Thursday, July 03, 2003

Lately, I've been wanting to just get away on vacation. Who wants to come with me to New York, Hawaii, or Chicago?

Wednesday, July 02, 2003

Sometime, in the upcoming weeks, I'll re-read "The Merchant of Venice" by Shakespeare. To me, it has always been an intricate story that brings up good questions regarding gender roles, cross-religion relationships, human compassion, human weakness, suffering, and grace. If you've never read it, try it. It should provoke some thoughts.
Of course, perhaps, it starts with me...
Struggle. Vulnerability. One of the issues that I have always had with the guys at Lumps is that very few ever show their vulnerability. Maybe I'm wrong but, perhaps, that's why very few have accountability partners or accountability groups... well, hopefully, that will change over time.

Tuesday, July 01, 2003

Must... Work... Out... Today

I think I might be reaching AH, my eighth grade mentee. AH and I meet once a week to just hang out and do stuff. He is the typical Asian kid -- loves to play video games (especially Dynasty Warriors 4 on PS2), loves to play card games (Yu-Gi-Oh, don't ask me), loves to watch NBA basketball (but doesn't like to play very much)... however, the kid has had a tough life. He lost his Dad at age 3; his mom works full-time to support him through the private school he goes to.... and Pastor J picks him up after school to drive him home... he does ok in school but he hates reading. So, naturally, because I love to read (even though I hardly have time to nowadays), I wanted to encourage him to read more this summer. The first book I got him is a classic: Dragonlance - The Legend of Huma. Okok, not exactly Shakespeare or Jane Austen; but I wanted something that would open his mind to reading more and I think it has. Usually, when AH comes over to my home he starts by watching some TV while I eat dinner (usually AH has already had dinner and he gets to my home before I have had the chance... I ask him to eat with me but usually, he declines). However, last night, he came over, and he immediately continued reading the book. In fact, the book looked positively torn apart (which is a good thing). You have to understand... when I first gave him the book, his exact words to me were, "This is just gonna be a huge waste of time." And last night, after a short stint at volleyball (by the way, apparently, according to AH, I have bad form when bumping a volleyball... I do it all wrong), we came back to my home and he finished the book. So, naturally, I gave him a new book: Fellowship of the Ring. A little more challenging. Hopefully, he'll dig right into it. Thank you God for answering prayers.

Monday, June 30, 2003

Yay, after spending less than 5 minutes in total on Friendster over the last week or so, I think I can honestly say that I'm just not hooked on it.... guess I'm into meeting new people elsewhere.
One of the reasons why I love ultimate frisbee as a sport is its inherent honour system. Here's the quote from the Ultimate Handbook: "In Ultimate, every player is responsible for their own conduct on the field. There's no refs to make sure that everyone acts like grown-ups, so it's the responsibility of players to call fouls on themselves if the person they have fouled does not call the infraction. That's right. You can call a foul on yourself. Ultimate relies on the honour system and the belief that no one will intentionally cheat, much like marriages, the income tax system, and all-you-can-eat sushi bars." I'm thinking of organizing an ultimate frisbee day this Independence Day...
So I went out to dinner with TH and J (her fiancee) this past Saturday night at Cha Cha Cha's. TH and I were interns together in D&T's Los Angeles office. TH, always the workout fanatic and style buff, looked fabulous. When you are in the company of a woman like TH, you feel like you have to dress a little more sharp and look your best for fear of embarrassing her. The other thing that is great about TH is that for people whom she likes, she's very generous and that can be said of her fiancee J as well. They both came up all the way from Sunnyvale to have dinner with me and not only that, but they also insisted to pay for dinner (and they did indeed get the check, at my protest). The dinner Cha Cha Chas was good. Food was excellent but the wait was pretty inexcusable (1 and a half hours for a table of three?!?). No, they don't allow reservations.... afterwards, we went to a a very nice but low-key wine bar I knew here in SF (because I felt that I should pay for something and I learned that J was a little bit of a wine connoisseur). As always, the wine bar was the perfect place to have more in-depth conversations with both TH and J and I enjoyed the time there immensely. And yes, I did get the check at the end of the night.
I have to admit, even though one day I hope to graduate from law school and practice corporate/bankruptcy/securities/tax law (and/or teach law), I find Stu's Views Cartoons to be absolutely hilarious...

Sunday, June 29, 2003

I played two full court basketball games today for the first time since my achilles tendon repair. My line:

3 of 4 from 3 pt. range, 7 of 10 from the field altogether, a couple rebounds, a couple of assists. Not bad... Shooting around at the Y has really helped me find my stroke. I'm still a cripple on the court though. I have no burst of speed when trying to come upcourt with the ball and I have no lateral speed. As for hops... I might be able to jump over a Ritz cracker... Handles are still there... but no explosion to the hoop, no flexibility in my ankles... I know, I know. More patience. And I have to be very careful.

It felt really good though being able to play with H and L, two longtime basketball buddies. They're not believers so they were spewing out foul language pretty good... it still felt pretty good to play with them though. We were playing basically 3 or 4 on 5 in both games... H, L, me (the cripple), a high schooler from JH's church, and F, a 14-15 year old girl who could shoot from about 10 feet in... but couldn't do much else. One of the reason why i love hanging with H and L is that they have alot of pride, and alot of honor on the basketball court. They were really encouraging (telling both kids to keep shooting the rock, yelling out compliments like "good D" and trying to get both the high schooler and F involved in both games (in fact, F scored like 4 buckets in the first game)... when they see that the competition is significantly lower than their level of play, they often intentionally hold back, making the game more competitive rather than blowing them out. (And JH, your high-schoolers don't count... they got blown out because they weren't playing any D... too busy showing off to the hs girls or in some cases, talking to hs girls while not paying any attention at all on defense, they were saying stuff like "50% of basketball is looking good"... say what kid? 50% of basketball is Defense, 25% is physical, and the last 25% is mental) The second game, a true 3 (perhaps I should say 2.5?) on 5 since we were playing serious adult guys, was a lot closer than it should have been with us eventually losing 16-13. These guys had no mercy on our high schooler and F... forcing them both into multiple turnovers and airballs (though the high schooler did hit one J); we kept encouraging them though while doing a good job hitting our jumpers... the guys we were playing were also playing very recklessly, throwing around their weight (and they easily outweighed us and had more height than us) and sticking their arms in where they don't belong (diving after loose balls is different than just diving headfirst into someone's body). So yeah, H decided that the game wasn't worth it and basically, gave them the key, which was ok withme as well since I wasn't going to rerupture my tendon by having someone dive headfirst into my knees/legs/ankles in a pickup game... all in all though, I had a pretty good day.