Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Happy birthday, Aims!

Yesterday was my niece’s 11th birthday—happy birthday, Aims! (For those of you who think I’m a bad uncle for sending belated greetings, I already sent her a card in the post.)

It’s a little bit frightening to think that Aimee is almost as old as I was when Clem and Justine got married. When they got married, I was a scrawny, 4’5 13-year old with huge glasses and unruly hair. Now, well … a few things have changed, as things tend to over the years.



I'm a lot busier than I was when I was 13. That's for sure.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Beckham and Being Here

I realized that I forgot to blog about one of the events of the last couple weeks … I met someone.

Haha. No, that wasn’t it—if I’ve told you about it, I’ve told you about it. If not … I might tell you about it.

Seriously, the event was, of course, David Beckham’s debut for the LA Galaxy in a friendly against Chelsea last Saturday. My friend Micah was generous enough to get me a ticket for the game (for my birthday), and so I went with him and Christie, and his dad. It was okay …


Who am I kidding? It was awesome! I got to see Becks, and Landon Donovan, and all the Chelsea players (though I would’ve preferred it if it was Arsenal, and Henry hadn’t left). And, Posh and Katie Holmes were in the box behind us, so we saw them, and … I was fairly excited the whole time.


I really hope he raises the profile of soccer in the States—it was the first sellout that the Galaxy had had in a while, and the highest rated soccer match on ESPN, so there were some positive signs. But at times it felt more like a spectacle than a soccer match, solely focused on Becks. I think, for the game to take off, people are going to have to see it as a viable career and a credible sport to keep playing after high school.

As for me, until I get my fitness back (which I hope will happen soon), I’ll keep putting my beaten-up body out on the pitch once a week (and twice a week in the summer) to kick around with Fuller folks. One of my friends invited me to try out with him for a semi-pro side, but until I can offer more than a hard sprint every two minutes, I’m going to pass.

“Be Here Now”

On another front, the first lot of Fuller folks whose admission I helped process (coz I work in the Admissions Office, for those of you who don’t know) started at Fuller this summer. I’ve been at Fuller for coming up to a year now, and I feel like part of the old guard, watching all these newbies come in, excited and looking forward to their time here.

Not that I’m not enjoying my time here. But you can tell the people who’ve been at Fuller for awhile. Well, I can tell that I’ve been at Fuller for awhile.

In many ways, it’ll be interesting to see what happens over the next couple months—to see how new friendships form and new relationships (there are always new ‘special friends’ popping up), to see what friendships last and which ones don’t. It’s been interesting, and a little sad, to note that of the people I hung out with the most when I first started at Fuller, I only still hang out with two of them.

[At the end of my first week at Fuller, with Rachel, Stephen and Nikki.]

So I wonder what’ll happen with these new friends that I’ve made (and will make). I wonder what’ll happen in the coming months as surgery looms, and my second year of Fuller, and internships. Will I have any more time this year than I did last year to write music and to find a creative outlet? What will God reveal to me this year about my future?

At times like these, I often have to remind myself to chill out and trust God. Ecclesiastes 11:9 has been a regular verse for me during these last few years:
You who are young, be happy while you are young, and let your hearts give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

In other words, as a friend said, “Be here now.”

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Love and Marriage

July 27th is a special day. It’s my parents’ wedding anniversary. As of tomorrow, they’ll have been married thirty-nine years, which is pretty amazing. Now I’ve only been around for twenty-five of those years, but I’ve been able to appreciate their sacrificial love for each other, their respect and honor of each other, their mutual submission to each other—in short, they’ve been an awesome example of Christian marriage, and I know my brothers (who are married) and I (who am not) both appreciate their embodiment of the gospel and their faith in their marriage.

Thanks, Mom and Dad, and happy anniversary!


P.S. Happy birthday to Ally (Friday) and Jason (Saturday) for this weekend!

P.P.S. Oh, and the facial hair thing? I shaved my face clean two days after I posted that blog. I realized that I will likely never be the goateed, ear-ringed and tattooed alter ego that I once thought I might be—it was a passing phase. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to grow facial hair, I had an earring for a few months before getting annoyed with it, and I keep shying away from getting a tattoo. I think I’m just going to give up on this idea …

Before shaving my 'facial hair':
And after ... big difference, huh?

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Facial hair and air mileage

The reason for the enigmatic title of my blog? They’re just the topics I’m writing on. First, facial hair: I’m trying to grow something on my face for about the ninth time—the foliage is and has thus far been disappointing. As an Asian, I’m not particularly endowed with a lot of non-head hair. And I’m discovering that absolutely no hair grows on my cheeks or on my jaw line. I just have a kind of fuzz on my lip and a little soul patch that’s a little lower than the normal place of a soul patch. Plus … I look virtually clean-shaven from anywhere beyond six feet away. That’s how successful my facial-hair-growing-experiment is going. Exciting, no?

What’s more exciting is the mileage I’m going to be racking up this coming year—actually, it’s not that exciting for my pocket, but otherwise, it’s freaking awesome! So at the end of August, I’m heading up to Seattle for a week to visit Hannah and Jason (who’s jetting over from London), and of course the MARINERS!! Yeah, I’m going to (pending the purchase of tickets) watch the Mariners-Angels series at Safeco Field, which will be my first trip to Safeco and my first time seeing the Mariners outside of Angel Stadium. So I’m looking forward to that.


And then in December, I’m heading back to Hong Kong for three weeks (7th to 27th). It’ll be the first time that all the family (all the brothers and all the kids) are together in five years, so it’ll be an amazing experience. We’re all (parents, two brothers, two sisters-in-law, one niece, three nephews and me) staying in the four-bedroom apartment that I grew up in … so it’ll be cozy. But I can’t wait for that, either.


Finally, just by way of update, I finished my first two-week intensive (Systematic Theology 1) last week, and I have my next one (NT Ethics) starting on July 30th. So these two weeks that I have in between, I’m working on my coursework and my distance learning class (Philosophy), as well as working part-time in the Admissions Office. Summer’s busy.


But it’s still summer. And things are going well. Thanks to those who expressed encouragements after my last blog. Things are a lot better and a lot clearer than they were three weeks ago: I spent a lot of time processing, praying and talking things through with friends and family, and I’m happy where I am. Not 100% content … but will I ever be?


Anyway, until next time …