Aaaargh.  What is up with Chinese period movies?!  First Jet Li's Hero, and now Chow Yan Fat & Gong Li's Curse of the Golden Flower.  CotGF has stunning visuals, very little martial arts, a complex Shakespearean-like story line, and a lousy ending!  Hero's ending was not as bad, but still both movies left me leaving the theatre completely unsatisfied.  No more.

Just wondering if anybody is reading Christopher Parkening's Grace Like A River autobiography?  Parkening is considered America's foremost classical guitarist who studied under the great master classical guitarist Andres Segovia.  He's also a Christian believer which is how I've come to know his name.

I'm two degrees of freedom from meeting Parkening.  A couple of years ago I noticed at the boarding area for my flight there was this bearded fella with a plastic hardtop case strapped to his back.  It looked like a guitar but with a really short neck.  Well, after we landed at our destination, curiosity caused me to ask him what was he carrying, and it was a classical guitar.  Turned out he was Andrew York of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and he grew up in Virginia.  (For you JMU alum, Wikipedia states York is a fellow graduate of y'alls fine institution.)

The only classical guitarist I could think of was Parkening and it turned out York has worked with him.  I guess right now I'm just amazed at how close to greatness I have come to meeting.

(Parkening mentions in his book asking York for his transcription of the song Andecy so he could play for a woman who was a big fan of the song.  The woman later became Parkening's wife.  That story reminded me of the connection between the two men and my meeting of York.)

Blogger Carolyn McCulley of Covenant Life Church writes:

*Sigh*     I continually find that subduing one's pride a difficult battle.  How God continues to work that issue in my heart ...

Well, I found Wilson's point about "biblical
preparation for marriage is nothing more than learning to follow Jesus
Christ and to love one’s neighbor" quite insightful.  I never thought how closely tied the two preparations were.  Nothing really changes when a person gets married, does it?  [Marrieds -- Any comments?]  One still has to follow Jesus and love a neighbor that is *now* a lot closer in proximity, eh?

P.S.  By the way, while McCulley's blog calls her blog "Solo Feminity", she subtitles it as "Godward encouragement for Christian single women (and others who visit here)".  Being a non-20ish fellow single, I can definitely resonant with her perspectives on the struggles & victories of the Christian single life, even as a Christian male.  I know many older singles struggle through singleness, I pray Solo Feminity provides much insight & comfort for our daily walk in Christ.  It seems like she has quite a male readership as well.  Besides much of her book selection is commendable.

[1]  http://solofemininity.blogs.com/posts/2007/01/seeking_wisdom_.html

• The undeveloped coffee beans, known as quakers, are what make coffee taste really bad (e.g., bitter).  The cheaper bags of coffee will have more quakers per bag than the costlier bags because it is an expensive process removing the quakers.  The quakers shown on tv were light-brownish in color.  (Saw on tv's America's Test Kitchen.  This and Alton Brown's show provide a lot of interesting food science.  If I had a tv & cable I would probably watch them the most.  Yes, I still do not have a television set by choice.)
• Transformers Bumblebee is no longer a VW Beetle due to Volkswagen not wanting to associate their products with "war-themed media" (From my litl' brother and "confirmed" on Wikipedia).

Gerald Ford:  "I know I am getting better at golf because I am hitting fewer spectators."

Did you hear?  Lucas will be filming a 4th Indiana Jones!  The geriatric jokes have already been flying on the Internet ever since Harrison Ford expressed interest in doing the movie.  The dude is in his 60's!  Of course, if there can be a 60ish boxer on the big screen ...  (which not-too-surprisingly, many guys have said it was a good movie).

Well, if there's going to be a 4th Indiana Jones movie, I wonder if they'll try to bring back Shortround.

Of course, Shorty would be in his 30's now.  Wouldn't it be cool if Shorty was the next Indiana Jones?

Blogger Justin Taylor writes:   Ah, sweet encouragement from the New York Times:

An anti-anticlutter
movement is afoot, one that says yes to mess and urges you to embrace
your disorder. Studies are piling up that show that messy desks are the
vivid signatures of people with creative, limber minds (who reap higher
salaries than those with neat “office landscapes”) and that messy
closet owners are probably better parents and nicer and cooler than
their tidier counterparts. It’s a movement that confirms what you have
known, deep down, all along: really neat people are not avatars of the
good life; they are humorless and inflexible prigs, and have way too
much time on their hands.

"[T]hey are humorless and inflexible prigs, and have way too much time on their hands."  Haha, it has been my personal observation that some folks with very clean areas do not actually have anything better to do.  I've always loved Einstein's quote: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk?”  You gotta admit, that Einstein-fella was one smart dude.  I think he's onto something ...

Okay, I guess, I, ah ..., better get back to cleaning! 

Already had my first nightmare of 2007.  I was dreaming I was partway through a test when the test proctor told us our time was coming to a close.  "5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1", and that's when I woke up.

Interestingly enough, taking the test with me was Simon and our test proctor was Pastor JP!  Weird and neat how our dreams blend different parts of our life together.  Honestly, had my former professors and classmates been in my dream I would've been really stressed out this morning.

Yeah, I still dream a lot about undergrad.  I mostly dream about not fulfilling my Junior Technical Writing requirement and thus, holding back my graduation.

I love learning, but "ugh", engineering at Maryland was rough.  Our intern is a grad student there (we warned him!), and he's constantly complaining about the program.  I'm glad I'm out of college.

Christmas Duet:

Nat, Heather & Roger.  Thanks, guys!

Happy New Year!

Ended 2006 with friends, started 2007 with friends.  E and her friend came up to visit a bunch of us.

2006: Full Kee for dinner. Old Towne for First Night.  We skipped the shows and just ate (needed to find a place to keep the ladies warm ... a cold, wet night).  First at Majestic Cafe for a Chocolate Fudge cake and people watching at the window seats  (we saw Kevin & Betty walk right past us).  Later at La Madeleine for a Lemon Tort.  And yep, I called up the folks.  Even my college friend Eugene & his wife tracked me down in Old Towne.  I'm too blessed!

2007: Lighthouse Tofu Restaurant for soondoboo & kalbi!  Shilla afterwards, where else?

E, Daisy, Young, Saejong (sp?), Joowon, Stephanie, & me.

When I arrived at Lighthouse, the waitress was speaking in Mandarin Chinese to E, Stephanie & Lennie!  Whoa, too cool.

Last night at City Hall with E and Daisy (fellow Toisan) just before it started to drizzle rain.  It poured around midnight.  We tried to make it to the fireworks viewing location where the other ABCers were at but only managed to watch while walking down King Street.

It's always fun hanging out with the JMU crowd.  They're really close and extremely funny together.  Turns out there is alot of connections to folks that I knew.  Definitely small world.

Thanks for a memorable time, sis.  Hope you two had fun in DC!  Come back for Cherry Blossoms.  I'll drive again.  We'll visit Stephanie, Lennie & baby ...    And E, we'll let you try out Bob's 66 restaurant ...

Btw, congrats to Young.  Have fun in your new job in SoCal.  He's gonna work with Pastor Henry!  Yep, small world.  Better find all the good restaurants & tennis courts for us.

I recently met with my boss for our annual review.  It went well ... actually, better than expected.  Of all the jobs I had this is best.  In fact, this is the one I wanted for a long time.

However, there was a time when I actually turned it down.  And yes, for a girl.  Gee, it was seven years ago, yet I remember it quite clearly.  I dated this one gal for about three years.  Three years was a long time to be dating, but she wasn't ready for marriage ... she was working to resolve some things in her life.  So, being like Jacob, I waited for my Rachel.

Once things started moving in a positive direction for her,  I started putting things in motion in preparation for a life together.  At first, a transfer opportunity to my current job opened up.  It was the job I had longed for ... my dream job.  But it was lateral transfer.

Then another job offer turned up.  It offered a promotion, though it was less interesting work, but less demanding work than the first offer.  The role of a husband to provide and be available had been drilled into my head, now it was time to put into practice.  Being less demanding meant I could work out the now long-distance relationship (she chose to go to graduate school).  (Mind you, I was also reducing my hours working with my favorite people in the world, our church youth group.)  And, I gather like many ladies, she had her dream wedding.  My then-girlfriend hoped for an outdoor wedding with a string quartet playing in the background.  She also fancied a particular engagement ring.

So, being a good Chinese lad,  I knew it was customary for the groom to pay for such things and more, like a house (remember she's a non-working graduate student).  So I gave up my dream and took the promotion.  Some time later I start hunting down that particular ring.

Months later we unexpectedly (to me) broke up.  Without going into details, but if you can imagine, there were cultural differences between her unchurched traditional Chinese parents and the second generation American-born Chinese Christian guy their daughter was dating.  So to the surprise of my folks, many friends, and myself the relationship ended.

And what happened to that second job offer?  Well, it didn't turn out as had hoped.  The person I was to be mentored was frustrated by the growing bureacracy and the lure of a better pay & a different kind of work.  So he left!  (It was the guy who offered the opportunity, too!)  I stuck it for a year in the group, and then worked another lateral transfer opportunity with the first group.  A lot of questions to God were asked during the rest of the year.  Yet, a lot was learned from then and later on.  It is amazing how God uses situations like those to teach His children.  And to draw them into trusting Him despite difficult circumstances.   During that trying time I was able to build friendship with my coworkers and share my faith with them.  It was a good training ground for friendly apologetic conversations.  God has His glorifying purposes!

And here I am now ... six years later, still in my dream job!

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
   and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
   and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV)

Currently Listening:  Live at Red Rocks by John Tesh.

P.S.  I never told that gal about giving up my dream job,  because I never wanted her to feel guilty for my own personal decision.  She already had a lot on her mind (e.g., grad studies, being far from her family).