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Lifebits Update

As many have been asking, Soojin is slowly getting better. She’s been able to attend Sunday services. (yeah!) She takes the kids to the local playground and some days to the local library. But she says that even these outings will tire her out.

Kids are finally missing home… and their daddy! 😀 Call me mean but I was glad to hear that. 😛 They miss their lives here in the States… and Anna is counting down the days till she returns! However, on the plus side, she has been taking “piano lessons”, which is primarily learning how to read music notes. And she’s loving it! 😮 So I am very glad to hear that she is learning something new and enjoying herself in the process… They are watching lots of Korean children’s cartoons… I don’t know how they will adapt once they return to the States… JJ didn’t want to try taekwondo. Oh well…

Speaking of JJ, he’s been showing more and more of OCD (obssessive compulsive disorder) symptoms. Even earlier on, he had to get things done just the way he liked it. He couldn’t leave windows and doors open, and would go and close them. I sure hope it’s a phase… My theory/take is that smart and intelligent people tend to be OCD as well. I know quite a lot of intelligent people and they are mostly like that. I would trade intelligence for social aptitude ANY day! Being able to work with others, and accepting others who are different, and ability to work with different people is what I consider more valuable in society. Of course, it’s not like I want my son to be deliberately failing and/or stupid. By no means! I’m just saying that between intelligence and social aptitude, I’d pick the latter… hands down. Well behaved is included in that as well! 😛

On a more personal note, I was planning on biking to work 4 times this week. However, I didn’t get up till too late on Tuesday and ended up driving to work. I biked in yesterday. But that meant that I’d have to bike in both today and Friday! 🙁 I was hoping to do two days at a time … but realized how weak my will power is. So after asking my Bible study group to pray for some will power, I just moved my lazy ass out of the bed, and dragged my butt out of home and biked in! 🙂

Changing habits is hard. We, humans, are creatures of habits. Breaking free from bad ones is tough enough… but incorporating good habits is not any easier… one day at a time… to God be the glory… and here’s biking in tomorrow (and not giving in!!)!

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Pathways Launch Service

We’ve been attending and being part of Pathways Church for just about 3 years now. And it has been anything but dull! We feel very fortunate to be part of this New Church Development of PC-USA. Pastor Shawn and every member has very unique contributions to the church.

Well, we have now come to the point of being able to officially kick off our existence to the community with a big bang through the launch service! Come one, come all! It starts at 3 pm and there will be concert as well given by Betty Soo (some of you may remember her from old UT BASIC days!) and local band TokensWay will be playing as well! Great celebration with food as well!

We will also collect donations to benefit Living Water International which helps building water wells around the world so that people have clean water to drink! 😀

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Korean Word: ? (pronounced “jung”)

There was this girl when I was in Austin while I helped out at Austin KPC.  It was her last year in college and she was going to move to a faraway place to Boston for more schooling.  She had a rough year, and all she had was resentment, frustration, and bit of anger mixed into one gigantic concoction.  Her graduating class seemed so… hopeless to her.  They seemed to to be not trying… at least in her sight.  So when I had a chance to speak with her, she complained of them and told me how she wouldn’t miss Austin.  She really meant the people.

I told her then, just as I would again now if the opportunity came back, that no matter how much people had upset you and made you flabbergasted, when time goes by, you will miss them.  In fact, that you would long to see them again, and even perhaps want to relive that moment.  She didn’t think so.  I saw her briefly few years later… and she had told me that indeed, that is the case.

There’s a word in Korean language that my good friend, Professor Paul Andre Minifee, understood all too well.  ?.  There’s no English equivalent word for it.  It is similar to affection, having developed a sense of bond, of belonging, of family, and becoming a part of that person’s life.  It’s like as if you have imparted in that person(s) a part of you in them and so when they are far away, you miss them.  You long for them.

I have been nearly married (come next June 9) seven years.  Seven freaking years.  Time just goes by.  Did my use of that f-word startle you?  Does that seem to imply that I’m not happy for past 7 years?!  Well, it would be partially true.  But only in very small part.  You see, as I have been telling whoever seems to need to hear it, we fought practically on a daily basis the first couple of years of our marriage.  It’s sheer God’s grace that we had pulled through it all.  When Soojin and Anna stayed in Korea for 2 months back five years ago, I hadn’t missed them so much (save for that stupid movie with the worst intro called “Finding Nemo“!).

However, now that we have been together for 7 years, having lived with my daughter for 6 years, and JJ for 4 years, I have developed a sense of “jung” towards them.  It just seemed like yesterday when JJ’s constant waking up at 3 am would drive both of us nuts!  It seemed like yesterday that Anna would simply just cry to put a stop to her father’s impending punishment.  And it still feels like we just fought yesterday.  Now, I miss them.  Terribly.

Funny how life changes a person.  As time goes by, through the thick and thin, you develop this special kind of bond.  I suppose this is what you call marriage.  And a family.  What used to bother me, I’d trade everything I have to just have it back!  I miss JJ snoring (like his father) at night.  Anna sleeps like a stick (or a frog, depending on her fatigue level) at night.  Soojin is… unreadable only sometimes.

I now find myself again finding God to be… a bit of a comic.  To make us as we are, I just can’t stop thinking about what He must’ve been thinking when designed and created us!  I’m not lovable by any means… but I guess God had developed a sense of ? (jung) towards us: both lovable and annoying at the same time.  It’s going to be tough three months, but we are all in a place God wants us to be…

I miss everyone … all the people I had met in the past.  I wonder if that girl, who is now married, would still tell me that she misses those people from Austin…

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Dilemmas: Presidential Election 2008

Man… I don’t know who to vote for this time around!

My liege to the Reps has been long dwindling with Bush jr.’s poor choices and performance.  The killer was his denying that we are not in a recession!  WTH?!  Maybe it’s because he doesn’t have to pay for gas and rising food cost!  😡  So anyhow, I was doubtful of it…

Then decent looking candidate arose, and his name was Ron Paul!  But alas, despite my vote for him, he lost.  🙁  Then McCain won.  Don’t get me started on him!  The deal breaker was finding out that he and his aides were behind supporting EADS in earning the $40 billion air tanker deal from Air Force!  😡  😡

And then there are the Dems!  Oh where do I start?!  Hilary?!!  Poo ha ha ha!!  And last time I heard, she’s on the losing streak… and Obama?  His very nature and sense of who he is just… bothers me!  No one can be THAT nice!  Let me rephrase that… No politician can be that nice!  And he just seems too… inexperienced… not to mention that he will kill the space program!

Oh the sheer dilemmas!!  🙁  Ron, why did you lose, Ron?!!  This is going to be a tough year… and tough 4 years after that!!!  God help us all!!

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Heat & Biking: Forced Convection and Heat Transfer

In the morning when I bike to work, it’s normally in mid to upper 70’s.  That’s pretty decent cool weather.  However, when I return, it’s low 90’s to high 80’s even after 6 pm!  😮  But when I do bike home, it doesn’t feel as hot as you’d think!

What the hell is “forced convection”?!  😀  Convection is heat transfer from one medium to the other through the fluid that surrounds the medium.  Basically, you release heat from solids or liquids to surrounding environment.  So in the case of biker, your heat dissipates to the air that surrounds you.  There are two kinds of convections:  free and forced.  Free convection is where the fluid that surrounds the boy in question is not moving, like swimming pool.  Forced convection is where the fluid is now moving, like the river.  What’s this got to do with feeling cooler when biking?!

Well, body temperature is 98 F to begin with.  So when ambient temperature is already in high 80’s to 90’s, there’s going to be not much heat transfer from your body to the air.  Heat transfer is directly related to the difference in temperature after all.  Yet in sitting still, free convection doesn’t help in dissipating your body as it gets hotter.  But once you get moving, air starts to move around you and you now have forced convection.  Forced convection basically, in layman’s terms, strips the heat away from you and thus increases the heat transfer rate despite the low difference in temperature.

So until I get home and stop, my body thinks that it’s rather cool outside still!  Science and engineering can be so nice, huh?!  😀

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Adapting to Life: Incorporating Biking

As I attempt to increase the frequency of riding the bike to work this week, it has introduced a new problem: lunch. Or rather, lack of ability to carry lunch to work. 🙁

I believe that in life, one has to always try hard to adapt to the changes that surrounds the person. After all, nothing stays the same forever, and getting too attached to habits of life can only bring in complacency. Last week, I just bought lunches at work cafeteria. There are two problems with this.

  1. Food taste and selection is terrible! It just plainly sucks.
  2. It is too expensive! Trying to eat healthy, chicken salad cost me $7 last week! 😮

I usually pack turkey sandwiches but the plastic container it resides in is too big! That definitely did not fit in my medium sized messenger bag that I take with me to work. It already contains my change of clothes on top of other sundry things.

To really make this healthy, green, and cost-saving habit to take full life, I had to make this lunch happen! Then this morning, it occurred to me. I could just pack individual sandwiches in its own smaller containers! It’s thinner (half the thickness) and would allow to be compact! Engineering at its finest! 😀 So I don’t have to spend too much money to buy lunch at work now! Yeah!

Even in engineering, you have to constantly adapt to different challenges, as new problems always ensue. Here’s to successful biking to work three times this week! Depending on how well this week goes, I may just bike to work all 5 days next week! Here’s to your health.

And for the last part, I wanted to thank all those that cared about my health and thus kept pestering me over and over and over… and over! 😛 That means thanks goes to Soojin, my dearest wife, my mom, and my mother-in-law!! Ha ha ha… Thanks everyone.