna has handled coordinating with the various contractors to fix up our place, but there has still been plenty for me and Priscilla to do.

The house has received a lot of updates including a new thermostat, a new toilet and refinished bathtub, ceiling fans replaced with LED light fixtures except in the family room where we got a modern fan (with its own LED fixture that's not very bright), two recessed lights in the living room and two in the hallway, all doors painted white, redwood mulch everywhere in the backyard, and flowers on drip irrigation in the front and back yards. I was not in favor of removing ceiling fans and painting doors white; we used our fans when the weather was hot and barely used the A/C, and I felt that the wood doors had more character and appeal than plain white doors. But Susanna felt that the changes would make the place look more modern and appeal more to younger buyers, so I deferred to her experience. When we buy our new house, I'm going to consider putting in ceiling fans if they aren't there already. ;)

Two Thursdays ago, we were extremely busy with fixing small things, packing for our trip to SoCal, and moving everything to the center of rooms so that the painters would be able to paint the baseboards. We didn't finish everything that night, and we were scrambling to get everything done the next morning while the guy doing the refinishing and the painters were in the house starting their work and covering everything. It was pretty hectic and though we packed a lot of stuff in the car, mostly the day before, we weren't able to load it as fully as we would've liked.

So Friday, we drove down to my parents' place and unloaded a few boxes into my old room, to be kept there until we have a new house to move into. We had a quick dinner with my parents before driving down to Camarillo to stay the night there. On the way, we hit up the gas station at the Oxnard Costco. Should we move to Camarillo as hoped, we'll be visiting this Costco a lot, at least until Camarillo opens its own Costco in several months.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express and it was a little noisy because of its location next to the 101. Apparently, almost all of the hotels in the city are located next to the freeway. The next day, we viewed 3 open houses, walked around a couple parks, and had beef pho at Love Pho N' Mor where they had pretty big portion sizes. The houses we saw were a bit small and needed work. $800k is probably too low to get something that we'll be happy with; I'm thinking we'll end up spending $1 to $1.2 million. We're thinking we want to buy a place either in Camarillo Heights or Mission Oaks. The former would have older but more one-story houses, while the latter would have nicer but probably more two-story houses. Our preference is for a one-story house since stairs might be hard to use in old age, and the home we buy could be our forever home. We also value being able to walk to places, and Camarillo Heights would be closer to lots of stores, whereas Mission Oaks just has a Vons, CVS and Chase. But Mission Oaks offers nicer homes and nicer neighborhoods. Decisions...

We returned to my parents' place that night to have dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday. Aaron and Lauren and the kids joined us, but Lauren's parents had cooked a lot of food for us (I think my mom had requested that they bring a dish but they made a few) and were too tired to make it as a result. It was a low-key but good time with family, as usual.

The next day, we went to church at CCAC and ate with Gina, Weber and Cindy at California Fish Grill. Gina wanted to pay for Priscilla (since it was our anniversary) and she made Weber pay for me - it felt a little awkward accepting since he was compelled to do it, but he was a good sport about it and what's $15 between friends?

We drove back up on Monday and there's been a ton of stuff to do since then. This week is our neighborhood's turn to participate in the Santa Clara annual city cleanup, so we've put a lot of stuff out on the street, including our old sofa that is sagging in the place where Priscilla sits. Whatever we're not throwing out, we need to pack up and put in the garage since we have a cleaner coming in a few days, followed next week by inspections, staging, and hopefully listing. Most of our furniture will be used for staging, so the only large things that need to go into the garage are the bookcase, my desk, and the old area rug. I'm concerned that we'll have a lot of boxes and that will make our garage look unsightly, but we'll see.

I've been taking these last two days off from work in order to be able to focus on the things we need to do for the house. And I still need to finish installing door knobs for half of the doors. Okay, that's enough blogging, time to get back to work!

Call it... February frenzy and March madness?

Over the past couple months, it feels like I've done a lot and also not done a lot at the same time. Where does the time go?

After my large project wrapped up in November, my workload at work has been manageable. The first week of February, our business unit started requiring employees to come into the office four days a week. I'm typically a lot less productive in the office - there are so many distractions in the form of meetings, people asking for help, having to walk around to use the bathroom or get food, and overall just not having long blocks of focused time. Last week, I was so behind on interrupts that I decided to just take a WFH day so that I could focus, and I was able to close/dispatch 50 tickets in our triage queue. Granted, I ended up working some extra hours that day, but there's no way that I could achieve that level of focus in the office. Leadership really needs to understand that everybody works differently and that people, and thus the company, benefit from flexibility.

Since I have to be in the office, I make time to go running with Frank almost every week. We ran together sporadically before the pandemic, but starting at the beginning of 2023, we've been running together after work one or sometimes even two times a week, with each run averaging around 5 miles. It's a good way to stay accountable, though he already runs most days each week, unlike me.

Two Saturdays ago, I participated in the annual RealOptions Walk for Life 5k race. Our church participates every year, though most people do the walk instead of run. Thanks to the generosity of our church, our team raised over $19,500 to support the work of RealOptions. This was my fourth year doing the 5k and I ended up getting 1st place out of 65 runners this year, though my time of 21:34 was slightly worse than my time of 21:31 from last year. It just depends on who shows up - when I first participated in 2018, there were 8 people with a time under 20 minutes! I had been hoping to get a time under 21 minutes, and my personal goal is to be able to run a sub-20 minute 5k, so I have a long way to go.

The day after, Priscilla and I sang in the combined choir during the combined service at church. We had 6 people total from the English congregation joining the regular choir members from the Chinese congregation. I think this was a record turnout from the English side! We sang an arrangement of "Then Sings My Soul" by Mary McDonald, which is a little different from the traditional hymn. It was actually kind of fun, and it was awesome hearing how the four vocal parts came together in a beautiful composition. I was actually the one who suggested joining, as Priscilla was thinking that I wouldn't want to do it. I guess I'd be okay with doing something like this again - but not on a regular basis, Priscilla!

On the home improvement side, I've been working on replacing the old blinds in the spa room and gym room. I ordered some basic blinds (still not cheap at $230) from blinds.com and I've had to find bits of time on random evenings to get the brackets installed. One of the windows is not totally square and so one of the brackets isn't flush with the other one. Since the design of these blinds makes it so that they just sit inside the brackets without being tightened down, the entire assembly wobbles when pulling on the lift cord. I'm trying to see if I can get something to act as a shim to sit inside the bracket so that the headrail doesn't have as much room to move vertically.

We're leaving for Japan tomorrow and need to spend today packing and getting things ready. After we get back, we'll try to find a real estate agent to get information on selling our house. We're thinking of listing with Redfin due to the lower commissions. There are still a lot of things we need to fix including reglazing the showers, replacing a toilet, painting (definitely exterior and maybe interior as well), cleaning grout, cleaning patios and walkways, landscaping, finishing the drip irrigation, and more. So we might not even list our house until May or June. We just have to take it one day at a time.

As in previous years, Priscilla and I went down to LA for Thanksgiving. We drove down Thanksgiving Day, leaving around 7:15 am and traffic wasn't too bad. We got to her parents' place and had a late lunch, then brought them to my parents' place where Aaron and his family were already there. Lauren's parents were also there, as they moved from China and have been living with Aaron and Lauren in their in-law unit.

Lauren's parents don't speak English, so I had trouble communicating with them. Her dad has his learner's permit and Aaron has been teaching him to drive. I guess he had a license in China, but driving here is a little different. Our niece has gotten better with math - she was playing with a cash register toy and likes counting money. Maybe she'll be an accountant one day.

My parents made a turkey and Aaron and Lauren made another. Priscilla's parents, per their own tradition, supplied a chicken and a duck from Sam Woo. So we had no shortage of meat. No dessert though, since people are now having blood sugar issues.

During our time in LA, we stayed two nights at Priscilla's parents' place and two nights at my parents' place. I helped her mom and my dad, respectively, with computer stuff. And we went to church at CCAC and ate at the Galleria food court afterwards with Gina, Weber and Crescentia. After that, Priscilla and I walked around Northridge Park and I got to remember some childhood memories from when my mom used to bring me and my brother there.

We drove back up Monday morning and only hit a few brief slowdowns on the road. Of course, my mom made a ton of food for us to take with us, and she also bought me sodium-free peanuts from Trader Joe's since she knows I like those. She is too loving, on everyone. So much so that she was feeling slightly under the weather because she's always serving others instead of sleeping enough. I can't really criticize, because while I too don't sleep enough, I have a long way to go in the area of service to others.

It was a very typical trip in pretty much every way, but it was still meaningful. Even though we don't really do anything exciting, the time we spend with family and friends is precious.

It'd been a while since someone in our group of high school friends got married (the last person was me!), but this past Sunday we got to see David and his fiancée Steph tie the knot in Silver Spring, Maryland.

As this area is close to Washington DC, this was a good excuse for me and Priscilla to travel and do some sightseeing. The last time I visited DC was on a family road trip, perhaps when I was in middle school.

Most of my friends got there on Thursday or Friday, but I didn't want to take too much time off work, so Priscilla and I flew out Friday night on a red eye. We flew American Airlines (because we have points) from SFO to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), with a layover at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). At DFW, we visited the Capital One Lounge, which is quite the premium lounge, though we only had around 15 minutes to eat before we had to get to our connecting flight. We arrived at DCA on Saturday around 11am. We managed to get a little bit of sleep on the two respective fights, but it wasn't quality sleep. Doing a red eye with a layover is tough.

DCA conveniently has a metro station right there, so we took the metro and then walked a mile to get to the Capitol Hill area. Steph works at the Library of Congress and was supposed to be gathering people there for a tour at 1pm. Priscilla and I got there at that time, but we were the first ones there and had to wait a bit for everyone else.

I enjoyed seeing the library and learning about some of its history, though my favorite part was looking at the architecture and reading the different quotes around the Great Hall while Priscilla and I were waiting for people to arrive. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see anything behind the scenes on our tour. We didn't have time to visit the reading room, either.

Afterwards, our small group walked to the US Capitol through the tunnel from the library. We got into one of the last tours of the day, but the tour felt a little short, maybe because the building was closing.

After that, we took the metro up to Jongro Korean BBQ in Wheaton-Glenmont, a few miles from our hotel in North Bethesda. David had invited us all to dinner there, so I thought it was just going to be our small group of friends, but it turned out he had invited 40 or so people. We had 6 people at our table and so the food on the grill had to be split up many ways, but at the end we were all decently full.

On Sunday, we made our way over to Brookside Gardens in Silver Spring where the wedding took place. David had booked a premium shuttle to ferry guests over, but only a few people actually took advantage of it. Brookside is a public garden that also has a small outdoor venue for events. The wedding was quite streamlined with no bridal party, no hymns, no candle lighting, and a fairly short sermon. It felt pretty low-key and totally reflected the bride and groom's personalities. There were around 100 guests.

It was getting warm and DC is very humid, and there was no shade at the venue, so perhaps it was a blessing that the wedding was over so quickly. We all then made our way over to the reception at Fogo de Chao, located very near to our hotel, and there we ate way too much meat for the second day in a row. David had half-jokingly told me to come to the wedding/reception wearing pants with an elastic waistband.

Not ones to let the fun die early, David and Steph had invited everyone to their place for the afterparty, stretching from afternoon till night. But Anton, Richard, Raymond and I decided to first head down to DC and rent bikes to bike around the National Mall. It was pretty cool seeing the different memorials and being able to get to them quickly. Afterwards, we headed back to Silver Spring and rejoined the rest of our friends (and Priscilla) and a few others at David and Steph's place. Priscilla and I stayed a couple hours but then booked an Uber back to our hotel, as it had been a long day and we were still jet lagged from the previous day's travels.

For breakfast the following morning, we met up with our friends one last time at the Original Pancake House. David and Steph were there too, her sitting with her friends. Afterwards, we all went our separate ways, one person flying out shortly after and another having flown out the day before. It was nice hanging out with our friends for 2.5 days straight, but it was also nice finally having some time for me and Priscilla to explore on our own!

We took the metro down to DC again and dropped our stuff off at our hotel there. Then we visited the Museum of the Bible, which some church friends had highly recommended. The museum has an impressive collection of old Bibles and other manuscripts, interesting displays making good use of multimedia, and an amazing walk-through experience on the Old Testament story. It was really well done. The place was also not crowded, likely due in part by there being an admission fee.

After that, we had about 45 minutes to tour the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum before closing time. We kind of rushed through it but felt like we got the gist. The place was super crowded, a little surprising since it was Monday, so it was hard to get a good look at things. I guess that's what happens when a museum has free entry.

After a late lunch/early dinner and some resting at the hotel (mainly waiting for the weather to cool down a little), we ventured out again to walk around the National Mall. Our hotel was about a mile from the east side of the mall. We walked around the Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, the Tidal Basin, George Mason Memorial, and finally the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. It got dark by the time we left the Lincoln Memorial, but it was nice exploring the Mall in a different light and getting to spend more time at each place than I was able to while biking. The place that made the most impact on me was the wall at the Korean War Veterans Memorial that's engraved with the reminder that "Freedom is not free." Words to live by.

On Tuesday, it was time to pack up and head back to the airport. On the way, we stopped in Crystal City and had brunch with my coworker Spencer who moved to DC several months ago. It was great catching up, and Priscilla enjoyed discussing travel tips with him, as he is an avid traveler.

For the return trip, we had a layover at DFW again but the final destination was SJC instead of SFO. Unlike the last time, this time around we had ample time to rest at the Capital One Lounge and enjoy all the food without rushing to our connecting flight. We finally got to SJC around 8pm and had a small dinner at The Club before they started closing up. A pretty tiring day to end a pretty packed four days of travel and activities. I needed an extra day off work just to shake off the exhaustion. But I'm glad that we went to be part of David and Steph's special day, spent so much time with friends, and saw some of the many things our nation's capital has to offer.

I haven't been great about keeping up with previous coworkers, but last Friday I was able to catch up with Maciek in person for the first time since he left the company three years ago. Seems like he's doing well and staying busy. He's still jumping out of planes, but now he also flies them, as he got his private pilot's license this year. So when we arranged a hangout, we decided to make it more fun and flew up to Sonoma for half a day!

We picked Sonoma because neither of us had been there and because it was a relatively short flight (around an hour including safety checks and taxiing). We flew in an American Champion Citabria out of Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose.

We landed at Sonoma Valley Airport and were the only plane there the whole time. This small airport is owned and operated by Vintage Aircraft Company and they let the public land there for free. The airport is untowered (has no control tower), so the protocol was that we announced our landing on a designated frequency to inform any nearby planes. But during our time there, we were the only visitors. Maciek said that it was because everybody else was at Oshkosh, an annual airshow and the world's largest.

We did a 20-minute biplane ride with Vintage Aircraft. They have several different planes including a WW2-era Boeing PT-17 Stearman that we rode in, which was faster than our Citabria. You have to book in advance, which allows them to get the plane ready. This plane has an open cockpit with a modified front seat fitting two people (though it's very cozy) with the pilot in the seat behind. Since you're in the open, it's pretty windy and a radio is not feasible. Flying without a radio is apparently still allowed in Sonoma.

The biplane ride took us around the scenic Sonoma countryside. Everything looked green and fairly flat. Since it was pretty windy, I started getting queasy due to all the turbulent air going into my nose, and the queasiness stayed with me pretty much the rest of the day. The ride was $418 after a 10% cash discount. It was fun enough, but I don't know if it was worth the money, especially since we had our own plane.

Next, we headed over to Sonoma Skypark, a short 5 minute flight away. We pretty much took off from Sonoma Valley Airport, made a left turn, and landed at the Skypark. There's a guy, Eric, who lives in a unit there and has a hangar with antique planes, and Maciek had made arrangements for us to take an informal tour. It was cool learning more about small planes, though most of it was over my head.

The Skypark has a truck that pilots can borrow, but that day was one of the few days that the truck was in use. But Eric was kind enough to give us a ride into town. We walked around downtown and looked at the pricey menus of the restaurants there before finally deciding on the less pricey food at Mary's Pizza Shack, where we had a late lunch. We hung out in the area for a couple hours until it was early evening, then took a Lyft back to the Skypark.

We flew out west over the Bay, around Golden Gate Bridge, and over SF before heading down the peninsula. It was awesome seeing the city landscape from the air. Everything looks closer together when you're looking down from a higher vantage point.



As we neared San Jose International Airport, we were directed to fly pretty much right over the airport. Maciek explained that the airspace directly above an airport is safest because any planes taking off or landing are passing below, not through that space. We finally got back to Reid-Hillview a little past sundown.

I'm really glad that we got to hang out and I was able to scratch my aviation itch. I'd previously thought about getting a private pilot's license, but the trip helped me realize that it's not quite for me. I had a romanticized view of how flying would be, like it would just be you and the open sky. In actuality, the cockpit seems like a noisy place - on top of the constant roar of the engine, you're constantly talking to air traffic control or listening for what others are doing. Even while just flying, you're communicating with ATC to coordinate your passage through their airspace. And when we did have the opportunity to talk, I couldn't always hear Maciek too well through our headsets. Not a great place to have a conversation.

Our trip definitely gave me a greater appreciation for those who fly. There's a ton of work that goes into it and a lot of experience involved in making flying safe and enjoyable. It's not that I don't want to put in work, but rather that I have a lot of other things I'd rather do that will keep me busy for a long while. My stomach also prefers being on the ground. So while I learned a lot and had a lot of fun and wouldn't mind doing a trip like this again, I'm okay with this just being a bucket list thing. I'm grateful for experiences like this and friends to share them with!

Like last year, Priscilla and I went down to LA for the July 4th holiday. We stayed with my parents for two nights and Priscilla's parents for two nights. It was a pretty low-key visit, and we didn't see Aaron's family this time around because they were camping.

We drove two cars down so that we could leave Aaron our old Corolla for his in-laws who are staying with them (they moved from China and are trying to get a green card). The Corolla has needed a new catalytic converter for over a year, but we had been planning to donate it to charity instead of spending money fixing it since Priscilla's parents gave us their Civic. But Aaron didn't mind getting it fixed up (he actually got it done today for $600, far less than I thought it would cost).

So Saturday morning, Priscilla left around 8:15am and I left half an hour later. She avoided a couple slowdowns that I got caught up in. We met up at Harris Ranch, where she didn't mind waiting since she wanted to take a longer break. Then we caravanned the rest of the way down. There were a few slowdowns, so the total driving time was around 6 hours.

Most of the time we spent interacting with parents was over meals. As usual, I helped my dad and Priscilla's parents with computer issues. On Sunday, Priscilla went to CCAC with my parents and I went to Shepherd Church by myself since I've been sleep deprived and wanted to wake up later, and since Crescentia had asked if we wanted to see her sing in the worship service, so I figured that one of us might as well be there. The church is massive and has the pros and cons of a typical mega church, but one thing I liked during the sermon was how the pastor reminded us that despite the battles we're facing in our own lives, the real battle is "out there in the Valley," i.e. highlighting the importance of evangelism.

After church, we ate with Gina, Cindy, Weber and Crescentia at California Fish Grill in Mission Hills. The food was pretty decent and the portions were ample. It's nice that we can maintain our relationships with some of our longtime friends, but it requires conscious effort, for which I have Priscilla to thank.

On Tuesday, we walked with Priscilla's parents to the main street near their condo and caught the nighttime fireworks being launched from Almansor Park. We made it to the street at 9pm, right as the fireworks kicked off. The show was pretty good and was nice to watch, especially since our own city still hasn't resumed its fireworks show after dropping it in the first year of the pandemic.

We headed back home the next day, though we got a late start since I had to help everyone with more computer stuff, but traffic wasn't bad. As usual, my mom made us a lot of food to bring back.

It's always nice seeing family and friends. Sometimes I don't know what to talk about. I don't even remember much of the conversations that we had. But I think the act of getting together says more than words can. It says "I care about you. This relationship matters to me." Like I talked about in my previous post, time is fleeting and people grow apart if effort is not made to maintain the relationship. The relationships that do stand the test of time are precious and are worth the world.

This week, our church bids farewell to Dan and Melody as they leave for their new home in the Boston area. They started coming to our church 3.5 years ago (right before the start of the pandemic), but though their time here has been relatively short, they've touched a lot of lives. Dan has a new role at work that's taking him to Boston, and they've always been East Coast people and viewed their time in the Bay Area as temporary. They'd originally planned to be here for just a year, so they ended up staying a bit longer than planned.

I've enjoyed training with Dan and doing Spartan races together. No one else has been crazy enough to sign up for a race with me, but Dan is even crazier than I am. He'd already done a dozen Spartans, and when I suggested doing the Trifecta last year, I didn't have to ask twice. Priscilla and I had a great time traveling to SLO and Monterey with them for two of the races. Priscilla got to know Melody as I got to know Dan. Their kids are also adorable. Other kids don't pay me any attention, but their kids are always saying hi and want to play. Though, my theory, half jokingly, is that they just have a positive association between me and getting to go to the park and going for a stroller ride when Dan and I are training and running. They were the first (and only, so far) kids that Priscilla and I babysat for.

Dan was also good about asking me and another church friend to go running most weeks during the time that we were training for Spartan. We had some meaningful conversations during that time (as much as we could talk in between breaths while running) as well as during our travels and at church. But more than challenging me in physical fitness, Dan encouraged me to pursue spiritual growth, service, and relationships with others, both by his direct encouragement to me as well as through his own example.

Yesterday, we all had hot pot dinner at Seapot with them as a final farewell. Priscilla and I wanted to pay, but they wouldn't let us. Just another instance of the many times they've been generous to us. We'll miss them a lot, but a future trip to Boston is in the cards for us. I'd be down for doing an obstacle course race there, and Priscilla has been researching flights. Some church guys are also thinking about doing next year's Monterey Spartan, and Dan and the family are considering flying back for that. Our friendship means a lot to me and I really hope that we can maintain it. But maintenance requires more than just hope.

So far, the people with whom I've had the closest relationships have all moved away and contact has become infrequent, if we haven't fallen out of touch completely. High school and college friends. My college roommate of four years. My two officemates from my last company. Friends from my current company. Church friends that we would often eat with on Sunday. People move, drift apart, make new friends. It's part of life and I'm sure it's true in everyone's life. And there's always a reason for not reaching out. I'm busy. They're busy. I'm always the one who initiates; why does it always have to be me? I'll get to it another day - there will be time.

And yet, time is slipping away and one day it will be too late. Everything good requires work. If we don't spend the time to pursue the things that matter, then one day, perhaps at the end of our life, we will look back with regret. I don't want that to be me.

Every year, our church participates in the RealOptions Walk for Life. It's a great way to raise money to support a faith-based pregnancy resource center, and to push one another to exercise!

The event is held annually at Martial Cottle Park in San Jose, and participants can either walk 2.4 miles or run a 5k. In addition to this year, I've participated in 2018 and 2020. Naturally, I sign up for the run. Priscilla prefers to walk with church friends. We had 15 registrations from our church this year, with 10 of those being families. Our church has gotten big, and we had a large turnout today. A lot of the kids are starting to get to the age where they're able to run a 5k, and we have some fast kids!

The primary goal of the Walk for Life is to fundraise for RealOptions. With over $16,000 raised, our church placed 3rd out of all groups signed up for the event. I don't like asking people for money, so Priscilla and I just donated $400 to ourselves (and more to others). But we set a goal of $1,000, recalling that in the past, there were people at church who wanted to support participants. We didn't ask anyone for donations, but 7 people donated to us! Most of the donations were made anonymously, but they were almost certainly from people at church, as the link to join/support our group has been in the church bulletin for the past few weeks. Our last donor gave $25 after the event and brought us to our exact $1,000 goal! Everyone else in our group got at least several donations, and most people got to their fundraising goal. We have a lot of generous people at church.

My training hasn't been ideal. The past several months have felt colder than usual, and there have been so many rainy days, many of them with heavy and prolonged rain. Atmospheric rivers have been dumping so much rain on us that half the state is no longer in a drought. So it's been hard to get outside and run, though that's partly just me making excuses.

During my last training run, I ran a 5k at a 7:01 pace at max effort. I always have a tendency to start too fast, especially when I'm with people and they sprint out of the gate. So for today's race, I knew that I had to start intentionally slower and gradually increase my pace so that I could save some fuel for the latter half. I started almost at the front of the group (64 runners in all), but quickly had 15 or so people sprint past me, many of whom were kids. But one by one, I started passing people as I maintained a mostly constant pace while people started slowing down. 0.5 miles in, I saw one guy stopped on the side of the path catching his breath - he definitely went all in way too soon!

There was one guy who stayed in the lead the whole time, way up ahead, and I knew I had no chance of catching up to him. Trailing him by a fair distance was a pack of three or so guys who seemed to be trying to keep up with each other. I knew I wouldn't be able to catch up to them while maintaining that pace for the whole race, so I let them get a little ahead while making sure I never lost sight of them. Towards the 2 or 2.5 mile point, I increased my pace a bit more and was able to pass two of the guys, who might've also been slowing down. I then hustled to catch up to the third guy, but we both full on sprinted at the end and I crossed the finish line a fraction of a second behind him. Interestingly, though I came in 3rd place by gun time, I came in 2nd place by chip time, and the final results were based on chip time. My official time was 21:31, putting my pace at 6:56. My times in 2018 and 2020 were 23:17 and 21:38, respectively, so it seems like I've improved. The winning time today was 21:09. It really depends on who shows up - in 2018, there were 8 runners with a time under 20 minutes, with the winning time being 18:06!

I guess I do like the competition of racing, but even more, I value self-improvement. I recently read an article about a "totally average runner," close to me in age, who trained until he was able to run a 5-minute mile. That's become a goal of mine, as the necessary progression seems like a worthwhile investment to pursue. It sounds crazy and I know there will be a ton of work involved, but I'm not getting any younger, and late is better than never.

And hopefully all the training will help me get an even better 5k time next year. Anyway, I'm glad that today we were able to have fun and support a good cause. But the work, for all of us, is never done.

This past Thanksgiving was pretty normal. Which, given how abnormal things have been since COVID, was a welcome change.

In both 2021 and 2020, we saw my parents and Priscilla's parents separately during our time in LA. I think the last time we all had Thanksgiving dinner together was in 2018 (though I apparently didn't blog about that - bad Anson).

We headed down around 7am on Thanksgiving Day and though there were a couple minor slowdowns along the way, traffic was pretty smooth overall. We rested a few hours at the condo before driving with Priscilla's parents over to my parents' place. We arrived a little late since we got stuck in a standstill due to an accident on the 118. Aaron's family was already there, and the kids look like they've grown a lot. Our niece wasn't shy this time and wanted to play with us right away. It's nice that she seems at ease with us now!

We had most of the traditional fixins for dinner. My dad and Aaron both made a turkey, and Priscilla's parents brought a chicken and a duck from Sam Woo BBQ. Unlike in some previous years, we didn't have dessert. Maybe my mom reminded my dad that people have blood sugar and gut issues.

We stayed a little long, but it was nice to see everyone interacting. Priscilla and I were pretty tired as we drove back to the condo with her parents that night. On both Friday and Saturday, we visited The Huntington, first with her mom and then with our old church friend Cindy. Adult tickets are normally $25 on weekdays and $29 on weekends, but I get free admission for myself and up to three guests with my Cultivist membership, which I have a 6-month free trial of due to getting the Capital One Venture X card. It's a decent card for travel, and Priscilla's already used it to book things for our trip to Japan which will be in February.

So back to The Huntington. It was really crowded on Friday (according to an employee there, Mother's Day and the day after Thanksgiving are the two busiest days), but there were far fewer people on Saturday. The gardens are immense and you can really spend a whole day walking around and taking it all in. The two nicest parts are the Chinese Garden and Japanese Garden. I really liked the water, bridges and buildings that create the atmosphere of a tiny village in the Chinese Garden. Between my two visits, I also saw some European art at one of the art galleries, and paid a short visit to the library. There wasn't much to see at the library, but they did have a Gutenberg Bible on display.

On Sunday, we went to CCAC and ran into Tim and his mom after the service. Tim gave us a tour of the new A/V room in the back of the upper level that he and his parents built out. It was really a sight to see - different stations for people to control camera feeds, audio, and the livestream, and a rack of servers that all the equipment is hooked up to. And most of the equipment was either donated or purchased at bargain prices.

After church, we had lunch at Galleria Market with Gina and Weber. It's always nice to catch up with old friends, even if we don't have the most exciting updates. Priscilla also caught up with Crescentia at Starbucks later that day while I was back at my parents' place catching up with work (bleh).

After a quick breakfast with my parents on Monday, it was time to head home. My mom of course packed us a lot of food to take back with us, including some amazing pot pie that my dad had made. The drive back was smooth pretty much all the way. So even with Thanksgiving travel being nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, Thanksgiving Day and the Monday after seem to be good days to make the drive.

And of course we had to get sick while traveling. That's pretty common for me, but this time both of us came down with a cold, with Priscilla showing minor symptoms about a day before me. The definitive symptoms started while we were driving back up, and we've been stuck at home with a minor cough and stuffiness ever since. And now it's supposed to be raining for the next three days straight, so no going outside for fresh air.

So the time in LA was nice. The days after, not so much!

Last year, traveling between NorCal and SoCal at Christmastime was pretty hectic and it felt too soon after Thanksgiving to go down again. So we decided that this year, we'd try visiting in the summer instead of for Christmas in order to better space out our visits, and see how well that works out. We decided that the July 4th weekend would be the best time during summer to visit. Christmas in July... sort of. Our families don't really do anything special for Christmas anyway.

We were originally planning to drive down Friday, but then we learned that my mom tested positive for COVID. Her patient at work had it, and it was either going to be my mom or her coworker attending to him, and my mom didn't want her coworker taking the risk because that's how she is. Fortunately, my mom's symptoms weren't terrible and she's getting better by the day. She's been limiting direct interaction with my dad and so far he hasn't gotten sick.

So we drove down Saturday, waking up early and leaving early (around 7:15am) to try to beat traffic, but traffic didn't seem to be much of an issue. Though there were some minor slowdowns, it wasn't too bad overall. The worst part was a 17-minute slowdown caused by an earlier accident; interestingly, that cleared up a couple hours later. Overall, the traffic map was pretty much green the whole day. Fewer people driving this year because of sky-high gas prices?

So instead of splitting time between staying with my parents and Priscilla's parents, we just spent three days with her parents this time. We did visit my mom briefly (my dad was out) and talked to her from outside the house. She was only willing to open the window a crack because she didn't want us to breathe her germs, so we could barely hear her. Heh.

As always, the time with Priscilla's parents was pretty low-key. We mostly just ate and I also helped them with lots of computer issues (I'm always their IT guy whenever we visit). On Sunday, Priscilla and I visited New Life Church, joined people for a small lunch (tacos) there, talked to Aaron and his family briefly at the end of that, then had another lunch with Gina and Weber at California Pita, and then hung out with Crescentia and Raymond for 3.5 hours at Tang & Java. Whew. It was nice seeing people, but I definitely needed some downtime after so much socializing.

On Monday, Priscilla and I walked to Gen Korean BBQ since she had a hankering for buffet and it was either going to be Gen or All That Shabu, and the latter was a bit more expensive. We got to Gen at opening time and were seated in a section with several other tables. There was just one waiter for all those tables, so it took a while to get any service. But once our waiter got things started, he made sure to keep coming back to take orders so that there was always a steady stream of meat at our table. I've never seen a waiter hustle so much - he was constantly running up and down the aisle, whizzing by to drop off food or take away dirty plates, and when taking our order, he spoke in a fast, energetic manner. Priscilla remarked that he seemed like an anime character. His bleached hair might've contributed to that impression as well. At the start, we were about to leave after having waited 20 minutes without getting any attention, but our waiter turned a miserable experience into a terrific one. He definitely got an excellent tip from us. We left full, though we refrained from gorging ourselves this time. Maybe we're getting wiser and learning moderation.

Then that evening, we took a post-dinner walk with the parents when the city fireworks show happened to be in progress. We walked down to the main street where we (and lots of other people) were able to find a decent view of the fireworks being shot from the park less than a mile away. From there we also had a partial view of fireworks shows from several other locations maybe a few miles away. It was awesome to see so many; I guess LA loves their fireworks. Meanwhile, our own city back up north is foregoing its fireworks show for the third year in a row, humph.

After a quick breakfast this morning, it was time to head back home. There was a moderate amount of cars on the road but for the most part, traffic was pretty smooth. I do think fewer people were driving this year, though maybe Friday and Sunday were heavier days.

For Christmas, it does feel like something will be missing when we don't go down. But we might spend Christmas with my uncle and aunt and their family; they typically have a get-together and we're unable to go. And I'm sure that Priscilla will use her Great America pass a lot this December, and she'll probably make me go there once with her during WinterFest. And hopefully, our time with family and friends in LA for Thanksgiving will be all the more meaningful.

Yesterday, Daniel and I did the Monterey Spartan Super at Toro Park in Salinas. I did this course last year as well, and it was all the same obstacles in mostly the same order, with the following exceptions:

* The 4' Walls on the map didn't appear on the course. Instead, there was a 5' wall that people had to get over to get into the race corral.
* The longer 45lb sandbags were replaced with 60lb disc-shaped bags at the Sandbag Carry.
* The Bucket Carry was longer this time. After ascending a small hill, it looked like you were headed back down to the start, like how it was last year. Instead, you then rounded a corner and had to do another uphill segment. Surprise, suckas!
* The bags at Hercules Hoist looked a little bigger this year. The volunteer said that they were 100lbs this year. It was 90lbs last year.

I went into the race not at full strength. Five days earlier on Memorial Day, I did the Murph Challenge (1 mile run, 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats, 1 mile run) with Daniel and two other church guys. We didn't use a weighted vest, and we partitioned the exercises into 20 sets of 5 pullups, 10 pushups and 15 squats, but still it was brutal and I was sore for the next fews days. I was still just slightly sore going into Spartan, so I'm pretty sure that I wasn't fully recovered.

On Olympus, only four obstacles in, I didn't have the strength to keep myself on the wall properly. So I ended up supporting myself using my knee and kind of dragged myself across the wall. On Hercules Hoist, most of the guys seemed to be having trouble. I was able to use my bodyweight to get the bag most of the way up, but then my grip was shot and I had to pull my body further back while holding onto the rope for dear life in order to get the last couple inches. I wasn't sure if I got the bag all the way up or if I had a couple inches left to go, but the rope wasn't budging any further - so either I got it, or I had reached the point where pulling my body back was no longer effective. My forearms were pretty taxed as a result, and I had to bail on the next obstacle, Multi-Rig, one ring short of the bell. And that's one of the easier obstacles - ugh! But at least I successfully stuck the spear at the Spear Throw - the first time ever, which I was elated about. The "spear throw" (broom handle with a tennis ball on the end) training we've been doing at the park has paid off, and it was helpful that we got to the event early and I was able to throw a spear a few times at the practice zone.

I did notice that the carries felt easier than last year. The bucket carry was tiring but manageable, even though it was longer this year. Same for the sandbag carry. Had I been carrying last year's 45lb sandbag, I'm sure I would've owned it. I can see how training and multiple Spartans have paid off in small ways.

So my official time was 2:47:29 which put me in the 30th percentile, placing 1006/3364 overall, 818/2262 for males, and 146/353 for my age group. Not terrible, but I know I could've done better. Next time, for one, no hard workouts at least a week before a race.

Will there be a next time, though? With this race done, I've completed a Spartan Trifecta and feel like I've checked off a big milestone on my bucket list. I do enjoy the races and they give me a reason to train. But I have other goals that I want to train for, like being able to do a Murph faster (my previous time was around 75 minutes), being able to run a sub 6-minute mile and better, and building strength and getting back up to my ideal weight. Maybe I can come back to the races someday when I'm faster and stronger, but for now, there's so much else I can do.

So the rest of the trip was jam-packed with activities. On Friday, Priscilla and I drove down to Monterey and visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium (using our friends' guest pass) and watched the penguin and sea otter feedings, then walked over to Fisherman's Wharf and met up with Daniel and his family for dinner at Grotto Fish Market. On Saturday, Priscilla went with Daniel's family to breakfast and the Monterey County Youth Museum while he and I were racing. After the race, we all had lunch together at Pacific Bowls and Rolls (pretty decent poke bowl portions) in Downtown Monterey. Then in the afternoon, we all went down to Carmel Beach and watched the kids play in the sand and run from waves. Daniel's neighbors and their kid, who were also in town, joined us there and we all went to dinner at Flaherty's Seafood Grill & Oyster Bar (decent fare, a little pricey but reasonable for Carmel prices). Priscilla and I spent a little under $200 over the course of 4 consecutive meals, which is a bit more than we typically spend on food when traveling. We usually like to pack food and, when we do eat out, we tend towards the cheaper places. But eating out is a normative vehicle for spending time with people, and it was nice hanging out with people for most of the weekend.

Today, Priscilla and I just walked around El Estero Park (close to our motel) before heading home. We were pretty tired after the long weekend and got a quick lunch and took a nap shortly after. Traveling and activities certainly have their place, but at the end of the day for us, there's no place like home.

A mere six weeks after Daniel and I ran our Spartan Sprint down in SoCal, it was time for our San Luis Obispo Spartan Beast. We were not fully prepared and we got our butts handed to us in different ways. But it was a lot of fun.

On Friday, Priscilla and I drove down to Atascadero and met Daniel and his family at the Airbnb that we'd rented. The house was pretty spacious and had a lot of amenities. Their kids in particular liked the toys and the trampoline. After we got settled, we drove down to San Luis Obispo 25 minutes away. We walked around the downtown area and had dinner at Firestone Grill (I had tri-tip and it was delicious) and got ice cream from McConnell's. The downtown attractions that we saw - Bubblegum Alley, SLO Museum of Art, and the walkways around the creek - were all pretty short. It seemed like a laid-back town and everyone we interacted with was really nice.

While Daniel and I were running on Saturday, Priscilla joined the rest of Daniel's family in visiting Avila Valley Barn and more sights in SLO. They got a pie from the farm that had really good crust (I didn't care so much for the filling). And on Sunday, we drove over to Morro Bay and did a short kayak trip after Daniel and I decided that we weren't sore enough from the race. We kayaked to and walked around the sandbar close to Morro Rock, a place that Priscilla and I visited with friends 10 years ago. Afterwards, we got lunch at Giovanni's Fish Market; Priscilla and I got a clam chowder bread bowl and fish and chips (fries). The fries were amazing - very crispy; everything else was decent but nothing to write home about. After we said our goodbyes, it was time to head home.

Alright, back to the Spartan Beast. In the spirit of self-improvement, here as always are my notes about the course.

Over Walls (4' Walls): Easy warmup.

Inverted Wall: Easy, with the usual gap between the rungs and the wall providing a good place to grip.

Monkey Bars: Used the hand to hand technique as usual.

Barbed Wire Crawl: Part of it was grassy, so I was able to roll without getting too dirty.

7' and 6' Walls: Easy with the heel hook technique, though I found that I'm able to swing my right leg higher than I can my left. Or maybe that's just what I'm used to.

Hurdles: These were on a slight slope, adding an extra challenge. I got over these clumsily but twisted my left shoulder (it was fine after a few minutes).

Tube Crawl: Exactly as it sounds. Might've been the easiest obstacle I've ever done. The tubes were completely dry, but maybe in some venues they're filled with muddy water?

Armer: Possibly the same weight stone as with Atlas Carry, but the handle made this easier.

Tyrolean Traverse: My initial plan to do an upside-down crawl along the rope immediately went out the window when I found that I couldn't keep the other leg on the rope when lifting one leg off. So instead, I kept my legs locked around the rope and pulled myself along using my arms. The high socks I had on protected my legs from rope burn, but this motion was pretty rough on my hands.

8' Wall: Was able to jump up and grab the edge with an inch of clearance, so I didn't need to do a running jump and kick off against the wall.

Pipe Lair, Helix, Z Wall: All straightforward.

Olympus: Used mostly the holes and used a reach across technique when possible, making short work of this obstacle. Definitely a lot easier than when I did this for the first time during last year's Super.

The Box: A lot of people were having trouble with the ropes, but I ignored the rope and just jumped and hoisted my way onto the platform without much effort. The benefits of being light.

Spear Throw: Failed again when the spear went to the left of the target. I took two retries since it wasn't too busy, and I managed to stick it on the final attempt. Each time, I threw a mostly decent arc, so the "spear" training (with a tennis ball on the end of a broom handle) I've been doing with Daniel has been paying off. I just need to adjust the aim. I still did my 30 burpees since you're really only allowed one try.

Atlas Carry: Was able to lift the stone using a sumo deadlift, so I didn't need to roll it onto my knee like before.

Multi-Rig: Rings, horizontal bar, then ropes with no ball on the end. I thought I'd have trouble with the ropes, but I was able to maneuver from one rope to the next without sliding down. Guess the grip training has been paying off.

Bucket Carry: The bucket felt noticeably lighter compared to the one on the Sprint. Could just be variations in how much the volunteers fill them.

Beater: This was on mile 11 and my calf was starting to cramp. When I jumped up to grab the bar, a paralyzing pain shot through my calf. I had to rest for 10 minutes before I could do the obstacle. This sucked because this obstacle is pretty much all upper-body. I saw a couple others suffering from calf cramps here as well.

Bender: The cramps didn't deter me too much from swinging my feet up to help me get over this obstacle.

Stairway to Sparta: When I did this during my Super, the obstacle involved jumping and grabbing the top of a slanted wall and pulling yourself up. Pretty basic. But on the Beast, there was that (smooth) wall panel, plus another wall panel above it with climbing holds. So you basically had to jump up, grab the holds with your hands, pull yourself up and grab a higher hold, and then you'd be high enough to get your foot onto one of the holds. There was a volunteer there who gave most people a boost, but I wanted to do it on my own (as Spartan races are technically supposed to be done). I had a couple failed tries at grabbing the holds without falling, but I was finally able to do it and get my foot high enough to allow me to climb the rest of the way up. In terms of absolute difficulty, I'd say this was the hardest obstacle on the course.

Rope Climb: My hands were pretty roughed up by now, but using the S-hook took me to the top without too much trouble. My fingers held up without bleeding, unlike last time.

Twister: Going backwards made this quick, but my hands were starting to feel it by this point.

Plate Drag: I initially picked a bad lane where halfway down, the sled got stuck behind a mound of dirt. At least it wasn't just me - the next guy also had trouble with that lane. With my grip strength suffering, I had to borrow Daniel's gloves and pick a flatter lane to complete this obstacle.

Sandbag Carry, Vertical Cargo Plus, Slip Wall: Not too bad. On Slip Wall, we had to run up the ramp a little more than I remember doing on the Super, but the lack of a Dunk Wall this time kept things dry.

Hercules Hoist: My hands were completely raw by this point and my grip strength was gone. I tried twice, but not even the gloves helped me pull the bag all the way up. 30 burpees.

A-Frame Cargo: An easy obstacle to end with, with the finish line straight ahead. Boy was I glad to be done!

Aid station placement was excellent and I didn't need to drink water at every station. Much/most of the course consisted of uneven ground, and I rolled my right ankle around the halfway point, leading to pain whenever I landed at an angle on that foot. After that, I had to run a little slower in order to keep the ankle stable. But Daniel started cramping a lot in the last couple miles, so we both needed to slow down. The first 10 miles were all easier obstacles, and the last 3 miles contained the harder ones. With our injuries, the race got exponentially harder at the end!

My final time was 4:20:32, putting me in the 33rd percentile, placing 605/1857 overall, 496/1233 for men, and 109/266 in my age group. I didn't do badly, though I should've been able to do better. I'm glad that the training that I've been doing has shown some results, and I think I can go gloveless on a Super, but for a Beast, I seem to need that extra advantage from gloves since so many of the obstacles are hard on the hands. Once I do the Super in June, I'll be done with the Trifecta. I do enjoy the races, but I think I've gotten my Spartan fix and don't feel like I need to sign up for more anytime soon. I'm not that competitive, and the cost and overhead of the races are a bit much.

I'm glad that the hardest race is done with and I'm glad that we got to spend time with our friends and their kids. It was a tiring weekend and my arms and legs are quite sore now, but it was time well spent.

Well, it hadn't even been a month since we were last in LA, but Priscilla and I found ourselves down there again for my Spartan Sprint.

I signed up for the Spartan Trifecta for this year, and this past weekend the Super and Sprint were held at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino this past Saturday and Sunday, respectively. I ran with Daniel, my buddy from church with whom I'll be doing two more races this year.

This was my third Spartan Race, so I was pretty familiar with the obstacles by now. Last year's Super in Monterey was my first race, and I took it slow since I didn't know what to expect. But this time around, I wanted to get a good time, and since the Sprint is the easiest event in the Trifecta, I wanted to see if I could do some of the obstacles in a more challenging way.

Because this was a park, there were some limitations on course design. The route was essentially flat. Lots of obstacles were clustered in the same area, meaning minimal time in between some obstacles for the arms to get a rest.

So, as usual, here are the obstacles that were on the course and my personal notes.

Over Walls (4' Walls): Easy warmup.

Hurdles: These were set noticeably higher than at my Monterey Super. I got over these but lacked finesse.

6' Wall: Wanted to see if I could do a muscle up over the wall and was able to, but again without finesse. Heel hook is the proven better technique for me to conserve strength.

Inverted Wall: Pretty easy; this one had the extra grabbing room between the rungs and the wall that Monterey had. I managed to not bang my ankle on the way down this time.

Vertical Cargo: The SoCal Super had the platform in front of the cargo net that you have to hoist yourself onto. The Sprint had the platform removed.

Spear Throw: Despite watching many YouTube videos, I failed this as I didn't throw hard enough or straight enough. I really need to find a way to start practicing.

Helix, Z-Wall, and A-Frame Cargo: Pretty straightforward. On the former two, it helped that I'm light.

Atlas Carry: A little difficult since my arms were tired by this point.

Monkey Bars: Pretty much right after Atlas Carry. I'd wanted to try the hand over hand technique but my arms were feeling it, so I stuck with hand to hand and that made the obstacle pretty doable.

Plate Drag: No plank to brace my feet onto. Seemed like I took longer with this than most people.

Bucket Carry: Tried to balance the bucket on my shoulders but that tired out my arms, so I alternated between that and carrying it in front of me.

Dunk Wall: Should probably pinch my nose before I go under the water next time. I was blowing a lot of dirt out of my nose after the race and that was likely because of this obstacle.

Slip Wall: Thought I would have trouble with this since it was right after we got drenched in Dunk Wall, but I was able to get up the incline and over the top with no issues.

Barbed Wire Crawl: Straightforward, though I could've saved some time if I had rolled like Daniel did.

Sandbag Carry: The bags weren't that heavy. They were long and not filled in the middle.

Multi-Rig: The SoCal Super had a horizontal bar in the middle, but the Sprint had just rings. I was able to use a hand to hand (sideways traverse) technique without too much effort, but hand over hand is better for conserving strength (though it takes longer).

Hercules Hoist: Had to use my whole body weight as usual.

Rope Climb: The rope was a little wet and my shoes were probably still wet, so I couldn't get a good grip with my feet despite using the S-hook. My feet were definitely sliding near the top, so I powered my way up using more arm strength. This taxed my hands, and afterwards I found both middle fingers bleeding where the skin next to the nail had broken. Maybe I grip hardest with the middle finger on each hand?

Anyway, we ran together and pushed ourselves hard (well, Daniel was better at the obstacles and I was holding him back a little). When I took my time with last year's Super, the obstacles felt more manageable (though still not easy). But since we didn't rest all that much during this race, and because of multiple back-to-back obstacles, the obstacles felt noticeably harder. My final time was 52:27 which put me in the 17th percentile, placing 548/3230 overall, 475/2019 for males, and 77/326 for my age group. Not a terrific time, but not a terrible time. With our SLO Beast just 5 weeks away, I'm going to have to train better so that the obstacles don't get the better of me!

Outside of the event, we had a good time in LA seeing my parents and Priscilla's parents. That time was pretty low-key and mostly involved eating together. Aaron and Lauren's family visited the first night, and our niece was really quiet this time, though she finally started opening up to me when we played Candy Land with her. It's a game of pure chance, but Aaron won a couple times in a row and she was getting frustrated, so during the next couple games, Aaron kept peeking at the deck in his hand and rearranged cards when she wasn't looking so that she'd get the good cards. It was pretty funny.

And unlike last month, traffic from NorCal to SoCal and back wasn't bad. Visiting LA seems more bearable when the drive is "only" 5 hours!

Last year, we went to LA for Thanksgiving but not Christmas due to lockdowns. But now, with a good percentage of the population vaccinated (albeit supposedly still not enough), the days of COVID lockdowns might be behind us for good.

So Priscilla and I drove down on Christmas Day, leaving around 9:15am, and we didn't run into much traffic (there were also not as many trucks on the road because of the holiday). It was around a 5.5 hour drive to get to her parents' place and we stayed with them three nights. Our time with them was pretty low-key. On Sunday, Priscilla and I visited our old church friend Cindy in Irvine; I hadn't seen her for two years, but Priscilla saw her during the pandemic. The three of us went to Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, got lunch at a Taiwanese place in Irvine, and walked around Great Park. On Monday, I hung out with four of my old high school friends and we went bowling in Pasadena, ate at a sushi place a stone's throw away, and hung out at a boba place. The rest of the time Priscilla and I were with her parents, we ate food that she prepared (mostly from the insane amount of stuff in her parents' fridge) and stuffed our faces one night at Kami Buffet & Grill (her mom got three vouchers for helping a church friend).

Tuesday after lunch, we drove north to my parents' place and stayed with them two nights. That time was pretty low-key as well and we didn't see friends, but I did run a few miles around the neighborhood both on Tuesday and Wednesday; the latter day saw me running in light rain with an umbrella. Priscilla went to hang out with Gina on Wednesday during lunch, but otherwise we both ate with my parents at each meal during our time there. My parents made a ton of food as always, and they packed our cooler and then some with a lot of food for us to bring home. They are too good to us.

We didn't see Aaron and his family this time around, as they were on a trip to New Mexico in a rented camper van. How fun!

Priscilla and I left for home yesterday. Unfortunately, the Grapevine section of I-5 was closed due to snow, so we (and everyone else) had to take the 101 instead. That added 49 miles to our trip, and it was a pretty miserable drive. It was raining steadily at my parents' place and pouring hard on the 118 and first leg of the 101 freeways. The heavy rain on the 118 made it difficult to see, and we and everyone else had to drive around 50mph. There were multiple places along the 101 where traffic slowed to a crawl due to an accident, construction zone, or just general congestion. Overall, we spent 7.5 hours on the road. Guess that's what happens when it's the day before New Year's Eve and the 101 has to accommodate holiday traffic in addition to traffic that would normally be on I-5.

To make matters more "interesting," 2/3 of the way through, the check engine light came on in the car. Not wanting to drive another 130 miles without knowing what the problem was, I had Priscilla look for a nearby AutoZone. Fortunately, there was one in King City about 10 miles north of where we were. I was able to borrow an OBD-II reader there and found out that the DTC (error code) indicated a problem either with the catalytic converter or an O2 sensor - not a critical issue requiring immediate attention. Thank God!

So we made it home at last, my head aching due to stress, and we ate my mom's food while watching more episodes of season 5 of Fringe (that season is kinda meh). Today we hit up the Sunnyvale Costco early-ish (before the crowds really started piling in), got our booster shot at the Mountain View Community Center, and went to The Dish for me to get my last run in for the year (that's my go-to place for elevation when the ground is still muddy due to rain). A more relaxing day to bookend the madness of yesterday. And as I finish writing this blog entry, Priscilla is off watching the marching band and fireworks at WinterFest at Great America. She bought a Great America season pass ("only" $85) that's good until the end of 2022, as well as a dining pass that gets her lunch and dinner (as long as they're four hours apart). She's gone twice this year and will probably go several times next year. I think it's pretty clear by now that theme parks are one of her hobbies!

Overall, we had a good time in LA with family and friends, though I was not fond of all the driving. For next year, I'm thinking of having us go down once in the summer instead of for Christmas in order to avoid the travel mayhem of the latter, as well as to more evenly space out our visits. We'll be going down in January for my Spartan Sprint, probably in April for our anniversary trip, and again for Thanksgiving. Taking another trip down around July will give us 3-4 months in between each visit. Priscilla feels that it will be weird to not go down for Christmas since that's when everybody else is seeing family and friends, but maybe we can try it once and see if we can make it work and make our summer visit meaningful. Our respective parents are cool with it. Well, I'm not sure about my dad since he's very traditional, but my family hasn't really done anything special for Christmas since my high school days or so. We can do a Zoom dinner with parents for the holiday, and maybe I can entice Priscilla with more days on which she can go to WinterFest...

This past Saturday I did the Spartan Stadion at Oracle Park in San Francisco with a few church people and their friends (10 people total including me). We got our entry for a mere $50 through Foster the City, a nonprofit that works to provide homes for foster children in the Bay Area. Each of us had to raise money for FTC, with the goal to raise $1000 per person.

I don't like asking people for money, but one of the church people graciously posted a message to our Facebook group with each participant's donation link for those who wanted to support the cause. A lot of people donated, though those using the donation link provided by FTC instead of setting up a Facebook fundraiser page (myself included) were unable to see how much money they had raised or even who had donated.

The race was easier than a typical Spartan Sprint, e.g. the penalty for a failed obstacle in a Stadion is only 15 burpees instead of the usual 30. There were other modifications that made the obstacles easier, like the Multi-Rig having just rings (no horizontal bar or dangling ropes), and the Atlas Carry having a 100lb pellet-filled ball instead of a 100lb stone (you get a better grip on the ball). This course was similar to the SF Stadion in 2019, with one of the main differences being that there was no Olympus (I was sad about that) and there was an obstacle I'd never seen before, Rolling Epic (it was probably the easiest obstacle on the course).

I was able to complete all the obstacles except the Spear Throw. I did not throw the spear hard enough and it crash-landed way short of the target. Sigh.

The most difficult obstacles were the Weighted Burpees and the Hercules Hoist. The Weighted Burpees involved a 55lb (less for women) weight that we had to lift over our heads 15 times. I had to start taking breaks after the first few reps. Clearly I need to spend time doing the clean and press at the gym. The Hercules Hoist was doable; I just had to use all my bodyweight and push off the barrier with my leg. And the Monkey Bars were pretty easy; this time I did it in the traditional way with palms facing forwards instead of using the opposing grip method. The opposing grip method made this obstacle a piece of cake during my Spartan Super, but I wanted to see if I could do it in a slightly harder way. The bars on this obstacle are spaced somewhat far apart, so I naturally got my hands to the same rung before reaching for the next rung. But I saw some videos of people reaching for the next rung, one after another, so next time I want to see if I can do that.

I didn't have trouble getting the sandbag on both of my shoulders during the Sandbag Carry this time; either the bag was lighter than what we had at my Super, or the training I've been doing with a 20lb rucksack is paying off. And the Rope Climb wasn't difficult; I stuck to using the S-hook and though my form was terrible, my legs more or less stayed supported the whole way up. I wonder if the rope here was also thicker than the one at the Super.

Some people in our group failed/skipped a few obstacles, and our group split the requisite burpees between each of us. I think that's not officially allowed, but meh. The open wave is whatever you make it, and the goal should be to challenge oneself. It was fun to do some camaraderie burpees, though having to do burpees after the Rope Climb and then do Weighted Burpees right after was not great, haha.

Nobody got major injuries. I didn't have any shoulder issues this time, but my right hip started aching during the latter half of the race, probably because of all the stairs. I've had minor hip issues, particularly on the left side where I think I've had a low level of chronic inflammation, so it was surprising that it was the right side that started acting up. It didn't hurt much and wasn't something to be too concerned about, but something to pay attention to. Getting old is such fun.

Priscilla likes traveling, even if it's for short trips, so we actually went up to SF Friday afternoon. We drove to Millbrae and took BART to SF. While I was doing the race, Priscilla met up with the wife of one of the other group members to hang out. They got to see us do a couple obstacles up close at two different areas located outside of Oracle Park. Beats paying $20 for a festival pass to be a spectator with a mediocre view!

Outside of the event, Priscilla and I saw the Macy's Christmas tree at Union Square, enjoyed downtime at our hotel, and walked along The Embarcadero from Oracle Park up to the Ferry Building, where we got a bite to eat at the farmers market at Ferry Plaza. SF has a lot of nice-looking parts, especially if you zoom out and see the surroundings as a whole. It's not all just the negatives that the news likes to focus on, like the smash-and-grab robberies that happened recently. We felt safe in all the places we went to.

Overall, I'm glad I did the Stadion, though I prefer the higher difficulty mountain type Spartan races. And I wish I had talked to everyone on the team; it felt a bit awkward since I didn't know a few people and we all seemed shy. But I had fun and it seemed like everyone else did too, and I'm glad that we supported a good cause. I'm looking forward to the Trifecta events that I'll be running with Daniel next year!

Happy New Year (and New Decade)! This holiday season, because Christmas and New Year's fell in the middle of the week, Priscilla and I stayed in the Bay Area for Christmas (and had dinner with Uncle Kenway, Aunt Susan and their family) and went down to LA for the four days leading up to New Year's.

So the Saturday after Christmas, we departed at 7:30am en route to LA. I-5 had been closed at the Grapevine just two days earlier due to snow and icy roads. Fortunately, it was nice and sunny on Saturday, and unlike on Thanksgiving Day, we didn't need to detour to the 101. There was constant traffic but it wasn't too bad until we got to the Greater Los Angeles area, and the total transit time was 5.5 hours. Not the most optimal, but way better than Thanksgiving's 9.5 hours.

Saturday night, we had dinner with my parents and Aaron and Lauren's family at Mandarin Deli. We stayed at my parents' place that night, and Priscilla's parents' condo the following three nights.

Sunday was pretty packed - we went to CCAC in the morning (at the new Granada Hills location), ate with Gina and Cindy at Pieology afterwards, and ate dinner at Gen Korean BBQ with Raymond in Alhambra. Our original plan was to stay at my parents' place Sunday night, but since my other high school friends weren't available to hang out that day, Raymond was the only one who could make it. He had to drive from Orange County, so we decided to go Priscilla's parents' condo one day early and meet him in Alhambra.

Monday was a more restful day, and I took the time to run a few miles. Cindy (the other one) and Tracy visited us on Tuesday and we ate lunch at Bopomofo Cafe. We even caught a sighting of the cafe's cofounder, Philip Wang of Wong Fu Productions. He said hello to the people at the table next to ours - that's as close as we got, though Priscilla later went inside to ogle at him working at the counter.

And today, on New Year's, we stopped by my parents' place to pick up food before driving back up north. My mom had cooked us a lot of food - mung bean noodles with ground turkey and vegetables, chicken and vegetable soup, and turkey porridge - so that we wouldn't have to cook after getting home. This was on top of the soup, porridge and ribs that she had us take to Priscilla's parents' place on Sunday. I've realized that cooking for us is one way that my mom expresses love, and she usually always overdoes it and heaps food on us in her neurotic, loving way, but I'm really blessed to have a mom who loves me this much.

Our trip down to LA was a good time of seeing family and catching up with friends. We're really blessed to have so many people who continue to care about us after all these years.

This past Saturday I did Terrain Race with Tracy at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose. This was where Priscilla and I did the Bubble Run last month. I was originally supposed to do Terrain Race with a coworker, but he later had plans to be out of town, so he let me have his registration. I normally wouldn't sign up for an easy event like this, but it cost only $17.09. It was touted as "free," but tacked on were mandatory insurance, a nominal donation to charity, and tax. Still quite a bargain compared to Tough Mudder or Spartan Race.

The pre-race bib pickup was last Friday at Sports Basement in Sunnyvale. It was supposed to be from 10am - 8pm, but I got there around 9:50am to try to beat the crowds. When I picked up our packets for the Bubble Run, there were maybe 200 people in line ahead of me and I waited for over an hour. I was determined to not make the same mistake with Terrain Race. Despite getting there early, there were still 50 or so people ahead of me, and it looked like the line was already moving before the announced start time. A note for the future.

On race day, we were in the first wave which started at 7:30am. This was the only free wave remaining when I signed up; otherwise I would've chosen a later one. So I woke up at 5:30, had a quick breakfast, Tracy came over to my place, and we started driving over at 6:30. We parked on the street nearby in order to avoid the $10 parking fee. We were one of the first cars to park on that street, and I soon found out that there was no additional checkin since we already had our bibs. So we had half an hour to kill before our wave started. The event email said to bring a signed waiver, but nobody was collecting those. And security was so lax that start times were not enforced. Pretty much anybody could just get in the start area and run with any wave!

The course was supposed to be 5k, but it felt a little short and my GPS measured 4.5k. We ended up walking most of the course because Tracy is not a runner. To be fair, I did spring Terrain Race on her at the last minute. She wants to do Spartan Race with some church people in November, so hopefully she'll train for that.

The obstacles on the course included 4ft walls, 6ft walls, giant tire flipping, tire on rope pulling, concrete block on chain dragging, sandbag carry, balance beams, hay bales, pipe crawl, and a cargo net crawl through a pool of mud. The cargo net crawl was the second-to-last obstacle and got everybody really muddy. A video from a couple years ago showed monkey bars and other obstacles that required upper-body strength, so I was saddened to not see any of those on the course.

The event was more enjoyable than not, but I would've liked more challenging obstacles. I don't think I'd do Terrain Race again. Even though it was dirt cheap, it's not worth the overhead of getting dirty. I think I'll stick to Tough Mudder and Spartan Race, though I'm still not planning on doing another Tough Mudder unless somebody else wants me to go with them. Running it solo isn't much fun. I'm glad I at least had a partner in crime to do Terrain Race with.

Well hello there. In case you haven't noticed, it's 2018. I'm now just writing my first blog entry for the year, which is by far the latest that I've started in any given year.

I might try to say the dearth of blog posts is because some of the experiences I used to blog about I now instead write about on Yelp, but that's not quite the entire picture, is it? Whereas in college I'd write about nearly every class, every encounter and what I'd be doing on holidays, nowadays my writing is limited to infrequent highlights of the year, at best. Granted, some of my earlier posts were just a few words long and resembled a Twitter feed before Twitter was even a thing, but what's changed? Could it be that I've simply grown tired of writing about my life? That the novelty of having an active blog has faded? Or could it be that I'm at the stage in life where people commonly settle into a routine where not much changes from day to day, or even year to year?

"Hey, long time no see! What's new?"

"Oh, well, I'm still at the same company I've been at for the last few years. We did some traveling last year and this year. Still playing drums for church. Not much else."

Is this why people feel like life just flies quickly by and is over before they know it?

I don't want that to be my life. There's more to life than work and even more than the sporadic vacation to an awesome place. What am I passionate about, really?

Well, let's get the yearly highlights out of the way, since they do matter. Last December, Priscilla and I contributed a good chunk of money to help her parents buy a condo close to their church, so now their drive to church is 7 minutes instead of 40. Since her parents are retired and her mom spends a lot of time helping church people, this was a logical step. Her mom spends a lot of time at the condo but her dad prefers staying at the house (I completely sympathize with him), but they're trying to get him to commit to moving to the condo so that they can live there full-time. It'll mean serious downsizing, which will be difficult to say the least.

In June, Priscilla and I visited Chicago. I was awed by the architecture and the human ingenuity behind it. Some highlights of the trip were an architectural river cruise, Navy Pier, Buckingham Fountain, Maggie Daley Park, the Field Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and visiting Skydeck at Willis Tower when there were no lines due to heavy fog.

Then last month, we went to Seattle and visited a couple airport lounges (Priscilla loves using her Priority Pass and American Express Platinum card to get into lounges), the Seattle Art Museum, Pike Place, the Museum of Pop Culture, and the Amazon Go store which is an amazing technical feat. We also spent a whole day with Nathan and Andrea and their very energetic toddler at their church, house and two restaurants. We stayed with them longer than planned, but it was the most rewarding part of our trip.

Five months from now, we'll be visiting Barcelona. We're spending a few minutes a day learning Spanish, hoping to better immerse ourselves in the culture when we visit, and hoping to better remember and utilize the Spanish that we learned in high school. I took three years of Spanish in high school and quickly forgot almost all of it. Sad.

This year, I've taught myself more about cars. It was just a year ago that I knew almost nothing about car maintenance, and cared almost as little about having it done. Once it sunk in that this was not a good long-term approach, I started researching more about what maintenance items needed to be done on our old cars. My cheapness, as well as my mechanic's reluctance to fix everything on my nearly 30-year-old car, made me decide to learn to fix some things myself. YouTube, after all, is a great teacher. On the Taurus, I solved an idling issue by cleaning the IAC, diagnosed and replaced a faulty multi-function switch, replaced the fuel filter, and replaced the valve cover gaskets. The car is not designed to be easy to work on, especially since it has a bulky V6 engine. On the other hand, the Corolla is designed nicely, down to the little things like all the bolt heads being 10mm. I haven't had to do as much work on the Corolla (it's a very reliable car), but I did replace the spiral cable behind the steering wheel (the dealer wanted $700 to replace it; I did it myself using a $12 part from eBay), diagnose and replace a faulty compressor clutch relay, and replace the spark plugs. I never imagined I'd learn so much about vehicle maintenance, but YouTube and Haynes/Chilton repair manuals have gotten me far.

So back to the issue of passion. Where is mine? As much as some people claim to be passionate about their jobs, I can't honestly say that I'm passionate about mine. I have a great job with awesome teammates, and I generally enjoy the work that I do. But at the end of the day, it's just a job that's a means to an end, and not something that I live and breathe. A tow truck driver (whose services I enlisted - see above about not taking good car of my car) once told me, "If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life." That guy claimed to love his job that much. I don't think that will be me. Work is not what fulfills me.

I guess what I enjoy is learning skills and then putting them into practice. I think that's what kept me interested in working on cars - learning a skill to solve a tangible problem. Given enough time, there are a few things I want to do. I'd like to get better at running, trail running in particular, and be able to easily run an ultramarathon. Running the 30-mile Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail is on my bucket list. I'd like to learn to sail and get an ASA certification; being able to charter a boat from SF to Angel Island or even be 100 miles from shore for a week sounds great. And I'd like to learn to fly a plane and get a private pilot license. But these are goals, not passions.

Honestly, I don't think I've found a real passion yet. Maybe I'm still trying to get in touch with myself, to figure out who the real me is while working on the things I think need adjustment. But one thing's for certain - I want to make sure that (what are hopefully) the middle years of my life are meaningful, a time of growth, and not just gone in the blink of an eye.

Today was Jonathan's last day playing on the worship team with us, and it was a bittersweet time for me and Priscilla. It was great playing "Jesus Shall Reign" and "O The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus" with him today. He has his own unique style (and level of talent) that nobody else at church can replicate. It may very well be that we'll never do those songs at church again.

Jonathan joined the team in either 2009 or 2010. Before that, it was just me and Scott. Over the years, Jonathan and I have played together under every worship leader we've had: Scott, Uncle Raymond, Tim, the other Tim, Joe, Daniel and Brian, though he's had to play less frequently as a couple other pianists joined over the years. I've really admired him for his talent, his humbleness, and his words of godly wisdom over email and on our short-lived RBF worship blog.

I'm a little sad that I never got the chance to know him outside of worship at RBF, but perhaps there's still time for us to get together before he leaves. He is leaving at the end of next month to accept a professorship at my alma mater. We wish him well, and he will be sorely missed.

Another year has unceremoniously come and gone, and while 2016 was a prodigious year for us in terms of activity, the same cannot be said of my blogging habits.

So for the benefit of posterity (or, more likely, my future self), here are the highlights from 2016.

At the end of April, Priscilla and I went up to SF to celebrate our anniversary. We got free entry to the California Academy of Sciences, de Young and the Exploratorium, courtesy of our friends' Chase Private Client card. We stayed a night at the Grand Hyatt for free, courtesy of Priscilla's credit card rewards. And we rode Uber and Lyft for free due to a signup promotion. Not a bad deal for an anniversary weekend!

At the beginning of June, we went to Carmel to celebrate our birthdays. We hiked Point Lobos and stayed a night at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands, again for free. We spent some time exploring Fisherman's Wharf the next day before returning home.

In mid-June, Sarah got married, so we drove down to LA and got to spend some time with family. Sarah got married at Bel Air Presbyterian Church, which has a really beautiful building and campus. I got carpal tunnel that weekend, presumably triggered by the driving, but that cleared up after a couple weeks of wearing a brace and trying to not type much. The joys of getting old.

Our all-church retreat was at Redwood Christian Park in August. It was about the same as the last time we were there, except Priscilla and I were in a family cabin this time instead of in a suite. We hiked to the cross in the nearby hills, and even got to do rock climbing this time around. The rock climbing was difficult and I didn't see anybody make it to the top of the "medium" difficulty route. Our retreat speaker was Pastor Alton from Berean Mission Church, and his messages encouraged us to live as a steward, a disciple-maker, a child of God, and a pursuer of Christ.

After the retreat, when trying to look for productive things to fill my time with, I came across a fitness mobile game called "Zombies, Run!". Definitely more productive than sinking all my time into an MMORPG. I played it for a month and ultimately quit due to the game always restarting when being run in the background, but during that time I bought some gear for running including bluetooth headphones for listening to music. In October, I bought a heart rate monitor to use with Strava, as well as a yearly subscription of Strava Premium. I really like Strava's Beacon feature, which allows me to share my real-time location data with Priscilla, and the Heatmap, which shows my running and cycling activity as a colored heatmap. I've also been more motivated to rack up running badges on Strava, which are admittedly easier to get than cycling badges. Apparently, badges and points, even if they are virtual, are the key to my heart.

So in trying to maximize my Strava achievements, I've been trying to do more runs and hikes. In 2016, I went on a total of 29 hikes; Priscilla a couple times fewer. My favorite hike this year was Mount Diablo in September. The panoramic views from the top were amazing. I went with Priscilla and Tracy and we did a 15-mile hike, and they were pretty tired most of the way up, but we slogged through it and I later designed die-cast medals for them for making it to the top.

We drove down to LA for both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Both were a good time of getting together with family and friends. We hiked with Victor and Sally during the Thanksgiving break, and ate with my Van Nuys friends and hung out with Raymond during the Christmas break.

During the Thanksgiving weekend, I bought new phones for myself and Priscilla. I got us both the ZTE Axon 7 Mini which, despite the name, is quite a large phone. This phone is better than our old ones in nearly every way, and we've enjoyed no longer having to deal with the frustrations of having a cheap smartphone.

During the rest of the holiday leading up to and following New Year's, I took the time to get housework done and look for contractors to help overhaul our front yard. I'd like to rip out the neglected plants we have and put in drip irrigation so that I can plant something that will be low-maintenance. With any luck, and a bit of money, we will have a nice looking front yard yet.

I have no doubt that the new year will be exciting and productive in its own capacity, but I'm hoping that it will be equally as restful. There is a saying that in the beginning of your life when you are young, you have energy and time, but no money. Then in the middle of your life, you have money and energy, but no time. Finally, towards the end of your life when you are old, you have time and money, but no energy. Well I'm clearly in the middle of my (anticipated) life, as I wish there were more hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done. I guess what I need is more downtime!

Since I've been on an unintentional blogging hiatus (another way of saying "neglecting my blogging duties") since August of last year, here's what's happened since then:

On the CI team at Pure, we had two college interns join us from June till September: Celia and Candice. I was their mentor, and the three of us worked on a project called the Artifact Cache, a system for caching build artifacts. The interns did well for their role, but we ended up extending an offer to just one of them, who initially accepted but later declined due to having moved up to San Francisco. Overall, it was a pleasure working with them, and our team learned a lot process-wise and what expectations to set on both sides of the fence.

In the middle of September, Priscilla, Christine and I flew up to Seattle to visit Nathan and Andrea, who had moved up a few months prior for Andrea's new job at Microsoft. On Saturday, we explored Pike Place, Chihuly Gardens and Glass and the Sky City restaurant at the Space Needle. On Sunday, we went to their church and did some hiking at Snoqualmie Falls, which has a beautiful waterfall. We flew back on Monday, but not before getting a tour of Microsoft.

On October 7, Pure IPO'd! Most Mountain View employees gathered early in the morning to watch the livestream of the opening bell at NYSE. The day was filled with much partying and food and little work, but the next day was back to work and business as usual. Since then, not much has changed, except for the fact that our options can be exercised for real shares of stock now (still in the 180-day lockup period until April).

Shortly after the IPO, our newest team member Maciej joined CI, and I served as his mentor. I've learned a lot about Docker and related technologies from him, and it's been a good pairing. So far we've used Docker to deploy a cron runner service and an HA-environment for our CI web applications.

Last December, Aaron and Lauren tied the knot at their church in Laguna Hills! I was the best man (returning the favor), and I didn't say anything too embarrassing during my speech, so presumably it went well. Priscilla and I drove down for the weekend and then drove back to the Bay Area on Monday. So for once, we were in the Bay Area for Christmas and New Year's and were able to spend those holidays with Uncle Kenway, Aunt Susan and her family.

It's been a busy few months, and with many things going on in 2016, it's sure to be a busy next few months as well!

Thanksgiving: Lots of being sick
We drove down to LA on Thanksgiving day; I was getting over being sick and Priscilla had gotten sick from me. Both families plus Aaron's girlfriend Lauren met at my parents' place for Thanksgiving dinner.

Priscilla and I took it easy over the weekend. We walked around the pond at Reseda Park every day and had hot pot with her parents on Saturday. On Sunday we went to CCAC and joined some old church friends afterward at Poquito Mas. And on Monday we drove back home.

Christmas: Lots of little things
Trying to avoid traffic again, we chose to drive down on Christmas day; we left at 8:30am (not super early) but traffic was light all the way (and barely any semi-trucks on the road!). Christmas dinner was again at my parents' place, but no Lauren (she was on a road trip with friends).

The next day, Raymond joined me and Priscilla in going to a sushi place (Sushi For You) I found on Yelp and hiking at San Vicente Mountain Park and Westridge-Canyonback Wilderness Park. On Saturday, Priscilla and I went with my family to Forest Lawn, where we visited my grandparents' columbarium. I think it was my first time visiting after they'd both passed away. The grounds at Forest Lawn are quite nice, and we visitied this large building where the Crucifixion (HUGE! The largest painting I've ever seen) and Resurrection paintings are on display, and another building housing a stained glass reproduction of The Last Supper. We had lunch at Hong Kong Kitchen (it was alright), and Priscilla and I had hot pot with her parents for dinner.

Sunday was perhaps the busiest day. Priscilla and I again visited CCAC and had lunch at Pieology with people; afterwards we all went to a new boba place called Boba My Tea. We hung out for a long while, and Raymond (who came with us) and I barely had time to make our way over to Van Nuys to hang out with our VNHS friends that evening. We watched The Interview (meh, occasionally funny but way too crude), which a couple of them had wanted to watch because of the recent hype, and had dinner at Kinnara Thai Restaurant (woot).

Monday again was the day we chose to drive home.

New Year's: Crowds, crowds, crowds
On New Year's day, after a month and a half of having to postpone our visit for one reason after another, we finally visited Nathan and Andrea at their new rental house and watched Mockingjay and had hot pot at Little Sheep. Both the theatre and restaurant were packed. I guess this is what many people do on New Year's!

I took Dec 25 through Jan 1 off from work, and returned to work today. I managed to get a lot done there, but it feels strange/liberating to work just one day and get another weekend. Here's to a restful and productive weekend, and a great new year!

After a couple months of sporadic training, it came time yesterday for Alex, Judy, Daniel, Sandra and me to do our 82 mile Waves to Wine ride with Bike MS!

Participants had the choice between 40, 82 and 104 miles from Daly City to Rohnert Park. In order to be closer to the starting point, Priscilla and I stayed Friday night at a hotel in South San Francisco, while the rest of the team made their way up from South Bay Saturday morning. We met up around 6:45am and rode out at 7:30. The ride lasted 9.5 hours which included 3 hours of breaks. There were 6 rest stops along the way, including one for lunch.

It was awesome that three meals were provided: a light bagel breakfast was served at the start, sandwiches were for lunch (I had turkey), and dinner including pesto penne and chicken was served at the finish. Water, energy snacks (I probably had at least 10 snacks over the course of the day) and porta-potties were abundant at each rest stop. Volunteers scattered along the way were extremely encouraging in cheering riders on and helped keep everyone's energy up.

Our group seemed to be slower than most riders, so over the course of the ride we fell towards the rear of the crowd. This meant the rest stops and ride itself weren't as crowded for us. We made it across the finish line 15 minutes before the 5pm deadline.

So from Daly City, we made our way up along the SF coast and through residential areas, across the Golden Gate Bridge, through Sausalito, then onto Highway 1 (which spanned 46 miles of the total trip) through Point Reyes and Tomales Bay, then finally along rural roads up to the finish line. Priscilla, Christine and Jessica were doing wine tasting in Napa and Sonoma during this time and met us in Rohnert Park after we'd crossed the finish line. Sandra's boyfriend, Daniel's parents and James and Charlotte were also there to give people a lift home.

It was a lot of fun, and over twice the furthest distance that we've done during practices, and I'm glad we all made it. Alex and Daniel separately had falls at low speeds but weren't hurt. Towards the latter half of the ride, they did have trouble keeping up with the girls, though. The girls rock!

Safety felt like a big issue, namely the lack of bike lanes on Highway 1 (which can't really be helped) and having to cross a busy two-lane road with traffic going at highway speeds at the end of the ride unassisted. There were police in SF and Sausalito to help direct traffic; after that I didn't see any police, just volunteers who were doing the same. A couple more volunteers placed at key points to direct traffic would've been appreciated.

The event was challenging, mainly in terms of stamina, but nothing that a steady pace and frequent breaks couldn't conquer. The next big ride, I hope, we can do a century!

So would I do this event again? The ride itself was fun and the event was overall well-coordinated, but it was a bit out of the way and I feel bad that people had to drive two hours from South Bay to pick us up. So... maybe? Perhaps the five of us can do a century ride closer to home - I think we could pull it off with the right determination!

When Aaron and my dad came up last month, Aaron brought up a new road bike I'd asked him to order for me, a white Specialized Roubaix SL4 Elite 105, MSRP $2,600, which he was able to get from the bike shop he worked at for $1,600 including tax.

Since then according to Strava, I've put over 100 miles on it, mainly commuting 8.5 miles each way to work. After moving to our new house, the commute was too tiring to do on my Crosstrail so I'd only done it once, on Bike to Work Day. But with the new road bike, the commute is so much more comfortable. Whereas hitting 20mph on the Crosstrail took quite a bit of effort, on the Roubaix I can do it with relative ease.

I've gone riding with co-workers to Philz twice, and I'm trying to spearhead semi-regular afternoon cycling rides at work. This past weekend I biked with Alex on a good deal of the Stanford Loop, except instead of starting from Stanford, we started from his place in Mountain View and took Foothill Expressway to get to Arastradero Road. The whole ride was 24 miles and my first real ride with hills. Fun!

The next thing to do will probably be upgrading the stock platform pedals; those are the only things that feel cheap on this bike. I swapped the hard saddle with the more comfortable one from my Crosstrail, which helps alleviate the pain on my sit bones from prolonged rides. Once I get used to wearing my new pair of bike shorts (Pearl Izumi from Amazon), I may put the original saddle back. I also feel soreness in the shoulders after prolonged rides; I haven't figured out the cause yet, but a co-worker suggested replacing the stem.

Right now, perhaps due to the new cables stretching, my shifting has gotten sloppy. Interestingly, I've never had this problem with my Crosstrail; it still shifts fine after I've put maybe 1,000 miles on it. Anyway, learning how to adjust the shifting on the Roubaix will be good to add to my repertoire of experience.

The week before the official move-in, we made a few trips by car between the apartment and the house, moving what small stuff we could. I had electricians come by the day before our move to ground 14 of our outlets for $125 apiece. Two outlets remain ungrounded, along the front wall of the house, which I skipped because it sounded like it'd entail damage to the wood siding to drill a hole to run a ground wire through the wall. But based on what the electricians did, it sounds like they can drill straight down through the space there and avoid having to drill through the siding, so I'm going to have them come back to finish grounding those two remaining outlets.

Then on moving day, January 18, I picked up a 16' truck from Budget, and Jacob and Kevin came by to help load all our furniture. Surprisingly (to me), all the furniture fit in the truck without having to stack anything. Christine showed up later and helped move small stuff. Unfortunately, both Jacob and Kevin had to split and couldn't stay for lunch, missing out on the yummy sloppy joes Priscilla made! The moving process took about three hours.

Since then, Priscilla and I have gotten the bed, our desks and the living room set up. She moved all the boxes of stuff to the two smaller bedrooms, where we'll deal with them when we have more time. I ordered a Maytag washer and dryer from Home Depot, and they arrived yesterday. I set the washer up (always nice to have more automation!), but I still need to order a gas hose for the dryer. We also now have a shag rug from Costco that Tim delivered to us in his minivan (which was a funny story because we called him to ask for his help transporting the huge rug that wouldn't fit in our car, only to find out that he was at that moment at Costco in Mountain View, 20 feet from the rugs). Finally, a sofa and chaise from a local furniture store is on its way this week, and Priscilla is looking at accent chairs. After that, a TV stand and TV will likely be the next items of purchase.

Yep, this place is beginning to feel more like home. There's still a ton of stuff to do, but we need to remember to take it one step at a time.

After losing bids on houses in February and June, Priscilla and I got a little discouraged and stopped looking. But at the end of last month, Daniel and Kelly got their offer accepted for a house in Sunnyvale, which motivated me and Priscilla to start looking again. Hey, why not? After all, the bidding isn't as intense during the winter holidays, so we thought we might have a better chance now.

So on December 7, we looked at five open houses in Santa Clara. We were surprised at how much inventory was on the market; we passed by signs for a few other open houses not on our list. Of the five we saw, our impressions ranged from "everybody's going to want this" to "who's going to want this?". We eventually decided on one in a quiet neighborhood, with 3 bedrooms (but more like 2.5 since one is very small) and 2 baths, and a 1-car garage. It didn't seem to be getting the same attention that some of the other houses we went to were, and ultimately there were 13 other offers (as opposed to 30 when we were bidding on the second house!). The house was listed at $683k, we bid $755k and the highest was $762k with some contingencies. Thanks to our top-notch buyer's agent, Susanna, ours was overall the most attractive offer since we put down no contingencies and a large deposit. The personal letter and pictures from us probably helped, too. ;)

Due to her previous job as a loan processor, Priscilla knew which documents she would need to provide to the loan company, especially since all large deposits from the last two months needed to be explained. Verification of my employment and financials went pretty much without a hitch due to her tireless efforts, Susanna's clout, and the excellent processors that we're working with, and today we were notified that our loan was approved, ahead of schedule, by the underwriter. All that's left is to go sign things, and close of escrow is January 8. I've largely taken a backseat to the whole loan process, but I'll definitely make up for it when it's time to make monthly mortgage payments!

One nice thing about the house is that it's move-in ready. The paint, roof, wood floors, granite countertops and copper piping are new. All that really needs to be done is some electrical work to run a ground wire to the outlets in the house. Priscilla's parents also want to buy us furniture and appliances.

We're very blessed to have parents who love and support us, adequate savings (again made possible mostly by our parents' and my grandfather's support), Priscilla's brief background in loan processing, and fortunate timing. God has blessed us with this house and made the process very smooth. Our hope is that we'll use this house to honor him and as a tool for ministry to those around us.

I realized I'd never written about the computer I built last year. In late August and early September, I began amassing components when they were on sale. I got the following from Newegg:

• Intel Core i5 3570K processor, 3.4GHz
• ASRock Z77 Pro3 motherboard
• Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB DDR3-1600 RAM
• Corsair TX650 650W power supply
• Antec DF-35 black case
• LG DVD burner
• Windows 7 Home Premium

I assembled the computer in September, and I was running with an old, cheap GeForce card until December, when I scored a sweet deal on a GeForce GTX 650 Ti from Amazon.

Since then, I've played through several games: Torchlight II, Portal, Portal 2, and Faster Than Light. None of those games are extremely graphics intensive, so my rig can run them at max settings.

Two months ago, Alex from church introduced me to a mobile augmented reality game called Ingress, made by a startup within Google. Ingress is a cross between capture the flag and Foursquare, fought between two factions: the Enlighted (green) and the Resistance (blue). Exotic Matter, or XM, is a new type of energy discovered that emanates from portals in the game which are located at landmarks such as public art, fountains, post offices, churches and historical buildings in the real world. The two factions are embroiled in an ongoing fight for control of these portals in order to achieve global dominance.

Portals can be interacted with only by being at their location in the real world, hence the challenge. And since the game does not always work well when commuting by automobile (there seems to be a 25% chance of requests failing at normal road speeds, and nothing works at freeway speeds), the preferred methods of commute are biking and walking. Through this gamification, Google gets a ton of user-submitted data about landmarks, and pedestrian mapping data for areas inaccessible by car. Once again, Google proves its brilliance.

The gameplay is simple: "hack" portals to acquire items like resonators and bursters, destroy enemy portals using bursters, and build friendly portals using resonators. Hacking a portal has the chance of yielding a portal key, which is used to create energy links between portals. Linking three portals creates a control field, which yields a number of mind units calculated based on the size of the field and the real-life population density within. The real-time total mind unit counts for each faction is shown in the game client and on the Ingress Intel webpage, and maximizing one's faction's mind unit count is seen by some as the ultimate goal of the game. Some people come up with impressive operations to create links thousands of kilometers long and fields of millions of mind units, which is especially a challenge because no two links can cross. Huge fields have been created covering all of the Bay Area, all of the west coast, a good portion of the continental U.S., and New Zealand, to name a few.

So back to my own Ingress-ventures. Alex plays Enlightened, but I found that my beliefs aligned more with the Resistance, people distrustful of XM and their alleged source, the Shapers, so I joined the blues to Alex's good-humored chagrin. I quickly joined the South Bay Area Resistance Google+ group and have met two Resistance agents in person while out playing the game; I also found out that a co-worker at Pure is also a blue player. I was hooked nearly instantly, and achieved Level 8, the highest level possible, in seven weeks.

Since reaching this personal end goal, I haven't been playing as much. I'll still run the client when in a car (or have Priscilla do it when I'm driving) to drive-by hack portals, but I don't go out as much as before to play. The game is a bit pointless entertainment, but it's something fun that can be enjoyed responsibly. It's made me exercise more- the game says I've walked 210km, and that's not including distance covered by bike. Plus I've gotten to know where many landmarks are in my area, which can't be a bad thing!

Last Friday was my last day at AST, and it was a bittersweet day. I made my rounds saying goodbye to the friends I've made over my five years of employment. I had my exit interview with HR at 2pm, but since I was being paid for the whole day, I wanted to get as much work done as possible and work a full day.

Unfortunately, though I requested that AST keep my badge and computer accounts active through the rest of the day, that fact wasn't conveyed up to Raytheon IT which manages the Windows accounts. As I would soon find out, there was a request to have my Windows account deactivated by 5pm, but it was actually done a litle earlier, because some time after 4pm I locked my computer and stepped out, and when I got back I couldn't log back in.

I placed a call to Raytheon IT, but the guy who took my call was powerless to do anything but put in a ticket. The people with the power to unlock my account had gone home, and going by experience, I knew it'd probably be a couple business days before my ticket was even looked at.

Moral of the story: Don't lock your computer on your last day. Or maybe it should be "Go home early on your last day like everybody else does." At any rate, I was able to get into my computer using the local admin account, but since I couldn't access my user account, I couldn't get to my email. I just tied up loose ends as best as I could and had my officemate send my goodbye email on my behalf.

And so, that chapter of my life was closed. Not in the most elegant way possible, but certainly in a memorable one.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of reconnecting with most of my former team at my belated goodbye lunch at Sweet Tomatoes in Mountain View. I didn't want anything special done for me, but Lisa insisted on it, and we agreed to have it this week so that my former manager (who would be in town that day) could make it. Seeing my former coworkers again was really great, even though I'd only been gone for less than a week.

And now, there's Pure Storage, where I started this past Monday. This week has been extremely busy, as I've had no down time at work. Pure follows more or less an agile methodology, and people work long hours (I even see emails bouncing around after midnight) and half-jokingly apologize when they don't work weekends.

For now, I'm on the devtest (development in test) team. I have a mentor who's been helping me get up to speed, and I've been learning a lot, but the learning curve is huge. I've learned enough to start fixing my first issue, a non-destructive upgrade test that's failing because an assumption is broken when installing an older build on a non-blank slate system.

So do I like it at Pure? Indeed. Everybody there has been friendly and helpful, and sometimes other people will chime in when I'm asking somebody for help. The open floor plan definitely makes that possible.

Since Pure is a startup (mid-stage now, I think), there's less process and red tape in place. You get to pick your own keyboard and mouse, which are ordered before your start date. Need a standing desk? Ergotron ordered; almost half of the engineers have one. How should your code get reviewed? In whatever way works best for you. What kind of laptop would you like? We have Windows, Mac and Linux. You can compile your code natively in Windows or do it in a Linux VM.

The free snacks and drinks in the breakroom are also much appreciated. As are the catered lunches that coincide with the weekly company meeting, dinners provided for those working late, and a lunch delivery service where the company pays the delivery cost and tax. Silverware, plates, bowls and cups are provided as well. It all boils down to making things convenient for employees to allow them to be more productive. I'm glad this company recognizes this.

Eventually I'll hope to have a better work-life balance (I don't want to be working so much that I don't get to enjoy life) once I become more experienced, and thereby more efficient. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the work that I'm doing, and I'm glad to be onboard.

Last week was the first Thanksgiving that Priscilla and I celebrated as a married couple. On Thanksgiving day, we went down to LA with a friend from church, Eunice, at 6am. There were a good amount of cars on the road, but traffic flowed smoothly, and we got there in 5 hours - our best record yet. That night, Priscilla's parents joined us at our parents' place for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

The next day, we did some Black Friday shopping! Priscilla's parents had been talking about getting an iPad, so we got them an iPad2 from Target, where it was being sold with a promotional $60 Target gift card. We also stopped by Fry's to get a 2.5" hard drive enclosure, since my laptop started having boot problems, and I hadn't been good at backing up my files.

On Friday afternoon, we joined Deborah in hanging out with Crescentia and her parents at their house. Crescentia had said she was too busy studying to hang out with us, so Priscilla's plan was to bring the hangout to her! Although it was supposed to be a potluck, Crescentia's mom cooked a lot and provided about 80% of the meal.

Saturday morning, Priscilla and I went hiking at Aliso Canyon Park in Porter Ranch, went to DSW and failed to find boots that fit her after an hour of searching, and picked up food from Hot Wok to take to Justin and Vicky's house for a potluck/hangout. Tim and Victor joined us and we ended up playing Star Trek Catan. Sally joined us a bit late, and she ate while we finished playing. I felt bad because she didn't get to play with us, and after the long game it was already too late to do anything else. But a few of us did just end up talking for half an hour before we went home.

Finally, on Sunday after church, a bunch of current and former CCAC people (all different people from the ones we'd hung out with previously) joined us for lunch at Small Island. We had a good dozen people, including the guy that Deborah's been seeing! We had a good time of catching up with people.

We ended up leaving LA around 3:30, and traffic on the 5 was stop and go! It was so bad that I ended up taking a detour through the mountainy highways 198 and 25. We ended up getting home around 11:30, and I'm sure it would've been even later had I not taken the detour! Lesson learned: Sunday afternoon is probably the worst time to drive back from a Thanksgiving holiday.

Another entry late by a month. I really need to get on top of blogging about things right after they happen. I tend to take care of things in a LIFO manner, and when too many new things come up, the older things get buried. Hence I still have a bunch of Yelp reviews to write for Oahu.

So from the 28-30th of September, I was down in Central California with the wifey, Kenny and Raymond on our de facto annual camping trip. We camped at Montana de Oro State Park in Los Osos and visited Morro Bay during the day. The location was ideal because it's roughly halfway between the SoCal and NorCal folks. Bao, Minh and Christine were supposed to join us, but they bailed at the last minute to do house shopping. At least Minh and Christine were nice enough to hand off a ton of food and supplies to Raymond, who brought them up from SoCal.

So the three of us NorCal people carpooled down in Kenny's car early Friday afternoon. We grabbed lunch at Vito's Famous Pizza (meh) in Sunnyvale, stopped at an archery shop in Gilroy for Kenny to scope out prices, then continued the rest of the way to the campgrounds. The total drive took about 4 hours and traffic was light.

When we got to the campground, we scoped out sites (they're available on a first come, first serve basis) and decided on one that was flat, spacious and isolated - pretty much perfect. Being a Friday and not during peak season, fewer than half of the sites were occupied when we arrived. Priscilla and I set up our tent while Kenny bought us some firewood, we walked to Spooner's Cove nearby, walked back to camp when it started getting dark, and waited.

Meanwhile, Raymond had gotten a late start up from LA (understandable, since he had to pick up gear from Minh), had been stuck for a couple hours in LA traffic, and still had a ways to go. Unfortunately he had Minh's tent and all the food, so there wasn't much the rest of us were able to do while we waited. He finally arrived around 9pm, and we all worked to prepare chicken foil wraps and steak and pitched the large tent that Raymond and Kenny would be sharing. We ate until we were stuffed, Kenny brought out Bourbon for us to try, Raymond got humorously tipsy, and we all went to bed. Priscilla and I were extremely comfortable, since we had new sleeping pads that I got from Amazon (having learned my lesson from being very uncomfortable the last time we went camping). But Priscilla was cold, since her sleeping bag is old and thin.

We got better at starting campfires compared to the last time we went camping, since this time Kenny knew to use more kindling. He brought an axe to split firewood, and Priscilla somehow had the best wood splitting technique of us all. After a steak and egg breakfast in the morning, we drove over to Morro Bay and went to Rock Kayak where we rented two doubles. We weren't allowed out of the bay, so we just paddled around looking at boats and sea lions, saw Morro Rock semi-close up, and docked on the sandbar on the opposite side of the bay. Kenny and Raymond went for a walk while Priscilla and I made our signature heart with A+P in the sand.

For lunch, we went to a plaza and had turkey sandwiches. Afterwards, we bought three containers of redworms at a fishing shop and headed down to the north t-pier for some fishing. Kenny, Raymond and I had all bought fishing poles from Amazon specifically for this trip. Priscilla was the only one with prior fishing experience, and she was the only one who caught something! She caught a small jacksmelt, which we would gut, cook and eat a few days later. Meanwhile, the more experienced family fishing off the end of the pier was catching fish left and right.

We had more chicken wraps and steak that night. Bourbon followed again, and I showed a slightly higher tolerance for it this time, drinking three standard pours without getting too red.

After breakfast the following morning, Kenny took us on a hike on the trails around the campground. We probably hiked a good 3-4 miles, and we got a great view of Spooner's Cove and the camp site below from atop a hill.

It was late after camping, and we decided that we would have time only for lunch. We had two containers of redworms remaining, so we just dumped them at the edge of camp. In hindsight, Kenny realized that they were the right kind of worms that he could've used in his home garden.

After packing up and debating where to get lunch, we finally agreed to go back to Morro Bay. We ended up eating a late lunch at one of the few places that was still open - Giovanni's Fish Market. The food was ok; I enjoyed eating some of Priscilla's clam chowder bowl, but it was a little pricey for such a small bowl.

We parted ways here, with Raymond heading back to Irvine, and the rest of us heading back to NorCal with Kenny. The trip was fun and the basic level of amenities are probably the lowest I'm comfortable with. I was starting to feel dirty from getting smokey from the campfires and not showering for two days. Any longer than that and I would've started to feel really gross. Needless to say, one of the first things I did when getting back home was to take a thorough, hot shower!

Tis the season, for weddings! Two weeks ago, Victor and Sally tied the knot. My parents, Aaron, Priscilla and I made it to their wedding in Torrance. At their dinner reception at a fancy hotel, Victor surprised us all by doing a dance routine with Sally. I never imagined that I'd see him dance, yet he was confident... and loving it! Sally, who's a dancing queen, taught him well!

Then last week, it was Stan and Jackie's turn at the altar. Priscilla and I didn't get invited, but last I heard (i.e. saw on Facebook) they were having a blast on their honeymoon in Hawaii.

Then today, Priscilla's cousin Hanson and his long-time girlfriend Anna Grace entered into their own lifelong commitment. The wedding was also in Torrance and the reception was also at a fancy hotel. The steak was the best!

And lots of others are getting married too. Priscilla and I carpooled down from the Bay Area this weekend with two church friends. One was down for his niece's wedding, and the other for his friend's bachelor party. Yep, tis the season indeed.

Having been through the wedding planning process, Priscilla and I now have an appreciation for all the little nuances of other peoples' weddings. We notice program wording, the way the groomsmen and bridesmaids enter the wedding hall, the way people on stage are facing, verbal cues, the decor, photographer placement, and all the other little things we would've glossed over before. And if they're anything like us, we know that though the newlyweds have now passed the stressful part, the busyness is far from over.

As I mentioned in the previous post, this weekend Priscilla and I attended Will and Val's wedding at a cherry orchard in Leona Valley. I can safely say that I've never been to a more unique wedding. Will and Val really went all out. Guests were shuttled from the parking lot in a wagon pulled by a tractor, and paper parasols were distributed since the weather was so hot. Guests had been encouraged to wear cowboy boots and hats, and all the bridesmaids wore boots, and all the groomsmen donned suspenders. Between the ceremony and dinner reception, there was live country music, pony rides for kids, a petting zoo, polaroid photo op to make photos that would be given to the newlyweds, and a dessert bar with various treats brought by different people. A trailer with air conditioned executive restrooms was provided. The restrooms, adorned with wood paneling and classy artwork, rivaled those of high-end restaurants.

The dinner reception was held under a large tent. We had country barbeque with all the fixin's, and lemonade and iced tea drunk out of jars and striped straws. There were around 50 tables, each of which had a uniquely decorated picture frame with the table number and a fun fact about the newlyweds corresponding to that number. In lieu of the regular glass clinking-kissing tradition, there was a basket into which people could put either money or notes of encouragement, which would allow them to ring a cowbell which only then would make the wedded couple kiss.

Finally after dinner, two step dance lessons were offered. It was a lot of fun, but Priscilla and I are a little lacking in dancing ability. The whole day way a ton of fun, and this will surely be a wedding I'll never forget!

I never imagined that married life would be so... busy. As a "loophole" to us having a relatively small wedding, my parents threw two dinner receptions for people we didn't have room for, one reception in LA on the wedding night, and the other in the Bay Area the week after. I got to meet relatives I never knew I had on both sides of the family. Or at least they came to the restaurant and claimed to be my relatives, and I was none the wiser. The receptions were fun but exhausting, especially the night of the wedding, since after the wedding Priscilla and I just wanted to sleep. Needless to say, my face was sore by the end of the night, having to smile for pictures all day long.

Priscilla and I drove up to the Bay Area the day after the wedding, the car packed with her stuff and wedding gifts, but we got a late start and got there around 2am. Monday was supposed to be our day to go sightseeing around San Francisco, but we were really sick and ended up staying home to clean the apartment. I guess it was needed, since we had quite a bunch of stuff to unpack and put away.

That week I returned to Norcal Furniture to get a desk and computer stand for Priscilla. All the furniture I got from Norcal (including the sofa bed and dining set from last time) is a dark cappucino color, so it'll look good if we ever put it all in the same room.

The wifey has been cooking gourmet food for me. She made lasagna, slow cooked chicken and salmon when our parents were visiting, and chicken kabob and sloppy joes when my uncle and aunt came over. There've also been tacos and smoothies, egg frittatas and corn chowder, chicken pasta and lots of other things I wouldn't normally take the time to make for myself.

We've also been to a few peoples' houses for dinner, which will continue for the next few weeks, and we'll have them over to eat at our place soon. Finally, Priscilla and I have consumed the rest of our free time by writing most of our thank you cards. This weekend we're going down to LA for Val and Will's countryside wedding, and in fact I'm only finding time to blog because Priscilla's driving the first leg of the trip down.

So aside from all the business, how's married life been? Well, it's certainly different having another person in the bed when I'm trying to sleep. I'm a light sleeper, so somebody bumping into me or tugging at the blankets is enough to wake me up. The fact that I have a full size bed (smaller than queen) doesn't help. Fortunately some church friends lent us a king size comforter, which now means there's more than enough blanket coverage for both of us. If only we could buy a bigger bed if space permitted. For now, my sleeping will just have to adapt, or else.

Other than that, marriage hasn't changed a whole lot, except Priscilla is probably cooking a lot healthier than she's used to. For a while, it felt weird realizing that we're husband and wife, but it's mostly sunk in now. We've also gotten used to having gone from being in a long distance relationship to seeing each other every single day. ;)

Well, it happened. Priscilla and I tied the knot on April 28. She's now.... my wife. Ewww.

The wedding went surprisingly well. Aaron and I got there around 7:30am to help set up tables and chairs. Stephanie was already there directing people (like her sons who had or were volunteered into helping), and Priscilla was already there with her makeup artist. Aaron and I later got suited up, Priscilla and I had a time of prayer alone, and Tom joined us for prayer afterward. We were ready before 11am, the start of the wedding, but the ceremony started maybe 15 minutes past the hour to allow stragglers to arrive. Nonetheless, we still managed to stay on or even ahead of schedule.

The ceremony went pretty much perfectly. Auntie Jean played flawlessly (as far as I could tell), Crescentia sang beautifully, Tom gave an excellent message about how our marriage should be a testament of God's love, and Priscilla only stumbled over one part of her vows, which everybody in the room had a good laugh over. Deborah and Aaron looked great, Natalie was adorable, our mothers did really well lighting the candles, and my dad even learned how to hug! Before we knew it, the ceremony was over, we walked down the aisle happily, came right back for pictures, and then it was time for food!

Unfortunately due to all the excitement, I didn't have much of an appetite. I also had to scarf down my food quickly so that we could go take pictures with each table, so I didn't get to fully enjoy the food. But many guests told me that the food was excellent. Roz, Lowell and crew (they had a lot of people helping in the kitchen and helping to serve guests) did an amazing job.

In addition to being the maid of honor, Deborah graciously accepted the role of MC for the reception. She and Aaron gave really touching and funny speeches. Audrey's four-tiered cake was amazing, though Priscilla and I got to eat only a bite of it. Heeman's floral arrangements looked amazing, and we were happy especially with the table centerpieces which were really beautiful and cost only $20 each. Finally, after the rest of the guests had left, my school friends stayed and helped clean up and break down tables and chairs. By the time Priscilla and I had left, there were still people in the kitchen, cleaning selflessly for what surely would've been a long time.

The day went so well and according to plan. I wish I could've talked with everybody in attendance, but time just wouldn't allow for that. Priscilla and I are blessed to have so many friends who truly love and support us, as well as our parents who argued strongly in favor of having a wedding this large and who helped pay for many of the costs, including the whole reception. Planning such a significant event certainly was stressful (definitely moreso for Priscilla) and at times I downright hated it, but I'm really glad we did it. I feel like the wedding in a small way honored our parents, even though much of it was their money, and our friends, even though we recruited many of them to help. It was so wonderful being served by so many of our friends, starting from a few months ago till now, which also helped keep our costs down. I'm really grateful for our friends, and I know it will be hard for Priscilla to leave them behind, but I hope that we can stay in touch with them as Priscilla and I begin this new chapter in our lives.

Last night was the much awaited rehearsal. Pastor Tom had some good ideas about what everybody should be doing, and we tweaked as Stephanie, Priscilla and I saw fit. Crescentia showed up near the end to practice her singing role as Priscilla and I were rushed through all the steps that we'll be doing during that time. I felt like the rehearsal was a bit rushed, and we didn't actually take the time to run through it at the actual pace from start to finish. I guess everybody just wanted to get to StoneFire on time so that we could eat.

I hope everything goes smoothly tomorrow. I'm sure it won't, but we'll just roll with it. Priscilla's done an amazing job coordinating everything- all the caterers, venue, reception logistics, helpers, etc. I know she had help planning from Stephanie and Roz, but she still took it to a level that I'm sure I never could. I'm truly blessed to be marrying such an amazing girl.

Oh and my dad needs to learn to hug better.

We have furniture! Last week I picked up a five-piece dining set and a vinyl sofa bed from a place called NorCal Furniture, a home business where the guy works directly with suppliers. I was originally going to go with some mediocre looking furniture from Ikea, the best looking in that particular price range, but on a lark I checked Yelp and found NorCal. NorCal had much better looking furniture for less than what I would've paid at Ikea! Plus NorCal also had a 15% off promotion for liking them on Facebook. After tax and shipping and assembly charges, I paid $530, which I think was a great deal.

This weekend I bought us a nicely-sized microwave from Costco for $100. Priscilla's last day at work was last Friday, so she and her parents drove up to bring up some of her stuff (gifts from people, blankets, clothes and a mountain of shoes).

We went to Ikea and bought a kitchen cart (for extra counter space), microwave cart, computer chair, floor lamp and various odds and ends. Priscilla still needs a desk, and Ikea didn't have one that I liked, so I'll be getting one through NorCal next week. In the meantime, our apartment is really starting to look like a home!

In preparation for our upcoming life together, today I moved into the apartment that Priscilla and I selected. If you count the one-month stint in corporate housing, this is the sixth place I have lived in during my 4.25 years in the Bay Area. Interestingly, Sunnyvale has been the destination of every other move. Corporate housing was in Santa Clara, followed by Olive Garden in Sunnyvale, then the townhouse in Mountain View, then the house in Sunnyvale, then Kenny's house in Santa Clara, and now back to Sunnyvale. I suppose it's because I like to be close to work. Work will now be only 1.8 miles away from home, so I will feel self-imposed shame if I don't bike there whenever I don't need a car later in the evening.

Today I had a reservation for a 10' truck from Budget, but when I showed up, only a 16' was available. This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the 16' truck was just big enough to accommodate all of my furniture and boxes, minus the dining set and couch that I will be leaving behind. Jon and Albert from church came to help, and Kenny and Fred lent a hand. I had packed mostly everything the night before, and having a large crew allowed us to finish loading the truck, drive to the new place, unload everything and arrange furniture, chill for a little while, and return back to Monroe in a span of two and a half hours.

It was a little early for dinner but I wanted to treat everybody, so we eventually decided on SGD Tofu House in Santa Clara. After tax and tip it came out to $21 a person (ouch), but it was a very enjoyable meal. Jon ordered the bbq pork and I had the bbq chicken, and the amount of meat put on our plate was enormous. The seafood pancake really hit the spot and the spicy squid appetizer was pretty decent too.

I'm really glad the move went so smoothly. My friends are truly awesome. Now comes the real time-consuming part: unpacking all my boxes and finding a place for all of my junk!

This was another productive wedding planning weekend. I flew down to LA Saturday morning and back up Monday night. On Saturday, Aaron and I went to get measured for our tuxedos. I was originally going to get them from Men's Wearhouse, but I found a place called Friar Tux Shop on the other side of the street, listed in the yellow pages. Aaron and I ended up going to both and liked the selection and service at Friar Tux Shop much better. Priscilla met us there, and after much deliberation on my part and much input from the helpful sales associate, I ordered a fitted tux with white tie and vest to match Priscilla's dress, and Aaron ordered (rather, I ordered for him since he had no preference) a traditional-style tux with silver vest and green tie to match Deborah's dress.

After the two hour tux-picking session, Priscilla and I went to Justin and Vicky's house and joined a few people in cutting potatos and onions in preparation for an Easter Breakfast to be held at New Life Church the following day. For dinner, we got some mostly palatable fried food from Church's Chicken. Afterwards, Priscilla and I felt guilty, so we took a walk around the neighborhood and burned off 1% of the calories that we had consumed earlier.

On Sunday, Aaron took me to New Life, and afterwards Priscilla had her makeup trial at her house with a girl named Page she found online. Page made Priscilla look amazing with wavy hair (I thought it looked closer to curly but oh well), so I just had to take Priscilla to the park to take model pictures. Page promised that Priscilla would look even more amazing at the wedding.

Finally, the following day, the two of us went to the Van Nuys County Clerk to get an application for a marriage license for $90. Their website states that the processing time can be an hour, so we were prepared to wait a while, but the place wasn't too busy, so the clerk actually took our form, entered it into the computer, and came back a few minutes later with the application ready to be signed after the ceremony. We picked a good time to get there, because the line of people had grown much longer by the time we were done.

We've really been on top of this wedding stuff. I'll even dare say, it's beginning to be kind of fun. ;)

Priscilla and I decided sometime last month that she would be moving up to the Bay Area after we get married. Or more like, I made the decision because of the tech job opportunities up here and the fact that we'd be more financially stable in the short run if I were to keep my job. And she unreservedly agreed to leave her job, parents, thriving church, and the home she's known for 26 years to be with me. That's how selfless she is and how lucky I am to have her.

This weekend she came up to do apartment hunting, and we found a place we liked. On Friday I sifted through entries on Craigslist and PadMapper and found three viable leads. Of those, one never contacted me back, one sounded pissed off on the phone, and my top lead returned my call and sounded polite and sincere. So I went and checked out the latter's place and liked what I saw and liked the neighborhood. It's in the middle of Sunnyvale 1.8 miles from work, a real convenience. I returned with Priscilla on Saturday and she liked it too, so we paid the deposit and now the place will be ours!

The apartment is on the first floor in the back of a fourplex. It was touted as 700 square feet but feels more like 500. Cozy is the word. The bedroom seems a little bigger than my current one, the closet takes up the length of a whole wall, the bathroom is roomy enough and has ample sink space, and the living/dining room should be just big enough for a couch, coffee table, dining table and computer table. The only major downside is the kitchen has very little counter space, no built-in microwave and no dishwasher. But Priscilla will be the primary user of the kitchen and she thinks we can make it work.

The landlord, Tony, is a 77-year old Korean man who seems intelligent and looks very healthy and young for his age. He and his wife will celebrate their 50th anniversary this year! They seem personable and reasonable and are letting me move in in mid-April.

We're getting all this for $1200, which is not the best price, but reasonable given current market conditions. This is the first time I've gone with the first apartment/house I've seen, but I felt like it was right.

On Saturday we also saw Hunger Games with some church friends. Priscilla has been dying to see that movie after reading the books. I thought it has an interesting story and good CG, and I'll probably read the books at some point.

Priscilla wants to attend a church with a choir she can sing in, so we've been considering going to a new church since RBF has no English choir. On Sunday we checked out North Valley Baptist Church in Santa Clara. I visited four years ago but didn't remember much except that they had a choir and the message was powerful. But Priscilla and I found the church to be a little more traditional than we're used to, especially since she would like a choir that does more of a blend of traditional and contemporary.

The rest of the weekend was spent making lots of food! We made tacos on Saturday using rotisserie chicken, and Priscilla boiled the leftovers on Sunday to make soup. I made turkey and mushroom burgers. Priscilla wants me to be her guinea pig for her cooking when we get married. I don't think I'll mind in the very least.

wedding: noun. a momentous, jubilant occasion where multi-faceted consumerism masquerades as timeless tradition.

Priscilla and I have always been simple people. A simple wedding at city hall with just immediate family would've sufficed for us. Packing our wedding with 140 people, decorating everything, and hosting a reception with fancy plates, tablecloths and centerpieces never appealed to us. The presence of so many guests and niceties are more for our parents, and we've come to respect that, especially since they volunteered to pay for the reception.

This weekend, due to the President's Day holiday, I drove down to LA for more wedding planning. I almost didn't make it since I was sick all week, but on the planned day of travel I was feeling well enough to make the drive. I made the return trip today, which gave us a lot of time to do things.

On Saturday we had our long-awaited meal tasting at Roz's house. Roz and Lowell have been perfecting the menu, and using their families as guinea pigs in the process, and it shows. The food was amazing. We had two types of salad to choose from- mandarin orange and Asian pear, soy sauce chicken fillets, walnut shrimp, soy sauce fish, green beans with mushrooms, and a sparkling punch made from orange juice and ginger ale. Every bite was delicious. Roz served us with all the place settings that will be used in April- square ceramic plates and a hunter green napkin with silverware and disposable chopsticks. She even surprised us with custom-labeled pint-sized water bottles: she got a picture of me and Priscilla, got the pattern from our wedding invitation, and printed them onto the label. For all we're getting, we're getting a really good deal.

After dinner, Stephanie, our wedding planner, came over and we went over logistics about reception seating and traffic flow. On Sunday, we met with Tom and Amanda at their house and worked out ceremony details. And on Monday, Priscilla and I went to All Valley Rentals in North Hills to check out tables with umbrellas so that we can provide shade for people sitting in the center of the patio. We've gotten most of the wedding details worked out. I think we'll be ok. =)

Priscilla came up this weekend, having gotten cheap Southwest tickets during a sale in October. After I went to guitar class on Saturday, we went to the gym, went grocery shopping and made tacos with all the fixin's: corn tortillas, ground turkey, tomatoes, red and green onions, cheddar and avocado, seasoned with some fresh ground pepper. We forgot to get lettuce, but the tortillas were of the small variety so all the condiments barely fit on one anyway. The tacos were delicious as usual. (When are they not?)

After church on Sunday, we tried to go to Tikka Masala for buffet but found them closed, so we wound up instead at Shah and got lots of chicken. Next, we went to my company so that I could do a little work, and then we worked out again (gotta get in shape for our wedding clothes). Then we went to Bed Bath & Beyond in Santa Clara to create a registry, and we added a few household items we'll find useful to have. Our primary registry is still Honeyfund and we'd prefer people help us save for our honeymoon, since I already have most of the household items we'll need. We'll probably figure out where we want to go for the honeymoon after all this wedding planning madness is over.

Priscilla also gave me a batch of invitations to hand to a few people I invited. She bought two types of DIY invitations: a more expensive green floral one that I liked, and a cheaper silver-patterned one. The silver one actually looks better though.

Her dad helped print all the invitations (they look very professional), and a bunch of her church friends helped assemble them. We're getting help in many different areas from church friends. It's awesome to see how much people really want to help!

Today was my fifth time at Planet Granite. I went with Amy, Samantha and her co-worker Kevin, and Pavlina and her co-workers Jeanne and Christina. Jeanne went off on her own somewhere, and I was climbing for a while with a regular, Tyler, who knew most of the people in my group. I was tired after completing my first climb, a 5.10a, so I belayed a few times for Tyler and watched in awe as he made even the most difficult climbs look like cake. He was doing one climb right after another, so my muscles didn't get a rest which wasn't so great. I failed the next 5.10b and 5.10a due to fatigue.

After that, our group got mixed up so I was climbing with Samantha, Amy and Kevin at a more leisurely pace. I did a short 5.9 and 5.7 and we ended with most of us doing a 5.10a.

I'm definitely seeing myself improve. I attempted more climbs than last time, finished two 5.10a's instead of one, and my arms don't feel as sore as they did last time. I'll be happy if next time I complete that 5.10b!

Since Christmas and New Year's fall on Sundays this time around, we get this Monday and Tuesday and next Monday off from work. I could've chosen to use my vacation time for the remaining three days this week and had over a week of not having to work. Instead for whatever reason, I took last Thursday and Friday off, drove down to LA with Fred Thursday night, and came back up today. So I didn't get as long of a vacation as I could've.

On the upside, I get to return to the gym sooner, since when I'm in LA I don't have access to one. Not getting ample exercise plus stuffing myself with a mountain of food everyday is a dangerous combination.

On the food note, Saturday was another family reunion with Priscilla's extended family. Various people brought short ribs, sticky rice, vegetarian skewers and pasta; and for dessert, a very delectable Kentucky Derby walnut pie courtesy of Johnson. The guys also faced off against the girls in Wii Pictionary and got our butts kicked.

Priscilla and her parents came over Sunday night and brought chicken and duck. My parents made jook, bean threads, chicken drumsticks and curry salmon. The next day, my dad and Aaron made chicken pie and pizzas in the oven while I was out with Priscilla and her mom at David's Bridal, where Priscilla tried on a few wedding dresses. We were there for two hours, but it wasn't so bad since I had my iPod Touch with a bunch of games with me. And we were able to pick out a simple yet elegant dress for $250 after tax! That's one more thing crossed off our long to-do list.

As of today, after a five-year relationship, Priscilla is now my ex-girlfriend. Unfortunately for her, that's because she's now my fiancée, which means that she's stuck with me for another five years, and another, until the end of our days. Muahaha.

I woke up this morning before dawn to have breakfast at Priscilla's house and take her to the Long Beach cruise terminal. She of course had no idea what we were going to do today or that I had been planning a second trip to Avalon on Catalina Island for months. I'd booked a one-way trip to Avalon by helicopter, and after a quick weigh-in and safety video at the Island Express office at the cruise terminal, it was off to Avalon on a calm, 15-minute ride.

After we landed, we took a shuttle into town and took a walk up a residential street and found an amphitheater-shaped terrace half enclosed by the backs of some nice houses. The terrace was composed of high stone walls and grass. The area is probably the most serene and secluded place two blocks from the main part of town.

Next, we walked down to the mini man-made "beach" next to the pier, and I brilliantly decided to stand too close to the water and got my jeans and shoes soaked when the tide suddenly came in. I'd brought a towel, so we sat in the sun for an hour trying to dry me off. However, socks don't dry well in partly-cloudy November weather. I had to go without socks for the rest of the day. Serves me right, I guess.

After resting on the beach, we took a stroll on the pier and found a company taking signups for a 50-minute scenic bus tour. Our guide, an older lady named Becky, took us around the island and shared some interesting facts with us. For instance, 99% of the residents rent their homes from the Island Conservancy. There's a 15-year waiting list to bring a car onto the island, and a gallon of gas runs for $7. The only export good out of Catalina is rock from the quarry.

Instead of going to a restaurant for lunch, we got a rotisserie chicken, chips and ginger ale from the local Vons store for $9- less than what we would've paid per person at a restaurant.

After the late lunch, we walked through the town and up the main road to the entrance to the Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Garden, but we didn't want to pay the $7/person to get in, so we started heading back. I wanted to take a detour and go on a 1.75 mile hike up a mountain and propose at the top, but Priscilla's feet were hurting by that time due to all the walking and her uncomfortable shoes. Still, I managed to coax her into going up about halfway, which during the whole time she was probably hating me. At the point where we stopped, we could start to see the town at the bottom of the valley (a semi-nice view), and the sun was starting to go down, so I decided that that was the right moment to propose.

Over the course of the day, I had let her read segments of "The Book" in which I handwrote 100 things that I appreciate about her. The final segment transitioned into a corny "proposal speech" and she started crying just reading it. I told her to hurry up and get to the last page, and when she did, she was met simply with:

Will you take the next step with me?

Will you marry me?

And two checkboxes- one for "Yes" and the other for "Of course!". I also said something corny and did the one-knee thing. She was totally crying at this point but managed to say yes. I then pretended like I didn't have a ring, which she said was fine, but then I fished it out of my backpack. She loved it. And the rest of the way back to town, her feet mysteriously stopped hurting. Love conquers all, I guess.

Aside from taking the ferry back to the mainland, we ended up doing completely different things today than the first time we visited Avalon, which was totally unintentional. I'm happy with how the day turned out and wouldn't change anything about it. Well, except maybe the part about having wet shoes the whole day. ;)

Well the planned proposal is coming up in 7 days, on Priscilla's and my 5th anniversary. Obviously this post will be hidden until then. I picked up the ring this week- it's gorgeous and quite unique- 14k white gold with a round green sapphire.

Originally I was going to look for an emerald stone, since green is my favorite color and emerald is Priscilla's birthstone, but I learned that emerald has a tendency to chip and thus a lot of jewelers don't sell them in rings for everyday wear. I learned that Shane Co sells green sapphires which are a lot harder than emeralds and a little less expensive, so I figured I'd just get a sapphire- I don't care what it is as long as it looks good. So last week I headed to Shane Co's Cupertino store to look at rings.

I was originally looking to spend $200-300 on a setting, but the ones in that range were all thin and flimsy looking. I found a thicker ring with a swirl shape that came with a wedding band that slips in through the middle. Quite unique.

I was also looking to spend $300-400 on a green sapphire, but the ones in that range were small and not the deep forest green that I wanted. The guy helping me, Steve, went into the backroom, looked all over and was able to find a larger one with the perfect color- and it sparkled brilliantly. The setting and stone each ran for about $700, a bit more than I was expecting to spend, but they were perfect and thus to me worth the extra money.

So now that the ring is squared away, and the preparations to Avalon on Catalina Island have been made, all that's left is to finish writing "The Book." I never and still don't know what to call it. A few years ago I gave Priscilla a small diary-like book in which I handwrote quotes of encouragement and Bible verses. I asked for it back a couple years ago in order to add things to it, which I never got around to. Now I'm going to add 100 things I like about her, grouped into 10 sections, which she'll be allowed to read a couple sections at a time during our day trip. The last section will be read at the right time (I'm thinking when we go biking and are in a secluded place overlooking the town), after which the book will transition to the (probably corny) start of the proposal. So the book will play a key role throughout the whole day. You can say that my keeping it this long was part of the plan all along. ;)

I can't wait until next week! Priscilla has no idea about any of this, so I have to hide my enthusiasm from her. One thing's for sure- it'll certainly be a day to remember.

Priscilla bought plane tickets to visit me this weekend (again from the previous Southwest sale), and after picking her up early Saturday morning, we joined some church friends at Planet Granite for some fun and strenuous climbing.

It was her second time climbing indoors, the first time being at a place that had a difficult and limited selection. She completed a 5.6 and a 5.8, better than I did my second time. I completed a 5.8, 5.10a and made it halfway up a 5.10b. The last climb was pretty technical and required switching between the side and the front of the wall and strategically using cracks. I couldn't find a handhold halfway up and I was dead tired by then, so I bailed. I will get it next time!

Afterwards a few of us went to Sunny Bowl in Mountain View at my suggestion for some bibimbap. I've been there a few times but it was everybody else's first time; everybody seemed to like their food. The place actually moved a couple doors down into a much larger and nicer-looking space. They added stone pot to the menu and kept the original bibimbap prices the same, but sadly they no longer serve free frozen yogurt for dessert.

Priscilla and I did plenty of home cooking as well. I bought turkey burger patties, salmon and a bunch of other stuff from Sprouts. Saturday night we cooked salmon in the microwave and had salad. The salmon didn't come out too bad. Sunday night we grilled the remaining salmon and turkey burgers with my grill pan. The burgers were tasty and can be a healthier substitute for beef. The salmon came out pretty good- grilling it has the advantage that each side gets cooked while the center remains slightly uncooked.

Priscilla also brought pasta and Soyaki chicken up with her, and we had some when we went to my office to work and work out. We got a lot of studying/work done this weekend. She's studying for her online accounting class, and I figured out the root cause of an intricate problem that I've been working on for four weeks. I'm glad that we can help each other get so much done!

My church friend Andrea is "funemployed," so she decided spur of the moment to drive down to LA to visit her long distance significant other and offered me a ride. How could I refuse? We drove down at 7:30 Saturday morning and she dropped me off at Priscilla's house just in time for lunch. Priscilla made curry chicken, salad and pork chops for me and her parents. I'm glad that she likes to cook for me!

Sunday night my parents cooked a feast like they always do when I come down. There was salmon, chicken stew, chicken broth that was way better than anything that comes out of a can, green beans and honey bbq chicken. Needless to say, I was given a lot of food to take back with me. I'm glad that my parents also like to cook for me! ;)

This weekend I helped Priscilla's dad reconfigure the router, since he reset it trying to do something, and reinstall XP on one of his computers. I helped Priscilla reconfigure her microphone in Ubuntu, and I helped my dad with making an XP slipstream CD and reinstall it on a computer that died. For some reason, things that stop working for people start magically working again when I try them.

Priscilla and I got in lots of study/work time. She needed to get caught up with her online accounting class, and I needed to wrap up loose ends at work and write a "letter to my 30-year old self," a "fun" project that was a year overdue. Nothing too exciting this weekend, but it was productive.

The drive back to the Bay Area on Monday was mostly uneventful, except for dangerous debris on the freeway leading up to the Grapevine. We narrowly avoided a cinder block in the middle of our lane, and I also saw wood boards and a couch cushion in the road. It's a good thing we were driving during the day when there was visibility. I hope that stuff got cleared off soon.

Edit from 2025: I had linked to a Caltrans page for reporting road debris. There's now a new page for that: https://csr.dot.ca.gov/. However, the page says that any kind of highway emergency should be reported to 911 or CHP. I'm pretty sure the situation we ran into would've qualified as an emergency.

In honor of Indigenous People, or Columbus, or what have you, Priscilla had Monday off so she got plane tickets a few months ago to visit me from Saturday till Tuesday.

Saturday afternoon the weather was perfect, so we biked to Lake Shoreline and brought turkey sandwiches in my new rack-mounted bag (very convenient). While we were picnicking, a bunch of squirrels ambushed us for food, and one was really brave/friendly with Priscilla and took food out of her hand and ate it right next to her.



To compensate for doing healthy activities, we had buffet at Turmeric Saturday night, where the food was good except the second batch of achari chicken tikka, which had a really bad aftertaste and might've been tainted. We couldn't finish it, but fortunately we didn't get sick. The next day we had lunch at Bagel Street, Priscilla's first time there. She had a tuna salad which may have inspired her to eat more salad, since we had salad in every home-cooked meal afterwards.

That night Priscilla made me salad with avocado and some of the leftover sliced turkey, and curry chicken based on a recipe she learned earlier. We had a bit of curry leftover, which we used the next day to pour over Atlantic salmon that we cooked in the microwave, which turned out pretty tasty.

My company didn't give us Monday off but I took a vacation day, and we made the morning showing of Courageous, the fourth movie made by Sherwood Pictures, centering around godly fatherhood. I heard about the movie after researching the Casting Crowns song by the same name. The movie was really inspirational and was a reminder of how a godly man ought to live and be a model for his family. It made Priscilla cry. A lot.

After the movie, we went shopping at the adjacent mall for two whole hours and managed to finally use my Old Navy gift card to buy a t-shirt for me. I still have $16 on the card, which at this rate, will take several more years to spend. We ended the day singing 90's songs with Priscilla playing my rented guitar. I'd been secretly taking lessons for five weeks and surprised her on Saturday with a very newbie rendition of "Good Life" by One Republic where I changed the words in the chorus to "goose life." But I think she liked it. Since she's so good with guitar, I'm going to make her teach me guitar so much that she'll get sick of it!

I decided to take Friday off to drive down to LA for the long weekend. I left at 8:15am and traffic was remarkably smooth the entire way down until I hit San Fernando. I was surprised that traffic was good even through the Buttonwillow area where two lanes narrowed to one due to construction, but apparently there weren't enough cars on the road yet to create a bottleneck.

After I got to LA, Aaron and I went to his bike shop and picked up the Specialized Crosstrail Sport that he ordered for me. The difference between the Crosstrail and my old Huffy is like night and day. I never imagined it'd be possible to climb hills with ease!

The following day, Priscilla and I rode our bikes to and around Lake Balboa. We did a little offroading towards the end and followed a narrow trail through overgrown brush that ended up at nowhere, and unwittingly rode through mud and got huge mud-covered tires.

Priscilla made chicken kabob for lunch and seafood soup for dinner and we juiced a lot of fruits and veggies with her power juicer. She really tries to make me healthy food! We watched Ip Man 2 and Fist of Legend, both excellent films.

On Sunday after church we had lunch with Tom and Amanda at a Vietnamese place that had a delicious chicken and rice dish. Priscilla and I went to Kohl's to use a $10 off $10 coupon I had, and after scouring the store for half an hour failing to find anything cheap, we ended up getting a bag of socks for me that cost $5 plus tax after the coupon, just a dollar less than Walmart sells it for normally.

Afterward, we dropped by Warner Park for an hour to watch CCAC and New Life people play ultimate frisbee. We didn't play since we weren't dressed in athletic clothes.

Dinner was back at my parents' house where they made a ton of food for us, including two kinds of salmon, chicken drumsticks, shrimp kabobs and turkey barley soup. My mom had the soup slow cooking for hours. No wonder it tasted so good.

Finally on Monday, we went hiking in the morning at the creek near my house. We managed to hike for an hour and a half before it got hot. The rest of the day was spent catching up on work and reading. We both took a long nap but were amazingly productive afterward.

Today I drove back to the Bay Area, and traffic was again very smooth. Taking a long vacation definitely helped with that. I'm ready to get back to work, but in the meantime it's 10pm and I could totally fall asleep now.

Priscilla bought three Southwest round-trips a few months back when they were having a sale, and one of those trips was for this weekend. I picked her up from the airport early Saturday morning, and our first stop was Valley Fair where I wanted to go to Old Navy to use my giftcard that I've had for three years. Unfortunately we got there an hour before any of the stores opened, so we walked through adjacent Santana Row looking at all the buildings. And unfortunately, once Old Navy opened we weren't able to find anything we liked, again.

From there we went to the Palo Alto Festival of the Arts. There was a whole side street lined with artists doing Italian street paintings, with featured artist Chris Brake in the most prominent spot. We saw a ton (literally, a few tons) of metal sculptures that an artist welded out of all sorts of scrap metal, that had a Tim Burton style. There were countless booths selling paintings, photographs, jewelery, bright clothing, wood carvings and fused metal art pieces. There was a live band covering funk/R&B songs that was decent, but the female vocalist was noticeably off key sometimes. We got lunch at different booths- I got a teriyaki chicken plate and Priscilla got a falafel and a $3 cup of hibiscus tea that tasted like Snapple. That was the most expensive Snapple we've ever bought.

That evening we watched Ip Man (awesome film) and made Moroccan chicken with garlic, onions, tomatoes, carrots, green and red peppers, potatoes and paprika. Priscilla thought it was really flavorful even though we didn't use too much salt! We ate it with naan, which is not really authentic Moroccan but hey, naan is good.

Sunday after church we ended up at Hon Sushi in Mountain View after trying to go to Sunny Bowl next door and finding it closed. The sushi at Hon was probably cheaper than at comparable places, especially with the 30% off all rolls they were doing. It was surprisingly good. I think I'm not adverse to sushi anymore after making it with Priscilla that one time.

Afterward we went to AST to work out and for me to do a bit of work. When we got home, Priscilla made baked chicken and potatoes with the rest of our ingredients from the other day. I'm so happy that she likes cooking for me!

I went camping and rafting this weekend with Kenny, Minh, Christine, and Christine's brother and cousin. Friday night we arrived at our campsites at American River Resort in Coloma. Unfortunately we drove up much later than planned, so we had to unload and pitch tents in the dark. We rented two adjacent sites, with Kenny in his small tent and me in my medium tent in one site, and everybody else in Minh's large tent in the other site. I thought I would be sharing my tent with somebody, but nobody cared for it, so I ended up having a lot of space.

On Saturday we drove to the meetup location in Foresthill for rafting the Middle Fork of the American River. We went with a company called All Outdoors and our guide, Cory, really knew his stuff. Cory's steering and direction made even the Class IV rapids seem easy. He even told us a lot of history about the river, like about Gold Rush era settlements and a man-made flood caused by a burst dam that changed the landscape.

Cory was the head guide in our pack of 5 boats, so he played lookout for the other boats. At one point, two people from another boat fell out, one swam to a rock, and Cory's boat had to row across the rapid to save him. That was pretty awesome.

We ended up rafting a 16-mile stretch of the river, which took 6 hours at a comfortable pace, with one of those hours for lunch. Unfortunately during the rafting, my legs got massively sunburned and I didn't know it till the end. Either I wasn't thorough with the sunblock or it washed off. I probably didn't feel my legs getting sunburned because they were frequently getting wet.

The rest of Saturday and Sunday morning were spent back at camp. We had really good food that Minh and Christine prepared, but way too much of it. Saturday night we had chicken wraps, steak, hot links, corn and smores. Breakfasts consisted of eggs, potatoes and steak. There was also way too much fruit, some of which went bad. We ended up not eating half the food we brought. Next time we'll try to estimate better.

I wasn't expecting to see Priscilla again so soon, but this weekend she came up with her parents because they had a funeral to attend in San Jose.

Friday evening, shortly after they arrived, Priscilla cooked pasta for us. It could've used more ingredients, but it was fine for what we had on hand. Afterward, the two of us went to Murphy Street in downtown Sunnyvale, got frozen yogurt at Tutti Frutti and sat outside a bar listening to a band covering some rock songs.

Saturday morning we biked 16 miles all the way to Moffet Field and back. Priscilla tried to keep up but I think my bike is a little uncomfortable for her (it definitely is for me). We had lunch buffet at Sweet Tomatoes and then drove up to Berkeley, where Minh gave us a tour of the campus. The buildings and scenery were so beautiful! I'm envious.

Afterward Minh's wife Christine joined us for Thai food at Thai Noodle. The food was pretty decent, 4 stars. I especially enjoyed this one salmon dish. Finally as the night waned, the last activity was watching Cowboys and Aliens at the Regal Theatre in downtown Berkeley. It was an ok movie, but I had really high expectations due to all the hype (I think I saw a trailer for it as early as a year ago).

On Sunday after church, Priscilla, her parents and I tried to go to Gombei Bento but it was closed, so we went to Shanghai Restaurant next door and got lunch specials. We were given way too much rice, but even the food that was not rice was very plentiful and we had leftovers. And delicious, fattening cheese wontons! I think Priscilla enjoyed them.

Victor C and Flora drove up to the Bay Area to watch Billy Elliot the Musical, so they gave Priscilla a lift. They arrived at my house Saturday night, and Minh and Christine happened to be there making Thai hot pot with Kenny, so the seven of us had hot pot together. For the broth, Christine used chicken broth and flavored it with lemongrass, tamarind and fish sauce, which is much different from the "plain" Chinese style hot pot I'm accustomed to.

Priscilla and I made sushi on Sunday, which was my idea even though I don't care for sushi, since she loves it and I'm such a caring boyfriend! I got avocado, cucumber and carrots from Sprouts, nori and expensive sashimi-grade salmon ($25/lb) and tilapia ($20/lb) from Nijiya Market. Lisa let me borrow some Nishiki rice, rice vinegar, and sushi mats and dishes. The sushi turned out really well, especially for a first try. Priscilla was definitely happy. Success!

After sushi, we visited Stanford since Priscilla hadn't been there before. We biked to the Caltrain station, took the train to Stanford, and walked/biked around the campus. I'm really envious of the beautiful buildings and landscape, even if they do have a lake that's all dried up!

Finally on Monday, Victor and Flora rejoined us and we went to dim sum at New Port Restaurant. I discovered that I actually like some kinds of dim sum, just not buns.

It was a short-ish but enjoyable weekend filled with good food, exercise, and good times with friends.

Kenny and I drove down to LA for Independence Day weekend on Friday. On both the drive down and the drive up, we hit heavy traffic around the Buttonwillow area due to the single lane closures caused by construction. Traffic was backed up for what appeared like miles due to two lanes merging down to one in each direction, but we took a detour on local roads and saved probably at least an hour of waiting in stop-and-go traffic.

On Saturday, Priscilla and I made lots of healthy food at her house: ceviche, crab cakes and spaghetti. For dinner her dad made curry chicken, which we had while watching Apollo 13 (since I've never seen it) on VHS (who uses those anymore?). We also worked on writing a letter to our 30-year old selves, lit sparklers to celebrate the holiday, and did some light weight and cardio exercise.

On Sunday we had lunch with a dozen CCAC people at King's Burger, where it was totally packed because a couple other large groups also had the same idea. Then a few people in our group came to my house to play Dominion, and Victor won both games. For dinner, Priscilla's parents joined my family for bbq at my house. My parents made salmon, ribs, drumsticks, beef and potato salad, and Priscilla's parents brought a chicken salad.

This morning Priscilla and I went hiking at 9, which I thought would be early enough to avoid the heat, but apparently not. We came home early and worked out there, then my dad made us lunch, and then it was time for me to go back to the Bay Area.

Finally tonight, Bao, Kenny and I went to see not fireworks, but Super 8 at the AMC Mercado theatre. It was a pretty intense and suspenseful movie, and I enjoyed most of it except the end, which felt a little too perfect and cheesy. The action and special effects were pretty good, and I wouldn't mind seeing it again for mainly that reason. I definitely felt it was worth my $11.

Priscilla decided to visit me this weekend to celebrate my birthday. I think she cares more about my birthday than I do. ;)

This time she found a low-fare bus line, CA Shuttle Bus, and got a $25 ticket up and $29 ticket down. With our closest stops being in San Jose and North Hollywood, it's pretty convenient for when we don't care to drive or pay more for flying. Priscilla said the rider demographic seemed to comprise mostly American students and European travelers, and people were quiet and considerate. That's great considering that some other low-fare bus lines, without naming any in particular, are known to be frequented by... let's just say people of a louder nature.

So I picked her up from San Jose on Friday and we had some tasty but somewhat greasy Middle Eastern food at a hole-in-the-wall place called Falafel's Drive In. It's apparently a popular place- people were still lined up to order half an hour after the posted closing time. On Saturday we walked to the Santa Clara farmer's market, two miles from my house, which was interestingly the first time I've ever been to a farmer's market. We got yellow and purple potatoes, carrots, onions, green beans and almond butter. Though I don't anticipate buying stuff from farmer's market regularly, I appreciate that the produce we got did seem to last longer and taste better than what I get from the supermarket.

During the weekend we also worked out, went to Shah (haven't been there in a while), baked banana walnut bread, cooked, studied and worked, watched silly stuff on Youtube, and just enjoyed each others' company. Time together always runs out so quickly!

This month might have the record for the most days I've spent visiting LA. I was down there at the beginning of this month, and again from last Thursday till today. It was Priscilla's birthday recently and Memorial Day yesterday, so I figured I'd take a couple days off work to enjoy a (relatively) long vacation.

Priscilla's been needing a new computer since her laptop has been acting up, so one of the things I did was build a new computer with parts I had shipped to her house. I built her a mini-tower with an Athlon II X2 250, 4 GB DDR3 RAM, 500 GB hard drive, and Ubuntu 11.04- basically more than enough computing power for her Youtube/email needs. She seems to be happy with it.

For exercise, we went hiking at Lake Balboa, where I was sad to find that the peddleboats from my youth were no longer there. We hiked all the way to the Sepulveda Dam and even found, when venturing off the beaten path, an arbor, bench and cot somebody had skillfully fashioned out of tree branches and twine. On a different day we went hiking on one of the trails in the hills around my house, and saw a large number of rabbits.

Sunday we had lunch with a bunch of CCAC friends at King's Burger, where we also played Monopoly Deal. And speaking of food, my parents made no shortage of it during the time I was down there. I had BBQ ribs and chicken, salmon, ceviche, corn soup, spinach, mashed potatoes, meatloaf... and they packed me a ton of food to bring back with me!

Since I drove my car down this time, my dad took a look at it and found what looked like the cause of my coolant leaks- a loose hose. He tightened the clamp, and so far so good.

I love my family.

My uncle and aunt were down in LA from last Thursday through today, and I caught a ride with them. I naturally spent most of the time with Priscilla, and she planned our activities this time around with the deal that I would plan the next time.

On Friday I picked her up from work and we explored her world: the pet cemetery next to work where she goes to read (you know, because it's tranquil), New Life Church, 24 Hour Fitness, and Trader Joe's and a bunch of other stores.

On Saturday we went to the LA Times Festival of Books at USC. I was leery when she told me we were going to USC but wouldn't tell me why. But we had a fun time, even though (or perhaps because) we spent no money, and we scored some free Ben & Jerry's ice cream, tea, fresh flowers and airbrushed dragon tattoos. Afterwards we drove to Santa Monica Pier, walked the pier and watched people catch swarms of fish, and ate sandwiches on the chilly beach after the sun went down (my fault, for wanting to stay on the pier too long).

On Sunday we ate at my parents' house, where my mom per custom made a feast. Needless to say, I did not need a midnight snack that night.

Finally for Monday, Priscilla had the awesome idea of riding the Metro across town (day passes for just $6) to visit some tourist spots that we've never seen despite growing up in LA. The first stop was Hollywood and Highland, where we saw Grauman's Chinese Theatre, El Capitan Theatre and the Walk of Fame. Next was Olvera Street, in all its quaintness and homogenous trinket shops, where we had some greasy and probably authentic Mexican food. Finally we hit up Chinatown, where we were surprised to see many Vietnamese shops and very few Chinese shops. Unfortunately, since it was a weekday and getting late, most of the shops were closed/closing by the time we got there and we managed to only buy some sparklers for her and a pair of sandals for me. It was a fun day. Sadly, we forgot to bring a camera.

Priscilla drove up this weekend with Victor, who was attending a conference in Boulder Creek. On Friday we rendezvoused at Taqueria Vallarta in Santa Cruz - their tacos and salsa bar are alright, better than average.

I ended up driving back to Santa Clara on Route 9, a dark and windy road, in heavy rain and fog. I was following my GPS, and I had forgotten that I previously put it in "highway avoidance" mode.

Priscilla was busy with some work she had brought with her, so most of the time we worked diligently, taking breaks to watch Office Space, read our predictions from last year, read our study book, make homemade chili (could've used more than just one serrano pepper), work out, and go to Indian buffet where we irked the servers by eating way too much and asking for a lot of garlic naan. I left a nice tip though, so hopefully my picture is not taped to the wall with a note saying "Do NOT let this person eat here!"

It was a fun weekend and we got a lot of stuff done. Hopefully next time we won't be so busy!

After a few months of waiting, Kenny's short sale purchase finally concluded and we moved into our new home, Monroe, today. The place is not as spacious as Erica and is two miles further from everywhere I go, but I'm now paying $650/month in rent, about $100 less than at Erica.

Excluding my one-month stay in corporate housing, Monroe is the fourth place I've lived at since moving to the Bay Area three years ago. Fortunately, I now have the option of not having to move again in the foreseeable future.

It started to rain towards the end and Fred took some time to get his stuff ready, but overall the move went well. Anton came down from SF to help, and Kenny's parents came up from LA with a huge fridge.

The house has three bedrooms and there are four of us, so Bao will be in the living room (his choice), which is pretty well sequestered from the rest of the house. My room is a bit smaller than before, but the layout allows me to keep an extra nightstand in the room, albeit with the dresser in a funny but functional location. I also get twice as much closet space in my room than I did at Erica.

Everybody seems pretty happy with what they're getting. And there's a trail 500 feet from the house, so I anticipate I'll be biking on the weekends much more often!

Priscilla hit the cap in her vacation hours and was told she had to use some hours or forfeit them. Being an awesome girlfriend, she decided to drive up impromptu to visit me last weekend.

Friday night we went to my company's holiday party, where my company went all out on expenses (perhaps since this will be the last AST holiday party). There were four food stations- Japanese (sushi and California rolls), Mexican (tacos and fajitas), Italian (ravioli and pasta), and American (salmon and roast beef). There were some pretty sweet raffle prizes including a PS3, 55" flatscreen TV, netbooks, iPads and gift cards up to $500. There were also casino games where chips were redeemable for tickets for the final raffle.

Unfortunately there was a miscommunication, and everybody received the same number of tickets for the final raffle, regardless of how many chips they earned or whether they played casino games at all. Furthermore, all the good prizes had been raffled off in the previous raffle, where everybody had the same chance of winning. It was disappointing to find out, after the fact, that the casino games were purely for fun and had no bearing on peoples' chances to win prizes, and that aspect could've been handled better, but altogether Priscilla and I had a great time at the party.

But the real fun began on the drive home, when a wheel bearing on my car gave out (but I didn't know what was wrong at the time) and the car started shaking violently and became unable to drive straight. We were in a remote part of San Jose, 20 miles from home at midnight, and I felt it was too risky to try to make it home. Priscilla has AAA but she left her member card and all forms of ID at my house, so AAA couldn't help us out. I had to call my roommate to bring the card to us, but by the time he reached us we decided to ride home with him and return the next day.

So Priscilla drove me to my car on Saturday and we called AAA to have my car towed to a mechanic. I rode with the tow truck guy, a burly, entertaining guy named Wayne who told me that his favorite tow jobs are "PD impounds."

On Sunday Priscilla and I visited a sister church, CCIC South Valley, and met some cool people mostly in the same demographic as CCIC MV. Priscilla also cooked a lot of food (chicken for tacos, herb chicken breast and baked pasta) ahead of time so that we had more time to do other things, like start watching Autumn's Concerto, a hackneyed Taiwanese drama that she seems to like for some reason. ;)

This week the mechanic called me in and showed me the busted wheel bearing as well as an outer tie rod end that was in sloppy condition. The wheel bearing explains why I've been hearing a whirring noise while driving as well as why the tread on that tire kept wearing out abnormally quickly. The mechanic ended up replacing both wheel bearings and tie rod ends for $740, and he comped me coolant because the job was finished later (this morning) than promised and because my coolant reservoir was empty. I still have a coolant leak, but for now it's cheaper to use some Stop Leak, top off coolant and keep an eye on it than to isolate and fix the leak.

I had a pretty productive weekend. On Saturday I cleaned my room, read through pages and pages of legalese for Raytheon's stock tender offer sent to holders of AST stock, and fixed up a program that I made for a friend that she's been bugging me about.

On Sunday I went biking with housemates for four hours, and we had burritos at a hole in the wall place that has the biggest super burritos I've ever seen, for under $6. I also made a lot of headway into a problem at work and found a quick and clean solution.

There's still so much to be done!

Until this year I hadn't ever taken the entire week between Christmas and New Year's off from work. But this year, since both holidays fell on a Saturday, my company gave us Monday, Tuesday and Friday off during the week following Christmas, so I ended up vacationing in LA from December 24 till January 3.

During the long break I hung out with two sets of high school friends, went to three holiday parties (four, if you count the one at my house that I caught the tail end of), saw two movies in the theatre (Narnia and Tron), worked out with a friend once (not nearly enough), helped my dad install shelves in the garage, did a lot of work on the website I'm making for church, played many games of Monopoly Deal with Aaron and other people, and found gift money that had apparently been sitting around for years.

I of course spent the majority of days with the girlfriend. We decorated her family's Christmas tree, cleaned her room, did our weekly study discussion while walking at Balboa Park, did puzzles, watched random Youtube videos, and had a lot of meals with different people.

This vacation time has been good, but I'm ready to get back to "normal" life. For one, my body is in dire need of exercise after a plethora of holiday food combined with inactivity. I've also more or less repaid my entire sleep debt, so I'm looking to go back to work refreshed and to start off this year on the right foot!

As customary, I spent my Thanksgiving in LA, where I was treated by my parents to an overabundance of good food. For Thanksgiving they made the usual- turkey, yams, mashed potatoes, ham, biscuits, etc. On all the other days they made a lot more- including turkey pot pie, crab, chicken stew and seafood soup. They also gave me a week's worth of food to take back to the Bay Area. My parents are awesome.

During the holiday weekend, Priscilla and I also celebrated our four year anniversary by hiking on the Escondido Canyon Trails (where there's a famed waterfall, which unfortunately wasn't much more than a trickle at that time of year), making shepherd's pie (more like Priscilla making it and me eating it), and having hot pot for dinner with her parents. The next day we worked on a jigsaw puzzle (we're really into those now for some reason) and watched "Batman: Under the Red Hood." The next day we visited Chi at HRock, her home church away from home, had tacos with a bunch of her friends, and visited her grandmother who recently got out of the ICU.

All in all, it was a fun, relaxing holiday weekend. Too short though.

I went ice skating at Downtown San Jose with a few people from church today because we got a Groupon and because I wasn't sore enough from doing rock climbing yesterday.

The Groupon was usable within a span of only a few days, and it had been raining pretty much nonstop the past couple days and forcasted to continue raining, which wasn't cool because the rink is outdoors. But we caught a break this afternoon, and the skies were clear the entire time we were out there.

I ended up staying for three hours and skated till I couldn't skate anymore. Driving back home, it hurt every time I lifted my foot off the pedal. But I'm happy because I totally got my $8 worth of that Groupon!

It was my third visit to Planet Granite today, and my second visit in the last month. I'm getting better- last time I couldn't complete a 5.8 climb, but this time I completed a 5.9, 5.10a and an easier 5.10a. I only did such "high" grades today because my friends goaded me into it. Sometimes peer pressure can be a good thing.

My technique is getting better and I'm learning to use my legs more, so my muscles didn't fatigue as much as they did last time, though they still fatigued plenty. I even passed the belay test so I was able to belay for my friends this time. Belaying is quite exerting in itself!

Right now my hands have rope burn, my knee is slightly banged up and my arms are dead, but I feel awesome!

Not too long ago, Chi moved up to Redding to attend a Christian school. Priscilla and I decided spur of the moment to visit Chi because we're such awesome friends.

Ok, honestly it was because I had previously volunteered to visit Chi, naively assuming that Redding wasn't much more than an hour's drive away. When I later found out it would actually take four hours to get there from Sunnyvale, I yelled at myself, but a promise was a promise. I decided I might as well make a roadtrip out of it, and use that as an excuse to make Priscilla visit me.

So I flew Priscilla up, and she and I made the 250 mile drive up to Redding. It was our first roadtrip with just the two of us. Priscilla made sandwiches. We stopped at a Walgreen's along the way to pick up water, and our cashier there totally looked like Vince Vaughn.

We got to Chi's place after dark. She's currently renting a rustic house on a huge lot surrounded by trees, and reachable via a dirt road. It was like a retreat spot.

On Sunday morning, we went to Chi's charismatic church, Bethel Church, which was quite an experience. To my disappointment, though, I didn't see any crazy happenings. The worship was great; Jeremy Riddle was leading it. But I didn't agree with some of the theology, like their proclamation that God would bring better jobs and more money, which sounded similar to the Prosperity Gospel.

Overall, it was a good weekend for old friends to catch up. Priscilla and I treated Chi out to dinner at Olive Garden, bought groceries and books for her, and gave her care packages from her friends back at CCAC. So yeah, we really are awesome friends. ;)

I chuckle when people write blog posts saying that they need to write more, but this is exactly what I'm now doing. Granted, I have more to write about than how infrequently I write, but there's so much stuff going on that doesn't fall under a unified blog post title, and I want the title to be slightly better than "Miscellaneous Stuff That's Been Going On."

I do, really, need to write more. So far this year I've written 5 entries, compared to the 17 last year, which is still less than every preceding year. Nothing's to blame but sheer laziness, or other priorities, if you will. However, in my weak defense, recently my PHP code that handles sessions broke when DreamHost upgraded my PHP version, so I wouldn't have been able to write entries easily (without firing up the MySQL Command-Line Tool, at least) if I wanted to. I've now fixed that issue as well as an anti-spam feature on my tagboard that was bugged. Hopefully I won't get as much spam as I used to, before I implement a better solution.

This weekend I attended Johnson and Emily's wedding in LA, where there were close to 600 people (including pretty much the entire CCAC church body) in attendance. The banquet was at a fancy Chinese restaurant, so I'm sure Johnson and Emily footed quite a bill. That just goes to show how much they love people and have a heart for serving. They're going to go into missions soon, I've heard.

Unrelated, Priscilla and I are taking a one month break to refocus on God as our number one priority, because too often we value each other more than we value God. I myself have some soul searching and apologetics studying to do, as I've been wrestling with doubts regarding my faith for quite some time. I want my faith to be built on a firm foundation of truth, so I think this time will be good to help me grow in my faith and to take it seriously, which will help me be the kind of spiritual leader I need to be.

The next couple weeks I'll also be busy cracking open the old CS books from college in preparation for an interview at Google. A recruiter found me through LinkedIn and wanted to get my resume, and I figured I'd give it a shot since I've always dreamed of working there. I know a few people there who confirmed that I'm a human and that I have a brain that functions sometimes, so the recruiters are skipping the customary phone screening and going straight to an on-site interview.

I listed my personal site on my resume, so Googlers will probably be reading this (hi Google). Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that I'm lazy. Oops.

This has been quite an eventful three-day weekend. Priscilla and her parents came up on Friday and stayed until this afternoon. On Friday the four of us ate some of the food my mom had prepared and given to them to bring up. Then Priscilla and I did some work and rewarded ourselves afterward by watching Idiocracy (hilariously chilling movie whose premise I think is likely to happen).

Saturday her parents visited friends in Petaluma, so we had the whole day to ourselves. We spent some time having her try on dresses I bought for her, working out and having Indian food at Shah afterward, and meeting with my NVC counselor about relationship issues we've been having lately because of the long distance. The session was intended to be three hours long but stretched easily into six hours! But it was worth it- the session unraveled many layers of the complex issues and we now have a much deeper understanding of them and a greater appreciation for each other.

On Sunday the four of us went to Baylands Park in Sunnyvale to explore and take pictures. On the way there as I was driving up Lawrence Expressway, a car that was waiting in the left-turn lane next to my lane suddenly pulled out right in front of me, causing me to swerve to the right to avoid hitting him. Unfortunately, he was proceeding to cut across four lanes to get into the right-turn lane. I slammed on the brakes pretty hard (I had been going about 60) while I ended up cutting across three lanes trying to keep my car as parallel to his as possible, finally coming to rest just a few feet from his car. No cosmetic damages, but my tires and brakes took a beating, and I left a nice set of skid marks on the ground.

Fortunately I had kept a large buffer between me and the cars behind me, so there was nobody for me to plow into when I swerved across three lanes. The guy just drove off.

Other than that incident, that day and the rest of the holiday weekend were pleasant.

Minh and his former girlfriend/fiancee Christine tied the knot yesterday! They had a traditional Vietnamese Buddhist ceremony in the morning/afternoon, and a reception in the evening. At Minh's suggestion, a bunch of our mutual high school friends made it just to the reception, in Santa Ana. Driving there was not fun, but traffic wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been.

Things were a little impromptu and disorganized, but overall nicely done. There were maybe around 200 people at the reception, and all the Van Nuys guys had our own table. My favorite part of the night was when Minh came to our table, a few of us put him on a chair and gave him a "hip-hip-hooray!" toss into the air.

Wow.. Minh is married. It feels a little unreal. I wonder which one of our mutual high school friends will be next?

I drove down to LA last Friday and was there till Wednesday. I was there mainly to do maintenance on the Previa. I helped my dad change a bunch of fluids (brake, transmission, power steering, coolant and oil), we got new tires, and he changed a bunch of parts (hoses, belts and air filter) when I was out having fun with friends. Unfortunately due to some bad instructions on Chilton's website, he over-torqued a bolt and bent a part holding a pulley, so he had to order a new part and it didn't arrive by the time I had to leave. I ended up driving my grandfather's 20-year old Taurus back to the Bay. I don't really mind; the only slight nuisance is that the interior is dirty since Aaron had been using the car to haul dead trees.

Other than car issues, on Saturday I went hiking with a dozen CCAC people on a trail near Tom Sugi's house and played Dominion with a few people afterward. The next day I ate "Korean" chicken fried rice at Galleria while listening to Ezekiel's many thoughts on the healthcare reform, and in the evening Priscilla and I had our last premarital counseling session with the Sugis. Monday, I was sick with some sort of stomach flu (what a great way to spend vacation), as were Priscilla and a lot of other people who went on the hike. Tuesday, Priscilla and I were feeling better so we got snacks from Trader Joe's and she helped my mom make dinner (aka learning wife skills for the potential near future).

Overall, I had a lot of fun, caught up on sleep, and got a new temporary car. And I think I'm getting used to the 5.5 hour drive. I just kind of went on autopilot, especially on I-5 where it's all straight and boring. I did find a good Christian radio station out there, K-LOVE. They're in many cities on many frequencies, but I managed to get mostly good reception on the 88.3 frequency from Buttonwillow to Gilroy, which is more than half the trip. I also learned that driving next to big rigs can greatly boost spotty reception, since big trucks act as big antennas!

This Thanksgiving holiday, I caught a ride down to LA with Minh and was down there for a few days. I had some good food with family, fun times catching up with CCAC people, and obligatorily spent a lot of time with the girlfriend.

It was also Priscilla's and my three year anniversary, and we celebrated by doing completely everyday things- making turkey tacos, cleaning her messy desk, and having dinner at a restaurant we went to before we started dating.

The next day we had lunch with her parents at a Peruvian place called Las Dunas (their pescado a la chorrillana was really good), went on a prayer hike around Pepperdine University, and had our second session of pre-engagement counseling (doesn't mean we're definitely getting engaged) with Tom and Amanda.

I'm glad we can have fun doing ordinary, practical things without the expectation that fun comes only from spending lots of money or doing exotic things, though there's a place for that too. As long as we keep surprising each other, I think we'll be alright.

I'm really blessed to have everything I do.

Yesterday was my third time representing my company at the UCLA technical career fair. We seem to attend every fall and winter quarter, and I've been volunteering every time. It's a win-win: the company benefits from the recruiting, and I get a free trip to LA to see family and the gf (and I get more Southwest Rapid Rewards points, muahaha).

We're hiring mostly Software Engineers, so we look primarily for CS/CSE students at the fairs. Unfortunately, we didn't see many CS/CSE students this year- I talked to only a couple of CS students, and of the five resumes the other recruiter and I recommended, the majority of them were EE students with strong programming backgrounds. In fact, probably 70% of the students who stopped by our table were EE. 20% were physics majors.

I think it's mostly a branding problem. AST is a signals processing company, which implies that we have a lot of EE jobs. We do, but not entry level. And I think the Software Engineers outnumber the Electrical Engineers, since we have a very large and ever-growing software department. The other recruiter and I brought up our concerns about branding, so hopefully we'll see some changes by the next career fair. We also have a newly-created marketing department, so I'm counting on it!

Other than the career fair, I got to spend more time with Priscilla than I usually do, since I flew into LA a few hours earlier. We spent Tuesday evening trying on Halloween costumes at a seasonal shop (mostly just for fun since the costumes were cheap in quality yet ridiculously overpriced), eating at King's Burger (not your typical burger joint- I'm surprised at how many genres of food they have), and carving a pumpkin since she's had a deprived childhood and never done it before. We also took a bunch of pictures of my rental car, since I got a pretty swanky G6 GT this time. :)

I saw Wicked the Musical for the second time, this time with Priscilla, Chi and Victor (they were up here for a wedding). Since Priscilla and I loved the show so much last time, we decided to get $100 orchestra seats this time around. Unfortunately, this time Wicked turned out to be not so wicked.

Maybe it was the high expectations we went in with. But what killed the show for us was that Kendra Kassebaum, the person playing Glinda (one of the two principal characters), was nowhere near as good as Natalie Daradich, the person who played the role the first time we saw it. Ironically, Kendra is the principal actress for the role and Natalie is the standby.

No disrespect to Kendra, but she just didn't seem to have the energy or the personality to play a perky, head-above-the-clouds character like Glinda. She sort of tossed her jokes to the wayside, and wasn't completely into her character. She did just so-so with "Popular," which is perhaps Glinda's most defining song. However, she doesn't have a bad voice, so she did better in the second act, where Glinda's focus is more on singing than on acting.

Natalie, on the other hand, consistently played her part superbly and really stole the show.

Other than being disappointed at Kendra's performance, I thought Teal Wick's (Elphaba's) singing was a little weaker this time around, though I still thought she was great in both shows. And Lee Wilkof, who played the wizard, was really animated in "Wonderful" - probably more animated than anybody else in the show.

So it wasn't a bad show and I don't mean to bash anybody, but it left much to be desired, especially given the price we paid for better seats.

This past weekend I went on a cruise to Ensenada with Priscilla and her parents. It was tremendous fun! And Priscilla paid for it, so how could I refuse? =)

On Friday we drove down to San Diego where we boarded the Carnival Elation and set sail in the evening. All of Saturday was spent at sea, on Sunday we made landing at Ensenada from morning till evening, and Monday morning we made it back to home port.

Here are some highlights from the cruise:

• Good food available 24 hours a day. Great food in the evenings in the sit-down restaurant where everything from the bread to the potatoes to the broiled snapper was fine-tuned just right.
• Formal dining night where we got to dress up really swanky and had lobster for dinner.
• Two hilarious stand-up comedy routines by comedian/biker Russ Nagel. PG-13 and R-rated versions.
• Spin - a sort of musical that showcases various cities where different music genres were born.
• An outrageous hypnotist show where the funniest part of the show involved the hypnotist turning one guy into a shoe-loving kleptomaniac, making him steal and hide the shoes of anybody he put to sleep.
• Pris and I getting our pictures taken by professionals in front of various backdrops along the ship's promenade deck.
• Guys vs. girls Family Feud, in which the girls won after trailing the guys 0-200 something because of a scoring rule nobody seemed to know about.
• Tasty tacos and authentic (I think) chips, which were three times as thick as the chips I'm accustomed to, in Ensenada.
• Being approached on the street every 20 feet by people trying to sell necklaces, clothing, luchador masks, food, horse-drawn-cart rides, buggy rentals and sight-seeing excursions.
• Buying a necklace for Priscilla from a street vendor, and haggling the price from an initial $5 down to $2, but I think we still got ripped off. =)
• Getting a different towel animal every night when the cleaning staff would clean up our staterooms!

This weekend was... Wicked!

Friday night I saw Wicked the Musical at the Orpheum Theatre in SF with Priscilla and some co-workers. I had heard good things about the show, but I was surprised at how awesome it actually was.

The story was brilliant- it fit very well with the original Oz story, and yet managed to turn all the original perceptions upside-down. The singing and instrumentals were superb, and the lyrics were witty and sophisticated.

The only downside of the night was that we were all the way in the back row of the balcony! But that gives Priscilla and I an excuse to see the show again, this time with orchestra seats, next month. I can't wait. But until then, the next best thing I can do is listen to the Wicked soundtrack... again, and again, and again...

I'm moving yet again! Anton, our friend from high school, is moving up at the end of the month to work at Yahoo in Sunnyvale, and he expressed interest in living with us. After three weeks of browsing Craigslist postings, we finally found a place we like and signed the lease today.

This place is a single-family home in Sunnyvale with five good-sized bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, living room, family room, laundry room (but no washer or dryer provided), and a two-car garage. The master bedroom is twice the size of the other bedrooms, and has its own bathroom and a huge closet that stretches around a corner. There's also a backyard with enough room for a bbq grill and some patio furniture. That should be more than enough room for the four of us! And we're renting this place for $2950 a month- per person that's only a bit more than what I'm paying right now. We get the place starting July 25. I can't wait!

Today marks my one-year anniversary of starting work at Applied Signal. I can't believe it was one year ago that I left home, moved up to the Bay Area, and became, more or less, independent. Time really flies. Is this what it's like to get old? Pretty soon I'll be in my mid-30's with a mortgage and 2.5 kids, wondering where all that time went.

So what have I done in the past year?

• Moved three times (was in corporate housing for a month, then in an apartment by myself for six months, and now a townhouse with two roommmates).
• Interviewed several software engineering applicants either on the phone or on-site. Became familiar with general interview format and hiring criteria, from the employer's standpoint. Recruited students at two UCLA technical career fairs. It's great to be on the other side of the table now.
• Improved my understanding of software engineering, C++, Linux, shell scripting, and various software development tools.
• Got my security clearance so that I can take on more types of work, yet still not really know the significance of what I'm working on.
• Gained about 15 pounds from lifting weights (I'm not as scrawny as before). Got into biking and recently running.
• Got to know some really great guys through my smallgroup Crossover, and I meet with them roughly bi-weekly. We usually meet over dinner at Google. Saying that I love the food there is an understatement.
• Accumulated in savings this year 5% of the cost of a down-payment on a house. Yeah, it's gonna be a while.
• Had a fair share of ups and downs with the girlfriend, but am cultivating what is mostly a positive relationship. Need to work harder on being God-centered, though.
• Gotten moderately better at cooking. Still a long way to go.
• Met some really cool people through work, church, and then some.
• A bunch of other stuff that I can't recall at the moment (told you I'm getting old).

Yeah. I'm really thankful for what I have. Life's been good.

Today I was down at UCLA recruiting students at the Winter Engineering and Technical Fair. This was my second time recruiting at a career fair, my first being in October of last year.

This time around, the fair spanned a single day instead of two, and there were fewer students and companies that showed up. Nonetheless, I talked to more CS students than I did last time, and I got 4 or 5 good leads.

This time around, management wanted us to pre-screen candidates on the spot, rather than us doing phone-screens later. So I spent several minutes per candidate drilling them on programming, design, and data structures, and having them write simple code. This wasn't too conventional for a career fair, so I'm sure the students were a little put off, or at the very least surprised, but I do see the merit in risking scaring students in order to narrow down the candidates of interest. Since I'm convening with management tomorrow to review resumes, it also means that we can contact students as early as next week with an offer to fly them up for an on-site interview. I don't know of another company that moves so quickly in its hiring process.

As customary, last night I surprised Priscilla at her house, since only her parents knew I was coming. Her dad's 70th birthday is tomorrow, so last night we sang happy birthday and had some chocolate cake. We had dinner at my (parents') house tonight, and my mom gave me more food to take home. I didn't anticipate otherwise. ;)

I spent this past Christmas down in LA hanging out with family and friends. I drove down Tuesday night, by myself unfortunately, since people I thought were going to go decided not to. But I had "The Case For Faith" by Lee Strobel on audio-CD to listen to, so the drive down wasn't too tough. The audio book was pretty engaging, so the driving part was merely secondary.

Christmas day I spent mostly with Raymond, learning how to drive stick on his Civic. Raymond- thanks for being a good sport and letting me wear down your clutch/transmission/engine/synchronizer in the name of practice!

On Friday, I finally did my second Slave Day with Priscilla (she's already done three for me). I made her buy me a dress shirt at Ross (this would come in handy the following day), play a logic game, sing praise songs, make food with me (I made turkey paella, which didn't turn out so great), and watch No Country For Old Men, which turned out to be boring, and she fell asleep.

The next day I went with Priscilla and her parents to the wedding of Nancy (a relative of Priscilla's) and Ricky. Priscilla's mom took a ridiculous number of pictures as usual, including many of me and Pris. But some of them came out really good. We actually look cute!

The weekend after New Year's, Priscilla's parents came up to the Bay Area for a friend's funeral. Priscilla had led me to believe that she wasn't coming, but she showed up and hid in my van, having borrowed a key from my parents.

That weekend we had fun making food (tacos), working out, studying, and me getting sick because of sleep debt. It's cool that we can have fun just doing the small things.

I drove down to LA for Thanksgiving with Uncle Tim and Aunt Helena. We left the Bay Area around 5am on Thanksgiving Day, so traffic wasn't too bad. They wanted to return the following Tuesday, so I didn't really have a choice. At least the holiday travelers had dissipated by then. Along the way I also saw the moon in a rad orange light.

On Friday, I joined a bunch of CCAC people at a park in Jerry Woo's residential community for a confusing game of flag football, followed by a BBQ and playing Set at his house. I did pretty well at Set, I think because one of my teachers made us play it back in elementary school.

On Saturday, Priscilla did her third Slave Day. It wasn't anything big- just miniature golfing, gyros, buying flowers and writing cards for our moms, cleaning her room, and making food. I'm glad that we can have fun doing even the small things with each other. I'll do my second Slave Day soon, but I did take her to Catalina for our 6-month anniversary and Carmel for our 1.5 year anniversary- that better count for something!

This past weekend Priscilla made a spontaneous visit, having gotten a ride from Justin from Horizon and his brother Helicon who were visiting family in Fremont.

She joined me Saturday afternoon at Abundant Life Church for the final three hours of a conference by Rebecca Manley Pippert on the topic of sharing our faith. Becky was an awesome speaker and her inspirational stories and practical steps to evangelism really inspired me. Best of all, the conference costs were covered entirely by the church, making attendance free for all.

On Sunday we visited the Computer History Museum and watched a live demonstration of the Babbage Difference Engine #2, which is on loan to the museum until next year. Then we joined a tour for a short while and listened to a docent talk about IBM's origin as the Tabulating Machine Company in 1896, ENIAC, and the SAGE enemy aircraft tracking system.

The rest of the weekend we cooked, studied, and had fun just doing simple things. Nothing too crazy. We'll save that for Thanksgiving weekend.

I can't believe it's been just over a year since the last Fall Engineering and Technical Fair at UCLA, where I met reps from Applied Signal who were responsible for leading me to this job. This past Wednesday, I again participated in the career fair, but on the other side of the table - representing AST and telling students why we're such an awesome company to work for.

I had a lot of fun being a recruiter for the day, and I collected some great resumes... and some not so great ones. In a sense, I saw different stages of myself in those students - from the freshman me who had only unrelated cashier experience at Toys R Us, to the junior me with a polished resume who sort of knew what he was doing, and the senior me who'd seen enough to be able to get by.

But the best part of the trip was that I got to go home courtesy of AST. Tuesday night, after landing at Burbank and picking up a rental car (a Pontiac G6), I surprised Priscilla at her home. She had had a rough day, and that combined with the surprise of me randomly showing up, caused her to break down and soil my shirt with her tears and snot. Next time I should bring tissues.

Wednesday night Priscilla came over to my home, where my mom, as customary, cooked us way more food than we could eat. I miss my mom's cooking. Especially considering how pitiful my own cooking is.

Finally, the trip was a nice mid-week break for me, after which I had to work only two more days until the weekend came around. I'd definitely volunteer to attend any future UCLA events that AST decides to visit. It's win-win all around.

Priscilla's parents had a retreat in Monterey this weekend, so she decided to visit me during that time.

On Saturday I picked her up from San Jose Airport and we took a stroll around Valley Fair and Santana Row. Of course, since we're both very frugal we didn't buy anything. In the evening we went to Capitol Drive-In, the last remaining drive-in theatre in the Bay Area, and watched Eagle Eye. The movie was so-so, but it was more about the drive-in experience. The ticket entitled us to a double-feature, with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull playing after Eagle Eye; we declined to stay.

After church on Sunday we hung out at the Sunnyvale Library, then went jogging at Lake Shoreline in Mountain View, then made fricasse of lamb according to a recipe I found. The food tasted pretty good, but I think we messed up the egg sauce at the end.

On Monday, while I was away at work, Priscilla made basa fillet, cheesy turkey pasta, and pear salad for me, and so-eagerly TP'ed my room. That afternoon, her parents came to pick her up, and her mom did a photoshoot of us for the cover of some Asian newsletter she helps with.

I think we had a pretty active weekend.

I visited LA two weeks ago during Labor Day weekend, where I spent most of that time with a certain someone. She thought I would be arriving sometime Friday night; however I actually took all of Friday off from work and drove down at 4am to surprise her. That was my uh, revenge, for her surprising me the same way on the Saturday I was moving! So around 11am I showed up at her workplace and gave her a (practical) gag gift: a box of tissues. Too bad she had a surprise for me that I ruined: since I led her to believe that I was arriving sometime in the evening, she was planning on TP'ing my room before then.

During the weekend we watched three movies (Away From Her, Phantom of the Opera, and 300), went to the bookstore, cooked, and were generally blissfully unproductive. That'll change when we get old, I'm certain.

Then, if seeing me four days in a row wasn't enough, Priscilla and her parents spontaneously decided to visit me up in the Bay Area this past weekend. Her parents didn't have their normal Sunday choir practice so they decided to take a vacation and check out the many sights along Pacific Coast Highway. I had a lot of fun with them, and they even forced me into letting them buy me a fan for my room, which I have yet to use since the weather just started getting cold again. I guess I'll have to store it until next summer. ;)

With the lease on my Olive Garden apartment ending today, I've moved into a 3-bedroom townhouse in Mountain View with Kenny and Fred. The rent there is $2050, and I'm paying $700 for the master bedroom since I have the biggest stuff. The rooms and storage spaces are smaller than at my apartment, so it's a slight squeeze trying to fit everything in with two other people, but the significantly lower rent and companionship more than make up for it.

We moved all our large items this past Saturday, with Minh and Dave helping. Originally I had rented a 16 foot truck from Budget, and called the day before to make sure it'd be ready for pickup. To my horror, when I showed up on Saturday I was told that all they had available was a small moving van, or a 24 foot truck. The former being impractical, I had to go with the latter. So there I was, cruising down the freeway at a whopping 50 MPH, trying not to side-swipe anybody because of the limited visibility from inside the cabin. But the larger truck turned out to be beneficial, and the move was expedient, with the hardest part trying to get my heavy desk up the stairs at my townhouse.

Priscilla also gave me a nice surprise by dropping in unexpectedly, after she had told me she was going camping for the weekend. She drove up at 4am, and had worked out a plan with Kenny to make sure I was out while she snuck into my apartment. I guess that's her payback for me conspiring with her parents and Deborah to surprise her in June. I guess she really does like me. Just a little. ;p

As part of getting a security clearance for my job at AST, I needed to be polygraphed for our "customer" to determine that I'm not a threat to counter-intelligence. This past Tuesday I went in for a polygraph and failed -- or rather my results were "inconclusive." I tend to over-think questions, and I projected feelings of guilt for the things I've done that they don't care about, onto things I haven't done that they do care about. And the worse I did with the questions, the guiltier and more stressed I felt, resulting in a downward spiral.

Needless to say, I felt pretty bad afterwards and entertained fears of them thinking I'm a criminal, and not being able to get a clearance and as a result losing my job.

But my officemate Dave and later Priscilla gave me words of wisdom. Dave reminded me that even in the worst-case scenario of losing my job, I would still have that which is most important -- my life -- and I could easily find work elsewhere. Priscilla showed me that most of my fears were unfounded, and that I wasn't trusting in God. I was reminded that everything that happens is according to God's sovereign plan, and my responsibility is to do my part and leave to rest to Him. I was also reminded that he has paid the price for my sins -- past, present, and future -- and that I shouldn't harbor feelings of guilt.

I went back Thursday morning for a re-test and, despite still being nervous, seemingly did just fine. I'm grateful for God's grace, and I'm glad that I can trust that He has a plan for me even when I can't see through the darkness.

This weekend's been a lot of fun. On Friday, Raymond flew up to interview at AST. Unsurprisingly, he aced his interview. In fact Raymond answered one of his interviewer's questions so fast, that the interviewer ran out of things to ask and admitted that that's never happened to him before. Raymond postponed his return flight until Sunday and hung out with us over the weekend.

On Saturday Raymond, Kenny and I drove up to UC Berkeley to visit David, Richard and Minh.

Then today Minh and David came down to visit us, and the five of us checked out Minh's luxurious apartment in San Mateo and had Chicago pizza in Palo Alto. Then all of us minus Minh went bowling at Palo Alto Bowl. That place is a bit run down with its lanes scratched, and a scoring system on crack.

Bowling was hilarious. The system would often not recognize our second throw, so it would give us three throws in a frame. I knocked down nine pins in a frame, but it scored as a spare. In another frame, the system completely skipped my turn and gave me a generous strike. Kenny got a strike in the last frame, which got counted as a double strike. Raymond's instant gutterballs made the system give him free retries out of sympathy. And one of Kenny's throws carried over to me, so I started a frame with 7 pins.

I quickly realized why we were the only people bowling there. :)

My parents and Priscilla came up over the Memorial Day weekend. Unfortunately Aaron couldn't come, as he was at a youth retreat.

On Saturday we attended a wedding for Johnson and Mimi Ng up in a beautiful location in the Oakland hills. I forget how I am related to Johnson, and I don't really know him but apparently he knows my family. I liked the fact that it was a small wedding - probably less than 100 guests - but I am accustomed to Christian weddings, so when the female minister (who was dressed somewhat like a hippie) said "We are gathered here today in the spirit of love," it felt a little... odd. =)

Sunday was Priscilla's birthday and our 1.5 year anniversary, so I took her on a surprise trip down to the Monterey Peninsula. Our first stop was the Old Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, where we spent half an hour walking the wharf and getting the iconic clam chowder bowls. From there we hopped onto the coastal part of the 17 Mile Drive where we stopped at half a dozen points and took lots of gorgeous pictures since we're both so good looking and all.

Finally our trip ended at the white-sand beach in the city of Carmel, where we watched the sun set behind the rolling hills caressing the ocean's profile, and the waves crashed gently upon the sand at our feet as the dying sun lit the sky in one last fiery blaze of passion.

Then we walked along the shore in the near-dark despite her protests that it was too cold. Man, I'm such a great boyfriend.

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with some of the guys from my fellowship for a time of sharing over dinner at Google. They meet every other Wednesday to share with each other how they're doing spiritually and whatnot. Drew works at Google so he gets us free dinner and we find a conference room. It was great fellowshipping with those guys and obviously there are some things better discussed when there aren't girls present. ;)

It was also my first time on the Google campus, and aside from getting questioned by a security guard on the way in, it was pretty cool getting to finally see the place.

Then last Friday I saw Iron Man with some of the same guys. I'd never gotten into the Iron Man story so I didn't really know what to expect. Fortunately that movie really rocked what little expecations I went in with. The storyline, character development and acting were superb. Robert Downey Jr. is one of the most colorful actors I've seen on the screen!

Since Priscilla left her job at Unitone for a better, less-dramatic one at National Technical Systems, she gave herself a well-deserved week of rehab-- err, vacation-- and decided to visit me with her parents from Friday to Tuesday of last week.

On Saturday we drove up to San Francisco to check out Pier 39 and Coit Tower. The scenery at Pier 39 was not as unique as any of us remembered. The place looked like a section of Universal Studios with its chain restaurants, a bungee harness you could bounce around in for $10, and even an NFL shop. Seems like it's become just another tourist trap without any semblance of real culture. Fortunately we found some folks selling 30 minute motorboat tours for $5 and got to see a good deal of the Fisherman's Wharf area.

After that we drove up nearby Telegraph Hill, atop which is Coit Tower. We spent considerably less money there (around $16 on admission for the four of us), but I enjoyed it more than Pier 39. From the top of the tower, which puts you higher than everything else except some skyscrapers, you have a great panoramic view of the city.

During the rest of the time her parents were up here, they were having meals with old friends, taking a ton of pictures, and washing my dishes for me. I had a lot of fun, and it was kind of them trying to serve me in any way they could.

So far Priscilla has been up here twice (the first time with Audrey). My dad and brother were up with me the first week, and my mom is flying up tomorrow and staying for a few days. Then my parents up are coming up for somebody's wedding in May, and we invited Priscilla to fill Aaron's spot since he's going to be away at a retreat. With all these people continuously visiting me, it doesn't really make sense for me to go back and visit now. I guess I'll have to wait until people stop visiting me. =)

Wow, I haven't written anything here in almost a month. This past month has been busy, exciting and tiring. Here's a recap of what's happened:

Priscilla and Audrey drove up at the end of February to visit. They slept over Friday night and Sunday night and I made food for them that they didn't really like (cough, ingrates!). While Audrey was down in Monterey visiting a friend, Priscilla and I explored the Sunnyvale City Center, visited CCIC Mountain View, and stayed at home making food and listening to online broadcasts about relationships.

Work at AST is going well. I'm definitely keeping busy. Last week I even got to interview an applicant over the phone.

My replacement officemate is a guy named Dave. He's pretty chill, and we're always making fun of each other. Unfortunately the higher ups have seen fit to relocate him as well, which will make him the second officemate who's left me. I guess I have a knack at scaring people away...

AST has already started my application for a government security clearance, which is interesting because a lot of people don't have theirs started until they've been here several months. As part of the process I got my fingerprints taken. I guess I won't be robbing banks any time soon.

I've also visited a few churches but at this point I like Great Exchange (GrX) the best because the messages have really spoken to me. They have a dozen young adult small groups so I should be able to find one that fits me. This Sunday I had lunch with one of those groups at this Korean tofu house, and they paid for me (despite my protests). I'll check them out this Thursday; they meet at 7pm at one of the guys' apartment in Sunnyvale. I've also been going to Transformers, the young adult group that Steve and Shirley host at their place every other Sunday.

Other than that, I've been doing a smorgasbord routine of shopping for home furnishings and groceries, cooking, reading, web surfing, working out and eating with people. I've been pretty tired lately, but I think the main reason is that I still haven't gotten out of the college mentality of going to bed late. Once I force myself to get over that, I'll be in good shape.

I am typing this entry sitting in my new (temporary) apartment in Santa Clara in the Bay Area. The move was, for the most part, pretty smooth. Priscilla even made a surprise visit in the morning to see me off, and being late for work because of it. I guess she really does care me. ;p

So I'm in this 2nd-floor 1-bedroom apartment in a large community called Mansion Grove. The place is fully furnished, so I have cooking and eating equipment, a queen size bed, a dining table, and a coffee table with a couch. Right now I'm sitting on the floor with my computer hooked up to the 22" widescreen TV. If I could get a wireless keyboard and mouse, I'd be able to surf the web from the couch. And I wouldn't have wires streching across the room for me to trip over at night. ;p

Yeah so.. it's been a long and tiring but rewarding day. Right now everything is kind of crazy but I'm looking forward to getting settled in, unpacking, and starting my new job this coming Monday! And of course apartment hunting to find a permanent place to move into after my free month's lodging is up!

Ok, I'm several days late with the Happy New Year, but I haven't posted anything in a while. Here are the highlights of what I've been up to these past couple weeks:

• Prayed with Priscilla and her parents on New Year's Eve.
• Started watching an anime called "Death Note" with Priscilla. The series started off on a high but unfortunately has been going downhill.
• Went bowling a few times and got pretty good (bowled 158 in one game, beating my previous best score by 40-something points).
• Been playing a Scrabble-based game on Facebook, Scrabulous, which I've gotten semi-good at.
• Went to UCLA to sit in on Sophonias' discussion section. He's a great TA (naturally) but unfortunately I didn't understand a word he said about fluid mechanics.

This year promises to be filled with change, as I prepare to make the transition to full-time work and get ready to move up to the Bay Area next week. Whatever happens with relationships, job and living, I know God has a plan in everything!

Tonight Priscilla and I cooked for Steve and Shirley at Priscilla's house. It's our last time meeting with them before they leave for the Bay Area. It's sad to see them leave, but I'll be joining them soon. ;)

We made grilled salmon that my dad taught us how to make, and shepherd's pie that Priscilla learned somewhere. Her dad made a Chinese dish with bean threads, pork, and cucumber. I have no clue what it's called. :)

For the shepherd's pie, we stir-fried carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and ground beef and added tomato sauce. Then we poured the mix into a baking dish and covered it with mashed potatoes, cheese, and finally a sprinkle of basil. Finally we baked the pie for about half an hour. And it came out pretty well! I might try making it myself sometime. Cooking really is fun!

Over the weekend I went to San Diego with Priscilla and her parents. They picked me up from school on Friday, and we drove down and stayed in Carlsbad for the night.

All of Saturday was spent at Sea World, which I haven't been to since I was maybe.. 5? We saw pretty much every show and visited many aquariums and even got soaked on a ride. I was looking forward to the Shamu show, and the rotating projector screens, which are an engineering feat in and of themselves, really impressed me. However I was soon disappointed to see more emphasis on the cinematics than on substance. The smaller dolphin show nearby was much richer in terms of content.

All in all, I had a great time. We drove back to the Valley Saturday evening pretty beat. Good thing we didn't make it a one-day trip- that would've been too hectic!

Early in the morning I went with Priscilla to the Children's Hunger Fund. I haven't been there since high school, and it was cool seeing familiar things. Today we got to stuff little bags full of white beans, all of which were generously donated like most of the other items that pass through the center. Altogether the people doing beans (about a couple dozen of us) filled several thousand bags in the 2.5 hours of work time. Not too shabby.

I've forgotten how much fun going to CHF is and how great it is to be working with others in giving a little back to the community/world. I really should start going more often again. And bring others from our college fellowship too. :)

Congrats to you both on finally tying the knot! It's really awesome to see two godly people such as yourselves join together as a single unit in the pursuit of God's kingdom. I know He has great plans for you guys. Here's to the future, enjoy the honeymoon, oh and the prime rib at Lawry's was muy bueno!

I got out of work today and checked my phone to find a dozen missed calls from Sergey, whom I haven't seen/heard from since high school, inviting me to dinner with him, Sophonias, Fiona, and Lac. Talk about spontaneity.

So after much deliberation we ended up going to Olympus Greek Restaurant in North Hollywood. The food was semi-pricey and the pasta I had seemed like something even I could make (i.e. not very Greek).

But I'm glad I decided to go, however last minute the notice was, and I had a good time hanging out and catching up. I didn't know that Fiona's leaving, tomorrow in fact, for her new job in Texas. I hope she visits occasionally and we'll hang out and maybe I'll cook some "Greek" food for everyone.

Anyway the end of the meal was funny because four of us wanted to pay by credit card, so we ended up calculating the amount each person should pay and writing each name and amount on the bill, and handing the host four cards and a twenty dollar bill. He must've thought we were nuts.

This past Saturday Priscilla took me to Hansen Dam to swim. Neither of us had been there, but she heard that there was a cool man-made lake and lots of activities to do there. Instead, we found a wide (but very crowded) swimming pool that was five feet deep, in which almost everybody was just wading trying to beat the heat. Still, we had fun and got our exercise doing laps (and found out that we're out of shape in swimming), but hopefully there really is a lot more to do around there. We'll see next time!

On Sunday I hung out with Pablo and Theo at Pablo's house and played Settlers of Catan for the first time. Man, that game is awesome. I've been playing the free version online (called Xplorers for copyright reasons) all day today. If anybody wants to play me, let me know!

Today I went to the Griffith Observatory with my parents, Mrs. Dang, and Priscilla's and Crescentia's family. It was my first time going. I really enjoyed the panoramic Planetarium show with its CGI and the lively narrator who never skipped a beat in delivering his lines for half an hour.

We also watched a documentary about the history and the challenging renovation of the observatory, which required raising the building with hydraulic jacks and building a level beneath it.

Too bad we couldn't stay until 7pm for the telescope room to open. I'm sure it would've been awesome to look through the giant telescope there. Well, hopefully I'll get to go back again sometime. Even though I don't particularly like museums and whatnot.

Went to lunch at Mandarin Deli with my parents, Hannah Pang (haven't seen her since Mustard Seed), Mrs. Dang, and met Mike and his wife Jennifer who've been going to our church for a couple of years. Mike works down at a software company in Marina Del Rey and might be able to hook me up with a job. I fixed up my resume and sent it to him... we'll see what happens. Things sounded promising.

I forgot how big the portions are at Claim Jumper. Priscilla and I went there today and ordered an appetizer and three entrees. We ended up taking home three boxes of food. Man, the food is so good there though.

Finally saw Transformers with Priscilla, Justin, and Jacky. I agree with almost everybody I've heard from that it was really good. It's the first movie I've seen in a theatre in a very long time that I felt was worth my money.

The special effects were amazing and as one critic put, seamless with reality, and made me really get into what was going on. The Decepticons' guile also believably made them a force to be reckoned with and added weight to the story. Too bad Priscilla totally hated the film because she felt the character development was poor. I admit that that area could've been better, but it didn't detract too much from the film for me. Nor did the comic relief, unlike in director Michael Bay's other film Armageddon.

We had a party at my house to celebrate Stan's 20th birthday. Aaron made Korean barbecue ribs and Chi brought ice cream cake which melted because we put it in the refrigerator instead of the freezer. Altogether around 20 people came, including those who just dropped in for a few minutes like Deborah and Flora. After lunch we watched "Left Behind," got soaked from water balloons, shot a billion firecracker streamers at Stan, and a few guys and Chi (the self-proclaimed seeker of peace) started doing Fight Club in our living room.

I had a lot of fun. It seemed like everybody else did too. Happy birthday Stan!

I'm back from Europe! Our 17-day tour was extremely long and tiring, yet fun and insightful. Here are the highlights of each day:

Day 1 - June 21
3-hour flight from Los Angeles to Houston, then 9-hour flight from Houston to London. First time flying longer than one hour. Tried unsuccessfully to sleep in the plane to reduce jetlag. Found the TV displays behind every seat very cool, but the games were horrible and laggy.

Day 2 - June 22
Met our tour guide, Liming Pan. Since the tour was supposed to be conducted in Mandarin Chinese, I was glad that she actually conducted in English and translated in Mandarin. In England we toured the Windsor Castle, the largest inhabited castle in the world, and the oldest in continuous occupation. Stopped for pictures in front of Buckingham Palace, toured the Tower of London and saw the Crown Jewels, and the adjacent Tower Bridge.

Day 3 - June 23
Eurostar train to Brussels, Belgium. Saw the Manneken Pis, a famous fountain statue of a boy urinating. Had mussels lunch in the Grand Place, the central marketplace. They looked at us funny when we asked for tap water, and they wouldn't allow us NOT to order bottled water. They took a long time preparing the food and since we had a tight schedule, we had to ask for a to-go box. This was also something they had no concept of, so they packed everything in a plastic margarine tub. Drove to the Netherlands, stopped in front of an old windmill for pictures, and took a canal cruise in Amsterdam.

Day 4 - June 24
Visited a diamond cutting/polishing factory in Amsterdam where we saw a lot of expensive diamonds, including a 2-carat selling for 32,000 euros. Drove to Cologne, Germany where we visited its Cathedral. Took a cruise on the Rhine River, and had pig knuckles and non-alcoholic beer for dinner.

Day 5 - June 25
Toured the Heidelberg Castle, learned about the construction of cuckoo-clocks at a shop at Lake Titisee in the Black Forest, stopped for pictures at the Rhine Falls.

Day 6 - June 26
Explored the center of Lucerne, Switzerland. Visited some large shops selling watches and Victorinox knives. Saw the Lion Monument, a memorial to the Swiss Guards killed during the French Revolution. Saved money on lunch by getting food from a supermarket, which was a large building with two stories and an escalator. Had a meager Fondue dinner that cost 170 Swiss Francs (about $144).

Day 7 - June 27
Visited Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, a tiny country I never knew existed. Saw the ski jump, the Golden Roof, and the Swarovski store in Innsbruck, Austria.

Day 8 - June 28
Explored Salzburg to see sites where "The Sound of Music" was filmed, and the house where Mozart was born.

Day 9 - June 29
Toured the Schönbrunn Palace, often dubbed the Austrian Versailles, in Vienna. Went on a drive through the city to see the Vienna Opera House, and the Hofburg and City Hall buildings.

Day 10 - June 30
Took a ferry to Venice, explored the city, took a gondola ride through the Grand Canal and smaller canals, walked on the Rialto Bridge, saw the Bridge of Sighs, and stood in the plaza of St. Mark's Basilica trying to woo pigeons.

Day 11 - July 1
Saw two replicas of Michaelangelo's David statue in Florence, the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria, and wandered through the huge Peruzzi leather store.

Day 12 - July 2
Spent the first half of the day in Rome, where we toured St. Peter's Basilica and St. Peter's Square in the Vatican City, the Colosseum, Constantine's Triumphal Arch, the Roman Forum, and the Trevi Fountain. The rest of the day was spent traveling to the city of Lucca in Tuscany, where we had a four-course Tuscan dinner at our hotel.

Day 13 - July 3
Went onto the grounds of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Lost five euros in video poker at a casino in beautiful Monte Carlo, Monaco. Traveled to the French city of Nice where we walked along the completely rocky Mediterranean shoreline.

Day 14 - July 4
Explored Avignon, the residence of seven popes during the Avignon Papacy. Had lunch at a McDonald's where the lines were incredibly slow because people don't get out until they've received all their food at the register.

Day 15 - July 5
Arrived in Paris in the afternoon. Went up to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower, took pictures of the panoramic view of the city, and took the stairs all the way back down. Took a cruise on the Seine River where we saw Notre Dame and other sights. Had escargo and goose liver in a five-course French dinner.

Day 16 - July 6
Toured the interior and a bit of the gardens at the Versailles Palace. Saw many statues and paintings, including the Mona Lisa, at the Louvre Museum. Posed for pictures in front of the Arc De Triomphe. Wandered around the huge Galeries Lafayette department store.

Day 17 - July 7
Our homebound flights from Paris to Houston, and Houston to Los Angeles.


Some things of interest that make Europe different from the United States:

• Everything from homes to roads and vehicles to meals is smaller in Europe.
• For large vehicles like coaches and semis, their speed limit on highways depends on the amount of tax paid. The higher the tax, the faster they get to drive. This is done to try to control air pollution.
• Commercial drivers are also required to take a vacation day every so often, and cannot drive more than a certain amount of hours each day. Their vehicles are equipped with instruments that keep a continuous record of operation and speed, and are readable by law enforcement.
• Toilets are in many areas called water closets (often abbreviated WC), and many have flushing switches that can start and stop flushing on command to save water.
• An umbrella is an essential thing to carry, because rain is very unpredictable. It might be clear one minute and pouring heavily the next, and vice-versa.
• Euro banknotes vary in physical size- the larger the denomination, the larger the dimensions. I'm guessing this is to expedite recognition and sorting.

Whew. So what was Europe? Incredibly fun. Incredibly tiring. Definitely worth it. I don't think I'd ever want to go on a trip like this again though, at least not for so long! In a tour things feel rushed and you don't get much free time to take everything in at your own pace. But I had a good time. Now I can say that I've been to all these places.

Europe also made me appreciate things in the United States that I've taken for granted. Like sunny weather (it rained almost every day for the first two weeks), free water in restaurants, not having to pay to use restrooms, and the relatively low cost of living. Even concerning housing- I thought prices of houses were high in California, until I saw places in Europe where people pay much more, for flats.

So that was the trip in a nutshell. Now it's back to reality once again.

It's now morning and we're in Florence, Italy. I'm using the Internet in my room through the TV with a wireless keyboard. It should cost 8 euros but the service has been spotty so they're not charging us for it.

So Italy has been.. hot. We've been walking outside for hours each day and I've got plenty of sunburns despite having sunblock on. Other than that, seeing all these places has been awesome, and slightly overwhelming. We're on to France tonight after visiting Pisa and Monte Carlo. Maybe I'll gamble more than the $2 that I played in Las Vegas..

I finally managed to get my hands on a free computer at the hotel we stayed at last night. This is harder than it might sound, since everything in Europe (at least the tourist spots) costs money - and lots of it. You can't get tap water in restaurants for free, you have to pay to use the restroom (which they call a water closet or W.C. for short), and the list goes on and on.

So that's the short update for now. Europe has been fun but extremely tiring. We're in Salzburg, Austria right now and will be headed down to Italy in a couple days. A few days in Italy and a few more in France and will conclude the trip. Ok.. I'm done. It took too long to write this because this computer uses a German keyboard layout. More blogging when I get back home! Or if I find another free computer.

Tomorrow morning I'm off to Europe for 17 days with Priscilla and her parents. We're going with a tour through 11 different countries. It's going to be mad fun, and equally as tiring. And definitely expensive. But they do have cute chicks over there. So bon voyage!

Priscilla's parents have been in need of a better computer for a while, and since I'm supposedly in the know, they recruiting me to build one. I got to pick the parts and they're going to reimburse me. I ordered pretty good components based on the massive amount of video editing that they do. The specs are as follows:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 processor, 2.4GHz
• 2x 1GB Kingston DDR2-800 RAM
• EVGA GeForce 7100GS (midrange graphics card, since they don't need a good one for games)
• MSI P6N Platinum motherboard
• 320GB Seagate SATA hard drive, perpendicular recording
• 2x Pioneer DVD/CD writer
• Antec Sonata II quiet case
• Hanns-G 199D 19" LCD monitor

The total came out to just over $1k, but I think it's a good investment for how it will expedite the amount of computer work they do. Now I just need to get them a copy of Windows and we're all set.

I've been wanting to take Priscilla to Avalon Bay at Catalina Island since the beginning of the year, and today I finally made it happen in celebration of her recent birthday, a.k.a. our six month anniversary. I made boat reservations and checked out activities in mid-May, and I sent her a letter a few days ago detailing what items to bring. Of course I kept the place a secret, and she had no idea where she would be going until we arrived at the San Pedro boat terminal this morning.. bright and early at 7:30. The 1-hour cruise to the island was pretty enjoyable, and we even went on-deck to take pictures in the chilly wind with Priscilla's hair flailing all over the place.

When we arrived on the island, we scouted out the front of the town and found our way to the Avalon Casino, which turned out to not be a gambling casino as we had assumed. Instead, the place was named for the original meaning of the word "casino": a building used for meetings or entertainment. Entertainment here being theatrical.

From there we checked out the adjacent Avalon Museum, where we learned some of the history of the island, including the involvement of chewing gum company founder William Wrigley Jr.

At lunchtime we found an outdoor cafe, where I got a swordfish sandwich, and Priscilla got a quesadilla oozing profusely with grease. Afterwards we chillaxed on the man-made beach and almost got sunburned despite having sunblock on. Then we rented bikes to explore the town, and gruelingly made the ride up a hill to see the Wrigley Memorial, except that when we got up there we discovered that bikes weren't allowed inside, and we didn't have bike locks. But the ride back down was pretty fun, and most deserved.

Then it was off to kayaking which we're also pretty bad at. We couldn't sustain paddling in sync for more than 20 seconds. Finally to conclude the fun, we checked out a bunch of different shops and talked with one shopkeeper about how island residents have to pay the same inflated prices for services as tourists do, and how the island is a nice place to live but housing is so ridiculously expensive, and shops close up in winter when tourists aren't coming. There's also a 13-year waiting list for bringing automobiles to the island, and probably an even longer one for getting a home since the governing body isn't allowing more homes to be built. ;p

So it was Priscilla's first time to Catalina, and we had fun, though it would've been nice if we could have stayed longer and done more things. If we go there again, it probably should be on a Saturday when the boats run back later. The only downside is that it'll be more crowded. :)

So Raymond has to do this podcasting project for his Media Arts class, in which he podcasts a talkshow. Of course he's a bit shy about his voice, so he asked me to record something that he can use. Which I assume is fine, because he'll be handling the technical aspect of the project. Raymond doesn't seem like one who would try to cheat in school. ;)

So I spent an hour with Priscilla recording and editing a segment on a topic that every guy should know: how to ask girls out. Raymond, pay close attention!

While I was at their house, Priscilla's dad cut his forehead when he was trying to roll a garbage bin down stairs and it flipped from under itself and hit him. He wasn't dripping blood everywhere, but the gash was semi-deep so we took him to the ER at Kaiser. Despite my aversion to hospitals, it was pretty nice there. The staff was courteous, it wasn't too crowded, and we didn't have to wait five hours for him to be seen. They stitched him up, or glued rather, and he should be fully healed in about a week. Glad he didn't get a concussion- he's not all that young anymore. He should really ask me to help him when he's doing stuff like that..

Friday: Most of the college group showed up bright and early at 8 a.m. for Priscilla's graduation. Her parents treated everybody (16 people) to brunch at China Olive Buffet, and she and I spent the rest of the day watching White Chicks and Ong Bak and helping my mom cook.

Saturday: Priscilla and I made pizza at her house. To make a long story short, low-carb dough mix is healthier, but it makes pretty crappy dough. Still, I ate a lot of the "pizza," though considering it's me, that's not saying much.

Sunday: I got tricked into going to an "infosession" for volunteering to help with junior church. I thought I was going to get more info, but by going I effectively signed up. Ah well, it probably won't be too bad, and quite a few of the college people are helping. I spent most of the rest of the day picking out components for the computer I'm building for Priscilla's parents. I never knew shopping for parts required so much... research.

I saw Pirates 3 with Priscilla, Justin, and Jacky tonight. It was.... ok. The special effects were more elaborate than the first two films, and the storyline was better than the second. Still, I had trouble following everything because there was too much going on. The first Pirates movie was great. They shouldn't have made any sequels!

I just returned with my family from the 3-day CCAC Retreat at Westmont College in Santa Barbara. Here are the main highlights:

• Our guest speaker Rick Holland preaching on 2 Peter chapter 1
• The amazing worship
• Enjoying the beautiful natural scenery with 280 CCAC people
• Rooming with David Wei, even though he snored a lot
• The food! It wasn't as much as I normally eat, but it was delicious and somehow very filling. I never thought I would enjoy eating ham again.
• Finding ways to serve, and seeing many of the youth and young adults serving was really encouraging
• Getting to know some new faces

This year we had a serving mentality that was arguably greater than at previous retreats. I had a great time, and I'm thankful to all the people who helped and to God for allowing things to go as well as they did.

Today was the first day of me being discipled by our Sojourners leader Steve. We had a great time of chilling at his house, talking over mouthfuls of food at Baja Fresh, and browsing the nearby Blockbuster for no reason. Some things we discussed were faith and the college group, sleeping and time management, and our girlfriends. Today is also Steve's 1-year anniversary with Shirley. :)

It was fun just talking and laughing about random stuff and sharing about what's been occupying our lives. I left his house feeling refreshed and encouraged. We're having discipleship meetings tentatively every Wednesday, though there is no set schedule or meeting place. Discipleship shouldn't be a burden, so we're keeping things lively. Some day we might just go watch a movie or hang out, or wash Steve's car, or any number of other things.

It's great to finally be discipled by somebody I look up to a lot. Steve's so much more mature than I am in almost every way (but he always knows how to have fun), but I do hope he gets a lot out of this discipleship, because even though it's usually the discipler teaching the disciplee, the impact shouldn't just be one-sided.

The annual CCAC Awana talent show was today, and Priscilla and I were helping out taking pictures and filming, respectively. I've forgotten how cute kids are. They can sing way off key, totally flub their lines, and forget what they're doing... and get away with it.

I wonder what I looked like doing those performances when I was that age. Maybe somebody has it on videotape. Then again, I don't know if I'd really want to see myself. ;p

Congratulations to Steve Chen, Tom Sugi, and John Zheng who graduated from the Master's Seminary today. Steve and Tom are such nerds, both graduating summa cum laude!

Or lack thereof. Recently Bobbie Yook from CCAC announced that for three consecutive Saturdays, starting last week, volunteers were needed to teach English to ESL students at Napa Elementary School, which is a two minute drive from CCAC. She said that normally school volunteers need to have been tested for tuberculosis (why that and only that particular disease is beyond me), but since the program has a short duration, the school was waiving the requirement.

So Priscilla and I showed up at the school at 9am, expecting to tutoring kids until 12:30. We spoke with the principal, who kindly informed us that we had been misinformed, and that we could not help out because we have not been tested. But she did say that she could make some phone calls and pull some strings and hopefully let us come back next Saturday.

So instead of selflessly tutoring struggling kids for three and a half hours, Priscilla and I went back to her place and watched eight episodes of Meteor Garden. Gee whiz.

Today I went with Kiet, Dan, Grant, and Priscilla to Malibu Creek for what I thought would be an afternoon of hiking. Unfortunately the guys' idea of hiking is a little different from mine, and I found us venturing up the stream climbing over huge rocks.

Most of it wasn't that difficult, but at a few points we had to climb along the sides of the canyon with the water right below us. There were holes and niches in the rocks where we could grab onto, but sometimes there was no good place to grip, or there would be room for just a finger. Good thing for all the upper-body training I've been doing.

Fortunately I never fell into the water (too bad for Priscilla, she fell in twice ;p) or cracked my skull. At the end of our grueling trek, we cooled off and swam in a part of the stream that was like a large open pool. There was a tall rock over the pool that you could jump off of and land in 15 feet of water. Too bad the sun was going down and the water was almost freezing. And during the hike Kiet managed to catch a fish using a gummy worm (that is, chewing gum pressed into the likeness of a worm) on a hook, and brought it home in a peanut jar. He said he's going to cook it.

So yeah. I've never done rock climbing before, and I had a blast. I wouldn't mind going again. All the scratches and internal injuries were well worth it. ;)

Yesterday Priscilla and I found ourselves cooking at her house again, making our first attempt at chicken pot pie. My dad had shown us before, and I thought I had a pretty good idea of how to do it. So we went to the supermarket to buy the ingredients that we didn't already have: pie crust, mixed vegetables, chicken breast, and condensed milk. Only we forgot to get the condensed milk when we got there. And all the pre-made pie crusts seemed to be for making dessert pies (my dad later told me that they're all the same) so we went with a box of crust mix. Unfortunately when we got back to her house, we realized that we didn't have a rolling pin to flatten out the dough.

So there we were, two newbs trying to press a layer of dough into the pan with our hands, and making the filling with chicken and veggies in cream of mushroom soup diluted with water. I called my dad for help and after giving me advice, he ended with an encouraging note - "Well it doesn't sound like it's going to turn out very good..."

But by some freak luck we got all the quantities right, and we ended up not having merely watery cream of mushroom soup on a soggy pie crust. The finished product was actually not bad. I wouldn't say it was superb, but it certainly was worthy of being called a pie. A great fiasco was averted that day.

I was feeling pretty crappy last week. I couldn't stay awake in class, concentrate on my studies, or understand the material. I skipped a class, didn't turn in a couple assignments, a even received a pretty vocal email from a professor for completing only half of my homework. I guess in a way I was getting depressed.

Priscilla changed that. Tuesday night I emailed her saying I wouldn't be going to Sojourners because I was feeling really down and having a tough week. On Wednesday I came back from class and was surprised to find her waiting in front of my door. She's pretty good at getting people to help with her surprises (in this case, my roommate) without spilling the beans to me (except that time with the passport ;p). So we hung out and she studied with me to make sure that I didn't squander any more time. She even brought me energy snacks and vitamin water! After her visit I've been feeling a lot better and, after a good night's rest, was actually able to sit through classes without dozing off.

I was too busy to go home for the weekend, so yesterday she came down to UCLA again (not unannounced) and we studied and did our Spiritual Disciplines study that we had to postpone (oops). Today I've been doing schoolwork all day. This weekend has been the most productive I've had in quite a while, and I feel like I'm getting back on track. Things will be ok.

I'm really thankful to God for giving me such a caring friend and spiritual partner. I guess even I can be emotional sometimes, and it's nice to have a shoulder to lean on and somebody who can help me get back on my feet. I hope I'll be able to do the same for her. Thanks, Silly Goose. :)

I think I've reached a new low. I've done something I never thought I would do. I got a MySpace.

It's all Priscilla's fault! She convinced me that it would be a good avenue to socialize with people from Sojourners, and she's right- socializing is cool. But that doesn't mean I'll think any more highly of the programmatical and stylistic junkyard that MySpace is. For one, it was extremely aggravating for me to customize my profile, having to use lame CSS hacks and whatnot. No wonder the vast majority of people (with little technical knowhow) on MySpace use predesigned layouts or layout generators.

So in the midst of socializing, I'll be writing about the many ways in which MySpace falls short. The AIM conversation below pretty much sums it up:

Me: i'm really ashamed of myself this time
Ray: why
Me: i
Me: got
Me: a myspace
Ray: .....
Ray: i'm never talking to you again

Priscilla and her parents wanted to get me (as in pay for) a US Passport so that I can travel abroad and come back to the US without being detained, interrogated, and shot... or whatnot. It was supposed to be a surprise, but she accidentally blurted it out on Thursday. So yeah, that's what we did yesterday.

I really annoy people sometimes with my pickiness and habit of questioning authority. Sometimes those are good qualities to have, but other times it does more harm than is really necessary. There's always a way to disagree with and confront people in a way that is productive. I need to find that balance.

I got a ride out to Sojourners with Shirley again. Priscilla gave her testimony, and her friend Justin and his girlfriend Jacky came. They're really cool people. I hope they come back again; Priscilla can bribe them with music.

Today we had a Survivor/Fear Factor themed social arranged by our unofficial activities coordinator Aaron. Man, he's got some crazy fun ideas in that head of his. I can see why he's in charge of socials.

I was supposed to stay up to do homework, but I'm really out of it today, so I'm just going to sleep. I've been falling asleep in class every day this week. I'm going through somewhat of an emotional and physical rut. Hopefully sleeping early for once will help turn that around. Oh and catching up on homework over the weekend.

I had the opportunity yesterday with Priscilla, her mom, and around 15 people from MBCLA to visit Saddleback Church, the church founded by the famous pastor Rick Warren (author of The Purpose Driven Life), 75 miles away in Lake Forrest.

We began our visit with an architectural tour of the very nice campus, that looked more like a resort than a church with its rolling hills, giant palm trees, a water fountain bisecting the main stairway, an upscale cafe and plaza, and elegantly designed and multi-themed buildings. At first glance, one might be quick to denounce such luxuriousness as worldliness or a misuse of God's resources. But hearing of how Rick Warren believed that a church is not about buildings but about people, how they did not have a building to call their own for 15 years, and some pondering on my part helped me understand their intentions.

For a church that's grown so big (22,000+ members) and has six services plus dozens of ministries per week, a large campus is a must, complete with facilities for food and relaxation. Because let's face it- some people spending the whole day at church are bound to get hungry and tired. Something I found interesting is that Saddleback's main priority is reaching non-Christians: the unchurched and those with negative church experiences. To those people, the upscale (Orange County, need I say more?) and inviting atmosphere of the campus offers an immediate welcome to those already hesitant to set foot upon the grounds of a church. Members of the church are warm and welcoming, and are glad to volunteer their time serving in ministries of all kinds. In fact Saddleback has only a couple hundred paid staff, and several thousand volunteers.

We concluded the day with a visit to the huge worship center where pastor Doug Fields spoke on control of your life vs. faith in Christ. He was funny, animated, and his messsage really spoke to my heart. It was interesting to see that he used only a few verses from the Bible, and members were not expected to have their own Bibles (nor were Bibles provided). Prayer was also not much of a focus, with only one prayer said at the end of the service. But again, considering again the goal to reach non-Christians, these can be good methods to communicate the Gospel to them in a way that is not threatening and still meaningful and true. Our tour guide did say that Saddleback has individual ministries that delve more into specific ares of Bible study and life issues, but we didn't have time to check out any of them. Saddleback has been successful in leading thousands to Christ. My hope for them is that once they have found Christ, they will continue to grow in faith, maturity, and love. Seeing how people at Saddleback worship and serve was greatly encouraging to me.

I recently found out that Shirley, Steve's fiancee, works and lives close to UCLA, so I arranged with her to get a ride to Sojourners tonight. It was great conversing with her in the car, and finally being able to attend Sojourners during the school year. I just might keep coming back with her every week. And it's a win-win situation: my being in the car allows her to use the carpool lane and beat rush-hour traffic!

So I got back to school around 10:30 and started the EE 103 homework that I've been putting off (for semi-valid reasons), but I was soon distracted by phone calls from Priscilla and then Chi! Which wasn't a bad thing. My social life has really taken off in the past few months, but I don't want it to interfere (too much) with school. Not that I don't enjoy talking and hanging out with people. But it's important to find the right balance.

A bunch of us met up at China Star to kick off Chi's going away party. From there we headed to a nearby convalescent home where most of us split up into groups of two to go talk to residents. Crescentia, Ezekiel, and I stayed in the dining room and played piano and sang for the few (sleeping) residents in there. I guess it's a good thing nobody was listening because I messed up playing quite a bit. A few keys on the piano also didn't work at all...

After that we headed down to Priscilla's house to chillax and drink very sugary strawberry smoothies(?) We ended the long day at the food court at the mall where I had spaghetti with some pretty gross-looking meatballs. Aaron brought me and Christina back to UCLA. This weekend has been pretty exhausting. I'm struggling to type all this because I'm pretty out of it right now.

I also fried my phone charger. It's very dry in the Valley, so I'm getting shocked from touching everything from car doors to my dad's laptop. When I was trying to detach the charger plug from my phone, a spark from my finger contacted the plug, travelled up the wire and caused a huge spark to blow out of the charger base and instantly kill the thing. At least there's a large supply of new ones on eBay. For now, I have to use my car charger coupled with my dad's car-wall converter.

Yesterday I went with Priscilla and her parents to the YMCA. I gotta hand it to them- they're pretty good at dedicating time to exercise almost every day. I really need to go to the gym more. My arms are really sore after working out.

Today Priscilla and I joined Steve and Shirley for lunch at Thai BBQ. They're going to be mentoring us in our relationship. Priscilla and I also had our first discussion for our study of "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life."

Tomorrow a bunch of people are getting together for Chi's goodbye party. Aaron planned all of it.

Somehow I need to find time to get done all the homework and studying that I've been putting off...

So I finally got off my lazy behind and went to the campus gym with David (aka Kung Pao), who was my workout buddy last year. Apparently he hasn't been going since we stopped dorming together. We really should start going regularly again- it's a lot easier to go if you have a partner... or if you have the discipline for it (cough).

David got tired after an hour and went home, but I stayed for half an hour past that. It's funny how it's such a struggle for me to go work out, but once I'm there, time flies and I don't want to leave. When I finally got back to my dorm room I realized that I had left my cell phone at the gym, so I had to run back there again. Well, at least I got my exercise for the day.

I'm definitely going to be sore for a couple days. And I'm supposed to work out with Priscilla on Saturday. Doh!

The plan today was for Priscilla to pick me up from school and the two of us head down to Chinese Bible Church, where her uncle Donald is the senior pastor. I had checked directions on Mapquest and knew we needed to go south on the 405 freeway and take the Santa Monica Blvd exit.

So there we were, cruising down the 405, and somehow both of us failed to spot the right exit. What we did spot was a junction sign that said Santa Monica, which we followed and found ourselves suddenly on the 10 freeway. We quickly got off and tried to get back to the 405 but couldn't find any on-ramp, so we ended up going south on Sepulveda Blvd which I knew intersected with Santa Monica Blvd. But since we were already unknowingly south of our destination, and I have a good sense of direction but a bad sense of distance (and no familiarity with the area), we just kept going... and going.

So faithfully following Sepulveda's curvature, we passed through Mar Vista and Culver City, Westchester and the famous LAX, and El Segundo. By this time we were half an hour late for church and were pretty sure that we had missed our destination, so we turned on a street trying to get back to the 405, and instead found ourselves at the end of the road at a place known as... the beach. Apparently the sight of the waves rolling onto the sandy shore was too captivating, and we realized that if we did manage to find our way to church, the church service would be almost over, so we decided to stay.

So the moral of the story is: a GPS unit is really useful to have in a car. And also that God (with his sense of humor and all) works in mysterious but wonderful ways. I don't think it was an accident that both of us missed the turnoff and that we ended up 20 miles off course at a beautiful beach with beautiful weather. I had my Purpose Driven Life book, so we finished our study right there and had a good time of spiritual discussion. I think we got more out of our discussion than we would've if we had made it to church.

So that wonderful winter vacation is finally over. It's been great hanging out with people almost every day, crashing (Christian) parties, strengthening relationships with friends and family, and growing in spiritual wisdom. Aside from having to wake up early once more, I'm (mostly) excited about starting a new school quarter. Still, I wish vacation had been longer, since for once I didn't spend all of it loafing around. I even managed to study for my next classes, albeit only two chapters when my goal was two books. We'll see how that goes.

Here's to a new year!

Kicking off the final days before the new school quarter, I met up with Sophonias at the Mann theatre to watch The Good Shepherd, a movie that has garnered generally favorable critical review. I gotta say- I haven't been so bored watching something since The Da Vinci Code.

The dialogue in The Good Shepherd was hard to follow (and there was way too much of it), and the plot was bland. I don't know how I made it through the two and a half hours without falling asleep. I suppose I would've understood the movie if I were more intellectually able, or had more appreciation of history. But alas.

On a completely unrelated but also morose note, I got an email from eBay announcing that seller fees will be going up at the end of the month. Way to start off the new year by sticking it to sellers. I've grown increasingly dissatisfied with eBay over the years, so I'm going to be looking into Yahoo! Auctions, which is completely free, for future trading.

Priscilla is evil.

Thank you for one hell of a crazy-turned-romantic day of sweeping me off my feet.

Last night Priscilla and I had dinner at Thomas' New Year's Eve party. Today I went with my family to a luncheon at the Fong's house. I'm really getting my fill of food.

Happy New Year to everybody! Let's make this year count.

The new year is quickly approaching (2 hours and 4 minutes remaining at the time I'm writing this). 2006 has truly been a great year. Here are some of the highlights of my year:

• Got a job at school that has helped in my study of computers
• Got my first A+ in college
• Grown closer to God and to friends
• Finally got a girlfriend, who cares about me as much as I her
• Saw a good friend come to faith in Christ
• Moved and redesigned my personal site

May 2007 bring another year of blessing and joy to us all!

I joined Kenny, Raymond, Minh, and Yakov for a grueling three hours of basketball at Reseda Park today. I never thought that I could get blisters on my feet from playing basketball. Or that I could get out of breath after playing for five minutes. I really need to get in shape...

I went bowling with Kenny, Raymond, David, and Randall at Brunswick this afternoon. After much deliberation we decided on the family pack, split $12 per person, which gave us two hours of playing time into which we were able to squeeze 3.7 games. Also included was a free pitcher of Coke, which even I had a cup of. I haven't had Coke since, what, high school?

I also broke my personal high score of some mid 70's with an awesome 111. My new technique is to not concentrate on aiming, and just throw, hard. Ironically my aim becomes a lot better that way. :0

Merry Christmas! I hope everybody is having as good a time with friends and loved ones as I am. Here's a recap of the past three days:

Saturday: Went caroling at two retirement homes with Crescentia and Priscilla and members of MBCLA. Watched Home Alone and The Ring Two with Priscilla afterwards. I think I can safely call The Ring Two one of the worst movies I've seen.

We also experimented with cooking dinner and fortunately didn't set the kitchen on fire. We made a stir-fry melange of chicken, eggs, carrots, instant noodles, and tomatoes (my weird idea) and some bok choy (Priscilla's idea). I think the bok choy would've been better combined with everything else in the stir-fry. Nonetheless, everything came out edible. :O

Sunday: Went to MBCLA with Priscilla because they had some special Christmas program. They are SO musically gifted there. One of the songs sung by the choir was "Carol of the Bells," and they had people accompanying with actual bells. Most of the bell players had two bells of different notes, but the guy at the end had seven!

I finally got to talk to Priscilla's parents (actually just her mom) about the relationship. Finally we went to their annual family reunion where everybody was pretty talkative (contrary to what I've been told, ahem). Their family is really huge. I got to meet pretty much everybody but I don't remember half their names now. Oh well, maybe next year. ;)

Monday: Watched Rocky Balboa with Raymond, David, Max, and Yakov. I've never seen a Rocky film but I really enjoyed this one. We had a good time of hanging out and making fun of everyone and everything. Finally, I spent Christmas dinner with my family. We didn't do anything fancy this year, which I'm somewhat glad for.

Finally, in the spirit of Christmas, I'd like to share an animation which I found amusing. It's about the least known reindeer of all, Fabian, who never had a nose. True story.

Priscilla was my slave for what was also her 21st and a half birthday. Here's a recap of our day:

• Kidnapped and blindfolded her and drove to Iceoplex. On the way almost got pulled over by a motorcycle cop who thought we looked a lil suspicious.
• Lost a quarter to a messed up strength tester game. She had better luck with the virtual fortune teller game next to it. Literally. Good or bad, we don't know? Well, maybe bad because she got zapped by it.
• Found out that hitting 50 MPH softballs at the batting cages is like trying to play golf with a ball that moves waaay too fast.
• Got food poisoning somewhere along the way. Didn't know it was food poisoning till the next day.
• Took a detour to UCLA to pick up a banana that I thought I might've left rotting in my room. Except it wasn't there. I probably ate it before leaving for the weekend.
• Ended up at Santa Monica pier. Made weird faces at a roller coaster cam. Rode a scary dragon! Started getting queasy from the rides + the food poisoning.
• Priscilla owns me at ski-ball.
• Played head-to-head on a DDR machine in the arcade. My pad would let me make the difficulty higher, but not lower. Somehow the difficulty got stuck on the highest level. A dozen people were watching because they thought I was a DDR champion or something. I died in a few seconds.
• Had golden brown (not deep fried!) shrimp at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. Everybody who goes to Santa Monica Pier has to go to Bubba Gump's at least once! Left my glasses behind at the table. The waiter must've thought it was an interesting tip.
• Hehe.

Yeah so, I don't think we could've had a more random day. Which is why it was so fun. =)

This past (Halloween) Tuesday Priscilla kidnapped me and Christina from UCLA to go to CCAC for our annual [International] Fun Factory carnival. Even though I had a midterm to study for and got back to school very late, it was great helping out. Fun Factory is a great way for our church to reach out to the local community.

Priscilla and I were working at the monkey hula-hoop toss booth, and we were scheduled from 6-8 but apparently only Deborah signed up after us, so Priscilla ended up staying overtime while I walked around like a lazy guy and watched the magic show going on. Thanks Priscilla, you're a very fun friend! ;)

Today was interesting.

I've been in a mental, physical, and spiritual rut since school started. I've been excruciatingly busy, sleep-deprived, and since last week just out of it. I've also been going home every weekend, and customarily not studying well there, a great ingredient to add to the mix.

Today started pretty lousily. My brother and I were to drive to church separately from my parents, who had to leave early. Before she left, my mom woke us up, but we fell right back asleep. We would've missed church (or been very late) if it weren't for her calling 15 minutes before the starting time to ask us to bring something that she had forgotten. Needless to say, I was pretty tired, and I ended up nodding off during half of the sermon.

Adult sunday school went better. We are doing a seminar on spiritual warfare, and the topic was the breastplate of righteousness from the Armor of God section of Ephesians 8. The breastplate back in the day was also called the heart protector because of its obvious function.

In the same way metaphorically, God's breastplate is the strength we gain from his Word to protect our hearts from the snare of guilt that the devil brings. This is a big issue for me, as I always struggle with guilt from wrongdoings, as well as for not living the Christ-centered life I think I should be. I sometimes feel that God can't forgive and accept me because I am so wretched in his eyes. But my group leader said this kind of thinking is a slap to God's face. It is denying that his grace is sufficient to cover even our biggest sins.

In the afternoon I met with my discussion group to go over the first three chapters of the book we are studying - The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Unfortunately, due to unforseen constraints, the group has dwindled down to just me and Priscilla. But we had a good conversation, and from Chapter 3 I realized that my life is driven mostly by guilt.

I arrived home exhausted and couldn't help taking a nap. I awoke right before dinner, still fatigued, and feeling (overdue) illness creeping over me. I realized that, despite being behind in school, I had not done any work over the weekend, and now it'd be even harder because I was getting sick. I felt miserable.

But afterwards, as my mom was driving me back to school, I had a moment of clarity when everything I had heard that day sunk in and clicked. God really did know every detail of our lives, before we were ever created. I can stop worrying about how things will turn out because whatever it is I am going through, he has allowed it. My life is in the hands of someone who is vastly more powerful and wise than I will ever be. And he has accepted and chosen me. There is nothing that can separate me from his love.

After I realized this, I confessed my biggest struggle to my roommate and asked him to help keep me accountable. I will no longer allow guilt for things done in the past to interfere with how I live in the present. I thanked God for what he has done for me, and I asked him to give me a renewed sense of purpose. I still don't know his will for me, but going through life, going through school and doing my daily grind, have a new meaning.

Whatever we do, we should do it for his glory. It's not about me. It's all about God.

Today I broke my record for the stupidest thing I've ever done.

9 people including myself went to Zuma Beach to hang out. I drove 6 of them in my dad's van. When we got there I decided to go in the water on one of the boogie boards we brought. I was out there for a bit, having a good time. I had forgotten that I had my van keys and cell phone in my pockets.

When I got back on shore I realized what I had done. The phone was completely dead. The keys were missing.

The only part of the beach I could search was the shore, and they didn't wash up there. It looked like my passengers and I were stuck.

In the end, my mom found a spare key at home and drove an hour to bring it down to me. Not once was she critical towards me. The only thing that puts me to shame more than my absent-mindedness, is being treated with that kind of love.

I've been meaning to write about the camping trip but didn't get around to it because I've been busy redesigning this site. The final layout revisions are looking promising!

On the camping trip, we didn't get to do some fun things as planned, such as waterskiing. But meeting and bonding with new people made it worth it. And the fond memory of eating a ton of fried food and getting sick because of it.

Tonight Priscilla treated me to an expensive dinner at Lulu's Cafe, where the main motive was alcohol. Prior to today, I've only tasted a couple sips of wine, but that didn't stop me from ordering a cranberry martini and a whole bottle of Chardonnay, which I somehow managed to finish 3/4 of. After that I felt really sick and threw up in the bathroom. So much for that expensive dinner.

Well now I know my limit, which isn't much at all (I got really red after those couple sips last time). Apparently my body really doesn't like "unhealthy" things. The college-induced craving to drink has been satisfied, and I don't think I'll be doing it again any time soon. I don't think I'll ever be able to get drunk to the point where I start losing the ability to think, since I can't hold my liquor long enough. That's ok, it tastes like uh, crap, anyway.

The college group from church is going on a camping trip from Friday to Sunday to Lake Lopez in San Luis Obispo. We're going to be camping out in tents and partaking in such activities as waterskiing. It'll be a lot of fun. I really should start packing though, it's almost midnight.

I love my Raymooo! He saved my butt on my Java assignment and spent a couple hours helping me debug. If it wasn't for him, I would've turned in my assignment late and with errors again.

Raymooo is the Java master! Hooray!

I got to go to the Getty Center today with Priscilla. It was only my second time there, and last time I went there for a project for my Art History class and hence didn't get much free time to look around. We actually covered most, if not all, of the Getty today. We went through the North, East, South, and West Pavilions, the garden, and the Rembrandt exposition. I've never seen a Rembrandt work, let alone 16 of them.

Afterward we decided to rent the horror movie she'd been wanting to show me for a while: What Lies Beneath. It was already night, and we turned off the lights and turned up the volume to the max to heighten the effect. Sorry to say though, it wasn't that scary. I can't believe Priscilla was so frightened (and it being her second time watching it) that she had to close her eyes during some scenes. Then again, I'm afraid of heights, even when I believe fully that the high structures I'm on were designed by competent and sound-minded engineers. As I say, fear is always irrational. ;)

I got to go to Balboa Park with Priscilla this afternoon, and we brought our bikes in my parents' van. Since the weather was a tad hot, we first went on the peddle boats on the lake for an hour. Then we did bike riding around the perimeter of the park (it's pretty big- a few blocks on each side) for another hour. Finally after all that working out and burning calories, we picked up a fattening cheese pizza from Little Caesar's and went to her house to watch the movie Hollow Man. =)

Raymond and I hung out at Priscilla's house and watched 2 movies: Enemy at the Gates and this Hong Kong movie which loosely translated is called "Lost in Time." Then we watched Raymond kick computer butt in Virtual Fighter 4, only to lose to the last guy like 20 times. We finally made him give up because it was getting late. ;)

I also found out my grades for the quarter. I got a B in Electrical Engineering and Math, a B- in Art History, and a C+ in Computer Science. I know those aren't the best grades, but they're a lot better than the 4 C's I got last quarter. This upcoming quarter I'm going to start getting some A's again. Priscilla managed to talk some sense into me and get me motivated. Luv ya!

Roger and I went to Magic Mountain! His father got these free passes in the mail, so all we had to pay for was parking and food. We rode X at the beginning, so the wait-time was only like 2 hours (I've heard some people say they waited 3 hours). For dinner we both had a turkey leg meal. The legs were HUGE! Mine was pretty bulky and longer than my face! I've never seen such a big turkey leg in my life. o.O

It was pretty fun, but we could've done more if the lines weren't as long as they were. Next time we're getting a FastLane pass.

After not checking my freeiPods account for a week or two, I logged in today to find that my iPod had been shipped, and was delivered to my house this morning!! Thanks again to Theresa, Sergey, Priscilla, Roger, and Richard for helping me get it! You can check out my Free iPod Guide if you think you might want one. And why not? For something worth $300, it's worth the small effort. =)

In other news, Kenny's server is back up, and my Tagboard with it. Once again you guys can chat with and/or make fun of me there. Have fun! ;)

Today I logged into my freeiPods account and found that they approved my referrals!!! I finally got to order my iPod! I'm glad they didn't reject any more of my referrals- last time they rejected Sergey because he provided a Russian email address; freeiPods is open only to U.S. residents, so I guess they thought he was Russian..

I'd like to thank the people who helped me get my iPod: Theresa, Sergey, Priscilla, Roger (twice), and Richard. You guys rock!

Happy 2005!!

My brother and I joined Raymond, Kenny, Minh, David, and Randall at the theatre to watch Flight of the Phoenix, a remake of a 1965 movie about a plane that crashes in a sandstorm in the Gobi Desert. The survivors get an idea to salvage parts from the wreckage to build a new airplane, but not without challenges from the treacherous desert, hostile raiders, and a paucity of food and water. It wasn't a great movie, but it wasn't bad. Of course you know what's going to happen in the end. But it had its moments. The movie reminds me a lot of the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks.

Today we went up north to visit my uncle and aunt. Coincidentally, we saw Crescentia and her family at the airport ready to go to Vegas! Now I gotta say (as most of you probably already knew), airport security is TOUGH. After going through baggage check, they found a socket-wrench in my dad's bag and said that we weren't allowed to carry tools aboard the plane (we thought it was just screwdrivers), so my dad had to go back outside and wait in the long line for bag check-in. By the time he was through and wanded (a second time) we had missed our flight!

Fortunately we were able to get the next flight which, although it was two hours later, was a huge relief. And I guess the flight made it all worth it. I haven't been in an airplane in ages, and the window view was a blast. Ever take a look outside when you're over the clouds? And then watch as the plane get enshrouded all around as it slowly descends back down through them? The same thing happened when we went back into the smog layer. Cept everything turned from clear to brown. Makes you think about all the crap that you live in. Gross!

We had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. We had 14 guests over at our house! I don't know how my parents cooked so much! Well, the guests brought some food too, but man.. craziness.

I was adamently against seeing The Incredibles, since I don't like animated films very much. But Priscilla made a deal with me: she said that she'd go ice-skating (which she loathes with a passion) with me if I went to see The Incredible with her. Fair enough. Turns out The Incredibles was what everybody says it is- incredible. I loved it! I really did!

At Priscilla's house we watched the first 30 minutes of Memento. Then I had to go home, so she let me borrow the DVD. Then I watched the rest at home instead of studying. =( The movie was awesome but SO confusing. I'll have to watch it over. But not tonight, nooooo!! Ok Anson, stop looking at the DVD box.. open your book, you can do it.. that's it.... now STUDY!! You have ice-skating tomorrow!

I talked with Priscilla on the phone about a myriad of things, and one of the things she asked made me really think. Her question to me was, "What is your favorite color?" I think she was trying to tell me that you can be friends with somebody for a really long time, but you still might not know them well. There are so many things I don't know about my friends, from the seemingly trivial details like their favorite color to the big things, like their goals for life. I know that my friends are smart, they can sing like Mariah Carey, they program better than I do, they collect insane amounts of drama, and they enjoy breeding E. coli colonies in petri dishes. But how well do I know them as people?

I think it's overdue that I start getting to know who my friends really are, not just what they are. During dinner, I asked Sophonias about his goals for life and for college- what's his post-college roadmap look like, and what he hopes to get out of college besides an education.

Priscilla came to my house in the morning to learn some HTML stuff, and in the afternoon we met up with Sophonias at the theatre to watch Cellular. It wasn't a blockbuster, and the fact that it was playing in the room all the way at the back of the hall went hand-in-hand with the fact that I had never heard a thing about the movie until three days ago. Yeah... another one of those space-fillers that come and go and leave no imprint in the annals of time. But not like there are any really good movies showing now..

Surprisingly though, Cellular wasn't too bad. In fact, I kind of liked it. I think of it like a movie like Speed, only with more contemporary teen elements, and a weaker script. But it was good.

WARNING! MAJOR SPOILER IN THIS PARAGRAPH: Something I thought was interesting was that I recognized the actor playing the role of the old officer's friend. He also played the role of Truman's friend in The Truman Show. And in both movies, he ended up being a traitor!

On somewhat of a similar note, I'm finally getting my own cell phone. Now I won't have to bum my dad's phone, which is more or less a plastic stick with a few buttons on it (and no games!) and which has this pay-per-minute plan where each minute costs something like 50 cents or a dollar. Right now we're looking at this Cingular deal which looks awesome: 1000 nationwide anytime rollover minutes, and 2 phones (I guess that means two lines) for $40 a month. My brother can take one phone, so I guess that gives us each 500 minutes a month. That'll probably be enough. Oh, and the phones are LCD flip-phones.. really cool! I know that sounds pretty backwards, since everybody already has a phone with loads of features, but it's a major jump upward for a guy who's been using a plastic stick all this time. =)

Every time I go ice-skating, I learn something new. Today at Iceoplex I bettered my skating backwards, and I discovered how to skate forwards without lifting my feet off the floor. Maybe I'll learn how to do triple axles next time. (Keep dreaming)

Also, prayers and condolences to the families of victims of the September 11 tragedy. May God give them hope and comfort, and help us bring the terrorists to justice.

Seems like every Friday I'm hanging out at somebody's house, or somebody's hanging out at mine. Last week Raymond came over and we did some programming, StarCraft, and miscellaneous computer stuff. Today I drove Raymond down to Priscilla's house and we (as usual) watched a movie. Today it was Pearl Harbor.

I thought it was ok (just ok) overall, especially the effects during the Japanese attack on the harbor. I thought the ending was a bit stupid though (16 planes going into enemy territory to bomb 3 or so factory buildings? ok..). The love theme wasn't that appealing.. but I guess if I watched Titanic for the first time now I'd say the same thing. Maybe I've just gotten desensitized to emotional stuff. Or more accurately, all stuff. Yeah, that's probably it.

Today I hung out with Debbi at The Grove in Downtown and we watched Hero. I thought the choreography was beautifully done. Also the movie didn't progress chronologically like most movies do; instead it went through different perspectives and aspects of the same events, each revealing more info - I thought that was really unique and well done.

We had lunch at Wood Ranch, and I was completely stuffed after that. Debbi's mom wanted me to have dinner at their house, so we went back and watched an old movie, Roman Holiday, which was made in 1953. It was so hilarious... ahh classic comedy rocks, it's like I Love Lucy; "modern" movies and TV shows just can't compare.

Debbi's mom cooked this yummy Korean noodle dish and gave me a HUGE bowl. It was really good. I was able to eat most of it, but I was still stuffed from Wood Ranch.. I feel kinda bad =(

Raymond came to my house, and we picked up Crescentia and drove down to Priscilla's house to watch movies. First we watched Infernal Affairs, this Cantonese police movie (with English subtitles) that Priscilla said is Hong Kong's most popular drama movie or something. Then we watched A Perfect Murder, which I thought was very well written with all its plot twists and suspensefulness. We started to watch Van Helsing but Raymond and Crescentia had to go to church so we left. After I dropped them off at church, Crescentia said she left her sunglasses at Priscilla's house so I had to go back. Well Priscilla and I didn't find any sunglasses, but we got to watch another movie.. Matrix. =p

I drove myself down to Priscilla's house where we watched Troy. Of course it was a bootleg version, since it's not out on DVD yet. She got a lot of bootleg media on her trip to Hong Kong. =)

Troy to me had the effect of being a real documentary, that is, I didn't choose a side or a character to sympathize with. Maybe it's because everybody was fighting for power; there wasn't any moral cause for war. And in wars fought for power, neither side is right.

Priscilla also gave me Final Fantasy 8 for PC since she has one for Playstation, Animatrix, and this Disney movie Atlantis.

I went horseback riding at Griffith Park with Chi, her friend Steve, and Debbi. My horse was kinda wild.. at one point it ran up this steep slope to eat grass. Also my saddle wasn't on straight and I was always tilting to the left. Steve's horse was always lagging behind. Chi's and Debbi's were more behaved. It was really fun.

Afterwards we went to this Korean place, BCD Tofu House, for lunch. I had a beef and tofu soup and I must say, it was pretty darn good. Much better (and probably healthier) than Chinese food. Not that I'm a huge Chinese food fan.. but yeah.

Today I went to Disneyland with my old buddies David and Stephanie and their parents. The three of us and the two parents broke up into separate groups and met up at dinner. Speaking of dinner, it was exquisite. We ate at this fancy restaurant by the Disneyland hotels. Their few entrees cost $20 average! I had this pasta with shrimp and scallops. It didn't look too big, but that thing filled me up. I was STUFFED.

Oh, back to Disneyland. All the rides seemed a bit more silly than the last time I was there (a few years ago) for obvious reasons. But it was really fun. The lines were pretty long (even with the FastPast tickets), but David brought playing cards to keep us occupied. My favorite ride was Splash Mountain. And the fireworks show was top-notch. Just as good as July 4th fireworks. To think, they do the fireworks show every night at Disneyland... Anyway yeah, I had a really great time. Thanks you guys!

I haven't updated my site since the June 28 entry. I couldn't FTP using Internet Explorer into my UCLA account, so I couldn't upload my webpage. Today Kenny taught me how to FTP via DOS command prompt, and that worked perfectly. Kudos to him! And many many curses to Internet Explorer. <goes and downloads Mozilla's Firefox>

Towards the evening, I went hiking on the trail above my house with Daniel, Sarah, their 2 guests, my brother, and David. My brother and David were riding around on their bikes, and they were supposed to meet up with us on the trail. But the walkie talkies we were using to keep in contact didn't work too well, and our cell phones couldn't get reception up in those hills, so for a while we didn't know where they were.

I love my Anthro class. The teacher gives us a break in the middle of the 2 1/2 hours of class, and we usually break for more than the 15 minutes that he designates. He also lets us out of class a few minutes early. Furthermore, a third of the time he's not really lecturing on the material, but telling stories that are related to it. Still, it's a fun class, and the material is pretty interesting.

This evening I took my brother and the three (other) Wong kids to see Spiderman 2. The movie was pretty good, though I got bored through all the dialogue and was almost ready to fall asleep. I expected more action! But as Crescentia told me online, I missed out on a lot of the emotional aspects, like Peter going through his inner struggle and finding himself. I guess she's right. (But hey, I AM a guy, so what do you expect =0 ) I also could've appreciated the movie a lot more had I seen the first one. ;)

Lol, this site is so infringing.. Yahoooooooo

My brother and an adult church friend John came by UCLA and brought care packages for a few people. I was at lunch when they came to my door, but I think I missed them by only a few minutes! They just left the package at my door. Man.. it's so cool, it's got all these different snacks in it. Even some my brother knows I don't eat, but hah I'll just bring it back home cuz he likes them. ;) But yeah, I'm really touched by their kindness.

Last night I had my CS program written up, but it was behaving strangely. I went to sleep dumfounded, but with the resolve that I would fix the error the following day. Well today I spent several hours unsuccessfully staring at my C++ code trying to find the error. I then showed the code to Kenny and he helped me figure out the oh-so-stupid mistake that was crashing my program. I fixed the bug and submitted the program 30 minutes before the deadline. If it weren't for Kenny, I'd probably have turned it in a couple hours later.

Van Nuys High participates in this program called MESA (a math and science activities program) that spans many high schools and is supported by the Cal State Universities. Well today was MESA Day, a day when winners from the preliminary competitions from each participant high school come together and compete in a bunch of different events.

Anyway MESA Day was held at UCLA this year, and a bunch of kids came from Van Nuys, most of whom I knew. Raymond phoned at 8 in the morning telling me and Sophonias to come down to visit them, but we were too tired so we went back to sleep (after telling him we'd come later). Then around 9, David called and we told him the same thing. But we couldn't fall back asleep so we just decided to go down there.

We spent like an hour walking around looking for everybody because they were all doing some math test and wouldn't pick up their phones. We finally found them and hung out and took some of them on a tour of north campus. But man... was I tired. ;)

5 friends from Van Nuys High (Anton, Kenny, Michael, Minh, and Raymond) and I had dinner at Island's burger bar, where we had a job interview with a guy named Joe, who is working on a TV show with a guy named Allen. Allen also works as a substitute teacher at Van Nuys, and he is apparently friends with Mr. Altshiller. Allen needed help with the programming the website for the TV show, so Altshiller recommended Michael to him, who in turn recommended all of us.

So very shortly and during the summer, the six of us will be learning a programming language called C# and working on the website database. Joe said the goal is to have fun even if the show goes nowhere (which is very possible in the media world), and this will be a great experience and something worthy to put on future resumes. But if the show is a success, we'll also get paid a little. =)

David and I were going to go skating at Skateland, but Priscilla didn't want to skate, so we had planned to go to her house and watch a movie after skating. But at the last minute we decided to ditch skating and head directly to her house and take her bowling. But when the three of us got to the bowling alley, we found that there was a tournament going on and all the lanes were closed. So finally we went to the Pacific Northridge theatre to check out what was playing. The movie showing closest to that time: The Prince & Me.

Oh... my. I must say that movie sucked. It finally got ok near the end, only to plunge back into suckiness at the very end. There was just no substance to the movie. Nothing grabbed my attention. Sigh... chick flicks. David and I were the only guys in there. =(

Looks like the movie got bad critics' ratings as well.

Woo, I went ice-skating with a few friends today. My brother came with me; I had to pick up David after his SAT exam, Roger and Crescentia came on their own, and Priscilla showed up unexpectedly after her work was cancelled. It was quite fun! Roger was the Michelle Kwan as always, and Priscilla and Crescentia are gaining more confidence. And I think I'm starting to be able to skate backwards. Word to the wise: beware of Roger on ice, he likes to push you. ;0

Priscilla came over and we went to the theatre to watch The Passion of the Christ. I wanted my mom to come with us since she wanted to see it, but she had too much homework.

Yes, the movie was extremely violent as the media says, but that's the kind of stuff we see in movies anyway and nobody complains about that. Besides, I don't think that kind of treatment was far from what the historical Jesus went through. Maybe he had it even worse. The movie exemplifies Christ's love for us in the trials he was willing to endure (physically and spiritually) to save mankind, if only they would believe in Him.

The physics final was horrible- the problems were similar to the ones we've done in homework, but different enough to preclude us from knowing how to do them. The teacher was giving hints and explaining the problems DURING the exam. That's how little everybody understood them.

At least I'm finally home! Ah, good food once again. I went bike riding with my bro and Daniel. It was quite fun, and it made me realize how out of shape I am. ;)

Hung out with Debbi and her roommate Julie for dinner. Julie is also a Van Nuys High grad.. can't believe I've never met her, or at least heard of her, until now.

Hung out at Chi's house with Tammy and Annie. I hadn't seen Chi and Annie since the beginning of college! We chatted for a while, then walked to the nearby Rite Aid. There they made me suffer the agony of watching them peruse through female beauty products. Haha, it's all good.

I saw Return of the King this afternoon with Priscilla. Roger and Crescentia decided they didn't want to go, and everybody else had already seen it. :( One of my favorite parts was when the bonfire signals were lit across the mountain peaks, expressing a feeling of hope and rescue from the encroaching peril... Anyway, the movie overall was very good, though I think the epilogue dragged on and ruined the heightened effect of the end.

Oh yeah, and Happy New Year everyone!!

Merry Christmas y'all!

I am thankful for..
1. Jesus Christ. He died on the cross that we might be saved if we believe in Him.
2. My family. Their unconditional love for me is shown all the time. They support me in everything I do.
3. My friends. I'd go crazy without companions who support me, talk to me, and simply are there for me always.

Happy Thanksgiving!