The end of another week :) Yippee. Tomorrow I have the whole Saturday to myself. I'm going to go shopping, hopefully fix up the apartment a little in preparation for Sunday's housewarming. My friend send me a 10% off coupon for Best Buy good for only a few days. I'm deciding whether I should get the HP Media Center.

My fish at work seems to be pretty happy in his new 1 gallon tank. It fits just perfectly on my desk without looking imposing. In fact I think it accents the desk very well. The only other thing I need to do is clear the clutter off my desk :)

Finally...I can relax a little. I just finished writing another paper. Last couple of weeks I've actually been working pretty hard (but let me warn you, my definition of hard work is relative). I haven't really been screwing around as much at work, and really really cut down on my web surfing time. I just don't think I'm cut out for this kind of work. Maybe that's why I'm not so happy with my job. If I were to describe my performance here I'd have to say I'm just getting by. I want to do something I can excell in, something I can feel good about.

As for the living arrangement...I think nerves are beginning to frazzle. In general I think it's still good but I think it's on the decline. I found out two of my housemates are only-children...and kind of helps me understand them a little more. The thing I keep telling myself is to be a servant. I think I could justifiably argue my indignations, however I'm trying to learn to set my own feelings aside and serve others. For example, we have dinner assignments, and if someone doesn't really prepare a nice dinner, then I'll try and make something even better. We also have dish duty. Instead of leaping at the chance to do dishes when there are hardly any dishes, I'll let someone else do them. Well I guess there is an ulterior motive to that as well. If anyone accuses me of not pulling my weight...I can easily debunk their accusation...or maybe it gives me more firepower when I accuse others...he he he.

Well it's 1:30 on Wed morning and I should be sleeping. I'm chatting with my oldest brother right now because he's in a pretty lousy situation right now. Problems with parents and also his health really has me worried.

Weekend Update

Friday - Friday night after work I went to church early. We had a guest speaker come to our church to talk about evangelism. He had a powerpoint slide presentation that I had to help display. After that a bunch of us went out to POD which is a modern japanese / asian fusion restaurant complete with conveyor belt sushi bar.

Saturday - Woke up early in the morning to go to a church prayer retreat at Sandy Cove, MD. It was a very nice facility. I was expecting it to be a pretty grueling day of non-stop prayer, but it really wasn't all that bad. I was sleepy through most of the day and only fell asleep during one of the prayer modules. On the way to the retreat center, we passed by this one car, and they were eating food. They caught up along side of us and purposefully looked over at us as they sank their teeth into their food...as if to taunt us. It was kind of funny. On the ride back from the retreat I slept.

Sunday - Despite having gone to bed at a pretty decent hour I woke up really late for church. Basically I woke up after I should have already had left for church. I quickly washed up and brushed my teeth without toothpaste (just to save time). I rushed into my car and sped off to church. The funny thing is that I passed my roommate along the way. I guess he left the apartment a few minutes before I did. I saw a Honda Accord and looked at the driver as I quickly passed by and sure enough it was him. I felt kind of bad since I was speeding to church. I ended up staying through both AM and PM services to run the projector. I snuck out of 2nd service to get a bowl of $1 noodles down in the basement though. After church a bunch of us went to Manayunk to stroll down the street-side shops. I stopped by Ben & Jerry's where we also bumped into Allen and Laura. A quick stop to Banana Republic - Women's store before we headed to an outdoor cafe to meet up with other friends.

These days I've been neglecting to do my quiet time in the morning, but lately I've been want to get into work early to finish up work that I'm kind of behind in. Today though I've decided to read through the book of Job. I read through the first chapter and I realized my situation is different from Job. This particular verse hit me the hardest. Job 1:22 - "In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing." My attitude is almost the opposite of that. I'm almost blaming God for the situation I'm in.

Yesterday I was in Reston, VA for a work-related meeting. Well actually it was supposed to be an all day meeting which only turned out to be a 4 hour meeting of something totally off topic for me. Total waste of time for me. But I was able to see Brian and Debby. The meeting ended at 1pm and I went shopping after that to get Brian and Debby a gift. Our company only allows $15 for a "gift in lieu of lodging". Well I was able to get them a nice set of picture frames that was on sale.

After having dinner with them I left VA around 9:30pm. On my way back I was traveling on the left lane when suddenly I see lights flashing and hear sirens blaring right behinde me. I was going at the pace of traffic, so I didn't really think it was trying to pull me over. I think it's funny how my instincts were to speed up and get out of its way. Whereas if the cop was trying to pull me over for speeding, he might think I was trying to evade him. I turn into the lane to my right, and the cop passes me. Even though I had done nothing wrong and had nothing to hide, my heart was racing almost as fast as my car.

I come into work really early today because I had to get some stuff done before my 11:30 meeting. It's about 3pm and I'm dying here at work. I'm working on this one document. My eyes get heavy, and so apparently does my fingers because when I woke up from my momentary doze, I saw a line of d's across the screen.

So things boiled over a little today. I wrote my roommate an email today asking him not to leave me out of the loop so much in decision making processes (sometimes they'll agree to something even if I'm not there and expect me to play ball). So he calls me at work and we argue back and forth for like half an hour.

Saturday was supposed to be our house warming party which is all good, but no one really planned anything so my roommate took it upon himself to order $80 worth of food. I didn't really know what was going on and since I had other things to worry about, I didn't really care. So his argument was that since it was "our" house-warming party I'm culpable for part of the bill. I guess he has a certain point. But the way I see it is like planning a birthday party for someone and buying like $100 worth of decorations "on your own" and later asking everyone to foot the bill.

He thinks I'm being cheap, but shouldn't I very damn well have a reason to complain since he's spending my money? Thoughts anyone?

I only have problems with this one roommate. Makes me worry about what the rest of the year has in store for us.

I know this sounds pretty crass, but I'm already really not liking one of my roommates. On Saturday he invited a bunch of his friends over for a house warming party. I didn't want to invite my friends until some other day, when we can do our own little thing, not to mention I was busy most of Saturday. I had to work in the morning and while I was gone, they moved all my crap without telling me. I'm really getting sick of them doing stuff without telling me. One of these days I'm going to blow up again. So anyway I come back and there's already a ton of people over. They order some food. I have a slice of pizza. I do my own thing and get ready for a wedding. So last night my roommate just tells me to fork over $20 for the cost of food and everything. I'm like WTF!!! He just asks for money just like that and I wasn't even there for most of the day!!! I disapprovingly give him the money but trying not to make a big deal of it. I'm trying to be more like my roommate Shao...laid-back. But then he tells me I should stand up for myself. I tell him I'm trying to be more laid-back and he tells me that doesn't mean I should let people walk all over me. I chuckle because I only thought I was doing what he would do.

Weekend Update
Saturday - We sort of had a house warming party at our place, but I didn't invite anyone. I'll probably have people over next week. I went to Isaac and Arlene's wedding which was held at a quaint, little church. Then we had the reception at the NJ state aquarium. It was spectacular, eating dinner in front of gigantic sharks, fish, and sea turtles. Absolutely breath taking. I didn't bring a camera but I'm sure there'll be pictures up on the church website.

Sunday - Ended up going to both AM and PM services. Had a little technical difficulty displaying a video presentation from someone's laptop, because they failed to give us the audio cord to hook the computer up to the audio system, but finally got it to work. Weather was nice so after service me and a few friends sat outside at a caf?enjoying some drinks. After that I went to a friends house warming party at Laura and Allen's new place. They prepared a ton of food and after that we played some DDR and a couple rounds of Mofia.

Yesterday I had a doctors appointment. She prescribed me more of my miracle drug Thalidomide. She wants me to go see a rheumatologist as well. After the appointment I went straight to church since I was already in Philly. After church I went home to relax instead of going out to eat. I cooked up some food and watch a movie before I fell asleep.

Last night my roommate laughed in his sleep. I thought it was kind of strange that he would just laugh all of a sudden while he was sleeping. And I forgot what kind of dream I was having but I remember one part vividly. A duck bit down into my hand. Ducks don't have teeth so I didn't think it would really hurt, but when the duck bit down on my fist I saw that it had a complete set of human teeth. I remember thinking...dang this suckers got a strong bite.

So I wake up at 9:00 this morning and head off to the Pharmacy to pick up my drugs and now I'm at work. After this I'll be doing stuff with my roommate and then later attend a friend's wedding.

Yesterday got into a heated arguement with Paul. After work I did a little bit of shopping at K-Mart (close-out sale) but didn't find anything I really needed to buy, and when I came home I turned off one of the halogen lights in the living room where everyone was. I didn't see the sense of having two halogen lamps going, but apparently it pissed off Paul that I didn't even ask. He confronted me about it, and I told him frankly that we need to conserve energy by not WASTING it...which I see a lot of. Our gas and electric bill was over $200 between all of us (more than $50/person). I'm only used to paying $20 electric bills at my old place so that's kind of a shocker for me. These guys will turn on all the lights to the apartment and leave them on...even in the morning!!! I'm like WTF...be considerate that I'm paying the bill too. That's one thing I hate about "sharing" the bill...everyone become a such a damn freeloader. I just can't stand waste...that's the one thing I hate most more than anything else. Don't waste my damn stuff. My dad taught us to finish even every single last rice on our plates, and for all my life I've finished every last piece of rice. BTW...I think someone threw out my banana yesterday...the skin was kind of black, but if you know me...that's how I like my bananas. Because at that point, they are so freaking sweet...and even if it's mushy...you just throw it in the blender and enjoy yourself a nice fruit drink. See...I waste nothing!

Anyway I need to lighten up, because I guess if I look at it from Paul's point of view...what I did was kinda rude...although not totally unjustified. Can you believe I even bought these fancy $8 night lights with motion and light detectors so we wouldn't need to turn on all the lights all the time. They only turn on when it's at night and when it senses motion!!! They're actually pretty darn cool. I got them at K-Mart, and hopefully before they close and they need to slash prices like by 50% or 75%, I'm going to buy a whole truck full.

So anyway at work today I found out that one of my deadlines that was 2 weeks away is really one week away. ARGH!!!

I just read the Daily Wisdom devotional for today and I'm kind of distressed to have read what the author wrote. I understand the title "A Slightly Cynical Look at Some Financial Myths" but I think what's written is overgeneralized, and just simply wrong. I think some of her points almost go contray to biblical themes and morals. I detect a self-defeatist (thus self-destructive) attitude from the author. I think this person needs help. Thoughts anyone?

These past week or so I've had serious nasal or allergy problems. My sinuses feel like they are constantly irritated. You know that feeling you get before you are about to sneeze...but then you can't sneeze. That kind of burning irritating feeling. I'm getting that a lot...not to mention all the freaking canker sores in my mouth right now. Eating and talking is definitely a lot more difficult, although I don't think my appetite has suffered much. My mom is making me take this Chinese medicine solution. I have no idea what's in it and neither do they, but they swear that it'll cure whatever ails me. So I've been taking this thing for like a week straight. It's awfully coincidental that I'm also suffering from this allergy-like symptoms as well...and it's WINTER. Not like there's any pollen or stuff in the air. Not to mention my skin has really suffered as well. Getting a bad case of acne. Well I'm glad I at least tried this Chinese medicine...because now I'll know not to take it in the future. My parents shelled out a forture for this stuff though so I'll feel bad if I don't finish it.

So yesterday after work I went to the mall, primarily to pick up some cables that are needed to hook up the church computer to the sound system so we can record the sermons directly to the computer instead of tapes or CDs first. But while I was at the mall I started shopping around. I don't do a lot of shopping but I started to get carried away. When I was younger my whole family would be surprised by the kinds of stuff my dad would buy. Especially when my mom would ask him to pick something up at the grocery store, he'd go on a shopping spree for all these other snacks as well. Or at a store, he'll just buy a bunch of stuff, even though we don't really need it. I think I know why my dad would do that now. He makes the money, but never really gets to spend it on shopping. It's always on bills and stuff. So anyway yesterday at the mall I felt justified to just shop around for a little bit. I bought my cables at Radio Shack, then I stopped by a booth selling miniature RC cars (that were so popular this past christmas). I bought it for my roommate who's both into sports cars, but lately also in to RC airplanes. I'm not about to buy him a real RC airplane (probably a couple hundred bucks)...so I bought him a tiny RC sports car. It was $20. Then I strolled further down the mall to another booth and found basically the same mini RC car for $5 cheaper!!! ARGH!!! Well that's the price you pay for inpulse buys. I walked over to a candle shop, and my apple scented Yankee candle that Janice (my big-bro's g.f.) got me a while back finally burned out...so I got a replacement (25% off). Then I walked over to Bath and Body Works. I just wanted to get a small bottle of nice smelling lotion. I walked in and the lady asked me if I needed any help. I just wanted to be left alone, and I said I was just browsing. She asked if I was shopping for myself or for someone else. I wasn't about to say I wanted something for myself, so I said I was looking for a gift idea (a gift for me...he he he), and she directed me to the more expensive gift packs. I felt like saying, LADY LEAVE ME ALONE AND LET ME SHOP IN PEACE!!! I eventually just got scented liquid soap, and a small bottle of lotion, both Juniper Breeze scent.

Yesterday after work I stopped by PetSmart and picked up some fish supplies, as well as 2 big goldfish. They were only 24-cents each. I'm amazed some of the tropical fish are 2 bucks each even though they are so small, they are barely visible...REALLY. Plus smaller fish die easier than bigger fish. My goldfish are about a decent size of sushi, therefore I've called them sushi and sashimi. I had fish in college with that name too. My guinea pig, Roberto, is doing okay as well. I'm not quite sure if my roommate like him because they are always making jokes about him even though they feed him good food constantly.

My roommate was having a bad day yesterday, and I wanted to do something nice for him, but I couldn't think of anything to do for him. He was just having a pissy day I guess...nothing going right, or his way. If you can think of a nice pick-me-up idea, then please leave your comments on the right side...nothing feminine like flowers though, otherwise he'll really think I'm gay or something.

Ever since we moved in, me and him have played around with the homo theme. He'll act all fresh with me and vice versa, even though he has a girlfriend. Once he told me, that he could go lower than I can with his homosexual innuendos. So a little later I jokingly came up to him and touched him on the legs, and he jumped up and screamed asking me what I was doing. I asked him, I thought you could go lower than I could, and he was like, I didn't mean touching!!! I burst into laughter.

So anyway something funny happened yesterday between me and him. As usual we were talking the same smack, and I was leaning into the fridge looking for something to eat for dinner. He came up behind me and grabbed my butt which startled me. I reacted by smacking my head against top of the fridge. He burst into laughter.

Weekend Update:
Saturday - after work I stopped by home to pick up Shao, and headed for church. It wasn?t so much a Phileo event than it was a big dinner. We were told to bring $20 for the evening. We meet at church and were giving a list of restaurants we could go to. Turns out the first place we wanted to go to wouldn?t seat us until 10:30 without reservations?so someone picked another place called London Grill. Can you believe I dropped 2 Jacksons just for dinner. BOY was that expensive. I later complained to one of the Phileo officers for such poor planning and foresight. Sadly enough I think my protests fell on deaf ears. I feel kind of bad for the two recent grads that were with us. At first they were like, hmmm?maybe I can just get by with eating two appetizers rather than the $20+ entrees. I had Pan Seared Tuna, medium rare, which was basically like eating cooked tuna fish on the outside and sashimi on the inside. Service was poor. I asked for a larger glass of water rather than the small tulip shaped glass. Instead she gave me a little bit of attitude. Since we had 7 people altogether, they added the mandatory 18% tip?even though we got crap for service.

After a few people went to poh-jong-mah-cha. It was right across the street from PC Bang, so I decided to go and check the place out. It was really small and I was basically killing time until my roommate was finished with his group. We decided to meet up at Dave and Busters. I was also told a certain person was going to be there?which was nice?if only she had showed up. Anyway I wasn?t about to spend more money that night so I didn?t play anything, not to mention the place was so packed you?d have to wait an hour to play anything. 2 girls that I know wanted to play PUMP, the Korean dancing arcade game. They have played it before on Playstation and someone?s house before, but never at the arcade. They went up and didn?t know how to select anything?so when time ran out for the selection process they were stuck with the hardest ?CRAZY? level. It was so painful to see them up there, just standing so confused. I felt bad for them because they basically wasted a few bucks for nothing.

Sunday - Tried to get to church extra early, but instead only got there a little bit early. I let Se-A operate the projector this Sunday. I think she?s got the hang of it. I also attended 2nd service since I missed parts of the first sermon. After service I went to Ed?s place where we hung out and watch the Lakers vs. Sixers game. Sixers lost. We had some pizza for dinner and watched the movie SIGNS.

Yesterday was supposed to be small group at Delaware Dave's place, but seeing how his place is in Delaware, I decided not to go. Instead I stayed home to relax, and clean up a bit. After dinner we watched "The Ring". I thought it was a very stupid movie and not a very scarey one at that. My roommates were kind of scared though. They wouldn't even put in the movie because they thought they might die or something. It was distressing even to see Yujin curled up like a little girl in the arms of his girlfriend!!!

Shao bought an 80 GB harddrive and we tried installing it. Didn't have much luck though. We were having the same problems I had...or rather still am having. I have yet to install my 100 GB harddrive. I need to buy some RAM though.

Today I dropped off a bunch of clothes at The Good Will donation center. I got rid of a bunch of stuff, even sentimental clothes like high school and college t-shirts and stuff. Before coming to work I watched the rest of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and I didn't see what was so great about the movie. I think it's just too much hype over a B movie.

Thank God it's Friday! I can't wait to start enjoying the weekend. This morning I kinda slept in. My roommate Paul skipped work today to script some kind of skit or play. I'm going to be a part of it, but I think he's going overboard. Skipping work! This morning I took my time to do some quiet time. Today's passages in Proverbs had more to do with adultery than anything else. Might not really have anything to do with me now but I guess in a few years (God willing) that'll be something I'll have to deal with.

Earlier this week I gave my roommate Shao a Rubik's Cube for a b-day gift. He can't figure out how to read the directions to solve it. Ha ha ha...looks like I got him two puzzles...the Rubik's cube, AND the directions. So for the last few days I've been playing around with the rubik's cube and solved it a few times with the directions. I think I'm at the point where I might be able to solve it without help.

Not sure I have anything exciting to say today. Got into kind of a debate with my roommate today about whether we really needed to lock our door or not, even though we are all at home. I just really hate coming home to a locked door when I know full well, everyone is already home, and when they fully expect me to be walking through the door for dinner. We argued for a little while about it but didn't really come to a decision about anything.

Yesterday after work I stopped by Best Buy and bought a video card and cd-rw for the church computer. I also bought the Worship Together CD (as seen on TV). I LOVE IT. I first saw it advertised on TV in the morning. When I heard the songs on TV I just wanted to fall on my knees and worship God, but I how silly would that be if I just worshipped for just one minute. This 2-CD set is packed with all popular and favorite praise songs. I was going to order it online or by phone but shipping takes 2 weeks (for $9.99 + $5 s/h). So I decided I'd rather just pay $3 extra to get it right away at Best Buy.

Anyway this morning I had trouble getting out of bed again. Even though I woke up at 9:30, I still decided to do a very short quiet time before going to work. Listening to the praise music during prayer was so invigorating.

Then when I got to work, I got an email from this one girl. I've been trying for so long to try and "connect" with. She's kind of quiet and reserved...but in my last email to her I told her I felt like I kept bugging her to help me out with something. I guess I struck a cord or something because she called me about it, and wanted to assure me that I wasn't being annoying to her. That in itself was pretty unexpected but now she sent me an email today. I guess she's concerned with her future and where God is calling her to be. She shared with me Heb. 11 and how she drew encouragement from how Abraham was asked by God to go into a strange land...as she worries about where she will eventually go.

Then I was reading a devotional site Daily Wisdom about why so many people fail in their endeavors, claiming that one of the biggest reasons is because of the negative cynical attitudes of those around us...our friends and family. I thought about my own dream. To learn to speak Korean. That's my dream, that's what I want to do. And then one sinking question entered my mind. Where is God in all of this? Shouldn't God be my all and only? So now I'm kind of hard pressed to find where my pursuit to learn Korean fits into the picture. Maybe I can teach to Koreans about God? Hmmm...not likely. Anyway, I'm thinking that shouldn't be my primary desire at this point...but I still have to think about it.

Anyway I'm just glad to have this CD.

On Saturday I slept in. Getting a good nights rest has kind of been difficult lately. I wake up often coughing or gagging on my own drool. I went to work for a few hours to finish up some work. After that I went to Cathy's apartment to decorate. I bought another tank of helium and we filled some balloons and put up streamers. It looked pretty nice. The surprise party was for Cathy's sister Jane. We had a great time and even played a question game.

Yesterday I kind of woke up later than I had wanted. I rushed into the shower and then sped off to church. I got there just in time. Service was late for some reason, but not because of me :) It was raining and there was lots of water on the road, I could feel my car hydroplane twice, almost losing control of my car. I definitely need to replace the POS tires in the front. God wouldn't possibly let me get into a car accident before church would He? I thanked God for safely getting me to church. Se-A called me on Saturday night to let me know that she still wanted to learn how to help out with the song projections. I was happy. So anyway I told her to meet me in the sound room and I let her control the song slides. She did a pretty good job.

After service we took Tae out for a birthday lunch at Oasis (all you can eat sushi buffet). Surprisingly though the sushi isn't as good as it used to be. The slices of fish got really skimpy. I'm not sure I'll want to go there again.

After that me and Ted went to PC Bang. Tim met us there later. I left for home though because I was feeling too tired. Just relaxed for the rest of the night. I went to bed early but I still didn't get a good nights rest.

Start of another month :) Yesterday I went to church early just to make sure I wasn't late like last week...which I inadvertanly delayed fellowship for about 20 minutes. I feel bad but at the same time it's kind of a neat feeling to know you have that kind of an effect on church...he he he. After fellowship a bunch of us went out to New Deck Tavern where we had some late eats. A bunch of people went including all of Jane's friends to kind of celebrate her birthday. They had a few drinks, and did a round of shots. I was kind of surprised because Jane kind of buddy slapped me from behind on her way to the bathroom (I was sitting at a different table), and I just thought it was kind of odd she would do that. On her way back from the bathroom, she looked really giddy and I jokingly jestured if she had anything to drink, and she looks at me and laughs. I don't think anyone was drunk, but it's kind of reassuring to see folks at church are willing to have a fun time responsibly. After that I went home and popped in a DVD (Happy Gilmore).

I woke up around 11:30 this morning :)