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.

Last weekend turned out to be phenomenal. I really enjoyed the time spent with family, and I feel a renewed vigor in my approach to life. Part of it has to do with the message at church on Sunday. I didn't expect it, but it turns out to be what I needed to hear. So, I've felt pretty aimless over the course of the last few months - wondering about what kind of purpose I have for living, what is there to do with every day. I've had trouble reconciling what is truly meaningful in life, and how to get to a point where what I do with my time - small things or big things - fit in. In the movie, I am Sam, there's several parts where Sam arranges mugs and sugar packets and cheese shakers at Starbucks and Pizza Hut. And he's really meticulous and caring about what he does, even though in the whole scope of things its such a little little thing, it doesn't matter to him - he carries out his tasks with such diligence and so full of meaning. And I realized, for me - school never mattered, work doesn't matter too much, because I just don't really care too much. I mean, if I fail a test or a class, oh well - not a big deal. If I get fired or something - that's ok, my identity and security doesn't come from my work. But along the way, I lose any sort of meaning for doing anything at all. And I kinda think that's what Solomon was getting at in Ecclesiastes - he laments the meaningless of everything in life - then he settles on the conclusion that it's the gift of God for a man to work hard, enjoy the fruit of his labor, eat, and enjoy life. And in all things - to fear and love God is most important. So I'm finding a lot of meaning now in the daily tasks. I got to sit down and truly consider my priorities in life - and recorded a list of goals - short term goals, one-year out goals, and lifelong goals. Things to shoot for, things to live for. And along the way, always keeping in primary focus the kingdom law - to love God and to love people. Several books I'm reading at the moment are Rich Dad, Poor Dad and a very obscure book by Wang Ming Dao (here's a story about him), originally written in Chinese and later translated to English. It's a great great book - very encouraging. I love seeing how God has worked in his church in China. ttyl

Tomorrow is my dad's birthday. We're gonna eat out tonite at Fung's Kitchen. Tomorrow morning, (surprise!) we're gonna leave some gifts on the kitchen counter with a birthday card, early in the morning. Yay! May God continue to bless him with a youthful energy and fresh outlook on life.

Saturday ... relaxing, slow, lazy saturday ... I wonder what's gonna happen today.

Alright. Time for a more personal update. Lately, I've been preparing for an early March ski trip - destination Whistler, B.C. This time around, a lot of us (college friends) are buying our own ski/snowboard gear. I guess we enjoy it enough and go frequently enough to warrant buying our own stuff. If anything, I think it makes me feel more "into" the activity of skiing. So in the course of this preparation, its been exciting. Lots of expenses - the trip itself will cost approximately $500-600. The equipment can cost up to another $300-400. That's nearly a thousand bucks this month on leisure. Hmm. It's certainly given me a reason to evaluate how I spend my money, and also ponder what the Lord says about this. I think about how the free-est people on the planet should be those who've tasted the tender, fragrant love of God. I think about what Jesus says, "Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys." I think about how the children of Israel left Egypt with gold and silver and were blessed abundantly materially. My mom tells me repeatedly to develop the habit of saving money on a monthly basis. So far, in the past two years of working, I've not really put away too much in the piggy bank - not really living extravagantly - but just enjoying life and using the finances as things come up. What if I don't save up for retirement? Will I be ok? Will I slip into a life of poverty? Or maybe just less comfortable than my current status? I think ... my hope in God says, "that can't happen when your abba father watches your every step." Then again, perhaps its stepping out of the zone of American comfort that I need. I know materially rich can go hand in hand with spiritually impoverished. Anyway, all this mulling over money and stewardship gets really tiring. I can't wait to get to heaven where the streets are paved with gold (ha! take that wall street), and the Lord has prepared a mansion for those who love him. But for today ... actually, tomorrow, I'm swaying between buying $100 ski boots (entry level) or $200 ski boots (medium performance). What should I do? I know that long term - who cares if I spent $100 or $200. But it matters because habits are formed by a series of individual actions and decisions. How I respond today can set a pattern about how I live tomorrow. So ... fullness of life ... man, this guy, Scott Crenshaw, a speaker at Lakewood, speaks about the sweetness of obedience. He talks about the highway of life - how temptations and compromise come and offer us an off-ramp from God's plan. "Take this shortcut - its easier and you'll get their faster. If you wait for God, it'll never happen! He doesn't care about you ..." And he talks about how when we make the decision to stay on God's road and pass the exit - the pure sweeeeeetness of that obedience. Man, it's so true. It's weird, but to do things God's way, with a clear conscience washed in the blood of Jesus - it's really food to the soul. And so lately, I've been struggling to find signifigance in this life - "what am I really created to do? am i wasting my time?" and fretting about somehow not being close enough to God - sort of in the midst of all that, God just creeps up sweetly and silently and says, "peace, be still ... just relax, I'm in control, and you're not a failure because I've got you!" God is a wellspring of encouragement and life and hope.

Join my army! http://www.kingsofchaos.com/page.php?id=168401

Just watched the beginning of a TV series on Outdoor Life Network. 50 participants are competing for 5 spots to climb Mt. Everest. The screening process takes places at various places thruout the world: Moab, Utah; Costa Rica; Aspen, Colorado; Iceland; etc. The athletes themselves are male and female amateur (not pro) outdoors enthusiats - and each has some sort of solid background in their own regards - some are seasoned ironman triatheletes, one is a marine, one is a serious inline skater, some are hikers and climbers - all love the outdoors, and all are willing to challenge their own limits and test their skills.

The challenges are legion - swimming across ice cold rivers, climbing boulders and cliffs, biking long distances in mud and snow, alpine running, high altitude environment. Some nice photos from the first two episodes.

Wow. Incredible! On that note of challenging the limits, several times in the past I've contemplated running a marathon. I think this year, I really wanna try something I can handle. So I think I'm gonna try a half-marathon. For me, the challenging part isn't the marathon itself, its maintaining the daily focus and dedication in practice and training leading up to the event itself. And also, its got me thinking - there are many things I'd like to try out within the next few years ... God willing ... 1) get some climbing experience (casual weekend excursions at Enchanted Rock) 2) mountain biking or off-train biking 3) ice climbing (Colorado or Alaska?)

Seeing how quickly e-mails and rumors make the rounds with the w0rld wide web, I'm sure most people have read about Shaq's alledged comments about Yao Ming. Well, this is from www.slamonline.com, a different, perhaps more level-headed perspective.

SHAQ ATTACK: THE BIG RACIST? I started getting flooded with emails yesterday afternoon with a link to this column by Irwin Tang in AsianWeek about Shaquille O'Neal. According to this article, Shaq recently told a reporter, "Tell Yao Ming, 'Ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-soh.'" The article says: "No, the superstar center of the L.A. Lakers was not trying to speak Chinese. Shaq was, in a most derisive tone, aiming a racist barb at the rookie center for the Houston Rockets." The article also points out that while on the Worst Damn Sports Show Period, Shaquille "spoke with a mock Chinese accent and made mock 'kung fu' moves,' and that "in June, Shaq announced that he would test Yao's toughness by taking an elbow to Yao's face. This comment, combined with Shaq's racist taunts are particularly disturbing, as Asian Pacific Americans often suffer racial taunts while being assaulted or physically intimidated." While I understand Mr. Tang's anger toward Shaq, I don't think Shaq is racist and I don't think his comments were racist. If anything, I think he was being Culturalist, discriminating against a culture by attempting to poke fun at perceived behaviors. The problem here is that Shaq was trying to be entertaining and funny, something he's usually very good at, and something he failed to be here, instead showing himself as ignorant and ill-mannered, and perpetuating stereotypes that don't deserve recounting. That doesn't mean that it's OK to say the things he said, but having spent time with Shaq and around Shaq, I've never heard him say anything even remotely racist. Which, of course, doesn't settle anything. But maybe this bit of info will help: According to my sources, when the Rockets visited Los Angeles on November 17, Shaq sat out the game with his bum toe. But after the game, after the Houston locker room had cleared out, Shaq came in and took the time to introduce himself to Yao Ming. He talked briefly with Yao through his translator, told Yao that he'd been joking and was honestly looking forward to playing against him, and that he wished Yao the best. And Yao thanked Shaq and said he's looking forward to playing against him, as well. If Shaq was actually a racist person, I don't think he would have taken the time to approach Yao, to sublimate himself, to tell him he enjoyed watching him play. As for the other publications that Mr. Tang says he tried and failed to get to address this issue, I can't speak for them. Mr. Tang says: "Let's not beat around the bush. If a white player had, for instance, made monkey sounds to taunt a black player, it would have been a national controversy. But Yao is Chinese and Asians are fair game. For evidence, watch TV for a couple of hours." I watch TV a lot and don't know what shows Mr. Tang is watching, but I'm sure the profiling he is talking about does exist. But his white player/black player thing is dead wrong. The situation he mentions indeed deserves to be a national controversy, because the white player would be comparing the black player to an animal. Shaq made fun of a language; he did not compare Yao Ming to any animal. He didn't even go like Reggie White a few years ago, who said that Japanese and other Asians "can turn a television into a watch." But I don't think Shaq deserves to be branded a racist. Compounding things, Mr. Tang makes the unfortunate comparison of Yao Ming and Jackie Robinson. When Jackie Robinson was shattering baseball's color barrier, he was being spit on and black people were being beaten in the streets. In the south, black people had separate bathrooms and special seats on public buses. Besides, it's not as if NBA owners have been conspiring to keep Asians out of the NBA. If a 7-5 guy with a sweet jumper came along, they'd sign him up, even if his skin was green and covered with blue polka dots. While I can't deny that some Asian-Americans are still being discriminated against in the U.S.A. these days, it's a ways away from the Civil Rights era. So think twice before you go branding Shaq a racist. Though for all I know, Shaq could be innately racist against Asian-Americans, I honestly don't think he is. He tried to make a joke, one that turned out to be insensitive and cruel. And he should learn from the mistake and become a better person from it and not do it again. Whether Yao Ming knows it or not, he is not only going to be a great basketball player and an advertising godsend, but he's also going to be the most visible ambassador ever for a culture that has been mostly hidden from the mainstream United States for decades. And after spending time with Yao over the last few weeks, I think he's the perfect person for that gig. Heck, he's beating the pants off of Shaq in the All-Star voting. So that's my two cents. Moving on...

I guess after being UT asian greek, I'm sort of tired of the whole indignant angry asian thing. Frickin ridiculous. I'm not saying "oh its ok Shaq, say what you want ... " Oh wait, actually I am. People claim to be sick of the whole "political correctness" language, yet when someone violates that, oh, here we go. Political correctness doesn't buy mutual respect for others, it only puts on a terribly fake facade over the misunderstandings that still exist. Spending the majority of my time around asians, we spew the same spew about other people/cultures/races just like they do about everybody else. What makes me sick, is that now, there's gonna be a whole community of 15-25 year old asian americans up-in-arms about some stupid comments that some basketball player made tryin to be funny and cool, comments of the same nature that I hear take place in everyday conversations in circles around me. Stop the madness yall!

Courtesy of ars technica,

The RIAA owes me $20 ... ...and they owe you, too, if you purchased an audio recording from a retailer between January 1 1995 and December 22, 2000. As part of a settlement in a class action suit against the recording industry for price fixing, they agreed to a large payout that affects everyone who falls into the camp I just described. So how do you claim your money? Easy. Just hit this website, fill out the form, and wait for the check. I just finished filling it out, myself, and it's pretty painless. The form itself raised a few red flags in that it asked for some personal information, so before hitting "Submit" I checked out the discussion thread attached to the post at boingboing.net, where I saw the link, to see if anyone had done any detective work. As it turns out, the boingboing crowd did a decent amount of calling around and checking, so read the thread if you're having doubts. Also, if you're concerned about security there's a 1-800 number at the site that you can call, as well as a snail-mail option. I don't know what I'm going to do with my $20, but I can almost guarantee that it won't go back to the RIAA. Posted 1/8/2003 - 10:47PM, by Hannibal

Own a nintendo gamecube? Read this toastyfrog article about animal crossing Don't own a gamecube? Who cares, read it anyway, if you're a gamer or know anything about Animal Crossing. This is insightful, beautiful, and alarming editorial journalism. Tongue in cheek? Maybe only partly. AC gets a 5 frog evil rating. (btw, if you have a short attention span, skip the stream-of-consciousness part about the texan and the kingdom hearts review.)

I don't particularly keep up with world affairs, but I found this article to be interesting: http://www.msnbc.com/news/855108.asp?cp1=1

Before it gets too late, I wanted to put in my bet for this year's NBA champ ... Dallas Mavericks over Indiana Pacers in game 6. You heard it here first folks.

Happy new year to all. May this year be the year of favor and blessing for you and me. "A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?"

OK, i feel its sort of my task to keep people updated on the wonderful world of Available Software out there. So I'm gonna toss out some products that I use on a daily basis, and that I'm recommending very strongly. Four must-have products .... Phoenix Web Browser - (based upon Mozilla/GEcko) OK, so Windows comes with Internet Explorer built in. But guess what? There's another browser out there that's very lightweight, very fast, very standards-compliant, very stable, and feature rich. For those who like to try out new things, or simply enjoy having a choice of what software they use, I give a 5-star recommendation to Phoenix. Why? I've been browsing with this software for months, and I've found it to be faster than IE, more stable than IE, and less memory intensive. And tabbed browsing takes the entire web browsing thing to a whole 'nother level. ***** (that's five stars, count 'em). This is available on both Linux and Windows. GAIM - (substitute for AIM) benefits? Well, as of right now, I'm signed on to AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo messengers thru one client- gaim. The interface is wonderfully familiar and clean. There's also a built in spell checker, and tabbed chat windows as well - a great way to save valuable real estate on the monitor. No advertisements, and transparency is a feature. This is available on both Linux and Windows. 4 stars (it's still a young product, under development) Ad-aware - This program hunts down spyware that has installed itself secretly on our computers and eradicates these terrible things. Often, the reason why computers get really slow is because unknowingly, users will allow invasive programs to make themselves at home on their computers. That's bad. This will get rid of those buggers. This is for Windows. and finally ... AVG - Need a free, high quality, frequently updated anti-virus software? If you're not running an anti-virus scanner/shield, it's probably a good idea to do so. This is for Windows. side note - Oh, as a side note, these products (Phoenix and GAIM in particular) are developed by people who use and love computers. They write these programs not for profit, but simply for the sake of creating and using a great product -- and to offer a choice to what is otherwise a (figurative) one-man show out there. In the past, Microsoft has had a tendency to supposedly "adhere" to standards, then once they grab market share, conveniently ignore and break standards. Why do they do this? Well, they first latch onto a given standard - whether w3c html recommendations, c++ standards, or whatever. Then, after they've gained some ground, and they provide for their users an upgrade from version 3.0 to 4.0, and people begin to unknowingly develop their webpages or what-not around the newer almost standards-compliant-but-not-quite Microsoft specs, compatibility is broken between Microsoft and everyone else. This is bad. They've tried to do this with C++, Java, HTML, with just about everything they put their hands to. Hey, Microsoft is a company that's out to make the cream (cash rules everything around me dollah dollah bill yall), and I do applaud Bill Gates for his shrewd tactics - what an astounding and ruthless business man. Not only that, they are very good at what they do - the products they've released are an awesome benchmark for what good software is supposed to look and feel like - not perfect, but very very easy and comfortable to use. Nevertheless, there must be a leveraging force from somewhere else, and being able to support the Everyman is just A Noble Thing (TM). Just like in the realm of politics, where one by one, one person's vote can make the difference, the best way for a computer user to let their influence be felt is by supporting the best product available. I don't necessarily subscribe to "don't use Microsoft/AOL simply because its Microsoft or AOL." These products (Phoenix & GAIM) really are well written and great to use. Plus, from a software development standpoint, its just nice to support the open-source movement.