[10:58:25 PM] Eric_H: okay
[10:58:35 PM] Eric_H: ur blog is REALLY lacking yo
[10:58:42 PM] Eric_H: that name thing was a cry for help
[10:59:15 PM] Bob: hahaha
[10:59:20 PM] Bob: my life sucks right now
[10:59:30 PM] Bob: seeing as how I'm still at work
[10:59:37 PM] Eric_H: ooo
[10:59:39 PM] Eric_H: man
[10:59:40 PM] Eric_H: sucks
[10:59:43 PM] Eric_H: deadline?
[11:00:03 PM] Bob: multiple

B	Bright
L	Loud
I	Irresistible
N	Neglected
D	Dignified
M	Misunderstood
A	Accurate
N	Noisy

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com


I disagree with about 45% of the above. I leave it to you to figure out which those are.

Grudge match topics discussed today:
(non-superpowered division)
Aragorn vs. Batman
Aragorn (wielding Anduril) vs. Li Mu Bai (wielding Green Destiny)

(superpowered division)
Gandalf vs. Magneto
Superman vs. Darth Vader

Helped Drew W move this past Saturday, ate lots of meat at Korea House, and watched Shrek 2. Good flick, but not nearly as good as the first one - the original had more charm, as almost all originals do.

Currently listening to Hymns: Ancient and Modern from the Passion worship movement, and Facedown from Matt Redman. I'm finding that I can get distracted during musical worship when lead worshippers deviate significantly from the song lyrics for exhortations or other shouts during singspiration. I suppose that it kind of jars that focused connection I have on God during worship through music.

Here's a link to the lyrics on the Passion CD. Possible songs that will be led at Canaan in coming months include "O Worship the King", "Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee", "Father Let Me Dedicate", "All Creatures of Our God and King", "The Solid Rock", "Here is Love", and "Take my Life". "How Great Thou Art" and "Fairest Lord Jesus are already in rotation.

Haven't written anything of real substance in a while... work is still in nails-to-the-quick, pull-your-hair-out mode so I'm just trying to stay sane.

Best. Website. Ever.

Regular readers of this blog (all two of you) may recall this post from last November where I mentioned the highly entertaining debate I engaged in with coworkers where we hypothetically pitted various fictional characters against each other, like Alien vs. Predator vs. Terminator, Legolas vs. Predator, and Vader vs. Gandalf. Well, yesterday while we were debating the outcome of an oliphaunt (giant elephant things from Lord of the Rings) vs. an AT-AT (camel-looking machines from The Empire Strikes Back), I did a search online for the legendary Star Trek Enterprise vs. Death Star arguments that I knew had taken place, and found the best website ever: Grudge Match.com.

I've only read through a few of the matches so far, but I already know that this'll provide additional fodder for lunchtime conversation. Plus, some of the user comments are plain hilarious.

Perhaps I'll edit this post later with my favorites... so far, Forrest Gump vs. Rain Man has been a guilty (but hilarious) pleasure...

On the NBA

I consider myself a basketball purist and an NBA diehard (I must be one of the 19 diehards left in the world that the Sports Guy mentions). More so than any one team or any one player, I love the game - I love playing it, watching it, analyzing little details and coming up with offensive and defensive strategies, etc. I also enjoy rooting for teams and players that strive for that purity of game - moving the ball to the open man, taking advantage of mismatches, communicating and helping each other on defense, and maximizing your skill level and physical ability to compete the hardest that you can.

I think this past NBA Finals was a triumph for basketball purists everywhere. While nobody gave the Pistons a chance prior to the first game (most went so far as to crown the Lakers champs after they took down my Spurs with a lucky shot), Detroit came out and dominated the entire series. While I initially went into the series rooting against the Lakers, the Pistons quickly won my respect by showing that they were a well-schooled, well-coached team that subjugated their individual egos for each other. They'll be competing with Indiana for the top of the Eastern Conference for years to come.

The Lakers, on the other hand, have some retooling to do. The Spurs, Wolves, and Kings will obviously be at the top of the conference next year... it remains to be seen if LA will join them.

On to the NBA draft... or, as Warriors fans know it, "The most exciting time of the season!"

The Warriors can't really go wrong with the 11th pick this year; just take the best prospect and patiently develop him. On a related topic, I read today that possible top pick Okafor was able to bench 185 pounds 22 times... pretty impressive.

EDIT: As someone who actually watched many of the press conferences Pistons coach Larry Brown held during the Finals, I couldn't help but snicker out loud at this snippet from The Sports Guy's latest column:

Q: If one of the ESPNews anchors was swinging a watch during Larry Brown's postgame interviews, could you become hypnotized?

A: See, these are the things we need to find out. Somebody get Stan Verrett on the phone next time coach Brown is speaking.

(And no, there's no better way to pass the time in traffic than to talk to yourself in the Larry Brown monotone for 10 straight minutes. I'm very proud of my car right now. It's not heating up at all. I even have the air conditioning on. It's just a credit to the people who made this car. Other cars would be overheating right now. I can't control what people think about this car. I'm just taking it one traffic jam at a time. Now I'm going to count backwards from 10. When I clap my hands, you will wake up from this traffic jam.)

Worked about 6 hrs this past weekend, but it wasn't that bad because the work didn't pre-empt any big plans (unlike one memorable working weekend last fall where I had to forgo going on a camping trip). Had an excellent dinner at Tomokatsu in Cupertino on Saturday with my brother (gotta get this place more pub, decent Japanese food for a decent price, but lousy location), then hung out w/ Jason K, Ben T, Jason Ko, and Byron at JKuo's place playing video games (I'm not very good at Mario Party or Mario Kart). After church on Sunday, got to celebrate at Mike and Amy's engagement ceremony where I had the chance to talk music (Jars and Switchfoot) with Amy's brother.

I also got to watch the entire Pistons-Lakers game. Here are some thoughts:

- Shaq was dominating whenever he had the ball. It was inexplicable then as to why he didn't get the ball for what seemed to be almost the entire second half... you have to know that he was fuming since he was on fire inside, but then he'd come down and fight for position only to watch Kobe or Medvedenko fire up an outside jumper.

- Rasheed was fired up and made use of his immense talent on offense and defense. Complained a bit too much though.

- Billups, Rip, and Sheed were surprisingly clutch in the 4th quarter hitting jumpers.

- Not having a healthy Malone is killing the Lakers because either Wallace can sag off to help out on Shaq.

- The Lakers are horrid on transition defense.

- There were a number of ticky-tack fouls that shouldn't have been called, but Detroit was indeed the aggressor and earned the vast majority of its trips to the line.

- It seems quite clear that the rest of the Lakers don't like Kobe much, and he doesn't like them. He is so out of there after this season.

All in all, this has been a fun, competitive series to watch, and I think Detroit has earned quite a few fans with their effort, attitude, and heart. I find myself wondering if another WC team, like my Spurs, would fare as well against these Pistons. 'Course, the series isn't over yet, but LA will have to buck history to take this year's title.

Personal recap

What've I been up to? Quickly jotting down the events and memories of the past couple of weeks, including Memorial Day and this past weekend, just so I have something to turn to and smile at when work circumstances get me down...

Memorial Day Saturday
Met up with Andy H for accountability and brunch at Hobee's, then swung by Dave C's place to drop off some Coffee Society cake for Dave's birthday. 'Twas amusing that the counter lady at Coffee Society stuffed the slices of cake into small paper bags (as for cookies) rather than in a plastic shaped container like you would usually expect from a coffee shop.

In the afternoon and evening, celebrated John and Janet's wedding. PDan must have decided to vary his wedding officiating style a bit since he was cracking jokes left and right... at dinner, we had an amusing waiter after Jen grabbed him and brought to his attention that we hadn't gotten a particular dish - after that, he personally brought out each successive course while bantering with Jen and the rest of the table. Andrew N did a good job of DJ'ing using a nifty Macintosh program.

Memorial Day Sunday
Took a break from ball and headed up to hang out at Danny, Cal and JLau's pad for the afternoon after church for a bbq, which is always fun. Jason's friend Alan brought his two daughters, one of whom was a year old and quite cute toddling around, while the other endeared herself to many of the guys there by constantly asking us if we wanted to play baseball, basketball, or football. She'll be quite the tomboy, methinks. Oh, I also got to meet some of Danny's South Bay buddies immortalized on his blog, including the legendary Suave, Angry Asian Man (I believe), and The Heat.

After cleaning up in the evening, I had my first Casino 5824 experience playing the game of choice, Hold'Em, with $5 buy-in. I believe that Sunday was the first time that they ever had as many as 10 (11?) guys at the same table. Pots got huge in a hurry and winning just one could keep a conservative player like me in the game for the entire evening. By around midnight though, I was hovering around even and I felt an urge to get ready to pack up and go home (for some reason I had woken up at 6 am that morning after going to bed at 3 am, and couldn't fall back asleep again - that almost never happens to me), and so I decided to play a little crazy. So when I picked up a K-J diamonds, I raised the 10 cent blind by 20 cents, only to have Phuoc go all-in with 5 bucks on me. Strategy would dictate that I'd fold in that situation, but I was pretty tired (and flushes had been surprisingly good at the table that night) so I went ahead and matched, and was a considerable underdog to his A-K non-suited. The flop came out A diamonds, 2, and 3, giving him top pair and making my flush look pretty unlikely. The turn was a 10 diamonds, giving me both a straight draw and a flush draw, and with tension high on the river, I picked up the Q to give me the straight over his pair of A's. In the midst of the ensuing bedlam, JLau turned over the next 3 cards and got 2 diamonds and another queen, which meant that I would have won with any of those 4 cards. Too funny.

'Course, the hand after that I got taken down a couple of pegs by my old roomie JSpoon when he picked up full house 10s over As that beat my 10s over 7s, but I was happy enough to get out of there with money to cover the gas it took to get up there. Good to see all those guys again.

Monday (Memorial Day)
Hung out at JT's place for a few hours bbqing, then drove up to SF with George, Eric, Jeff, Mike, Karen, Olivia, Tomio, Alice, and Sandy for further meatfest at House of Prime Rib. I probably got 5000% of my recommended protein intake over that weekend. For the other exciting accounts of the hilarious conversations we had with our waiter, see Karen's old post. Afterwards, the folks surprised me by picking up tab as an early birthday present, which was a pleasant surprise. Here's a pic of what we chowed down on.

Last Saturday
The Canaan folks were quite sneaky in arranging a surprise birthday dinner for me at BJ's, sending Byron over to play some video games before bringing gullible 'ol me over. Thanks to everyone who showed up, particularly the ringleaders (Maria, Karen, and Byron, I believe) and to Andrew N, who stood firm and dissuaded the ringleaders from making me wear Princess Leia-style hair buns during dinner. I just had to endure a large nametag with my Chinese nickname. You can see pics here. I also had my first taste of beer ever.

Last Sunday
Getting back out to hoops was fun, as we spent a good portion of the time devising strategies to attack the weak parts of the other team's zone - bringing the big man out to face up, quick passes, etc. Someday I think I want to coach high school hoops or something like that.

It absolutely kills me that I'm missing NBA finals games due to work. I think this'll have to go onto the "Murphy's Law of Releases" theory. Doesn't help that despite the Lakers squeaking one out tonight, I apparently missed an awesome game.

I despise Shaq, Malone, and Payton as ballplayers. The rest of the Lakers I don't have much problem with.

I still need to write a recap of my last two weekends, if for nothing else to remember the better times while in the midst of some not as happy ones.

Thanks to all who wished me a happy birthday...

Something that made me smile this morning:

[10:05:19 AM] Mom: 26 years ago at 10:56 in the morning on this day there is a boy that made this woman became the happiest mom in the world.
[10:05:34 AM] Mom: thanks.
[10:05:39 AM] Mom: for that.

God has been faithful

God has been faithful in bringing my parents together in Taiwan 20-some-odd years ago, and my mother encouraged my father to take the risk to come to America to pursue further education and build a new life.

God has been faithful to my family in watching over us as my father worked full-time while simultaneously pursuing a doctorate in computer engineering, by giving my mother the strength to nurture and raise two boys in Utah.

God has been faithful in providing the opportunity for us to move to the Bay Area, which living environment-wise just might be the best place on Earth :-). Excluding current housing costs, of course.

God has been faithful in using my parents to instill in me values that I still hold, values that I came to understand more deeply years later when I came to know Him.

God has been faithful in granting my family the grace to never lack materially or for love.

God has been faithful in providing me a top-notch education from Collins Elementary, Kennedy Jr. High, and Monta Vista High School - not just in the classroom, either.

God has been faithful in clearly directing my steps toward UC Berkeley when I originally had my heart set on Stanford (I confess, I did. Don't stone me!). Little did I know at the time that in His sovereignty I would first come to know Him there.

God has been faithful in giving me the opportunity to participate in Canaan Taiwanese Christian Church's Youth Group Summer Musical in 1996, "Last Chance", when I was not yet a believer in Christ. I witnessed miracles and first began to believe that God might be more than just Sunday School lessons and a creation of the mind.

God has been faithful in drawing me to Himself my freshman year where I learned to read the Bible and to pray. Plus, He provided a believing community away from home in the Asian American Christian Fellowship. I was baptized on Easter near the end of my freshman year.

God has been faithful even as He systematically and lovingly tore down every idol I had left in my life during the first semester of my sophomore year, leaving me broken and at the end of my rope.

God has been faithful in building me back up again from my brokenness to the point where I now see that I was being melted so that I could be forged anew.

God has been faithful in training and educating me in the classroom, with people, and most of all in Christ throughout 4.5 years at Berkeley.

God has been faithful in opening my eyes to the wonder of creation in nature, such as in the yearly camping trips to Yosemite that my family used to take.

God has been faithful in opening my eyes to the wonder of creation in people while in NYC on missions. I realized that even the poor and the meek are infinitely valuable to Him - and they're not all that different from you and me.

God has been faithful in providing a multifaceted learning experience at my first job out of college, and in helping me build up a new faith community at Canaan while also enjoying a new relationship with my parents at home.

God has been faithful in stretching, growing and challenging me both in serving in worship and youth group at church, and leading me to an intense startup networking company for the past year.

God has been faithful in time of blessing and in the dark night of the soul... and more often than not, the latter was more important than the former.

God has been faithful through 26 years of experience. For as long as He grants me the grace to experience the next, I will continue to praise Him. All glory unto God.

Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise / And when the darkness closes in, Lord / Still I will say / Blessed be the Name of the Lord / Blessed be Your Name / Blessed be the Name of the Lord / Blessed be Your Glorious Name

Times like last week and this week have firmed my resolve to take a few months off between this job and my next endeavor, whatever that might be. Doesn't help that this timing occurs right as:

1) I have other friends with summers off before going to grad school in the fall
2) NBA finals are coming this Sunday
3) I'm getting old...

Will try to write up a Memorial Day weekend recap sometime.