My weekend in numbers

1 - haircut. #1 fade on sides and back, top fairly short. I get it cut at a Chinese barbershop less than a mile from my house... my family's been going there long enough that they know/recognize us
5 - weeks since my last haircut. Usually get it cut when the hair on the sides gets long enough to creep over the top of the side of my ear
~6 - comments about the haircut, including "With your hair so short, your face looks rounder."

5 - number of NBA playoff games or parts of games that I watched over the weekend. Spurs need to step it up

2 - number of times playing hoops in the driveway of the church's Farley houses
~20 - number of times PDan took advantage of the forgiving backboard and banked in corner jumpers
1 - left-handed jump hooks made
0 - number of times I bounced my head off the pavement (phew!)

1 - Alias episode watched. Dixon's a compelling character

~75 - pics scanned for Tomio and Alice's slideshow

Pretty low-key weekend.

Easter weekend recap

Good Friday - see below for some thoughts. After service, a bunch of us watched The Rookie, with Dennis Quaid portraying the real-life story of Jim Morris, who pitched in the major leagues a few years ago for the first time at age 36. Some more thoughts to come.

Saturday
Praise band practice in the morning. Afterwards, visited Guitar Center with Byron, Karen and Joy, where we sampled the various percussion instruments, checked out how cheap the electric guitars are (planning to buy one for church usage), and wistfully strummed away at the high-end acoustics. Finally picked up some new strings to replace the set that I broke that morning. Interestingly, for as often as I play, I don't break too many strings. Grabbed falafels from a well-known hole-in-the-wall in San Jose for lunch... tasty.

After Easter drama practice, a bunch of us went bike riding/rollerblading/jogging in Mountain View, following the Stevens Creek trail to Shoreline Park. I'm not as fit as I used to be.

Hung out with my bro that night, catching up and watching some NBA playoff basketball. Go Spurs!

Sunday
Woke up bright and early at 6:45 am in order to be at church at 7:30 for the final Easter drama run-through and band rehearsal. For the past few months, we'd been planning and praying for Easter Sunday because societally speaking, it's one of the two "Christian" holidays on the calendar (Christmas being the other) where a non-churchgoer will likely consent to going to church. While I still strongly believe that the majority of active evangelism takes place outside the church doors and in our own circles of influence, it was still neat to prepare and pray intentionally for Easter and also to encourage and keep accountable the members of the congregation to inviting family and friends. We had some great times of corporate worship through song, Jamie and I performed "Love Song" by Third Day, acted out an Easter musical drama entitled "Redeemer" in which I played the character of Jesus (more on this to come in a following post), Pastor Dan preached about the relevancy of the Gospel message to ordinary lives, several people were baptized, two infants were dedicated, a church member gave his testimony, and oh yeah, the children's choir came up and charmed everyone's socks off. Whew. To top that all off, afterwards we had a splendid Easter brunch prepared by some of the sisters in our congregation. The spread ranged from Chinese dan bing to congee to a variation on McDonalds' Fruit N' Yogurt Parfait, along with many other delicious items. Had the chance to catch up for a few minutes with Alan and Kain, and spent some more time with my bro. In total, we had around 150 people show up for service, about 67% more than usual. I'll be praying for our congregation as we follow up with family and friends who may have heard the Good News for the first time.

[thwack]

Had an extremely scary experience Sunday afternoon after consistory meeting, when several of us were playing ball. 4-on-4 halfcourt, and the other team had Hubert (a 6'3" skilled big man in the mold of Duncan or Yao - we call him Yao)... so, our team had to guard him with a much smaller player and immediately bring a help defender over when he got the ball.

On one such play, I rotated over to contest an entry pass into the middle of the lane where Hubert was posting up. The pass was to the hand I was moving towards, and while I was in the air, I got clotheslined (probably by his arm and shoulder that were positioned to catch the pass). My feet flew out in front of me and I landed hard on my back, and then felt my head bounce off the concrete driveway, making the noise mentioned in the title of this subsection.

Right after I hit, fear coursed through me when I realized that it was my head and not some other body part that was hurting. Looking back now, it seems somewhat obvious that I wasn't seriously hurt because I was able to think rationally about the dangers of head injuries, but at the time I was frantically trying to test my short-term memory - the names of the guys surrounding me, what songs I had led in that morning's worship time, and so on so forth. As I passed each of my own tests and the tests that the guys around me gave (number of fingers, date, etc.), my panic gradually lessened until I just felt a dull pain/soreness in my skull, but otherwise I seemed to be all right. In fact, after a few minutes, I continued playing. Love of the game and all that. Maybe I do have a hard head.

I think part of my panic was from seeing another church ballplayer bang his head on the ground last year, and he suffered a minor concussion - short-term memory loss and everything else. He'd ask a question, we'd answer it, and then two minutes later he'd ask it again. I think I've read somewhere that brain tissue doesn't really regenerate - perhaps one of you aspiring physicians out there can confirm that for me.

Regardless, it's not an experience I'm eager to repeat. I'm thankful that I seem to have come out of it with nothing more than a sore neck due to a mild case of whiplash, but yeah... not fun.

Good weekend overall, I'd have to say.

Good Friday and Easter Sunday musings

You know what? Life isn't easy. Some people may have more money or opportunities than others, but there are a few common elements to the human experience. Almost everyone will experience tragedy. Just about everyone will experience pain and hurt. Everyone will experience fear, and everyone will experience death.

The trials of life don't discriminate. The rain falls on the righteous and the wicked. You can be Christian, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, and this still holds true. Some may have easier lives than others, but in the end there's a commonality in much of human existence that, when considered on its own, can be profoundly despairing.

It's in the midst of this that the message of Jesus Christ shines through - hope. Scripture records that Jesus experienced every temptation and trial that life can throw at us, and remained pure:

He experienced the chilling fear of the difficult path he knew he would have to take, when he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He experienced the blazing pain of being lashed to the point where the skin of his back was effectively gone, exposing the raw flesh to the splintered wood of the cross.

He experienced the searing grief of feeling the presence of God the Father leave him, turning away in order that the final work of God's judgment on sin could be completed.

He experienced death. God took on human form in order to die on behalf of all humanity.

And yet... there is hope. When Jesus left the tomb, he conquered death - it had lost its sting. No longer did humanity have to remain in bondage to the despair and aimlessness of a life of depressing inevitabilities. Now, there is an eternal hope that we have the choice of turning to. Scripture says that "it is in this hope that we are saved." In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, one of my favorites, hope is described in this way: "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."

Fullness of life doesn't mean that you're spared from life's hurts and tragedies. The follower of Jesus Christ will experience these trials, just like anybody else, and perhaps even to a greater degree. But the privilege that we have is knowing that in the midst of pain and grief, there is an eternal hope - that the price for sin has already been paid, and that something better is coming.

At our Good Friday service last Friday, we sang the incomparable hymn, "It Is Well With My Soul" by Horatio G. Spafford. Something of a 19th-century version of the Biblical character Job, Spafford wrote the hymn after two major traumas in his life. The first was the Chicago fire of 1871 that reduced him from a wealthy businessman to a pauper. The second occurred shortly afterward, when the ship that the rest of his family was travelling on, collided with another ship, killing all four of his daughters. His wife survived and sent him a telegram saying, "Saved alone". In response to this, he wrote this hymn.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

My coworker just told me that he had a dream about the office last night, and in that dream, I was celebrating my 40th birthday.

I'd be stunned if I was still working here 16 years from now...

Weekend update to come.

Weekend recap

Quick takes...

- Friday night at YG, the youth had the opportunity to take a spiritual gifts survey. Hopefully, as we move forward and discuss these gifts and the ways that you can use them, some of them might learn a bit more about the purpose that they're looking for.

Also, the "big words" associated with the names of each gift led to these hilarious questions:

"What's 'Exhortation'? Is that like taking money from someone?"
"What's 'Exhortation'? Is that like 'exorcism'?"
"What's 'Hospitality'? Is that like 'hostile'?"

- That night we hung out at Byron/Jerry/Ted's place till 2 am, where we positively confirmed that Jerry's biceps are indeed as big as his calves.

- Saturday, had praise band practice, then we had lunch at Hunan Chili. After arriving at home in the pouring rain, I got out of my car and caught a glimpse of what looked like a stray cat dashing into our backyard. The cat was carrying a tiny kitten that had scrunched-up eyes, must have been very young. Curious, I ran into the backyard to see if I could figure out where the cat and (presumably) its kid was, but as I stepped off our patio I turned my ankle.

- That night went over to Avalon, where some folks made some tasty Pad Thai and I helped (sorta) with Andrew on a puppet show for Children's Worship on Sunday. Andrew wrote up a script based on Daniel's three friends (Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego) who were thrown into the fire by King Nebuchadnezzar, but survived. The puppets consisted of various fruits and vegetables on chopsticks, with faces. It actually went pretty well. Kudos to Andrew for all his hard work.

There was also a new person to FNL who was hanging out with us on Friday, and stunningly, she correctly guessed my age. I don't think that's ever happened before... I think I've blogged about it before, but people guessing my age usually guess between 27-32.

- While I was out during the weekend, someone driving on the street outside my house must have lost control in the rainy weather and smashed through the fence outside my bedroom window. Thankfully, the dude came to our front door to let us know and we'll get that taken care of. It is a bit disconcerting to wake up in the morning and see that big, splintery hole though.

What's been up with me?

Last weekend

Danny and Cal think it's funny that I write about my previous weekend on the following Thursday or Friday. Ah well.

On Saturday morning, hit up the De Anza flea market with a few folks... first one I've visited in quite a while. Typically I like getting stuff like used CDs and used books... usually there's this pretty large CD vendor at the flea market who sells used CDs for around $7 each. He typically has a pretty good selection. I was specifically looking for either of the two CDs by Lifehouse (No Name Face and Stanley Climbfall), U2 (The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby), and perhaps some stuff by Gershwin. As it turned out, the regular CD vendor wasn't there... sadness. However, there were a few other vendors, and so I was able to pick up both Stanley Climbfall and the Joshua Tree.

After the flea market we went to Sushi Boat in Saratoga, part of Westgate Mall. Talk about a revival... a few years back, that entire area of Saratoga was a barren wasteland. Then, a large movie theater (AMC Saratoga 14) got built, a few big-name stores (REI, Target) moved in, and all of a sudden Westgate Mall is a happening place to be. That's probably a blueprint that dead shopping centers (read: Vallco) need to follow... beg, steal, borrow some way to get a major movie theater to move into your area. On a side note, it's kind of funny that since Westgate has several discount stores (Ross, Burlington Coat Factory, Nordstrom Rack), there's a huge percentage of Asians that frequent the mall.

Anyway, back to Sushi Boat. Apparently George discovered relatively recently that right now the place is having a special where each plate of nigiri sushi is priced at $2 each, regardless of the type of fish (the fancy rolls go for $4 each). So, armed with a 20% off coupon that my aunt thoughtfully provided a few days ago, we sat down at the bar and patiently watched the boats float by, waiting for particularly fresh-looking pieces of fish. I ended up having 4 plates (8 pieces) of salmon nigiri, plus 2 of California rolls and one more that I can't seem to remember. The quality of the salmon was actually pretty good.

Later that night, bunch of us got together at Byron/Jerry/Ted's place in Mtn View to cook dinner - some good old-fashioned Mac and Cheese with salad and some sausage. Reminded me of the college days where John and I would get some Kraft Mac and Cheese, supplement the relatively meager amount of pasta in the box with some fresh macaroni, augment the amount of cheese with loads of fresh cheddar, and chow down. Afterward, we sat around talking and choreographing dance moves to "the Jerry" - coming soon to a dance floor near you!

Sunday night, we had an impromptu bday bash for Drew Wu, marked by some relatively rowdy picture taking and dogpiles. Good stuff.

This week

- Been listening to the Stanley Climbfall album in the car for most of the week. Initial reactions - good music, melodic rock in the vein of Creed/Pearl Jam, and lead singer Jason Wade has a very resonant voice. One significant annoyance that I had during the first few listens was that periodically during certain sections of singing, it's nearly impossible to make out the lyrics that are being sung. I've read through a few of the lyrics in the CD booklet, and they're actually very insightful and poetic. If only we could understand them upon casual listen...

- Saw the doctor on Wednesday re: my arm injuries and concerns over carpal tunnel... he put me through some strength/pain tests on my hands, an dbasically said that I need to be doing some light exercises to re-build up my forearm muscles (particularly the ones that control the fingers). So, I've been working on a Gripmaster (that JPoon gave me a few years ago) and I played ball Thusday for the first time in a few weeks. Didn't do as badly as I thought I would... hit a few jumpers and had something like 7 blocks. Still felt kind of slow though.

- Watched the 2nd half of the Lakers-Kings game on Thursday night. While many of my friends know me as a Lakers-hater, truth be known, I really have nothing against the Lakers as a franchise. They've generally been pretty classy and respectable. I really have a problem with Shaq. Take Shaq off that team and I don't have much animosity towards them whatsoever - well, aside from the smug arrogance of some of their fans :-) (y'all know I'm just playing). As a basketball fan, for that matter, I really enjoy watching Kobe Bryant play. In the 3rd quarter, Kobe took over and for approximately a 15 minute stretch, played almost flawless basketball. Hit every open jumper, set up teammates with passes in rhythm for open looks at 3s, played good team defense, and had a back-breaking dunk in the 4th where he crossed over on Bobby Jackson, took off outside the key and dunked it. Great display of basketball.

With that said... Go Spurs! for the #1 seed in the West, and Go Warriors! to somehow miraculously make the playoffs this year!

- Stayed up till 2 am on Tuesday finishing Tolstoy's Confessions. Will write some more about it in a future post.

- Giants are on a ROLL.

Week just started and again I'm swamped. I need a vacation.

Will write some about the weekend later.

Quick update

Been a while since I blogged, so here's a quick update...

Back to the box
Back driving the Volvo again now that my dad's back from Taiwan. Some quick impressions:
- The most fun part of driving the G35 was the great balance that the car had. You could take turns at speeds that would have lesser cars rolling all over the place. I never did take the chance to drive the Infiniti to Highway 1 or 9 or some other curvy road while I was driving it... maybe next time.

- Surprisingly, the Volvo is far better at coasting than the G35 is. I don't know which one is heavier, but when I let up on the accelerator in the Volvo, the car typically maintains its speed for a longer distance than the G35 does.

- I'm gonna miss the 6-CD changer in the G35. I'm now back to my Discman adapter.

- I do enjoy the fact that I now have a much bigger trunk to put bulky stuff, like my guitar.

Sports update
- I'm completely screwed in the NCAA tourney... don't have any of the Final Four. Ah well... I never claimed to be a college hoops guru.

- Amazingly, I didn't realize until tonight, getting back from work, that today was Opening Day for Major League Baseball. My Giants are looking good this year, with a retooled offense. It remains to be seen whether their pitching will be enough to match up to the D-Backs' Dynamic Duo and the Dodgers' pitching staff.

- The Spurs are fighting for the top seed in the Western Conference, and the Warriors are clinging onto a slim hope for the 8th seed in the playoffs. Both probably won't happen, but it's always a nice feeling when your teams have better seasons than they were expected to. Hard to believe that the NBA regular season is over in less than 2 weeks.

- Clinging to 1st place in one of my fantasy basketball leagues, which takes some of the sting out of my fall from second to seventh place in my other league, falling out of the end-of-the-season playoffs. My worst decision of the season: trading Andrei Kirilenko for Jamaal Tinsley before the season began. What a fool...

War
- Been reading News from Reuters more than CNN.com since I've noticed that almost everything from CNN has a pro-American slant to it.

- It's heartbreaking to read stories of civilians who are being hurt or killed, or losing loved ones to misplaced missiles and bombs. There was another picture from Yahoo News showing a group of Iraqi boys playing soccer in front of a smoking building that had been leveled by a missile. That kind of underscored the surreality of the war for people who wake up to that every day - they still need to go about their lives.

Miscellaneous
- Had a Concert of Prayer last Friday night with the English congregation at my church, where we spent time praying for members within the church community, our local neighborhood, our missionaries, our country, and foreign affairs including the war. Great time of prayer and worship.

- Hiked Mission Peak in Fremont with a couple folks from church last Saturday. Memorable moments: helping Karen take care of the foot blister, committing the faux pas of calling a passing dog "fat" not realizing that the owner was within earshot, fighting off bugs at the top, Chocolate Raspberry Trail Mix, the paraglider. First decent hike in a long while.

- Current injury: strained my forearms last week while working out in the weight room at work... this has translated into some pain in my wrists that feels frighteningly close to the infamous carpal tunnel syndrome. I'm pretty confident that I don't have it since I'm pretty careful with ergonomics and such, but all the same, I'm trying to take every precaution - massaging, keeping the forearm muscles warm and loose, double-checking ergnomics at home and at work, and taking a break from lifting and playing hoops. Hoping that this heals soon.

- Current CD: "The Way I Am", Jennifer Knapp. Still trying to figure out the meaning of this lyric that she sings: Have mercy on me, I'm a girl / Though I'm cruel and you cry I won't shiver / 'Cause I know how to break a man in two. Any opinions?

- Current book: Confessions, Leo Tolstoy. I'm only on chapter 3, but so far it's been a remarkably vulnerable journal of the ways that the famous author's values changed over the course of his life until he eventually found true meaning and purpose in Jesus Christ. I'll post some more thoughts on it when I'm through. For that matter, I haven't actually gotten around to posting thoughts on Tozer's Pursuit of God, or even some other thoughts that I've been meaning to write down. Maybe one day I'll write my own Confessions via the blog medium.

- Pastor Dan shared yesterday again about the topic of worship, and how worship is not in the things that we do, but in the attitude with which we live. This has been one of the most important spiritual lessons I've learned over the past two years - understanding that one aspect of the freedom that Christ promises to his followers is freedom from the legalistic mindset that is par for the world - that our value is found in the things that we do, instead of being found in who we are. As a believer in Christ, I am no longer bound by the world's law that "He who has the most toys, wins." I'm not even bound by the common church conception that "The more time you spend doing things at church, the more spiritual you are." The line between the spiritual and the mundane is blurred, because within every aspect of life - work, play, tasks, relationships, even ministry - there is no inherent "spiritual" or "secular." Rather, it is the believer's privilege to consciously choose to live his life - all aspects of his life - in the presence of and for the glory of a Holy God. 1 Cor 10:31 - "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

P Dan then went on to share about how God takes pleasure in seeing us enjoy His gifts to us within their proper contexts. In particular, He has purposefully created each person with particular talents that He wishes us to use to their fullest - whether that be music, sports, computers, whatever. This kind of ties in to all that personal follow-up I've been meaning to do ever since WCC. Man, I've been slacking this year. No wonder it feels like it's going by so fast.