For everything from family to computers…
So it seems that caffeine can do harm after all… oooh, a surprise! 
I got it down to a cup of coffee a day and maybe a can of Coke. But I know plenty of people (*cough*Pastor Shawn*cough*) who constantly drink caffeine drinks. Let’s all try to stay healthy and learn to control our ignored drug addiction! 
As some of you know, I’ve lost a lot of relatives and friend to cancer… my grandfather to lung cancer, my uncle to liver & lung cancer, my cousin to leukemia, my grandma to another cancer, my aunt to another cancer… Our beloved friend was lost to stomach cancer and over the weekend, I learned of more tragedies…
Soojin had already lost two uncles (on her mom’s side) to liver cancer and now the only remaining uncle just discovered he has liver cancer as well! 
Soojin’s worried that her mom will eventually also get it. So Soojin’s oldest aunt had died less than a year ago…
The list just goes on… I felt so helpless… ’cause I wanted to help in whatever I could… turns out I wasn’t too far… I discovered Folding @ Home, a distributed computing developed by Stanford professor. You basically allow Stanford to run protein folding simulations on your computer and pass on the info. If you own a computer, you can help in fighting the cancer! I leave both of my computers on 24/7! Even with increased fuel costs, it doesn’t cost that much to run them 24/7. If a PC uses 500 W, even in a day, that’s 12 kW-hr. At rates like even conservative 20 cents/kW-hr, that is only $2.40 a day, but likely about $1.80 a day (since current rate is about 15 cents/kW-hr and normal PC uses 300W or so).
I fold so that I don’t have to lose people. Do you? Please consider it!! I will even give out free tech support for it!! 
Here’s a very good excuse to not eat any spinach for a while!! 
E. Coli virus broke out in 10 states (so far) and believed to be found in packed spinach! So avoid it for a while! Stay healthy people!
No, this is NOT my daughter Anna! 
But rather, Ana is a daughter of a guy named Pete who is a forum worker. Do not worry about spam… this is for real and legit. JP, the guy who runs sharkyforums, posted it to start…
Being a father myself, it tears me inside to think of what I’d do if my daughter had brain tumor! 
So I wanted to do what I can and get the word out… Imagine a TWELVE year old girl going through such devastating experience… Now, add on top of that a $26,000 bill that Pete has to pick up as he has no insurance (self-employed).
Please if you have compassion, help out with whatever amount you can via PayPal… The story/blog as well as button to donate is here…
And also, please pray for Ana and the parents to pull through… sniff…
My younger (and only) brother Paul is a pastor (ordained even!) at Presbyterian Church of New Jersey. Well, one of his kids, Eugene Choi, an 8th grader, re-developed brain cancer!
Please pray for him and his family (he’s the only son).
Go visit his site and please offer some words of encouragement and much needed prayers…
At such a young age too… but let us remember that God is good all the time.
I find it hard to swallow such sad news usually… so as a self-reminder… Here’s
Psalm 42:5-6
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
With two kids, and a wife who has part-time teaching job in the evening, I always have to juggle the work time and church and family to near-perfection. So you can sense how much trouble it would add by trying to work out on top of all this.
Well, with my mother-in-law in town, I try to take whatever good weather we can get to get away. Like Friday, for example. I found out that the temperature near the sea in Galveston was going to be about 80 F so I got out early on Friday and took the family down to the beach. I try to work out 3 times a week but it’s been hard.
Today was no exception. Praise practice was at 10 am at church as I have to play bass the entire month to cover another person. By the time I got back, it was 12:30 pm and after lunch, it was 1:30 pm. The dilemma? On Saturdays, the JSC gym closes at 5:00 pm and I got into work at 2:30 pm. I had to put in about 3 hours so I would then get out after the gym closes.
I was worried that I’d have to skip out… but then my brain finally thought outside the box for once! Why not walk back home after work? It’s a bit hot (mid 80’s F) but it’s doable. At slightly more than 4 miles, it would easily take at least an hour of walking… Well, that’s what the mp3 players are good for, right?! I walked for a good hour and 15 min… Then it was already 7:00 pm almost home. Well, the family couldn’t wait so they picked me up nearby.. so I walked about 3.5 miles or so…
The lesson learned? Adapt. Mold your life around so your body can be healthier. Think outside the box so that I could find the time to fit.
Well, I was trying to think out of the box and see what I could “fast” on with the Easter around the corner. Like many out there, I’m an avid coffee drinker. Back when I worked under a German professor and a Russian post-doc,… well, you can guess how thick and strong the coffee was! 😮
However, since starting to work, the strength has dwindled down and I’ve grown accustomed to weaker brews. Still, it was usually made up by the volume I’d consume. Since having kids, I had gone from 1 cup a day to 2 cups and some times 2.5 cups a day! Sleep was hard to come by…
Now that my kids have somewhat grown up a bit, and since caffeine was something I depended on, I thought I’d say ‘no’ to coffee for until the Easter and see how that affects me. Well, day 2 is here and I have this HUGE migraine throbbing inside my skull, trying to get out! Having enjoyed coffee from the age of early 20’s, and having discovered coffee at even earlier age of 10(!), it’s no wonder what kind of control this substance has on me.
If this humongous headache even slightly touches on the pain and suffering of what Christ had to go through on that mount on that day, so be it. After my fasting is done, for the health sake, I plan on cutting down on coffee intake by significant amount. It’s such a social drink though. I don’t normally drink alcohol and so I’d need at least coffee to be that…
Anyway, here’s to you fellow coffee drinkers and addicts! To the freedom!