If you haven't heard from me already, I'm going on a short mission trip to Mongolia this summer. I turned in my deposit this morning, so I'm officially committed. I wasn't that excited about it at first, but watching footage of last year's team and doing some research really sparked something in my heart recently. It will be my first time learning a completely new language with very limited English speakers in that country. As far as I can tell, Mongolian is like no language I have ever encountered.

So why am I going on this mission trip? I think the biggest reason is that I want to see how God is working in different countries and cultures. I've come to love books and movies that show me more of the world outside of California or Seoul. I love not only seeing the struggles but the fruit that is present all throughout the various cities, countries, and continents in the world. That's why I loved movies like "City of God" or "Blood Diamond." That's why I recommend books like "Life of Pi" or "Kite Runner." You gotta know what's going on in the world around you in order to make an impact around "the world around you." I want to be a part of finishing the enormous jigsaw puzzle that is so scattered and broken.

But as for the world around me right now, former Korean president, 노무현, has been a big issue in the lives of many Koreans. People are really upset about his death and perhaps even more upset with the current president. I think it's really interesting how much care and concern people show after his death compared to his time when he was alive. As Jae told me, "If he hadn't committed suicide, he would have just gone down in history as just another Korean president." It kind of reminded me of our hiphop leaders, Biggie and Tupac, who were gunned down yet sold millions of records subsequent to their umtimely deaths. People are always glorified AFTER their death.

I don't know much about Korean politics or history, but it fascinates me just how affected people were by one man's death. Many people saw him as a great symbol or model of a leader. He was "different" from all the other presidents. He didn't deserve whatever it was that led him to his suicide. He was an honest man. He was a good man.

Perhaps 노무현 was. But so was Moses. And David. And Solomon. And all the other leaders that the Old Testament talks about. But one thing we can see time and time again is that these "good" leaders ultimately pointed to the perfect leader. There have been so many good people who stood for great and wonderful things, but they eventually died and were eventually forgotten. We should rest assure that our true leader not only died but rose again and will never be forgotten. Korea, find peace in your true president.

Thought of the Day: Kiss the girl!
Song of the Day: Wu-Tang Clan-Protect Ya Neck (The Jump Off)

I was telling one of my students that I thought that he lived in the best place in Korea. Since he lives in Mokdong's Hyperion, he has a department store, two major movie theaters, Emart + Homeplus, a park right across the street with the best outdoor basketball courts in all of Seoul, a very nice elementary school right next to that park, an ice skating rink, and a freakin' BASEBALL STADIUM (all within walking distance)!!!

So what did we do for class? We randomly decided to check out the baseball stadium! Fortunately, we were able to get in for free and check out the high school semi finals tied at the 9th inning! The game actually got postponed in the middle of the 12th because they had to shut the stadium down by 11.

So what did we do for class the next day? We randomly decided to check out the baseball stadium again! Amazingly enough, we got in again and made it right in time for the high school world series in the 9th inning! It was crazy cause the score was 5:3 with the bases loaded and only one out.
As you can see, the batter up was actually a very holy person who was praying for the well-being of the other team. Yeah right. It was intense stuff.


It's amazing to see how Koreans are so into baseball ever since WBC. Before, you'd only see kids playing soccer or badminton in the parks. Now you can see kids literally having a baseball game with bases and everything. I even see kids bring their baseball gloves and bat to school to play during lunch or after school! It makes me happy whenever I see things like that.

So what started off as good father-son bonding has actually turned into a challenge. I simply cannot beat my dad. I really thought to myself...
"Ok, he's just getting the cards tonight."
"Ok, he's just on a roll."
"Ok, I'll beat him tomorrow."
"Ok, he's just got a super lucky streak."
I really don't understand it. The one night where I came up, I only won 400won. The other nights, he took my green bills. I know I'm not that good or anything, but I really don't think I suck that much either. 타짜. That's the only explanation.

Thought of the Day: Mongolia culture/history
Song of the Day: KRS One-Sound Of Da Police

After some movie conversation, I was inspired to update my top movies list. I feel so stupid for spending so much time on this. Oh well.

Personal Favorites:
1. Pulp Fiction
2. Swingers
3. Chingoo
4. My Sassy Girl

Action:
1. Terminator 2
2. Robocop
3. Face/Off
4. Mission Impossible
5. Terminator
6. Mission Impossible 3

Animated:
1. Shrek
2. Aladdin
3. Lion King
4. Wall E
5. Toy Story I/II
6. The Incredibles
7. Fantasia

Best Performance:
1. Oasis
2. Forrest Gump
3. Rainman
4. Scent of a Woman
5. To Die For
6. Silence of the Lambs
7. Erin Brokavich
8. Girl, Interrupted

Best Twist:
1. Old Boy
2. Saw
3. Usual Suspects
4. The Sixth Sense
5. Fight Club

Best Villain:
1. Robocop
2. Faceoff
3. Training Day
4. Sin City
5. Silence of the Lambs
6. Se7en
7. Saw

Bizarre:
1. 2001: Space Odyssey
2. Akira
3. Donnie Darko
4. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
5. Eyes Wide Shut
6. Suicide Club
7. Battle Royale
8. Mulholland Drive

Black Movies:
1. Menace II Society
2. Dead Presidents
3. Belly
4. Bamboozled
5. Do the Right Thing

Comedy:
1. Swingers
2. Dumb & Dumber
3. Office Space
4. Meet the Parents
5. Shallow Hal
6. Austin Powers
7. Speedy Scandal
8. Kingpin
9. Orange County
10. Annie Hall
11. Ace Ventura
12. Ace Ventura 2
13. Snatch
14. Manhattan

Creative:
1. Oldboy
2. Kill Bill Vol. 1
3. Sin City
4. Memento
5. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
6. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
7. 300
8. Eternal Sunshine and the Spotless Mind
9. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
10. Stranger Than Fiction

Documentary:
1. Bus 174
2. Rhyme and Reason
3. Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme
4. Super Size Me
5. An Inconvenient Truth

Drama:
1. When Spring Comes
2. Asako in Ruby Shoes
3. Chungking Express
4. The Lives of Others
5. American Beauty
6. Schindler’s List
7. Raging Bull
8. The Pianist
9. In America

Feel Good:
1. Forrest Gump
2. Shawshank Redemption
3. Jerry Maguire
4. Remember the Titans
5. Oceans 11
6. Oceans 12
7. Oceans 13
8. Gran Torino

Foreign Struggle:
1. The City of God
2. Blood Diamond
3. Hotel Rwanda
4. Turtles Can Fly
5. Slumdog Millionaire
6. City of Men

Games:
1. Rounders
2. Tazza
3. The Color of Money
4. The Hustler
5. Shade
6. The Sting

Gangster:
1. The Godfather
2. Good Fellas
3. The Godfather: Part II
4. Scarface
5. The Godfather: Part III

Hitchcock:
1. Vertigo
2. The Birds
3. Rear Window
4. Psycho

Horror:
1. Interview with the Vampire
2. The Sixth Sense
3. The Exorcist
4. The Shining
5. The Ring
6. Ju-On
7. Child’s Play 2
8. Child’s Play 3

Independent:
1. Eternal Sunshine and the Spotless Mind
2. Lost in Translation
3. The Wrestler
4. Punch Drunk Love
5. Sideways
6. Garden State

Intellectual:
1. Good Will Hunting
2. A Beautiful Mind
3. Searching for Bobby Fischer

Korean:
1. Chingoo
2. My Sassy Girl
3. When Spring Comes
4. Asako in Ruby Shoes
5. Attack of the Gas Station
6. Radio Star
7. Silmido
8. Speedy Scandal
9. Christmas in August
10. Oasis

Martial Arts:
1. Bloodsport
2. Kickboxer
3. Best of the Best
4. Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
5. Drunken Master II
6. Rumble in the Bronx

Music:
1. Amadeus
2. Vitus
3. The Legend of 1900
4. Mr. Holland’s Opus
5. School of Rock
6. Shine

Musical:
1. Moulin Rouge
2. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
3. Singin’ in the Rain
4. Sound of Music
5. Chicago
6. Newsies
7. West Side Story

Philosophical:
1. The Matrix
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. Vanilla Sky
4. 12 Monkeys

Racial:
1. American History X
2. Crash
3. Babel
4. Do the Right Thing

Romance:
1. Notting Hill
2. My Sassy Girl
3. Moulin Rouge
4. Romeo & Juliet
5. When Harry Met Sally
6. Roman Holiday
7. Before Sunrise
8. Before Sunset

Saddest:
1. Requiem for a Dream
2. Pyunji
3. House of Sand and Fog
4. Million Dollar Baby
5. Mystic River

Sci-fi:
1. A Clockwork Orange
2. Star Wars Trilogy
3. The Matrix
4. The Fly
5. Alien

Sports:
1. Rocky IV
2. Remember the Titans
3. Rocky
4. Hardball

Superhero:
1. Batman Returns
2. Dark Knight
3. X-men
4. X-men 2
5. Ironman
6. Batman
7. Spiderman
8. Hulk
9. Batman Begins
10. X-men 3

Trilogy/Series:
1. Back to the Future
2. Star Wars
3. The Godfather
4. Lord of the Rings
5. Rocky
6. Batman
7. Terminator
8. Indiana Jones
9. Spiderman

War:
1. Braveheart
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. Full Metal Jacket
4. Taegukgi
5. Pearl Harbor
6. Platoon
7. Apocalypse Now

Western:
1. Tombstone
2. The Good The Bad The Ugly
3. Unforgiven
4. Young Guns

Most Underrated:
When Spring Comes

Worst Movie Of All Time:
Bodies, Rest, and Motion

Thought of the Day: Moving screen.
Song of the Day: Wheesung-불면증 (Insomnia)

My name is Philip Kyung-Won Chung. But I've also gone by other aliases.

Andy Garcia
Chunky
Cliff
Felipe
Felix el Gato
Fergman
Frank
FTT
Goni
Ill Phil
Kangaroo
Kyung Soo
PChung
Philbert
Phildo
Phileroo
Philus
Phyk
Phykas
Phyki
Phyko
Phykolanda
Pretzelboy
Nastyman
Richard

The interesting thing is that I'll always write "Philip" whenever I write my name on homework assignments but introduce myself as "Phil" in person. However, "Phil" always sounds weird whenever I hear it from people who usually use a nickname for me. I actually used to really dislike it whenever people called me "Philip." To be honest, I still feel a little awkward pronouncing it for some reason.

I will almost never refer to myself as "Phykas," "Frank," or "Philus," but have no problem using "Fergman." I've actually heard people pray for "Phykas" before, the name that I thought would NEVER stick. The funny thing is, it actually bothers me when people retard "Phykas" into something like "Phicus" or "Phykus" or "Ficas." I mean, who in the world doesn't know how to spell "Phykas," right?

I've come to realize why so many of my students spell my name "Philp" or "Phlip." They're basing the letters from "필립" without a basic foundation of English phonics. Some pupils even thought that my name was spelled "Fil" while they pronounce my name "Feel." A few even call me "Peel."

I've never liked my name because it always sounded so plain to me. "Horse lover" doesn't help either. Growing up, I always thought "Steven" or "Stephen" were the coolest guy names. But for someone who doesn't even like his own name, I secretly feel that Philips who spell their names with two L's (Phillip) are stupid because they're always misspelling our name. My justification is that Philip in the Bible only goes by one L. In your face.

Don't even get me started on my Korean name.

Thought of the Day: Kyung Won
Song of the Day: 박중훈-비와 당신

I go through many seasons with my dad. I've had my bitter winters and 짜증나 summers, but these days, it's just all pleasant spring. Last night while we were playing 화투, I couldn't help but think of how far we'd come. Today, as we were eating 순대국, I looked over by the table where we had had our really heated argument about his smoking a few months back. It just occurred to me that he hasn't smoked in my presence since then. Even after we've finished eating at a restaurant, he won't bust out his cigarette til we've walked home and I've gone inside. Respect.

There's so much of him that I see in myself. One particular thing is our habit of explaining, repeating, and emphasizing ourselves one or two sentences too many. I hate that crap. I remember the first time I heard myself laugh and thought that it sounded just like his. I was so disgusted. I hate how we both tell long stories but conclude on a punch line that's really flat. That's right. I'm aware of all these things.

But I can also see the "good" qualities that I've inherited from my dad, and I'm not just talking about eating. My dad is seriously one of the most patient people that I know. He's good at making other people feel comfortable. And for his generation, I'd say he's got one heck of an open mind. Not that I resemble these different characteristics, but I can see myself really trying to emulate them. It's these good qualities that remind me of our real Father who is perfectly good. I think, sometimes, parents are great shadows of our God in heaven.

Dude, my dad's so good at Go-Stop.

Thought of the Day: Terminator
Song of the Day: Lee Jung Hyun-넌 내꺼

And the winner is...

과속스캔들 aka Speedy Scandal.

Thought of the Day: Mongolia
Song of the Day: Third Day & Fernando Ortega-Our Great God

This week's Persecuted Church: Burma
According to statistics, almost 90% practice Buddhism, 6% practice Christianity, and 4% practice Islam. Burma is ruled by a highly repressive, authoritarian military regime that acts as a dictatorship. The severe deficit of Bibles has forced many Christians to painstakingly copy by hand and memorize entire books of the Bible.

9 hours of Go Stop. I gotta stop doing things like this.

Thought of the Day: 갈비찜
Song of the Day: 2PM-Again & Again

This week's persecuted church: Iraq
Gunmen broke into a home and killed two Christian women. In a separate attack, one man was killed and two were wounded in a shooting in their home. The main objective of these crimes is to create chaos and divisions among the people. People fear that this kind of violence will happen when U.S. forces leave Iraq, causing more Christians to follow the thousands who have already left the country.

Thought of the Day: Casey.
Song of the Day: Spice Girls-2 Become 1

So you like donuts, ey?

If you're in Cali, you're bound to see the new and improved Dinko fresh off of China/Korea. I usually like to upload a buttload of pictures every time there is a visit, but I think this video gives a more succinct summary:

Korea can now eat, sleep, and live in a more healthful and wealthful way.

Thought of the Day: Ask, seek, and knock.
Song of the Day: Jimmy Eat World-The World You Love

Here is the email that I sent to some of my beloved church members today:

Fantastic news, everyone!

1. I got very good sleep last night. I fell asleep before 11 and woke up at 6:50 for this morning's prayer. I don't know if you guys were able to wake up and have a time yourself, but I prayed for each and every one of you. If you are discouraged, be encouraged. If you are encouraged, be even more encouraged!

2. I unexpectedly had a mom introduce me to a couple of new students for tutoring. It all worked out with all of our crazy schedules so well that I was even able to squeeze in two more unexpected family members. I got 4 new students to tutor in one day!!!

3. As soon as I came home from my interviews and told my dad the good news, he told me that he had really good news with his business too. Today was supposedly his biggest "hill" but was able to overcome it and get some great developments. It looks like the company is on its way to signing by the end of next month. I've never seen my dad this excited about the progress of his business...it's gotta be good!

If you have been praying for me, the Lord is listening and ANSWERING! Thank you all for all. But don't stop now...let's keep the ball rolling!!!

Phil

Thought of the Day: Simon's going to LA!
Song of the Day: Park Ji Yoon-돌아오면 돼

This week's Persecuted Church: Sudan
A Sudanese woman who recently converted from Islam to Christianity was forced into hiding after the people closest to her suddenly turned on her and left her beaten, homeless, and in jail for becoming a Christian. After her husband was ostracized by the Muslim community, he threw an armchair at her back, burned all their belongings, and chased her away. She never expected these hardships.

My blog has been so shallow this year. When did writing about your thoughts become such a hassle? Well, one thing God's been showing me lately in a new and deeper way is just how arrogant I really am, not necessarily arrogant in an "I'm better than you" sort of way but more like a "Things shouldn't be like this" kind of arrogant. To be more specific, I worry a lot. I may appear to be cool and chill about everything, but my heart is actually amazingly restless. I daydream about the things that I do not have. I fear criticism and gossip. I am very insecure about myself. I am arrogant because I think my ways are better than God's ways.

One thing that always encourages me is when I think about the time when Zen told about an episode she watched on Oprah where a woman had lost her legs because her crazy husband had run over her with a car. But on the show, she responded, "If God doesn't want me to have legs, then I'm going to learn to be happy with that." I am also reminded of God's words to Samuel, "The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart (16:7)." It's comforting and also scary to know that God focuses on my worrisome heart.

People have been telling me that the reason why I've been having insomnia (including right now) is because I have unsettled issues. Truly, my body is weary and burdened. But I'm now realizing that I feel this way because my heart has been weary and burdened all along. Jesus said that he would give us rest. I am asking for it now and waiting to receive it.

Thought of the Day: Notorious.
Song of the Day: Biggie-Juicy