Sunday 30 June 2002

Going up to visit Berkeley the weekend of July 19th.

Friday 28 June 2002

"The person who does not seek the Kingdom first does not seek it at all. Worthy as all our concerns may be, the moment they become the focus of our effors they become idolatry." -Richard Foster on the the spiritual discipline of simplicity

Thursday 27 June 2002

The beach is fun. I have modified my schedule to go to the beach after work on tuesdays and thursdays and spend about an hour there. Someday during the summer I'm going to sit on the beach until sunset... those will be one of the days where i get off of work at like 7:00 and i sit there until sunset at 8:00.

Wednesday 26 June 2002

odd... i went to workout on the machines at the gym today and i'm not sore.. maybe it's not challenging enough, but like my muscles hurt a LOT and it felt like i was straining when i was lifting... maybe not enough reps?
I just finished The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel. It's very good. I recommend it. What's next reading wise? to finish Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. It came highly recommended by our retreat speaker. So far, there are a lot of good practical application stuff and the reason why a certain discipline is "profitable" but prepare for some places where the writer is just not exercising good writing.
I should eventually start on that skirt i have the pattern and material for. it look spretty in the picture but we'll see how pretty it gets when i butcher the pattern. the joys of sewing. :)

Sunday 23 June 2002

I went to a church retreat this weekend. It was at pepperdine and i actually found the ocean. anyway, dr. walt russell was our speaker. he's a professor from talbot school of theology and the theme was empowered to overcome. he spoke on romans 6-8, i learned a lot and got to fellowship with the poeple who go to ucla and irvine and el co and it was a really cool time. to coherently put up what i learned is possible but it will be very long and drawn out... but here's a short version: I have victory and strength over sin because of the Resurrection Life that Jesus has experienced also sending the Holy Spirit to my soul that i might overcome the old habits i've gotten so used to as a twisted sinful human who has been redeemed by God's everlasting grace, mercy and love. does it make sense? if you have any questions, let me know and i'll try humbly and prayerfully to explain more, Lord willing.

Wednesday 19 June 2002

hi people. i got a new cell phone number. if you ask nicely maybe i'll give it to you.
new pictures.
BEARISMS

Monday 17 June 2002

if anyone knows how to keep goggles from fogging up and swim the butterfly stroke, let me know. Those are two things i'd like to know.

Sunday 16 June 2002

I love my dad. haahaa when i was really small i used to call him bah-bee. (sound that out and add a mandarin accent) He's in sweden now coming back tomorrow, but I love my dad. He's a good dad. And it's tough being in a house full of girls, but he still manages to get his lakers games in and play on the computer and play around with his toys. It helps when my sister or i like whatever he's doing like both of us like the lakers and basketball so we watch. i like photography so we get to play with gadgets and stuff together but my dad's on his own with his computer games with the exception of like solitaire or something. He's the decision maker of the household though my mom may sometimes seem, they have this interesting relationship that i haven't completely deciphered yet, but i dunno if i'll ever fully understand the dynamics of their relationship. They laugh at each other's jokes, they talk they like to do a lot of stuff. My dad likes to laugh so he tries to get my mom laughing. that's the hard part but when they're both laughing, it's cool. I love my dad, but i don't miss him as much when he goes on business trips because he goes on business trips a lot and he calls back or ims me a lot so that's cool. haahaa my dad called me a nerd one time because i got an optical mouse. i don't know how that constitutes me being a nerd but it was funny how my dad used the word "nerd." but i remember about 8 years ago or so... my parents took my sister and a bunch of other people on a short term mission to ensenada, mexico. I was too young to go i think i was going into the 6th grade.. yeah. It was for high schoolers and college students so i didn't get to go. And they left the saturday before father's day. That father's day, I was in the children's choir and i think i had a solo, but my dad wasn't there. i wanted him so much to be there and like when they were in mexico, they didn't call a lot because they didn't have access to a phone, but they did call once. I was staying at jonathan wu's house. His parents were taking care of me because i had a cold that week. But yeah I missed my dad a lot because he was supposed to hear me sing... but he was serving God and carrying out the great commission so i sorta understood. but when he got back i remember being at church and seeing one van pull into the parking lot. it wasn't my dad because he wasn't driving. but i remember someone ruffling my hair and saying, don't worry rosalyn he'll be back soon. so i waited and lo and behold the church fan the old gray/burgundy one pulled into the parking lot and it was my dad~! I almost ran into the car i was so excited. my mom and sister were there, too... but when my dad got out of the car i just ran and held on to him and cried and cried. I didn't wanna let go.. haahaa i was being such a child although i was a child... and he hugged me real tight and i felt so safe with him there. Yeah.. that's my dad. I love him a lot. I wonder what my reaction would be if I saw my Heavenly Father. Would my reaction be so joyful and at the point of tears? but yeah.. happy fathers day. :)
Confession is somethign i don't do enough of. Not the kind of shrift that you would to a catholic priest but this outpouring of whatever sins we're convicted of and the realization of these sins contrasted with the assurance that we're saved and we're no longer bound to sin, but it's the old life...I'm not going to confess my sins here. But it's so sad that there are times when i'm so desensitized that i'm not aware of whatever sin is in my life, but eventually i notice that something isn't right. that shouldn't be. Jesus says in matthew "therefore you are to be perfect just as your heavenly father is perfect." It is impossible but by the Holy Spirit. I guess a major prayer request is that I would be convicted of whatever sins are in my life though it shouldn't have power over my life... i dunno if that makes sense.

Saturday 15 June 2002

work is really fun. I'm really tired but i'm learning a LOT. like today for example I was in the lab from 9am-7pm. It's too much to type out so give me a call and i'll tell you about it.

Wednesday 12 June 2002

Oh my goodness i'm tired. And we didn't really do anything in the lab today either. We implanted some testosterone and progresterone into our rats and had a meeting and that's about it. i dunno...i'm really tired though
yeah short blog...but i wanna sleep.

Tuesday 11 June 2002

122 is NOT a number i am intimidated by.
Anyway, today was a fun day. It wasn't high stress at work because today was a meeting day. Basically there were speakers and presentations of people's projects of their research goals or what not. It's fun and I got to watch Dr. Lue the MD I'm working under take pictures of slides. Pretty basic and yet so complicated. Oh.. next week I'm going to a workshop to get acquainted with how to treat and handle mice properly. Work is cool i'm liking it.
And i'm liking korean bbq. It was nice, Kelie Jane and I got to eat dinner. We haven't hung out since January. I'm still getting used to the work schedule, though it's getting better.

Sunday 9 June 2002

oh i forgot. watch spy game.
MAJOR SUSPENSE.
Get this:
I wake up at 7:00 in the morning this morning. I NEVER wake up that early on saturday mornings. What for? Shoe Frenzy. This charity shoe event where designers like Kenneth Cole and Jimmy Choo donate their shoes to a women's clinic that sells these shoes from about 5-50 dollars. We got there at around 7:45. There were women lined up around the stinkin block. This block was about the size of memorial glade or la romeria park.. whichever is more familiar to you. Yeah.. and the women at the front, they were SOO getting feisty. They were all yelling at each other... it was kind of funny/sad. 3000 pairs of shoes and like a lot of women.. it's like that Friends episode, the one where monica is buying her wedding dress. Vicious. Dude, some of the women at the front of theline got there at 3:00. Only in Los Angeles will women camp out for some cheap pairs of designer shoes that aren't even that cute. Why in the world did I go? It's the experience that counts. Not everyone stands in line full of anxious women wanting a pair of shoes everyday. but anyway, i went back to bed after we got back and i woke up at 2:00

Friday 7 June 2002

I came online to blog, but forgot for a while and ended up playing minesweeper for about 5 min. How sad. That is a stupid game.
Anyway...
Today, while wandering around Torrance I decided to drive by the old Bread of Life Church facilities. Expecting the familiar Sanctuary and the increasingly steep driveway and the white sliding, child-proof gate, I met with a large gaping hole in the skyline instead. I can't believe a church that I got baptized in, the church that I grew up in is now torn down to make way for some duplexes that have no grass or yards. I inched by what was my second home on 22525 Kent street and thought about all the memories that had been torn down with the church building. I remember practicing guitar lazy sunday afternoons and friday nights before fellowship from 8th grade all the way to august of last year. Out of tune and out of sync, I didn't care, but I loved to worship and loved to play. I remember that dome made of steel rods arranged in triangles. After sunday school every sunday we'd all play in the sandbox right behind the old fellowship hall, until we outgrew the jungle gym that gave us splinters. I remember eating lunch in the stairwell in the back of the Glory hall making sketches of pretty asian girls or talking about who's cute at church. Haahaa I remember getting mad at Enoch because he violated my "space" under the bridge connecting the old building and the glory hall. I don't exactly know why though... i remember him offering me a piece of gum or something. I remember standing on that bridge with friends...staring out to the mormon temple next door and "pondering the meaning of life." or people watching as everyone filed out of the sanctuary into the courtyard. I remember going into the choir room and putting on those little white gowns with the light blue satin collars for children's choir. Haahaa, I had the loudest (not necessarily the most in tune) voice...and between singing in the Cantonese and Mandarin services we'd all trek down 226th. St. to 7/11 to get snacks. I remember bringing my sleeping back and pillow and bags and piling it on everyone else's either in the courtyard or outside of the glory hall the sunday before YSC and forming a line packing the bus and waving at everyone as we pulled out of the parking lot. This is a place where the Spirit's presence was felt, where Jesus was the reigning King and where God was glorified. I know the building has no significance but when 2 or more are gathered in His name, he will be there, also. In these buildings, it started out with just a couple, then it grew to 1 congregation and then to 2, then 3 where now it's about 700 strong and growing. It's amazing what those walls held. Use and Abuse, yes, but more importantly it Housed God's children. Those who love to worship Him and those who just love Him with all their soul, mind and strength. I'm going to miss this home and it will be different coming home from now on, but not dwelling in the past... God has a LOT in store for this church in the next 35 years of its existence. :)

Wednesday 5 June 2002

i saw two really good movies today: Amadeus and An Affair to Remember. Amadeus was good solely because of the music. Mozart's music is beautiful and he's my favorite composer. Some of his work is simple yet conveys volumes of emotion and images. Some of his work is just beautiful, the expressiveness of it all. Those two past sentences are pretty much saying the same thing. Yeah i'm going to get the sountrack. I didn't think i'd like an affair to remember because it's romance and i think romance is cheesy. But this movie didn't get me into that mood. But it did speak to my almost non existent romantic side. Like dancing, I want to learn how to dance like people danced back then, not the dancing now, ugh. Dude, carey grant was charming. i think all girls think that.. and WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT, i'm a girl. Just the fact that they can carry on a conversation without saying a thing amazes me. My parents can do that, too. It's like my dad knows my mom so well that he knows what's going through his mind and when she's going to call. It's the same with my mom, too. When my dad's on a business trip, she always knows when to expect his calls. Maybe 'cause he's been working there for years and has been going on business trips for years. But yeah... the cutest thing about the movie is how they had a song and they danced unlike how couples dance now.
Haahaa, i looked at my baby album today. It's so funny, when i was a baby, every picture i had my mouth wide open. Like in a little O. Either that or i was trying to bite my toe. I totally remember that, too. I have this memory of sitting on our brown couch in our old house in harbor city. the living room had the couch against the wall which was connected to the small breakfast nook/dining room and i could see the dinner table and chair. it was after my bath that I was sitting on the couch facing the sliding door to the backyard. dinner table was at about 2 o'clock and the coffee table was directly to my left and the armchair was at about 10 oclock to me. but i remember sitting there and then grabbing my foot and bringing it to my mouth and starting to chew on it. maybe i was teething back then or somethin... but yeah, there's your embarassing "oh i didn't know that about roz" story of the day.

Tuesday 4 June 2002

a spider died in my favorite candle. :(
Picture link at the bottom of the page in case it goes away or something.

Monday 3 June 2002

Praise the LORD oh, my soul. He has blessed me with going to such a good school and suriviving my freshman year with flying colors. :)
Yosemite.
My first reaction when I woke up when we were driving to the valley was, "Oh my goodness." It was that beautiful. The jaw just kind of dropped. This was the perfect time to go because the Memorial day rush is over and there's still a lot of water coming out of those waterfalls. I first saw Half Dome, and then El Capitan then Yosemite falls, one of the tallest waterfalls in the world, comparable to Angel Falls, THE tallest waterfalls in the world in South America. (Don't ask me how I know this. I know lots of meaningless trivia that takes me nowhere in the world.) It's so pretty. Then we saw Bridal Veil falls. The reason why it's called that is because it's supposed to look like a Bride's veil, hence the name. Yeah, going to Yosemite totally humbled me. Because you're standing in a valley and there are essentially walls of granite thousands of feet high and you feel so little. it's quite amazing. I love it. And about soothing water, there were rivers and meadows with little rivulets, quite relaxing. I've had BAD experiences with boats, but I find bodies of water VERY VERY soothing. On our second full day we drove up to the High Country to Tioga Pass, Tuolome Meadows and some other places. Unfortunately the wild flowers don't bloom until about July so we didn't see too many flowers, but the grass was green and growing. Last time we were at Tuolome Meadows, my sister had a bunch of leeches on her skin. No leeches this time! In fact, it was really cool, there was still snow on the ground, and it wasn't gross dirty snow. There was acutally a guy who busted out his skis. When the sun was low in the sky, we went to Bridal veil falls again and saw the most amazing rainbow. It was totally clear at the base of the waterfall and quite beautiful. We also went to a bridge and took a picture of half dome at sunset. The picture is linked to this page. We stayed in a tent cabin, it's a canvas tent cabin, i don't rightly know how to explain it but it was fun, except for the mosquitoes. I don't know why but i think mosquitoes like my blood. I think it's somehting about my body temperature being higher than the average human. must be why i'm like my miniature schnauzer. her body temperature's pretty high, 'cause she's kind of high strung and jittery and she gets a lot of bites too. Anyway, that's a lot of personal information. On the second full day we hiked up to the top of Vernal falls. It's called the misty trail for a reason. It should be called the rain trial because it seriously felt like it was raining. Not mist rain, like drops of water rain. It was really fun though, but not good for a sick person, though it was fun. My mom made me bundle up 'cause i'm getting over a cold. When we got to the top, man, the Emerald pool is supposed to be this calm pool people can swim in and there's supposed to be solid rock where the river flows in like a slide, but my goodness, it was raging torrents... my dad got a clip of that it's on a cd somewhere. There was so much water. All the waterfalls looked full, not those dinky kiddie waterfalls that look like dripping showers, these were awesome waterfalls. They were jump off and die type of waterfalls. Sorry for the morbid description but that's what they were like. On the last day, my favorite day was when we went to Sentinel Dome. You hike about a mile up to an altitude of about 8,000 feet. it's this dome, it actually looks like a dome with random shaped rocks and a dead tree. But what's so amazing about it is the view. A 360 degree view of all of Yosemite. You can see EVERYTHING from there. I took one of those multiple shot panorama pictures. I'm going to get it printed on photo paper and frame it. The view is just awesome. It was so cool. I stood on a rock put my hands up in the air and just screamed. Absolute exhilaration, let me tell you. I did it for my roomate, Rocio who always wanted to do that but never got a chance. My dad actually took a picture of it. When you're up there, you meet with the God of Wonders. In everything you see His creation unpolluted and you realize what it meant when He proclaimed it Good. You feel the wind, your heart is pounding, there's this fear of God in you knowing that this can be your death or your life. When men don't worship the Almighty, the Rocks cry out and proclaim His glory and it's totally true.
Soli Deo Gloria. :)

Saturday 1 June 2002

I have some Yosemite Pictures Up.
HERE
ah! it's june 1st right now. WEEIRD.
there's a LOT of stuff going on in my mind right now, some of it too random to write down, some too personal. So i'll just start with the car. Our family got a new car and I got to drive about 100 miles on the way down from yosemite. My goodness, my mother is a backseat driver and my dad was clamping on to the arm handle thingy. i don't drive THAT crazy. There was a lot of cruse control setting and resuming 'cause we were trying to dodge trucks, busses, crazy drivers, sports cars. There was a heck of a lot of traffic on the 99 on a thursday night.. kind of weird.
being at home. It feels so good. I love home, i love my family and i love my friends. But for a while during fellowship, i felt like i've never been in such a foreign place, it was really hard to focus and to worship. This is my home, it shouldn't be so.
There are certain things i want to accomplish this summer. I'm going to start with the superficial stuff:
I want to cook more.
make a skirt
swim 3 times a week. hopefully my parents will let me join the ymca where they have a good size pool to actually swim in.
learn something from the lab
go to the beach in the morning before work to do my quiet time (this one's a tough one)
fellowship and serve at home
to continue to live daily loving, needing, wanting God's presence more
This time is precious and what God has blessed me in the past, i haven't been as good a steward as i wanted to be. this summer/next year, I want to focus on things of more eternal value.
that's it for tonight. i will eventually get the pictures up and talk about yosemite more.