Category: Thoughts

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Two US Asian-American Reporters Imprisoned for 12 Years

Yahoo/AP Release

Two Asian-American reporters who snuck into North Korea were sentenced to twelve years(?!) of prison for allegedly spying on them.  Here are my thoughts…

1. What were they thinking to sneak into North Korea, aka. Not-just-communist-country-but-dictatorship country?!!  Common sense would dictate that they should’ve stayed well out of the border area.

2. North Korea sentenced them to 12 years?!!  WTH?!  Year or two may be somewhat distantly understandable… but TWELVE?!!

3. Let’s not forget that North Korea isn’t exactly known for being “understanding”.  56 years of dictatorship and strict rule doesn’t exactly cry fair.

4. I seriously hope & pray that these two get released but with other serious issues (like North Korea’s long-distance missile testing and nuclear armament), this may get buried…

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Things that make me MAD: Children taken away from illegal immigrants

NY Times Article

Warning!  You may become way too mad after reading the article!  I know I am!!    Illegal immigration is a hot issue.  Yes, I understand that.  And deporting back home is one thing but to take their children away from them while they are in jail?!  Who the hell gave these stupid judges the right?!

As a parent myself, I can NOT imagine anything worse than my kids being taken away from my against my will!  Yet, that’s what some of these judges (you know who you are, Judge David C. Dally and others) doing exactly!  Ok.. so they are put in jail for being here illegally but it does NOT give us the right to take their kids away and place them elsewhere!

The kids are happiest when they are with their parents.  And so are the parents ourselves!  I am really flabbergasted right now!  That judge is sooo lucky that I don’t live in North Carolina ’cause I’d be petitioning for his impeachment!  If we are going to deport them, do it completely and send the kids back with them!  Unless the parents are harming the kids, the right to the caring for the kids lies with the parents!!  I feel soo bad for the parents… My prayers go with them…  Someone with the power PLEASE make this right!!

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My Resolution to buying used luxury cars (and how to find a good deal)

So as most of you know, we have ended up with an ’05 Infiniti G35x.  So far, I have been very happy with it.  From this researching and buying experience, my new resolution is that we buy slightly used cars from now on.  Slightly used luxury cars to be in fact.  However, here’s what I put in as minimum requirements.

  • Less than 4 years old
  • Less than 50,000 miles (usually luxury cars have about 4 year/50,000 mile warranty)

Here’s why… when it comes to luxury cars, they depreciate the most in their first TWO years!  It’s ridiculous when you find out that even cars like a ’05 BMW 525i can be had for $24,000!  You can see for yourself here!  InternetAutoguide.com has a decent layout of it.  The only luxury car brand that I’ve seen that held up value is Lexus.  All the rest pretty much loses easily a third to half of their value within 2 years!  How crazy is that?!  I am guessing that most who buy a luxury car don’t hold onto it for too long and upgrade after few years.  So the market is overloaded with slightly used luxury cars and hence the fall of their value.  My recommended procedure:

1. Determine the size of the car you are looking for and start researching on their used values using sites like Edmunds.com, NADA.com, and Kelly’s Blue Book.  I personally prefer Edmunds.com as their value estimate seems to be more reasonable.  Once you find out the levels of values (retail, private sale, and trade-in), try to shoot for the trade-in value of the car.

2. Next, start searching and here are some suggestions.

3. As you search for the car, sign up for a one-month unlimited account on Carfax (about $40) and be sure to do basic background check on the car using VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) number!  You want a car that wasn’t involved in an accident, totaled, salvaged, and/or was in a flooded area!  And shoot for a single-owner vehicle!

4. For cars you are looking at that is out of driving range to go and see it in person (thru sites like Autotrader or eBay), be SURE to check all the pictures and descriptions!

5. Special tip for eBay:

  • Avoid auctions with reserves on them.  They suck.
  • Always underbid at least few thousands below the trade-in value!  Yes, you read that right!  Since you weren’t be able to confirm anything, you want to figure in possible costs of fixer uppers.
  • Be sure to buy from established dealers!  Be sure to check that the seller has lots of good feedback as a seller!
  • Increase your search range (this is a nice feature on eBay and sites like cars.com and autotrader.com) once you start as local to your area as possible.

I will be sure to add more stuff if I remember anything else…

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Becoming a Missional Church

So this semester around, our Pastor Shawn wanted to do group study on the book The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost. In it, he talks about what it means to being missional church and how we must adapt to reach out to the communities surrounding us.

It’s funny we should start that book. You see, back in July or so, out of the blue appeared these two Korean guys. Dae Hyun and Jung Seop, the two unlikely guy and brother-in-law came to our church after watching a movie nearby. You see, they came to US from Korea to learn English on an accelerated program. None of us really thought much of it. However, with Dae Hyun being such a social person reaching out and befriending others, the number quickly doubled and is now almost tripled!

For us, a rather small church of 60 or so, having 12 international students is pretty significant. Soon enough, we invited them over to the book study on the very book mentioned above. The book talks about being flexible and adapting to mold the church around the people in need. Again, funny that came up in the first few weeks as we started on it. The book, as great as it is, is by no means meant for those that are learning the English language, let alone surrounded by lots of non-believers.

So needless to say, our Pastor Shawn suggested that we change the book to something more tangible and meaningful, as well as easier to understand, for the international students. So he suggested we do Purpose Driven Life for the group, especially filled with quite a few seekers. I am so glad that he was so flexible and trying to be a missional church in existence!

On top of that, Joanna also jumped and caught onto the missional concept, and she’s been very engaged in reaching out to these international students. It’s amazing to see how God can make wonders happen out of nowhere! Being a second-generation Asian-American church, we didn’t expect anything like this to happen, but now that God has given the opportunity to us, we are taking it thankfully! 😀

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Anna’s Piano Lessons

So with Anna’s diminishing interest in ballet/dancing, she drew interest in piano.

This past Wednesday marked her first tutoring lesson.  She was very excited to learn.  And the teacher was very good and got along great with Anna.  Our take on Anna’s learning to play piano isn’t so much that she would become a professional at it.  Far from it.  Actually, I hope she doesn’t.

We wanted her to learn music so that it would help her in getting through life.  I believe that music, among many other things, can give the person the ability to pull through tough times.  I wanted Anna to have that when things got tough and she needed a way to release her emotions and frustrations.

This also meant that I have to oversee her practicing it 15 minutes a day!  Yikes!  :O  But in the end, I hope she will be able to use it to help herself and others get through tough times of life.  Is that weird of me?

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Freddie & Fannie CEOs will leave with Millions?!

NPR News Article

What the fudge?!  Two of the biggest mortgage financing firms are on the brink of disappearance, so much that the government is taking them over, and their CEOs still get to leave with millions of dollars?!  I know our country is based on capitalism, but come on!!  It’s bad enough that we as tax payers will be paying for the salvage of these two financial nightmares, but letting the CEO’s go with millions?!!

I say enough is enough!  Let them all rot!  😡  Government needs to freeze those CEOs’ fat pockets when it’s their fault as well!!  What happened to good ol’ fashioned “go down with the ship” mentality?!  It’s gone, I tell ya.  I hope the two CEOs have miserable lives!  Erg…

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Thoughts on Adoption: Post-“Bella”

I just watched the ending to a movie called “Bella“.  It’s a rather offbeat story that throws you off at first but as the story progresses, you figure it out.   But especially so, I didn’t fully appreciate it till the very end of the movie.

*SPOILER ALERT*!!

If you haven’t watched the movie yet and don’t want me to spoil it, skip the post till you watched it!  So as the story progresses, the lead female character finds out she’s pregnant out of wedlock and goes through crisis.  The male character who used to work with her shares his life story and eventually ask her about putting the baby up for adoption.  But you don’t find out till later that he himself was adopted.  And towards the end, you find out that he adopts the baby of his co-worker.  As the ending approaches and the mother is re-united with the daughter, I couldn’t help but sense how beautiful the adoption is.

See, in spiritual side of things, we also are adopted.  We all are lost but through Christ, God adopts us as His own.  I have always been fascinated by that…  Why would anyone just take us in?  Why would anyone take me in?!  It indeed is beautiful, like the movie title suggests, to see life and that life adopting another life.

I am still semi-serious about adopting a child later on our lives.  It would be a privilege and honor to be given an opportunity to adopt a lost person and tell him/her that he/she is part of us now.  We all are orphans wandering around until we realize that God has received us.

I don’t know… that concept and fact of adoption just blows my mind away every time I think about it.