noodles, poop-notes, and books

Even though I've been living in davis in the few years since graduation, I rarely ever venture back on campus, unless it's to go to a specific place, like Mrak to pick up a diploma, mondavi to take in a performance, or the MU to go play pool. Other than that, I generally tend to shy away from campus. It's not that I don't like being on campus, but I never really have a reason to bum around there. Well, on Friday I had nothing to do, so after meeting up with Yingnan at Pho King 4 (horrible name btw) we ventured out on campus for a little bookstore/quad/arboretum adventure. But more on that in a moment. First, comes the pho.

The minute I walked into PK4, the smell hits my nose, that mixture of pho broth and cilantro is pretty strong there, which was weird because in my mind I was still going to orange hut. Heck, even uncle tom (the old orange hut guy) was there to greet us, as he was sitting at a table by the door enjoying his pho with some buddies. We quickly said hi and waited our turn to get seated. After we sat down and ordered, we (well, I) pretty much compared everything to hoa viet, as, having been in davis for so long with really only one pho place, I've gotten used to their food. By the time the food came, we were so hungry that we dug in and completely forgot to snap a picture of the food. Not to worry, it pretty much looked like this:

The pho was ok, nothing too phenomenal. Actually, it tasted kind of like hoa viet, which has by now become my measuring stick (I know, could've definitely picked a better place). While I was comparing the food/service to hoa viet, Yingnan was comparing the place (setting) to orange hut. Aside from the fact that uncle tom was still there, the place has changed quite a bit on the inside. Apparently there was a new door, and the counter shifted over a bit. Other than that I couldn't notice anything different, although I'm sure Yingnan definitely did. One thing I did notice, the coffee was a bit too sweet. Oh yes, did I forget to mention that I ordered coffee? The cà phê su dá came already pre-iced (robbing me the ritual of pouring it myself), but it did look promising (aside from the sweetness...oh well). This, of course, was captured on camera (only the important stuff...).

After downing the coffee and pho, we venture out on campus for a fun afternoon of bumming around. First we hit up the bookstore to see if they have any good UCD t-shirts. I don't know why, but I always feel like I have absolutely zero school spirit. It was time to remedy that with a t-shirt! After circling for a few minutes and staring wide-eyed at the prices of shirts these days ($28!!) we grew sad and decided to check out some other stuff. Apparently, they have started making notebooks out of recycled cow, elephant, and donkey poo. While I'm sure it was a novel idea, I just don't see how feasible this would be. I don't know if this would be very effective for note-taking, as the pages were kind of rough (their diets are very fibrous), although I'm sure to the parent's chagrin, the students these days would find it amusing.

sandwich boards!! I remember these from compass, but now it seems everybody has one...

On a side note, after mike and I started talking with random people (alex at OTH and Kim at the pool hall), I've been running into these people at random places in Davis. The other day I ran into Kim at hometown, and on friday, we see both! Kim had wandered into PK4 and Alex was hanging out in the MU coffee house. I'm not sure if God's trying to send me messages, but it was definitely strange.

this guy has opted to park his bike in a tree...novel.

After leaving the bookstore and coffee house, we decided to take a leisurely stroll around campus. Having not been here for quite some time, I took in all the sights and smells of campus. We pretty much just strolled around and looked at some random stuff. We encountered random people (including a 50 yr. old guy who overheard us talking about 50 yr. old grad students) and stared at random things (like bridge support mechanisms). Finally, as Yingnan and I parted ways, I decided to pay my old college professor a visit (the one who guided me through my research paper on banking contagion).

She was still in the same old office, working tirelessly to get published (she's up for tenure next fall). It was pretty cool to catch up and talk about old economic theories (I still got it!) and current reading lists. It's funny, we're actually reading almost the same things, since she is going through The Rise and Fall of Alexandria, and apparently just finished John Adams (David McMullough - same guy that wrote 1776!). She even named a working paper after Team of Rivals (a book on Lincoln - on my reading list too). Apparently both she and her husband are avid history readers, and acquired most of the David McCullough books while Borders was closing. Sadly, since I parked in a meter zone, I had to conclude the catching-up and history book-a-thon and get going. I said farewell, promised to visit soon, and headed on my way.

As I was walking to my car, I looked back at campus once more, taking in the familiar sights of the bus area at the MU and quietly entertained the idea of possibly going back to school once more. While no decisions were made over the course of this on-campus adventure, I could certainly see myself thrown back into the college life.

shaken awake

At work, we used to have this thing called Rewarding Action, which allowed managers to give out "points" for performance, which you can then use on the website to get prizes and stuff. Since the program recently got phased out, I had to use up all the points I had received over the last few years and buy random stuff before they closed down the site. One of the items I claimed was this thing called the iLuv, which is a pretty cool alarmclock ipod dock thing (though it seemed kinda sketchy since it started at 75pts and dropped down to 20). The coolest thing about this alarm, aside from the fact that the face doubles as a night light (which I don't need, cuz real men sleep in the pitch dark - so I'm told), is this little feature called the bed shaker.

Now, you may roll your eyes and say pshh, that's just a marketing ploy, that's not really gonna work. Wrong. It may be a marketing ploy, but it shook my jetlagged butt out of bed in a jiffy. See, this alarm comes with an attachment that you can put under your pillow or next to your face (probably not advised), and at the designated time, the alarm on the nightstand will blast 107.3 at the same time that your bed-shaker beeps and shakes the wrinkles out of your pillow (or your face - again, not advised). The shake (albeit slightly violent) helps motivate you to whack the snooze button with a little extra zip, and the speaker/shaker provide a little bit of david crowder to wake you up slowly (or Bublé, whatever floats your boat).

Weird? Sure. But I guess whatever gets me out of bed in the morning eh?

flipping through some family history

Over this past week or so, one of the things that has helped me cope with my grandpa's passing and all the stuff I was experiencing was combing through old photo albums that my grandpa and aunt kept around. Even now, it's a bit theraputic to be able to look into the past and see what my family was like. Back then, the albums weren't really arranged in such a neat order, and they weren't really organized into its current state until about 2 years ago when my aunt sat down and took on the task.

I still remember huddling around some of these albums as a kid, and listening to my grandpa tell the stories around each of these pictures, and explaining his life experiences to me as I marveled at the images on each page. He'd regale me with tales of his college days, what life was like in california in the 40's, how our family almost went to taiwan, and how my dad used to walk miles to school (uphill both ways - some things never change). I, of course, played the wide-eyed kid soaking up all of these stories.

Originally I had wanted to bring back some of these pictures for my dad to see, but since we couldn't find the negatives, and I wished to keep the original albums intact, I ended up taking pictures of the pictures (so some had glare). I might as well share them, since I had them on my camera:

it's pretty cool to see my grandpa grow up on one page - this has everything from kid to graduation to working

my grandparents over the years - this album page remind me of the opening scene in Up.

my dad's family back in 1962

my dad with my grandma and her brothers - clearly the awesome hair genes didn't make its way down

dad, with what would appear to be a weird looking snowman...or a snow-turkey?

my dad growing up - he must've really like the emo poses

dad after college, working, and meeting mom - I don't know why, but he wasn't much for smiling in pictures

heck yea I smiled, apparently this was the first time my grandpa got me a coke...it was magical

Flipping through pages of these single frame stories were a good way for me to distract myself ever-so-slightly from everything going on around me. It helped me put things into perspective. The person lying in the bed in front of you isn't just someone you love dying, there's the full measure of the human experience of life, the memories, the joys and pains, the childhood laughs and the growing pains of adulthood. It was good to see the life my grandpa enjoyed before my eyes, my mind filling in the blanks of the stories that the pictures don't tell.

Well, it's time for me to go to bed. Have a good night.

我的爷爷

爷爷, 我非常感谢你以前照顾我,每天带我去公园里走. 我对你很有感情, 也很高兴你性耶稣,而经常为你祷告. 不知道你明白了, 上个星期, 不但我在你床边祷告, 而有很多人一直也在为你祷告. 虽然你不见得明白, 我们每天早晚在你床边坐了. 爷爷, 我真的很高兴你性主, 而虽然我们现在分开了, 但是信主了, 我们将来都会在天堂见面. 爷爷, 再见. 

亦何

weaknesses and fig leaves

Ever since finishing the hunger games series, I've been torn between wanting to flip through the pages of 1776 and uncovering little nuggets of historical obscurities or continue through Why Guys Need God, which I'm told (by the back cover) will help me understand myself better (and my people), but will obviously lack the little morsels of historical pleasures. On Monday, I ended up being indecicive, watched the new episode of community, then dived into both, secretly hoping that my week would be free enough to be able to finish off the duo.

Incidentally, this week has turned out to be a pretty weird and particularly difficult week for me. The first two days have been some of the worst days at work I've encountered in at least a few months. It's just been one weird issue after another. Then, on wednesday morning I learn that my grandpa, who has been in and out of the hospital for the last few months, has not been doing well, so I'm on my way to Beijing on Sunday. On the bright side, he got baptized a few weeks ago in his hospital bed, so that's always a praise and prayer request answered. My fondest memory of my grandpa was always going to hongkou park in the afternoons to walk around the lake and look at the leaves. Going back this time around, I'm just not sure i'm prepared to see him in this state.

I don't know if many people know this, but I tend to horse around a lot. At times, when I don't want confrontation or tension or pain, I've tried to diffuse certain situations with (sometimes off-color) humor so that people will lighten up. Some of my friends, and occasionally my boss, will point this out to me. Yea...I guess I'm working on it. In chapter two of Mike Erre's book, he discusses the masks guys hide behind. We (guys) tend to try to find an escape, rather than dealing with life's difficulties (I guess i'm not alone?). I suppose that's why a lot of guys hit the bottle in an attempt to flee their problems. Even more simply ignore their problem and go about with a façade, as if nothing's wrong.

I do this (not hit the bottle, but the other thing). Many times I hide instead of stepping forward, avoid instead of owning. It's easy to deal with the superficial problems and shy away from the real ones. Many of the images I grew up with of great, tough men, are what I would see in pop culture. Denzel Washington is very good at portraying this kind of guy, the internally conflicted but I'm invincible on the outside character. This is often what society's definition of a manly man is: never admit or show weakness, keep it deep down and tucked away, and only show your strong exterior. This is what years of TV and movies and other stuff have drilled into my head, except, this image doesn't jive with what the bible says. Paul embraced his weakness:

I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:5-10)

At the time of Paul's conversion, God chose not to use Paul's strengths. As a matter of fact, in Acts 22, Paul recounts how was ready to use his Jerusalem connections for God, after all, he knew all the major players in the Jewish religious and political scene, but God had other plans for him. God sent him elsewhere, where any benefit of Paul's previous life, any advantages that may have carried, would be useless. God sent him far away to the gentiles. This is the paradoxical truth of what men should strive for: to delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I think this is what the author refers to when he describes the goodness of thorns. Our weakness compels us to drop the façade (what he likens to fig leaves), and face life's difficulties as they are.

As I'm preparing for my trip, I know everything I need to do from a logistical standpoint (what to pack, how to get from the airport to my grandpa's place, etc), but I'm having trouble preparing myself mentally and emotionally for this next week. I don't know what to expect, how to handle things when I get there. I have the weekend (with the acacia retreat) before heading out to SFO, but that's pretty much it. With that and an eleven hour flight, I hope I can prepare myself at least a little bit. As I look over the blog-post from the last time I went to visit him, the same comforting verse re-established itself in my mind:

From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. (Psalm 61:2)

50 beans | going over to the dark (roast) side

Saw this on a coffee blog I follow...

Designer Eric Beatty is a genius. Developed for a school project that asked students to design new products for Urban Outfitters, Eric created this coffee concept, bringing coffee enjoyment to star wars fans everywhere. The set of character boxes include Darth Coffee Blend (dark roast, I'm sure), Stormtrooper Filters, and Chewbacca Brown Sugar.

too bad this isn't really in production. It'd definitely do well with coffee/starwars fans.

kindles, airborne.

apparently they now have kindle mounts for pilots

Taxi, take-offs, and landings. Those are pretty much the only time I spend on flights where the skymall magazine is ever relevant for me (skymall offers no good deals, ever). Well, relevant is a loosely applied term. Those are the only times when I ever flip open the pages of skymall. This is in part because of the FAA rule that bans electronics from the first and last 10 minutes of flights where you're taking off and landing. Oh, taxiing too. For some odd reason, it's believed that electronics can mess with the navigation system of an airplane. Personally I think it's a bit hoky to think that an ipod purchased from best buy could flummox a state-of-the-art avionics system on an airplane.

Well, now it looks like there's going to be some give on that policy. Recently, the FAA has allowed the use of ipads in the cockpit, as airlines are putting all flight manuals on ipads to save space in the cockpit. The NYT reports that the FAA is taking the initiative to look into relaxing the rule and allowing ipads and kindles for passengers to use. Of course, this will take some time, as apparently they have to actually test each individual device separately on a plane with no people, which could be kind of a waste of gas (although being able to bust this myth would be nice).

So, hopefully within the next few years, we'd have the option to listen to music while we peer out the window or read something other than skymall (if we're in the aisle seat). Hmm, maybe by the time this rule is relaxed, we'd be on the ipad 6 where you can track your plane's progress live while using the in-flight app on the airplane's free (yea right) wifi. Or maybe by then they'll have developed a system where it remotely controls our  approved electronics devices so that we'll only have the option of perusing the skymall magazine on kindles and ipads during taxi, take-offs, and landings.

Sadly, the second option seems more likely.