College Footballers Homage to Rugby

LOL



The best part is at the end of the video when you see the losing teams players lying on the field. Must have been some sort of divine intervention there because two of the laterals were absolutely crazy: one was where the player laterals it by throwing it backwards blindly over his head! The second where the player laterals the ball and it bounces straight and into his teammates hands! If you've ever played football, or rugby, you know that thing could have bounced anywhere!

The Measure of Garlic

After the Tango experiment yesterday, went to LK's place for dinner to celebrate his sister's successful completion of the Nike Women's Marathon.

The menu for the evening-
(1) Jambalaya
(2) Potatoes Two Ways: Garlic Mashed, and Garlic Herb Roasted.
(3) Grilled Lemon/Lime Chicken
(4) Margaritas!

That's just what we banded together to cook. Some friends brought asparagus, salad, desserts etc.

I had garlic duty and some potato cutting and just a little chicken grilling. We erroneously referred to a head of garlic as a clove of garlic. A clove is just one piece of the head, while about 10 cloves make up a head of garlic.

We put a head of garlic into the huge pot (~5 quarts?) of mashed potatoes. We had left over peeled and unpeeled raw potatoes, so we figured we'd roast them like at Crepevine- garlic herb style. More garlic! I minced an additional two heads of garlic for the roast potatoes, about 2 pans worth. I actually remarked that the mashed spuds may be able to take more garlic.

Anyways, it was all very pungent and delicious. My hands still smell of garlic today. Whew!

(i)CBM

Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile?
"CBM," actually - Counter Body Movement. Ouch.

A&W were so sweet to watch the angels this afternoon while we went to an Argentine Tango Intensive Workshop at the Metronome Dance Center. W ran the Nike's Women's Marathon this morning, and A ran the last 10 miles with her. Then they babysat the boys the rest of the afternoon while I got my butt kicked dancing.

It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It didn't help that we were a 1/2 hour late. Having done some beginning Waltz and Fox Trot, and lots of Swing, I thought it wouldn't be too hard to pick-up. How more wrong could I have been?!

Counter Body Movement kicked my butt. I had a hard time keeping my hips straight and turning my shoulders. The "lead" was in the shoulders to convey whether the follower should cross or un-cross her legs.

Here's a video of the 8-count basic pattern we started off learning. Click Me (Window Media)

It's a beautiful dance. I love it. Right up there with Lindy Hop.

Observations (or misconceptions) after a couple hours learning Argentine Tango:
1. CBM! (see above)
2. At this early learning stage, it is much more improvisational than other dances. Whereas in beginning and intermediate Lindy, you're mostly stringing 8count patterns together and going into the occasional 6count. It appears that in A.T. you could move from one "count" or "step" into any other step.
3. This leads to the extreme importance on the leader to really lead, and the follower to really follow. In Lindy, early on in a pattern, the follower pretty much knows what's coming, "oh we're going into Tandem Charleston." or "eggbeater" or something. But since A.T. is so "step-to-step" (i.e. not really pattern based) the lead/follow relationship needs to be so tight.
4. It's better to wear dress shoes, if not ballroom dance shoes, for A.T. I brought my sneakers with me since that's what'd I'd wear for Lindy- it's a very bouncy and athletic dance. (Those two descriptors aren't very good, and is not meant to say other dances aren't athletic.)
5. The lower half of my body is sore already. Probably those muscles haven't been used in this way in a while.
6. I want to do it again!

Having two little kids, it's hard to go consistently to lessons; esp. since we're not living in the City. I want to get a couple of those videos to brush up and practice at home some. But a few private lessons may be the way to go for us.

G's first thought at seeing Lindy Hop: fun!
G's first thought at seeing Argentine Tango: elegant and graceful!

Go dance!

Update: The photograph (click it!) above is by Monte Leone and was used in a Wines of Argentina print ad I saw in Food&Wine Magazine. Check out his web-site: http://www.photomonteleone.com/

I Saw the Sign

Count yourself lucky if you don't know what this means...

SIG-1 XXXXX process caught a fatal exception
SIG-1 Details:
SIG-1 Process with PID=12146 executing
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
SIG-1 caught signal=11 (Segmentation fault)
SIG-1 code=1: Signal was generated by kernel.
SIG-1 Additional info: address not mapped to object
SIG-1 Faulting addr=0xe9f60f98
SIG-1 end-of-stack=0x7fbfffe0c5
SIG-1 stack size=4294967295
SIG-1 Memory usage:
SIG-1 overall peak reserved=3250286592
SIG-1 currently reserved=3242786816
SIG-1 Free swap space=144358292

The tool is writing some huge core file. X's above are to protect the dignity (HA!) of the offending program.

Setting the Pace

I found this little article from the AP quite amusing. Here's the link to it at SFGate.com:

Gen. Pace: Homosexual Acts Immoral, by Anne Flaherty

The last 1/2 of the article: (emphasis mine)

"We need to be very precise then, about what I said wearing my stars and being very conscious of it," he added. "And that is, very simply, that we should respect those who want to serve the nation but not through the law of the land, condone activity that, in my upbringing, is counter to God's law."

...

"I would be very willing and able and supportive" to changes to the policy "to continue to allow the homosexual community to contribute to the nation without condoning what I believe to be activity — whether it to be heterosexual or homosexual — that in my upbringing is not right," Pace said.

Pace's lengthy answer on gays was prodded by Sen. Tom Harkin, who said he found Pace's previous remarks as "very hurtful" and "very demoralizing" to homosexuals serving in the military.

In March, the Chicago Tribune reported that Pace said in a wide-ranging interview: "I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way."

Harkin, D-Iowa, said he wanted to give Pace a chance to amend his remarks in light of his retirement.

"It's a matter of leadership, and we have to be careful what we say," Harkin said.

Pace noted that the U.S. Military Code of Justice prohibits homosexual activity as well as adultery. Harkin said, "Well, maybe we should change that."

That last statement by Sen. Harkin is pretty hilarious. My immediate thought is if he were to change Pace's statement on immorality (in red above) to his liking it could read, "I do believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way."

Wha?!

iGotOne

Well, actually iGotOne for her :)

My lovely wife gets the iPhone and I get her Samsung slider phone, which has a horrendous GUI.

It really is for her.

No-- really.

I'm not kidding!

I'm in front of a computer all day and have access to the Internet. In contrast, she's doing myriad sorts of things as a full-time mom and rarely has time to sit at a computer.

I, of course, get to mess w/ it when I'm not at work! Plus- I get to take the iPod Photo (40Gb) now!

Wil's Mighty Men

L->R: DK, PD, Me, eTU (holding RIU), LK

It's a rare occasion for us all to be together, but we were gathered to send DK off as he moves to Beijing for a career opportunity. These guys are among the dearest brothers God could have given me.

* One of them served as my wedding day coordinator.
* The other three were my groomsmen.
* It was an honor to be the best man for two of these guys. (The other two aren't married yet.)
* I've known all of them for over 10 years now.
* One of them I've known since kindergarten.
* All are Cardinals, except me. Two are Cardinals from University or graduate school. The other two are Cardinals from high school. At least I was an Eagle in high school!
* The non-University Cardinals and I are U.C. products- A Bear and two Aggies.
* Obviously, the Bear and the Cardinals are mortal enemies in a collegiate sense.
* We are bound together by the Holy Spirit.

A Watery Death (Again)

My 2nd Nokia 6230 went for a spin in the washing machine. The 1st one went into the water with me on Oahu back in May. This one used to be G's, but she's now using a horrible Samsung D807.

We all woke up late and I was rushing to get M to school. Threw a bunch of clothes in the washer and zipped outta there. The phone must have been in my hand and I let go of it when I was stuffing the laundry in the machine.

G heard the clunking noise when she threw everything in the dryer.

On the phone-
Me: I think I left my phone at home again.
G: Uh, no you didn't, you put it in the washing machine.
Me: What!?
G: How can you still laugh?

Giants vs. Dodgers: September 18, 1997

DODGER BEATER Johnson's magic moment came in '97 (San Francisco Chronicle)

Hard to believe it's been 10 years since Brian Johnson's out of the blue, line drive home run in the 12th inning that day to complete a two-game sweep of the Dodgers tying the teams for first place in the NL West. I hardly remember the details of that game or the game the night before!

That year, Leon got Wayland and I to buy a 17 game package. That was pretty crazy as we signed up for it well into the season and we were in a mad rush to use all the tickets before the end of the season. I got off work early for the September 17 night game and took a day off from work for the following day game. Those were good times.

It's hard to remember many details about the games, but the best part was just hanging out together and the camaraderie of loving baseball.

Some other things I remember:
* Freezing at the night games in the field level seats on the 1st base line.
* Enjoying the upper deck seats on the 3rd base line where there was no wind.
* Our Garlic "Rally" Fries!!
* Sitting in those seats and telling Leon to buy my company's stock when it went down to $5/share, it then shot up to ~$90 during the Internet stock bubble. It's back down to $6-7 now.
* Receiving an entire sheet of playoff tickets for that year as it looked like they were going to win the division.
* Giants won the division and go to the playoffs! The Florida Marlins swept them the 1st round. We were all bummed out that we had this huge sheet of tickets and only got to use one! I re-call the fog rolling in at that playoff game.

Nikon D40 6.1MP Digital SLR Camera Kit with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens

Where Is It?
Check out Ken Rockwell.

Update 9/12 - Yes, this is replacing the teeny-tiny Canon which is now in a thousand pieces. My dad has a D40 and has the 18-200mm lens. I''ll get one of my own eventually, until then I'll just borrow his. *grin*

"Are You Ready For Some Football?" 3

We have a team dinner at work tonight as a new colleague is visiting from Allentown, PA. He joined our group as a result of the LSI/Agere merger.

The good boss asked for restaurant suggestions. Being a good City-mite, I realized the 49ers open their season at home tonight against the Cardinals on Monday Night (American*) Football AND the Giants are hosting the Diamondbacks. "How about Gordon Biersch in downtown San Jose?"

Our reservation's for 7:00PM, see you there! Funny how both teams in town are from Arizona.

Workin' hard.

* My manager is British ;)

"Are You Ready For Some Football?" 2

For all you honky tonk fans out there, the title of the last post was a reference to Hank Williams Jr.'s "All My Rowdy Friends (Are Comin' Over Tonight)" which was/is the opening music to Monday Night Football for a number of years. (I haven't watched MNF in ages.)

It'd be pretty cool if the NFL released a CD box set of all the songs Hank did for MNF. Each week, the lyrics would be customized to fit the two teams playing that night.

If you haven't heard the original "All My Rowdy Friends" here it is.



Yes, that's Animal from the Muppets!

"Are You Ready For Some Football?"

Saw this in the "Random Videos" panel on the right. "What the heck- I'll check it out," I thought.

I hope you like Billy Joel. The lyrics are pretty clever.

My Favorite Twila Paris Songs

Here's the link to my Twila Paris iMix on iTunes.
Looks like they only list the songs which can be purchased on iTunes.












Here's the complete (unordered) list via screenshot of iTunes. Click to enlarge it.

"It's All About Him: Finding the Love of My Life."

How Denise and Alan Jackson's marriage was saved!

Here's the interview on CNN.com: Click here to read it.

Nice quote from the intro to the interview:

A revelation came one day when a friend told her she wouldn't pray for Alan Jackson to come back, but instead, would pray for Denise Jackson to become the woman that God intended her to be. From that day on, Denise Jackson began to reassess the role God played in her life -- and, instead of focusing on how to repair her relationship with her husband, put her efforts into rebuilding her relationship with God. In the end, she says, becoming closer to God helped her become closer to her husband -- and save her marriage.

Jackson writes about her journey in the new book "It's All About Him: Finding the Love of My Life." And while her husband is on the cover of the book and included a CD of two songs, after the first few chapters, it becomes clear that the country singer is not the ultimate focus of her book.

Alan Jackson is a country music singer.

Favorite Steve Green Songs

I've been loading all my music in iTunes lately so I can finally really put away the CD's into the garage. There are a few where I have the box, but not the CD. *sigh*

Anyways, the exercise has allowed me to continue to re-discover old favorites. I shared earlier about my Contemporary Christian Music Greatest Hits. Here are my favorite Steve Green songs...

Of course, you could be my friend on SimplifyMedia and you could stream them for free to check them out!

Stay tuned- my favorite Twila Paris and Amy Grant songs are coming soon!

Shoot! Dead Digital Camera. AGAIN.

Aw man. The lens isn't retracting back into the body. When it's turned on, the motor whirs but nothing happens. Worse yet, the LCD is completely black even in Setup and Playback modes.

All three of my digital cameras have died on me...

1. Sony DSC-F505V
Bought: 2000, Summer
Died: 2003, Spring
This was my first camera. No really. I never was really into picture taking, but I got this b/c I wanted to take lots of pictures w/ my new g/f. I thought the big honking rotating lens was pretty cool.

BTW, that g/f was G and we got engaged that summer and married a year later!


2. Sony DSC-F717
Bought: 2003, Spring
Died: 2007, Spring
We'd just had our 1st baby, M, and the F505V wasn't functioning properly. Sometimes the LCD would freeze up, or the pictures were all messed up. We had to get a new camera as we were just missing too many shots of Baby M.

The F717 is still my favorite camera of the three. Great resolution at the time and it shot pretty fast. I didn't mind that it was big. Actually I thought it was an asset as it had a big battery. After taking lots of shots, even with flash, the battery would last. With smaller cameras which had tiny batteries, when the battery drained down, the autofocus would become sooooooo sloooooooow.

We hadn't used this for a while b/c G used the Canon Elph b/c of it's portability. Earlier this year, when I fired this baby up, the LCD screen displayed a jumble of stuff. I'm holding out hope this can be recovered, but it's not looking good.

3. Canon PowerShot SD500 DIGITAL ELPH
Bought: 2005, December
Dead: 2007, August

We got this camera b/c the F717 was too bulky for G to lug around in the diaper bag. By now we had 2 boys- a 3 and a 1 y.o. So this was G's Christmas present that year.

Great thing was the portability and the 7 Megapixels. Plus it used SD cards and not expensive MemoryStick. But the small battery drained fast, hence the autofocus speed faded. Overall, this camera was in fact harder to shoot with. It was just too slow.

So... now what? I want a Nikon DSLR, but don't want to spend the money right now. My dad just got the D40, which he really likes. Maybe I'll borrow his old Sony compact camera... hope that one doesn't bite the dust on me too.

Lenovo ThinkPad T61: Spec'n it out

Can't believe the T42 is more than three years old and is out of the extended warranty already. It's still a toddler! Little G, my youngest son, isn't even 3 until December!

And so it's time to spec out a new laptop... (boo hoo hoo, crocodile tears)

One of the reasons I liked the T42 (14.1" LCD) was b/c it was so darn thin at just a tad over 1". The T-series seem to be getting ever so slightly thicker w/ each new line.

I fancied the 15.4" T61, but Lenovo support informed me that that measures in at 1.4" thick! How can Apple have 15" and 17" MacBook Pros that are just 1" thick?

The T61 only came w/ widescreen LCD's until just a few days ago, but the standard aspect ratio cost more. Since HDTV LCD's are 16:9 aspect ratio, it's cheaper for them to manufacture laptop LCD's to the same ratio.

From a Lenovo blog, they personally preferred the integrated graphics over the discrete nVidia as it gives well over one hour extra battery life for business use. But I want to drive the ThinkPad at it's highest resolution (1440 horiz. on the T42), and drive an external 24" LCD monitor at high res as well: Dual head display in extended desktop mode. More screen real estate = better work efficiency. Lenovo customer support said the integrated graphics only runs 1280- not good enough.

So here's the configuration I'm looking at:

• ThinkPad T61 with nVIDIA Graphics - 1 Year Depot Warranty
• Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz 800MHz 4MBL2)
• Operating System: Genuine Windows XP Professional
• *No Vista for us yet. Lenovo dude said Micro$oft will disallow XP pre-loads sometime next year.
  
• Display type: 14.1 WXGA TFT, w/ Camera
• *Wonder if the camera is like the one on the Apple laptops?
  
• System graphics: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M (128MB)
• Total memory: 3 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
  
• Pointing device: UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
• Hard drive: 160GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
• *The largest 7200RPM HD is 100Gb? I say more space wins.
• *Apple offers a 160GB 7200RPM HD. C'mon Lenovo, bring it!
  
• Optical device: DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim
• *A Blu-Ray disc drive would be awesome... later.
  
• Wireless card: Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
• Bluetooth: Integrated Bluetooth PAN
• Battery: 6 cell Li-Ion Battery
• 3 year depot 9x5 Next Business Day
• Extra Battery: ThinkPad Advanced Ultrabay Battery

$1990.10 (per web-site)

Any suggestions?

Not that it matters since IT only lets us get Lenovo or Dell laptops, but a similar MacBook Pro is only $2573.00. It has the same CPU as above, only 2Gb of RAM, a 160GB 7200RPM HD, and the 15" screen, and AppleCare.

Spider-Man: The High-Definition Trilogy (Blu-ray)

I guess it's never too early to start my wish list for Christmas or my birthday...

Spider-Man: The High-Definition Trilogy (Blu-ray)

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / 2007 / Rated PG-13
Street Date: October 30, 2007
List Price: $99.98

Shameless.

Thanks be to God, Maui-style (Aug 4, 2007)

Before and during the entire travel experience we prayed and prayed and prayed.

We prayed that we would get on a flight to Maui, together. We prayed on the way to the airport, on the way to lunch, on the way back to the airport and as we waited at the gate as they called for stand-by passengers. We prayed and thanked God even though just M and I were initially on the plane. I prayed for G and little G when it looked like they couldn't get on our flight. I prayed and thanked God when they did get on. We prayed and thanked God when we were able to sit all together. I prayed w/ M during take-off, turbulence, and landing as he was a little scared. I prayed for us all as we went to stay w/ the Canuck. I'm sure G was saying her own private prayers throughout the trip.

Count your blessings. The ways God provided:
1. Stand-by tickets from friend of G.
2. Getting on the flight to Maui, on the 1st day at the airport.
2a. We didn't have to return to the airport on Friday to try to get on a flight.

The airport staff said that the previous week was a little slower and the Hawaii bound flights were not as full. My theory is that families are taking vacations before the kids start school within the next month.

3. We sat together on the flight.
4. The kids were well-behaved the entire day.
5. We had a place to stay.
6. We had a car to use.
7. We found a dear, dear brother in Christ on Maui.

Think about this: I had to sit in that specific seat, on that specific flight, on that specific day otherwise I would not have met the Canuck, my brother by our bond in the Holy Spirit! Furthermore, the Canuck had to return to Maui early for the science teacher that was to teach at the summer program dropped out and they needed the Canuck to jump in! This brother is like an angel God sent down at such a key time of need for us. It's as if God said to me,

"Don't worry Wilson, I've got this thing all worked out. One of My guys is going to be in that seat right next to you, on your flight, on that day and he's going to take care of you and your family because in his heart is My Holy Spirit."

So, it is an amazing testimony of God's providence. I'm not sure why He provided, and I won't say it is based on our merits, but in His compassion, He provided in a big way. He is our awesome God.

First Day in Maui (Aug 3, 2007)

Hawaii is 3 hours behind Pacific time, so the boys always wake up around 6AM local time. Just thinking about that makes me yawn.

The Canuck got up early and went to buy some groceries for breakfast! He'd been away from home for two months and had sublet his place out during that time. So he literally did not know what he had in the fridge and it was literally nothing! We felt so blessed to have home cooked bacon and eggs, and pb&j that morning.

G and I were trying to figure out what we wanted to do that day. We didn't want to be in the Canuck's way, but he said that he didn't have anything planned other than a short meeting at school in the afternoon. We thought about renting a car for the day b/c we didn't expect him to chauffeur us around- it was already too amazing to have a place to stay! In the end, he said we could borrow his car for the day and take the kids to the beach or to the Maui Ocean Center then we'd meet up later. He'd use his friend's car which she left w/ him while she was traveling.

Unbelievable- we had a place to stay and a car to use. Those were the two things I had to get once we arrived in Maui and there it was.

We took the car and visited the MOC which is quite nice, though it's no Monterey Bay Aquarium. The kids fell asleep in the car on the way back and we stopped at Safeway to get some things for "home" since the Canuck was in need of some necessities like napkins etc.

Shortly after we got home, the Canuck returned. (Yes, he gave us the car keys and the house keys.) We wanted to take him out to a nice dinner, but he suggested that we get some meat and fixin's and BBQ hamburgers for dinner. I'm not being at all gracious when I say that those Canuck burgers were the best I've ever had.

G got the kids to bed and she turned in w/ them.

The Canuck and I got into chatting about music (U2), science/theory of evolution, and finally theology. Genesis 1. It was a very engaging chat and the evolution/Genesis 1 part was not a debate, if you're wondering. He headed out to meet up w/ some buddies for sushi while I went to bed.

The next morning, he'd drive us to the airport to pick-up a rental car and then we'd meet up w/ my family.

Next: Thanks be to God, Maui-style

Arriving in Maui (Aug 2, 2007)

We arrived in Maui without incident, though the landing was a little rough, which my friend assured me was pretty smooth for this airport. As we all got off the plane, my friend came up to us and said, "I know this is pretty forward, but would you guys like to come stay at my place the next two nights? You need a place to stay, and I have an empty place w/ toys for a 4 y.o. boy. From one Christian brother to another." G and I were stunned!

Now, the 1st thought through my head was, "What if this guy is an ax murderer?" But having spent the last 4.5hrs on the plane next to him, I thought and felt that he was real. We said, "yes!" At this point, we formally introduced ourselves and, finally, learned each other's names. I'll call him "the Canuck."

A friend would pick him up, then he'd return and pick us up and we'd all head over to his home. He lives on the west side of the island, so we pretty much continued chatting as if we never got off the plane! When we arrived at his home, it was the perfect little place for us to park until our family arrived and the vacation rental home was available. We all slept in the Canuck's son's room, which had a queen bed. He whipped out two inflatable beds for the boys- one Cars and the other Thomas the Tank Engine- and his son had lots cars and train engines. Needless to say, my boys were in heaven and made themselves right at home.

After the boys showered, we all had a Maui Tacos dinner then went to bed after a long travel day for everyone.

The Canuck and I did stay up a little bit to talk g33k stuff: Apple- Noticed his pretty new iMac w/ a black PC keyboard- his little boy spilled water on the Apple keyboard. Other topics included Google software and services, SimplifyMedia etc.

Next: First Day in Maui

Traveling to Maui (Aug 2, 2007)

We're flying standby and we knew that it'd be tough getting on a flight as it's high-season. Though G resigned from her position at United, a friend was so kind to give us passes to fly stand-by and help get us listed on the various flights. In our predicament, all options are considered hence stand-by flights to another island and then buying a cheap one-way inter-island flight to get to Maui is in the cards. The rest of the family was to arrive today, Saturday August 4, but we knew it would be near impossible getting on via stand-by today so we decided to leave S.F. a day or two earlier. The weeks and days leading up to the trip we lifted it to God's providence in our daily family prayers.

Thursday morning, bright and early, we hustled our way to SFO to try to get on the 1st flight to OGG. Unfortunately, "the system" flagged our entire family for the Security checkpoint Special Search. (On the lower-right corner of our check-in pass was "SSSSS" which meant we were in the special security line.) That meant that the TSA had to inspect every single carry-on item and we had to go through the special scanner. By the time we finished we'd already missed the 9:15AM UAL flight, but the it was packed full anyways, so we had no prayer of getting on. Same for the 10:40AM flight- packed.

The rest of the day looked dire but we decided to go to lunch in San Bruno then rest at a friend's home nearby before trying the 4:45PM flight.

3:30PM we were back at the gate to try the 4:45PM, the last direct flight of the day to Maui. As we waited at the gate, the check-in agents called many other people who were also on stand-by. Stand-by priority goes to revenue passengers, then employees in order of their seniority, then friends of employees using their "companion passes." G's no longer w/ United, hence we were in the lowest priority. Plus the plane is a 737(?) which is pretty small. Needless to say, of little faith, I was prepared to come back again Friday for a do-over.

Then we noticed that many of the names they called had not showed up! Hope! G turns to me and says, "What if they only have space for two of us?" I didn't want to think about it, but it made sense that I travel w/ M first, and she would try to get on another flight w/ little G.

"Leung, party of four- Please come to the check-in desk." we heard! "WOW! We're on! WooHoo! Thanks be to God!"

"There's only room for two of you!" the agent said. My heart sunk. M and I got our boarding passes, hugged+kissed G and little G and made our way down the jetway to board. That walk was one of the most bittersweet walks I've ever had to make.

Being among the last to be assigned seats, ours were not together so the flight attendants kindly went to see if some passengers would switch seats so I could sit w/ M. While I was waiting, G and little G turned the corner of the jetway- they got on the flight!

By now, they attendant had found seats for M and me towards the back so we made our down the aisle. Now they had to find seats together for G and little G together!

In the row in front of mine, there turned out to be an empty seats between two guys (aisle and window seats). The attendant asked if Aisle would move up to a middle seat in front so the two G's could sit together. He was pretty belligerent repeating over and over, "This is my rightful assigned seat. I asked for an aisle." This was right in front of my family! The attendant offered to buy him a $5 drink if he'd agree to move and then he did w/ out a peep. Incredible. So, now we got to sit all together across two rows!

The flight was pretty smooth and the kids were really good. They ate their snacks and M watched part of "The Incredibles" on the portable DVD player.

Through out the flight, I chatted off and on w/ the the guy to my right, in the window seat. He's a Canadian who moved to Maui for a teaching position there and was returning after a couple months traveling in the States and in Canada to see family and friends. He was returning a few days ahead of his wife and kids as his school needed him to teach at a week long summer program the coming week after the original teacher had to pull out.

I shared with him our incredible story of getting on this flight and how the rest of my family was to arrive on Saturday for our vacation. Flying stand-by in high season, I mentioned that upon arrival I had to rent a car and a place to stay through Saturday since I hadn't booked anything since we didn't know when we'd arrive.

Next: Arriving in Maui

Happy Anniversary! August 4, 2007

Today is our 6th Wedding Anniversary. Time sure flies.

This year, my sister and her husband invited my parents and our family to join them in Maui for a week. He's attending a medical conference in the mornings Monday-Friday Aug 6-10.

The following blog posts started as one post, but I've split them up b/c it got very long. Read on to see our awesome God do awesome things...

1. Traveling to Maui
2. Arriving in Maui
3. First Day in Maui
4. Thanks be to God, Maui-style

The Value of Human Life

What strange times we live in.

I noticed the cover story of the August 6, 2007 issue of BusinessWeek: "The Pet Economy." Under the title it reads, "Americans now spend $41 BILLION on their pets." That is "more than the gross domestic product of all but 64 countries in the world" it continues at the beginning of the article (page 45, 2nd paragraph). I haven't read the entire story- maybe I will later... but...

Holy Cow! Literally.

Ironically, also in the news and media this week is Michael Vick, the starting quarterback of the NFL Atlanta Falcons, who got mixed up in a dogfighting ring which was on his own property. Listening to AM680 today, Razor was ranting about how Vick would not play in the NFL next year and probably for a long while. He was saying how Americans have a soft spot for pets and they will not be able to look past (forgive) this, hence no NFL team would sign him; assuming the Falcons are rid of him. If you follow sports, you know that if the athlete can perform some team is going to sign him; no matter what he did.

Laurence Phillips, who beat up a girl in college, was drafted by the Rams and even played for the 49ers! What about Kobe Bryant, a confessed adulterer? It appears the media's forgotten all about it, though maybe his endorsement deals aren't what they once were.

Trust me Razor, if Michael Vick can perform he'll be back in some capacity.


Seeing these two stories in the media really got me thinking about the value of human life and man's place in the world. It seems our society affords more value and dignity to an animal than to a human being.

A pastor visiting our church noted the one thing that really struck him about The City after moving here was the sheer amount of people begging on the streets. His wife came up w/ the novel idea of always keeping McDonald's gift certificates in her purse to give out rather than giving cash which could go to cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs.

$41,000,000,000 each year, and growing, would go a long way in helping the homeless. Heck, I wonder if that could provide housing, food, rehab and job training to every single homeless person in the nation each year?


So what is man? Naturally, the answer comes from God, the Creator.

Genesis 1:26-28

26Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

27God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

28God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Psalm 8

1O LORD, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
2From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
3When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
4What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
5Yet You have made him a little lower than God,
And You crown him with glory and majesty!
6You make him to rule over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
7All sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field,
8The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
9O LORD, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

FYI: I've never been a "pet person." I'm fine around them but I've never wanted pets- dogs, cats, birds, hamsters, fish, you name it- just wasn't not for me. I have enough things to take care of as it is. Nothing wrong with having pets though.

What Vick did was wrong, but what's worse, the abuse of animals or the abuse of a fellow human being?

Simply Streamin' myTunes

SimplifyMedia is really cool. It allows you to stream your music in iTunes between your computers and between 30 friends as well!

Now I have access to my entire iTunes library anywhere my laptop can get an Internet connection! I got Lkwan to sign-up and we messed around streaming tunes.

Needed fixes and enhancements-

• 1. Sometimes it freezes iTunes completely and I had to kill the process.
• 2. It drops the connection for no apparent reason. Sometimes even killing my connection to the network.
• 3. It can't browse your music from other computers via CoverFlow.
• 4. Can't listen to friend's songs purchased in iTunes that has DRM unless my computer is authorized.
• 5. Would be neat to be able to see what my friends are listening to from my library.
  

Anyways, let me know if you want to be my friend on SimplifyMedia.

Update:
SimplifyMedia has some awesome customer service. Paul Joyce, the co-founder, answered some of the items above in the comments. Click below.

Also, in a prior post I mentioned my favorite Christian artists. Well, if you're my SM friend, you can sample them from my iTunes!

Update2:
Appears that it doesn't work through VPN. Bummer.

Why did God Make the Israelites His Chosen People?

Deuteronomy 7:6-11

6"For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

7"The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

8but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9"Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

10but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.

11"Therefore, you shall keep the commandment and the statutes and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

Cross-reference Genesis 12.

My "Contemporary" Christian Music Greatest Hits

Steve Green's song "Guard Your Heart" came to mind today. The lyrics are so beautiful. He sang such powerful songs- listening to them now send chills up my arms and down my back. The melody, the arrangement, and the lyrics really uplift my spirit.

Contemporary Christian music is so different now compared to twenty years ago. (duh!) My all time favorite singer is Twila Paris- her ethereal voice is angelic plus she writes all her music and lyrics. Steven Curtis Chapman's pretty awesome. So you know their duet "Faithful Friend" is doubly good.

Amy Grant's early stuff was really good before she crossed over. Basically anything pre-"Lead Me On", pre-Vince Gill. The stuff she wrote herself is very good.

So for you youngsters out there, check 'em out.

"That is what I came for" (Mark 1)

Mark gets the story off and running- the word "immediately" shows up 39 times, while the word shows up 79 times in all four accounts together. Mark's got the most, and John has the least by far. (Why shouldn't you be surprised? Something to think about.) Anyways, discipleship is the major focus of Mark and in his account within 16 verses we arrive at Jesus' selection of the first disciples.

Immediately, Jesus chooses Simon and Andrew, who were casting their fishing nets by the sea of Galilee (1:16). Then James and John are chosen, who were mending their nets. In DF's sermon on Mark, he noted that Simon Peter is one of the major evangelists of the early church and John is the consummate pastor of the early church. DF, "Jesus used these metaphors as a means of introducing these men to their life's work..." That's pretty cool.

As we read through Mark, a lot of the action is around the Sea of Galilee. Also, wherever Jesus travels, He almost always visits the Synagogue first. Perhaps this was a rabbinic custom. Paul did the same thing in his missionary journeys.

Jesus goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath to teach (1:22). This was the first order of "business" for Jesus and his new disciples, and not just any disciples, but these were part of the eventual 12. Further, within the 12, was the inner circle of Peter, James and John. Immediately, the disciples are learning how to teach by observing Jesus teach, and they are learning how to heal by watching Jesus.

Next Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law's fever and He and the disciples stay over night there after performing many more healings (1:29-34). The next morning, "Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there." (1:35) This is a beautiful lesson for us modern disciples living in the Bay Area. If Jesus did this after an intense day of ministry, shouldn't we? He started morning by praying to His Father.

But the n00b disciples don't quite get Jesus' program yet. After their 1st day, perhaps they think they know the M.O. now- Jesus will do some teaching, then let's get on w/ the healings. Heck, let's skip the teaching all together as the sick people are coming to us. Yet, Jesus does the unexpected. He tells them, "Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for." (1:38) Interesting, Jesus didn't say, "Let's go to other towns so I can heal the people there too; for that is what I came for." Mark 1:39 reminds us Jesus' priority, "And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out demons." Notice that preaching is mentioned first.

How often we are so busy w/ "ministry" while we neglect the things which Jesus made a priority- teaching the word and training the disciples- as we saw in just this 1st chapter of Mark? In engineering, there's the "build or buy" paradigm- Is it cheaper to build it ourselves or to buy it off the shelf? A corollary to that is that you must build if it is one of your core competencies. In the church, teaching the word and training disciples are core competencies and it's something we must build on and is hard, if not impossible, to buy.


A neat little aside- Mark 1:40-45 describes the healing of a leperous man. There was probably an infinite number of ways that Jesus could have healed the man, yet He chose to touch him! Lepers were outcasts even among their own families, living outside the walls of the cities. No one would dare touch a leper. Jesus, moved with compassion (1:41), touched him. What a wonderful Savior.

By the way, I'll spend some time on the healings in a future post and why Jesus tells most of the healed not to tell anyone about it.

Grillin'

In case you're in the market for a BBQ Grill, a few words of advice-

• 1. Get it at least a week before your event so you can use it at least once and season the cast iron grill grates.
• 2. If you get it less than one week before the party, like, oh, I don't know, the night before (like I did), buy it pre-assembled. Trust me.
• 3. Crank all the burners to high to heat it up, then you can pretty much turn it all the way to low. The internal temp hovered closed to 400F.

I nearly got one that was advertised in last Sundays's Home Depot circular, but good ol' dad said to check Consumer Reports. Behold, they recommended one that is similar to the HD one, and the same brand but available from Lowes- heat was more evenly distributed and it was cheaper too! (woohoo!) So dad and I picked one up after dinner.

I thought it'd take me say 1.5hr to put it together. Nope. Took me a loooong time. I finally successfully tested the grill at 2:30AM Independance Day. Cleaned up the packing materials, then got on-line to check for some recipes to use later at my party.

I saw this e-mail from boltnut55, sent July 3 11:41AM:

So... did you get your grill?

(She was bringing vegetables to grill, so was seeing if I'd actually got one.)

My response, sent July 4 2:39AM:

um ... yeah. I _just_ finished putting it together. haha.
see you in 10 hours!

Her response, sent July 4 12:05PM:

How funny! We went to bed at 3:30, so we woke up about 30 minutes ago. D was marinating mushrooms about a minute ago and asked, "are you sure you're supposed to bring raw veggies?" I told him that you were planning to buy a grill and that I emailed you last night about it but "surprisingly" you didn't answer. D deadpanned, "He was probably busy putting the grill together!" Now I'll have to tell him he was right!
In case you are checking emails now, we're leaving now... 12:05.

"East Coast Wilson"

A new friend, who started out as a friend of a friend, is the "East Coast Me." He's been out here from the Right Coast for the majority of this year on assignment for his job.

As I've gotten to know him more there are a lot of funny little co-incidences:

1. We like to both shop at Old Navy.
• We both have a bunch of the same style O.N. t-shirts in different colors.
• Today, we were wearing the same style O.N. shorts, in different colors. In fact he was the O.N. poster child today as his t-shirt/shorts/socks were O.N. I wasn't wearing socks, but he woulda beat me anyways, I don't have any socks from them.
2. We also both like to shop the Banana Republic sale section, but feel that their stuff is overpriced now, even when on sale.
3. He took East Coast Swing lessons with his gf/now-fiancee when they were in grad school. I took Lindy Hop lessons w/ my then-fiancee/now-wife.
4. He was at the house today and noticed something oddly familiar sitting on my couches. Turns out back home he's got the exact same couch, in the exact same color from the exact same retailer- Macy's. It was at this point I said, "Dude, you're East Coast Wilson."
• O.K. - I could be West Coast Him.

Then I got to thinking... what other weird similarities are there?

• His fiancee's first name is the same as my sister's.
• His initials are the same as my wife's, if she changed her surname to mine.
• We were both into Transformers as a kids. (O.K. - what boy wasn't that was plus/minus 7-8yrs my age back then.)
• .... I'm sure there's more.
  

Thy Kingdom Come (Luke 1)

The Gospel According to Luke opens w/ the purpose of the book, addressing its intended audience. I've previously written about it here on my personal blog:

http://wilsonleungsworld.blogspot.com/2007/04/according-to-luke.html

Reading Luke 1, I was struck by the incredible parallelism between Zechariah and Mary's separate encounters with the Archangel Gabriel.

Compare Zechariah and Mary’s Encounter w/ Gabriel

What	Zechariah	Mary	Comment Z. = Zechariah M. = Mary
Angel Appears	10And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense.	28"Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you."	Gabriel doesn’t say anything to Z., but does to M. when he 1st appears.
Reaction	12Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him.	29But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.	Likewise, Z. is troubled by the angel’s appearance, whereas M. is perplexed at what he said.
Angel says	13Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. "You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. 15"For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb. 16"And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. 17"It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah,TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."	30"Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. 31"And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32"He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end."	Z. and M. both get “Do not be afraid.” God hears and answers Z’s petition, whereas M. did not petition anything, yet God found favor in her. Gabriel proceeds to foretell the lives of John and Jesus.
Response	18"How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years."	34"How can this be, since I am a virgin?"	In v18, “for certain,” is not in the Greek, but added for clarity. Z. asks how he will know it will be true, whereas M. asks how it will happen. Fine distinction, but it is supported in Gabriel’s response…
Angel says	19"I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20"And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time."	The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. 36"And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. 37"For nothing will be impossible with God."	Let me try to paraphrase the Gabriel’s response to Z. and to M.: To Z.: You will know this for certain b/c I am archangel of God and have been sent by God. (He appeals to the authority of the master.) To M.: Gabriel answers by explaining how it will come to be since that is what Mary asked! Pretty simple!
Response	Elizabeth 25"This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among men."	38"Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word."	Interestingly, Z. doesn’t get to reflect on what has occurred; at least it is not recorded by Luke. So, as Z. was muted due to doubt, he’s also muted in the Scriptural record. Rather, Elizabeth reflects on God’s blessing, not Z. M.’s response is of such beautiful total submission to God. And, the final clause, “may it be done to me according to your word” – really shows that she never doubted Gabriel’s word!

In the Old Testament, Abraham/Sarah, Isaac/Rebekah, and Jacob/Rachel were not able to have children until the Lord allowed it. As Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were the beginning of the original covenant to form the Israelite nation - a physical kingdom, so John (the forerunner) and Jesus (the King) is the beginning of the new covenant to begin the spiritual kingdom of God. This "new beginning," so to speak, starts are off in similar yet different fashion. Zechariah and Elizabeth, who are advanced in age, are not able to have children until God allows it per the Holy Spirit; echoing the travails of the patriarchs.

Then the pattern changes! Before, God gave child(ren) to couples who were previously unable to have children. Now, He gives a child to a couple that is not even yet married, though betrothed, and the woman has not even "known" a man. Yet again, it is achieved by the Holy Spirit. Whereas the former O.T. couples and Zech./Elizabeth petitioned God to have children, Mary and Joseph in no way asked for a child before marriage. In fact much has been made of the fact that Joseph, and Mary too, were likely to be seen in disgrace by common folk in that she was pregnant before marriage! (Boy, what an age and society we live now. How far we strayed!)

And so, God ushers in His kingdom on Earth by breaking the pattern w/ the birth of His son.

Putting myself in that time, in that place, in their shoes... reflecting on what I knew about the patriarchs, I hope I would have surmised that the birth of this baby Jesus was something the Israelites, and the world, has never seen and will never seen again- The virgin birth- of the Messiah no less.

I'm amazed by Mary's attitude. Romans, Galatians, Philippians, Titus, Jude, James, 2 Peter, and Revelation open w/ the writer referring to himself as a bond-servant of Jesus Christ. But it was Mary, the mother of the Jesus, who is the 1st in the N.T. to choose to be eternally bonded as servant to her own son, the Son of God. Luke 1:38 is the key application verse: "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word."

Free iPhone!

... for Apple employees that is!! "Isn't Steve Jobs such an awesome boss?!"
I originally saw the story at ThinkSecret: Steve Jobs: Free iPhones for Apple employees
Steve Jobs just pulled an Oprah "My favorite things."

If I were Mr. Jobs' speechwriter I would have scripted it like this...

Good Morning Everyone. Thank you all for taking time out of your busy work days to be here.
We're webcasting this across the entire company and I'm sorry you all couldn't be here... but-

Tomorrow is a momentous day. A day I've been looking forward to for a long, long time.
Tomorrow. Is. The. Nationwide. Release. of. (dramatic pause)
Ratatouille! (Uproaring laughter)
No, No- Really I'm not kidding. (big grin on his face)
It will continue the fine Disney/Pixar tradition pairing great storytelling and state-of-the-art computer graphics.

Okay. Really, tomorrow is a big day for us here at Apple.
Tomorrow, iPhone will be let loose for the masses.
I just wanted to thank you all for the long days you've put in to make it all possible.
And I want to thank everyone at Apple for working so hard in contributing to our success.

One of the best things about working here is that we build the best computer hardware and software and MP3 players in the world.
And we get to enjoy them in our daily lives.

So to the iPhone team assembled here, there's something hidden under your seats as a token of appreciation.
(People reach under their seats)
iPhones for everyone!
(Everyone goes nuts)

And here at Apple, regardless of where you contribute, we share in each other's successes.
So if you are watching via webcast, I'd like thank you as well.
See what's taped underneath your desks.
(Everyone on-line goes nuts)

Anyways, I guess you can tell I've seen some Oprah. They'll be getting their iPhones in July actually... Ok, not everyone's getting them... but close enough.

In stark contrast, instead of giving out free iPhones, my company announced layoffs this week, which was expected post Agere acquisition. (I'm safe.)

Aerial (No, not "The Little Mermaid")

At the CYC Core meeting we got talking about dance. I ALWAYS urge college students to take social dance classes at university. Anyways, I searched "Lindy Hop" on YouTube and this was the 2nd result:



#1 - I started sweating just watching it.
#2 - I wish I could do that. No seriously. Really.
#3 - As amazing as the dancers were, the really amazing thing is towards the end and all the couples are on the floor at the same time. Floorcraft baby.

Update (10 minutes later) - Uh yeah, this is the 1st YouTube result...

More videos here: http://www.lindylibrary.com

"Say, that's a nice bike you got there."

G remarked to me that I've done a really good job influencing my sons, especially the little one, to like superheroes. Little G can say "Spider-Man" - though he confuses Spider-Man w/ Superman, and even Buzz Lightyear. He'll say "Woody and Spider-Man" when he means Buzz. Oh well, he's only 2.5 y.o. close enough!

"The Dark Knight's" got a pretty nice bike:










It looks like it's inspired by the lightcycles from TRON.



I wonder if Batman's "batpod," as they're calling it, can do 90 degree angles at full speed. Now that would be pretty cool. One problem I have w/ the bike, though, is that it appears to have machine guns mounted and, from the comics, Batman never uses a gun b/c his parents were killed by a robber with a gun. Maybe those are lasers instead of traditional machine guns.

Now who uttered that line, "Say, that's a nice bike you got there."
Answer: The T1000 from "Terminator 2" :)

Father's Day '07

Here was my Father's Day weekend.

Friday June 15:

• Went to work as usual, and scored a new monitor in salvage.
• Went to the Career Adult Fellowship at church, where the_lucky_duck was leading the Bible Study on Luke 2:21-52. Found some great insight which I hope to write about later.
• Stayed in S.F.; G and the angels came out earlier.
  

Saturday June 16:

• Woke up early to drive out to San Ramon to pick up some furniture. G's friend is moving to Tokyo and we bought some furniture from them. M has a new twin bed!
• G's brother-in-law, Wing, brought his commercial truck to help us haul the goods. He and I drove back to Newark to drop off the bed.
• From San Ramon, G took the angels to a birthday party in San Mateo.
• Wing then drove me to the birthday party. The party was for a good college friend's toddler son- real cutie.
• Had lunch w/ Wing plus a mutual friend (IJ2K, but no J this time) of the party host at San Tung Restaurant San Mateo.
• Then drove back to S.F. to drop off the last piece of furniture at my parent's house.
• My little sis and her husband came out to S.F. for early Father's Day dinner w/ dad.

Sunday June 17:

• Went to church.
• P's family invited us to a picnic in Foster City, which was pretty awesome. It's been just over a year since Philbecca got married so it was the 1st time since that I got to see his family all together.
  
• Jetted back to SF right after to begin cooking for Father's Day dinner at home. G's (big) family was coming and my mom's older brother and his wife.
  

Whew!

Connect the dots:
Newark to San Francisco to San Ramon to Newark to San Mateo to San Francisco to Foster City to San Francisco to Newark.

Yup, after cleaning up after dinner and bathing the boys, we returned to Newark Sunday night b/c they have VBS as IJ2K's church this week; hence they had an early start Monday.

Sony GDM-FW900 Flat Widescreen 24" FD Trinitron CRT Monitor

I was juuuuuuuust on my way outta work for the weekend and was cleaning out my cubical a bit. Today's the last "Clean & Beautiful" day where they put out drop points around the building so we can dump the junk that accumulates. I rolled out an old 17" CRT monitor and finally got rid of a bunch of Amazon shipping boxes that was a fire hazard under my desk.

Just as I was about to go, my manager says I should scavenge to see if I could find a monitor to upgrade my current setup. At my cube, the ThinkPad (2373 9ZU) is usually docked; using it as my main screen since it runs 1400x1050 resolution. It also drives a 19" Dell LCD, maxes out at 1280x1024, which is an extended desktop so I can drag windows between the two screens.

Along the main corridor there must have been 15 CRT monitors that people removed from their cubes- NEC, Sun, Sony etc. I didn't think I'd find anything, but then I spied this bad boy-

Sony GDM-FW900 Flat Widescreen 24" FD Trinitron CRT Monitor

• 22.5-inch viewable screen
• 2,304 x 1,440 maximum resolution
• 0.27-millimeter dot pitch
• PC and Macintosh compatible
• Virtually flat viewing surface

More technical details at the bottom.

So my manager and I heaved the behemoth onto a chair w/out armrests and rolled it to my office. I was amazed that it was there for the taking and secondly that it appears to be in perfect working condition.

Anyways, this will probably be the main screen now w/ the laptop screen as the extension. At that resolution, the text is tiny. Plus I'm horrible at adjusting these things... any volunteers? For some reason, when I change my desktop settings (i.e. single screen to extended desktop) the image the laptop is sending doesn't fill the screen and it doesn't keep the settings where I stretched and centered the image.

BTW, I'm looking for the user manual online. No luck so far.

On a side note, the ThinkPad's 80Gb HD is really flaky. When the machine turns on/wakes-up the HD doesn't spin up. Uh-oh. I had to play w/ the power button quite a while tonight to get a vital file from it. Anyways, at least it's still under the 3yr extended warranty. This is actually a good thing- IBM will send someone out to replace it with a refurb HD (better than nothing). And since the warranty is up this September, I'll be getting a new Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (Santa Rosa)! Fortunately, we're still getting XP Pro, not Vista.

Sony GDM-FW900 Flat Widescreen 24" FD Trinitron CRT Monitor Additional Technical Details

• Compatibility: PC and Macintosh
• Display type: Color CRT
• Display size: 24 inches
• Diagonal viewable screen size: 22.5 inches
• Dot/pixel pitch: 0.23 to 0.27 millimeter
• Glass surface: High-contrast AR coating
• Power Requirements: 90-264V AC, 50/60 Hz
• Input signals: Analog RGB 0.7 V-pp, positive, 75 ohm, separate sync HS/DV TTL, composite sync, sync-on-green 0.3 Vp-p, negative
• Input connector and cable: 15-pin mini D-sub, 5BNC
• Maximum noninterlaced resolution: 2,304 x 1,440
• Maximum refresh rate: 160 Hz
• Horizontal frequency: 30 to 121 kHz
• Vertical frequency: 48 to 160 Hz
• Maximum display area: 482 by 308 millimeters (18.9 by 12.1 inches)
• Power on-off: Yes
• Contrast: Yes
• Brightness: Yes
• Horizontal and vertical position: Yes
• Horizontal and vertical size: Yes
• Color temperature: Yes
• Language select: Yes
• Display frequency: Yes
• Horizontal and vertical moire: Yes
• Pincushion: Yes
• Pin-balance: Yes
• Degauss: Yes
• Trapezoid: Yes
• Parallelogram: Yes
• Rotation: Yes
• Width: 22.5 inches
• Height: 19.7 inches
• Depth: 20.6 inches
• Weight: 92.6 pounds
• Parts: 3 years
• Labor: 3 years

"Waffle" Sandwiches

Last night we saw an episode of "Boy Meets Grill" (FoodTV) where the "boy" made different sandwiches. (The Croissant Filet Mignon sandwich looked pretty good.)

Hence, this morning I was inspired to make grilled sandwiches for breakfast with what was on hand in the fridge.

We don't have a panini grill, so, what the heck, let's use the WAFFLE IRON! Crank that baby to 5, the highest setting. It worked pretty good.

A few drops of "E-Ve-Oh-Oh" (thanks Rachel Ray) on the outside of the bread slices. Slice each of Swiss and Rosemary Ham inside. (Thanks Trader Joes!) Into the iron it goes. Press down hard for a few minutes and it's eatin' time!

G and the boys wanted more, but no more ham. Used raw button mushrooms instead with a few drops of evoo on 'em. Yummy. Nice cold beer would have been nice, but it was morning and I had to go to work. Bummer.

We always kinda wanted a panini grill. On tv they say you can use two frying pans stacked together to press the sandwich, but then you gotta heat two pans which means washing two pans and I'm a "path of least resistance" kinda guy. (aka lazy) Anyways, I don't mind the waffle pattern; kinda like it actually.

The "boy" on tv also made pizza on the grill on the next ep. Maybe I'll try that in the waffle iron next. Or quesadillas.

Filled with the Holy Spirit

This past Sunday, our church had a farewell party for DF and family. I had the honor of sharing a few words on be-half of the church. Just the day before, I got to spend precious time w/ Swan and his family! As I began writing the farewell to DF Saturday evening, it occurred to me to use the concepts learned from "How to Study the Bible" sessions: Observations/Context/Content/Conversation. As well, in the Hebrew Scriptures we saw many examples of chiastic structure, so I threw that in as well.

I opened with some observations, but then got to the chiastic part. Here's my outline of that section:

A = Blessed to have a wonderful founding pastor in Sonny.

B = Sonny concluded his ministry at Hope in 2005.

C = Anytime a pastor moves on it is hard on the ministry, and even harder at a personal level.

D = Loved Pastor Sonny and his family.

E = How could we find a pastor and his family that we’d love just as much?

F = 2005 outlook was rotating guest speakers- not ideal for the teaching ministry.

G = End of 2005, the Lord brought the answer: guy w/ a weird name with his loving wife, and amazing children.

F' = 2006/2007 outlook- 3x/month consistency through books of the OT, then the NT.

E' = How did we find a pastor and his family whom we love so very much?

D' = Love Dorman and his family.

C' = What joy to find our pastor, but, now, it is hard to part ways as God is re-directing.

B' = Dorman concludes his ministry this year, 2007. But it goes on…

A' = Blessed to have Dorman be our pastor.

As I reviewed my outline, it struck me how hard it is to remember where I am in the structure when actually speaking without glancing at my notes!
My central point is that it is the Lord that brings the pastor to His church.

Then I re-called the first sermon delivered by the apostle Peter in the book of Acts, Acts 2:14-36, which DF outlined* for us in his sermon. Peter's sermon is a 10 point chiastic w/ the tenth ('J') point repeated:

J = that He(Jesus) was not abandoned to Hades.
J' = nor did His flesh see corruption

So the main point of Peter's sermon is that Jesus' death on the cross was not final, but that he resurrected!

In my head, I knew Peter was filled with the Spirit but now I know it in my heart. Just a week before, Peter cowered in fear. Now, he not only spoke boldly, but spoke in an incredibly structured way to highlight the central point, and the sermon was on-the-fly: he had no notes, and no preparation! I wonder if it even occurred to Peter at that moment that his sermon was in chiastic form. Filled with the Holy Spirit, indeed!

References:
* Outline of Acts 2:14-36 is from Poet & Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes pg 65,66. Dr. Kenneth Bailey.