When I first saw this post from CJ, I was really hesitant to show this to my wife. You see, her husband John is one of those guys I’ve always admired and have wanted to more like. Not only is he gifted, compassionate, winsome and very passionate for the Lord,  but he’s also been a source of wisdom as I’ve wrestled with some of the new challenges of married life. Just months before this post, we stayed with them for several days, and my wife got to see first hand what this family was like. But the reason why I was so hesitant to show this to my wife was because I was afraid that she would hold me to the same standard and say “hey, John is willing to …., why aren’t you … “. Of course my wife is very gracious and would never use this type of comparison tactic on me, but I think every guy has this secret fear of not being able to measure up.

I’ll share a little snippet so that you get a glimpse of what this woman CJ thinks of her husband John.

I was recently introduced to a lady named Lily “Wai Sek” Hong. If you know Cantonese, you already know what the middle portion of her nickname means. Ok, this is for all my friends who love Singaporean/ Malaysian cuisine. She is from Malaysia and now lives in Denver, Colorado. She has a good collection of recipes on her blog

This week’s lesson is on “Yeung” Tofu. If you love Singaporean/ Malaysian cuisine, this is THE jackpot. If anyone wants to tryout some of these dishes, feel free to give me a call if you need some taste-testers.

A few weeks ago, Joanne and I took a two hour car ride up to LA (just one week before her PE exam) to attend a Cantonese Christian songwriters’ competition. Each of the contestants had 6 minutes to introduce themselves,  share about their song and then perform it. Voting was done in the format of American Idol. The votes of the three judges counted for 50% and the votes of the audience counted for the other 50%. Two friends from her church family in San Francisco had entered the competition and a number of her friends all came down to cheer them on. Looking back, we wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Wow, what a blessing to share in their excitement as these two songwriters/musicians had the opportunity to share their talent and their songs with a larger audience for the first time! My wife has some very special friends up in SF, and it was very special to see all of them again. What was even more exciting was to watch both of them win 1st and 2nd place in the competition. YEAH!!!

The youtube rendition is a poor substitute for the real thing, but I’ll share these songs with y’all anyway. Joanne and I found ourselves humming/ singing these songs for the next week or two.

This first song is by Nicole Lee. Roughly translated: “What is the value of a person?” I think she was in high school when we first met, but let me tell you that she is Goooood!

The second song is by Alex Tzang (also known by all his friends as “Samgut”). Samgut is very much a man’s man. If you’ve ever met him, I’m sure you’ll see why I consider him among the most welcoming (and sometimes entertaining) guys I know. This second song is done in the style of a musical about Jesus calling his disciples. He sings the part of Jesus and Dickson sings the part of the disciple.

Praise God for all these Cantonese songwriters and musicians who have written a new song unto the Lord!!

A friend forwarded this link to me … It’s targeted toward single Christian guys, but females may find this entertaining too. Enjoy!

Remember that life doesn’t always follow the pre-defined equations and well-devised flowcharts, but here are some good thoughts to chew on.

Seasoned with Love

Have you ever noticed that most of the best chefs in the world are all men (roughly about 80-90%)? Have you also noticed that only a few food fanatics will actually go on raving about a particular chef or tell stories about their great deeds? Their fame is often forgotten in an evening and has most certainly been relegated into the realm of trivia by the time of their life’s end. Yet strangely, how is it that stories of grandma’s fried chicken, our favorite aunt’s burmese style beef curry, and mom’s hand-shredded fish and rice ball soup have attained nearly legendary qualities? These stories, and sometimes the recipes, are passed down between generations. During family gatherings, several at a table may even rave nostalgically about these dishes prepared so long-ago.

My wife and I both cook, but it’s clear that our pursuit of cooking excellence have different aims. When a man cooks, he’s making food to nourish his body. And when a man “gets into cooking”, it’s often about developing skills, learning technique, buying cool cookware, understanding technical elements about various foods, and understanding flavor combinations and textures. This is excellent cooking for a man. When a woman cooks, she’s making food to care for someone. And when a woman “gets into cooking”, she also develops skills and learn techniques, but these are learned so that she can care for someone she loves.

For a guy, it’s hard to understand why their wife would get so angry at them for showing up just 30 mins late for dinner without calling. He’s thinking, “she knows I’m working, and I have a big deadline tomorrow.” A wise woman shared with me that when a woman cooks, it is seasoned with love. She literally pours out love when she prepares a dish. When a man realizes this, he’ll put in the extra effort to get home ontime and fully take in this expression of love. I joke with my friends that my love language is food, and my wife speaks this with great fluency.

This past Thursday, my wife surprised me by preparing something special … sort of an early Christmas gift.
This is one huge lobster kicking around and making lots of noise in our sink.

This is my wife holding the lobster in her right hand and holding the camera with her left.

This is that same lobster nicely cut up and waiting to be cooked (this is how I saw it after work).

This is the lobster right before our chopsticks began their vicious attack.

This is me preparing to dig into the lobster and drinking in deep because I know that my wife prepared this dish with LOVE.

Not quite a prius …

One of my occasional car postings. Other than the sticker price and the lack of trunk space, this car looks pretty cool. Check out this new car that will be hitting the market next year.  The performance statistics are incredible for an electric car.  Apparently it is all possible due to a new lithiom-ion battery.

- 100% electric
- 0 to 60 in 4 seconds
- 250 miles per charge
-about $0.01 per mile

Now for the bad news, being eco-friendly will set you back $100k.

click on photo for link to tesla motors website
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Encouraged by Uncle Chiamu’s message this past sunday, I’ve also started peering at the news. I don’t have a TV at home, so I often find myself surprised by news that everyone’s heard for hours or days before.

1) City wide FREE wireless network in Mountain View. This certainly is pleasing to the ears of those paying $40 per month for cable modem or $12-$20 per month for DSL (plus another $18 for a phone connection).

2) More on the Mt. Soledad saga.

3) I also learned that school kids will need to learn the names of several new planets in our solar system.

Love Without Conditions (reposted since my original post got gobbled up by a xanga anomaly)

Recently, I’ve been “figuring” out life again. I’ve heard it said that when people get married, or have their first child, it often feels like they’ve taken a step back in their spiritual lives, struggling to regain their bearings. The lofty ideas that once dwelt mostly in my head (and occasionally hitting the keyboard) now have to be lived out against another living, breathing person. I find myself re-examining what I know as fact and what I must humbly admit to confusion since there are many things I don’t understand or know clearly. In these last few months of bachelorhood, I also find myself frequently asking the “P”- question. Purpose !! – what is our life going to be about? What got me asking this question today was this beautiful, silver 2004 prius on I15 that was driving one lane left of me. It was close enough that I could see four people having a great time in the car and read the bumper sticker which said, “Evil thrives when good people do nothing.”

I must give thanks to my technically superior friend Ethan for posting this song. After returning home from Eddie and Dora’s, I started listening to this. I’ve memorized this chapter with one of my old roommates and have carefully studied this passage, but my eyes were just fixed on the lyrics as I was listening to this on my PC. I’ve served in a variety of church ministries since I’ve moved here, but right now my ambition is not to be a better teacher, a better worship leader or a better evangelist … right now … my ambition is to grow excellent in love.

I’ve been reflecting on my days as a single and have been struck by how much my heart is inclined unto selfishness in so many areas of my life.

CUV with Pinyin

I was pleasantly surprised to discover the CUV with PinYin where strong numbers are typically located. I like! Combine this with a good translation database tool with pinyin (various forms), english, simplified/traditional characters and audio files of course  …  and I’m set. Now if it was only portable …