Two Weddings in August: Won Lee and Kathy Kang

Two people that have been friends of mine since… 1995!  😮

Both are finally getting married!!  And no, not to each other!!  Won Suk Lee is getting married on August 16 in California!  Kathy Kang is getting married in San Antonio on August 23!  Here’s Kathy and her fiancé together…

I don’t know if I can make it to either of the weddings with Soojin’s condition and uncertainty but I am very happy for both of them!!  😀  My prayers are with you all…  And huge big congratulations!!

Changing the Driving Habits: Reaction to Gas Prices

Now, gas prices near my area has gone up to $3.70/gallon! 🙁 So in order to conserve fuel as much as possible, I have adapted myself to change the driving habits.

  1. When coming up to red light ahead, I take my foot off the gas pedal and cruise as much as I can.
  2. Use cruise control in highway if weather and traffic permits.  (Using cruise control in rain is not safe!)
  3. Accelerate as mildly as possible.  When you gun it, you force the engine to not fully combust the fuel.
  4. Avoid driving in the heat/daytime if possible.  Driving in heat will make your engine and other things run less efficiently.
  5. Drive slowly.  Or to clarify, avoid driving fast.

The last point is what has been the most difficult.  Yesterday, on my way back from the Montrose Street Outreach, I decided to keep cruise control at 60 mph.  That’s even slow in my book!  😮  But I thought to myself, it’s not like I have people waiting for me at home or need to be in a hurry.  That put the engine speed at 2200 rpms.  Usually, cruising at 65 mph would keep that at higher revs of 2500 rpms.  Just remember, lower rpms the less gas it uses.

I seriously don’t know how much this will save on gas… but as I also bike to work more and more, hopefully, all things will help ’cause it sure don’t seem like gas prices will be coming down anytime soon!  Or at all!

Skype’s Unlimited World Plan Review

Skype has been around for quite some time now… it has established itself as VoIP (Voice over IP) initiator.  This means that it will allow you to make calls over the Internet.  Now, it has taken another major step towards bigger market.  It is now offering what it calls “Unlimited World Plan“.  What is this?  For just $10 a month (ok, $9.95 to be precise but it’s $10!), you can make unlimited calls to anywhere in the 34 countries!  And it also happens to include South Korea!  😀

So I signed up to test this humongous potential!  I used my Logitech Webcam as microphone.  I call Soojin up as she’s in Korea.  I hear her just fine.  However, she says she can only hear my first syllable… like a bad cell phone call.  🙁  I get frustrated so I hang up.  I call her back with the cheap calling card I have been using from www.fonsale.com

Brian had warned me about this poor quality… so I was about to give up on it… but after few days of thinking, I decided to search SKype’s site for “poor quality”.  What comes up first?  Echo.  That’s right.  First thing it says is that echo can degrade audio quality and that webcams are infamous for it.  So I decided to unplug the USB webcam and plugged into mic port a microphone that I own.  I dial Korea again, and this time, she hears me perfectly!!  😮

Conclusion to this review?  What about this line?  “We have a winner!!”  😛  Seriously folks, if you call one of those 34 countries frequently (and that includes within US, Canada, and Mexico), this is one heck of a deal!!  Just be sure to not use USB webcams!!  🙂

Biking to Work

So to include exercise and healthy habits into my life, I have decided to bike to work. This also helps in conserving little bit of gasoline as the prices are soaring still these days. When using Google Maps, it estimated my route to be about 5 miles each way.

Well, this wouldn’t be possible without a bike. Much thanks goes to Chung for lending me his awesome bike (rebuilt in the good ol’ Chung fashion) with new tires, brakes and chain! 😀 Both wheels can be removed. So after some purchases at local Academy store, I was set. I intentionally left bit earlier than normal to avoid my biggest nemesis: heat. I left at 7:30 am and it took me about 40 minutes to get to work. While that may sound slow, I do have a bag with me with a change of clothes.

Also thanks goes to Daniel for his tip on getting gloves ’cause otherwise, it would’ve been both my butt AND palms that hurt. My buttocks are still sore but I hope that they will be fine after a week or so. I will be leaving in about 15 minutes (5:30 pm local CST) to avoid heat. I’m starting at twice a week. In less than a month, I hope to increase it to 3 times a week.

The downside is that I can’t fit lunch into my messenger bag. I do have lunch bag but not sure if it would survive the bumpy ups and downs for 5 miles. Any tips from pros?! 😛 Anyhow, this was only possible since my work place has shower facility! Yeah, Boeing! 😀 Here’s to safe ride back! Please, if you see bikers on the road (not motorcycles!), be kind and don’t honk and give us some freakin’ space!!

EDIT: Ok… I just got back… and I have to say… Houston is NOT biker-friendly!!  I know Houston drivers in general are rough, let alone towards bikers.  So at any given major intersections, I get off my bike and cross as a walker.  HOWEVER, after pressing the button to walk across, I waited for not one, not two, but THREE cycles of traffic lights and the sucker wouldn’t change for a human to cross!!  Listen, Texas DoT or whoever owns these lights… FIX your d*** traffic lights!!  Where’s my freakin’ tax dollar going to, anyway?!! 😡

Missing the Family…

Last time Soojin was in Korea, it was 5 years ago and Anna was just a year old.  However, I didn’t have that hard of a time… this time around, I was trying to distract myself by watching loads of movies and such… but it’s harder this time around…

Soojin is sick in Korea, and the kids are there too.  I called the kids one day… and found out that JJ was crying for daddy when his aunt was putting him to sleep.  That was such a major tear jerker!  🙁  With finding out how much of an awesome person Soojin is for reaching out for Christ even while being hospitalized, and I miss them so much.

At least I got to spend some quality time with Anna and JJ… they had such a blast walking around the city of Chonju… and eating loads of Korean cookies and popsicles.  🙂

Soojin the Saint

I just spoke with Soojin… and if I wasn’t impressed with her already, I am way over that now…  why, you ask?

She told me how on the night before her discharge, she had an opportunity to share with one of the 4 other patients about Jesus Christ!  Are you impressed yet?!  They stroke up a conversation and shared about their lives and then spoke about Christ.  Eventually, Soojin ended up saying the acceptance prayer with her that night.  And then there was this elder lady… who came in for a surgery by herself.  Soojin felt that that lady needed a prayer.  So what does she do?  She drags her body over to her and prays for her!

By the time she was checking out, those two walked her out to the elevator… and then asked Soojin if she was a minister or something!!  LOL…  The woman just impresses me so much…  God bless her heart…  🙂

Back in the H-Town

After just too much of flying and butt hurting from sitting too long, I am back in Houston.  Thanks to Danny for picking me up from the airport!  😀

As for Soojin’s status update, she was discharged from the hospital but with dizziness still preventing her from walking around properly.  While resting at her mom’s home, she couldn’t stay anymore…  guess why?  That’s because 4 kids were making too much noise.  My sister-in-law came down with her 2 boys to help out.  While I am happy to hear that my kids are playing so well without either of the parents around, it’s hard for a sick person to be around them.  The noise from the kids were banging her head so badly that she just couldn’t stay there anymore…  So she is now staying at her aunt’s place.

I just pray that her recovery will be better… and faster.  Uncertainty can be nerve wrecking… I so wanted her and the kids to enjoy their stay in Korea… Now, I gotta get back to work… not looking forward to that too much…