@ Woodbury Commons 4:30 am!!!!

So I'm up here at Woodbury Commons with the Yees cuz it's open from 12 am today to 12 am tomorrow. We figured there's less people at 4 am right? WRONG! We get here and the parking lot is PACKED! Seriously, like a weekend crowd. We drive by Banana Republic and there a line outside waiting to get in. It wraps around the building! And yes....they are mostly Asians...haha.

Update: Pics

Line @ Banaa Republic...4:30 am.

Parking lot in front of Sony and Ann Taylor

Who's that guy?

Who's that poster boy on the Sloan-Kettering career website? And why is he smiling like that? Is he like "I'm cool...I got a wife and two kids...I bet you all just want to be like me...." Way to go Rob!

UPDATE: NOVEMBER 2005

OK. So it's been quite some time since I last updated this. Call it lazy or busy =) but to make up for it I hope you will find the following post amusing...

It's strangely warm this morning although it's suppose to thunder and pour in the afternoon. Go out and play this morning or you could be one these....


THIS MORNING...
So this morning as I'm walking to work there is this real long line around the block on Lafayette and Grand streets. Then I noticed that they were ONLY young ladies on line. Alas they were not waiting to see me but evidently there is a HUGE shoe sale at a store that I didn't even know existed. And I practically walk by that block almost every day! (For those of you familiar with the area, it's a door that seems to be next to the tofu store on Lafayette). Ah...the things people do for sales...wait...what am I talking about? We(Chinese) live for sales...

VIET WEDDING...
A couple of Saturdays ago I attended a wedding banquet of a former co-worker who is Viet. I've concluded that they are better party people than the Chinese weddings I've been to, although you would have known that if you've hung out with her and her =). They just naturally gravitate to the dance floor, without the typical pleas and prodding of the weddings I've been to. Even the older folks love to dance. Another co-worker maybe be a grandma but she and her husband can still out dance me in cha cha.

The other thing I noticed was that they seem to have multi-lingual live bands at the weddings. Don't know if it's just this wedding or most Viet weddings. Even though I had no idea what they were singing, I'm sure it was something moving and loving. Click on the pic below to view a clip.


STEAK!
The other night I went with a couple of boys to Sammy's Roumanian Steakhouse on Delancey Street. Place looks a hole in the wall but hmmm....the steak is good. Not quite a date place though cuz everything's cooked in garlic.

4 God so luvd da world

Not sure what to make of it yet. But evidently a company in Australia has translated the Bible into SMS shorthand for people to send to their cell phones/PDAs. Hence "4 God so luvd da world..." or "“In da Bginnin God cre8d da heavens & da earth”.

It is a software that you download that allows you to send the sms (I guess). Alas I can't verify or test this cuz evidently God uses Windows only to send SMS. (Just kidding!!!!!).

IPOD NANO Scratches

For those who have bought or are considering buying a Nano...beware! It scratches easily. There's been a couple of posts/sites detailing what happens.

Apple's own discussion board.

www.nanoscratch.com (url tells it all.)

"iPod Nano screen" Chris Wheatley 4:43 AM

Vinny's Nut House

I found this while walking to church this morning. No explanation necessary. You know who I'm thinking of.

GRX Church in Sunnyvale

So last week when I was out in SF, I visited a church recommended by Andrew Au, the Great Exchange Convenant Church or GRX for short. The first impression was that I had walked into an Asian American Passion event, from the songs to the overall look and feel of the sanctuary. I was in this huge area and heard some hip hop music. Naturally I gravitated to where it was blasting from...it was their Dance Ministry. Definitely different from what we've done at our church.

The sermon was the first of their "Making a Difference" series. One of their pastors from their plant church in SF shared and the pastor shared some points on how we as a church can make a difference (based on Matt. 28:16-20). What was meaningful for me was the illustration he use of who played a critical role in Billy Graham's conversion. Basically ( I couldn't get all the names) it started with an unknown and regular salesman in Chicago who impacted DL Moody and through a series people eventually impacted Billy Graham. Kind of like a chain reaction.

Well here are some pics. First the huge welcome/networking area.

The sanctuary...




Video clip of their worship service...taken from my Treo


Click on picture for video clip. Again, this seems to work better on Macs.

Pebble Beach and San Fran Pics

UPDATE: For Mac users, if you use Safari, some of the pics may not show up. But if you use Firefox, it should work fine.

OK. It's finally here, a photo record of my trip to Pebble Beach and San Fran! (Pardon the low quality of the photos. They were all taken with my Treo 650).

The hotel room @ Pebble Beach

The golf course!

the 4th hole

the 18th @ night...lit up

the 18th during the day

the famous 7th hole that looks out to the bay

the famous lone cypress of pebble beach. i'm sure i could write something deep...but nah...

Cuppertino

This is Joyful Melodies, founded by Carol Liu, former worship team member of OCM and sister-in-law of Vinny Liu.


And the greatest thing is...she is literally around the corner from the Apple headquarters in Cuppertino! haha.


This is Jen Huang(Carol's younger sister and former Cana member) and me @ a mall in Cuppertino. Why? I was attempting to get an iPod nano two days after it was introduced. Man I use to drive her around NYC...now a couple of years later she's driving me around CA.

San Fran!



C-town SF. It's crowded at any C-town in the world!


The famous Lombard Street, the most crooked street in the world.

In San Fran and more reflections

San Francisco
9/10/05

Wow. I haven’t walk so much in a long time. I think I must have walked at least 10 miles today! First I went to the Apple Store to check out the Ipod Nano. Now I know some people have already posted their criticisms. But having touched it, I must say the Nano is beautiful, possibly the best Ipod yet. I predict that it’s gonna be a hit.

I then checked out some stores around that area and proceeded to walk uphill, yes uphill to Chinatown where I had lunch. Then I walked uphill and down and up and down again to Fisherman’s Wharf. Went to the Ghirardelli Square to check out their chocolate fair and then went to see Lombard Street, “the most crooked street” in the world. Walked back to my hotel, took a nap and went back to Chinatown for dinner. Will post pics later.

Reflections @ Summer Conference 05

So while waiting for dinner on Saturday, a father of a Zion member sat next to me and to chat. He asked me whether I got tired and discouraged with so many people having graduated from Cana and Zion but don’t end up coming back to OCM. I told him of course it gets discouraging, especially when you hope that people who have gone to college will contribute back to the church and fellowship. But I also told him that I am reminded that ultimately the big picture is that these young men and women will be faithful and strong testimonies for God, which may or may not include our church. My role to is contribute to their development in being young men and women of God. That is what keeps me going on. I have some more thoughts on this that I will share later.

Well tomorrow I am going to visit GFX church and then spend the afternoon with Hau and Carol before flying back.

What are your memories?

San Francisco, 11:30 PM, 9/9/05

So in my last entry I mentioned that I had mixed feelings about Summer Conference 05. Now that I have some down time in SF, I’ve been reflecting. (Updates on Pebble Beach and SF to come in a different post.)

This could possibly be the last time we are at Canedensis, which made me think of things that have happened there.

1. “Lights out” patrol with Rich Carey.
2. “Lights out” patrol with Ephod Shang.
3. Being thrown into the lake.
4. Out in the lake in the rowboat with someone I can’t seem to remember now.
5. The Korean youth speaker who didn’t like us.
6. Jamie George
7. Sleeping in the shed next to the youth meeting hall.
8. The good food at conference.
9. The bad food at conference.
10. Testimony night, testimony night, testimony night…
11. Mr. Zs.
12. Walmart Runs.
13. Capture the flag at night.
14. Leading worship.
15. Midnight forays to the foam pit.
16. Closing ceremonies.


What are your memories?

summer conference 05

Just got back from a one day trip to Summer Conference 05. Mixed feelings. More later. In the meantime here's a clip of tonight's worship (as recorded on a cell phone). Sorry this seems to work better on a Mac for now.

LA2

Cable box in my room.

It's way too early to be up!!!! Yep, 4:41 AM. Jetlag stinks. I woke up at 3am (LA time). Tried to force myself to sleep. Was quite unsuccessful. I do hope to get some decent rest cuz Habitat is next week. I am suppose to see my godson and his family here, but it looks like I may be way too busy. Sigh I am a bad godfather. Tiff Wan may try to drop by on Saturday at the golf course to visit...if I am able to convince her to. Everything here is so spread out!!! Definitely do not and will not miss the traffic here.

Welcome back Waiming. Interesting post.

For those of you going to Peter and Jamie's wedding...take lots of pictures. Wished I could be there.

Random pic of a Viet restaurant in LA. Looks pretty secured. LOL.

OK. Done with this random post. Back to CNN.

In LA

Yes. I am in LA now. Just flew in this morning. That pic is from our office. It's been a crazy week and will be even crazier!!! I'm here for a client event and will be working until Saturday night. Then I will taking the red eye back to NY(arrive at 6 am) and head off to Habitat in the afternoon.

It's seems that things seem to get crazy when we are about to embark on something for God. It's happen to me in the past and it's happening now. Pray for the spiritual strength, faith and spirits for all of us going to Habitat. I am sure that I'm not the only one going through this. It's easy to get discourage and be overwhelmed.

Well...more updates later from my hotel room.

A Hispanic Preacher and Weekend Recap

This morning I was running late for a meeting at Herald Square (34th street). Usually I am good with these things but for some reason I caught the N train at Canal Street heading towards BROOKLYN! As I was a bit peeved and trying to figure why did I do such a stupid thing, this Hispanic guy walkes into the car and starts shouting Alleluia, Jesus and alot of Spanish. Now all other interesting characters I've seen but this must the first time I've heard a preach bellow out a Spanish sermon from Canal Street to Atlantic Ave. It is these times that I wished that Wai Ming was here to help translate what they guy was preaching about. Then this guy proceeds to go to one of the passengers and lays his hand on him and prays for healing. How did I know? It went "something, something, something, ALLELUIA, something, something, something, ASTHMA!...ergo he must be praying for the guy's asthma. I was quite amused and wasn't that upset anymore. It turned out that when I finally got up to 34th streeet, the meeting was kinda canceled.

BBQ and more BBQs
This weekend seemed to be the weekend of endless bbqs. First was the Cana outing at the Kong's upstate (well, not exactly...just White Plains) on Saturday. Got there around 1 pm and started cooking. Stephen and Alvin's dad was gracious enough to put a fan by the grill to help blow air (as you know it was pretty humid). Then there was this game that the kids played...something about giants, wizards, and elfs and running to a tree. Still don't quite get it but it looks like they had fun. (Click on pic for video. Not sure if it will work. It is video phone quality.)


Then yesterday we went to Mann's place for another bbq, though it looked liked it would pour. We got an interesting view of LGA...(the airport! not the high school) and watched and intense ending to the Yankees vs. Red Sox game.

Now for other RECAPS:

ZION ACTIVITY FRIDAY: Games and senior dinner. (Sorry I didn't make it).

CANA ACTIVITY SUNDAY: Austin Talk. Finally got to find out how and why Austin turned out the way he is. Just kidding. But seriously it was nice to learn the impact that OCM and in particular CANA had on his life.

SERMON SUNDAY: Remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy.

Refl3ctions: To follow on the sermon, if someone ceases to do his/her secular work on Sabbath but still gets no rest because of "church" work, is it still considered a Sabbath?

The Bluetooth Bathtub

This is to compliment Christina's itoilet. It's Smarthydro, a tub that "recorded voice messages to tell you things like your bath is ready. Yes, it cleans itself. " Helloooo.....need more reasons to spend time in the bathroom???

Skype or Gizmo

OK. So for some of you younglings who are more tech savvy, you guys have been "Skypeing" all over the country and perhaps the world. Now there seems to be another competitor, Gizmo, which supposedly does everything Skype does more including call recording, call hold with music and cool call mapping feature.

For those of you who are completely clueless, I'm basically talking about free phone calls over the internet.

Another Update...Finally

Ok. So you heard me raving how greeaat it was that I could update my blog and pic via cell phone. That was until I found that Cingular charges me $0.25 per MMS (multimedia messaging services)!!! I thought these MMS services were covered under my unlimited plan...NOT! READ THE FINE PRINT. So kids, unless it's a real awesome moment or picture, you won't be seeing me update like crazy (see past couple of posts).

Now for some fun....

Some of you know that I work in an ad agency and ever so often I get requests for actors/models/people who think they can act or look good for film or TV shoots. Below is one such request. Note: Orlando is a real buff guy who works here and Christina is...well read on.

11:12:58 PM martianboizzz: i need a girl too
11:13:05 PM martianboizzz: if you can just send me photos
11:13:05 PM indsecret: what age
11:13:09 PM martianboizzz: they must not be shy
11:13:23 PM martianboizzz: girl will be from 16 to 19
11:13:37 PM martianboizzz: look sweet girl next door type
11:13:43 PM indsecret: haha
11:13:49 PM indsecret: what about christina
11:14:00 PM martianboizzz: she is very tom boyish
11:14:13 PM martianboizzz: she will beat up a guy anytime
11:14:17 PM martianboizzz: lol
11:14:25 PM martianboizzz: actually she is more butch than orlando

That is the most hilarious description I've come across of Christina. So anyways, if you're between 16-19 male or female, not shy and willing to be in some sort of film, contact me.

One more thing. Due to requests by some people, I've allowed anyone to post comments.

Last but not least, a very Happy Birthday to Tim Yan.

Refl3ctions @ Queens

EDIT:So some of you know that I figured how to blog from my cell phone. Basically these pictures post on 6/17 is a small visual diary of how my day went today. After meeting client there was this graduation party for my boss's kids at his place in Connecticut. I was the only one there for an hour early so what to do? Why not blog from my phone????(Get a life Ping!)

First pic is of the tents that the caterer set up and the second is a pimped out hot dog cooked by a chef all decked out in 80 degrees weather. I then proceeded to rush back to NYC for an event for Asian Americans film maker. After that was done, I proceeded to Queens for the Refl3ctions event. The caption at the bottom of the third picture says it all. More on that later.

Later kids...I gotta sleep so that I could wake and play golf at 6AM tomorrow.

Awesome.

::via cell phone::

Party @ the boss

Here at the garden before people arrive.
::via cellphone::

Hot dogs. By chefs

::via cell phone::

Billy Graham Billboard

Billy Graham Billboard on Canal and Lafayette.
via cell phone

PRESSURE

I found this post on another blog. It's the lyrics to the song by David Bowie. (For those of you younglings, ask someone older who he is)

Insanity laughs under pressure
we're cracking
Can't we give ourselves one more chance?
Why can't we give love that one more chance?
Why can't we give love give love give love? ...
Cause love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care
For the people on the edge of the night
And love dares you to change our way
Of caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves under pressure
Under pressure pressure

Sometimes things come together at once...pressing you that you get push down, no matter positive you try to stay.

my ramblings here

So...I've finally gotten down to working this thing. For the longest time I've been debating whether to use xanga or this. Some how this looks more professional. So I'll stick to this for now. Links and visuals to come over time.

::UPDATE::
I just found out you can blog via your cell phone. Gosh...I need to get a life =).

apple

apple
Originally uploaded by inDsecret.