It seems that skepticism has been en vogue (for the last decade?). It's the cool & rational thing to doubt and tread carefully in all things. I suppose that's understandable - suspicion doesn't just happen - its usually a reaction to observing flakey inconsistent behavior or just plain getting jacked. Give to the poor? Its easy not to when you know you've been scammed in the past. anyway, I just wanted to play What If? throw any of the scenarios around and run the risk of being labeled chicken little, along with other nutsos, but oh well. what if ... we're less than two years away from the third world war? what if ... china, russia, n. korea join in on the fray? what if ... the economy doesn't recover for the next twenty years, but continually gets worse? what of after-college plans, and dreams to get married, raise a family, retire in a nice house remain only distant dreams, a relic of times past? what if ... the Lord Jesus, he returns in this lifetime? what of friends & people who didn't know of the free gift of life? anyway. these are things i discussed with my roommate yesterday and i've just been pondering. really, in the blink of an eye, all of these can be here, or not. i guess this is what it means to have our lamps trimmed and burning, full of oil. more than anything, it gives a perspective by which to weigh my priorities, my time, my heart's affections & desires.

I put up a new webpage - it's really not much to look at. Anyway, I'll update it very shortly with new pics (whenever I get a chance). Here it is: http://donuthouse.homeip.net

Spend the weekend at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. My cousin Ping had a relatively small wedding of maybe 60-70 people - mostly family. Seeing uncles, aunts & cousins year after year - watching people grow up, grow older, grandparents passing away, kids getting married, kids having kids ... this weekend was a meaningful one for our family. A festive and light-hearted affair - done with a distinctive Chu family style and flair - oh it can't be duplicated, and I think it may give the Portokalos family a run for the money ... but yeah, very nice. I'll hafta let Heather & Ian & Derrick read this page sometime. Hehe, that'd be weird. Oh, we took some goofy pics, so I'll post them later. Finished the Everest story. Its a gripping non-fiction story - the author writes well. I found some quotable (?), thought-provoking passages that I'd like to post ...

"In the midst of all the postmortem ratiocination, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that climbing mountains will never be a safe, predictable, rule-bound enterprise. This is an activity that idealizes risk-taking; the sport's most celebrated figures have always been those who stick their necks out the farthest and manage to get away with it. Climbers, as a species, are simply not distinguished by an excess of prudence. And that holds especially true for Everest climbers: when presented with a chance to reach the planet's highest summit, history shows, people are surprisingly quick to abandon good judgment. ...

(several pages later ... )

Nevertheless, it had taken Herrod seventeen hours to climb from the South Col to the summit. Although there was little wind, clonds now enveloped the upper mountain, and darkness was fast approaching. Completely alone on the root of the world, extremely fatigued, he must have been out of [bottled] oxygen, or nearly out. "That he was up there that late, with nobody else around, was crazy," says his former teammate, Andy de Klerk. "It's absolutely boggling." Herrod had been up on the South Col from the evening of May 9 through May 12. He'd felt the ferocity of that storm, heard the desperate radio calls for help, seen Beck Weathers crippled with horrible frostbite. Early on during his ascent of May 25, Herrod climbed right past the corpse of Scott Fischer, and several hours later at the South Summit he would have had to step over Rob Hall's lifeless legs. Apparently, the bodies made little impression on Herrod, however, for despite his lagging pace and the lateness of the hour he pressed onward to the top. There was no further radio transmission from Herrod after his 5:15 call from the summit. "We sat waiting for him at Camp Four with the radio on," O'Dowd explained in an interview published in the Johannesburg Mail & Guardian. "We were terribly tired and eventually fell asleep. When I woke up the next morning at about 5:00 a.m. and he hadn't radioed, I realised we had lost him." Bruce Herrod is now presumed dead, the twelfth casualty of the season.

For myself ... these passages carried the biggest thrust in the book. I've never climbed a mountain, but the adventurous, conquering spirit by which these people are motivated - I think this is a common streak of the hero in the veins of humanity - echoed in stories such as David's mighty men, Homer's Odyssey, the knights of lore, movies of this century, as well as in true adventures - countless explorers who foray into the unknown, seeking the edge of the world or to see what's on the other side of this great expanse. A common thirst for adventure and triumph for dreaming boys and men alike. Hehe, and this is pretty funny to me- but the antithesis of this- is mom calling in the boy for dinner from an afternoon of make-believe conquest - put the dream on hold Joey, its dinner time. The voice of caution and safety (the female voice?) that says, "don't do it! it's too risky!" And at some point in life - there's a time to silence the voice, and just go for it - balls out living, as my friends call it. Because if that never happens, maybe a boy has effectively been castrated by fear and caution - fear of pain, fear of the unknown. He'll never know anything about himself - what he's capable of, what his limits are. ... but at what point does that become just ludicrousness? At what point does it become sheer folly and stupidity? At what point does it cross from bravery and courage into madness and irrationality? And perhaps that's why Everest is an intriguing proposition. It's there, and it offers to expose that fine line in a person's choices and character. When maybe true determination and resolve is reflected not in the cojones to push forth no matter what the cost, but in the painfully prudent decision to turn around a mere 300 ft. from the top of the earth - tens of thousands of dollars sunk, years of training, weeks of acclimitization, countless nights of dreaming, the sheer physical toll of spending days at 26,000+ ft., what a PRICE! - and THE goal, THE conquest is a mere stone's throw away ... and to turn around? Maybe the real heroism doesn't always involve getting the glory - but unless one gets placed in that situation in the first place, there'll never be a chance to find out. Hmm. Michael Jordan says "I can accept failure, but I can't accept not trying." Maybe just as much as there's a lesson to be learned about taking risks, there's an equally valuable lesson to be learned about failing. But we never get a chance to learn the second lesson unless we learn the first lesson, first.

1) Alumni weekend came and went again this past weekend. Man its always really nice to see old friends. The actives did a great job in preparing the weekend's festivities. 2) Current reading: Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist by John Piper 3) I heard a sermon by Charles Stanley this morning about Samson and slipping into sexual immorality. Man what a powerful and merciful warning for me. Its good to hear an uncompromised word - God shedding his light into the heart.

My roommate's computer's Internet Explorer says "Lemon Pig Explorer." So the top of this window says "edit your blog: - Lemon Pig Explorer". Isn't that weird? I accidently took a really long nap after work today and so now its 2:05am, the latest I've been up in ages and I don't know what to do.

(random thoughts) 1) I find that there's something amazingly theraputic about playing basketball. I suppose this extends to most physical activities in general. After playing basketball tonite until my legs started cramping, I feel nice. A handful of kids from inner-city Dallas are on a tour of America, I beleive this is part of Sebastian Huyhn's ministry to reach out to kids. So we ate pizza together and hooped, and I think they're gonna be on their way up to California. 2) Went with cousins Michael, Andy and brother Daniel to an internet cafe to play some Warcraft 3 for a couple of hours. We got beat by the computer twice and won once. That game is pretty hard. 3) I find that having a definite set of goals in life helps tremendously. It gives a purpose to daily life - and man that's so good to have. 4) Spending time in the Bible, I'm rediscovering the beauty of some of God's truths. - If God has justified me, who can condemn me? - God will never leave me nor forsake me. - God will use all things for my good. - The weapons of our warfare are powerful and effective for tearing down strongholds of evil in our lives. - If God didn't spare his only son for me, how much more then is he willing to give to his own? - The joy of the Lord is my strength. 5) Spending time around friends is really nice. 6) Being around other Christians can be so refreshing - like water to the soul. God really provides the right people at the right time. 7) Although I often forget to do so, today on the way to work, I prayed for help for a critical problem that had been assigned to me. I made no headway the day before. After praying, the problem was resolved within an hour of being at work this morning - the answer practically revealed itself. So thank you God for your faithfulness and for reminding me. 8) I'm a bit scared of tearing my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament - in the knee connecting the fibia and tibula I think). So I've been doing some quad and ham strengthening exercises. 9) Cong is getting married soon! 10) Cousin Ping is getting married soon too!

Pictures from the vacation are available! It was great!

Here's an interesting piece of writing from a girl.

Our ski trip is coming up this Wednesday. The excitement is really building. It's like there's an 'lectricity in the air. Giggly school-girlish laughter, excitement, and anticipation! Bladder control problems! I ended up buying ski boots for $220 from sun n' ski (Nordica F8). Then, I stopped by Oshman's this weekend and found the same ones for $150. w00t, end of season sales r0x. So I saved seventy bones on the boots. But really though, I think that I don't really care how much I spend on things, which I think is a weird thing. It's probably a product of my environment - not knowing what its like to really be in need. For the most part, when I start considering price, its mostly because my parents do it, or I see my roommates getting excited about how they got this-or-that for a super-low price. Ehh, anyway ... had my annual night out this Saturday. Uneventful, but nice to see everyone. Man, time just keeps on rollin. The entire group is officially crossing the mid-twenties and the thirties look to be oh-so-close. Pretty interesting ... Also went to one of New Life's house churches this Friday. It was a lot of fun. Oh, and weddings, seem to be a lot of stress and trouble. Just an observation. Cong is gonna be doing some groundbreaking work for us - finding out what the mistakes are and good advice, etc etc. Hehe.