Happy Chinese New Year!!!

Thank you, Sydney, for inviting me to your church's Chinese New Year special potlock and celebration. This is so much better than my Christmas special experience in Taiwan. I was so pleasantly surprised and it was so good to finally see you again!

Gu Zen, being played by two very young girls. Alice and Elizabeth Li.
Special Chinese dance: Mulan, but Crystal Lin. She is really talented!!
And this is Sydney. Wow, what a dazzling smile! Did I mention that I LOVE purple?
This is Rex and Pastor Wang from VOH.
And the place is packed tonight!
Rex and me.
The Chino Hills Community Church Choir.
And this is VOH's Elisha youth fellowship. The program wrapper with modern dance.
Hehehe... I'm actually happy beyond belief here. Taking picure with the 2 most beautiful girls on earth. Ruth and Sydney. Thank you!!


Saturday 01-28-2006

New Year's Eve dinner at my mom's.
This is the new 42" LCD HDTV that they bought... the picture quality is almost like you're right there.
See... it's so fine and real... wow.

Friday 01-27-2006

Class 302 Taiwanese Restaurant.

The food is ok. doesn't match the price...



Wednesday 01-25-2006

Stressed? Come and try this Stress Relief Kit. Guranteed to work if you followed the instruction correctly and truthfully.
We finally came up with resolutions, next tasks, and answered all the concerns that the city had.
This is Ray with the proposed resolution plan.
And... back to Ontario, CA. Feels like a very long trip.


Tuesday 01-24-2006

I woke up at 7am (5am Pacific time, yikes!) after only a few hours of sleep last night. The goal today is to resolve any network issues that the city has and then I can perhaps enjoy my stay here afterward. It turned out that I stayed at the customer's site for more than 12 hours (didn't leave until after 8:15pm) and we still didn't resolve the issues. Fortunately, I had the pleasure working with some professional people.

This is Jeff, the Cisco Guru. I was working with him on configuring the Cisco 4507 to work with my switches. He drove down from Kansas City.
And this is Ray, he came all the way from Houson... still a lot closer than where I came from. Ray's job is to come up with the IP schemes and implement them for the city.

Monday 01-23-2006

Today is my first out of State business trip of 2006. Final destination: Olathe, KS. For those of you who don't know where that is... it's 45 minutes south of Kansas City. And if you don't know where Kansas City is...? Well, sorry, can't help you. Everything was prebooked more than 2 weeks ago. And almost everything was prepaid too... except for the car rental. And because of that... not prepaid... I couldn't get a rental car when I got to Kansas. Apparently there was a Wal Mart Convention taking place in Kansas City and has brought 30,000 people to town.. so people were fighting for rental cars.

Below are some pictures in the interim:
I changed planes at Denvor, CO. Denver is the Mile High City (altitude, ok?) that is known for thin air and Tornados. I had to take a metro train to my transfer gate and it is built underground for the purpose of avoiding tornados.



As you can see... they didn't want to have any upstanding structure in the airport at all... not even bunkers. And the restroom here can be used for Tornado shelters.

After a long and unusual ordeal... I finally got a mini-van as a rental and got to my hotel in Olathe, KS at close to 11pm. I have to wake up at 7am tomorrow... so tired... and I really needed to talk to someone...

I mean, it's ok for me to travel and solve issues. But I need support instead of cristicism and condemnation from my boss. This is pretty straight forward, right? After the rental car incident, it's a bad feeling to take me into bed... and wait... I have to check my e-mails first.






Sunday 01-22-2006:

This morning I went to New Song Church with William and George (who came up from San Diego last night and crashed at my place). This was a blessing filled Sunday service and the style is much more closer to what I'm used to.

Oh, for those of you who don't know... I used to go to Harvest Rock on Sundays for almost 2 years before I stopped for a while and resumed at VOH. This is quiet a change from the scenes and colors of Taipei. And it is a welcomed one in my life. The pastor wore jeans and encouraged us with his real life testimonial. I loved it! God, you're wonderful and gracious. May this year be a blessed and renewing year of myself in you.

This is their worship . The worship leader actually resembles Jennifer Love Hewitt.
After the service, I rushed to eat lunch with my family at a Korean BBQ and Hot Pot Combo restaurant in Diamond Bar. This is really, really good. If you've haven't had it, this restuarant is at the intersection of Golden Springs and Lemon.



And of course, we took a picture of the birthday people... me and my kid sister Peggy. Our birthdays are only 10 days apart and today is her actual birthday. Mine was 10 days ago.

A recap of what happened the past week

Today's verses:

James 3:2~3
We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.
When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal.

Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

I really have to be very, very, very careful of what I say in all instances. Sometimes knowing the details too much gives me the illusion that I can disclose certain things to certain people at the work scene... well... now it has gotten me into a bit of a trouble.

All that aside, I've completed most of my work by 4:30pm today. And now I'm ready for my first out of state business travel of 2006 next week.


Friday 01-20-2006

Nice Vietnamese rice dish with BBQ pork!
Had lunch with my colleague Paoning today. Hang in there, girl! Sorry, guys, she's kind of camera shy. But she's one of the prettier girls that I know.


Thursday 01-19-2006

Today I met up with Angie for dinner at Garden Cafe (RH) after about a month. The last time I met with her was exactly 30 days ago. Just for reference and for the record... this is the worst hai-nan chicken I've ever had in my life. The good thing was that we had a good conversation.
Wednesday 01-18-2006

First business related greasy food.

Yes, lots of business travels in the past years has made it easy for me to gain weight and get fat. I took Rex with me and I wonder how long it will take for him to become more American shaped (if there's such an expression).
Food from Chili's. It's actually quiet good. Chicken Mushroom Jack Fajita.

Monday 01-16-2006

I was dreading coming to work last night. Lots of things on my mind... lots of past history accounts for complications with this company. Fortunately, I was encouraged to learn the perspective of my colleague, Rex, who had a casual conversation with me after work. We conversed for over two hours over dinner and coffee. Thanks, buddy.

Sunday 01-05-2006

The day started with Sunday service. I guess it must be the lingering effects of the two weeks without moving my car thing that my car battery decided to take a dump in the morning so I actually couldn't start the car and get to church on time. So I ended up driving around on the highways to re-charge. By the time I got to church, I was just in time to help out serving the lunch since it is our fellowship's turn this month to serve. It's actually kind of fun...And... even though the food was tasty... it was too greasy. I guess this must have been an after effect of being picky after the Taiwan trip since everything (for the most part) tasted good there.

For the evening. I celebrated my birthday with my friend Tom whose birthday happened to be yesterday. This was meant more for a get together of old friends.
This is me and my brother.
This is Betty, Vivien, and Tom. For those of you who don't know Tom, we met at the gym almost 10 years ago and have been work out buddies ever since. He's going back to Taiwan this Friday with Vivien to celebrate Chinese New Year with his families in Taipei.

Walking the walk

It's been one week since I came back from Taiwan. I feel that time really flies over here... what I meant is; it goes by without me savoring every moment. The 2 and 1/2 week vacation was the time when I decided that I should really play and hold nothing back. So I guess I made every minute count. I miss the night life, the food, the people, the walking, the metro... and the low cost on almost everything that is Taiwan.

I lost about 6 lbs from this trip. And I ate a lot of food while I was there. Isn't that a piece of heaven? Eat a lot, and lose weight, right? So for my birthday weekend, I decided to replicate some of the environments of my experience in Taiwan...

There's nothing that comes close... all the food here tastes kind of bad and way over priced. The waitresses are rude. Yet people wait in line for overpriced food that tastes terrible. All for what? So that they can replicate that nostalgic feeling of being in the homeland of Taiwan.

For me to replicate that feeling, I began to think about what I do everyday... yes, I began by walking to the east side of Taipei from my father's place. And I ordered some appetizers from some street vendors, I walk some more, eat some more... And so I decided that I should try walking at least an hour everyday. Surprisingly, it's a very calming experience...

So for the past three days, I've been walking for close to 2 hours everyday at 24 hour fitness. I know what you're gonna say... but there's nothing to see here as I walk. And it's odd to walk on the streets here where no one else is walking.

Here I am... walking the walk, in rememberance of some of my experiences in Taiwan.

Finally caught up...

I've finally finished my Taiwan blog update... feeling relieved yet a bit at a loss. I'm taking today off from work. Hopefully, I'll get the rest that I needed.

Thank you, Tina, for celebrating my birthday with me.

Turning one year older today... and it seemed no one cared at first. Today was special... or should I say, this year is special. At work, we're expanding, I've been moved to an office to share with two other co-workers so we can make more room. My new co-worker was the only person who called me to say "happy birthday" (Thanks, Paoning). My work schedule is tied up partly due to my two week absence (well, it has always been tied up). And I felt that I was forgotten, no one cared. I was just gonna go home and continue my food hating by not eating since I'm still suffering from PTS (Post Taiwan Syndrome -George Lin). And all of the sudden, Tina invited me for dinner tonight. I haven't seen her in 4 years. And have only recently re-established contact (past 6 months). This was a rarety and deserves it's own post.

Therefore this post is dedicated as an album of Tina (she's on my friendster, btw, in case you want to know more about her). Tina, thank you again for your sweetness and kindness.

We went to Anjin for dinner:

The ribeye
The shortrib
Tomato Salad
Beef tongue
Skirt Steak
She has the most energetic personality
The intestines
Well, she definitely can eat for a sub 100 lbs girl.
Sapporo on Tap.
Tina, this beer is bigger than you... but she definitely can drink
"Kan pei, it's your birthday" I have not felt touched for a while... thank you so much...


"Hohoho, it's all mine!"

"Oh, getting full and getting sleepy, only slept for 3 hours last night." Btw, she studies very hard for her classes. Congrats on Aceing all your classes last quarter.
And... she can entertain too...



Thanks for your companion and the greatest smile.
Time to go... this is her place in Irvine. Ok, if you're her fan, leave comments below.