lesson learned from a set of knives...

alinna & i have been using the suckiest set of knives for the longest time - this set that she got from target for like $20 back in the college days (when you can get a block & 13 knives for $20... you know they're pretty bad). Anyway, I finally got fed up with the knives, and splurged and got us some real knives - and the difference was seriously amazing. In fact, every time I cut anything, even a piece of bread, I have to make a scene out of it. "alinna. i didn't know bread could cut this easily. with a steak knife!" It gives us great joy to chop, slice, or mince anything that our hands can get a hold of. What I've come to realize, though, is that I wouldn't have this much fun, or so much pleasure out of cutting food if we didn't have the sucky knives to begin with. But because I didn't originally have a decent set, I've learned to appreciate my new set so much more. And I think I'm that way with God. He has blessed me with so much, that I take so much for granted. I don't feel the joy from these things because I think that it's my right to have them, when in fact, it's a privilege. When I tore my ACL, I realized what a blessing it is to even be able to walk with two legs. Trying to get around campus on crutches definitely put things in perspective for me. (hey, Berkeley is not like Stanford. Berkeley doesn't give injured people a golf cart to drive around campus on. I had to tough it for 12 weeks.) So for this Thanksgiving, I'm learning to thank God for everything He has given to me - things that I would normally take for granted. Not just material things, but friendships, family, even functional (or, semi-functional after football this morning ;) body parts.

Talking about semi-functional body parts, Turkey Bowl VI was lots of fun this morning. The grass was very wet, so there was definitely a lot of slipping & sliding. I didn't knock any guys down this year, but I did have quite a few tumbles due to the slippery conditions. There was one in particular where I caught the ball, and tried to turn to run... except, as was happening to everyone, my feet flew out under me because there was no traction and I landed quite hard on my bottom. I'll leave you to imagine which body part is the sorest right now... :) Can't wait for Turkey Bowl VII next year! Playing football like that once a year is definitely enough for me.

Tonight a bunch of my relatives came over to have dinner together. And being typical Asian parents, they all made my cousins' kids perform in a "recital." So these little 5-10 year old kids busted out their piano books, flutes, recorders, french horns, and the like, and played a couple songs for all of us. After they were all done, my parents made ME play the piano! Oh my gosh, I was so embarrassed. I tried to refuse but when my mom gave me that angry asian mom look, it was over. I felt like I was 10 years old again, and when I was done (I just ended up playing a few praise songs off some chord sheets I had laying around because I haven't played a real piano piece in like 8 years), all the parents did their chinese "yaaay!" and clapped really loudly like they did for all the little kids. Embarrassing. Remind me to sneak away at the end next time we have one of these.

Finally got the chance to upload some pictures...

First, though - I got home from Joseph's farewell at around 10ish on Sunday, right as Alias was ending. So I open the door and this is what I see, along with a few loud GASP!s and some screaming. lovely.

Turkey Bowl VI is tomorrow! Can't wait to knock over more guys ;) ask ppl how I knocked jeff over last year... heehee. Football is great... except that time two years ago when I couldn't even get into my car after the game because I was in so much pain! oh man, don't think I've ever been so sore in my life... I remember I had to pick up my pants to even move my leg. Reminds me of right after my knee surgey - everytime i need to move my left leg, I had to pick up the huge brace around my knee to move it since I couldn't do it on my own. Anyway, definitely learned my lesson :)

So anyway, here are the pics, enjoy :)

Big Game fun & Byron's bday
Joe's farewell

woohoo! go bears! that was sure a scary first quarter... we almost resorted to a mah jong game to put us out of misery. But thankfully, Cal pulled out the win... and going to a bowl. yay!

You know, it's amazing how: 1) no one outside of California knows who the heck Cal is (unless the person really follows college sports) - heck, ppl from east coast tell me how when they saw people wearing "Cal" sweatshirts and stuff, they always thought the person was really proud of their state. 2) Even if they have heard of Cal, no one outside of California knows that Cal is the same school as UC Berkeley. "Where'd you go to school?" "Cal" "Oh. Cal Tech? Cal...?" "No, UC Berkeley." ultimate blank stare of confusion. Even better, I went with my family to a tour of Italy the summer after graduating, and I was talking to one of the girls (who was from the east coast) on the tour with us. "Where'd you go to school?" "Berkeley." "Oh, cool! What'd you major in?" "Industrial Engineering" really blank stare. "Berkeley has an engineering program?" "Yeah, actually it's a pretty well-known department." "Do you play an instrument, too?" Okay... I thought that was a random change of topic.... "Uh, yeah... I play the piano." "Oh cool, did you like do a double major?" "Huh?? No." "Oh, I thought Berkeley was only a school of music." This girl thought I went to Berklee School of Music in Boston! "No, I went to UC Berkeley." "Oh hm. Never heard of that school." Okay, cmon, when I went to East Asia, the people there had heard of Berkeley! East-coast bias at its best.

I think I have been to more weddings & farewell parties this year then all my other years combined. Good ol' joseph decided to pack up and go north... where it rains more... and where there is no sales tax. ;) Although I can't say he'll have it bad in Portland - house sitting a 10,000 sq foot, 8-bedroom house for rent-free while making piles of money at Intel is not a bad situation to be in. :) But we'll definitely miss our brother, I always appreciated his willingness to serve in ministries that weren't so attractive to many - such as upkeeping the Farley house, heading up the calling-team ministry, and much much more... Although he gets a minus point for willingly owning an ATI card in his computer. ;) just kidding.

I am surrounded by ultra sick people at work... but because of thanksgiving, there are already people gone on vacation, so no one will stay home and take a PTO. ACK. let's see how well that flu shot holds up...

I watched both the Channel 2 news and Channel 7 news this morning as I worked out... and they both mentioned the Big Game. The great thing, though, is how all the reporters/news anchors favored Cal... wearing their blue & gold and yelling Go Bears! to each other on tv. hehe, glad to know the media takes sides.

I just spent the last 5 hours filing papers and cleaning my cube. 1) yes i was bored and had absolutely nothing to do at work today, and 2) yes, my cube was actually that messy. I'd give it about a week before it goes crazy again.

I've been eating out or grabbing food to go for dinner practically every night this week, mainly because earlier in the week I was so plastered with work that by the time I got home, it was too late to take the time to cook. Later in the week, it's been because I've had to run so many errands after work, that again, I get home too late to have the time to cook. Well, that and we have no food in our fridge, too. I feel gross. I feel like a guy. sick.

some amusing real church signs. I'm having major issues linking these for some reason, so just copy & paste into your browser.

how true for many ;)
http://www.aboyandhiscomputer.com/images/churchsigns/ur.jpg

...something seems a little wrong...
http://www.aboyandhiscomputer.com/images/churchsigns/fireworkstf.jpg

heck, just make your own. countless hours of amusement.
how creative are you?

My boss is crazy. For our next quarter-end outing (which is supposed to be a fun activity), he wants us to do the sjmercury news 10k race/ 5k run/walk. The looks on some of my coworkers' faces were priceless. I don't know physically if my knee can hold up in a 5k run, although it would be fun to do. I might have to walk it. I can't believe I'm in my mid-20s and I'm already talking about knee problems (and have been for the past 4 years). Sad. Never, ever, tear your ACL, people - parts of my knee & leg are still actually numb from the surgery I had over four years ago.

Big Game week... Go bears! As being part of the class that never saw a win over stanfurd in football OR basketball, i think i have endured enough pain. (not to mention our hs has lost to its main rival 26 years (and counting) in a row. let's face it - saratoga is where all the nerdy parents send their nerdy kids, and los gatos is where all the jock parents send their jock kids.) I'm done with being the losers in a rivalry!

Look at the stylin' hyuns! Gotta love those flower shorts. Awwww so cute....

now let's play guess the twin. Which one is trying to look hard & be mean, and which one looks like a pansy?

and to further substantiate what alex and i were talking about yesterday, check out number 7 & 8. oh my.

My amusing time at valley fair last night, here.

I have a friend who works for the FBI now (she's the one between me and reni). Go Joyce! Although she told me she couldn't clear any possible parking tickets for me (which thankfully I don't have any, but who knows - may provide to be useful in the future), she did tell me that if i'm ever arrested for being a part of an international terrorist ring she'd clear me out. So if any of you need the hookups, let me know... ;)

Got to have dinner last night with some of my good ol' ieor buddies. I love hanging out with them, although it's not very often... brings back lots of college memories - we sure spent a lot of time together from all those problem sets, midterm-studying, and countless hours in lab for countless group projects, presentations, and of course our senior project. Feels like it was so long ago. I found our senior project write-up a while back, this huge like 30-40 page single-spaced report. Oh my goodness, we had a gazillion gramatical errors in there! hahahaha. Just goes to show you shouldn't write it up the entire night through the morning it's due! How in the world did we win best senior project? Obviously not based on our report. Although, now, especially since the holiday season is coming up, seeing those Second Harvest food bank barrels everywhere reminds me of all the work we did for them. I wonder if they actually implemented anything we suggested/created for them... Anyway, yeah the last time I saw dave, amyn, sanj, and gabe was at sanj & gabe's wedding, which was 6 months ago.

Today, arex and i were talking about how we should work for a union. Seriously, some of those guys get paid bank! And they have mandatory lunch breaks and 15 minute breaks every couple hours, get paid overtime, even double overtime. Our great idea is to have a high-tech union. hahahaha. could you ever imagine that?

arex (10:25:11 AM): maybe we should just be blue collar
arex (10:25:17 AM): do you know how to weld?
arex (10:25:35 AM): are you scared of heights?

right.

And now, because I couldn't get any work done on Saturday (i needed files on my computer at work, so I couldn't log in from home), I'm getting pummeled today. sigh.

I really dislike weather/season changes because my skin goes buck wild. My eczema decided to have a party on me, and now I'm suffering big-time. Time to get my money's worth out of my health insurance and go visit the dermatologist! It's really weird how affected I am by anti-histamines, even just OTC ones like Benadryl. I took Benadryl on Saturday instead of my prescription stuff because the prescribed pills knock me out for literally 8-10 hours. So I take the Benadryl at like 1pm, and take a nap for 2 hours while I let the medicine do its work. I had to meet up at 5 to go to the Jars/Caedmon's Call concert (which, btw was way better than I expected), but come 8pm in the middle of the concert I still felt like I wanted to pass out. So, it's either I suffer, or I take medicine, get knocked out, and sleep. So suffering-away I am at work.

So I went in with very low expectations for Matrix Revolutions, and, well, hm. Actually, I was still a little disappointed. Without giving anything away, I just felt like all the questions I wanted answered, didn't get answered. And I thought the ending was anti-climatic. On the other hand, I also went into the Jars/Caedmon's Call concert with no expectations (I only went b/c someone else dropped out at the last second), and I really enjoyed it. I liked seeing Caedmon's in concert. I also ran into like 20 different people I knew... was not expecting that. But it seemed like everywhere I turned there was someone I knew. It was also funny when Jars would yell things like, "hello castro valley!" just because... uh most ppl there, I guarantee you, aren't from castro valley. And it's not a big city like, say San Francisco or San Jose. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking castro valley or anything, it was just weird.

This weekend seemed like a big blur to me, mainly because of my eczema woes and needing to sleep Saturday & Sunday afternoons away. I was so out of it that I didn't even hear the thunders early Sunday morning that apparently everyone else in northern California heard. I'm the lighest sleeper you'll ever find, and I didn't hear a single thunder.

I need a vacation. Badly. And I'm not even forced to take PTO during company shutdown in December (I think by the end of the year I'll have 4 weeks of vacation stored up) because... yes, I one of the few who have to come in and work during the company shutdown days. Someone give me an excuse to take some days off from work! I also think I'm in real need for a personal retreat... I need to set aside time purposefully to recharge myself, to meditate on God's Word, and to pray. I'm getting really worn out and it's not even quite the end of the year yet.

Boo. I come into work to get some stuff done... and our system isn't even working! what a great waste of my time. There was no email about our system being down. Lame. L-A-M-E. That stands for Lkaren's Annoyed & Mad at Employer. Okay I suck at this. Why couldn't my name start with an L instead? oh well. Someone else more creative can come up with something better. And no, olivia, I don't think "Like, Am Majorly Engry" is better. thanks.

i've decided to give ofoto a shot... there are pluses and minuses to yahoo and ofoto, but oh well. here goes.

all you can't eat ribs
syeffy & william's wedding
jonathan & winnie's wedding
fall carnival

enjoy!

neat stuff - it should be video & audio. if you only get audio you need to update your media player!

DOWN with the volvo! I am sick of paying $300-$600 every other month on maintenance costs. Heck, it'll be cheaper to buy a new car!! Who's with me here? Who else wants to get rid of theirs?

Praise God, the fall carnival turned out well... even better than I expected :) There was one potential disaster when the outlet that the astro jump was plugged into spazzed for a few minutes and the astro jump collapsed. There was one kid in there, so byron had to climb in to get him out. Thankfully, the father was very nice about it, and didn't freak out like how I could imagine some other parent getting very upset. The dad even tried to get the little boy to go back in after it reinflated, but for obvious reasons, the boy refused. There were some hecka cute kids... once I upload my pictures, you can see for yourself. I did get to jump in the astrojump for a little bit... and it just goes to show how pathetic and old we are. We jumped for like less than 5 minutes before we were so tired we had to sit down and rest, before we could get back up and jump some more. Versus these little firemen and batmans and mermaids who jumped in the thing for like 15 minutes straight and only stopped because they were either bored or their parents made them come out!

How do you entertain a handful of young adults for a few hours? Let go of a helium balloon to the top of a vaulted ceiling and watch them throw balls at the balloon until someone can grab it to bring it back down. Sadly, yes, that is how we were entertained for two hours. Even sadder is that we were unsuccessful in our game and had to concoct a very long stick-like device (think the Friends episode where they try to poke the "naked guy") to get the balloon back down. I also learned that sucking in helium and talking amuses people to no end. Apparently my voice is affected a lot by the gas.

During discussion at sunday school yesterday (going through Revelations), our group somehow got onto the topic of Pascal's wager. I've heard about this several times - in fact, one time I visited a church and their sermon was on how you could use this in evangelism. I've never been too fond of it mainly because I don't honestly think someone can get truly saved through logical reasoning. It seems too much like an equation - it's a better payoff to believe in God, so now this person's mind wills his/her heart to believe? What happened to experiencing the Holy Spirit and understanding the concept of grace and Christ dying for our sins? Who knows, I can't underestimate God - there probably are people who have become believers through Pascal's wager - I just don't think it's the most effective form of evangelism. Anyway, if you google the topic, you'll find tons of websites discussing the flaws and arguments on why it doesn't work. The one point andy brought up was that it was at least a possible method to get people to simply consider the idea that God does exist, which is definitely a valid point.

Health insurance has gone way up :( I need to get sick more often so I get my money's worth!