Author: peterjang73

A nerdy father of two, a husband of a beautiful and understanding wife, an engineer who loves anime and tinkering with PCs and games, but most of all, loves God.
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Brain Working Overtime

I have been busy with work past two months.  Last week, more things culminated to the point where I was having hard time figuring some stuff out.  It had to do with understanding different … assumptions.  Needless to say, I left last Friday unfinished and unresolved.

Indirectly and directly, I kept thinking about the issues at hand and tried to make sense of what the differences were and how it should be addressed.  (Sorry for such abstract words but it is proprietary project) My brain functioned more indirectly than direct as lots were happening that weekend.  However, by the end of the weekend, I had finally understood how to address the differences and begun to understand what changes needed to be entailed.

I was rather surprised at how human brains can still work in “background” mode (you Linux nerds may get a chuckle out of that one!) and still manage to process the work while immersed in other activities fully.

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Recent Thoughts on What a Church Should Be

None of us are perfect.  Even after being Christians.  Actually, let me correct myself…  Especially, after becoming Christians.  So I was naturally more and more disappointed to find out that we are even less and less tolerant of those that are not Christians, let alone being different.   After all, that’s exactly the same groups that Jesus warned us NOT to be like – the Pharisees!

However, we become more and more reclusive people that only accept “clean” people.  Today’s Sunday school was about how God accepts and loves EVERYTHING about us.  Yet, we as church, seem to require that people change before we come to God’s church to grow and receive Him.  Jesus often compared Himself as a doctor who came to heal the sick.  That would imply that the people were still not saved.  Yet, over 2000 years, we somehow changed to allowing “pre-requisites”.  We want “decent” people only… if we lack any skills, be it social or intellectual, if we lack any riches or economic standing, we don’t seem as receptive.

I say the more screwed up we are, the more we need Christ in our lives!  That can only happen if we receive all those that enter God’s doors just as they are!  Is that too much to ask?!  Is that too crazy to demand of?!

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Lunch with Anna & JJ

JJ's lunch

With some time left, I dropped by the kids’ school to have surprise lunch with them and got to hang out with some of their closest friends.  JJ took out 3 of his “Buddy Club” members – Ryan, Derek, and PJ.  Notice that it’s all guys.  Typical 6 year old.  And his “Buddy Club”‘s main purpose is to chase the girls during recess.  I kid you not.  Gotta be proud of the son!  LOL

Anna's lunch

After JJ’s lunch, Anna came out for her lunch.  She picked out Jennifer, a closest friend in her class and two boys!  You read that right… she chose two boys!  Don’t you worry, I think she just “allowed” them to join in the lunch because you and your friends can sit outside with the parent during the lunch.

Another thing I noticed is that both of my kids have broad mix of ethnic friends.  Those two boys are of Indian descent and Anna thought nothing of it.  One of JJ’s Buddy Club member is African-American (though I think the word “black” is not derogatory, I will use the PC word) and so I was very happy to see that both had healthy mix of friends.  I did not want them to be exclusive to just one group.

And as they grow up and narrow down on their list of friends, I noticed that it would be important to be in not just my kids’ lives but also their closest friends’ lives as well.  Last thing I want my kids to be grow to be are racists or some kind of “purists”.  Dang, who knew that so much attention had to be given in parenting!!

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Curiously Odd Habits

It started when we visited H-Mart.  JJ had asked me which color he should pick: white or green.  I had no idea so I said green.  Then he started hopping on only the green tiles.

I didn’t teach him this stuff but it came out.  I remember my younger days and creating a game out of it myself to jump only from a shadow to another shadow, or to step only in particular tiles or shapes.  Here is JJ doing the very same thing but I hadn’t even mentioned it!  I was so enticed on how kids can play and how certain habits and ways of playing  just get passed down genetically.

I played with him of course and he’d complain every now and then how green tiles seemed so far from each other.  It’s really good to be a kid… and I am so glad that JJ is enjoying his childhood… even if he doesn’t quite realize it.  I hope he and Anna will continue to have fun being kids.  It only lasts a short time anyway…

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Are you an overprotective parent or a neglectful dad?!

New Scientist Article

I just read this article and learned that the kids with over-protective parents and/or neglectful fathers grow up with slow brain growth!  😮  Wow… we all want to protect our kids… but with something like this, it does bring up a good counter point of when is a parent too protective?!

To think that my being overly protective can prohibit or slow my kids’ brain growth and development is shocking to say the least!  In the end, I am sure as a parent, we would want to choose safety over intelligence but if we can balance that well and not bind our own kids, we should make conscientious choice to do so… even if it’s only half true!

While I understand that many will display concern to avoid blame game, it does raise up a good point that when you overprotect a child, that child will become less and less involved in decision making process, let alone thinking for themselves… that’s the biggest factor/danger that any parent should be aware of…

Again, as a parent, if I had to choose between safety of my kids and their intelligence, I’d choose safety hands down… but if I can help it, I need to also learn to let go and let them start “walking on their own” whenever I can.

All of us Asians have gone through much of this in our childhoods, mine included, but since most of us came out decently (or so I tell myself :P), surely it isn’t the end of the world… 

It is however, very shocking to learn that NEGLECTFUL FATHTERS have equal impact on inhibiting the children’s mental development!! o_O I am more concerned about that…  Time to spend more time with my kids!!!!

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JJ’s Second Birthday!

Well, it seems like at least our family is complete!  I learned yesterday that now JJ has received Christ as his savior! 😀  He told mommy that he raised his hand and that it was his decision.

So now, all four of us are saved… I am valuing more and more of these after-school Christian programs.  Be sure to look up at your kids’ schools to see if they have anything even remotely similar to my kids’ “Good News Club”!

Woohoo!!