If you can’t be a pine on the top of a hill,
Be a scrub in the valley, but be the best little scrub on the side of the hill.
Be a bush if you can’t be a tree.
If you can’t be a bush, be a bit of the grass
And some highway happier make.
If you can’t be a muskie, then just be a bass,
But the liveliest bass in the lake.
We can’t all be captains, we’ve got to be crew.
There’s something for all of us here.
There’s big work to do and there’s lesser work, too,
And the thing we must do is the near.
If you can’t be a highway, then just be a trail.
If you can’t be the sun, be a star.
It isn’t by size that you win or you fail,
Be the best of whatever you are.

- Douglas Maloch

Beautiful poetry. I love it

Sitting at the airport waiting for my flight which is now deplayed for another hour, I have to keep myself distracted from thinking of the goodbye ealier with my wife and kids. Especially, it was hard when Gracie phoned me to say goodbye again, and crying a river. I was all mushy up.

Ok distraction, let’s talk about my new job. It has been going good. I was working with a project that is scheduled to be finished in first week on January. Considering the deadline and they are OK with letting me taking time off, that is a blessing. I was able to finish all the tasks that were assigned to me before I go.

It’s busy, but so far has been a good kind of busy. There will definitely be lots to learn at this company, but here are few things I have learned from first couple weeks working:

• I need to update my wardrobe, and iron more frequent. Can’t don on jeans, t-shirt, and tennis shoes anymore
• Too many names to remember. I’m not good at this at all. With over 150 people in the department, it will take me some times OK Susan, I mean Lisa, I mean what’s-her-name
• People here whisper. Man, I mean I’m spoiled with having my own room before. Beside, I’m Asian, I’m loud. That will be quite an adjustment.
• Cubicle is not sound proof, or lunch odor proof. If no one is talking or on the phone, it’s awefully quiet there except he clicking sound of typing on keyboard and the humming of the heater, which can rock you to sleep. So, don’t eat too full at lunch.
• There’s no where in the cubicle area to take a nap after lunch. Note to self: need to look into George’s idea from Seinfield to build the napping compartment under the desk
• It’s like Indy 500 race track in the parking garage at the end of day. Nice guys do finish last here.

There are quite few adjustments to adapt to, coming from a small company to a big size company such as this. With all jokes aside, I have great starting weeks at the new job, met some friendly people, handed on and learned the system and able to do development right away. I’m looking for more of that when I come back.

WARNING:  This article is not for grammar-correcting prone type of people

Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs!

Cdnoul’t blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid does not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azamanig huh? Yeah and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!!! See if yrou fdreins can raed tihs too.

OK let’s take a break so the mind doesn’t have to process so much. As I wrote this, the spell checker is going crazy.  It’s quite interesting that our mind can do that, and I am really curious whether it would work for other languages like French, Spanish, German as well…

My kids won’t know about this until they are done with grade school, by the way.

You are not alone – for God is with you.
You are not defenseless – for God is your protector.
You are not inadequate – for God is your sufficiency.
You are not useless – for God has a purpose for your life.
You are not worthless – for God sent His Son to die for you.
You are not without hope – for God has a place prepares for you.
You are not unloved – for God loves you with an everlasting love.
You are not rejected, or abandoned – for God calls you His own.

“I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” – Hebrews 13:5-6 NLT

Devotional by Roy Lessin

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

There is a joke saying a woman marries a man thinking she will change him, but she can’t. A man marries a woman thinking she will not change, but she does.

My thought: It’s not really a joke; it’s the truth. We need to expect, acknowledge, and accept that there will be differences and changes in marriage. The sooner we recognize those changes and differences, the better marriage relationship we would have.

Actually, this is not so much a random thought. It was triggerd by Dr. Gary Chapman’s question of the day: “Looking back, what wasn’t discussed at pre-marital counseling that you wish you would have known before you got married?”

Dr. Gary Chapman is the author of the famous The 5 Love Languages book. I highly recommend this book, and sign up for his very insightful weekly newsletter. More information at The 5 Love Languages website

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Funny how when people excitedly tell us: “Oh, guess what?”, we immediately reply “What?” instead of, you know, guessing.

Next time, when someone asks you to “guess what”, try taking your time guessing (or even pretend you are thinking) and reply: “Wait, don’t tell me. Lemme guess…” About a minute later, reply “I’m thinking …. I’m thinking ...”

It probably annoys the person as heck, but it’ll be funnier than just saying “what” right away.

Just read something interesting from daily devotion.

No wonder the old saying goes “The middle of sIn is a big I!” When “I” become more important than others and what “I” want and that “I” win is more significant than what someone else truly needs, then “I” have lost my way and do not display the love of Christ.

It comes naturally to me that I  prioritize  ”me” first in everything. However, God tells us to humble ourselves;  lower ourselves to last, then He will lift us up higher. His “rules” of doing thing are so backward and awkward to us, don’t they?! Yet they are the right way – the correct way that makes everything works smoothly with less effort. It’s like we are right-handed, yet struggle and try to do things with our left hand. God is telling us: you don’t need to try so hard, just use your right hand! We can either tell Him: a) “mind your own business. I’m doing my own way” and struggle with own failures, or b) try His approach and do things with ease.

I remember seeing this church bulletin a while back:

and with that order, it spells out JOY!

By the way, if you haven’t seen this website I Am Second, http://www.iamsecond.com, you should definitely check it out.

The thing with vacation is right after you get back from your trip, there are so many things to do and you just want another vacation right away.  That just how I feel. I’ve been playing catch-up with works, chores, and many other things.

We had a wonderful vacation in early January. We were very excited and looking forward to this trip, but now it is thing in past now. It’s came and gone so fast. There are lots of things to write about, the experience, pictures… but please bare with meas I try to *whip* them out as fast as I can. For now, you can check out some of the vacation pictures updated in the Photo Gallery.

You hunted down and bought a toy that you thought your kid would really like, paid its price, wrapped it, gave it to him or her as present;  then your kid in turn took it to school and gave it away freely to his or her friend. How would you react?

1. Yell at your kid and give a speech about how much you had gone through to get that toy for him or her.
2. Vow you would never buy anything for your kid again (but you probably don’t mean it)
3. Question your kid about that “special” friend, and whether your kid is at the age of dating or admiring at the opposite sex.
4. Wish you would have keep the toy for yourself instead of giving it to your kid.
5. Wish you had told your kid that the toy is not to give away.
6. Be proud that your kid is such a generous person, and will buy something else to reward your kid.
7. Learn the lesson to make sure asking the kid first what he or she actually likes.

OMG. Someone stops me!!  Too many reactions that I think I probably would react.  Breath! breath!…. I guess I need to re-evaluate the joy of giving, tis the season.

So I was in the dentist office to get my tooth fixed. As I was laying down on the chair, looking up to the ceiling,  it caught my eyes with the warning label that sticked onto the steel frame of the dentist light, that said: “Suitable for use in dry place.” I couldn’t help but to think of a reason for such warning label.  Must someone have thought that it’s a good idea to use the light in a wet place before?!  But now I think of it, the warning label didn’t say “dry place only”, and the water is always readily available as they perform the procedure on our mouth. I could think of several death scenes  involve with electrocution that would write up the script for the next Final Destination movie. Man, I need to get out of this execution chair! Oh no, I can’t feel my lips now. It’s numb.

This is another random thought of the day. Now back to work!!

Entering my favorite holiday season and also the most busy time of the year, Christmas. This blog has been sitting in corner and collecting dust for quite sometime. I’d like to write updates more often, but I’ve been spoiled with short tweets on Tweeter and Facebook status update. It’s hard to find time to write all cool things that have happened, because when I’m actually have some free time, my body wants to sleep. LOL.

Well, here are few past and future exciting things:

• It was good fun time hanging out with family and friends on Thanksgiving. We had lots of foods. We haven’t had game night/day for a while, so it was fun hanging out and playing games together. 8-people  Bomberman party on PS3 was an addictive awesome time killer.  I remembered we used to sit down hours playing Bombastic dice-rolling games, trying to kill each other on PS2.  It was great.
• Still haven’t bored out with Sequence board game yet. Taboo is another back-up game plan. LOL.
• Nervous and forgot the guitar chords for the duet song on Thanksgiving celebration church service that I sang with my daughter, Grace.  Saved by Grace for her cuteness.
• The fall volleyball league is ending in 2 weeks. Tournament is on the last week. It has been fun and exciting. Want to sign up for winter league but looking for teammates right now.
• I got a new tooth! Last week, I got root canal and the crown done for my front tooth. My smile is much prettier now, supposedly. The teeth bleaching has also done some wonder.
• Doorbell was broken. I got a new doorbell, but the transformer has broken as well.  I have no idea where’s the transformer is located at. After couple searches, I have a slight idea.
• It’s been very very cold last couple days. Around 10F. Snow has been accumulated. It’s quite a White Christmas look right now. Great for snowboarding though I haven’t had time to go yet.
• Kids are excited to decorate the Christmas tree. That’s my plan for the coming weekend project.
• Christmas program is just around corner. Feel so unprepared this year. Still need to memorize the passage for the Christmas memorization contest that dues this Sunday as well.
• Got video games. No time to play.
• Looking forward to vacation. Excited!

You probably have heard by now the story the 6-year-old kid took off in the hot air balloon. It was all over the news. I was at work and saw the breaking news headline from the local news website. In the short time, the whole world was watching the same news with the live video broadcast of the balloon on its course. Despite there were so many comments, criticisms over the boy’s parents on how they should have watched their kids, and how and why it happened, I was just worrying about the boy. It was about 50 degree outside and wind had picked up. Lots of what-if went on in my head.

I was really concerning for the boy, so I prayed for him.  I don’t know this boy, but I worry for him as if he was my child. God must loves this  kid even more. I lifted him up to the hands of God. Only He could save. I also prayed for the frantic parents.

When the news update showed the balloon crash landed but rescuers did not see the boy inside,  my stomach just had a sad, worry, weird feeling all the same time. You know what I mean?!  Just as anyone else, I was afraid he might had fallen off the balloon during flight.

Until later in the evening, I heard the news that the boy was found at home, hiding in the attic. Boy, I was happy and relief! I thanked God for the safety of this kid. Even the boy wasn’t in the balloon in the first place, I wouldn’t count out that it wasn’t God. If it wasn’t something that God did to prevent the boy to get inside that balloon, there wouldn’t be this happy ending.

It’s great for the parents to have the boy home and safe. Now they have to face all the media attentions, judgement, criticism from everyone. Understanding there is negligence in their part, but kids are very unpredictable as well. I feel sorry for them. It’s going to be a long time for all the dust to settle.

UPDATE (2009/10/19)

Apparently, the whole deal was a hoax. The parents was set up the whole thing as a public stunt for a reality show. They are now facing felony charges and such. What were they thinking? What kind of parents would put their own kids into this mess? I guess my prayer should have been for the parents, instead.