Category: Personal

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STS-133 Final Discovery Launch in Person!

I didn’t get to see STS-133 launch at the end of October last year.  I was rather disappointed.  I have been working in the aerospace industry for 13 years now and all in the Shuttle side even.  In that time, I had never gone to see a live Shuttle launch in person!  So when I won the Space Flight Awareness Honoree Award, I was sooo excited!

Then the launch got delayed.  And it got delayed big!  It was December, then January.  And then it had moved to February.  It was on my son’s birthday even!  No matter… I was so determined to see it in person especially since the award involved seeing it as close as one can get!  (Unless you are the president or something!)

So two of my co-workers wanted to see it as well and we drove out to see it.  16 hours of driving.  Each way.  It was long but totally worth it.

It will be sad to see them all retire… I sure hope NASA and humanity doesn’t let go of the dreams…

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Texas Comptroller Cutting 12000 Elementary Teachers?!

Update 01/13/2011:

Someone from my area e-mailed her directly for clarification and here’s her answer:

January 11, 2011

Mr. ******

Dear Mr. *****:

Thank you for your message concerning our recent Financial Allocation Study for Texas (FAST) report.

The education of Texas school children is among the state’s highest priorities. The recommendations in the FAST report are intended to provide school districts with options to manage their budgets during these difficult times.

The FAST report does not recommend firing Texas teachers; the report recommends replacing the current 22-students-per-classroom cap in grades K-4 with a requirement that districts maintain an average of 22 students per teacher for those grade levels. In practice, this would give school districts the flexibility to have slightly more than 22 students in a particular class as long as it was offset by a classroom with fewer than 22 students. In this way, districts could determine student class size based on the needs of their particular students and district rather than a state-set mandate.

To read a detailed description of our recommendation to allow school districts to maintain an average of 22 students per teacher, please see Page 31 of the FAST Appendix, which can be found at www.fastexas.org/study.

In addition, we have recommended a study of the growth in school district administrative positions. Reducing growth of these positions could result in increased resources for teachers. Please see Page 32 of the FAST Appendix for more information on this recommendation.

Legislative action would be required to adopt any of these recommendations, which may be discussed in the 82nd Legislature convening Jan. 11. If you would like to contact your state legislators concerning education policy, you can find their contact information at www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us.

We hope this information is helpful.

Sincerely,

Susan Combs

Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts

So if the above e-mail is indeed true (and it starts at page 30, not 32), then I would like to do the decent thing by retracting my anger towards the Comptroller.  I guess I will not read from The Dallas Morning News anymore.

============================================================================

As I am about to go to sleep, I come across this disturbing news that the newly elected Texas comptroller is planning to cut 12,000 elementary school teachers to save $500 million! What the %23@#!$!$

Of all the stupid things to do to save money, you cut education?! Cut your own salary first! Even more infuriating is the fact that I see this on her website!

Combs

I added the red circle to point out that she promised two things she’s breaking as we speak! What kind of baloney is this?! How is she FOR education by destroying the basic foundation of the education: elementary schools?! Kids first get exposed to school through this system and I can’t see any of my kids being happy to hear that their teachers may not return next year!

I am soo mad right now! I hope people take notice and address this!

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“Rain Man” Conversations During Lunch

We went to Starfire Grille for lunch today.  We were eating our meals when a father and son duo walked in.  Didn’t think much of it at first except for a bit loud son.  He soon got loud and I soon figured out that he was mentally challenged.

He was rather loud.  We kept eating.  Until JJ brought up the issue.  He asked what’s with him and normally, I’d have bypassed the conversation until I realized that every opportunity can be an opportunity to learn.  So we had our conversation that no one is best at everything.  And that some of us are born with certain conditions that may seem worse than others on the surface.

We talked about “Rain Man” and “Forrest Gump” and the kids seemed to take it in well.  I had told them that most of the time, these mentally challenged people are not hurtful though they may seem so on the surface.  Most of how your kids see others, I believe, are stemmed from how you as parents teach and raise them.  If I had taught my kids to be afraid or be mean to people who are different, chances are that would have everlasting impact on their future behavior.

I am thankful that the opportunity surfaced and that the kids took it in well.

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Memories of Grandpa – Becoming Softer

Grandparents

What’s reminiscence without complementary grandpa?

My paternal grandfather was a man of education. He spent the entire life on education. He was a principal to an elementary school in Namwon. Most of the people that are in and around the area grew up having him as the principal. I recall so many people coming over to pay their respects during his funeral.

It was a very emotional one for me. He had just one wish and that was to hold a great grandson. Trust me, if I could turn back time, I wish I could grant him that one last wish. But alas, he died without having held JJ. I used to think badly of that. You see, Anna is my older child but having grown up in Confucius teachings and the older culture, he practically ignored my daughter when we had visited him several years ago.

I used to hold that against him… but now, I just … let it go. He has known that culture for all his life and have realized that expecting him to love my daughter just as much as he would my son was more than he could. Perhaps, it was being a principal but I remember him being very strict and … not very fun to be around. My (paternal) grandmother was so much kinder, though I barely remember her now… She passed away when I was only about 20. Having bored 10 children was more than she could handle. The biggest thing I remember was that she would let me go out to play when grandpa told us not to go outside.

Namwon was a countryside back then… no covered roads to home… just dirt. So the beginning decades for me weren’t very fond memories of him. But as conversations come back again and again to it, jung (?, the essence of emotional bonds between people that is formed over time and/or circumstances) is a very strong and scary stuff.

Since adulthood, I have had the opportunity to visit him again and again. Once he came to visit us in the States. We drove him around even to Canada to sightsee. Over the years, I noticed him getting… softer. It was rather subtle but it was there. He was less strict and laughed more (at least to what I remember).

I’d like to believe that he died peacefully having made peace with what he could and the people that he could. Seeing all those people coming to pay respects reminded me that he did something right. But it was definitely a gentler and softer grandfather that I remember now…  I am so glad that is how I remember him.  See you soon grandpa…  Hope you can see JJ from up there…

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Memories of Grandma – Ssook (?)

For almost 4 years my family lived in Seoul in Sung-book Gu (???) during my elementary school years.  My (mathernal) grandparents lived not too far from us.  I think it was about 20 minutes by walking distance.

Few things I recall about my grandparents, I wanted to write them here more for my own sake than others so I can remember about them.  My grandfather was a busy man so I don’t remember much about him at all other than he was a collector of all sorts, including Korean art.  I think I have some of that gene as I love collecting things.

Unfortunately, things about my grandfather ends there.  It’s my grandmother (????) that I remember more of.  She had a … vibrant spirit about her.  She was always very straightforward and told things as she saw them.

One, she loved wrestling.  In my youth days, there was one Korean short wrestler by the name of Kim Il (? ?) who was infamous for head butting his opponents.  She would always watch him play and would love seeing his head butting.  I obviously didn’t think much of it at the time, being about 10 years old at that time but it has strangely become a fond memory of her.  Weird?  I think once time goes by, any memories one retains of the person stays.

Another thing I recall is how she loved to cook.  ? (ssook) is a rather common plant as the picture above shows and is known as Asteraceae.  This was a very common plant that was everywhere, at least while I was a kid, in Korea.  I remember grandma would ask us to go out with her and pick these by the bag-fulls!  What did she do with them?  Why, make rice cakes (?) of course!  ?? (pronounced ssook-dduk) would come out rather dark green in color and didn’t taste very good.  Well, to be honest, it tasted terrible!

However, I’d pay million bucks to go back in time to about picking ? with her and I’d gladly eat all the ?? that she would give if I could…  I guess I feel nostalgic and miss her.  I sure hope she’s making me plenty of ?? up in heaven…  I bet she’s picking them up in heaven right about now…  See you soon grandma.

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Baggage – Carrying our Past With Us

“We are born broken. We live by mending. The grace of God is the glue.” ~ Eugene O’Neill


I saw this on Twitter posted by Pastor Eugene Cho.  Normally, I would’ve just passed it by.  However, this quote spoke volume to me.

You see, I believe we all have baggage.  All the little and big things from our past be it mistakes, people, or secrets, we all carry that into the present and future.  No matter who you are, and whether you are a Christian or not, we all carry that.

We as Christians don’t feel like going to church or work with others.  I still remember from my mission trip to Thailand in ’93, that the number 1 reason that the missionaries leave their posts and return home is none other than other missionaries.  I was only 20 at the time so I did not know what that really meant.  Over the years though, I have felt that and lived that.  It’s so true that it’s hard to live with other people around us.  So to work with others would be even more difficult.

Younger people don’t want to go to church but just stay at home and use TV and the Internet to receive the message these days.  While that may seem efficient on the surface, inside, it reveals something darker.

If you recall the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant (Matthew 18:21-35), this servant that was forgiven a million dollars could not forgive the debt of a friend who owed him $1000.  The master who had originally forgiven him of that million dollars found out and put him in jail for being ungrateful and unmerciful.  We all are that unmerciful servant in that we were all forgiven million dollars.  What others have done to us and do to us are small compared to what God has forgiven.

As the playwright Eugene O’Neill stated, “we are born broken”.  We are born messed up and none of us are in “good condition” to begin with.  This is why when we try to work with others or live together in harmony, it is so freaking hard.  I have holes in my heart.  So do you.  And all those around us.  Our own imperfections can’t deal with each others’ on top of our own.  None of us should be surprised to learn that.

We try to be islands and become ascetic.  For anyone else, that may be fine.  But I believe God has put us to live with each other for a reason.  If we truly understand the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant and realize just how much we have been forgiven, we can forgive others.  And second sentence of Eugene O’Neill’s quote becomes possible.  “We live by mending”.  Why?  Because “the grace of God is the glue.”

As the life unfolds before me and life goes on, I am reminded of the million dollar debt I am cleared of and that God asks me to love others just as He has loved me and accept others with their imperfections just as they are as we all struggle to mend ourselves.  We shall truly fail if we use our own strength.  We will only succeed if we use the grace of God as glue.

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Recycling for My Kids’ Future

Did you know that the Incheon Airport in Korea is built on landfill?  Yes it is.  If you are local to Houston, you should know that Pearland is built right next to a huge garbage landfill!  It is getting so big and bad that people are starting to complain!   Why should this concern you, you ask?

We all become advocates for change because we believe in something.  I am becoming more and more of recycling and natural resource advocate because I don’t want to pass down to my kids a place filled with garbage and no natural resources!  Is what I’m doing enough?  Doubtful.  Is what I’m doing a bit too late?  Probably.  But I don’t want to tell my kids that I didn’t do anything.

Nor should you.  Fact is that we humans consume too much.  If you are gonna consume, at least be bit smarter about it.  Recycle.  At Ellington Airfield, Clear Lake area people have a place to drop off all kinds of stuff to recycle.  I sure hope to give it all I’ve got to help my kids’ place better…