Thanksgiving Recap

Recording a few memories from the long weekend for posterity's sake...

Turkey Bowl. On the first play from scrimmage, I attempted to reach back across my body for a pass that was behind me, when I felt my non-cleated feet fly out in front of me. This resulted in a high-speed collision between my upper body and the terrain, which gave me a minor case of whiplash in the small muscles of my neck that I was feeling for two days afterward. I suck at football.

Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey + hot pot. I introduced people to the wonders of cranberry sauce on white turkey meat. Mom actually made green bean casserole, a dish that's so down-home American that I never thought she would make it. The supplement of portobello mushrooms on top added a lot of flavor. Hot pot works better when you cook for yourself; if you have one person batch cooking for several people, inevitably some meat will get overcooked since the cook needs to eat sometime and can't monitor everything in the pot.

Most of my local relatives came over for Thanksgiving. My cousins have an adorable baby girl not quite 2 years old. She doesn't really know me, but she's scared of me - whenever she sees me, she goes and runs behind her mom's leg. There's nothing quite as demoralizing as being the guy who scares little babies.

Went up to Berkeley on Friday afternoon with JT, Mike, Joy, and Karen. Felt good to walk around the old stomping grounds and check out new construction. The new dorm buildings attached to Units 1 and 2 look pretty sweet. Reminisced with the other 3 Berkeley alumni about various favorite spots on campus and where various events occurred, like getting hit by a stray skateboard or where a backpack was stolen.

Ate dinner at The Blue Nile (Ethiopian cuisine) for the first time - pretty good stuff. That spongy bread really does expand when it gets to your stomach. Had to be careful I was blowing my nose on a paper napkin rather than a piece of bread, since you eat Ethiopian cuisine sans utensils and napkins. Afterwards, there was a failed attempt to catch a movie at Emeryville (boy, they really remodeled that area - it's very Santana-Row-ish now), so we walked around the shops for a while. They have Pottery Barn Kids now! Can you imagine spending $80 on a fake cash register for your kid to play with?

Afterwards, split some ice cream at Fenton's (so sad that the original diner feel is no longer there in the rebuilt location) and then hung out at Mike's place in Walnut Creek till 2 am watching Shaolin Soccer. You know you're in a bachelor pad when there's a weight bench in place of the dining table.

Saturday haircut. Apparently "Zero fade, top cut short" means different things to my regular barber and the one who cut my hair on Saturday. This time, the barber took it extremely literally and zero'd very high up on the side of my head, higher than my other barber does. I debated saying, "What the heck, shave it all off" but I refrained. But now my hair's short enough that my head's cold. Doesn't help that CA has been getting chillier. Maybe that combo resulted in me getting a cold. Well, I better recover soon since I have to lead worship at Walt's wedding this Saturday.

Sunday hoops. Had a couple of blocks on my man using my left hand, which felt pretty good - look at me, ma, I've got defensive fundamentals! On the other hand, my dribbling sucks. Several turnovers, and other situations where I had to abort drives because I was losing control of the ball. On one such occasion I finally gave in to frustration, grabbed the ball, and smoothly knocked down an 18-foot wing jumper. The lesson: don't dribble when you might as well shoot.

And that's my weekend.

sniffle sniffle

Will post a Thanksgiving recap... but it appears that my shorter-than-expected haircut on Saturday may have contributed to my contracting an annoying head cold. Today at the office, I've drunk perhaps 5 liters of water (I just keep refilling my Nalgene bottle!) and 3 more cups of tea. I've had a steady parade to the little boy's room as well, not to mention all the other wonderful symptoms like runny nose and sore throat. Man, I hope all that water does some good work in my system...

I don't usually drink tea but I brought a few ginger-flavored tea cubes that dissolve in hot water to the office today. It works pretty well for sore throats. I was thinking of getting into tea anyway since studies have shown that a regular, small amount of caffeine can help stimulate brain function and help hold off the onset of memory problems while aging. Plus, it does help when it's chilly outside. Tea drinkers, any recommendations?

Followup

Couple of points of clarification to some of the comments on my last post:

1) Re: Bush. I don't mean to cast aspersions on President Bush as a person. As I said, from all accounts he seems to be a nice guy, and a fellow brother in Christ. My point though, is to question whether the average American evangelical Christian would have been so enthusiastic about voting for him had he not claimed to be a believer. Based solely on his job performance, did he merit re-election? If a voter felt his performance was adequate, or didn't think another candidate was up to the task, then that's all well and good. But if the voter voted for a candidate solely based on a similar faith or alleged "shared values," then that's where I have some issues.

2) Re: legislation of morality. No, there is nothing wrong with voting your conscience. Since we are a democracy, we have the right to choose our laws by virtue of a majority vote (or more than a majority in some cases). However, I sense a certain attitude from the Religious Right that these laws are accorded more importance than they should have - that allowing these "immoral" laws to pass would be an affront to God, and that preventing them from passing is a victory for God. I take issue with this. As someone who believes that only God does a redeeming work in a person's life, and thus changes that person's morality, I don't think that legislating a standard of morality will do anything to change a person unless that person is touched by God through the Church. This is the job God has given to the Church.

3) Re: impact upon witness. Yes, God knows what He is doing and eventually will work things out according to the plan He put in place before the beginning of time. However, from the eyes of this imperfect and sinful blogger, I can see and experience the negative impact that a poor example set by other Christians throughout history can have on my own. I wish I could just present the Gospel and its impact in my life as testimony to what God has done and is doing. Instead, in most cases, I have to gently guide people away from dwelling on the mistakes and atrocities perpetrated by Christians so that they can dwell on the enormity and transforming power of Christ. It's a lot of work, and for many people this is a sticking point. It hurts me when I hear friends and family disparage Christ and defame the name of God because of the example a Christ-professing Bush has set as a leader. There is much work for the Holy Spirit to do.

As George mentioned, all we can do is pray for this nation and make the best of it. Sounds good to me.

Other stuff

Quick takes...

Recently, Marian posted a few links about the recent issues going on at Electronic Arts and their labor practices. Apparently it was sparked by this blog from the spouse of an EA employee, talking about 9a-10p workdays, seven days a week, as a regular work schedule, and without any sort of compensation in the form of overtime pay or comp time. Kind of makes startup life look cushy by comparison. Now, it looks as though some employees are looking to sue the company.

I found this portion of the blog to be very interesting: "The interesting thing about this is an assumption that most of the employees seem to be operating under. Whenever the subject of hours come up, inevitably, it seems, someone mentions 'exemption'. They refer to a California law that supposedly exempts businesses from having to pay overtime to certain 'specialty' employees, including software programmers. This is Senate Bill 88. However, Senate Bill 88 specifically does not apply to the entertainment industry -- television, motion picture, and theater industries are specifically mentioned. Further, even in software, there is a pay minimum on the exemption: those exempt must be paid at least $90,000 annually. I can assure you that the majority of EA employees are in fact not in this pay bracket; ergo, these practices are not only unethical, they are illegal."

I'm certainly not making $90K... heh. 'Course, I knew what I was getting into at a startup, and things have been better the last month or so, so I guess I don't have much to complain about. The incentive of stock options doesn't hurt either :-).

Being a Warriors fan is depressing. Thank goodness I'm also a Spurs fan, otherwise I'd probably have sworn off emotional ties to any basketball team a long time ago.

Currently spinning "The Blue Album" from Weezer in my car, which I found in my bro's room. I found a couple of other ~10 year old albums as well that I'll probably revisit and see if my more mature (I think) music listening habits help me enjoy or not enjoy this old-school stuff more. Before Weezer, I was playing an old MTV Jams mix CD with dance hits like "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" (PM Dawn), "Good Vibrations" (Marky Mark), "Motown Philly" (Boyz II Men) and a few other ones that brought back memories of junior high.

Speaking of old-school, I was able to pick up The Beatles' "1" CD on Saturday at Best Buy, along with Vienna Teng's "The Waking Hour." Looking forward to them.

Recent events:
Go Bears! Rose-Bowl-Rose-Bowl-Rose-Bowl...
Beat X-Men Legends w/ Andy Y and Byron. That's a fun game.
Byron's bday - to borrow Alex's phrase, we ate the glutton at Hot Pot last Saturday.
I think I rediscovered my bank shot this past Sunday on the courts.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! If you're looking for a football game, come out to Turkey Bowl: 9:30 am, Kennedy Jr High, Thanksgiving Day.

Note: I began writing the bulk of this post on a whim at around 12:30 am last night, and ended up going to bed just before 3 am. To quote the Sports Guy, the lesson, as always: I'm an idiot.

Religion and politics - warning: quite long! Read at your own risk ;-)

The recent presidential election gave me the chance to do some thinking on government and leadership. For perhaps the first time in history, matters of faith - in this case, a blatantly evangelical one - became a significant issue in the national dialogue. Exit polls showed "moral values" as being a primary factor in many people's votes, and numerous news shows led off with segments on how the evangelical church was turning out in record droves to the polls. As a Christian, I saw and experienced both subtle and unsubtle pressures and expectations to vote conservative, vote Republican, and vote Bush, because that would be the moral and "right" thing to do. However, 1 Thessalonians 5:21 rang in my mind: "Test everything. Hold onto the good," and thus, I tried my best to look beyond the surface of what I was hearing from all camps to hopefully understand today's political climate from a larger perspective. There was also some excellent, thought-provoking discussion and ideas in this thread from a Christian message board I frequent, as well as posts by Jeff and Hideyo (Nov. 3 entry), plus IM conversations with Danny every so often. In this post, I'm going to attempt to summarize some of the ideas and conclusions I've come to so far, but bear in mind that my attitudes are still a work-in-progress - as I hope everyone's is. I'm not wedded to these ideas by any means, and I'm willing to learn more from any viewpoint.

What is a leader supposed to do? In the church, there are clear Biblical guidelines - be a servant of all, lead one's family with integrity, oversee ministries, etc. In almost all cases, the state of the heart is more important than the ability of the leader. It doesn't matter if someone is a silver-tongued speaker or wizard guitar player or brilliant teacher or miracle-working counselor, if the person's heart is not right with God and he isn't leading a faithful life. Competence in a particular skill is weighted less than spirituality. This is sensible because the church answers to the authority of God Himself, and He sets the standards for His servants - often throughout history, God has made use of seemingly "unqualified" leaders such as Moses to illustrate Hs power and sovereignty to work even through weak vessels. This is not so the case outside the church. If I'm interviewing someone for a position at my company, I cannot in good conscience recommend one candidate over a more-qualified candidate simply because the former happens to share the same faith that I have. I may like the first candidate better from a personal standpoint, I may agree with all of his values and viewpoints, but if he can't do the job that he was hired to do well, then he shouldn't have the job.

This was my general impression of the Bush Administration. I don't believe they did a very good job, particularly the past two years with regard to foreign policy, and some of the decisions that have been made, as well as the seemingly narrowminded processes by which they arrived at them, are troubling to me. If we were ever to hang out, I suspect Bush and I would get along fine... we could shoot the breeze, talk about baseball, eat some Texas barbeque... but based on what we've seen so far, I wonder if he has a genuine understanding of the fact that a wise, just and moral leader would know to learn from mistakes so as to not repeat them (those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it). Over and over in the debates, he preached a policy of "stay the course" and declined to acknowledge any misjudgments. This troubles me greatly.

To what level, if any, should a government be involved in legislating morality? To be sure, there are numerous hot-button issues in America today that I take a stand on. I believe abortion is the murder of an innocent. I don't condone the homosexual lifestyle. I have a lot of research to do yet on stem-cell research, so I'm still somewhat ambivalent. In past years, I would have probably thrown my support whole-heartedly behind political initiatives to get rid of anything that the conservative right-wing deemed "immoral." However, the more that I think about it, the less convinced I am that legislation is the route to take to make an impact on morality. As I've begun working and built relationships with more people outside the church from all walks of life, I see that people can honorably hold differing beliefs than mine. Doesn't mean that I agree with or condone those beliefs, but I respect their right to choose to see things that way. I also believe that only God can change attitudes - and despite what some would say, the United States is not a God country. It is the role of the Church to preach the Gospel and be the vessels for the Holy Spirit to change people's lives - to educate on the preciousness of life, to teach on God's view of marriage, and to introduce people to Jesus' revolutionary lessons on holiness and grace. As Danny mentioned, the legislation of morality can appear to be a cop-out by God's people to get out of having to do the legwork themselves. If we don't explain why God's standards and values are the way they are in the context of the Gospel, how can morality ever actually be achieved? Certainly not through an arbitrary law.

Incidentally, the Church itself has a lot of work to do within itself to be the royal priesthood God calls us to be. So-called Christians may stage protests and rallies outside abortion clinics and houses of law, but are we caring for the baby that is not aborted but instead abandoned by a mother who cannot afford to raise it? Are we honoring our own marriages (sure doesn't seem like it, with a 50% divorce rate)? Are we reaching out without prejudice to gays and members of other religions?

Finally, I found this quote from Hideyo to be particularly telling: "My biggest tiff with Bush is that he was a roadblock to my sharing my faith. Because he's so publicly Christian, many people around the world equate what he says and does as Christian. Many countries naturally assumed that already with America's policies pre-Bush, but with Bush announcing his faith in very direct manner, more people are taking note. By observing Bush's policies, many I came across came to the conclusion that to be Christian meant that 1) you don't care about the underprivileged, 2) you support the concept of war, 3) you don't care about the environment, 4) you want to be the king of the hill, 5) you stick to your guns even if you're wrong (overly simplistic, I know). Is this integrity?"

If I were not a Christian, Bush's example as President would not make Christ look attractive to me. I found this quote online, in a slightly different context:

“Better to be known first as a good artist than as a ‘Christian’ artist, as your good art can lend credibility to your witness while explicit art done poorly is more likely to disparage your witness.”
- Thomas Merton ("New Seeds of Contemplation")

In the same way, better to be known first as a good world leader than as a "Christian leader," as explicit leadership done poorly is more likely to disparage your witness.

I'm reminded of the historical example of 1700 years ago, in the 4th century. The Roman Emperor Constantine conquered the western half of his empire and legalized Christianity as a state religion, merging the power of the empire with the ideology of the cross, and thus doing more damage to the cause of Christ than the preceding 300 years of persecution could ever have done. Under the supposed name of Christ (a "divine mandate," if you will), countless millions were murdered, lands conquered, and the Church dug itself a huge hole that we're still trying to get out of in terms of being able to share the Gospel without a disgusting history trailing along behind it. You'd think that a Christian regime would be a good one... but history shows that it was not. Does this honor God?

To be sure, I've read stories about Bush and his faith, little ways that he's helped touch people's lives, and I applaud him for that. I hope that he learns from his mistakes during this next part of his administration, and I'll be praying that he and his staff grow in wisdom to govern justly. But most of all, I pray that the Church would step up and be faithful in what God has called us to do. Let the government take care of the government, and let the Church give to God what is God's - the poor, the sick, the outcast, the broken people, those enslaved to money, and so on. Let's give people Christ.

Again, this post is primarily to summarize some of the thoughts that have been percolating in my mind the past few months or so, and I'm always seeking to learn. Feel free to share any differing viewpoints, correct any misconceptions I might have, etc. I'm still working things out. Teach me.

Weekend update

Working on a longer post about some of the ideas I've been pondering regarding politics and the recent election, but for now here's a quick update of the past few days...

Overheard at the family dinner table: "Bob, since you're such a slow eater, you better make sure you marry someone who likes to talk, because otherwise she'll be really bored waiting for you to finish your dinner every night."

Last Friday, the company had an afternoon-evening celebration for the upcoming holidays (since December is going to be high-pressure for sales guys, we did it early). In the afternoon, we hit up LeMans kart racing in Fremont - 3 heats of 8 people each. I'd been to the one in Santa Clara with men's group once before, so I kinda new what to expect from the karts. I'm usually not a very aggressive driver, but I suspect driving the G35 for a year has helped me get accustomed to higher-speed turns and I turned in the 4th fastest lap time of the day at 24.92... sure, it's not that impressive compared to the 21.x and 22.x scores I understand some of the guys in men's group were putting up, but I was pretty happy with beating 90% of my colleagues.

In the evening, we had a nice dinner at Arthur's Restaurant in Santa Clara. We had the top floor to ourselves, and since there was a stage there, the organizers good-naturedly browbeat a number of employees to participate in a "talent show." I was one of 6 acts or so that included a capoeira (Brazilian martial art) demonstration, some DJ mixing, a native Indian percussion/vocal song, a Chinese choir/karaoke, and a Chinese flute. I busted out the overplayed-a-decade-ago Green Day song "Time of Your Life," tuned down a few steps for my singing range, which people apparently enjoyed as they voted my performance best of the evening. For my effort, I received a gift basket of random stuff I'll probably never eat (crackers, cheese, maybe even some cheap champagne, that sort of stuff), and was implored to do an encore. After doing some thinking, I sat down and played "Lead of Love" by Caedmon's Call, taking care to explain beforehand the context of my faith and why it's been important for me to look back on the events of my life from the perspective of a few years to really see God's hand moving and directing me. That was fun.

Saturday evening, a bunch of us took Walter out for his bachelor party. The dude was crazily enthusiastic about what we made him do. At some points, it felt like we needed to rein him in a little bit.

Sunday was a long day of church-related stuff... pre-service worship practice, service, teaching Sunday School, Angklung (traditional Southeast Asian instrument) practice for Christmas Eve service, consistory meeting, and youth counselor meeting. Started at around 8 am and got home around 6 pm, with no afternoon basketball to break up the meetings. Ah well.

I can't believe it's mid-November...

Watched a couple of old-school cult flicks on Sunday night with a bunch of people: "Bruce Campbell vs. Army of Darkness" and "Airplane." Hilariously cheesy. I actually liked "Army of Darkness" more - a couple of my coworkers and ex-coworkers are big Bruce Campbell fans, so now I get it when they spout off some well-known one-liners in seemingly incongruous conversations.

Best quotes that could be used in a multitude of situations:
Ash - "Shop smart. Shop S-Mart!"
Ghoul - "I'll swallow your soul!" Ash - "Come get some."
Ash - [flexing new prosthetic hand] "Groovy."
Sheila - "I may be bad. But I feel good."
Ash - "Gimme some sugar, baby!"
Ash - "Go ahead and run. Run home and cry to mama."
Ash - "Good... bad... I'm the guy with the gun."
Sheila - "You found me beautiful once." Ash - "Honey, you got real ugly."
Ash - "Hail to the king, baby!"

It's a little odd... but now that Shaq isn't on the Lakers, my animosity towards him has decreased considerably. By most accounts, it seems that he's usually a pretty good guy who's living a kid's dream. And you can always count on him for a sound bite. Check this one out:

Q: Would you have stayed with the Lakers if Phil Jackson was still the coach?

"Phil was the one who took me to the next level, so I'm loyal to him. I didn't want to play for another coach there. That's like me training with a ninja all my life and then going down to a local karate instructor. It just don't make sense. Instead of doing that at the same place, I'd rather go somewhere else and start all over."

Shaq as ninja... he'll probably make that into a lousy movie someday.

Something amusing my mom said, from a conversation with the parents over the weekend - "When we were your age, we were bored most of the time, so that's why we got girlfriends and boyfriends. You, you seem to have a lot of things going on... so don't rush into things." Hm, does this mean I eventually need to cut down on a few of the things I do?

On a more serious note, they also told me a condensed version of the history of Taiwan. Since I haven't been off the North American continent since I was, oh, about 8 years old (the last time I visited Taiwan), I guess I've never really identified with my familial and cultural history much, having been brought up fairly Americanized. However, it was quite instructive and enlightening to hear the story of the first immigrants to Taiwan from China a long time ago, the Japanese occupation that my grandparents lived under, the flight of the Nationalists to Taiwan upon the entry of the Communist Party, and the current level of tension resulting between the Kuomingtang and the Green Party, and between Taiwan and China. I suppose I'll never fully understand the mindset of a "native" Taiwanese, but I now understand a little bit more some of the attitudes and mindsets I observe in my church, which has a congregation mostly made up of "native" Taiwanese who immigrated here. As a deacon of the English congregation and an American-born, it appears we have less history to work through during the decision-making process, particularly with regards to ministry to non-Taiwanese. I used to not understand this tension very well... but it makes a bit more sense now.

With all the bloggers out there, it's time for some writing tips... (pulled from somewhere online)

How to Write Gooder

Here are several very important but often forgotten rules of English:

1. Avoid alliteration. Always.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
8. Contractions aren't necessary.
9. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
10. One should never generalize.
11. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
12. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
13. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. Be more or less specific.
15. Understatement is always best.
16. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
17. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
19. The passive voice is to be avoided.
20. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
21. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
22. Who needs rhetorical questions?

Odds and ends...

One of the ways I motivate myself to post after a dry spell is to forbid myself from reading other people's blogs until I write one of my own. I haven't read anyone's blogs for a few days now, so if anyone posted earth-shattering news, I missed out. Ah well.

Heard a good thought on the radio driving to work Wednesday after the election... basically said that even though he had voted for Kerry and didn't feel that Bush was competent enough to lead the nation for another four years, he was actually getting calls from bitter people wanting Bush to fail miserably just so they could say they were right. He said, no matter your political leanings, you can't argue that it was a hard-fought and fair campaign, there was a clear winner, and Bush is now our leader again for four years - so it'd be stupid to want him to fail just to satisfy petty vindictiveness, since this is our country we're talking about here. I'm glad that it seems most people are at least speaking of healing and reconciliation and moving forward. Bush and his administration have a lot of work to do in this country and with other countries. Here's hoping he learns from past mistakes and makes wiser decisions moving forward. This election was enjoyably intellectually challenging the last few months since it made me consider some questions like, "What should the role of government be?" and "At what point does a personal moral value become a corporate moral value?"

This is my company's first week at our new location right behind Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale, which means that I'm driving Lawrence Expressway for my commute. I wonder if there's any way to convert Lawrence into a freeway... expressways, with constant acceleration-to and braking-from 50 mph, is murder on gas mileage.

KG had two crazy blocks during crunch time in last night's televised game against the Nuggets, both one-handed pins against the glass that he then collected and outletted as if nothing special had happened. His level of intensity and focus is much more admirable and fun to watch than Kenyon Martin's grandstanding and playing to the crowd that he seemed to engage in every five minutes.

My fantasy teams as currently constructed:
Canaan league (8 teams)
Guards: Marbury, Redd, Hinrich, Ginobili
Forwards/Centers: Kirilenko, Brand, Ratliff, Bosh, Ginobili, Harrington, Dunleavy, G. Hill
Comments: Though I don't think I have a very good team in our small league, I do enjoy the fact that there are a fair number of players that I like on my team so I never have to face the fantasy dilemma of having to root for someone I despise.

Cal league (12 teams)
Guards: Alston, E. Jones, Hinrich, Redd, S. Jackson
Forwards/Centers: Artest, Swift, Gooden, Ilgaukas, Nowitzki, G. Hill, Blount
Comments: I was pretty pleased with my draft. I was able to pick up some good sleepers with the last few picks (Alston, Swift), despite a relatively large league, due to the fact that only half the managers were there for the online draft.

Second time around was much better. Thanks for everyone's support. Now I've got one evening to read up on the election... everyone go vote tomorrow!