W3Y'st'd Days

Luray - Day 1

2006-12-28T23:11:00.000-05:00

For the new year, we decided to make a trip down Luray, VA to see Luray Caverns. So far, it's been a pretty interesting trip. We spent 5 hours on the road. An hour into the trip, we stopped by Cracker Barrel for lunch.

This was my first time at Cracker Barrel and I wasn't sure what to expect. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised. The service was great as was the food. I ordered the eggs-in-a-basket and it was delicious. Our watress also brought out plenty of biscuits and saw-mill gravy and cinammon biscuits.

Cracker Barrel also had a small puzzle game at the table. It was the pyramid puzzle where you skip pegs and try to leave as few pegs as possible. I didn't think it was possible, but Gene managed to score a 6. On my first try, I was able to score a 2, which made me "purty smart".

Another interesting thing was the the candy that they had in the Cracker Barrel store. Hersheys had different chocolate bars with classic looking wrapping. I wonder how much it costs Hershey to produce custom packaging for Cracker Barrel.

After lunch, it was a long trip through Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia to our hotel. I managed to be lulled to slumber by Jack Johnson, but the majority of the drive was uneventful.

We arrived in Luray a little after 7pm. After a long drive, we working looking forward to just kind of relaxing. Jimmy went to check in, but there was a minor altercation. We had reserved two doubles, but they only put us down for one. The manager tried to give us a single, but the room smelled. We got on the phone with Priceline, and eventually the manager gave us the "suite" for the same price as the double.

Despite everything, we ended up staying at the Cardnial Inn. The place is kind of weak, but it's a place to stay. While we were in the office working out the rooming situation, we were joking that the "internet" was only in the office and you had to plugin to the ethernet. Luckily, there was a repeater near our room.

Once we got the rooming situation sorted out, we set out to explore Luray. The town consists of bars, pawn shops, antique shops, and a Walmart. We inadvertanly drove right by Luray Cavern and did our best not to spoil our experience. By this time, it was close to 9pm and there was not much else to do, so we went to grab some dinner.

We ended up eating at a mexican restaurant which was converted from an old Mcdonalds. The conversion was evident from the doors "push", the drive through window, but most indicative were the tiles used for the playground space. They did a pretty good job of converting it to a mexican joint.

Our waitress had a very endearing southern accent. The majority of us suspected that the accent was from North Carolina, but it ended up being a native Virginia accent. Dinner was surprisingly good. If you're ever in Luray, VA, stop by Rancho Viejo Mex Grill. The food was surprisingly good.

While we were driving around, we saw the "Luray Zoo and Reptile Jungle". The place was real kitchy and we managed some pictures. The doorway consisted of a big aligator mouth. There was also a big dinosaur in the front of the place.

Just looking at the various advertisements and pamphlets in the office, most of the stuff around Luray is pretty crappy. There was this pamphlet for "Dinosaur Adventure" with these cheesy dinosaurs vs civil war people.

Driving around, I thought about the economics of these small towns. It seems like the main source of income is tourism based. The second income is alcohol consumption. I also thought about the higher education opportunities offered to a town of 5000. Even if they had the grades to go to university, that doesn't necessarily mean that they have the means to go to college.

So, our adventure begins.

Cambodia: Day 13

2006-08-22T23:43:00.000-04:00

Start at the beginning.

Shopping for Gifts

We were supposed to teach at KCEA today, but both Jeff and I had to buy gifts for our Khmer teachers. Jeff's was easy, gifts for two male monks. I had the difficult task of buying 3 gifts for girls.

First, I asked Soekna to help me, but he didn't really know what to get. I went to the market to ask Kum'Ting to help me but she wasn't around. So I asked Morico, her cousin to help. There was a disparity in age, but I think it would be alright.

She took me back to the same store that Soekna had taken me. We looked at some stuff, but none of it was really appropriate. I suggested maybe some small purses, but they were like $4-6 USD; way too much to spend. Then she had the brilliant idea of getting shirts for them. Too bad I didn't really get a chance to ask them about their favorite color or anything like that. Even still, it was a great idea.

We went deep in to the market to find some shirts. All the shirts that I liked ended up costing about $4, a lot more than I wanted to spend. We eventually picked out two shirts that were both $2. I wanted to give something special to Gentoo, so I decided to give her one of the many white t's that I had worn over the past week.

Then it was back to the other store to buy some boxes and cards for them. Jeff didn't have to because he only needed to get gifts for guys. The boxes were pretty nice, they came pre-wrapped. The store clerk added a pretty ribbon and bow which was a nice touch.

Farewell Temple

It was both a happy and sad time as we approached the temple. I saw my pretty teachers sitting and waiting for me. I was both filled with the sense of excitement that we would be together coupled with the feeling of longing of saying goodbye to a good friend.

Even though my time with them was so short, I feel like I've made an important connection with them. One of those feelings where you just connect with someone despite language or any other barriers.

My intention was to just around and chat, but a new person came around and I ended up practicing my Khmer with her. We didn't get long before it was time to take pictures before KCEA.

We took a few group shots, but I didn't realize how poor the lighting was until later when I downloaded the pictures to my computer. It's a shame too, because one of the key group shots is really good. We'll see what one of the graphic gurus back home can do with it.

Sharing at KCEA

Then it was off to KCEA to share about Acts 9. I'm not used to sharing like this, so it was very difficult for me. I prepared something, but I didn't feel it would really help them at all. Hopefully they were blessed in some way.

After the sharing, they shared their appreciation for us with gifts and prayer. Both Jeff and I got a chance to share a little more about our experiences in Cambodia.

It was definately a great experience for me. Unlike Honduras, where I felt like my mission was done at the end, I felt like mine was just beginning here in Cambodia. I had just started to make those strong connections with the people here and felt like I was ready to take them to the next level.

I felt like it was really difficult for me to leave when there is still so much to do. Even in just the last three years, there's been fruit from what Jeff's team had done so many years ago. To see the potential in such a short amount of time is staggering.

Cambodia is definately on my list of places to do full-time ministry. We'll see if God has it in store for me.

Final Classes

For my final classes at Light for Living and Grace School, I opted to just play games with them. It's been a while since I've played any games with kids so it took me a while to think of some that were appropriate for them. Even then, it was still tough to think of all the rules for the games. Space was limitted, so a lot of games in my repertoire were out. It was even hard just to get them in a circle.

For Light for Living, I taught them the Watermellon Game, I tried teaching them Moo, Chi, Baa, but that didn't go too well. I also taught them the dance game.

At Grace School, I taught them how to play ABC and Black Magic. In order for Black Magic to work, I conscripted Kum'Ting to be my partner, so I told her how the games works. My class was dumbfounded by it. I would've continued to play, but class was getting short and I wanted to get some pictures.

After class, Nara and Lian called and asked if they could stay over. I wasn't too keen on the idea, but whatever. It turned out to be not so good an idea. During the night, after one finished snoring, the other would start. It was a really long and hard night for me, even with my iPod.

Tomorrow we'll be in Phnom Penh and get a chance to be tourists. I really don't want to go back yet.

Cambodia: Day 12

2006-08-21T23:43:00.000-04:00

Start at the beginning.

Missed Teaching

Even though there wasn't much for us to do, we kind of hemmed and hawed and got to Cherr's pretty late. I was supposed to teach Cherr some computer stuff, but it was too late. I gave her my sincerest apologies and promised to come tomorrow.

Instead, I spent the time chatting with Kum'Ting, one of the original kids from Jeff's first trip. It's really wonderful to see how far these kids have come in such a short amount of time. Because of their English, both Ringsey and Kum'Ting got scholarships to go to University.

These kids are living proof that the work that is being done here is working and necessary. Even in such a short period of time, there is already tremendous fruit. Both these kids have the potential to continue on and make fantastic strides for the kingdom. This is one of the main factors that draws me to Cambodia.

The fact that the country was ravaged so badly, in such a short amount of time, by one man, is also a pretty good reason.

Temple

At the temple today, Gentoo was very strict and made me repeat a lot of words she had just taught me. It was good, it forced me to learn the words.

We were surprised to see another American at the temple. She had been studying Khmer for 6 months. I was surprised that her Khmer wasn't as good as it could be. Everyone we had been talking to says that we should be able to pick up Khmer in around 6 months.

We spent a long while at the temple. It was almost time to go teach guitar class. I really didn't want to go teach guitar. I felt it was so frustrating and didn't really get anywhere. I opted to go visit Gentoo's house instead. I could tell that Jeff wasn't too happy.

Gentoo's House

In some ways, Gentoo's house was similar to Sun Howee's house. There was a very apparent lack of furniture. She maybe had only two chairs which Mr. Soek and I took. Gentoo showed me the rest of her home which had a tiny kitchen in the back. Instead of gas or electric, they had a coal pit. For water, they had a old fashioned handle pump.

Behind her house was some water and a pagota. She took me to the pagota to take some pictures. It was really pleasant and kind of nice and serene. All the while, we were followed by these little kids. I'm sure they found me and oddity or interesting.

After seeing Gentoo's house, I finally had a chance to really experience the poverty in Cambodia. I didn't really get a chance to see the homes in Honduras, but I imagine that it isn't any better than it is here. Here, at least the houses are better built. Gentoo's family is so poor, they cannot afford a fan. Now that's really poor.

Part of me wanted to go to the market to buy them a fan. But at the same time, I would feel really weird about it. For me, it wouldn't be really expensive, but I wouldn't want to give them a really extravagant gift. I definately want to give the girls something to remember me by, I'm just not sure what.

It's such a different experience when you know someone who is poor and actually seeing their home. This is what they have to live with every day. All the other homes, I had only experienced from the outside. The fact that they are well built fails to convey how stark and simple the interior is. You watch old Kung Fu movies, and even they have stools and tables. Here, you may have a bed or a hamock.

We were hanging out at Gentoo's house when I spied a large storm cloud approaching. They asked the neighbor, who happened to be a moto taxi, to drive me to Light for Living. He was a little more expensive than he should've been, but whatever.

Not long after I arrived, the rain just pounded down.

Sharing at Light for Living

I was surprised when they asked me to share at their Bible study. I wasn't sure what I should share, so I shared part of the message I had prepared for Tuesday. Hopefully, it was effective.

As we begin to get ready to leave, I definately feel a sense of wanting to stay. In Honduras, I was kind of looking forward to returning home. But I had entered a good routine here. I had also made a lot of good friends. The biggest difference is I feel like my work here is not complete. We had pretty much completed all that we could in Honduras, but there is still so much to do here. At the end of Honduras, I didn't feel that I would return for a long time. But I feel like I can and want to come back here for a longer time.

We shall see what God has in store for me. I don't even know what's going to happen in the next two months, let alone the next few years. All I can do is trust in God and what he will be doing with my life.

Cambodia: Day 11

2006-08-20T23:42:00.000-04:00

Start at the beginning.

It's My Turn

This morning we went Chreybak church. On the way, I was feeling a bit tired and lethargic. I thought it was just remnants from the sleeping pills that I took the night before. But even when I arrived at the church, I was still feeling really lethargic. It wasn't until we sat down to worship that I really felt it.

My joints ached. My head was light. I instantly knew that I had a cold. I am guessing that I got the virus from either Soekna, who was sick the previous day or Mr. Soek, who was sick the previous week. On top of that, I had spent two days driving long distances on the moto and spent two nights in cold AC. It was probably a combination of these different factors that gave me the cold.

I apologized and lied down while they were having worship. I didn't really get a chance to sleep, but it was better than staying up.

After Jeff finished sharing, we excused ourselves and made our way back to Kampong Chnong.

We stopped by a shop to get some noodle soup. We had left so early that we did not have an opportunity to get breakfast. I ordered pork noodle soup and was surprised to get pig intestines and pig liver.

Normally, I probably wouldn't have issue eating these, but being in Cambodia and being sick, I thought it was the better decision to pass. Jeff offered me his beef and beef balls even if I didn't accept. I didn't eat the beef because it looked a little more raw than I would have liked. But I ate the beef ball with glee. After eating, I felt a little better.

We went to drop Lian off at his house. On the way, we ran in to Gentoo and Sun Howee. It was very coincidental that they had just arrived at Gentoo's house. Gentoo had invited me to visit her sometime. I would have been glad to stay, had I not been sick.

It was really interesting during those few minutes. While we were talking, all the neighbors heard us and came out to see the foreigners talking to one of the girls. And even more surprised when they saw it was a Chinese person speaking English with a little bit of Khmer thrown in. We bid Gentoo farewell and went back to the hotel.

We got back to the hotel and I hit the shower, popped some Tylenol, and downed some hot water. We stayed up briefly, watching TV before I decided to sleep. Even though I was out for almost 3 hours, it wasn't good or restful sleep. I kept drifting in and out and getting really hot.

Jeff left to go to Patrick's house. I would have liked to go and just hang out there, but Soekna had invited us over for dinner. I rather rest up and skip Patrick's and go have dinner.

Soekna Blesses Us with Dinner

Soekna was very kind to open his home to us. While they were still preparing the food, he showed us the house that he had designed and was building. It's really cool how they build their own houses out here.

Dinner was fantastic. After eating, I felt much better. Of all the food we've had, the best food has always been the homecooked. There's something about a homecooked meal that is always so comforting and invting.

During dinner, I got the opportunity to chat with Patrick a bit and get an idea of full-time missions. Cambodia is definately on my list of possible places to be. Phnong Penh and Cambodia in general is really begining to develop. There is a need for English teachers and programmers and English is such a powerful ministry tool.

It's kind of weird seeing how powerful knowing English is and how many doors it opens. It is a wonderful way to empower the people to break the cycle and get in to positions where they can really do good for the country and its people.

Ringsey Teaches Dancing

On the way back to hotel, we picked up Ringsey. He was eager to stay with us and I was eager to learn some Khmer dance from the world champion dancer.

We wanted to wait for some music before we saw his dance, but we were so unfortunate that the TV did not show any. While we were waiting, I taught him how to play Texas Hold'em. I think I taught him too well, because when we played for well, he was playing ultra-aggressive; going all-in on bottom pair. Eventually, he got caught and lost.

We were tired of waiting for the TV to give us Khmer music, so he just began to teach me. Some of it is pretty simple, but combining everything makes it a little difficult. It's hard to believe that this is the dance that they do at the parties and clubs. But Ringsey insists that this is what I would dance with a pretty girl.

Cambodia: Day 10

2006-08-19T23:41:00.000-04:00

Start at the beginning.

Thmoripe

We woke up early this morning to go to this church on the countryside. Soekna came by to lead the way. When he got here, he told us that he was sick. He did some stuff with a coin and medicine to his body to heal him. We urged him to stay home if he wasn't feeling well, but he insisted on going.

It was a far drive to the church, about an hour. First, we played a few games. Then it was time to teach. At first, it seemed like a good opportunity because there were so many non-believers there. But as Jeff started to teach, the kids just ran off. One of them stayed, but I don't think he was really paying attention.

Lian, one of Jeff's friends from his previous trip came with us. He wasn't a believer yet, so it was good that he heard everything. After Jeff's lesson, Lian and Soekna got in to a big discussion. Neither of us knew what they were talking about, so we kind of wandered off. In many ways, we reflected the kids. What's the point in listening if you don't understand?

In the end, there was a purpose to Soekna coming. Had he not been there, he would not have had the opportunity to share with Lian. Lian's still not a believer, but every little bit helps.

Temple

After a quick lunch, it was to the temple to learn Khmer. Mr. Soek was running a little late, so I started with the girls.

Gentoo brought the book she had learned from. She started teaching me how to put together questions and answers to those questions. It was a really good time that pushed my Khmer skills.

All this time, while I was learning Khmer, I had been keeping a small journal of all the words I was learning. She wanted to make sure I had the right pronunciations written down, so she had me go through every word I knew. Needless to say, it took a long time.

Afterwards, we were tired and just sat around having conversation. They asked me about my experiences in Cambodia thus far and asked if I had plans to come back. I flirted with Gentoo a bit, suggesting I would come back for her.

All in good fun.

Jeff's Herpes

A lot of stuff has been happening to Jeff these last few weeks. First, he got a stomach virus. Then he found some spots on his arm that turned out to be hyperpigmentation. Now, he's developed this growth on his cheek and the corner of his mouth.

I joke with him that he has herpes, even though I know it isn't. Since we don't actually know what it is, it's just easier to say he has herpes.

He looks at it everyday and scratches at it and puts random creams and lotions on it. I try and tell him that most of the stuff will do no good, but he doesn't listen.

The growth is starting to grow into the shape of an arrow, which makes it kind of funny.

I feel bad for Jeff and all the problems he's been getting. But at the same time, his over-reaction to the hyperpigmentation and now to this, is starting to get annoying. I do my best to try and tolerate it and ease his concern. But it's tough when he keeps looking at it and expounding on how it can be different things. I honestly believe if he didn't obsess with it as much, he wouldn't be so afraid of this stuff.

Cambodia: Day 9

2006-08-18T23:39:00.000-04:00

Start at the beginning.

For some reason, I couldn't fall asleep last night. I kept tossing and turning. Even after I took some sleeping pills, I was still up for awhile. Needless to say, I was pretty tired during the day.

KCEA

In the morning, we went to KCA to teach. We didn't really have anything prepared, so we just played games instead. First, we played a bunch of Khmer games. Then, out of the blue, Soekna wanted to arm wrestle. I had arm wrestled him before, and even though my arm is bigger than is, we were evenly matched. This leads me to believe that my arm wrestling technique is lacking.

After everyone's arm got tired, Jeff and I taught them how to thumb wrestle. Since we had so much more experience with it, it wasn't difficult for us to beat them.

Once the festivities were over, we got a nice group picture. Then I sat around with Simone and surprised her with the amount of Khmer that I knew. Most people didn't know that I was studying Khmer, so when I bust it out, they are pleasantly surprised.

More Budgeting

Then it was off to Life for Living where I taught the staff about budgetting. This class was a lot easier because I didn't have to wait for Soekna to translate it. It seems like this kind of knowledge is really useful to them. We'll see if they actually keep up with the books.

The girls had been cooking for us pretty much all week. In order for us to return the favor, we took them out to one of the nicer restaurants in the area. I think it was a nice change for them.

One of the dishes they ordered consisted of fermented fish. It tasted alright, but I didn't want to eat too much. It was a good thing too, because not long after, I had to hit up the WC with some hershey squirts.

We ate lunch early, so there was still time before we had to be at the temple. We wanted to hide in the hotel because of the blistering heat.

I hadn't realized how tired I was until I got back to the hotel. When it came time to go to the temple, I had to make a hard decision. Take a quick nap and try and get some energy for teaching tonight or go learn Khmer with a pretty girl. In the end, my tiredness won out.

Guitar Class

It wasn't long after that we went to teach guitar class. I don't know if it was the tiredness or what, but I had a really hard time teaching this class. I tried explaining the dotted note to them, but they just couldn't understand.

We eventually wised up and found Soekna to explain it to them. In retrospect, we probably should've just spent the time teaching Soekna and a few of the other students with better English. This would've made a lot more sense because they could, in turn, teach the other kids what they had learned.

Worship

Since Soekna pretty much took over my class, I popped on the iPod to listen to some worship music. It's been a long while since I truly got to worship God and it felt so good.

Sure I go to service every week. I sing songs, I pray, I learn from the messages. But none of that really felt like I connected with God. And now, when it happened, it felt so good. It reminded me of my early days as a Christian, not concerned about anything other than loving God. It reminded me of my experience in Copan, Honduras last year, as I heard God call me to full time missions.

As I sat there silently singing, I couldn't help but feel the welling up inside me. These moments of perfect communion are rare and oh so precious. Even if I didn't accomplish anything on this trip. Even if nothing else came out of it, this singular moment would've made it all worth it.

Grace School

Then it was to Grace School to help Dee with some computer stuff. The things that he was asking me were all cosmetic and seemed kind of silly. Still, I was more than happy to oblige.

The English class that I was teaching had asked me to sing for them. I didn't really know what to sing, so I chose the song that had touched me so back in Honduras and not that many hours ago: Only You, by David Crowder. I figured, if I'm going to sing, I'm going to sing about something that I truly cared about and meant something to me.

Tomorrow brings the weekend and the beginning of the end. Soon, I will be back in the states. These posts will be online and it'll be back to the daily grind. Hopefully this is not the end, but a step in to the greater things that God has in store for me.

Cambodia: Day 8

2006-08-17T23:39:00.000-04:00

Start at the beginning.

Malaria Dreams

The malaria pill I took last night gave me the some weird dreams. One of the dreams that I had, was there was "secret" book in the Bible with incantations. When they were read, a portal would open up. Inside the portal was this huge blue escalator going down. At the bottom was another portal to a parallel version of our world. The parallel world was similar, but had enough differences that set it apart from ours.

Computer Tech

Jeff left for Phnom Penh at 8. So I would be responsible for driving myself around Kampong Chnang.

At 10, I went to Grace School to held Dee with some computer stuff. Most of the questions were really simple, so I was finished pretty quickly. As I was trying to answer some of his Powerpoint questions. I found some porn hidden in a Powerpoint file.

I also got a chance to check my email very briefly. I had forgotten what it's like to use dial-up. I didn't really get to read any emails except for one.

The place that I had interviewed at the day before I left for Cambodia wants me back for a second interview. This has been some of the best news that I've heard in awhile. It definately brightened my day.

Broken Moto

Then it was off to Light for Living. Chaan borrowed our bike to go buy some fried frogs. It was taking her longer than it should've taken. We were joking that the moto had broken down. It was funny because when Chaan got back, the moto actually did break down.

It cost 3$ USD for the part and the repair. So, in total, we've spent 9$ USD repairing the moto, which is a lot compared to Cambodian standards.

Sun Hi's House

After lunch, Guh lead me to the temple. I passed Mr. Soek and Mr. Gun on the way. When I got to the temple, the girls were not there, to my chagrin. Mr. Soek told me they had just come from Sun Hi's house. Everyone was still there, so we made our way over.

This was my first time in a Cambodian house. One of the things that struck me was the starkness of the rooms and the lack of furniture. I guess if have to build your own house, it would be tough to afford anything else. Even still, they seem a lot better constructed than the shanty houses I saw in Honduras.

Jeff's Arm

Jeff returned from Phnom Penh in the middle of guitar class. It turned out that the spots on his arm was an allergic reaction to some chemical reaction between something he had put on his arm and the sun. The reaction caused his skin to produce more melanin than normal.

As the trip winds down, the time is just flying by. Looking forward, there's still so much to do. I feel like my mission has just begun. I've been teaching about budgeting and a little accounting. I have been teaching computers. I have been teaching English. And right now, is the point where I am starting to build relationships.

Some of the kids that were really shy when I first arrived are becoming bolder and approaching me after class. Even the people I see regularly everyday are becoming warmer and more jovial. It's at this moment, I feel as if I could stay here forever. Obviously not literally, but for a long time. I could definately see myself here for around a year, if not longer. The things I would miss most would be broadband internet everywhere and rock climbing.

Cambodia: Day 7

2006-08-16T23:38:00.000-04:00

Start at the beginning.

Jeff has the HIV

Since Jeff was still weak from shouting from both ends, we stayed in and ate leftovers for breakfast. Jeff had a whole roll of bread, while I almost killed a whole kilo of dragon eyes.

Yesterday, Jeff had noticed that his left arm started forming these dark purplish spots. We weren't sure where it came from. My guess was sunspots. But it kept bothering him and he kept bringing it up every few minutes.

When we went to Light for Living, he showed them his arm and they all joked that he had the HIV. Apparently, they thought this was really funny. The jokes aside, they didn't know what it was or what could have caused it. Cherr said that she knew someone who had something similar all over her arm, but it had gone away after a week.

We offered to take the staff from Light for Living out to lunch, but they already had food. Because of the stomach virus, I limited what kinds of food Jeff could eat. They ran to the market to pick up some chicken soup for him.

While we waited for them to return with the soup, I found some old rags and started to do some pullups. It feels weird after not climbing for a week. I hope when I return, my climbing skill will not have dimished too much.

Temple

After lunch was time for temple and our Khmer lessons. Gentoo's other friends, Ravi and Sing-Hi started asking me more about English. We got into a pretty good rhythm where they would teach me some Khmer and I would teach them some English. I've gotten to the point where I know enough vocabulary that I need to start forming questions. I know too much useless Khmer.

It feels like the time that we spend at the temple is too short. Even though we spend an hour, the time just flies by.

Guitar Class

Jeff decided to go to the clinic to try and see what was up with his arm. While he was gone, I took over the guitar class for him.

The class is so incredibly frustrating because it everyday we take 2 steps forward and 1 step back. It takes half the session to bring them back to where they ended yesterday.

They still have a hard time counting and reading the music. It seems like they try and memorize the music more than they try and learn and read it.

Teaching one guitar class was more than enough frustration for one day.

Hello, Moto

Jeff had just gotten back from the clinic. He had talked to a doctor in Phnong Penh and suggested that he go in. So, tomorrow, he will go into the city to see the doctor. He'll be gone for the whole morning and part of early afternoon.

There's really no reason for me to go to Phnong Penh with him, so it made sense that I learn how to ride the moto. I asked one of the guys sitting around to teach me.

At first, I drove around the parking lot pretty well. Then he took me out on the road. Luckily, there weren't a lot of people on the road. Some parts were tough, like getting the moto moving, slowing down for intersections, and sharp turns. But by the end of the time, I felt comfortable enough to ride on my own.

Market Food

Then it was off to teach at Light for Living and Grace School.

Between guitar class, Light for Living, and Grace School, there isn't much time for food. We start teaching at 3 and don't stop until 7:30. By the time it's all done, I'm mad hungry. Sometimes we'll be lucky and grab some food, but more often than not, we have to wait 'til after class to eat.

We went to some shops around Grace School and picked up some instant ramen and some fish in a can. Then we stopped by the market for some pork skewers and beef ball skewers.

The pork skewers were okay. You ate them with some pickled onions and hot sauce. There was a lot of fat on them and not a lot of meat. The beef balls were a little better, they seemed more substantual.

We borrowed some bowls, forks, and spoons from the hotel to make the ramen. It wasn't too bad, pretty much like normal ramen.

I had forgotten to take my malaria pill during dinner. By the time I remembered, it was too late. The side effects did a number on my system. When I swallowed the pill, it sat at the bottom of my chest causing this sort of burning sensation. The pill also felt huge. It wasn't long after that I started feeling a little dizzy and drowsy.

So it's off to bed. Tomorrow, I will be out on my own for awhile.

Cambodia: Day 6

2006-08-15T23:37:00.000-04:00

Start at the beginning.

Breakfast

We went to Soekna's office to teach them. But Jeff didn't know what to teach. Instead, we went to grab breakfast. Typical Cambodian breakfast consists of rice w/ pork and green tomatoes and cucumbers. You could also get this beef noodle soup that looks like pho, but the soup is a bit sweeter. This was also the first time that I had Cambodian coffee. They don't have any milk, so they use condensed milk. They put a lot of condensed milk in the coffee. It was way too sweet.

Synergy

Then it was back to the office. We asked Soekna what he wanted to learn and he said budgeting.

Budgeting is such a simple skill but even people in the states don't know how to effectively budget. It's really nice being able to bring what we consider basic skills and give them that knowledge. This is why I feel so strongly about Synergy. Too bad the organization hasn't taken off as much as it could.

I feel that part of the difficulty is finding organizations to connect with. It's hard to know the needs and to bring the right solution to the people.

One idea that I had for Synergy is to come up with a standard teaching curriculum. Sections on using on using Windows, Office, and other basic applications. Then, from this basic curriculum, they would be able to translate it to different languages and the mission participants would have something consitent to teach.

Chaan Can Cook

The food was so good yesterday, we asked Chaan to cook for us today. So we went to the market to pick up some groceries. Chaan laughed at me as I took pictures of everything. Sure, they were common fruits and vegetables to them, but they were exotic to me. It wasn't just the groceries that I was taking pictures of. It was also the market environment that I was documenting.

As we entered into the depths of the market, I saw these bananas roasting over some coals. It smelled so good and looked so good that I had to have one. At 100 Riel, it was dirt cheap. And, mmm, was it tasty. It had this heavy banana flavor with a slight saltiness to it. The outside was all crispy and crunchy while the inside was warm and gooiey.

We went to buy some meat and the facilities were just so unsanitary. The "butchers" would touch money and then touch the meat. There was no refrigeration and all the meat was open to the air and the flies and other bugs. These would be key observations for the future.

Once we had the meat, we were done, and it was back to Light for Living. The girls were so kind to offer to cook, Jeff and I decided to offer ours. Jeff couldn't Asian squat so it was my turn to give it a shot. I cut some carrots and some turnips. They made two soups. A pork stuffed tomatoe soup and a carrot, turnip, pork soup. It wasn't as tasty as yesterday, but it was still good. The soup in particular was really good.

English at the Temple

Then it was to the temple. Unfortunately Mr. Soek was not there. Mr. Gun told us that Mr. Soek was up in the mountains collecting firewood or something.

The girls have been teaching me so much Khmer, it was about time that I taught them some English.

It was difficult starting out because my Khmer is so much more limited than their English. We eventually got started when Gentoo started writing things down.

She had me annunciate the differences between words such as "thing" and "think", "think" and "sink", and "help" and "health". When you speak so much English, you take these subtleties for granted. It turns out that the Khmer language doesn't have a "th" sound. That is what makes it so difficult for them pronounce these simple wordis.

Yelling From Both Ends

When we got back to the hotel, Jeff had to poop really bad. He had been on the throne almost all day. He had taken an Immodium earlier, but it didn't really do anything. After his dump, he felt really cold.

I had Jeff get in bed with as many covers as we could manage. But none of it really helped. I even threw my space age blanket on him. Now I knew something was wrong. I guessed that he had a stomach virus. And sure enough, not long after, he was in the bathroom, throwing up.

I called Soekna, Pastor Chon, and Patrick to let them know what was going on. They were all very concerned and I reassured them that he would be better soon. Soekna stopped by with some cold medicine, but it wouldn't really help Jeff.

After both Light for Living and Grace School, it was back to the hotel to take care of Jeff. Cherr was very kind and brought some bread for Jeff. They also brought us a hot water heater to provide "infinite" water.

Jeff started to come down with a fever, so I made a cold compress for him out of my dirty tshirt. I also forced him to take some Tylenol. Soon, his fever started coming back down.

Bug Bites

I started getting a mess of bug bites on my arms and legs. Our mosquito hunting at the end of the night has been weak. The garlic pills that I've been taking don't seem to work either. And I don't feel like applying deet right before I go to bed.

Cambodia: Day 5

2006-08-14T23:36:00.000-04:00

Start at the beginning.

JW Phone Home

It's nice to sleep in for a change. Even though we didn't do much this weekend, I ended up sleeping for a long time.

A little after we woke up, Nancy, M, Jeff's mom, and Todd and Sharon called us. It was nice chatting with M and just letting her know what's been going on. Even though I've been working on this blog, without the internet, no one can really keep up with what we're doing here until we're back. It was really weird that Todd and Sharon were there. Especially since Sharon didn't talk to us at all.

We didn't have time for breakfast, so we had the last purliwi for breakfast. We later found out it was called dragon fruit. But we still like purliwi better. Then it was off to Light for Living.

Best Meal Ever

Chaan gave me Todd's favourite fruit. It's this little green fruit that kind of looks like an artichoke. When the fruit is ripe, the skin just kind of falls off revealing this sweet white meat. The fruit is a little sweet with kind of a crab texture. It's light and refreshing.

Then she gave me this other "fruit" which turned out to be a root. It didn't have much of a flavor, but wasn't bad. Then she gave me this other fruit that had the same texture as guava but was a little sour.

When we drive around the city on the moto, we see all these kids with these goucho pajama pants. The things are so popular, we wanted to rock a pair so we could be more Cambodian. Cherr was kind enough to go to the market to buy some for us.

Cherr and a few of the other girls were really kind and cooked us some great food. We got some soup with vegetables they picked from the backyard, pressed fish, and chili beef. We also got some fresh lemonade picked from the backyard. All the food was really good. I would have to say it was the best meal I've had in Cambodia so far.

All the girls in Cambodia know how to cook, and cook well. They all start apprenticing under their mothers when they are 10. I wish girls from the states would cook like them.

Kampong Chnang'nyom ni-yee-ay Khmer

Then back to the temple for some more Khmer lessons. Gentoo wasn't there last time so I was looking forward to seeing her. It's definately nicer studying with a pretty face. As we began, the sky opened up and just started pouring buckets down on us. This was the worst rain I had seen yet in Cambodia.

'Til now, most of the Khmer I've been learning has been random nouns. Most of it is pretty useless. I made an effort to try and learn some verbs so I can start putting together some simple sentences. I also started writing down everything I've been learning. Even though there are English-Khmer books, I don't really understand the pronunciation. It helps if I write what I think it sounds. I was so happy when I put together my first sentence.

I had learned so much Khmer from them, that it was about time I taught them English. It's a little more difficult because the only way I can explain things to them is in English. I tried explaining the difference between "pretty" and "beautiful" and it was really tough. I didn't get that much time to teach them, so I'm going to spend tomorrow teaching them English. Then it was off to teach guitar.

Monsoon

It rained a lot today. It started a little after 1pm, when we got to the temple and didn't stop until 5pm. It was some big hard rain. It really cooled things down to the point where it was actually kind of chilly.

For dinner, we grabbed some stir fried noodles and went back to Cherr's church where we taught one of the classes. Then it was to Grace School to teach English. I had never taught English before, so I took a lot of direction from the book Patrick gave me.

We picked up some more purliwi and dragon eyes.

We hung out with Ringsay a bit at his clinic.

Cambodia: Day 4

2006-08-13T23:35:00.000-04:00

Start at the beginning.

First Poop in Cambodia

We went to Soekna's church. While we were teaching Sunday school, I had to take a dump. All they had were squat toilets but they didn't have any water. The pumped some water from the well into a bucket for me. After I did my business, I tried pouring water in to the squat toilet, but my poo got stuck in the hole. Soekna came over and poured the whole bucket in to flush it.

We Worship the Same God

We joined Soekna's church for service. It was nice how they got everyone involved. They had the kids go up and sing and recite memory verses. They also had other people recite memory verses as well. They had communion with bread and purple drink. It was nice experiencing their service.

Aloe, Our Savior

We went back to the Light for Living before lunch. Our backs felt like they were on fire. We had unsuccessfully looked for aloe vera to soothe the pain. We did manage to get some moisturizer with vitamin E in it, but alas, no aloe vera. Luckily, the school had aloe plants. We jacked a leef and cut it open and started rubbing its blood on our backs. It was soothing at first, but then it started to sting. And dang, was it stinky.

Bug Noodle Soup

For lunch, we went to the beef noodle soup place again. It was nice because the weather was cooler from the rain. The soup wasn't as good this time because I found bugs in the soup. I also got a lot of beef liver instead of chunks of beef.

As we were eating, we started teaching them about "pwn" and how to use it. It's funny, because they don't really understand the word. Like, how it can be used for both good and bad.

While we were just chillin' after lunch, I looked across the street and saw what looked like a fried banana shop. We ran over there and were lucky to get a fresh batch. The fried bananas were so good, but so greesy.

This is Shaved Ice?

Then we hit up some shaved ice. Todd had been raving about the place but it really wasn't anything to cry home about. It was less shaved ice and more like red bean drink with condensed milk.

No Pretty Girl

We went back to the temple to study with Mr. Sok. We got the chance to see his crib and learn some more Khmer. After not too long, my brain was fried from too much Khmer. I learned a lot of random useless vocabulary like: nose, ear, earlobe, and such.

Patrick's House

We hit up Patrick's house and proceeded to teach the locals how to use "pwn". It was larious trying to explain to them what it meant and how to use it. They kept asking how it could be a word because it doesn't have any vowels. I think, as long as we keep using it, it will change Cambodia.

Although I had met Ringsay earlier, I didn't really get a chance to talk to him. I found out that he's going to school for Computer Science too and he was also the champion Khmer dancer of Kampong Chnang. We kept trying to get him to dance for us, but he was really shy. Eventually I was able to make a deal with him. He would dance his traditional Khmer dance for me next week, if I would dance for him. I figure, that's a fair trade.

I also got a chance to chat with Barbara, Patrick's wife. We talked a bit about international news, such as the foiled terrorist plot to bomb 10 flights, Israel and Lebanon, and the typhoon that hit China. She also shared about how she and Patrick got started working in Cambodia.

Originally, they had planned to go to Beirut back in their 20s, but as they were training, they were kept from going. This stalled their desires for full-time missions. Eventually, Patrick felt called again. At first, Barbara didn't feel the calling, but once she visited, she was hooked.

It's interesting to see the path that God had set them on to bring them to full-time missions. I think about my own path and how many misfires I've had in the last week. Things that I thought were part of the plan or part of the path end up fizzling out. I'm afraid that I've just been spinning my wheels for the last year and didn't really get anywhere.

But I trust that God has the plan set and when the time is right, things will fall in place. I know now that not everything will fit perfectly. But things don't have to in order for God to show his glory.

Purliwi

We stopped by the market and picked up some fruit. We got this purple fruit that is like a cross between a kiwi, chinese pear, and a watermelon. Since we don't know the real name of the fruit, we decided to call it purliwi because it is kind of like a purple kiwi.

We also got some dragon eyes which were really juicy and sweet.

Tomorrow begins my first full week.

Cambodia: Day 3

2006-08-12T23:34:00.000-04:00

Start at the beginning.

Baptise in the Name...

We went on a special trip to the river for a little swimming and to baptise some kids. They gave us the pleasure of helping them baptise. For the trip, they rented these two trucks and used 2x4s as benches to load everyone on them.

The trip gave us a chance to really see the countryside. There were a lot of naked boys and rice fields. Houses on stilts and water buffalo. Even though people are poor, at least they have rice.

On the way to the beach, Guh and the kids kept singing. It was nice, because all their songs sounded happy. A stark contrast to most American Christian songs, which sound so somber and "woe is me".

After a ways on the pavement, we made a turn on to a dirt path. the dirt path just got bumpier and bumpier. It was to the point where it was difficult to sit and I had to use my knees as shocks. The ride was especially hard on the kid next to me. Not before long, he started hurling.

We arrived at our destination and it was a short walk to the "beach". The water looked especially suspect. It was all brown and didn't look healthy at all. We later learned that the water definately was not healthy, and most likely, infected with the HIV. This was all unbeknownest to us as it entered our mouths and noses.

They put some mats down and sang some songs. Then Patrick gave a short message about baptism and choosing who to serve, God or Satan.

The kids were really excited and pretty much hit the water right away. It was funny because some of them wore life vests, even while we were back at the school, they were rocking the vests. It became even funnier when we learned that the water was only a little more than waste deep at its deepest point.

About 20 kids got in a line to get baptised. Jeff dunked, while I took pictures. When the kid came out of the water, Cher, Chaan, and Guh would pray over them. It was a great blessing to see so many people choose Jesus. Later, Jeff shared that after these baptisms, a good number of them stop going to church. Hopefully, the majority of these baptisms are "genuine". We really won't know 'til it's all over.

HIV Water

It was getting pretty hot, so we decided to get in the water and try to cool off. There were these low hanging branches near the river bank. The cliffs were kind of climbable which made me miss New Jersey.

After lunch, it was back in the water. I met this one girl in the water that played this zombie game, where she would try to eat me. She would grab a leg or arm and pull me through the water. I also got to do some Cambodian Kickboxing with her. As I performed a suplex on her, the water came up over my face and knocked my sunglass clip-ons off and they were gone.

The whole zombie game tired me out big time, so I went back on the beach. It wasn't long before Jeff and I got some bad sun burn. Not soon after, we made our way back to Kampong Chnang.

It was a good chance to relax and get away. It was especially good for the kids because they don't really get to do stuff like this that often.

Tomorrow, I will get a chance to see Cambodians worship our Lord.

Cambodia: Day 2

2006-08-11T23:31:00.000-04:00

Start at the beginning.

Good Morning Cambodia!

It's funny. When you sleep in a room with no windows, it's hard to tell what time it is. We were supposed to get a call at 6 AM, but we didn't and ended up waking at 7. Not much time for Devos or breakfast.

We stopped by this little shop and got some pork and rice. Simple breakfast but tasty. Two for $3 USD. Hard to beat that.

We made our way to the church to do some Bible study. Before we got started, we played a small game. It was the one where you one person had to guess who the leader was while everyone else copied the leader.

The Bible study was about worship and music. Specifically, how music can be used for worship, but music, by itself, wasn't worship. As I looked around at the kids, it seemed like they were kind of disinterested in the Bible study. It was probably because it had to be translated, so it broke up the flow of the study.

Learning Things for the First Time

Afterwards, Jeff showed me his Khmer book and I started learning some basic Khmer. I learned how to say I, My name is, and I'm from. Khmer is an interesting language. I haven't really gotten in to the grammer of it yet, but it's hard to pronounce.

I got the chance to learn how to ride the motor-scooters. It was pretty scary. As you try and maintain control, you pull on the throttle which just makes you go more out of control. After a few minutes, it became less unwieldy. Jeff got on the backseat and I tried to drive around, but it was infinitely more difficult.

Light for Living

We headed back to Light for Living to just hang out a bit. I was introduced to a new fruit that left my mouth sort of dry and catspawy. I got to meet a whole mess of people. Chaan, Cherr, Vinna, and a few others. Chaan is crazy. She has this psycho laugh that's just hilarious. Cherr has really good english.

Flat

On the way back from dropping of Soekna, Jeff got a flat. We watched as the guy scraped the inner tube, set fire to the inner tube, and generally performed his dark arts to repair the tube. As he was filling it with air, the thing popped! We ended up having to buy another tire sans inner tube.

While we were waiting, Chaan bought me this weird fruit. It was a little sour, which didn't really bother me. But the texture was really stringy. It made the whole thing taste funny.

Beef Noodle Soup

For lunch, we went to the beef noodle soup shop. It was pretty good. The soup reminded me a lot of pho, except for the noodles. Chaan tried to trick me and suck on a lime straight, but I showed her my sour skills and did it without flinching. I tried to take a picture of one of the girls working, but she was shy and ran off. It was already a hot blistering day. The hot soup didn't make things any better. I also had the opportunity to try fresh guava.

One of the things I noticed, is how all the fruit tastes kind of gritty.

Enemy Territory

Then, it was off to the temple. We met up with Mr. Soak, one of the monks, who was kind enough to open up the temple for us. We went in with his class to see the paintings. The entire place was painted with these stories. Each painting is worth around 100$. There was this one mural that was worth over 1500$. We hung out outside the temple a bit. A few of the girls taught me Khmer.

One of the girls named Gentoo is really cute. She has these pretty pretty eyes when she smiles.

As we were taking Mr. Soak to his class, we got another flat. This time, we got two holes. Luckily, we were right next to some guys who fixed tires. This time, the bike still felt a little wobbly.

We got a chance to stop by the hotel and take a quick shower and sit in the AC for a few minutes. Then, it was off to teach guitar and music.

Guitar Club

Teaching music was so painful. We had to go through notes, beats in a measure, counting, all in broken english. Even in the advanced class, we had to teach how to read music.

Jeff had asked me to bring some intermediate and advanced guitar books from the states. I stopped by a local music shop and the guy suggested this series. I brought the beginner, intermediate, and advanced and was glad I did. We barely got through the first few pages of the beginner's book.

When we tried to teach them the staff, they kept associating it with the guitar strings. It was so hard to try and explain to them that they were two different things. The problem was compounded by the language barrier. At least we were able to teach them how to count beats and clap a few simple bars.

Substitute

After dinner, we went to Grace School. They threw me in to one of the classes. I didn't really know what I was doing, so I just started going through the book that they had. I had to slow down my english a lot in order for them to understand me.

Teaching was really hard because I was already tired. I wasn't used to speaking slowly yet, so I don't know how much got across to them.

After a long hard day, it's time to rest. Lee-a seun hai-ee!

Cambodia: Day 1

2006-08-10T23:14:00.000-04:00

Start at the beginning.

Flight

It was a long flight. Newark to Seattle. Seattle to Taipei. 5 hour delay before Taipei to Phnom Penh. While I was waiting at Taipei airport, I met this girl name Nealy. She's Cambodian and Christian and Texan, imagine that. It was nice making a friend and having someone to chat with. The introductions began when she noticed that I wasn't Cambodian.

After awhile, I whipped out my cards and got some people together to play. We started off with some 13 cards, moved on to Big2, and then some Hold'em. Hold'em was kind of silly and stupid.

As I was flying over Cambodia, I saw huge veins of brown, which, I'm assuming, are rivers and streams. All across the countriside were rice patties and farms. As we approached Phnom Penh, you could see the huts on stilts.

One thing I noticed right away was the construction of the huts. In Honduras, they were more like shanty houses. Curriagated sheet metal and wood, hobbled together to form what resembled a building. These huts looked as if they followed a plan. They still looked cheap, but much better constructed.

Jeff was waiting for me at the airport and we headed out to Kampong Chnang. Our journey was waylaid by the Prime Minister of Thailand. We saw his motorcade coming down the road. Police cars, miliatry police, police scooters, all protecting a few S-classes. Once they finally passed, we journeyed on.

Trip to Kampong Chnang

In the car, we talked about Cambodia and its situation. We saw huge Budhist temples sponsored by the state. We also passed the Dovenor's estate which covered 4 square kilometers.

Further from the city, the huts became more sparce. They were replaced by rice patties. Every once in awhile, you would see another temple.

We finally arrived in Kampong Chnang. We dropped Jeff off at Grace School while I went back to the hotel to drop off my stuff. The place is nice. It's better than a lot of the hotels I stayed at in the states. We have two huge beds, tv, and a mini-fridge.

Hello Grace School

When I got to the school, Jeff introduced me to the class. He had the kids ask me questions in english. The questions were basic and I had to control my speech so it was slow and clear. Afterwards, Jeff got back to the lesson.

Surprise Buns

Class dismissed and it was time for dinner. We stopped by the roadside and picked up some steamed buns. I was kind of expecting the traditional chinese bun, but it was very different. I found a few whole peppercorns, which suprised me, and some eggshell, which surprised me more. It isn't that the buns are bad, they're just different.

The adventure begins.

Honduras - Day 14

2005-08-26T17:42:00.000-04:00

Honduras - Day 14

Linshuang's blog for Wey:
So today is the last day in Honduras.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

>_< Wey thinks he is constipated. the >_<, not him. I don't know if this is actually clarifying. oh well.

whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
two weeks....
woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosh

dumdeedumdoo
lalalalalalalaaaaaaa

Wey says he's going to miss...

"lista, Luis?"

brillar intermitentemente

"todo, no, todo, no, todo, no"

Senor Ita

Great minds... right?

Things Wey won't miss...

punto de venta

inventario

fiestas

You should come next time.

Honduras - Day 13

2005-08-25T17:41:00.000-04:00

Linshuang's blog for Wey:
Because I am usually translating Spanish into English for Wey, I accidently translated English into English for Wey. I noticed it first. He was kind of slow.
We bought anafres. Authentic anafres.
We ate corn cupcakes. Nahum wanted to eat the wrappers.
We drew pictures of the Synergy team and some Scripture Union people.
We did not have beef stew.
I took a cool picture of Wey squatting.
That's all of note.

Honduras - Day 12

2005-08-24T17:40:00.000-04:00

With the end of our trip quickly looming, we struggle to figure out how to leave with something in place for the bookstore's POS. We decided that we're going to try and get the inventory into their existing Quickbooks system but we keep having the nagging issue of the quantities not being imported.

After breakfast, Ernesto went off to do children's ministry for the day. I stayed in the room getting the script to update the quantities based on the transactions that they were keeping track of by hand.

For lunch, we decided to go to the beef stew place. It's been awhile, so we were eager to have the stew. Unfortunately, they didn't have stew today. Instead, they had this marvelous chicken dish. Linshuang and I just inhaled it it was so good.

When we were done eating, we asked if we could take a picture of them. We talked about how it was some of the best food we had in Honduras. It was all kind of silly. I started talking about how I would love to buy them up and start a restaurant in the states. As we talked, that idea began to solidify. We got their recipe for the two of their chicken dishes along with exchange of some methods of communication.

Donna, the cook and the owner shared that her mom and one of her brothers were actually out in jersey. Her mom works at a carwash in Morristown! What a coincidence. If I were to do this, pretty much the only thing keeping me back would be capital. The one thing that every business needs. I need to pray about this more and think about the ramifications if this is something that I really want to do. It may not happen right away, but it may one day.

After lunch, Linshuang and I went shopping for a little bit. Nothing really intrigued us at any of the stores. For the quality, the clothes were actually pretty expensive.

Then it was off to the office. I worked on trying to get Quickbooks to import the inventory, but it still wasn't accepting the quantities. I wasn't there for a long before the power went out. I headed over to the office to hang out with Linshuang.

The office didn't have any power either, but I continued to work on my laptop for a bit. As I was working, Juan tried to teach Linshuang how to properly pronounce todo. I was able to pick it up on my third try without really paying attention. They were laughing at Linshuang because her todo sounds like toro in Spanish.

We waited for training to come around, but the power was out so we called it a nite. We headed back to the Hotel which was running off of generated power. Usually, Linshuang and I sit at the bench outside our doors. Today, we decided to do something a little different and sat on the sofa on the second floor. It just wasn't the same as the bench. The view was different and the sofa kind of smelled a bit.

We had dinner and I managed to get out to the internet cafe and blog a bit. I chatted with Ben for a bit. It's been good to periodically connect to people I know and care about every once in awhile. Reminds me of home.

I went back to the hotel and worked more on the importing. Some stuff isn't working right and I don't know why.

Keep praying for the POS. We need to have something set up by the end of the week.

Honduras - Day 11

2005-08-23T22:26:00.000-04:00

The dog was up yelping again last night. I had the foresight to listen to my iPod last night. The combination of the noise reduction earphones and Enya really helped.

This was my second day out doing children's ministry. The school that we went to this time was very different from the other one. The other school was out in the middle of no where and very run down. This school was the polar opposite. The school was very cool and very clean. One of the things that I noticed, walking around, was that all the classrooms had posters with various English words on it. Some of them had things such as verb forms. Others were just letters with associated animals.

Obviously, this school was very wealthy compared to a lot of the other schools in the area. I learned later that it was actually a private school. No wonder they have so many funds. I even saw a computer lab tucked away in some corner.

When we got to the school, the kids were having some sort of recess or break. I thought it would've been a good opportunity to interact with the kids, but that didn't happen. I also saw a lot of kids with drums and drumsticks. There must be some sort of drum festival or something going on.

In between one of the sessions, I took Jesse to the bathroom. While I was waiting outside, I engaged conversation with a little boy named Carlos. The other school I was at, I was a big novelty and the kids didn't say much to me. This one was different. He was very eager to have an exchange. He slipped in a little English too and I was just amazed at how good his English was. It was far superior to my level of Spanish.

The last class we were at was the 6th grade class. Carlos actually happened to be in this class which was kind of cool. On one of the walls, there was a poster of the female reproductive system. There was also a picture of a sperm. I found this very odd to have up on the wall. The kids knew enough English that Joy was able to teach part of the lesson in English. It was a real blessing for her to be able to interact with the kids on a different level than just being behind a desk with puppets.

While we were going through our routine, I noticed Nahum off to the side. When he's in front of the kids, he's full of energy and very alive. But when he was sitting off to the side of the room, he looked almost sad. I don't know if it was just today or it was something that I had just failed to notice last week. I later found out that he had been experiencing a kind of headache all around his head for about a week now. I was awed by how he was able to still hold up in front of the kids with no visible signs of wear. He went to the doctor this afternoon to get checked out, so hopefully, he's alright.

After the class, we got ready to leave. The principal of the school invited us in to her office to give us some thanks. She brought out some donuts and Pepsi for us. This is the first time to, my knowledge, that we got any kind of reward. Even though I was appreciative of the jesture, I was eager to leave. Blanca was taking us to a place to eat outside of town. She was the one that had introduced us to the beef stew in the market, so I had high expectations for this place.

We headed out there and the place was very nice. Unlike most of the shops in Siguatepeque, it was more formal. It was a buffet, but they served you the food. When you go to the table, they took your tray and placed your food for you. It was all very different from what I was used to, not only here, but in the states as well.

I was expecting the food to be good, but it wasn't really. Some of it was, but the protein I chose, pork chop, pressed chicken, a strip of beef, was all very tough. The flavor seemed okay, but it was a chore to cut and chew. One of the best things there was this heavy white creamed pasta. It was good, but the tiny bit that I took was really filling. I barely touched my plate and I was full.

Around the restaurant were various cages with animals inside. There was one cage with macaws, another with ducks and tucans, and yet another with turtles. Blanca told us that there were peacocks out back. We went to see them along with geese and rooster and chickens. There was also a cage with two pumas in it.

One of the really interesting things we saw was a guy roasting coffee. We got to see the raw plant that was put into this medieval looking cast iron ice cream churner that roasted the beans. There was also a nice pile of beans off to the side that were already done. The aroma was fabulous and he was kind enough to let us touch the beans and take a picture of him.

We went back to Siguatepeque and I pretty much collapsed and fell asleep. There was stuff that I was supposed to do, but I was just way too tired. I napped for about an hour when the power went out. I tried sleeping a little longer, but the heat was just too much for me. I decided that I should give it a shot anyway and went to the bookstore to see if they had power.

It was odd because there were some shops that seemed to have power. Their lights were on or they were blasting music in to the street, so it didn't really make sense to me where they got their power. The power was out at the bookstore too. I went back to the hotel to pick up the Myers-Briggs book to read. When I got back to the bookstore, power had returned. The store was a little busy, so I sat down and read.

As I was reading about the personality type that Ethan was supposed to fall under, I realized that a lot of it was describing my personality. I know that I'm an XXTJ, but I thought I leaned more towards the S rather than the N. But according to this description, I'm a pretty strong N too. The more I read about this stuff, the harder it is for me to peg what the source of the conflict is. I was sharing this with Linshuang and she commented that it may have nothing to do with personality. It may have something to do with the other person. That was something I hadn't thought of and was definately a possibility.

I didn't get to read for too long before the computers were freed up. I backed up the critical files and tried installing Quickbooks 2005. Alas, it required administrative access to install. I asked Blanca if she knew the password, and she didn't. We contacted Marlon, who not only wrote the POS but who also set up the computers too. He gave us a password that didn't work. We called back and got another one which didn't work.

I had seen Marlon log in to his own username last week, so I knew that that worked. I asked Blanca to contact him and get the password for that account. No go. He did manage to tell me how to get in to safe mode. I did that and was able to create a new account with administrative rights. I logged in to this account and installed Quickbooks 2005.

Marlon had told us that his POS could be interfaced by Quickbooks. I was skeptical because that would mean that Intuit provided an API for other people to use to interface with their software. Considering that Intuit has their own POS software, I find this very unlikely. Still, I gave it a try. Nothing.

I had basically spent the last two hours, if not the last week trying to get this POS working to no avail. It was 6 O'Clock, time for training. We called it a day and went off to the office. I was going to play with Jesse and Grace, but Linshuang was overwhelmed by the number of people in her class so I went to provide my great pointing skills and broken Spanish along with my moral support.

This was a really fun group. We laughed a lot and joked around a lot which made the training very enjoyable. Linshuang had to pretty much teach two classes because she had two computers. The people on the one were picking it up fairly quickly, while the other was kind of straggling behind. I could tell that it was all very taxing for her, so I did my best to keep her spirits up by being goofy. It seemed to work. If nothing else, it made her laugh.

After dinner, we had our debrief. It's crazy how fast you can go from being encouraged by a weekend to being so discouraged by what happened in one day. After a little more than a weeks worth of work, we basically had nothing to show for the POS. To add to that, we may have made things worse by introducing them to different software and scrapping what they had been working towards. Granted, the POS that they had was a POS, but even if it were working, I don't know if it would be a good recommendation for them to use it. Just dealing with Marlon today has been a horrifying experience.

One of the things that I hate to be, is a burden. Whether it be emotionally, financially, spiritually, or physically, I don't like to be a burden on people. I do my best to be self sufficient or to do things on my own. I'll ask others for assistance only if I really need it. Basically what we were doing was telling them to spend all this money to get a system that they should of already had. My recommendation is to not to move to the new version of Quickbooks but to try and get the inventory that's in the POS into their existing Quickbooks. Whether this is possible or not, is something else.

On the bright side of things, Joy's mom is better. All the people that have seen her are testifying that, for all intents and purposes, Joy's mom is back to normal. Praise God. Even admist this discouragement, he still gives us something that we can really praise him for.

So there's a lot that still needs to be prayed about.

We need to have a solution for the POS.
Training is going well, but it is very taxing on Linshuang. Pray for energy and focus.
Children's ministry is very taxing for me. Even though I'm not really interacting with the kids much, I am just really tired when it's done.
Jesse and Grace have been really good, pray that they continue to be in good spirits and high energy.
Pray for Nahum and his health.
Continue to pray for Ethan and Forward.
Continue to pray that I would receive my confirmation.

Honduras - Day 10

2005-08-22T22:24:00.000-04:00

We woke up bright and early to leave Copan. Ishmael had to be back to Siguatepeque by 2 O'Clock so he could get to work by 5:30.

The ride was very pleasant. We got to see the country side and take some good pictures of the moments around Copan. The ride also gave me a chance to really think about the events of the previous night and evaluate where I would be if this was where God was calling me.

I thought about things like getting a horse and just kind of riding around. I also thought about getting a solar panel to charge my various electronic devices. I thought about the myriad of opportunities all around the world for me to go. As an Asian, I have the unique opportunity to do things and to go to places traditional white missionaries wouldn't have access to.

I also thought about different ways that my skills and talents that God had given me could be used out in the field. I thought about boostrapping the work with what I was doing back in the states or even being a tent maker and going that route.

There's so much out there that I could do and that needs to be done. I understand the risk and know that not all of it will be fun and sunshine. But no matter how dangerous or how fruitless the excursion, my responsibility is to obey. Like Abraham and Isaac, Abraham obeyed as difficult as it was for him.

We got back to Siguatepeque, rested for a little bit, and headed out for lunch. We were eager to have some beef stew but they had closed down for the day. We went over to Gloria's to have lunch.

In the middle of lunch, Joy came down and had a small argument with Ernesto about preparing some materials for training that night. It was awkward for Linshuang and I to sit in on this exchange as there were valid arguments on both sides.

After lunch, Linshuang went to the office to work on her Excel training. Ernesto and I went up stairs to finish up the Quickbooks importing. This was really the first time that I got to work with Quickbooks for any length of time. And I have to say, it's not a very good product. It's clunky and lacks a lot of simple features you would think a system like this would have. Then again, I haven't really tried anything else yet, so I'll have to see.

Then I was off to the internet to upload four days worth of entries and chat it up with a few friends. I managed to chat with M, who I miss dearly, for a little bit. It was hard because of her DSL and the connection I had. But we managed to chat a little bit.

I also got to chat with Jamie and talk to her about the whole idea of full-time missionary. It was good. She put a lot of things in perspective and reassured me on how to look for God's confirmation.

It was pretty late by the time I got out of the internet, so I headed over to the office to give my moral support to the trainers. Jesse and Grace were there so I hung out with them for the time. Grace and I competed in drawing things with pen and crayon and having Jesse guess what they were. I had drawn a picture of Trogdor that Jesse really liked.

After dinner, we debriefed and took a Meyers-Briggs personality test. I had taken tests like this before online but never really thought much about them. If you know the test, I ended up being an XXTJ leaning closer towards an XSTJ. It was actually very interesting learning about this and seeing how the various personality types interact with each other.

One of the things that we applied the test to was my conflict with Ethan. Based on what I knew of him, we guessed his personality type and looked him up. The description in the book was 80% Ethan. We also talked about different strategies to use to try and resolve the conflict issue. It was all very good and encouraging.

One of the things that I thought about was how Satan may have been involved in creating the conflict to try and keep us from doing our work. From the outset, we had said that we wanted to do this "...for the glory of God". And you know how much Satan likes those sort of things. We prayed and was confortably armed with some new approaches to interacting with Ethan.

Both Joy and Ernesto turned in while Linshuang and I stayed up to chat some more. We talked in more depth and detail the conflict between Ethan and I. We also talked about some of the philosophies that Forward holds in terms of how we run the business.

It was all just a great time chatting and sharing about different things that we had experienced and had learned. Things that we had thought about or had found interesting. It was very good.

One of the best things about this night was the time of prayer that we had. There was something about Copan that has really invigorated my prayer life. It feels so real and so close to me. I haven't felt this good about my prayer life in a while. Hopefully, God will keep it up and bless me with even more.

Honduras - Day 9

2005-08-21T19:20:00.000-04:00

I woke up bright and early for our trip out to the Mayan ruins. We want to get out as early as we can to try and beat the tourist rush. It's also one of he better times to take pictures because the light isn't as harsh.

The breakfast served at the B&B is fantastic. They have fresh bread every morning, omelets, fresh fruit, and this papaya pineapple drink that is lovely. Their coffee is really good too. A lot of flavor and a lot of character.

We were all eager to head out to the ruins. Even though they aren't that far from the B&B, it was still a good 30 minute walk. We figured that it would be better if we drove.

As we suspected, we had pretty much beat most of the tourists. An old man named Antonio came over and offered his services as a tour. He spoke a little bit of Chinese which was pleasant. We weren't so sure if we needed a guide, but his rate was fairly cheap, so we figured, why not.

We started off down the trail and saw some macaw's sitting on the entrance fense. We took a few pictures, but we didn't want to waste too much time out here.

The map of the ruins made the place seem huge. There were massive fields and these large structures kind of breaking the surface of that flat open expanse. Our first destination was the area of the upper class. Linshuang and I were just picture crazy, snapping away at everything we could. I think we ended up with a lot of similar shots.

As we got to the main area of the upper class, the sun was starting to come out. The temperature in the shade was fine, but once out in the sun, you began to really sweat.

Throughout this time, the guide did his best to share about the various things. We were so trigger happy with our cameras that we pretty much ignored him. It wasn't until after the upper class that we started listening to him more.

Linshuang and I actually had a really odd experience where two "local" girls asked to have their picture taken with us. At first, I thought they wanted us to take a picture of them. Little did I realize that we were such a novelty that people would want us in their photographs.

We got to the main temple area where the steps that you see on all Mayan or Aztec or Inca temples are. The area was covered in a shrowd. There happened to be a large contingent from one of the local schools out to visit the ruins. Our guide used us as one of the little factoids about the Mayans. He explained how a lot of the language in the Mayan culture was very similar to Chinese. The whole group would alternately look at Anotonio and Linshuang and I as we tried to mind our own business and feel like such a show.

I actualy learned a lot and started talking with our guide more. As we approached the field where they played their games of death, we were just unloading on him with questions about the culture and a lot of other stuff.

It's interesting to see the cultural influences in the art. We saw this one statue who's face looked very similar to that of the faces on chinese statues. I don't know if it was the power of suggestion, but I could definately see it.

It made me wonder about the whole flood and how people expanded from that one insident in history to the various parts of the world. I know the whole theory about the land bridge, but what I've read recently is that scientists are thinking that people got over here through other routes. Maybe by boat or something.

The sun had risen pretty high and the kids were getting tired. We headed back to the town square to go to the museum but the kids wanted to go to the butterfly garden. I was in need of swim trunks or shorts for the hot springs later in the day. Linshuang and I opted out of the museum and went shopping instead.

On the way back from the ruins, I introduced Linshuang and Grace to Black Magic. Grace was just utterly consumed by the game and took every chance she had to pick my brain and try and figure it out. She actually did a fair job of piecing a lot of it together. She just had a really hard time making the logical connection for the final piece.

We seperated and I found my shorts rather quickly. The first two shops that we hit up actually didn't have anything. But the third one was the charm. Not only did they have shorts, they had them in my size too. Rock.

With our quest complete, Linshuang and I decided to adventure through the streets of Copan. We just meandered up and down random streets chatting away and just having a good time. A lot about Copan reminds me of San Francisco. You have these ultra hilly streets made of rock or cobblestone. They're not as wide, but they have that same feel.

We came back to the B&B to change and head out. We were going to go to the macaw park, but decided against it and decided to just go out to the hot springs instead.

On the ride, I kept Grace occupied with Black Magic. Joy started getting really annoyed I think partly due to the fact that she couldn't get it. Either that or that her kids were being so incessant about this stupid little game.

The clues that I had been giving out made the game pretty obvious and Linsuang picked it up. we started teasing the kids by having them choose an object and having her guess if it was it. This just made their heads spin even more.

It wasn't long before Joy actually figured out the rule and blabbed it to the whole car. Grace was satisfied and content to sit the rest of the ride. I, however, was not. I began introducing a bevy of new games such as, Snaps, Is this a moon, and Can you play this game. They seem to like Snaps, but again, I was making it fairly simple. Linshuang actually was able to pick it up fairly well.

We got to the hot springs and was kind of underwhelmed. The place looked kind of rickety and almost run down. Delapidated my be used for the facilities. The ground was very muddy making it harrowing journey whenver I ventured off any of the concrete islands.

Our first course of action was to go up to the source of the springs which can reach up to 82*C. We made the 250 M trek out there and passed right by the source. We stopped, but wasn't particularly impressed, so moved on. It wasn't until we reached the beginning that we realized that that, was it. We went back, obligated to take more pictures. We kind of looked at it and just left it for what it was. To the river.

We came down to the river and saw a nice cluster of people sitting in a small cove on the other bank. We slowly made our way across the raging current and sharp rocks to the outlet of the hot springs. The water was cold, but there were parts that were also burning hot right next to the outlet. Inside the cove, it was a little better.

There were waves of icy cold mixed with waves of burning hot that made the whole experience really unique. There were also points where your top body would be warm but your lower body cold. It was an amazing sensation.

There was this little girl, not two years old, that was intent on spashing water on me. Apparently, I looked like her dad. Interesting, considering early in the day, we had talked about the connection between Mayans and Chinese culture.

We got into a nice rythm with the water between bouts of burning hot and frigid cold. But after awhile, the sensation becomes normalized and you just get bored. The smell of sulfer starts getting to you too.

We headed out of the river and jumped in one of the pools that was warmed with the hot spring. It was pleasant, but nothing like being in the river.

It was getting late, so we started heading back down the mountain. Linshuang and I were stuck in the back with our wet swim gear and popped on the iPod. For a good thirty minutes or so, we just sang together and worshipped our God. Even though we couldn't hear each other or ourselves, it was still a great time.

I think worshipping with someone is one of the most intimate things you can do. No where else is someone so vulnerable, authentic, or real. This is where you really present yourself before God in a deliberate fashion. It was a great time.

We got back to the hotel and I promptly jumped in the shower. The river, or the hot springs had left some decidedly gross things on my body which I was eager to leave behind. Even though the water was warm and clean and soothing, it didn't really compare to the sensation from the hot spring.

After the shower, I went up to the terrace to watch the impending rain. Looking at the sky, you could see the remnants of a beautiful day being run away by the angry rain clouds.

Somehow, through the various games we had played in the car, I really bonded with Grace. For most of the trip, we didn't talk much or at all. Now, sitting out on the terrace, she was very eager to talk about stuff. Pretty much anything. It was nice experiencing God answering prayers. I didn't really have to change anything about me and here I was, connecting in different ways that I didn't think I could connect.

Just as it started raining, we were off to dinner. Howard recommended this grill that offered both fish and beef. Linshuang and I were dying for seafood after being trapped under the rock hard beef and overdone chicken. This place was amazing. There was this nice big grill with real charcoal, not briquettes or propane, but real carbon. They also had a thing to pump air in to the charcoal to make it really hot. The fact that the grill was cast iron helped too. I knew instantly that the food here was going to be amazing.

Not so amazing, but still mildly amusing, is the waiteresses carry everything on their heads. Drinks, anafre bowls, plates, you name it, one is on their head if they can.

Linshuang and I, of course, ordered the fish. We both had a hankering for other meat as well. Conveniently, there was an appetizer that offered the other animals for your consumption. we got a small sampling of beef, chicken, and pork. The grill added so much flavor and sealed in so many of the animals' juices (yes, it doesn't really "seal" the juice in, but they sure were tasty) and so much character from the searing.

When the fish came, we were just amazed at how tender the fish was. It was grilled to perfection. The taste of the fish was fantastic as well. It's so hard to describe the taste of it, you just have to come down here and have it sometime.

Linshuang and I have become pretty chummy in the last few days. It's pretty natural for the two of us to just ramble on and chat with each other for hours. When we sat down at the restaurant, we couldn't sit together. Instead of breaking up the family, we offered to sit by ourselves.

Ishmael, our driver and Mario's older brother, who drove us around to the various schools for childrens minstry, was pretty quiet most of the time. I would like to communicate, but I can't even formulate good small talk to carry on anything meaningful. But we took it upon ourselves to make the effort. Linshuang would be the main communicator translating between us. It's hard participating in translated conversation, but I was content with my fish.

We wrapped up and went back to our hotel. Just as I was typing this up, the power went out. Again. Howard came by and knocked on our window, offering us candles. Nothing like writing by candlelight.

It's been a really lovely day. I got to experience things that were just gorgeous and amazing. I keep thinking about God and all the things that He's made for us to enjoy. Even if we didn't enjoy it, the sheer creation of it is enjoyment for him.

I was able to connect with Grace in a completely unexpected way hopefully leading to something lasting. Linshuang and I have grown rather tight over the last few days and I don't think that would happen in other circumstances. God has also brushed under the rug a lot of the personality clash between Ernesto and I. God has also planted the seeds for greater things to come that I can't even concieve.

Addendum:
I was sitting outside on the terrace just enjoying God and his creation. It was a little cold, but nothing I couldn't handle. I listened to the rain drops as they splattered off of leaves and the roof. Then slowly and yet suddenly, it stopped. There were light droplets from leaf runoff or roof runoff, but the rain had stopped. The wind stopped but the windchime kept singing.

As I sat there longer, I could hear the water still running off in the far distance. I could hear dogs barking. I could hear gecko's croking and insects buzzing. As I listened closer, I heard God speak. Not a booming voice. Not even a whisper. Just gentley, "Come here".

At that moment, I was staring out in to one of the valleys. I don't know which direction I was facing, but in my heart, it was out to the field. I was being called to full-time missions. It scared me.

I kept looking out at the sky fighting it. I thought about all the things that I had, the toys, the clothes, the friends. Then I thought about all that I was working on, Forward, Drama ministry, College ministry. Then I thought about all the things that I wanted for my life. To be financially secure, to have a family, to settle down. And I thought, "No, God, I can't".

As I said that over and over in my mind, I knew it wasn't because I couldn't but because I didn't want to. As that change happened I could barely take it. The feeling was so true, so real, so loud, I couldn't ignore it. I kneeled and prayed that He would confirm it. That He would open and close doors for me if this were his will. For my heart to change.

If I claim to worship the God of creation, then I will do as he says, no matter how great the personal loss. I may not like it, but I have to.

I knelt down fighting with God, thinking about everything that I would have to leave behind. And the thing that I realized that would be hardest for me, was giving up M. It would be unfair of me to ask her to come out to the field with me. She didn't know that this was something that was going to happen to me when she got in a relationship with me. At the same time, this may not be what God wants for her. And for me to realize that I had to be willing to even give her up for God was really hard. I might go to some forsaken country and never see her again. But this is the God of all that is.

I wept quietly to myself, unsure of how to proceed. I don't even know where I'm supposed to go, let alone how to get there. If this is really God speaking to me and not just spur of the moment feeling, then He will confirm it. He will make it unbearably clear that this is what I have to do. He will change my life and mold it in such a way that I will fulfill His will. Rather than being forced in to this, I want to be a part of it. If this is really God's will for me, than so be it.

It was hard to come to this conclusion, to be willing to give up everything. But the God of creation is worth it.

Keep me in your prayers. Pray that God may reveal himself to me and confirm his calling. Pray that I will be obedient to listen and die to myself. Pray that God may be glorified through my obedience or disobedience. Pray for M, as this will be hard for her.

Honduras - Day 8

2005-08-20T19:18:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Linshuang for blogging for me when I was incapable of it. We've had a good time at our bench, chatting and getting to know each other. Sort of our physical common ground.

My stomach is much better today. Still hurts a bit, but no bad BM or really bad nausea. If the nausea was a result of the antibiotics, I'm not really feeling it anymore.

I didn't get much sleep last night. There was a dog outside in tremendous pain. It kept wailing and crying all night long. It woke me up on four seperate occasions. At first, I felt bad for it. But after awhile, I just wanted it to die so I could sleep.

Breakfast was simple, one pancake with nothing on it, toast, and hot water. The hurting man's diet. It's a good day. Feeling sort of refreshed, the stomach's keeping the food down, and we're headed off to Copan to see the Mayan temple. I'm not looking forward to the five hour drive, but I have my trusty iPod with me, which should make it bearable.

We all piled in to this rickety van that we were using to be shuttled to the schools everyday. It wasn't too bad because we weren't packed to capacity. Linshuang left me stranded in the middle seat to sit up front with the driver. With no real companion, I had no choice but to turn to my iPod. It was good, it gave me a chance to catch up on some trance that I had downloaded.

The drive was beautiful. I kept on trying to take pictures of the rolling hills and mountains, but trees kept on getting in the way. I eventually got a pretty good shot of the hills with a nice lake in front of it. Most of the other shots weren't worth keeping.

Two hours into our trip, we stopped for lunch. Since we had been driving with 260 AC, as Jimmy would call it, we hadn't really noticed that the temperature had changed so dramatically. Sequadepeque is really mild and temperate, not too hot nor humid. Up here, it was the complete opposite. Just standing outside for a few minutes and I had begun sweating.

We packed lunchmeats for the ride because there weren't a lot of good places to stop and eat. I wasn't sure if it would be good on my stomach, considering the oils from the ham and all, but I ended up eating two sandwiches. Not raelly eating for a day makes one mighty hungry.

One of the things that we had noticed on the way up was the mass assortment of shanty houses and street vendors. Small farmers with fruits ready to sell to any trucker or driver by. There were also a few kids that were sent out to sell tortillas and other goods. There was one stand in particular that was different than all the others. It was a small bundle of fish, just kind of hanging there. Of course, I had to take a picture.

There was also a lot of construction on the way up that slowed down the drive. The construction workers would wait for a whole mess of cars to pile up before letting any one of them by.

We continued on after lunch and entered a fairly large city. I would say it's probably half the size of Tegucigalpa. Not very interesting, but it was surprising how suddenly it appeared out of the lush landscape.

It wasn't long until we were back in the mountains winding our way to our destination. Along the way, we hit at least two rain systems. It's intersting how the rain just kind of wanders across the country. This is supposed to be the dry season and it's rained at least everyday.

On the way up, we passed a place called "Formosa". I know of two Formosas. The island of Taiwan and the company started and named after it. I knew my dad had come out to Honduras ages ago. Whether it was part of his stint at Formosa or before, I didn't know. It's something I'm going to have to ask him when I get to heaven. Either that or ask my mom when I get home.

Finally, we arrived in Copan, just as well too because my iPod batts were running on empty. This is a beautiful little town. The kind of place that you see in movies and that is advertised to tourists. It's obviously a tourist trap because of all the various venders selling pretty much the same shoddy wears trying to pass them off as authentic. The few things that really caught my eye, rather, my nose, was the smell of burning flesh. These two old ladies had stations of meat on a stick. Most likely chicken or pork or other various meat products. This is the kind of stuff that I love. Local authentic fair.

We arrived at our Bed & Breakfast after a harrowing ride over steep cobblestone hills. Just seeing the sign and the cast iron gate wrapped by adobe was breathtaking. There were these lush bushes of red flowers hanging over the wall that just made the place so inviting. The view from the street was spectacular and Linshuang and I just started snapping away like turtles.

The B&B was just as nice as the exterior had indicated. Everything was impecably clean, very different from all the other places we had been. It was very quaint and almost stereotypically mexican. Again, the type of thing you see in movies and paintings. The location is just breathtaking. When you come out of the room, you overlook the countryside and its rolling hills. You see vast fields of open tracks of land and you're just amazed by the sure beauty of it.

The place itself is a wonder too. Everything's so quiet and inviting. There's a hamoch out in front of every room that you can just kind of lounge around in and do nothing. There's small tables and chairs that you can sit and have coffee or tea or maybe a margarita. It's no wonder considering this place is called "Casa de Cafe" or the House of Coffee. There's a small sheet in the room that advertises this place as having the best and cheapest coffee in town. Something I definately can't miss.

Just taking in the surroundings, I knew that I could stay here for a whole week. I already knew what my plan would be too. To just sit back and do nothing. That sounds like paradise. I'm definately going to come back here sometime and just enjoy being.

We weren't at the B&B for long before we were all eager to hit the streets and take in all that the city had to offer. Not two blocks from the B&B was an internet cafe. Down another block was an internet cafe and laundry. Out by the town square there was an internet cafe and market. Now this was living.

The thing that struck us immediately was how touristy this place was. The venders on the street to the venders in the stores, all schlocking the same crappy wares. But we were already trapped. We were inthralled by the beauty of the land and the quiet pace of the city. People aren't rushing around needing to be places. People are just enjoying themselves and life. Everything is just so well kept. If you didn't know better, you would think you were in a reproduction somewhere in the states.

Everywhere I walk, I see hamochs and hamoch chairs. I'm so tempted to buy one, but I know that there would be no real way for me to get it home. The hamoch would easily take up my whole luggage.

Looking at the other wares, none of it really inspires me to drop down coin for it. If I'm here and I'm going to spend money, I want to purchase something authentic. Everything had either velcro, zippers, or some sort of lining attached to it. All telltale signs that it was either manufactured in China or some other factory. What I'm looking for is something off the street. I want to buy and authentic sombrero from some guy. I want to buy a guy's poncho or murse right off his shoulders. I want something made in the back of someone's house with blood and sweat over them.

In one of the shops, Linshuang and I were eyeing the cigars. We wanted something authentic and what more so than hand rolled Honduran cigars? We also ventured in to a liquor shop and I eyed the various bottles of wine and hard liquer. If we weren't on missions, which prohibits drinking of this sort, I would have been more than glad to pick up a bottle and just enjoy.

The town square is just beautiful. It's impecably mancured and kept clean. I imagine during the day people just kind of hang out here and do nothing. I imagine people napping or laughing or meeting old friends.

It was getting late, so we ventured out to feed ourselves. The innkeeper (I can't get used to saying that, makes me feel so LOTR) suggested a place. Not to disregard our host, we gave it a shot. Initially, we were all shocked by how much the food cost. We were so used to dining for 1$-2$ USD a meal that 5$ USD seams outrageous. Granted, It's still comparable to US prices, but still, it was more than we were used to.

The first things that popped out at me were Guacomole and seafood. The town that we were in has a fish hatchery nearby that offers fresh servings of talapia. Unfortunately, the entree was fried and both Linshuang and I were on our hurting man's diet. We decided to go for the shrimp pasta. Even though it was offered in two different varieties, white and red, both were creamy. The shrimp were small, but very tasty.

Joy was kind enough to offer her fishhead to us for consumption. Linshuang had never had fisheyes before, so I thought that this was a good opportunity for her to fenture forth. A little disgusted by the extraction of the eye, she was good to her word and sucked on that eye.

It wasn't until I got back to the B&B that my stomach started bothering me. I don't know if it was from the fried foods that I had, but it wasn't terrribly painful. Tomorrow, more fish. Very tasty.

I am loving it out here. As nice as Sequadepeque was, this is just gorgeous.

So afterwards, we sat out by the lawn under the overhang and had some cigars. Some trusty handrolled in Honduras cigars. It was actually quite pleasant. Not something I would want to do all the time, but every once in awhile would be nice.

I guess this is more of our vacation time than missions time, so no prayer requests tonight.

Honduras - Day 7

2005-08-19T19:17:00.000-04:00

Hi, I'm Linshuang. (So weird random connection- I'm good friends with a guy who said he joined Penn IV because Wilson was his mentor). You kept reading about me in third person earlier on in Wey's blog entries but now he is so nautious that I have to blog for him.

So you're probably thinking- what did she do to Wey? Did she really want to write on his blog so badly that it merited poisoning his food? Well believe it or not, I did not poison his food- it was most likely a bad sunny-side up egg at the breakfast joint.

Rundown of the symptons: "A little after I ate, I had the uhoh I have to go kind of feeling. And then I went and it was hershey squirts. And then I went back, thought I was okay and then about an hour later, more squirts. This time it was much less pleasant. Then another half hour later, a little more squirting. Actually it was alot more squirting. So by now my ass is a little tender from the rough toilet paper I am dealing with. Along with the expulsion of water was the expulsion of all the energy in my body. After my fourth time I thought I was okay so I went to have beef stew. That was a bad decision" (clearly, this was due to the fact that the usual beef stew place we went to did not have beef stew. But the stand next to them eagerly marketed their stew, as equally 'delicioso' to us. But alas, they had lied. They had jealously seen our loyalty to the other beef stew place and coveted it for their own. Their soup was not quite the same. Not salty enough. They didn't put the rice inside. It just wasn't the same)

Symptons continued... "Post beef stew. Not surprisingly I had to go again and at that point, I took the pills my doctor gave me. Whether this was a good decision or not, remains to be determined."

Wey then tried to sleep all afternoon. At first his room without success because the traffic was so loud so I let him sleep in my room where there was not as much noise. But he still didn't fall asleep and he messed up my bed! Like Goldilocks! I'm sure it smells it bad too. The things I do for Jesus' love. (Oh btw, Wey also vomited. Ernesto and I heard all of it. He has quite an illustrative wreching sound in case any of you are wondering. He says "I could see bits of the beef stew in my vomit. And then when I tried to flush, bits of it splashed back up at me. Linshuang told me to wipe my chin." Good thing he didn't squirt at the same time. But he still washed his face afterwards. (Thankfully, before he went to sleep in my bed).

So abandoned by Wey, I had to go about touring Siguatepeque and teaching Excel classes on my own. So I guess I'll give a rundown of my thoughts before going on to prayer requests:

Touring Siguatepeque:
We had a chance to see the evangelical hospital that was started about fifty years ago. It's the only hopsital in Siguatepeque but people from all over Honduras come to it because it charges so little. The reason it charges so little is because it pays its doctors only about half the salary that they would receive elsewhere (i.e. government hospitals). In addition to lower costs, the hospital also has a school for nurses as well as housing for its doctors and single nurses (married nurses move out to live with their husbands). Most of the doctors are from Honduras- some stay for awhile, some stay for alonger period time but because of the lower pay, the doctors really have to view the work as ministry. What is really amazing about the hospital is that it has played a pivotal role in growing Siguatepeque's Christian population. I'm not really sure how it goes about sharing the gospel verbally but atleast through its actions, it has definitely communicated Christ's love. It's really amazing to see how something so little can make such a big change (I'm sure the hospital was started with donations and from missionaries as well as locallers- and through it and the work of other churches, Siguatepeque has gone from one church to 40% Christian). For me, it has given alot more hope and alot more perspective on the value of missions and the value of giving and what God can do through it. It does make a difference.

We also had a chance to see two of Scripture Union's micro-empresas (micro-businesses). A cement factory- which was really just two cement block machines and a camp center. Scripture Union generally finds it difficult to find church support for its ministry because people seem disinterested in supporting their work (teaching Bible classes in public schools) whereas they are willing to give money for children on the street etc.. So Scripture Union finds that it supports alot of its ministries through these businesses- which are actually very wonderful because it supports Scripture Union's Ministries as well as giving people work in a country where unemployment is high.

On a side note, Honduras is quite beautiful. I love the mountains and the hills and just the amount of green that is around. Up at the campsite, I was told that at nighttime, it is so dark that the village below with its few lights look like stars so that up on the hilltop, it seems like you are walking amongst the stars. Praise God for the beauty that He puts in the world.

Back to health issues, I'm still recovering from food poisoning as well so every once in awhile, I would bend down in pain. But I'm kind of getting used to it so it's not so bad.

So afterwards, I went to teach the Excel class without Wey beside me for moral support (Wey complains "I did more than moral support". That is true, he also pointed). So I was pointerless and moral supporterless. Quite devastating. But God was faithful and the class was successful even without Wey (how is that possible?!?! well it is with God). The class was actually much smaller- only three people which made things much easier. I'm starting to joke around alot more with the 'students'- making fun of a guy's girlfriend, of the computer and of Ernesto's excessively loud voice (we were in another room but Ernesto's voice carried over... Priscilla said 'This is great! I get two lessons in the time of one!').

Despite this, I still feel like I don't really know anyone. Hopefully this weekend trip with Orlando and Sylvia will change that- I hope to learn more about what they have to say about Honduras, about ministry, about poverty, about America. I really would like to learn from them and hope that their perspective helps me see the world better from God's eyes.

Then Ernesto and I had dinner. I think I am learning to get along better with his personality. He is difficult because he is overly eager to help and sometimes a little blunt in his comments. But his intentions are always good so it's good to see God teaching how to forgive more. But please do continue to pray for unity within the team. colossians 3:12 I think? About forgiving each others' grievances and building one another up in love.

Then we came back to find Joy completely distressed because Ernesto had given her and the children two seashells. However, there was still a slug in one of the seashells. But far from its ocean home, it came to an untimely death. And began to stink. Ernesto then went off to get rid of it. I think Wey's diarrhea and a stinky slug are just too much for this hotel to handle.

Anyways, Wey and I chilled upstairs at our favourite hangout spot which I think we'll have to take a photo of before we live (along with the beef ste place :) "Can't forget about the beef stew place" adds Wey). Then Ernesto joined us and we had a conversation about Viagra and how long erections lasts. So actually, if anyone does know (because I'm afraid to google it), how long does a normal erection last? (because you know, girls talk about how long their periods last... so don't you guys talk about how long you can hold an erection for?)

Forgot to mention, it was also Jesse's birthday today. He's so cute especially when he gets excited. Ohh Jesses has also dubbed Wey the loco. He no longer has a name, just a physical symbol to refer to him (pointing to the head making crazy circles). Actually today in the car, he was saying 'I wish (making the cray symbol) was here'.

Prayer Requests:
- Pray for health- for Wey and Linshuang's recovery. Grace and Joy have also gotten sore throats. Pray that we would return to health and that we would stay healthy. As fun as it is for us to write and for you to read about our bowel movements and using our asses to make varieties of candy, we don't want to be like this anymore.
- Pray for unity- especially as this weekend lays groundwork for learning to love each other. But it could also be a chance for the Devil to really infiltrate and cause dissensions. Pray that we would say no to sin, and yes to being obedient to God's command. Pray that we would be filled with tolerance and forgiveness for oen another. May we be eager to get to know each other instead of being just content with tolerating each other.
- Pray for fellowship with Sylvia and Orlando (Scripture Union people) as well as a visiting German who was a missionary here earlier on- pray especially for learning more about what they think about various issues listed earlier. Pray for understanding and sensitivity because not everyone knows Spanish.
- Pray for training and point of sales preparation- work still has to be done this weekend. Pray for diligence and wisdom and technical expertise as we do this.
- Pray for Joy's mother who is still ill in the hospital. Joy I think is having a difficult time here partially because of that.
- Pray for children's ministry- pray that God would continue to be at work and using us in spreading seeds and reaping his harvest. Pray that He would be using us to open more doors for the gospel to be preached especially to schools that normally are not open to Bible classes.
- Pray for our quiet times. That we still seek God on our time despite the business, the travel and the illness. Pray that we continue to be grounded in His truth and His presence.

Honduras - Day 6

2005-08-18T19:11:00.000-04:00

We had our morning meeting at Gloria's Buffet next door. We found out the owner, Gloria, had actually lived in the states for quite some time. It was nice to be able to talk to her a little bit in Spanish.

Linshuang had gotten sick last night. No BM, but her stomach is really bothering her. She didn't eat much, just some toast. While I was waiting for Nahum to come pick us up to go to the school, Ernesto and I sat with her and kept her company as she nursed her hot water.

I had found out that the hotel we're staying at does laundry service for its guests. You just leave your clothes on the bed and they'll wash them during the day. It was great because I was running low on shirts and pants. I had already worn the same pair of pants for like three days straight, and they were getting pretty rank. The whole thing was really cheap, L10$, or the equivalent of .50$ USD for a whole bunch of clothes. Not a full load, but still a nice pile.

During breakfast, I had a chance to really talk to Joy. Since I had been working at the bookstore all this time, I haven't really had a chance to interact with her outside of our meals and our meeting times. We talked about children's ministry and its value. We both agreed that we felt that VBS has little value for the children.

We got to chat some more on the way to the school. Joy is actually very chatty and finds everything and anything to chat about. It was good because I didn't have to think of questions to ask, she would just start talking about something. And since there was a bit of travel time, there was good opportunity for discussion.

We got to our first location and had to trek up a bumpy hill to the school. It was a wonder our rickety van was able to come out here. There were tons of pot holes and uneven road that the van had to travel over.

The school was really small, only 6 classrooms. We didn't waste any time and just started. Since Nahum, Joy, and the kids had been doing this for a few days already, they pretty much had their routine down. I had to catch up and get up to speed. I messed up a bit during the puppet show, but it wasn't anything major. By the second class, I pretty much had my system down.

It's a wonder watching these kids. They're all so attentive to the puppet show and what we're doing. After the show, Nahum would ask the kids questions. Invariably, there would be one or two kids that were on top of the answer and very eager to respond. It was great to see how they were so eager to participate.

Throughout the songs, I would catch a lot of kids looking at me, almost staring at me. I can't imagine the oddity that I must appear to them. I would look at them, smile, and they would smile back. It was really heart warming that they were so receptive.

When we got to the third class, it was time for recess. We had already set up, but I know I would want recess if it came. The kids started running around and playing their kid games. There were a lot of girls in this class and they started playing clapping games. There was one where they stood in a circle and clapped each others' hands. I'm sure there was more to the game than what I saw, but I couldn't figure it out.

I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of the girls playing. A little boy came up to me, with his big ole eyes and asked if he could get his picture taken. Much obliged, I said sure. He grabbed his buddy and I took the shot. Usually, I don't review the pictures after I take them, but I figured, I'd make an exception for the kids. Other kids saw this and wanted in on the action. It wasn't long before the kids just started piling on top of each other. I would look through the viewfinder and have to step back to get everyone in. I would again, and have to step back again. After I took the picture, all the kids just rushed me to see themselves on my tiny LCD.

After I was done with the pictures, the kids still gathered around me. I was a bit thirsty, so I started drinking out of my camelback. I could tell that the kids were really curious, so I showed them that it was water inside by dripping some on to the ground.

It was great being able to connect to the kids when I thought I had nothing to offer them. Who woulda thought that technology could bring so many people together. I didn't really get to talk to the kids, but I know that I wouldn't really be able to communicate much even if I were given the opportunity.

The puppet show is about this family who are unhappy with their lot in life. Their father, a fisherman, goes fishing one Saturday and finds a genie who grants him three wishes. The first wish, they get a boat with other fisherman so that the father can spend more time with his family.

After awhile, they find that they're having too much time with each other, so he goes to the genie and asks for a bigger house. They get the house and are happy, for a little while.

The father then goes back to the genie and asks for a plane so they can travel and see the world. The go all over the place and find that they're still not happy.

Using up all his wishes, the father decides to go back to the genie. The genie tells him that he can only grant material wishes. If they truly want to be happy, they have to turn to the word of God and Christ for happiness.

Through out the show, I have a piece of paper that I fold to represent the various objects. The first one of the boat is a simple diagonal fold that you would make if you were about to make a square sheet. Then you folded it along the other diagonal to form a house. Then you fold it in half, fold the flaps down to form a plane, and fold it down again to form a faster plane.

At the end, you tear off the plane's wings, open up the paper, and you have a cross. The kids loved this. The simple transformation through all the different objects and the seaming magic of tearing the paper to form the cross really delights them.

All the kids were really eager to learn how to do it. We taught some of the classes, and it was nice seeing the kids help each other out. Some were quicker on the uptake than others, so they would show them how to do it.

Not before long, the morning was over. Just like that, we had spent two hours with the kids. I hadn't realized how tiring it was until we left the school.

It was a real blessing to participate with Nahum and the kids. I appreciate being able to use my technology skills help out Scripture Union, but I also like the opportunity to participate with their ministry as well. At first, I was a bit skeptical about doing both, but now I understand and agree that it is the best method. Not only do you get to use your skills, you get to have experience in more traditional missions at the same time.

We got back to the hotel and picked up Linshuang for lunch. We had already planned to go to the market and have more of that wonderful wonderful soup. Even with her stomach ache, she was still in to the soup.

This soup is amazing. I got stop raving about how good it is. Yes, it's not the best soup in the world, but considering the other options down here, it's a godsend. It's like manna from heaven and I'm not about to complain about manna from heaven.

Lunch left us with another food coma. We tried doing a bit of work, but Linshuang still wasn't feeling up to it, so I sent her to bed. I had a bit before I had to go to the bookstore so I lied down a bit. I didn't expect to fall asleep, but I did.

Ernesto woke me up around 2 O'clock, but said that Marlon, the programmer, was a no show. I had other stuff to do that didn't require me to go to the bookstore, so I decided to stay in my room and hack away. I didn't expect to fall back asleep. In total, I ended up napping for like two hours. I woke up, and got what I needed to do done.

Just as I was wrapping up, Linshuang came by to start working on our other training. We had prepared MS Word training for tonight the previous day, so we were pretty much ready for that. We started planning what we would do for MS Excel training the next day. We didn't work on it long before we tried going to the market to grab dinner. Unfortunately, the market was starting to shut down and the beef stew was done for the day.

We went to the grocery mart to try and find something that would be okay for her stomach. Most of the foods were processed but she did manage to find some crackers that would be good for her stomach.

We proceeded to the internet cafe to get our online action on. The place wasn't as good as La Red, the second place I went to, but it was good enough. La Red's connection was down, so we went to the closest one. This place didn't let me use my laptop, so I had to work with their existing computers.

I still managed to get on AIM and chat with a few people. It was really good just connecting with people from home. Little things like that make being away in a foreign land very bearable.

Before arriving at the office, Linshuang and I walked down some of the local roads. The further you got away from the main street, the quieter it got. You could also see that the buildings were more dilapidated. A few blocks down, and you would eventually hit dirt road and then forest. It's so interesting to go from developed town to undeveloped country.

We also saw this really nice building and across the street from it was this really run down building. The dichotomy of seeing wealth and poverty was staggering.

Then it was off to do more training. Today's training didn't go as well as yesterday's, but it was sufficient. Despite her stomach ache, Linshuang worked through it and managed to teach well.

By the time training was over, most of the shops in the town had closed already. A lot of shops close down for the day around 5, 7, or 8. There was maybe one or two restaurants left open. We decided to go to this place called Iguana Mia.

The decor was really interesting. The walls were covered with paintings of American inspired pop culture. There was a painting of 007, Brad Pitt, some Yankees players, and other American icons.

Earlier, Linshuang and I had passed a small shop selling ornaments and other trinkets, all of it very touristy. Seeing this stuff made me wonder how large of an impact tourists had on the local economy. From what I had saw and experienced, Scripture Union brings in a good number of missionaries to help out. During our time here, one other group and at least two other individuals here. It's easy to tell who are the missionaries by their skin tone. If they look like a WASP, they probably are.

Is the missionary contingent enough to support a local tourist economy? Sequaldepeque isn't exactly huge on the map. Nor does it really offer anything for tourists that would make them want to make the trek out here. But a lot of the shops sell a lot of trinkets.

Walking past a lot of the shops, you hear a lot of American pop music. The same songs I hear back in the states are the same ones blasting here. Of course, there is the local music too, but it's surprising how far American pop culture reaches. While we were eating breakfast, I saw a commercial for the OC and was reminded of all the guys back home.

It's almost near the end of our first week here in Honduras. It feels like we've been here for so much longer, yet, at the same time, it feels like the time really flew by. Not before long, we'll be back in the states and back to normal. A part of me wonders how much of a lasting effect this trip is going to have on me. Yes, I've been learning a lot, but I'm afraid that I'm going to get home and forget it all.

I've really come to appreciate the food that we have access to back home. We don't have to worry about vegetables or fruits because we don't have to worry about the water. I can go back to my diet of just water and not forced to drink hyper sweet carbonated drinks because I'm afraid of the water.

You can't have fruits or vegetables unless they're pasteurized. Part of it is due to pollutants, but most of it has to do with the local water and the various microbes in it that our intestinal tract just isn't used to. Unless these vegetables or fruits are cooked, they will have the water in one form or another. Inside the fruit or on the vegetable.

Tomorrow, Orlando is going to take us around and see the things worth seeing around Sequaldepeque. It'll be nice to take a break from working and take the opportunity to learn about the town we're in. Then it's more training and then it's off to Copan, where we'll visit the Mayan temple.

I don't know if I'll be able to blog out there, but I will try to.

As for prayer requests:

We still need to finalize the POS. Right now, it feels like we're going to be using Quickbooks, but we need to make sure a decision is made.
We're half way done with the children's ministry. Even after we leave, Nahum's ministry will continue. Pray that more schools would be receptive of his program and that he would also have the opportunity to go back to the schools he's been to.
That the bookstore's profits would increase. This is Scripture Union's main source of funding and they use the money that they make from the bookstore to fund their other ministries.
Joy's mother, who is still in the hospital.
Ernesto's client back in Jersey.
Linshuang's health.
Grace and Jesse continue to have energy and eagerness to perform their little show.
The trainining sessions we'll be having pretty much every night here on out.
That we would all continue to seek God.
The children that we will be visiting next week, that God would open their hearts for a long lasting relationship with him.

Until tomorrow, keep us in your prayers.

Honduras - Day 5

2005-08-17T19:07:00.000-04:00

We met for a time of morning devos. Today, we read Matthew 28. As the days progress, I am getting less and less out of these devotional times. I don't know if it's my hard heart or because of my disconnectedness, but I'm not all there during these times. I do my best to focus on the text and try to really internalize it for the day, but none of them are really that helpful.

The last two days, I pretty much said things just for the sake of saythings. There's supposed to be a set of questions that go along with the passage, but I don't make a big effort to answer them. Most of the answers are superficial and don't ask the really interesting things about the text.

We had breakfast downstairs again and it's just not very good. When we went around and shared about what we were looking forward to, I was a bit ashamed to say lunch. The night before, Linshuang and I had decided that we were going for that beef stew that I had the other day. We were just dying for something familiar and that wasn't fried and such. But the food here, no matter how good it is, is really beginning to wear on me. It's sad to say, but I think I've tried pretty much everything there is to try down here. No matter what venders we go to, they pretty much all offer the same things.

After breakfast, I went to the internet cafe to blog and catch up on some emails. While I was there I had the pleasure of chatting with Jamie Hsieh for a bit. She had been reading my blog and had a bit of insight to share with me. We talked a little about my disconnectedness and some of the issues I had with Ernesto. Didn't really come to any conclusions, but I wanted to make an effort with both to try and resolve them. Most likely, both were issues with me that I needed to take care of.

I was also very pleased to see that the tickets for Perry O'Neil and Nu NRG were onsale. I promptly pulled out my credit card and placed an order. I may be in another country, but I can still buy things online. I wrapped up my emails and headed back to the hotel.

Ernesto had some stuff that he still needed to finish up. He was strapped for time, so I offered to help him out. There wasn't much I could do, but I did my best at what I could.

He was trying to set up some training exercises for Quickbooks. Even though I took a course in accounting and I understand some of it, I don't know enough to explain or teach it to anyone. So I just wrote the exercise scenarios for his lesson plan.

It wasn't long until lunch, so instead of starting on my other work, I sat back and played some games.

The day crew came back and we promptly left for the market to get the stew. And oh my goodness was the soup amazing. Of all the food I've had down here, this was by far the best that they had to offer. Linshuang and I were surprised at how much the stew tasted like home. There was pieces of taro in it, some real vegetables, and this root called yuca which reminded me a lot of chinese white turnip. As good as the stew was the other day, this was easily 100 times better. It had all the trappings of home and just made us feel wonderfully comfortable. Before we were even finished, we had decided to go back tomorrow.

After lunch, Linshuang and I worked on our training stuff a bit. Both of us were feeling the effects of food coma settling in, so we decided to just take a break.

I finished work on the script that would manipulate the existing POS data into a workable format for Quickbooks. No matter what the programmer says, I'd like to have a backup plan in case his claims aren't as accurate as he first stipulated.

Not too long after I finished the work, the day crew came back. Linshuang and I worked on some more of the training materials. Since my spanish is pretty awful, she would be the one doing the actual teaching. Even though she didn't know a lot of the material herself. While she gathered her thoughts and practiced a bit, I sat on the side and acted as her dictionary, looking up words she didn't know. It was actually a pretty good system.

We didn't get to work too long before we had to head to the office and actually teach this stuff.

The training went really well. Even though I can't really speak spanish, I used the few words I knew combined with some cheating by reading the spanish version of word combined with a lot of vigorous pointing to get things across.

It was wonderful being as helpful as I was during the training. I had not expected to be of any help at all. And considering how poor my communication is, I still managed to convey the message well. It was wonderful teaching them new things and seeing that most of them enjoyed learning these new things that they didn't know previously.

After training, we went to the closest place for dinner. Tired of most of the local fair, I went for a cheesburger. Alas, it was very unsatisfying. It was just as good as any random burger you get at a fast food joint. The only difference was that this wasn't fast.

Linshuang and I had a good chat on the way back. The past few days, we've taken the opportunity to really chat after dinner and it's been really meaningful for me. To be able to share thoughts with someone else and really be able to have an exchange is great. No matter how different the two of us are, there's enough commonality that we get along well. These are actually some of my best times during the day. The only time that might be better is when I have the beef stew. What am I saying, the beef stew is definately better. Just kidding.

We debriefed and Joy shared about how she was really frustrated that she couldn't get in contact with the outside world. The other day, she briefly had a one sided conversation with her aunt, but that's not nearly enough. It's understandable, considering her mother is in the hospital, that she would like to keep aprised of that situation.

After she shared about her frustration, we all kind of sat in an awkward silence. I expected Ernesto, not only her husband but also the team lead, to give her assurance that she would be able to get access to the net or some form of communication.

I know how difficult it would be for me if I couldn't blog. This is pretty much my way of looking back on the day and reflecting. It's a way for me to evaluate the things that happened throughout the day and internalize it. If I don't blog it in the same day, I may forget it forever.

After we prayed and closed for the night, I couldn't help but feel Satan's arrows. Could all this internal struggle be because Satan is trying to tear us apart? The best way to defeat an organization is from within, so Satan will attack those internal relationships first.

We don't have much defense from these sort of attacks, but the one defense that we have is all that we need. Keep praying for us. God will take care of it.

Tomorrow is going to be my first day working with the children. As disconnected as I have been, I don't know how effective I'm going to be. I don't much care for children as it is, but I'm going to have to do my best to interact as much as I can. I know that God is doing something and teaching me something. I need to keep that in mind and just be conscience of what that is.

This is also the first time I've been down here that mosquitos have been really bothering me. I found my first bite and it's not comfortable. It's probably because I didn't get a chance to reapply the DEET tonight. I guess it can't be a missions trip unless you get bit.

By the way, the remix of the Killas track by Okidata is amazing. It was on both A State of Trance 204 and 205. It is an amazing track. Listen to it if you get a chance.

Honduras - Day 4

2005-08-16T11:00:00.000-04:00

This time, I only woke up when I was supposed to. The AC was off and I was a little sticky, but I felt good.

There was a lot of stuff that we had to talk about, so we went downstairs to the cafeteria for breakfast. I had this egg, bean, and cheese borrito like thing. It was a little too salty, but that whatever.

During breakfast, we read Matthew 15, the verse about the farmer and the seeds. As this was a fairly well studied passage about the parable, I found myself focusing on the reason why Jesus spoke in parables. It was interesting to think about and I didn't really get that far.

After breakfast, I headed off to the bookstore and started to work. I sat down with donaldo and the two of us went through the database files to try and figure out what all the tables did and what all the fields were. The two of us actually made a lot of headway. With the help of my english to spanish dictionary, we were able to figure out most of it or at least had a good idea about what the files did.

We got to a place where we were both satisfied and went to run some errands. While we walked, I made more of an effort to try and get to know Donaldo and just talk. Still, my spanish is really poor and we can't get past the first few simple questions.

Yesterday, I had changed some money with the bookstore and I started buying trinkets and what not for people. It's an interesting dynamic to pay so little for food, spending on the average of 2$ for a whole meal, and spending the same amount of money on trinkets. I picked up a card, and it cost the same as a meal.

We got most of the stuff we were looking for and headed back to the bookstore. I showed Donaldo a bit of the PHP I was working on the manipulate the data we had collected and format it for Quickbooks. I also showed him a few of the GBA games I had on my laptop.

I didn't get much work done before lunch called. We went back to the place where we had dinner. We had more refried beans and a burrito. All very tasty. Linshuang wanted to get an idea of what we were doing at the bookstore, so I took her over there and showed her a bit of the POS that we were working with. We didn't have a lot of time, so I gave her a very quick overview.

Then it was back to work. In the morning, while we were fooling around with the database stuff, I found that the inventory had disappeared. Even though we had the file the information was contained in, we couldn't see it in the POS. Despite that, I decided to start working on the PHP script to do the translation. The programmer was supposed to come by around 2 PM, but he called and said that he wouldn't be in until like 3:30 PM.

I sat down to hack and found that I needed the PHP docs to look up some of the functions that I needed. I was able to get online at the bookstore but with only a 33.6. I hadn't used modem in ages and was surprised at how slow it was. It took about half an hour to download a 1.8 MB file. For some reason, the 2.5 MB file that I downloaded afterwards only took like 20 minutes.

The files were finally finished and I got to work. Not long after, the childrens' crew came back. Linshuang was very eager to help, so I did my best to find her something that she could do. A little after that, the programmer arrived. By now, this was around 4:30 PM.

We sat down with the programmer and picked his brain a bit. We might have been a little hard on him. Apparently, the people from the bookstore had misrepresented the abilities of the POS a bit. It wasn't as encouraging as it could've been because the program was obviously a hack. The programmer couldn't even find one of the very important tables of information.

Towards the end of the meeting, something just kind of clicked with me. I became really disconnected and pretty much shut down for a bit. I didn't know why, but I felt like I needed to escape. I went to the back room and just kind of sat there. Even though Linshuang was chatting away with Donaldo, I just sat in my own little world, paying attention to nothing.

When we left for dinner, it was the same thing. I kind of sat there and stared out in to space, thinking and mulling over my disconnection. It wasn't until later that I realized that I was beginning to take issue with Ernesto's management style. It wasn't any one thing nor was it anything major. Some of it was the way he said things. Some of it was the way he did things. Not that I had any real criticisms of his methods, but it definately wouldn't be the way I would've run things.

I think the thing that was really getting to me was the way that Ernesto would say certain things. I knew that it was most likely something with his personality and nothing that I should really be alarmed about. At the same time, considering how short of a period we've been together made me wonder about the next weeks. This was someone I was going to be working with for the next week and a half. This was also my team lead.

Part of this feeling came from seeing Ernesto interact with his wife and children. Since I'm not married nor do I have children, it's not really my place to correct them. At the same time, I can't help but feel put off by some of it. Granted, I don't know all the details and the specifics so I'll do my best to not pass judgement.

The evenings tend to be when we really get to know each other more. Linshuang and I talked a fair amount over dinner. A lot of random things, like food, wine, to ministry and being an Asian-american. It was good and is progressing at a good pace.

I had been planning to go to the internet cafe to blog and check my mail, but dinner ended kind of late and it was still raining, so I decided against it. I'm not so desperately in need of internet that I can't wait a day or two to do my thing. What I couldn't wait to do was go back to my room, put on some trance, and blog.

We were supposed to have our debrief meeting, but there were some people in our normal meeting place so we put it off a bit. Eventually, we did meet and went over some of the stuff that would need to be done in the next week. Linshuang and I started preparing our materials for the training the next day. I'm sort of used to and sort of not used to preparing materials this late. If I had my way, I would've had this stuff prepared a whiles ago. I understand that some of it couldn't because we didn't really know what the needs of the people were in terms of training, but it was still something that we could've gotten a head start on. Instead, we were up 'til close to 11 PM pulling it together. Even when we were done, we only had a high level view of what we would be doing.

It's hard to say how I feel about the day. On one side, a lot of good happened in the day. The childrens' ministry stuff went fine. After one day, they've really become a well oiled machine and have gotten a lot of positive feedback.

On the technical side, I'm very glad that the programmer was able to come in, but part of me wonders if this is the right solution. It would be a shame for the bookstore to have spent all this money on a system and have to trash it just because some gringos said so. At the same time, I believe it is our responsibility to take all the information and give them the best advice that we can about the situation. Let them know what the options are, what we think, and ultimately, let them make the final decision.

Just as the GPL is about freedom, I believe knowledge is empowerment and empowerment is freedom. If we can try and cover all the various options and explain what the reasons are for each, that would be huge steps towards empowering Scripture Union to do great things.

This issue kind of came up a little when Linshuang was talking about our training curriculum. We were talking about toolbars and how to add and remove buttons from the bar. Ernesto commented that this may not be wise to teach them because the potential for some sort of mishap was high. Just like any sort of empowerment, the chance for mishap is always high. This is why education is so important. If we can teach them how to add and remove buttons, it will, hopefully, be less likely for them to do it accidentally and freak out about it.

Again, the idea that you are given the power to make a choice, given power to effect change, and to have the responsibility to use those things for good, is inherent in the Gospel message. Just as Paul said that we are "free", that freedom is not a license for us to sin. Just as grace is not a license for us to sin. At the same time, we are free, as in liberty, to choose to sin or not. As opposed to our life before, where we were slaves to our sin.

No matter what software ideological differences Ernesto and I have or his little stabs at OSS, I will do my best to work in gentleness and to choose my battles. These sort of things aren't worth fighting over. Especially out here in the field, where a lot of these ideological issues don't matter that much. Ultimately, we all have the same goals. To empower Scripture Union to do ministry more effectively. No matter how much I dislike Microsoft, their products will work. And I will submit to the authority that God has placed over me.

These next few days are going to be dificult because our schedules had to be shifted around because Ernesto didn't organize our schedule until this morning. There were some errors in his scheduling which left me very uncomfortable and confused at what was going on for the remaining time. But just as Abram was called to step in faith, I will do my best to step.

Until tomorrow. Keep us in your prayers.

Honduras - Day 3

2005-08-15T10:58:00.000-04:00

Again, I woke up twice. The first time because of the cold, even though I specifically turned it to fan only, hoping that it wouldn't end up being too cold. Again later when a lot of trucks went by. I finally woke around 7 AM and prepped for our morning devos together. It was interesting to see that a good portion of the city was already active. This is probably due to the fact that Honduras doesn't support daylight savings.

A minor correction to my two previous posts. We are not staying in San Pedro Sula, rather, we are in Sequaldepeque. I don't know why I wrote San Pedro Sula, but the two places are dramatically far from each other. We actually will be spending a night in San Pedro Sula and doing some work there as well.

For our morning devos, we read John 15:9-End. It was the verse about the vine and the branch and how we are God's friends. It's interesting that God sees us as friends because we know what he's doing. There's always a lot of talk about how we come on missions or do certain things and we're to have the heart of servants. But here, in this verse, Jesus is specifically speaking against that. It's definately an attitude that makes sense because a servant doesn't care what his master is up to, but friends do.

After devos, we went out to grab some breakfast. We went next door where the scent of bacon was wafting in to the street. Again, a very simple menu. I was excited because I saw "dos huevos", two eggs. And I love eggs. It was a very simple breakfast, but very homey. Two eggs, two strips of bacon, two pieces of toast (heavily buttered), and one potato pancake. All for two dollars. That's one of the things you can't beat here in Honduras. All the food is so cheap. The food was very tasty and I chased it with one of my malaria pills.

Breakfast ended way too quickly and we were off to our respective tasks. Joy, the kids, and Linshuang left with Nahaim to the school to do their little show. In the meantime, Ernesto and I went to the bookstore to try and wrap our heads around the POS software while Ernesto went to the main office to teach Quickbooks.

Before we could start working on the POS, Donaldo and I went on a quest for various items to clean the computer. We got a can of compressed air and some masks to protect us from the dust. The whole process of retrieving the items and cleaning the computers took about an hour and a half.

While we were questing, Donaldo and I did our best to try and get to know each other. I know my spanish isn't very good, even still, I had a terrible time understanding what Donaldo was saying. Usualy, I can put together about 50% of the speech and have a general overview of what's being said. But with Donaldo, I was completely lost. It was really frustrating because I wanted to communicate but just didn't know how to.

When we were done cleaning, I jumped right in to the POS. I sat with Donaldo a little bit as he showed me some of what the POS could do. It was a little confusing because he was showing examples of only some of the software's functionality. Not being able to communicate, I couldn't inform him of what my goal with the program was.

Eventually, Blanca sat down with me and started walking me through the software. She was very patient explaining the various fields and sections to the best of her ability. Sometimes in spanish and other times in english. I could see that she was frustrated too trying to communicate.

Around lunchtime, the field crew came back and headed off to lunch. Ernesto and I continued to work on the software a bit and then headed out. By this time, the malaria pills were kicking in and I started feeling a bit nauseous. It was hard trying to focus on the language, trying to understand the software, which was also in spanish, all with the malaria pills distracting me.

Blanca was nice enough to take us on a small tour of the various places to eat around Sequaldepeque. We went to this one park with a massive dome like structure with a large church next to it. We eventually went to the market where there was a tiny food court.

The food court consisted of 6 small stations that were essentially kitchens. There was a sink, refrigerator, and multiple burners in each station. The menu at each station was pretty much the same too. Fried chicken and beef stew. Since I had fried chicken the night before, I went for the beef stew. The station that was supposed to have the best beef stew in the market conveniently ran out. Luckily, there were five other stations with the same menu.

The beef stew was great. Some of the beef was nice and tender, while other pieces were a little tougher. Despite that, the beef tasted great, as did the stew that went with it. There was also white rice. I love white rice now. If hamburgers are comfort food for Americans, than white rice is comfort food for me.

After lunch, we went back to the bookstore to do a bit of work. Not too long in to it, food coma was beginning to settle in. It would've been a great time to take siesta but there was work to be done.

We finally finished going through all the different sections of the software and began to understand what it was doing and how it worked. Ernesto and I started trying things out kind of randomly to get the actual point of sales aspect to work. With a bit of trial and error, we were able to make some headway.

The software wasn't designed very well and there's no documentation on how to use it, let alone, troubleshoot it. Ernesto and I talked briefly with each other and came to the conclusion that the original programmer either was an idiot and didn't know how to finish the product or, more likely, that once he got his money, he was unwilling to finish it, having no further insentive to spend any more time or effort on the project.

At this point, we decided that we had to have the programmer in to help us with this. Even if we had the source, which we probably wouldn't be able to get, it would take a lot of time to go through it in a different language, figure out the structure, and make it work. Blanca contacted the programmer and managed to negotiate for him to come tomorrow afternoon.

In the mean time, we decided to persue plan B. Intuit was kind enough to have donated a copy of Quickbooks Pro to Scripture Union. During the day, Ernesto had been training some of the people in its use. Quickbooks actually does do inventory and customer management as well. But to have a full-fledged POS system would easily cost another 800$ USD or so. This cost would include all the hardware such as scanner, printer, display, register, etc. but it's still a huge chunk of change for scripture union.

While we were talking about this stuff, I thought about the possibility of possibly using some sort of OSS to accomplish the task. It would take some searching to even find if it was doable. The other thought that was in my mind was to custom write something for Scripture Union in PHP and MySQL. This would take much longer than the two weeks we'd be down here, even if I spent all day working on the system. There would be added overhead to translate the GUI to spanish.

With the tasks of the day pretty much wrapped up, I went to one of the local internet cafes to do a little bit of research on Quickbooks POS. The place I went to let you plug in your own laptop, which is great. I was able to load up GAIM and everything with no problems. I checked my mail and had the pleasure of chatting with a few people while I was there. The connection was pretty fast, I would say close to DSL speeds. The half hour I was there only cost L.10, which is equivalent to 0.50$ USD.

I went back to the hotel just as Ernesto was gathering his family to go out and eat. We looked around for Linshuang, but she was no where to be found. We assumed she was in her room and out cold 'cause we knocked pretty hard and also rang her room. These phones are pretty loud. You can hear them ringing down the hall. There was a prayer meeting we needed to attend and there wasn't much time, so we wanted to grab dinner beforehand.

As we left the hotel, we decided to stop in the bookstore and there we found Linshuang.

For dinner, we went to one of the places Blanca had showed us during the day. The menu was one of the more extensive ones in the city. I kind of knew what most of the stuff on the menu was and none of it really interested me. When I go to different places, I'm all about local food. I'm all about trying new things even if I don't know what it is. So I picked one of the most obscure things on the menu. It was delicious. It was kind of like a central american pizza between two tortillas. Linshuang and I also ordered these refried beans with sausage. The bowl came with fresh fried nachos. The refried beans were great. Probably one of the best things about the food down here.

Exiting the restaurant, we were surprised to see Orlando waiting for us with the Scripture Union bus. He had come to pick us up and take us back to his house for the prayer meeting.

The prayer meeting opened with introductions and a few songs. Standing there, hearing everyone sing in spanish, I thought about heaven and how wonderful it is going to be to see all these people there and to be able to sing with them in one voice. A sudden sense of joy washed over me as I thought about the different people I had met and would meet. No matter how short the exchange, no matter how little we got to know each other, these relationships will be intact when we get to heaven. Thinking about that day and knowing that I will know these people deeper when heaven comes was so encouraging.

Nihaim, who was running the prayer meeting, did a very interesting thing. He had a few people read one or two verses and share their thoughts on it. He had a few people of varying ages share. Even thought I couldn't understand them, hearing all these people just talk about God, their voices were filled with passion. This was a place where God was real and faith was real. You don't get that much in the states. A lot of times, when people in the states talk about God, it's very talky. Very wordy, almost showy. To find people genuinely in love with God was so refreshing.

We then split up in to four groups to pray. Everyone was handed a small strip of paper with a prayer request on it. Again, I wasn't able to understand their prayers at all, but I knew that God understood. You know in your head that God understands all languages. But to spend a few days desperately trying to understand, it just becomes staggering to realize that God understands so much.

I suddenly felt so small knowing that God not only understood what everyone was saying, but he understood all that was unsaid as well. All the prayers that were in our heart, spoken and unspoken, he knew already. You're told this time and time again in church, but to live it. To feel it, is something else. The whole experience was just really refreshing and really meaningful.

As with most prayer meetings, it was time for snacks once the prayer had concluded. Roxanna, a beautiful young woman that I had the privelege of praying with, did her best to initiate conversation with me. It was difficult because she didn't know english at all. I did my best to talk, but we couldn't get past elementary spanish. We did manage to share our age and how many siblings we had.

After the short exchange, a teenage boy named Moses came over and began chatting with me, again, doing my best to communicate in spanish. Then he kicked me and said, "speak in english!" I laughed and we began carrying on a conversation. He had leared english in school and I was just ashamed by how much better his english was compared to my english.

Snack time was over and it was time to get down to business. We sat around while Ernesto ran down what we had accomplished during the day. He talked about trying to get the current software to work but also talked about the alternative of using Quickbooks as a solution. He talked briefly about training the people in the use of Office and other applications.

By the end of the meeting, my understanding of spanish had increased tremendously. Instead of only understanding maybe 50% of it, I could probably understand 70% of it. Still, it was really difficult for me to piece together even the simplest of sentences. My conjugation was terrible and as were my conjunctions. I still wanted to do my best to communicate so I started to make an effort to talk more. Small talk isn't my thing, but when you can't even say the simplest of phrases, that's where you have to start.

We got back to the hotel, all very tired. It was then that I realized that so much had happened during the day. Just what I've written so far consists of over 2700 words. There was so much to praise God for, so much to talk about.

We met to debrief about the day. Joy shared about the different things that God had done during the day. How he had worked through the technical difficulties of running the CD for the drama, organizing the kids and how attentive they were. She also praised how patient and gentle Nahaim is and for her participation in serving him. God had managed to answer a good number of prayers in the span of 12 hours too.

To see God move in such wonderful and tremendous ways was amazing. To actually experience how big and powerful he is was breathtaking. For him to answer prayers that we hadn't even anticipated and to facilitate so much in such a short periof of time ins wonderful. As tired as we were, it was a miracle that we managed to make it through the day. Considering there's still a little under two weeks ahead of us, the task almost seems insurmountable. God has done so much already, I know that he will be able to do more in the time to come.

One of the things that I still feel is how disconnected I feel. Not just with the locals, but with my team too. As someone who's not big on small talk, it's hard for me to formulate relationships in such a short period of time. We're all doing different things and there's so much to do, there's little time to really just share with each other and get to know each other.

There's a level of trust that has to be there in order to function with each other. And it's been great that that issue hasn't really come up. Despite all our differences and our lack of familiarity, we're still able to come together in unity amongst our diversity. The modern church talks a lot about unity, but this is what it is, here in the third world. The unity came so easily and so readily that none of us had even thought about it.

So I'm still trying to get to know the rest of my team. I'm hoping that the relationships I build now will be fruitful, not only in the afterlife, but in the current life as well. I already know, I want to come back next year and work with everyone again.

Ahora, time for some well deserved rest.

Honduras - Day 2

2005-08-14T20:06:00.000-04:00

It's been a pretty light day. Woke up twice in the morning, once at 4 AM because I was cold and shut off the AC, again at 6 AM because the sun had risen. I finally woke around 8 AM, showered and proceeded out in search of breakfast.

We attempted to hit varisous restaurants and small shops, but most of them were closed because it was Sunday. We ended up going to the town plaza where there were a bunch of street merchants selling various kinds of food. Most of the food consisted of cheese pancakes, fried tortillas with a bean paste, nachos, or tequitas. I had two pancakes and a bean paste tortilla and a bottle of sprite. The whole thing only cost 1$ USD.

After breakfast, we headed back to the hotel and spent some time doing my devos.

Around 10:30 AM, Orlando came and picked us up for church. It was a short ride through some rock and puddle filled dirt roads. We met a few people there and everyone was very gracias. We set up a screen for us to do our little puppet show and waited for service to begin.

Most of the people at the service were kids. We sang a bunch of kiddie songs and everyone was really in to it. Then it was our turn to perform. We were introduced and went in to our thing. It was interesting because the power went out a little before we were supposed to perform. After the performance, We sang a few more songs and, interesting enough, there was another group ready to perform. And oddly enough, they had puppets too. It was all very fun and great to talk to them in spanish and then suddenly switch over to english. You could see the relief on their faces that they ran in to more people from the states. It must've been really odd for them to see two Chinese people speaking spanish to them.

After service was over, we hung out a bit at the church and then headed over to Orlando's house for lunch. They provided some chinese food that was more of a fusion of chinese and mexican. It was pretty good, different, but good.

After lunch, we had a meeting with Orlando and some of his people to figure out what we would be doing during the week. We talked about the children's ministry that we would be doing at various schools and also the technical work that needed to be done.

The meeting lasted a good few hours as we were trying to get everything squared away. I understood some of it from a high level perspective, but by then, I was already pretty tired from trying to understand a different language. It takes so much mental capacity to parse the language and try and translate it in realtime. In the end, I was encouraged that we had not only a plan A of action, but a plan B as well.

We went back to our hotel and found that the power was still out. Aspirations of going to the internet cafe were pretty much shot because the power had been out for most of the day. We figured a lot of the shop keepers would have closed for the day anyway.

Not too long after we settled in, the power came back on. We did some preliminary work and actually formulated a plan C. Now this is the kind of thing that I'm up for. Multiple plans in case different things fail.

Before dinner, we managed to find a small place with internt that was still open. A lot of the shops had closed for the day due to the power outage. The connection was really slow and I found it difficult to visit sites that I was so used to.

Apparently, there's something in the header information that tells the servers that we're from central america. I tried using the Java applet of AIM, but couldn't find the link because it was in spanish. I did manage to send out a few emails and blog a bit.

There are actually a good number of internet cafes in the area, so finding connectivity shouldn't be that difficult.

For dinner, we went to this chicken place. The menu was really simple. 1/4 chickens, hot dogs, and burgers. Nice. The chicken was fried and it was actually pretty decint. Not only was it flavorful, but the white meat was fairly moist too.

One of the things that I've noticed is that everything is really sweet. They had some ketchup and it was exceptionally sweet. Even the soda is at least a teaspoon sweeter than normal soda.

The people here are also very keen on either slaw, as in cole, or pickled onions. It might be because of the poor or lack of refrigeration or that the slaw/pickling process "preserves" the veggies longer. The various pickled vegetables are pretty good, but the slaw is so so.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and debriefed a bit. It was great hearing what everyone had learned/experienced throughout the day. Even though we pretty much were in the same place, doing pretty much the same thing, there was a vast difference in what everyone experienced. The things that everyone was concerned about or were praising God for were just so varied.

Then we spent some time going over the music that we would be singing with the kids. By the end of our session, Linshuang had become fairly proficient at the music while I was still tripping over my own tongue trying to piece the words together.

These next two weeks are going to be long. A lot of work during the day and a lot of work at night. Hopefully we'll all have the energy to get things done and to rely on God for all of it.

This is the second night in a row that I'll fall asleep to the pitter patter of rain against the metal ceiling. It's actually quite soothing over the loud blaring fan of the AC. Let's see if the rain will keep up in the next few days.

Honduras - Day 1

2005-08-13T20:03:00.000-04:00

It's been a very interesting day so far. Woke up at 3 AM to catch our 6 AM flight out of Newark for Honduras. I only got about two and a half hours of sleep because I was still packing and getting things ready.

We arrived safely in Honduras, catching the few hours of shut eye we could on the plane. By the time we arrived, we were pretty much awake. Even still, we managed to fall asleep on the way to San Pedro Sula.

The drive from Tegucigalpa to San Pedro Sula was beautiful. Teguc's traffic patterns are insane. There's like eight point intersections and beat up cars just going for turns. It's not nearly as crazy as China or Taiwan, but it's definately a mess.

Before we left Teguc, we grabbed something to eat. It was really interesting seeing the myriad of chain restaurants that had invaded the city. TGI Fridays, McDonald's, Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut, Dominoes, KFC, Burger King, Wendy's, pretty much everything was represented. We actually had a hard time choosing a place to eat because we had our luggage cleverly hidden under a tarp in the bed of the pickup. We eventually chose this pollos fritas place called "Church's Chicken". The food was okay, the really interesting part was the way the soda tasted. It was kind of hard to really put my finger on it, but it tasted better than the coke back at home. I remember reading things about how the coke outside of the united states is better because it still uses cane sugar. I don't know.

After lunch, we hit massive traffic heading out of Teguc. It was hot so I eventually fell asleep. I didn't wake up until we were a good ways out of the city. The cool windy breeze was a great way to wake.

Traveling through the mountains is a sight to behold. You could see the clouds' shadows as they casually made their way across the landscape giving character to the rolling hills and valleys. No matter how long I stared out at that landscape, I couldn't get bored of it.

It's really interesting to see all this "virgin" land with little pockets of development smattered across the landscape. A lot of these places were like hobbled shanty towns made of whatever materials of wood, steel, and stone the people could gather up.

We finally arrived in San Pedro Sula three hours later. In the midst, we stopped to have "siesta". Both Linshuang and I had slept plenty on the car, so we just enjoyed the quiet shade instead. San Pedro Sula is a pretty small town. It's got about 5 or 50 internet cafe's on every block. The town pretty much revolves around "central park". There's just a lot of hustle and bustle for such a quaint little town.

The hotel that we're staying at is rather nice. It's a lot better than I had anticipated. We have AC, both the cooling kind and the electric kind, and we also have a tiny fridge and TV. The place is really cozy, very reminiscent of the type of places you see in movies with the big square central shaft with the rooms around it. There's access to the roof which gives a nice view of sheet metal rooves and rolling hills.

My Spanish is terrible. I can understand bits and pieces, but overall, I might as well not understand anything at all. I do my best to speak but it takes me so long to formulate my sentences that I'm probably better off pointing and smiling.

Although I feel like a foreigner and really out of place, oddly enough, it doesn't feel that different than back home. Whenever I'm in public, I generally feel out of place as it is. I thought I would feel more so, but I don't.

For dinner, we went to some local fair and had beef, eggs, refried beans, pickled onions, fried plantains, and the like. It was okay. The refired beans and the plantains were very good but the beef was very tough and kind of flavorless.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and practiced the skit that we would be performing for the adults tomorrow. We'll be performing the same skit, which is a puppet show, to the kids throughout the week. It was good nothing like what CG.Drama performs, but still, very accessible and fun.

These next two weeks look like they're going to be great.

Dealing with Racism

2005-06-18T09:00:00.000-04:00

Last night, we were all out at Applebee's, having a good time, joking and laughing. We were being loud, and maybe bordering on obnoxious. Whenever you have any sizeable group sitting togther and having a good time, you'll end up being loud.

As we're laughing, one of the guys overhears another table make a comment:

"Why don't you get out of my country!"

Luckily, most of us didn't hear it because we were laughing, but everyone else did. Needless to say, we were pissed. We were so close to just rushing over there and making someone bleed.

I don't get angry much, but real hateful racism gets to me. No other times do I lose all rationale and concern for self then in those instances.

Summer Plans

2005-06-06T14:49:00.000-04:00

Common Grounds Drama is beginnning to recruit for the new ministry year. Here's a look at some of the changes that will be happening this year.

Summer Session. Instead of training during the ministry year, we will be running an acting couse throughout the summer, starting Saturday, July 9th. These times will be times of sharing and actually learning the craft of acting.

The other major change was our time slot. We used to meet on Sundays from 1:30pm to 4:00pm, now, we will be meeting on Saturdays from 10:00am to 12:00pm. I know this will change some things for people and hopefully more people will be able to participate.

The last two years, we have been trying to figure out how best to serve the church and God with drama. Up until last year, we were pushing towards a vision of performing on Sundays during service. We had a taste of this this past year, but it didn't exactly work out according to the vision.

What's different about this year, is we will be focusing on large productions, plays that are an hour and a half long. We've had several larger performances in the past, and all of them have been fairly successful. This format allows us numerous opportunities that we wouldn't have on Sunday mornings.

It's going to be another exciting year. If you're interested in joining drama, come out Saturday, July 9.

Taking Off

2005-06-03T14:17:00.000-04:00

Our little startup that could is starting to take shape. We have clients lined up and work to do. Things are moving along nicely. There's still a bunch of administrative business that we need to take care of, like forming an LLC, getting an accountant, and a plethora of other things. I'm going to be meeting with some people in the next few weeks to talk about partnerships. Since we're so smalll, we need to find other organizations to synergize with.

It's extremely exciting and extremely scary all at the same time. There's so much risk here and so much potential. Where will I be in a year? I don't know. Hopefully, I'll be better off.

As more details come in, I will definately be blogging about our trials and tribulations.

Review: Memorial Retreat 2005

2005-06-02T15:12:00.000-04:00

The retreat was great in so many ways. The speakers, the worship, but I thinkthe best moments were the times in prayer. Rarely do you get the opportunity to spend 15-20 minutes just praying.

We also spent a lot of time just being together as friends. Whether it be outside in the field with a flying disc, in the hallways forcing people to step over us or sitting in our dorms playing Settlers.

Even though the retreat was really good, it wasn't a super high. I left the retreat "feeling" the same as I went in, but I knew that things had changed. I didn't receive any new insights from the messages, but it did clarify things that were in my head and made prominent those things that had sunk to the bottom of my thoughts.

Now that I've been out of a hyper-christian environment for a few days, I'm finding it difficult to maintain myself. There are just so many distractions and things vying for your attention. All we can do is to persevere and continue to make strides forward.

The only bad thing about the retreat was the food. Yes, it was an imporovment from previous years, but not by much. Next year, I will not eat at the retreat. Too many people I know got sick from the food.

Mandeep

2005-06-01T11:36:00.000-04:00

At work, we use this product that doesn't work very well. As such, we are almost in constant communications with tech support to get things working. The first tech we had was a guy named Ravi. Nothing really special there. Then Ravi got replaced by this girl named Mandeep.

The first time we heard her over the phone, we were all excited at how cute her voice was. People would gather in each other's cubes to be in on the conversation. As being shallow men, we naturally want to associate cute face with cute voice.

Last week, we got news that Mandeep was going to come visit us. Even though we wanted her to be good looking, we knew that she would most likely be normal looking if not terrible looking. We were comfortable with normal but holding out for hot.

She finally shows up today, and as expected, she's just normal looking. Nothing exciting, nothing tragic. Just normal.

Why are we so shallow?

2005 Memorial Day Retreat: Day 1

2005-05-28T22:56:00.000-04:00

First day of the retreat and it's been a mix of good and bad. Registration this morning was a pain, mainly because they made changes to the room asignments last minute. Basically, all the work I had done the other night was wasted because they didn't even bother looking at the corrections.

I spent a lot of time running back and forth trying to get stuff fixed and people situated. The situation got really bad in the afternoon when Dan was looking for his room. He kept on getting the run around from all these different people until we finally found his keys.

After lunch, we played ultimate. At first, it threatened to rain and eventually it did. It was probably a bad idea to play in the rain.

After dinner, we watched a classic fight between Ali and Wepner. We didn't get a chance to finish watching the fight, but it was a really good fight. It was really close and it looked like Wepner was going to win.

We had to leave the fight early to go to session. Reverand Milo had a great message about faith. Basically, faith has two components: believing that God is able and God is willing. Our faith usually breaks down in one of these categories. The other great point is that a lot of times, God puts obstacles in our way to test our faith. The question is, how many obstacles are in the way. It's a matter of our faith to persevere and push through.

So it's a good start.

Memorial Retreat Directions

2005-05-27T13:41:00.000-04:00

Half day today, then Memorial Retreat until Monday.

Directions to Cedar Crest College:

Rt 78 West
Take Exit 55
Right on to Cedar Crest Lane
Right in to the school

Registration opens at 9 AM.

Don`t Be a Whore

2005-05-26T14:12:00.000-04:00

I finally finished watching the first season of Battlestar Galactica. It wasn't because I didn't like the series, but because I was waiting for M so we could watch it together. In fact, I believe it to be the best show on TV since Alias season 2.

Since I haven't been watching the show, I haven't had a chance to keep up with the show's head writer's blog hosted on SciFi.com. I was catching up today and came across some really interesting posts. Both of which have the same basic principle.

"Don't be a whore."

Now, that sentence can be interpretted different ways, but let me look at it from the perspective of writing. There are two kinds of writing. One for personal and one for public. Either of these can be entertaining in their own rights. Something that is created with the sole intention of public consumption is usually treated differently. Public works generally can't be too risky or too challenging and, often times, boils down to how much money it can pull in. Eventually, you'll be attached to a project which you do solely for the pay check. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

When I write scripts and dramas for the church, I know the sort of audience that I will be having. I know I have the freedom to write about pretty much anything. The question becomes, do I fall in to the trap of traditional church drama or do I pioneer my own standard? This is difficult because I am trying to reach this particular audience.

I've been spurred to contemplate these ideas from a conversation I had with Becky last night. We were talking about the coming summer for drama and the coming year. In the four years that drama has existed, we are still looking to find a format that "works" in our church.

We haven't quite reached our goal of performing on Sundays, but I don't know if that is the right goal for us anymore. It's difficult to say because it is still an area that is fairly unexplored. As a team, we have more experience doing big shows. Again, it's uncertain to know how really effective those big shows are, but there is tremendous value there.

So my current paradigm is to switch from a Sunday format to a 2 large shows per year format. This is dangerous and oh so sexy. The benefit woud be that everyone would have some sort of role or character to play as each piece would be tailor made with multiple scenes and relationships. It would also allow us to have more plot and character development and address more complex issues. It would also require a lot more time and energy to pull a large show together.

This isn't to say that we're going to give up on the Sunday format. It may be awhile before we move to the 2 show format. We have even considered doing both at the same time! In either case, plenty of things to be considered and plenty of things to be prayed about.

Ultimately, it comes down to our vision and not compromising that vision, regardless of how unpolular it is.

Registration Regrets

2005-05-25T15:59:00.000-04:00

Retreat Registration should be a relatively easy task. You give people forms. People fill out forms. People return forms with money. Once all the forms are in, you enter all the information in to a spreadsheet or database. Once the database is created, future registrations should be cake, requiring very little in terms of database manipulation.

Once the master list is in, you get the floor plans from the school and start assigning rooms. In previous years, I asked for the kids' grades so I could put people of similar age groups around each other. Last year was a blazing success, in terms of the youth. This year, it's a different story.

The forms that we had this year were terrible. The flow of information to be put down was illogical and confusing. Forms should be straight forward with a logical progression of data. The form should also convey all relavent information to the user as well. There were also vital fields that were not included in the original registration form.

This past Sunday, we spent about 3 hours assigning rooms. To make this process faster, I volunteered to do data entry so if we had to make changes later, it would be simple and straight forward. I did my best to give the final list to people so they could double check it.

It turns out, that they went ahead and made other changes, but not to the master list. Instead, they made seperate sheets for each floor. This would be fine had they updated the database as well. Needless to say, I've spent almost half the day working on just getting things logical.

As you can see, what was supposed to be a simple process, became this huge endeavor. It wasn't any single particular mistake, but a culmination of cutting corners and lack of experience.

If I were in charge of the registration process, things would be different.

Square Peg in Round Circle

2005-05-24T15:50:00.000-04:00

Memorial Retreat is coming up and for the first time, I won't be attending the youth program. As a youth worker, I feel a partial obligation to hang out with the youth kids and participate with them. But over the years, I've begun to feel a longing for people in my own age bracket. I still love the kids and plan on continuing youth work, but I need fellowship with people that are in similar position as I am.

I think this is why I never realy got plugged in to the whole 4W program. I tried it out for a good few months, but it never clicked with me. It might have been because I was the youngest one in the group. When I went to the men's small group, it was a lot better because most of us still had that youthful mentality. Even that doesn't compare to the NYAF (New Young Adult Fellowship).

I usually swing over there after Youth Group on Friday nights. I would hang out, but the youth don't really do anything after 10. Sometimes, they'll go out to Applebee's or something. In that case, I'll go out to hang and chill. Without the college kids back, most kids go home.

It's hard finding a place where you can feel like you are a part of something. When you are a leader, you don't feel like you're a part of anything because there is so much responsibility. You're looking at it from a different perspective so you don't really get to enjoy it. You're also not on the same level as the members which makes it difficult to bond with them like everyone else. That's why even leaders need fellowship and their own small group.

42 Midgets vs a Lion

2005-05-23T14:00:00.000-04:00

So I got this link this morning. I suspected it wasn't real because of the domain. It wasn't a coworker sent me this link that it was confirmed to be a joke. Still, we've been discussing the virtues of 42 midgets against a lion.

We've come to the conclusion that the midgets, although superior in numbers, have a distinct size and weight disadvantage. The only possible way for the midgets to win, is to poke out the lions eyes, encumber it enough to start piling on top of it. The sheer weight of 42 midgets "should" eventually crush the lion. Assuming the average midget weighs 50 lbs, the combined weight of all the midgets would be 2,100 lbs, or a little more than one ton.

Granted, the actual execution of this would be extremely difficult and there would be a lot of lives lost. It would be interesting to see how the midgets would proceed as people died around them.

Star Wars

2005-05-20T14:36:00.000-04:00

I used to be a huge Star Wars fan. That is, until Episode 1 came out. I don't know if it was the awfulness of the movie or I had just grown out of it, but after that, it was done. I still enjoy Star Wars themed stuff, especially Knights of the Old Republic RPG from last year, but it doesn't draw me in like it used to.

I don't know. It might have been the mystique from the originals that I loved so much. There was a story, but a lot of it was incomplete. It was such a rich and vivid world filled with mystery and wonder. As the prequels were released and some of the questions were answered, that mystique disappeared. It was that wonder that made it so special.

I'm not a raving Star Wars fanboy anymore. I appreciate the world and the whole idea of the force and light sabers, but it just doesn't have that same draw anymore.

For the Lost

2005-05-19T14:09:00.000-04:00

I have a good number of friends who don't know Christ. I don't think about it/them as much as I should. Every once in a while, I'll pray for them to be saved, but again, not as much as I should. It's not that I don't care about them. It's just that I have so much other stuff on my mind. In those times that I do think about them; I'll offer up a quick prayer that they would come to know the joy of salvation.

I've tried talking to some of them about it, but it's really difficult. It's one of those things that you so desperately want to talk about but you don't really know how to bring up.

I need to get over myself and how they'll view me. I need to go out uncomfortably in to territory that may put the relationship on the cutting board. I need to be willing to risk it all for them to be saved. When it comes down to it, isn't it more important that they know God than it is for me to know them?

Some would argue that one of the ways I can evangelize is by witnessing and being a good friend. I think that should be only part of a multi-tiered strategy.

I pray for Bach, Jesse, Stayc, Kevin, Perna, Ash, Hez, and others that they would come to know Jesus.

Real Life RPG

2005-05-18T14:00:00.000-04:00

The other day, Dan sent me a link to this asian party network. At first, I was just kind of whatever about it. I then found out the thing has experience and levels. That got me hooked.

It's a nice form of viral marketing with tangible rewards for its participants. There's free parties, free drink coupons, and even cash.

If you're interested, leave your email and I'll send you an invite.

Workout Schedule

2005-05-17T14:07:00.000-04:00

I finalized my workout schedule for the week.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

With this whole race coming up, it leaves very little time for me to do other stuff.

Weekends are reserved for me to recover. I can pretty much eat/drink/do whatever I want, as long as I've kept up with my schedule.

Panhandling Scams

2005-05-16T12:18:00.000-04:00

Friday night, we decided to make a run to White Castle. As suburbanites, we fear any sort of urban setting. We went through the drive through but it took a very long time. While we were waiting, we were approached for money.

Obviously, any sort of story these people come up with will be a ruse. We all know that as educated and fairly street savvy individuals. Even though I knew better then to give any of these people money, I felt compelled.

While I was sitting there in the car, thinking about the various reasons to give or not to give money to one of these people, I thought about this one time at Pathmark.

We were coming out of Pathmark with some groceries for one of our Sunday night dinners. As we came out, a girl asked us if she could get a ride from us. We all kind of looked at each other very nervous and awkward. My mom insisted that she was crazy and that we shouldn't help her. We had all come in one car, so there wasn't much room for her anyways. We apologized and proceeded to go back to my house.

On the way, we discussed the pros and cons of giving this girl a ride. I said that if it had been me, I would have given her a ride. Todd decided to go back and gave her a lift and things were good.

I thought of this incident at the White Castle drive through. I thought about all the various scams around the world, some more dispicable than others. I thought about my own callous heart and apathy towards people in general. Amongst all that, I made the rash decision of giving the guy cash. Knowing full well that the guy would go off and use it for whatever.

Afterwards, I thought of this verse:

Matthew 25:37-40

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Now, giving money isn't exactly any of these things. But should I be held responsible for his lies? I am to show wisdom and discernment in my decisions. But what about showing compassion?

Some would say that I was taken advantage of. Then again, you can say that about a lot of Christian organizations.

I think I'll let God sort it out. He's much wiser than I.

Unnatural to Drink Cow`s Milk

2005-05-13T11:40:00.000-04:00

I was reading some comments on /. and came across some stuff about how it's unnatural to drink cow's milk. In fact, it's unnatural to drink milk past infancy in general. This spurred me on to do some research and what I found was disgusting.

I won't go in to too much detail, as a lot of the information is freely available on the web. But the most disgusting thing about cow's milk is the pus and blood that is contained in it. Granted, these are in really small quantities, but just the thought that that stuff is in the white stuff makes me gag.

In order for the cow farmers to maximize milk output, they give the cows growth hormone. This makes the udders swell and get infected with something called matisis. To combat the infection, the cows are pumped full of antibiotics. Over the course of the next 24-36 hours, the udders will secrete pus and blood. Granted, most farmers don't milk the cows at this point, but it's still disgusting.

Lactose is also extremely difficult for your body to process, that's why I get mad gas after I drink milk. For the rest of the day.

So if you drink milk, you should think twice about what you're putting in your body.

The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown

2005-05-12T14:02:00.000-04:00

Pete challenged me to the mile today. $50 USD is on the line. Last I ran the mile, I did it in 8:40, just kind of a brisk pace, nothing really heavy. I've been running on and off around a month now. I have one and a half months left to train before race day.

If anyone has any advice/tips to help me increase my time, that would be great.

I want to win this thing bad.

Things Best Left Unseen

2005-05-11T11:13:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, on my way home from sewing class, I was riding the ferry. As the ferry pulls in to the Lincoln Harbor dock, it passes this strip of expensive apartments that jut out in to the water. There are two rows of apartments with their front entrances facing each other. Each one of these apartments has a very large and clear bay window overlooking the harbor. As the ferry passes, it is quite easy to look in to any one of these windows and see various activities occuring inside.

On this particular night, a fairly large man was very vigorously going at it. His butt was shaking as he thrust his pelvis quickly back and forth. It was apalling to watch, even for the few seconds it was in my field of view.

*shudder*

Why the UN Sucks

2005-05-10T14:10:00.000-04:00

Last Tuesday, I took a cab from my sewing class to the ferry, trying to make it home at a reasonable time. We got stuck in at least 10 minutes of traffic because there was a motorcade for the stupid U.N. Just another reason why the U.N. is a worthless organization.

Needless to say, beacause of the motorcade, I missed the ferry by 1 minute. It was pulling away as I was running up to the pier; forcing me to wait another 20 minutes for the next one.

No Posts

2005-05-10T14:08:00.000-04:00

Been so lazy this past week that I haven't blogged in what feels like forever. It's not that I don't have things to blog about. There's been tons of movies I've seen in the past week or so. There have also been a bunch of random, if not uninteresting, events happen too. Most of which I don't really feel like blogging about as it would only be a paragraph or two long.

So I guess so random musings from the last few weeks.

Fubar

2005-05-02T14:55:00.000-04:00

I had to come in to work at 7 AM EST. Here's the story.

There are two portions of my job. The day shift and the night shift. The day shift, of which I am a part, services QA and manages most of the problems. The night shift actually handles the deployment to over 15,000 workstations.

Last thursday, one of the night guys Fubared. Majorly. We spent all of Friday cleaning up his mess. In addition to that, we had to come in today to make sure things were okay.

From the looks of it, the subject in question will be let go. This was just too major of a screw up to go unanswered. I don't want to see him go, but if I was the manager, he'd be toast.

I'm tired.

Rain Out

2005-04-29T14:17:00.000-04:00

It looks like it may rain tonight. If it does, small group will be moved to my house instead of Smith Field Park.

New Venture

2005-04-28T15:01:00.000-04:00

I met with Todd last night after prayer meeting and talked about a possible business venture. It's really exciting going to work for myself and being my own boss. I'm still not sure of how profitable this will be as it will take some time to ramp up, but I think there is great opportunity here.

I'm looking to get more developers in to the team so we can do as much as possible.

There's so much that I have to prepare and so much that still needs to be done. It's all so exciting.

Once I've met with the other people that are involved and we come to a consensus about where we all want to go and what we want to achieve, I'll have a better idea about the business side of things.

I also need to ge tmy MBA which won't be for another two years.

So much to do, so little time.

Startup

2005-04-27T13:32:00.000-04:00

I decided to start my own business. I know it's a very risky proposition, but I think I have the drive and the talent to succeed. What my business will do, I still haven't decided yet, but I have a lot of ideas in my head.

I've been doing some research and found this site: www.sba.gov. The .gov tells me it's a government site, but I tend to not trust anything on the internet. So far, it has some really good information and resources that will be great in terms of starting this thing up.

If anyone is interested in joining my venture, and yes, I know you don't know what it is yet, let me know. I'm sure we can work something out.

Why Am I So Retarded?

2005-04-26T21:52:00.000-04:00

I got home kind of late from my sewing lesson today. Since I run to Gramercy Park right after work, I don't have a chance to grab anything to eat.

So, I look in the fridge and don't really find anything to eat. I'm kind of tired and kind of really lazy and decide to make Cup-O-Noodles.

Yes, I know how bad they are for you. I know how they don't taste very good. I know that I can cook. Yet, I feel compeled to make one of these salt bricks and consume it.

It's not like it tastes good. Yet I slurp the "shrimp" flavored noodles down regardless. What compels me to do it? Why do I subjigate my body to such things?

I'm such an idiot.

Alias Jumped the Shark

2005-04-25T11:04:00.000-04:00

I finally caught up with Alias. I've been reluctant to watch the last two episodes because I just don't care anymore. The story and the characters have devloved from intricate and complex and interesting to simple, derivative, and lame. It was confirmed last week when, instead of coming up with a new villain, decided to have someone impersonate Sloane.

Part of the reason why this is so awful is how late it comes in the season. It's about half way through the season and they introduce this major story arc. It's one thing for them to have it at the beginning so it gives the audience a chance to adjust and make heads or tails of it. But bringing it back now just shows that the writers have nothing left. They couldn't come up with something better than a villain they already had? Not to mention that Sloane wasn't exactly the most threatening of villains. Yes, he was evil, but not in the crazy, I'm capable of doing anything sort of evil.

I could buy Natalie as Sydney's sister. I can buy that they both had similar upbringings and went through similar trials. But the writers are just mimicing too much of stuff that was in season 1 and 2, and which were done better in those previous seasons.

I give Alias another two weeks. If it doesn't get better, I'm going to abandon the series.

Review: Phil`s Wedding

2005-04-21T14:11:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday was Phil's wedding. Phil was one of the last people I expected would get married. He's basically a big kid and perennial bachelor. His ceremony was lovely. I had the great honor of manning A/V and did my best. Just as Pastor Andy began to speak, his wireless mic started fritzing. A few people that knew me looked back towards the A/V room with the look of "fix it!" Alas, there was nothing I could do from my little room. So I had one of the ushers run up and hand him a wired mic. It's nice being a part of a wedding, even if your participation is fairly minor.

The cocktail hour was okay. The highlights was a raw bar consisting of oysters and clams. Most of the other guests hadn't discovered these gems, so M, Sara, and I gorged ourselves on several plates of oysters. There was also this roast pig that was very good. The meat was tender and flavorful. The skin was too tough and not worth the effort. There was also a patte that was very good. Went very well with the mustard.

The actual reception food was mediocre at best. After going to several weddings, I've learned my lesson and order the fish now.

But the music was great. During the actual meal, it was a lot of Lite FM type of music. It was kind of odd when M knew the lyrics to every song, save one. Then came the 80's music. M tried to keep me and my shenanigans off the dance floor, but I was having too much fun being silly.

It was a great time and hope the best for Phil and Susana.

Congratulations!

My Own T-Shirt

2005-04-20T11:35:00.000-04:00

I started my first project last night in sewing. I took an old t-shirt, deconstructed it, and put it back together. The whole process took a little more than an hour and a half. The stitching isn't very good, but considering that this was just practice, it gives me a good idea of what I need to do with my other shirts.

Thinking about sewing and my tailoring skills, I'm still not sure if this is something I really want to persue. Each time I go out, my sewing skills get better and the whole process becomes easier. But it still takes a lot of time to cut, pin, and stitch things together. At the same time, there is something very satisfying about making something that is tangible and that you can wear.

My goal is to be able to build a suit. I'm still a far ways off from that goal, but each session takes me one step closer.

Why Australia Sucks

2005-04-19T14:54:00.000-04:00

Ever since Sunday, I've been on this big Risk binge. I've been reading up on strategies and it seems like there isn't much out there. Everything I did find only confirmed what we had discovered independently.

The first key is to stack as many of your armies as you can on one territory. This concentration of forces makes it much easier to win engagements and as act as deterrents to being attacked. The fear of retribution is a large one.

The second key is to try and gain control of a continent early in the game. This does not mean to just take over a continent; it means to hold it for at least a full round. If you are able to do that, most likely, you will be able to hold the continent for the better part of the game. If your opponents cannot dislodge your powerbase early, your advantage in resources will be overwhelming.

A lot of strategies focus on the strength of Australia. I propose that Australia is actually a red herring.

On the surface, Australia looks great. It has only 4 territories and one front. Gaining control of it is easy enough in the first turn or 2; netting you 2 additional armies per turn. This all looks fine and good, but here are the problems.

Even though Australia only has 1 front, it is difficult for it to mount any sort of attack on any of the other continents. Australia's logical expansion is in to Asia. If you're an experienced Risk player, you know how difficult it is to attempt to conquer Asia, let alone hold on to it.

Without expansion possibilities, you soon find that Australia becomes irrelavent. Before they can try and attack other continents, they must contend with everyone who is vying for Asia. In the meantime, they are slowly losing their smattering of territories across the map.

While all the other players are expanding, gaining cards, and moving closer to the next army, you are stuck in your corner of the world.

As an alternative, I propose establishing your stronghold in South America. South America is similar to Australia in that it has only 4 territories, 2 fronts, and gives you 2 additional armies. South America gives you the added bonus of being able to expand in to North America or Africa.

North America is actually the easier of the two to conquer because of its high prize. It's fairly large with 9 territories, but it only has 3 fronts, making it fairly easy to defend.

Since a lot of players want control of North America, it should be a small matter of waiting for the two players to burn themselves out fighting for control, and then you coming in with your army bonus and wiping them both up. All other players will be in a losing war against you because you have the bonus. Yes you will be losing, but if you plan your attack well, you should be able to wipe out one player's presence.

The best strategy is to gain control of both South America and Australia (if possible). Almost no one will try to take Australia once it is conquered which gives you an additional 2 army boost, letting you further dominate the Americas.

Risk rewards the aggressive. The attacker has a 6:5 advantage over the defender so it is better for you to attack. Planned well, it is very difficult for an unprepared opponent to stand up against you.

Lifting with Dan

2005-04-19T14:26:00.000-04:00

I went over to Dan's last night to start lifting. I haven't lifted in ages and found that I'm actually pretty weak. It's going to take a while before I'm up to where I was before.

While I was at Dan's, he had a Soloflex just sitting around all disassembled. I figured, we could use the thing as a bench so might as well put it together. We found the instructions and the box of parts but, man, was it gross. The box and some of the rubber bands were covered in mildew and mold. It was very gross to touch.

We managed to put the thing together and try the thing out. The first issue we found was that the bench was too high. Our crotch was poking up in to the air and our feet had a hard time being flat on the floor. We also found that using the machine is very difficult. There is tons of resistance pushing, but coming back down, the machine does too much of the work for you.

I've tried using other machines such as Bowflex (or Blowflex, as I like to call it) and this is worse.

It's a good thing that he has free weights so I could at least do something. My arms are all limp today. I imagine they will be much worse tomorrow.

Risk at Church

2005-04-18T14:55:00.000-04:00

I was surprised this Sunday when I was sitting around after church and Vincent brought Risk over. It's been a while since I last played so I had to look at the rules a bit.

The first game, I played against Vincent and Spencer. The only way we play is with Secret Missions, otherwise, it just takes way too long to play.

On the first turn, I took both Australia and South America. My secret mission was South America and Asia and with this early conquest and boost in resources, it wouldn't be long before I took all of Asia.

Both Vincent and Spencer thinned themselves out by attacking each other, letting me sweep through Asia and winning in the next two turns.

In the mean time, some other guys came by and wanted in the next game. This time, my mission was to destroy green. It was difficult, because I wasn't anywhere near green. Instead, I took and held Europe on turn 1. With the extra 5 armies, I was poised to take over North America. In the mean time, the other guys had thinned green down to only about 3 territories, 2 of which were in North America with only 1 army each.

Dan surprised me and traded in his risk cards for a 4 army boost and invaded Europe. Luckily, I had a set ready and traded mine in for 6 armies. North America was difficult, just barely wiping out green's 2 positions. His last position was in Japan. I put the rest of my armies in Alaska, crossed over, and surprised both Spencer and Matt as I took Japan easily for the win on turn 4.

We're going to be playing again next Sunday, so come out.

It`s a Fact: CG.Drama is Dying.

2005-04-12T13:48:00.000-04:00

I talked to Joyce last night and I realized just how bad a leader I am. I love drama and I want it to exist, but I don't know if I can lead it. I do my best, yet fail. I try so hard to find relevance but none of it works.

I'm sitting here, looking at the coming year. I've already thought about this for awhile and the ideo that no one wants to be in drama makes me sad. When I think about how our youth view arts in the church, it makes me sad.

Let me clarify that. I'm sad because I see so much potential in the kids. I see so many ways that God can really use them if they would just trust in him. They're so caught up in what's being produced and missing the forest of the trees.

While talking, we came to the subject of what makes CG.Drama different than a secular drama team. Pragmatically, there's nothing different. But just like a lot of things, the difference is in the people.

Pastor Tim gave a message about being a Christian wrestler at Wheaton. What makes wrestling at Wheaton different than wrestling for a secular college? It's the motivation and the attitude that the wrestlers have. In the same way, That's how I approach drama in the church.

As Christians, our primary occupation is to glorify God. That can be through worship or any number of things. You glorify him by being obedient and following his precepts. You glorify him by sharing the gospel. You glorify him by singing praises. You glorify him by doing your best in all things. You glorify him by not complaining. Thus, even a non-believer can glorify God in these respects.

Being a Christian is what spereates CG.Drama from secular drama. We have this tremendous freedom to do interesting dramas. Some of these dramas will be effective and engage the audience. Some of them will be crappy and no one will like it. But we try to focus on the good. We try to see what has worked and what hasn't and to move forward and try to make improvements.

Probably the biggest difference is that we are not concerened about the bottom line. Yes, we have a budget, a small one that we have to work within. But we don't care about how many tickets we sell or how packed the house is.

We're also not concerned about the audience's reaction. The secular team is focused on how well they perform and if they "touched" the audience. As Christians, we know that our performance doesn't actually do anything. It is God's spirit that touches peoples hearts. If you really believe that, then we can perform anything for the glory of God.

So, I am in crisis. Joyce has caused my world to fall apart and stripped away the little hope I had left. I don't blame her for it. But it's caused me to rethink this whole drama thing. Right now, I'm thinking about taking a year off from drama, letting it die, and try to rebuild it later. I don't know if this is the best course of action and the only thing I can do is to really pray about it and do what I think God wants me to do.

At the same time, I want to persevere. To not give in to defeat and try to keep the team alive as much as I can. If this entails that I'm the only one in drama, so be it. Of course I would like a good sized team. But I also understand it's not about what I want. What if I'm just being blind? What if God is telling me to give up and put my energies toward something else?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Review: Kung Fu Hustle

2005-04-11T13:55:00.000-04:00

Watched Kung Fu Hustle this weekend with the guys. I was expecting fun light fair, and I pretty much got what I was looking for.

If you've seen Shaolin Soccer, it's along similar lines as that: a little bit ubsurb, some great CGI action, and fun humor. There are other similarites, such as, a reluctant hero, a girl with some sort of "disability", and the fat guy. Unlike Shaolin Soccer, there are a lot of pop culture references. Some of these are only one line of dialogue. Others are entire scenes.

It's a silly, absurd film. If you're into chinese humor and a fan of Stephen Chow and Shaolin Soccer, you'll definately enjoy this.

4/5

The State of Christian Music

2005-04-08T14:28:00.000-04:00

Some while ago, Todd and I got in to a discussion about Christian music. He talked about how the current state of music was good because it had simple lyrics and catchy tunes which was conducive to be sung along to.

While this may be true, it doesn't make for good music. What he was describing was Pop music, not to be confused with popular music.

Pop music is constructed from catchy music and simple lyrics. This is not to say that the music is bad but it generally lends itself to falling in to the commerial category.

There's nothing wrong with commercial music. There's nothing wrong with commercial christian music. But as someone involved in Christian arts, I would like to see these groups push music forward. Not only christian music, but music as a whole.

You look at hymms and the complex and powerful lyrics they use with rhythm and rhyme. Where has all that talent gone?

I believe there is talent out there. There are talented songwriters and musicians, but they are not heard because the record labels only want cash. Even though it's "christian" music, it doesn't mean these companies aren't greedy. That's why you have so much pop out there.

Lacking So Much

2005-04-07T12:24:00.000-04:00

I've been reading a lot of stuff for CG.Drama. Last week, I finished Respect for Acting which made me feel like we were some of the worst actors around. I don't feel that I'm equipped to teach drama or acting. My own experience is thin and my own talents are lacking. How am I supposed to teach others to do this when I can't do it myself?

Yesterday, I got The Director's Eye by John Ahart. Just reading the first few chapters, I see how little I bring to the table as a director. Yes, even in my infancy, I am a better director than, say, the director of Grease @ Montville, but I am still lacking in being a good director.

It isn't fair to the rest of the team that I lead them. But if not I, who? Who else at church is equipped or even beginning to prepare themselves for such a task? No one. All I can do is try my best, study hard, and learn as much as I can to instruct my team.

Hopefully, my inexperience isn't held against me.

Birkenstocks

2005-04-06T14:15:00.000-04:00

I went to the mall last night and picked up a pair of Birkenstocks. These sandals are nice because after some wear, they eventually conform to the shape of your foot. These things take about 12-14 hours of wear before they break in.

I look forward to spring, summer, and autumn to wear these bad boys.

Lost 20 lbs.

2005-04-05T11:11:00.000-04:00

I weighed myself over the weekendend and found that I had lost around 20 pounds since I last weighed myself. This is crazy considering I haven't really done anything other than change my diet.

No, I didn't jump on Atkin's or South Beach, I just follow a well balanced diet and elimnating chemicals from my diet. The first thing that I cut was soda. Not only is it expensive, but it is high in high fructose corn syrup which is a hyper sacharine. Your body is more likely to store these molecules as fat as they are harder to break down.

The second thing I cut from my diet is snacks. Chips of any sort, pretzels, all down the tube. Most of these foods are high in saturated fats and transfatty acids. Both are bad for you. These are also high in sodium content.

I drink at least 8 cups of water a day, if not more. For the last two weeks, I've been eating oatmeal, loaded with granola for breakfast. Before that, I would eat Multi-Grain Cheerios. I would also try to eat a lot at lunch and have a small dinner. I would also try not to eat past 8 PM unless they were small portions. When I would eat, I would make sure I had a good mix of protein and carbohydrates. If I had too much protein one day, I would hold off the next. I would also try to have vegetables too, but it's hard to get good vegetables at lunch.

All these little things have added up to losing a good amount of weight.

Now that the weather is nicer, I plan to begin running again. I would like to start lifting, but I don't know if I have the time for that.

All this was done, not to lose weight, but to be healthier and to eat healthier. I read labels and ingredients to be careful of what I'm putting in my body and try not to eat any sort of fast food unless necessary (mostly on Sundays).

If you want tips on your diet, I give free consultation.

Note: I am not a nutrition expert.

Review: Andy`s Wedding

2005-04-04T15:22:00.000-04:00

April. Weddings galor. One of two down. Andy's wedding was pretty good. The highlight was the cocktail hour. Probably the best cocktail hour I've been to. Where else can you get prosciutto, clams and muscles, nachos, fajitas, and tons of bread, all in one place.

We ate so much that Gene was actually done before the rest of us.

The entree food was mediocre as expected.

Euroken was also lack luster. The dance floor was limitted at best and there was no real reason to be out there.

The ceremony was beautiful. Elaine hand folded over 600 roses. Crazy! The ceremony was great because it was short and sweet.

It was really nice to go from the ceremony to the reception. The location they had the wedding at was beautiful, over looking the harbor and the Atlantic. If only there wasn't a torrential down pour and near hurricane strength winds.

Good times.

Wish you the best Andy & Elaine Michaels.

Review: Sin City

2005-04-04T15:08:00.000-04:00

Went to see Sin City this weekend, and I really wanted to like it. But there were a few things holding the movie back.

Pacing -- There were points where the narration just bogged down the story too much. It's a movie, so you can show a lot of things that you can't in print media. Some of the internal monologue could be better replaced w/ action or something else.

The stories -- I understand the reason why Rodriguez chose to depict three stories instead of 1, but I think the movie would be better served if he had chosen to entertwine them more. So all three stories were happening simultatnesously. This way, there is a hard climax and consistent rising and falling action.

Stylistically, the movie was beautiful. It wasn't just black and white, it was high contrast b&w. I almost wanted him to use a little more color, but it might have lessened its impact. I think the colors that were used could have been a lot more vibrant as to stand out against the stark canvas.

In the end, I'm glad I saw it. I don't know if I would want to see it again though.

3.5/5

Mmmm... Donuts

2005-04-04T12:04:00.000-04:00

Comment:

In other news, donuts almost certainly don't exist. Instead it is much more likely that there exists circular pieces of cooked dough with a hole in the centre.

2nd comment:

It would have been easier to say "torroid pieces of dough"....

Punchline:

Yes, or to make it more accessible, instead of "torroid" you could say "doughnut-shaped."

Hilarious.

Fark

2005-04-01T11:37:00.000-05:00

Only today. If you haven't checked out fark today, check it right now.

Hilarity ensues.

Review: Grease @ Montville

2005-04-01T10:43:00.000-05:00

I went out to see Grease @ Montville last night. My expectations weren't that high, considering the level of Pippin last year.

We got there about 15 minutes before 8 and got in "line" for our tickets. It wasn't so much a line as it was a blob. The ticket table was also strategically placed between the two entrances so that the people who were trying to get in to the auditorium had to muscle their way through the blob. This disorganization was compounded by the use of assigned seating. It's a high school production, it's not like massive amounts of people are rushing to get tickets. It's also Montville, so it's not like people desperately have to see the show.

The whole assigned seating thing was dumb. They could've better spent their money on other things. If anything, they should've just stamped your hand and be done with it. Alas, we got seats in the back, not that it much mattered.

The first 15-20 minutes of the show, I was bored out of my mind. Not because it was bad, but because I had no idea what was going on. I had seen Grease a really long time ago, back in middle school I believe, and didn't remember and ounce of it. The poor accents coupled with poor annunciation and bad sound system left me lost. After the 20 minutes, they either lost their accent or I just became accustomed to their speech and was able to pick up on stuff.

The highlight of the production was this one girl in the chours. Of all the people on stage, she had the most "spunk" and "tenacity". Everyone else looked robotic and lifeless while she invigored energy and charisma in to every role, no matter how bit. It got to the point where we were scanning the chorus to find her, which wasn't difficult because she was so talented.

Come intermission, M and I had a bet going on what her name was. My guess was Megan Greener. M's guess was Lauren Mitrick. We both had a 1/17 or 5.9% chance of being correct. M actually had the higher percentage because there were two other girls named Lauren or Laura, raising her chances to 3/17 or 17.6%.

When the show finally wrapped, we were standing around waiting for Joyce to come out. While we were waiting, the Yao's came by and informed us that the girl was Lauren Mitrick. I don't know why, but I felt such a devastating blow. It was like my heart was struck by a sledge hammer and the pieces sunk in tar. I don't think any other defeat of insignificance affected me so.

10$, what a night.

Looking back, Looking Forward

2005-03-31T10:27:00.000-05:00

I finished reading Respect for Acting by Uta Hagen the other day. Even when I first started, I realized there was so much to acting that I didn't even know about. I knew that acting was hard, but I didn't know it was this hard. When I look at my actors and where they are, they're still nowhere near this level. By comparison, we are still just fooling around.

My goal this summer is to take this book and use it as our manual/textbook. The big challenge is time constraint. We only have 8 weeks to do training this summer. Summer is also usually jam packed with vacations and missions and other stuff. I'm not even sure who's going to be on the team next year.

One of the things that I definately want to do is to open up drama to everyone. The summer would be used, not only for training, but also as a long audition as well. It would give me a chance to see how people work and give me a better idea of their skill/talent level. At the end of the summer, those in attendance will have the option of staying on to perform during the school year.

Although CG.Drama has been around for almost five years now, it still feels like it's in its infant stages. There's still so much we're getting wrong and so much that needs to be done. I don't think we'll be a real established ministry for another two or three years.

Even though the team has been around for that long, we don't have much to sohw for it. Yes, there were the odd mimes here and there, but nothing bordering on real acting until this year. Even the stuff we do is just representation and not real acting.

Part of this is because we didn't learn to really act. We had all the training up to that point but then stalled. I had to take over and was thrust into a leading/teaching position before I was ready. I spent a year finding my footing and now am finally able to ramp up.

Still, we've had some great times. Sometimes when I think of CG.Drama, I'd rather do this than any other sort of real work. I guess, part of it is due to my love for movies/film. Knowing that I'll most likely never be able to produce a real movie (SupeRodd, Spanish Episode I, and Iron Simon don't count), I've "settled" on the stage. Not that the stage is bad, but there are limitations and other challenges to it.

Ultimately, I love writing. I love writing the sketches that we perform but wish I had other writers so I could take a break sometimes.

Sorry for the ramblings and incomplete sentences. Just musing to myself.

Sewing Lessons

2005-03-30T14:00:00.000-05:00

I've been going to a sewing class on Tuesdays. Yesterday was my second session.

The first time I went, I was hoping my instructor was going to be hot. I don't know why, but it was one of those stupid little desires I had. Kind of like a bonus. When I finally met her, she was the opposite of hot. But that's okay. In a way, it's good, because I won't be distracted and can focus on my skills. At the same time... I kinda wish she was hot.

Although I've only had two sessions, I've learned a lot already. I have pages of notes from the lessons and feel that, if I continue, I will have the proper training to actually produce my own warez. Not that my clothing would be that good, but there's nothing like putting to use your own creation.

Sewing is difficult.

Treasures in Heaven

2005-03-29T10:09:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about stuff the other day, as I always do, and the thought occured to me about "treasures in heaven".

Matthew 6:18-20

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

The first year I went to OIL, I attended the theology tract. This was back when I listened to about 3 or 4 sermons a day, for fun. Pastor Paul Kim was the speaker and he talked about the doctrine of rewards. Ultimately, our main reward is God's love. The things that we did on earth stored up more of God's love.

This explanation never really jived with me. But I couldn't think of a better interpretation of "treasures in heaven" until now.

I propose to you, that these "treasures in heaven" are relationships. I don't think it's a conincidence that God emphasises a strong relationship between himself and his people. He doesn't care about the things that you do or the items that you bring to sacrifice. He cares about how strong his relationship is with you. It's no wonder that God uses marriage as the analogy of his relationship to his Church, his people.

If you look at the two greatest commandments, first, love God with all your heart, then love your neighbor as yourself, that, in its essence is relationships.

When you look at the relationshpis you have with other people, what is it that makes them meaningful? It's not the quantity but the quality. That is why fame is so lonely. Sure, millions of people recognize you and want to around you and with you, but none of them really know who you are. The relationships there are not only fake but one sided. The fans know everything about the famous, but the famous no nothing about the individual fans.

The other reason why I think relationships are "treasures in heaven" is because we are eternal beings. Once we die, you will either live eternally with your creator, or live in scorn still trying to live your own life. Heaven and Hell, if you will. The relationships we build on earth will carry over to heaven because we will carry over to heaven.

The treasure is the joy of worshiping together as brothers and sisters before the one that has created us and the one that has saved us. I, for one, look forward to that and find that really meaningful and worthwhile.

Coming Home

2005-03-28T10:10:00.000-05:00

Mmmm.... :smile: good weekend. The beginning of it sucked because of the flu, but good friends make things so much better.

Lynn came back to visit. It's been four years since we really got a chance to hang out or catch up and it was great just sitting around, singing, talking, being normal. Sometimes you don't realize how much you miss someone and all the little things that make them up as a person.

Also saw a few old friends from high school that I haven't seen in four years plus.

Easter weekend. Not only did Jesus come back from the dead, old relationships and friends came back from the "dead".

Lynn has this weird sort of contageousness to her. When she's around, you can't help but want to love God more. Her faith is so real and so personal that it's like it's right there with her.

Most of the people I'm around don't have that. This is not to say their faith isn't real, but it isn't like there with them. I don't know, it's really hard to explain.

Part of it is also the memories. Of another time, another life, one forgotten by the bustle of the everyday. it's not often that you get to put aside all your plans and everything you intended to do and just be. Sitting there, enjoying the fact that you're alive. That you're with God and nothing else matters.

You can say I had an epiphany yesterday. How long this will last is another question. But one thing that is never a question, is that God is good. Amen.

Delinquent

2005-03-23T10:57:00.000-05:00

I know I've been delinquent with my posting. Went about a week and a half without a single update.

Last week, I was just way too engrossed in my RPG to spend any other time writing.

This week, I've been kind of sick, so my brain isn't really working.

I will do my best to keep consistent, but it is difficult to find something interesting to write about everyday.

d20 System

2005-03-11T13:19:00.000-05:00

I love dice. Axis & Allies, Dungeons & Dragons; the more critical the dice are to the game, the more I like it.

A few months ago, Todd bought this racing game that consisted of using dice to move. The game was alright, but didn't have player interaction. To spice things up, I started working on an expansion for the game. Basically turning the game into something akin to Mario Kart.

As I proceeded to work on the rules and details of the combat system, I started looking up information about the d20 system.

d20 is an Open Gaming License created by Wizards of the Coast based on the Dungons & Dragons ruleset. It's basically a framework to build any game system with a core set of pre-established rules.

In my searches, I found this satire:

Hasbro to Re-Launch Entire Game Product Line

Gaming company wants to capitalize on success of d20 engine

Hasbro today announced that it was responding to the success of Wizards of the Coast's open source d20 Dungeons and Dragons product by using the d20 engine in other game products. All of the new games will require the Player's Handbook to play.

As I was reading it, I found it hilarious because it not only pokes fun at d20 but also at Dungeons & Dragons convention.

I'm such a nerd.

3.5 Hours

2005-03-10T14:29:00.000-05:00

It took me 3.5 hours to get home on Tuesday. By the time I got home, my tank was on empty. Another 30 minutes or so and I would be stranded some where.

This has got to be my worst commute home yet.

Raw Burgers

2005-03-07T15:20:00.000-05:00

Last night, we had burgers for dinner. This is the first time that I made burgers from scratch. I hate making burgers because I'm never sure how long I should really cook them. They either come out too rare or too well done.

Unlike steaks, which you can just kind of poke and feel to see if it's done, hamburger doesn't respond in the same ways.

Alas, I am still incapable of producing a medium-rare to medium doneness burger.

Queer Dreams

2005-03-04T14:08:00.000-05:00

I had the weirdest dream last night. Considering I don't have many dreams (yes, I know that I still do, I just don't remember; spare me) ever. I think my last dream I had was about a year or two ago. Anyway, this may seem odd, but whatevers.

The dream opened on the streets of london. It was this gray blue overcast sky with not much light coming through. As I was walking along, I sudden see Carson from Queer Eye. I'm like, "Woah! I love your show, blah blah blah." Some how, we really hit it off and he asks me if I want to hang out with him as he shoots the show. I'm like, "Of course!".

So I follow him around as they all do their thing with the straight guy. We go to these little shops to shop for clothes, this little market to shop for food, it was a blast.

The taping of the show was about to wrap up. We all sit down to dinner at some pub. The waiter asks me what I would like and I say, "Whatever, you choose." The waiter says he'll bring me some New York strip. I think it's a little odd, but that's alright.

Everyone gets their food and we all start eating. I think mine is a little strange 'cause there are all these small bones, not like on a fish, but like really thin ribs and stuff.

In the middle of dinner, the straight guy and his girlfriend comes in to the pub. Apparantly, he had asked her to marry him on camera and she said yes. But after the cameras stopped rolling, she told him she couldn't marry him because the ring was too big and hurt her finger. He had given her a 100 carat diamond ring. She gave the ring back to him and walked out.

We all sit there a little dumbfounded, not because of hte reason why she left him, but that it happened. For some reason, her reasoning seemed perfectly reasonable.

Finally, we finish dinner. Mine was pretty good, tasted nothing like New York strip steak though. I ask the waiter what it was and he said, "Dog". I look at the plate and, sure enough, there was the meaty skeleton of a small dog on my plate.

Oh, and all the guys in Queer Eye were Christians. How weird is that?

Scratch Academy

2005-03-03T13:29:00.000-05:00

I went this DJ class last night not really expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised when I actually learned a good amount.

The two main things that I learned were how to cue up a track and how to drop a track in.

My only previous experience has been with virtual decks. The theory of beatmatching is pretty clear. But going from the PC to real decks was a huge jump.

I'm still not sure if djing is something that I want to do or how serious I'm going to be about it. I'm not ready to drop around 1k for some hardware that I may not use that often.

But if this is something that I really want to do, I wouldn't be afraid to get some decks and start spinning.

Sigh. So many decisions.

Shun by Kershaw

2005-03-02T11:38:00.000-05:00

I found the knife set that I want to get.

I was browsing altonbrown.com and on the front page is a link to Kershaw knives, specifically, the Shun line.

I've been looking to get a knife set for awhile, but couldn't decide on which ones to get. After reading about these knives, I've decided that these are the knives for me.

Alton Brown is one of those people I trust. If he says a product is good, I'm there. The fact that he goes through the reasons why it's good is just a bonus.

So here's how it's looking.

The Alton Brown set, which consists of a 3.5" paring knife, an 8" chef's knife, and 9" serrated bread knife will set me back $219.

The 7.75" cleaver will set me back $168. And the whetstone will set me back $40.

That's a grand total of $427 for the basic set.

Then 6 5" steak knives is 6*$68 = $408 will bring the grand total to $835.

Sigh.

Happy Birthday

2005-03-01T14:27:00.000-05:00

My party on Saturday was a blast. I spent two hours at Shoprite just buying stuff for the party. I got home and immediately started cooking. This was around 4:30 PM. I spent 4 hours in the kitchen and by the time I was done, there was no food left.

Gene kept on doing shots with me. I had about 6 doubles of vodka redbull all night.

By around midnight, I was just way too tired. So I clocked out.

Happy birthday Stayc. Happy birthday Perna.

No Friday

2005-03-01T14:21:00.000-05:00

Sorry I missed Friday; there was just so much going on. There was real work during the day, when I normally blog, and then small group at night. Between all that, I didn't have any time to write something up.

WebDev for ETN.fm

2005-02-24T14:47:00.000-05:00

I signed on with ETN.fm to do some of their ASP work for them. This is a great opportunity not only for me to code, but to get involved with trance.

I'll also have the opportunity to get to know DJs and producers and othre people in the industry. Very exciting stuff.

Qonsol, DJ Qonsol

2005-02-23T16:20:00.000-05:00

I signed up for this free DJ class next week. It's only an hour, but I'm hoping that it will be enough to get me started. I downloaded a bunch of apps a few months ago, but I was pretty lost, considering they were modeled after real decks. Hopefully, I'll know enough to start practicing on my own.

Witness the birth of DJ Qonsol!

Flava Flav

2005-02-23T16:18:00.000-05:00

Comment:

I've got it!

Flash + Java = Flava!

And we can get Flava Flav to promote it!

YES! Bow before the mighty marketing droid!

Hilarious. I was dying.

Legal Suicide?

2005-02-23T14:22:00.000-05:00

I don't believe that suicide is an option. Of all the choices available, it's a very poor choice. But no matter how poor the choice is, it is still a choice. Where than, does the government have the right to declare suicide illegal?

There are two kinds of laws, moral laws and societal or governmental laws. Moral laws are those ascribed from a moral source, ie: the Bible. Societal laws tend to be based on fundamental moral laws. There are a few instances where laws are established, not because it is moral, but for the safety of the society at hand. Ex: speed limits.

Driving a certain speed is not morally wrong. But the state determines that a certain speed is "safe" not only for the driver, but for others on the road.

So when you look at suicide, is there a moral law with it? Is it morally wrong to take your own life? Even if you believe that taking your own life is wrong, it will not stop those that are determined to take their own life. So is suicide harmful to others?

Maybe indirectly, it affects friends and family. But does the state have the right to determine if it is legal or not? What is the state going to do? Lock them up so they can't take their own life?

This basically comes down to, is it your right to control your own life?

Part of me wants to say yes. It is your right to take your own life. This is disseperate from euthanasia, where you are seeking assistance to take your own life. I believe it is morally wrong to help someone commit suicide.

I don't know. I know that this doesn't affect me, but it's been something I've been thinking about since Million Dollar Baby.

Club: Markus Schulz & Nu NRG @ Spirit

2005-02-22T15:29:00.000-05:00

We got to Spirit around 1:30ish. By then, Markus Schulz was already in to his set. We met up with Sean, JDC, Kenny, and was surprised to see Brian Voo there.

At the beginning, Markus was alright, very proggy so it was kind of hard to dance with. I started the night out with Grey Goose and Red Bull which held me until 2:50 when Nu NRG came on. I knew they were going to performing live, but I wasn't sure how live they would be. They had keyboards and synths and powerbooks set up for their set.

Once they started going, it was on. I would have to say this was the best set I've ever been to. Every track was just as good or better than the previous. The lights and the music drove the crowd and got everyone really pumped. It was hard to believe that they only performed for an hour. If you like trance, you definately missed out on one of the best sets.

Markus came back on around 4 and picked up right where Nu NRG left off. This was a much harder, faster, darker Markus. He took big names tracks and played around with them.

As 5 rolled around, I knew we had to leave soon. But the set was continually getting better. But alas, we left at 5:15.

It was an awesome night of dancing and trance. There was plenty of room to move around and there was plenty of cool air from the AC. Hands down, the best night out yet.

Duck? No Duck

2005-02-22T10:11:00.000-05:00

After the interview, M and I went out for lunch. We went to Noodle Chu looking for Peking Duck.

I had been craving Peking Duck ever since that day at Chinatown. But, alas, they didn't have it for lunch. Another plan foiled.

Interview: CourtTV.com

2005-02-22T10:09:00.000-05:00

I had one of the best weekends ever. It all started on Friday.

I had an interview at CourtTV.com. I wasn't really looking forward to it because it sounded like more administrative work, but I figured that worst comes to worst, I could just use it as real world interview practice. So I woke up early and went anyway.

I actually did really well at the interview. I had a nice repoir with my interviewer and new all the important things. The interview took about 1.5 hours which is usually a good sign. They gave me a take home test with no real dealine, so I'm giving myself two weeks to finish it.

All in all, I'm kind of excited about the opportunities here. There's a lot of things that can challenge me and really grow me.

I'm just praying that this is where God wants me to be. That he would be the one opening doors and taking me to the next step in my life.

Human Area Network

2005-02-22T09:49:00.000-05:00

I was reading this article on /. about Human Area Networking and came across these jokes. I don't think you'd enjoy them unless you're a bit of a geek.
Comment:

"No honey, you're not fat, you just have lots of bandwidth!"
Follow up:
She's just her own WAN...

Comment:

What do you call a Human Area Network that's by itself? HAN SOLO!

Comment:

Is this where I brag...

about my fat pipe?

Comment:

This isn't an orgy, we're the infrastructure for a beowulf cluster...

what do you do when wey leaves the house?

2005-02-18T20:43:00.000-05:00

m
MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Wey Zin has left the house and his compy on (with his pword logged in and everything). It's all too tempting! Since it is his bday, I'll give him a break & blog for him. =) If you haven't figured it out, it's me, m.

interview
I spent the whole day w/ Wey Zin today. Well, not the whole day b/c he had an interview in the mroning. Afterwards, he called me up and sounded v. chipper on the phone so I assume it went well. Later on, I met up w/ him at his house and yesh indeed, it did go well! Mr. Smarty Pants was the first one to answer this particular question right when all the other applicants before him failed.

failed peking duck
Last night, Wey's mum decided to treat him out to dinner; they decided on the panda house. He wanted peking duck, but she didn't feel comfy ordering one whole duck for three ppl (she and I don't eat all that much). So I promised Wey Zin that I would take him out for peking duck today. We hit up noodle chu b/c I needed to pick up some more ingredients for tonite's dinnera, and shop rite's next door. But alas, NO PEKING DUCK!

cold dinner
prep time: 45 min
cooking time: 1.25 hr

menu:
1) eggplant bruchetta (probably the best part of the meal, but served too late)
2) fillet mignon in a port mustard suace w/ haricort verts and red peppers (the sauce was WAT too thick b/c of the rou and there were too many veggies)
3) classic yellow cake with chcocolate truffle sauce spiked with coffee liqor (cake made from scratch = good, sauce bought from gourmet shop = overpowering and thick)

well, time for chuch, then markus schultz! =D

24

2005-02-18T00:57:00.000-05:00

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday another arbitrary year older... happy birthday to me.

Dress to Impress

2005-02-17T14:36:00.000-05:00

After dinner, we were sitting around talking about how to get a girl. Not just hook up, but to land a girl for a long term relationship. The key, was putting your best foot forward, getting her to like you, and once she's stuck, to reveal your true side.

The next day, Peter was going to go to this lunch and this girl that he liked was going to be there. Of course, if he's trying to impress her, he needs to be clean cut and dressed as if he put some thought in to how he looked.

But Peter didn't have any clean suitable clothes for the lunch. The laundry room in his building closed at 9 PM and he wouldn't get home until much later than that. As a spur of the moment, we suggested that we go buy a shirt. And we were off.

We went to Macy's and found some shirts for him. There was this orange one that looked great, but he didn't like it. There was also a lavendar one, but he thought it was gay. Peter finally agreed on getting a red shirt. But he had to pair it with something else. So we found a sweater for him.

All in all, it was a very basic, very simple outfit. Nothing really special, but very clean.

He was ready.

Soul Fixin

2005-02-17T09:53:00.000-05:00

After work, we went to see Ong-Bak. We got in to the city around 5:15 so had a lot of time before the movie. Originally, we were going to go to K-Town to get some Korean food, but the walk was a little too far to get there, sit and eat, and make it back. We decided that we would just eat locally.

Rob suggested Chinese, which we were all okay with. As we were walking, I saw a place called "Soul Fixxin" (I forget how many Xs were in it). The place was run by black people, so how could we go wrong? Right?

I had to have the fried chicken. You don't go to soul food and not have fried chicken. You also have to have the mac & cheese. Chicken and mac & cheese, soul food at its finest. With all the fat and the calories, I needed a vegetable, so corn.

The chicken was alright. Not as good as George's chicken, but still good. The mac & cheese was alright, but the corn was excellent. If I had more corn, it would've made my day.
After work, we went to see Ong-Bak. We got in to the city around 5:15 so had a lot of time before the movie. Originally, we were going to go to K-Town to get some Korean food, but the walk was a little too far to get there, sit and eat, and make it back. We decided that we would just eat locally.

Rob suggested Chinese, which we were all okay with. As we were walking, I saw a place called "Soul Fixxin" (I forget how many Xs were in it). The place was run by black people, so how could we go wrong? Right?

I had to have the fried chicken. You don't go to soul food and not have fried chicken. You also have to have the mac & cheese. Chicken and mac & cheese, soul food at its finest. With all the fat and the calories, I needed a vegetable, so corn.

The chicken was alright. Not as good as George's chicken, but still good. The mac & cheese was alright, but the corn was excellent. If I had more corn, it would've made my day.

Treaty Shmeaty

2005-02-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

The Kyoto Treaty goes into effect today. For those who don't know, the Kyoto Treaty is basically an environmentalist's dream. It limits emissions of CO2 and other "green house gasses" by limitting industry. The accord states that nations who sign the treaty have to return to emission standards from 1990. Basically a huge technological step backwards.

People, esepecially the "green" people, bash the US for not signing this "treaty". The truth is, this is a good thing.

First, there is very little hard evidence that global warming is occuring. If you look at the "evidence", there's little to no connection between emissions and global warming. There is a larger correlation between global warming and warm/cool cycles of the planet itself. This whole thing could just as easily be a natural phenomena.

Most of these "scientists" who cry "the sky is falling" about global warming are just looking for funding. They try desperately to find legitimacy so they can get their next paycheck.

Then you have countries like China, Brazil,and India who didn't sign the treaty. These countries are becoming increasingly industrialized and will contribute to a large fraction of pollutants. For such a "treaty" to work, every major nation has to participate, otherwise it will be pointless.

In the end, you have to balance the economy with the environment. If the US were to sign this "treaty", major portions of industry would have to shut down increasing unemployment and entitlements.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't take care of the environment. I'm saying we need to think critically of everything that's going on and make the best decision for all involved. We need to end corruption at the highest levels and get industry to think less about their bottom lines.

Still Tired

2005-02-16T09:27:00.000-05:00

I went to bed at 8 PM last night and woke up briefly at 2:20 AM and went back to sleep 'til my regular 7:20 AM. That's a little more than 11 hours of sleep. I haven't gotten that much sleep in a long time. And the funny thing is, I'm still tired! What gives?!

HopStop

2005-02-15T16:18:00.000-05:00

If you ever needed to travel in the city, you realize that getting around isn't the easiest thing. Sure, there are subways and busses and taxies, but nothing really beats good old sidewalk.

Here's the foot equivalent of MapQuest. HopStop. It does subway too.

SplashPad

2005-02-15T15:28:00.000-05:00

This is awesome.

I have so many random devices:

Cell phone
iPod
PDA
Wireless Mouse
Wireless Keyboard
Digital Camera

All with their own set of chargers. If/when this thing finally comes out, I have all hope that it will be amazing. But realistically speaking, I don't think it will be. I have this nagging feeling it will be mediocre.