Been in something of a contemplative mood for most of the last week. At O's sendoff last Monday, Drew Hyun used a phrase that has stuck in my head - "indelible mark". As in, "so-and-so or such-and-such has left an indelible mark on my life." If I slow down enough to take a good hard look at my life, there are certain events, experiences, opinions, people that have shaped the way that I view the world. It's really quite a trip to take a particular value or affinity or characteristic that I now have and trace it back to someone or something from my past. Just some random examples I thought of...

- Dave Wang's prejudice against Martin acoustic guitars when I was shopping for one back in '97 or '98 or so have probably prejudiced me against them forever as "decent but high-priced ripoffs."

- Jars of Clay's debut album (which I was listening to all last week for nostalgia's sake) has probably shaped my musical tastes for the forseeable future - deep, thoughtful lyrics, tight harmonies, and harmonizing acoustic guitars.

- My dad's propensity to ask questions in order to teach someone how to logically think through a problem... I found myself slipping into that mode when tutoring kids in NYC in 2000.

- The song "Lead of Love" by Caedmon's Call helped shape my attitude of deep appreciation for looking back (kinda like this blog incidentally) at the path I've trod to see God's leading.

- The song "If I Stand" by Rich Mullins, with the lyric "If I weep, let it be as a man who is longing for his home", has helped shape my priorities and longings in this life... that we are made for another world (CS Lewis quote). What am I clinging to tightly to on Earth?

- Psalm 37:4. Simplifies life quite a bit.

- and much much more. If you journal, this is a great topic :-).

Memorial Day Weekend recap...

- Friday night went with the youth to a praise night at Korean Baptist Church in San Jose... initial impression: the church owns an entire block. Literally. There's a small court in SJ with about 6 houses and the larger sanctuary, and the church owns every house on that block. Used for nurseries, church offices, Sunday school classrooms... wow. The night itself was pretty cool, first chance I've had to spend time with the Canaan young folks outside of Canaan proper... even though most of them didn't really know people at the praise night, it was cool to see some of them actually singing and having a good time in God's presence. On the way back in George's car a bunch of us started spontaneously singing loudly along to the worship CD George had in his car, which was pretty darn cool.

Afterward headed over to Byron's place to hang out with folks and spend the night... had some good conversations with people about discerning purposes for your life, and just telling stories... I've found that I've always tended to prefer conversation to games when getting together with people... unless the games are geared towards prompting or inspiring stories... after people left the people sleeping over stayed up to watch "Ocean's Eleven" again. Eventually went to bed at 5 am... didn't know I had it in me anymore.

- Saturday had Korean bbq (bul go gi and kal bi... mmmmmm) and played basketball at the park near Byron's place. I like the courts there because they have the full-size rectangular backboards, which lets me get back into my bank shot rhythm. If you understood that last sentence you've undoubtedly played with me before. Later that evening had a good time of just jamming on guitar with Jen and Karen. That particular weekend, a band with two friends of Jen's/Byron's/Maria's were performing in San Francisco, so they ended up stopping by Byron's place that night and gave a private concert... too bad I had already left b/c I was exhausted :-).

- At church on Sunday Pastor Tim (who speaks at Canaan every 4th week) shared on the topic of "Living by Faith" from the book of Habbakuk - not a commonly used book in most people's messages. Very neat message that's similar to a theme that God's been teaching me over the past month and a half or so - P Tim termed it "Though-Yet" theology. Hab 3:17-18 - "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior." This has been a theme recently for me because as I come to grips with the fact that struggling - with sin, with longing, with the world, with people - is a natural fact of human life, no matter how hard it gets, I can still rejoice in the Lord and be joyful in God my Savior. At the YA retreat a few months ago God led me to Psalm 13, which introduced me to this idea that I've been pondering - v. 2a - "How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?" v. 5-6 - "But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me." I think that sums it up in a nutshell. The essence of living by faith is rejoicing in God and having complete trust in Him, even when your mind is being attacked from all sides saying that God isn't delivering you from trial. This is quite a challenge.

Sunday afternoon headed up to JLau's/Cal's/Danny's pad in Richmond for a bbq... as always the food was good, but it was neat getting to catch up with the guys, as well as seeing Abe with his shaved head (Mr. Police Academy man!) and seeing Isaac (visiting from LA, moving up here in the fall for grad school at Cal) begin the milk challenge. The milk challenge, for the unaware, is a little game cooked up by Danny and Cal - basically, they'll pay $40 to anyone who can down a gallon of milk (2% milkfat or higher) and keep it down for an hour. Many have tried... none have succeeded. Oh, we also got some wiffle ball in before seeing Robert Horry save the Lakers' butt. Since I consider myself a basketball fan, I'm trying not to root for either team in this series, but it's turned out to be a great one. Incidentally, I can't think of a single reason why Horry was at the top of the key to get that lucky tip-out. If I'm Coach Jackson, I'm sending in all my players to crash the boards after Kobe drives the lane... it's not like Horry's gonna prevent a fastbreak the other way. Sometimes you do get lucky.

That night hooked up with some folks from Canaan at the Voodoo Lounge in San Francisco where a couple of indie bands were playing. One of these is Losing Daylight. They're a rock band with a few San Diego AACF alumni. The lead guitarist went to high school with Jen, and the rhythm guitarist was at the same church as Byron and Maria, and apparently the lead singer is a friend of Reni's (whose wedding I'll be going to later in June!), so naturally we turned out to support them. They were pretty good, musically... the lounge crowd was generally fairly subdued and small, but they exhibited a high level of skill and passion... the sound people could have done a better job though b/c I couldn't really make out any of the lyrics. Maybe they'll eventually go big and I can say, "Yeah, I saw them before they hit the big-time." Check out their website!

After the concerts they cleared the floor and brought a DJ, so a few people hit the dance floor. I was feeling a bit headachey, so I hung out in a booth and watched. JT and Jen were the best dancers out there.

- Monday (Memorial Day)... took some time to remember why there is a Memorial Day... it's staggering to think about the number of people, the generations of men and women who have given up their lives to protect the values that this nation stands for. Particularly since over the last two years I've been growing in sensitivity to the uniqueness and specialness of each individual human life... those lives that were given up for this nation, hopefully they weren't given up in vain. Later in the day hung out with my dad... we went to test-drive an Infiniti G35 (niiiiiiiice car... rear-wheel drive... 260 hp)... never seen him hit 90 mph until Monday.

Overall a pretty eventful weekend. Gee, it's been a long time since I've blogged, huh?

Yes! Finally figured out how to type in white. Darn stylesheets. I can now offer some plot-specific thoughts on Star Wars, Ep 2...

Click and drag your mouse over the following lines if you want to read...


- popular speculation - in the next movie, Mace Windu will be taken out by Boba Fett b/c Mace beheads Jango in this one.
- did anyone else find it amusing that in the arena execution, Obi-Wan faces off against a spider-looking creature, then chops off its legs and thrusts his saber through its head? I found it amusing with the whole Spiderman rivalry thing going on.
- interesting tidbit from theForce.net - now we know why Boba Fett guessed where Han had hidden the Falcon in Empire Strikes Back... Obi-Wan pulls the same trick with an asteroid.
- can Christopher Lee ever play a good guy? (Saruman, Count Dooku, I think he was also "Bob" in the movie "Dave")
- when exactly do we get to see Anakin become "the greatest starpilot in the galaxy"? All we've seen him fly so far are speeders, and one lucky ride in a Z1 Naboo starfighter that didn't exactly showcase his skill. I'm hoping that we can see this in the next movie... I'm a sucker for good starfighter combat.
- was Dooku really THAT much better than Obi-Wan? By this point Obi-Wan is one of the more powerful Jedi in the order, if not at Qui-Gon's level then close to it... and yet it seems as if Dooku is toying with him. Obi-Wan was able to hold his own against Maul... I was disappointed in his showing against Dooku.
- can you imagine what Yoda would have been like with a lightsaber in his physical prime? Probably a lot slower and not as skillful. That was just a great scene.
- where did Obi-Wan learn to pilot? In the original trilogy people usually point to Han Solo's piloting of the asteroid field in the Falcon as an example of his great skill. Obi-Wan does something nearly as difficult, yet he doesn't have the same rep.
- Jango had a really nice snap shot to take down the charging rhino-creature... obviously with that much natural armor over the head you have to aim for a vulnerable spot like an eye... and he had just gotten trampled... nicely done.
- Mace could only round up around 20-25 Jedi for his rescue mission? Surely there are more than that on Coruscant at any one time. I do find it interesting that members of the Council went to rescue Obi-Wan...

http://forums.warriorsworld.net/main/msgs/204033.phtml

Pretty good article. They make a good point that the only comparable big man to Shaq ever in the NBA was George Mikan, who was bigger than everyone else and had no rival.

Lakers played an excellent game today from beginning to end - after getting that lead Kobe never let them give it back. Excellent defense and good execution out of the triangle... it's a very well-drilled team. Their only hole right now is their lack of depth... if one of the key supporting guys goes down (Horry/Fox/Fisher) I don't think Hunter/Walker will be able to do quite as well.

I'm beginning to think the only comparable inside-outside potential tandem that could measure up to Kobe-Shaq in today's game would be for Duncan to go to Orlando in a year and you'd have him and McGrady in their primes. On the other hand the Lakers would still have the dominant offensive system and fundamental defense down.

Wednesday night: STAR WARS, EPISODE 2: ATTACK OF THE CLONES

Aw YEAH!

Showed up at 9 pm for the 12:01 am first showing of AOTC. BTW, wanna give a shout out to John T and Lawrence for hooking us up with the tix, and to Lawrence for showing at 3 pm (!) to wait in line for our awesome seats. The crowd that was waiting wasn't nearly as rowdy as it was for Episode 1, but I suppose we only had to wait 3 years for this one rather than 16 years for the other one. Still a fair number of lightsabers flashing around, and apparently one group brought their own sofa to wait in line with. The crowd was rowdy and fun... cheering at most of the previews (went nuts for Matrix 2, but booed "Like Mike" - a kiddie sports thing where a little kid joins the NBA and gains Jordan skills), then cheering for the Lucasfilm logo and when STAR WARS hits the screen and John Williams' score begins.

Some general thoughts, w/o spoilers... if I can figure out how to change the color of text on my webpage so you have to highlight it to read it (a la theForce.net) I'll put in some thoughts about the plot itself.

- from the previews, I was afraid that Anakin was going to be a typical Dawson's Creek-type teenage, whiny brat. While he does show this trait at times, I was pleasantly surprised with the portrayal of a conflicted, gifted man, and it was a real treat to begin to see the tendencies and beliefs of Vader begin to come through.

- the love story between Anakin and Padme is incredibly cheesy, but relative to the unending and unfunny buffoonery of Jar Jar Binks and little boy Anakin in Episode 1, it was much easier to stomach. Plus, with the rowdy crowd, it made the cheesy love scenes rather amusing.

- action scenes blow Spider-Man away. While both blockbusters had cheesy love stories going, AOTC hands-down has put the "Wars" back in "Star Wars". The last 40 minutes of the movie is one long battle scene that got my whole theater riled up and cheering... it's probably worth the price of admission alone, if you enjoy action.

- overall I was impressed with the movie... as a (former) diehard fan, I went in with some lowered expectations, but the movie exceeded them.

If I can figure out how to type in white I'll offer some plot-specific thoughts later...

First of all... Tuesday:

- slept in till 10 am... even though I woke up first at 7:30 am (!), I forced myself to relax. No WAY I'm getting up early on a day I take off.

- did some journaling... that's stuff that I wouldn't DARE to put out here in public for y'all to read :).

- 'round 1 pm met up with Byron, Olivia, and Mark for lunch in Palo Alto off of University at a little trendy cafe called "Pluto's"... random thoughts... walking down University Avenue near Stanford reminded me of walking down Shattuck or Telegraph in Berkeley... w/o trash on the ground, no poor people, and blemishless storefronts... while it was nice walking with a mid-70s Cali sun, made me kinda miss Berkeley. Food was pretty good, although I still haven't gotten used to the idea, ever since moving back from Berkeley, of paying more than $5 for lunch... now you can't get a meal for less than $6. One of the characteristics of being a working person I guess... we had a good conversation talking about the role of "self" in encouraging/affirming people... whether it's contrary to what the Bible teaches about man's depravity, and where you draw the line between encouraging someone's spirit and feeding someone's pride... I personally think that being an encouragement and a blessing to others is the role that God has for us in our relationships with people... it's His role to teach people, as they get to know Him more, that nothing good comes except from Him... and that is not a depressing fact but is actually the most freeing thing that we can hear, because God wants to do good in us if we let Him.

- after accompanying Byron to Longs Drugs where he purchased some vitamin C pills for Maria (all together now... awwwwwwwwwww) B, O, and I headed to the Macintosh store, also on University Ave, where Jars of Clay (my favorite band... someday I'll post something about the role their music has played in my life) was giving a presentation about how they used their iMacs and various software in the production of their most recent CD, The Eleventh Hour. Jars consists of: Dan Haseltine (lead vocals, percussion, drums, accordian), Stephen Mason (lead guitar), Matt Odmark (acoustic/rhythm guitar), and Charlie Lowell (keyboards, accordian, programming) as well as the rest of the support band. While I don't know a whole lot about sound stuff (George probably would have enjoyed the presentation a great deal), there were 2 neat things that came out of the presentation... one, we got to interact some with the band, and they're very funny and down-to-earth kind of people. Even though their profession has afforded them some modicum of fame, they still came across as very grounded, family people (an impression that would be heightened later that night at the concert). Also, they were very funny in a deadpan kind of way... like they'll be talking about something and then slip a little something in tongue-in-cheek... very much my kind of humor... where the funnyness comes from the context of stories they tell, their facial expressions as they express somewhat inane things... anyway. It was very cool... I even got to ask them a question ("Do you guys think you're going to produce your next record on your own again?" They said probably, b/c of the freedom they had in their workday when they had their own studio). And to top it all off, everyone who attended the presentation is gonna be sent a free copy of The Eleventh Hour! Hang out with the band and get a free CD to boot. Can this day be going any better?

- after the presentation we drove up to Castro Valley for the concert itself... on the way to Will Call Olivia ran into some old compadres from FICB, so Byron got her to ask them to save us seats (they didn't)... then headed off to Subway for dinner. Side note here... food and gas is very cheap in Castro Valley. It's like they need some kind of draw for people to go there to eat and drive. My Subway #7 value meal (southwest grilled steak sandwich, chips, drink) was like 4 bucks! In Silicon Valley that meal would run to $6 not including tax. I was pleasantly surprised. Byron was as well, even if he couldn't hold his sandwich together and it got all over the place.

- the concert. We showed up, got in line, and realized that with everyone who had been waiting in line for hours, we were probably not gonna get great seats... but I was okay with that since I had already seen both Jars and JKnapp up close and personal at the Youth Specialties event last November. We found seats in the balcony, not great but
serviceable. The evening's first unpleasant surprise was that Shaun Groves, an up-and-coming newcomer that was the opening act for the concert, was not going to be performing because apparently his 21-week pregnant wife had to have an emergency appendectomy and so he stayed back in LA. While I was disappointed at not getting to ear him perform (I enjoy his CD and I've read good reviews of his performance online) it's always good to hear that things are okay health-wise in the family.

Jennifer Knapp kicked off the evening with the opening song from her new CD, "By and By" (the album's name is The Way I Am). I was all ready to get to my feet when I took a good look around and saw that everyone was still sitting down. I'm like, okay, we're at a concert, and everyone's sitting down... this was also disconcerting to O. I'm a fan of Knapp, for those of you who aren't familiar with her, she's got a chick rock sound kinda like Jewel/Sheryl Crow/Shaun Colvin, and extremely deep, poetic lyrics. However, they could have done a better job with the sound... it was rather difficult to make her out at some points. Very good performance though. She also did a beautiful a capella rendition of "Faithful to Me", a short hymn-sounding song from her first CD that I haven't heard her sing live before, probably my fave from her set. Funny moment... during one of the rocking songs she hopped up on the drums platform, stumbled and lost her balance, grabbed the mike in front of the drums, regained her balance, smiled big and curtsied, then continued singing without missing a beat. Overall, a quality performance, but the sound needed some work, and the crowd didn't seem to get into it as much as when she performed in Sacramento (last time I saw her in concert).

Jars of Clay took the stage next and brought the house down. This was the... 4th? time I've seen them live, and it was probably the best performance. Dan got the crowd into it, encouraging everyone to stand (FINALLY!) and clap, and many fans sung along to every song, which was also encouraged by the band. Steve Mason cracked people up by doing random things during songs, like throwing both hands up into the air, falling down... it was hilarious. Oh yeah, the music... they are awfully talented. They started with several songs off their newest CD, including an intro to one of my faves, "Fly". It was written for some friends of the band, a guy and a girl, who met and got engaged, then found out that the cancer that had been thought to be defeated in the woman's body had come back again, and she only had a few weeks to live. So they got married, and spent their entire marriage in the hospital, alternating between despair, sadness, and finally hope, that Jesus Christ was waiting to welcome her into the kingdom where there would be no more pain. I think the entire crowd was very moved.

They followed that up with several favorites from the first CD, like "Like a Child" (one of my favorites from them live - Matt does this AWESOME acoustic guitar riff in the bridge. I wish they did more acoustic riffs). Before the encore, Dan came out and shared with us a bit about why the band was involved with World Vision, and how AIDS orphans in Africa were receiving even less care than other poor people because of conceptions that "AIDS is a judgment". Sigh... not our place to decide... it was really awesome to see their heart for impacting the world, using their fame as a platform with which to espouse the directive of Christ to love one another. They then finished up with my favorite song of all time, "Worlds Apart," which led into a short but incredible time of worship.

All in all, an awesome day. Food, friends, music, and a real sense of God's presence... I'd say that it was a day off well spent, no? :-)

Time to write about Episode 2...

Too much fun. Two days ago, Jars of Clay/Jennifer Knapp concert. Last night, a little cinematic event known as Ep 2.

Will write some reviews later.

Time for some random thoughts from the weekend...

- youth group kids are so funny. If any of my Berkeley AACF compadres are reading this, you may remember that in the last few years the class of 2002 came up with a little game called "batag" (bat-tag) where you take swimming pool noodles (made of foam), cut them in half, and then whale on each other with them. Doesn't really hurt as long as you keep it below the neck, and it's a lot of fun. So, I go ahead and I suggest to Luwen (our youth director) to get some of these.

So, when I leave YG on Friday night, all the guys are in the kitchen with foam bats, WHALING on each other... seriously... Norman lifted his shirt up and he had like red welts... with FOAM bats... they shouldn't cause that much damage but these guys were getting their weight into it. TOO funny.

- after YG on Friday hung out at George/Drew/Mark's place (even though Mark wasn't there... party guy) till 2 am with some folks... brought back some memories of the old days when 2 am was NOTHING... now people were starting to fade at 1:30... yeesh... was still fun swapping stories about people's first impressions, discussions about how spiritually nurturing the environments at Berkeley and at UCLA were for each of the alumni from there...

- Saturday got up bright and early (that means before 10 am for you non-engineers out there) to make omelettes for the folks... we did most of our Mother's Day stuff on Saturday rather than Sunday to avoid the crowds... the omelettes turned out pretty good... ham, mushrooms, onions... no cheese though. Praise band practice... then in the evening drove up with the folks to Fremont where we met up with my bro for dinner at this Japanese buffet that looked like it had been built in an old abandoned Sizzler building... haha... it was cheap and the food wasn't bad, but likely b/c of the cheapness there were lots and lots of customers... and whenever they brought out something good (sashimi, duck, crab, etc) you'd have a whole bunch of people stand up and rush over... seriously like vultures... my bro has a good account of the evening at his blog, http://dstyle29.blogspot.com. Speaking of which, just found out that my bro blogs. That's cool!

- Saturday night watched Ocean's Eleven at the Avalon Boyzzz' place (George/Drew/Mark again)... I usually read movie reviews after I see a movie, and this sums it up perfectly: "harmless, shallow good fun." There's no character development... you get introduced to each of the eleven, as well as Andy Garcia's and Julia Roberts' characters, and they're all static... they fill a role. No real conflicts... the only "developing" storyline throughout the whole movie was "what exactly does Julia Roberts see in George Clooney?" Skip the next few lines if you don't want the movie spoiled... 'twas pretty entertaining though, how they pulled the heist off... Karen observed that in every scene that we see Brad Pitt, he's eating something... the Friends episode with Pitt had him as a formerly large guy who lost a lot of weight; I can't help but think they got the idea for his "Friends" character from this movie as an in-joke of sorts... every girl I know gawks at him in this movie... a review I read said that in an early scene where Clooney and Pitt get into an elevator and the elevator heads down, "for a few seconds, the plot goes out the window and what you have is the handsomest elevator ride in cinematic history." Haha... worst thing about the movie was probably Julia... she didn't do much, and how her character falls back in love with Clooney makes no sense whatsoever. Oh, Joy mentioned she likes Brad Pitt's outfits, so everyone should pressure George into getting some of those shirts.

- Mother's Day... when I stop to think about it, I have really great parents. They're fun to be with, didn't place an inordinate amount of pressure on me and my brother to succeed when we were growing up, and have set a really great example to aspire to. My mom gives meaning to the idea of "joy through servanthood".

- played some ball yesterday. Memorable play: full speed tip-in of a missed fastbreak layup by a teammate.. I jumped, it was over my head, but I reached back and flipped it forward and it went in. Second place goes to a pump fake-drive finger roll along the baseline. Heheh...

- my Spurs need another perimeter player. Any good NBA team will be able to neutralize one great player (Duncan). You need that second player to divide the defense's attention. Sigh...

Will jot down more later...

Didn't think the Spurs would be able to pull it out, but they did. Duncan still has to do everything. The question is whether this Game 2 in the series will result in giving the Spurs more confidence when they head back to the Alamodome, or whether it will serve as a wake-up call to the Lakers team of last year that dominated its way through the playoffs. It's quite clear that the Spurs need more firepower, but if Robinson can get healthy and/or the supporting cast can gain confidence and be clutch from here on out, the best-case scenario here would be a repeat of the first Rockets championship team which was basically Hakeem Olajuwon dominating inside and role players hitting shots from the outside. We shall see.

Already looking forward to the Jars of Clay/Jennifer Knapp/Shaun Groves concert next Tuesday. The first two are among my favorite bands/artists and the latter is a promising newcomer.

Have to give a shout out to Joy and Mark who, this past weekend, wined and dined around 15 people on Saturday and Sunday with entirely different but entirely tasty cuisines. Joy makes a mean slab of ribs which undoubtedly delighted all of the meat-eating guys who invaded her home, while Mark oven-baked a very tasty sea bass that went well with the veggies. Throw in a fun jam session with the praise band, a great youth counselors meeting, a game of "Apples to Apples" and my first viewing of "Alias" (one ep before the finale!) and it made for a fun weekend.

Also, played ball on Sunday and Monday and the knee felt okay. So that's a praise... gonna keep being cautious with it just to be prudent.

Hello world! I've now been working for a year and a sixth. Amazing how time flies by when you're part of the daily grind. On the other hand, work is still a blessing. God created us to work - Adam's primary purpose was to have fellowship with God, his secondary purpose was to tend to the Garden. As Rich Mullins said, there's a great joy in doing what God created you to do.

I'll just keep this posting window open all the time on my work computer so whenever I want to take a break from scripting I'll jot something down here.

It's been over a year. I think it's about time to get this thing started up again...