Looking again at what a marriage is…

Lately, a couple (not yet married) that we know of are going through that “final stage difficulties” prior to marriage. Shorty put, things are rocky. It made me realize yet again that relationships are where God is needed the most. Otherwise, we wouldn’t last.Soojin and I are not perfect, to say the least. We fight still. And we used to fight even more back in our first two years or so of our marriage. When we got married, I told myself that neither of us are near even perfect, and with the uncertainty of life ahead of us, the only thing we could be certain of was our promise: our promise to each other to put each other first, and to continue to forgive each other, and through Christ, bring ourselves together and become more like Christ.

Over the years, I’ve had my shares of anger and resentment and loads other things. I’ve head-butted the wall and punched it several times due to anger as we fought. But I’ve never hit Soojin. And I’ve always mended the differences between us over and over again. Even if it was to agree to disagree. We still don’t see everything eye to eye. But if Christ forgave us for all of our past, present, and future shortcomings and sins, both of us know that we don’t have the right to hold it out against the other. Again, it’s the parable of the servant that was forgiven a year’s wage who couldn’t forgive a fellow servant for mere change.

When you enter into sacred holy matrimony (don’t joke about that), you don’t say those vows of “for better or for worse” for nothing. God never promised us certainty about our future. Only that He would be with us through our uncertainties. If one waits till your would-be-spouse is ready or situations were “perfect”, you will be waiting forever. I guarantee it. When you decide to marry someone, you are making the promise to both of yourselves that you decide to accept the other person as they are (as God created).

I feel that lately, with our generation and younger, we give up too easily on things. Especially on relationships. I pray that this will change. After all, would you want God to change His mind about you?

Touches of raising children

Well, there are strange things you experience when you raise kids…

1) JJ’s poop has been getting bigger and thicker… and smellier!
2) JJ and Anna like to ask me to read to them before they lie to sleep.
3) JJ has especially been increasing his food intake!
4) JJ definitely has the face of a clown! And acts like it too… I’m gonna miss it when he grows up.
5) Anna likes to write out the letters (be it Korean or English) on whatever surface she finds. I find that very cute…
6) Today, Anna had that look… how pretty she is… she’s gonna break some hearts when she grows up!
7) Soojin likes to get JJ to say “I love you” while he’s sleeping…

Sheer gold.

Fold for a cure please!!

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!! 

Woe #1:Update/Resolution

Well, so I found some time to resolve Woe #1.  I headed down to NTB (National Tire and Battery) and told them of my “story”.  Well, the store manager wasn’t around…  well, pooooop to ya too!    So I came back around 2 pm Saturday…

He was finally in.  After the story being retold, the store manager wanted to re-check the alignment.  So I let him.  He said that nothing has changed since they had a shot at it.  He then thought that Ash really didn’t do an alignment!    The nerve!  He thought that maybe Ash just switched out the tires and only did a rotation.  So I let him do his theory too.  After switching out the tires, I drove him around for a test drive.  To his surprise, the car was still aligned properly!

When we returned, he gave me two choices.  Refund the $50 that I paid Ash for the alignment and keep the three year warranty or get my $140 back and lose the warranty.  Which do you like I chose?  You bet ya! 

Please help save Ana!

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…

Save Ana

And also, please pray for Ana and the parents to pull through…  sniff…

Two Woes in (less than) Two Days!

Woe #1

NTB is da suck!    My wife’s beloved Lincoln Continental has been worsening in the alignment arena.  With Houston’s roads being one of the worst in the country, it’s no surprise, and as an “investment”, I got the 3-year-warranty version of NTB’s wheel alignment.  I was with kids near church then (two weeks ago or so) and decided to pop in by the NTB at I-610 and Richmond.  After nearly 2 hours of wait, it’s done.

However, on my drive home, I noticed it’s the same!  So I got annoyed and told my wife to take it to NTB near our home (nearHwy 3 and on Bay Area Blvd).  They say they found few more issues so after another freakin’ $124, they STILL couldn’t fix it and said that it’s likely a frame damage!   

My beloved regular mechanic, Ash (of Ash Automotive on Hwy 3 near Pineloch) has been very popular lately so it’s been very hard to get him to see our cars.  Which is why I took it to NTB in the first place!  I tell Ash the story.  He’s very nice and knowledgeable Indian mechanic, by the way, and has never wronged me!  I had to schedule around HIS schedule but no matter, as I was now desperate!  After few hours, I asked him if it was frame or air suspension (Lincolns still use air suspension).  Neither.  He just redid the alignment and it was fixed!     Why am I mad, you ask?!  ‘Cause that meant that my $250+ I spent at the stupid national chain of NTB did squat!  That’s why!  Those people don’t know how to align wheels evidently!   Now, I am going to have to try to get my money back on their worthless service!!

Woe #2

It started again last night as my data HDD started to act up.  It made my CS:S sessions near to crawl!  I left it defragging the HDD last night only to wake up to frozne computer!  So I restart and noticed the same SATA HDD acting up and freezing again!    So I started to back up all the data (incl. the unedited movies of Pathways New Orleans mission trip!!).  After hours of backing up data, I turned the computer off, disconnected the problematic drive and turned it back on but now video is acting up!    Oh, I am mad!  This is not a good week thus far!!

End Result

So what do we learn?  NTB is da suck!  And HDD is da suck!! 

Bubba Shrimp

I never did well in Biology class in high school.  That fermedahyde smell killed me.  Well, I got to re-affirm that today.  Soojin wanted some tempura-style shrimps.  There must’ve been at least a hundred there!

Don’t forget… I don’t do shell fish… to say the least.  So I start taking the shells off… man, is the smell bad!!  I started to get nautious… wanted to throw up… Then Soojin tells me that I have gut out the black nervous systems!    The whole process must’ve taken about an hour!  Sheesh…  At this point, I’m half the time holding my breath.  Nauseated beyond despair…

Soojin got the batch ready… dip it in flour first, then egg, and then the bread powder.  After another half hour of frying and taking in the stink, I am ready to barf!  I seriously had to go to Wal Mart and get Sweppes Ginger Ale, the best retail-brand ginger ale money can buy! 

I’m feeling much better now… but the place is still striken with the funky bubba shrimp smell!  At least Anna and JJ enjoyed it!