MONGOL,

BABY,

Thought of the Day:  MONGOL!
Song of the Day:  Erik Satie-Trois Gymnopedies

Supersize Me

Four Saturdays ago, I went nuts at a wedding.
Three Saturdays ago, I went nuts at another wedding.
Two Saturdays ago, I really went nuts at a hotel buffet.
This past Saturday, there was an unexpected wedding, but as expected I went nuts.
This coming Saturday, I will be in Mongolia where they will probably feed me like nuts.
 "I hope you get your eat on!!"
-Joe
Last night, I literally had a dream that I was in line at a buffet and was so excited. 

When is too much too much?  Maybe the Lord wants to fatten me up for the crazy winter.  According to weather.com, the day that I arrive in UB will be -38 degrees Celsius.  I had exaggerated whenever I told people that it'd be like -40 because I thought we'd be in the countryside.  But no, even the city is going to be brutal.  Tseggy told us to bring flashlights because it gets dark really early.  I wonder if it's because it's so cold that nobody is outside, which means very little use of the streetlights.  I can't even imagine it.

Thought of the Day:  Hot Sale
Song of the Day:  Fool's Garden-Lemon Tree

Quotation Marks

This week's persecuted church: Eritrea
30 Christian women were arrested in Asmara, the country's capital
city. The International Christians Concerns' manager for Africa and
South Asia said, "The Christians were praying at a house at the time
Eritrean officials raided the prayer meeting, arrested all of the
people, and took them to the police station...They don't pose any
security risk to the country. These are just old married people.
They have just come together to pray. It doesn't make any sense to
arrest moms and grand-moms for praying together. Eritrean officials
continue to deny that they are violating the religious freedom of
their people. They continue to deny they are imprisoning Christians.
This is just unbelievable."

"The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God."
-C.S. Lewis from Letters to Malcom

"Ultimately our Christian service exists only to draw attention to this source-to our crucified and risen Lord who gave Himself as a ransom for us all."
-C.J. Mahanaey from Humility True Greatness

Thought of the Day: Justin
Song of the Day: Shane & Shane-My Hope Is Built

Tongues Anyone?

Thought of the Day: Shopping
Song of the Day: Winter Story-Have A Dream

Just in case you were wondering, I got the cousin home fine. I think the biggest lesson I learned from this experience was the power of misunderstanding and miscommunication. Telephone charades in real life is really scary. Good night!

Thought of the Day: 당진
Song of the Day: 선인국-부른다

My cousin is butt drunk and has passed out in my living room. He's gotta wake up in less than three hours. I think I should drive him home, but I don't think he'll be in a right state of mind to let me drive him home. I think I should drive him home, but I know that he'll strongly insist that I don't. What do I do?

Thought of the Day: Brian & Co.
Song of the Day: Papa Roach-Last Resort

If you say what you say you are...a superstar

Some of you had heard that she was gone for good.  She disappeared.  Enoch & co. mourned.  Joy was lost.  But today, one of her faithful disciples shared the news that she had resurrected!  Star Burger is up and running in 이대!  Rejoice!


I have another reason to rejoice.  My computer had been doing fine for a while until I had decided to install Service Pack 3.  All it did was slow down my computer and eat up all my memory in my main hard drive.  As a result, I cleansed my computer of all impurities and brought this back to life as well.  My computer is just a lil over three years old, but it always runs fine after I reformat it.  I actually take pride in being able to use things for a long time.  For example:

-my '94 Mazda Protege that has over 260,000 miles and has gone through (I think) four different radiators!  That car has too many stories to tell, right Simon?
-both of my computers back at home that were born in 2002.  One of them has a dvd-rom that doesn't read dvds anymore.  The other has a cd-rom that doesn't read cds anymore.  I refuse to let them die!
-my Sony TV that my family bought in 1994.  It's actually the only TV in my family that is a part of my memory.  It's got this greenish bluish thing growing in one of the corners of the screen.  Otherwise, it gets the job done.
-my NIV Bible that I got in my senior year of high school.  I never understood how people could have such torn up Bibles, but mine finally caved in.  It's got duct tape on both covers and everything.  But I am unashamedly happy to say that I am now putting my ESV to regular use.

One of my greatest regrets that I have in life is trading away all of my Michael Jordan basketball cards.  I had gone through a stupid Grant Hill phase, and I don't even know what happened to those.  I even had a Fleer Ultra Kobe Bryant rookie card that I had sold for $1.  How was I supposed to know that he was going to be all crazy?  But yeah, these make it to the woulda coulda shoulda list.  Stupid!

Thought of the Day:  Redemptive Value
Song of the Day:  Lupe Fiasco-Superstar

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Wedding Crasher

 

A few months ago, Joe invited me to a wedding that he was going to.  So I went.  I ate.  I bounced.  Two weeks ago, Joe invited me to another wedding of yet another person that I did not know.  So I went.  I ate.  I bounced.  Again, one week later, Joe invited me to a third wedding.  Since it would have been awful rude of me to stop the momentum, I gracefully accepted and did my damage.  This coming weekend, although the wedding invitations have ceased, I will be attending the Josun Hotel buffet for lunch with a couple of my students and their moms.  Since this meal will be ridiculously expensive and delicious, I'm going to give them a show.  Tis the season to be jolly (and fat!).  Step aside, Santa.

Some of you know that both of my parents had major teeth problems and have been getting new implants and/or dentures.  I have been able to observe the terrible discomforts that my dad has been suffering through as he has either had to chew on one side of his mouth, chew only with his front teeth, or not chew at all and just swallow.  Both of my parents spend extra time cleaning their teeth and visiting dentists on a regular basis.  Money is drained.  Pain is induced.  Smiles are lost.

As a result, I recently started to pay more attention to my own dental hygiene.  I've always been good about brushing and avoiding serious cavities, but I never developed a habit of flossing.  My mom would always bug me about brushing after every meal and flossing, but I never took her words seriously.  Somewhere along the line, however, I picked up flossing once a week and liked how my gums felt fresh after all the plaque and blood were released.  Yeah, I didn't know that your gums weren't supposed to bleed after flossing.  So I found out that through Wikipedia the other day that I've had gingivitis for many many years.

I share all this not to gross you out or boast of my ignorance.  I figured if I didn't know the benefits and importance of flossing, there had to be a handful of you who didn't know either.  So join me in flossing daily from now on.  I'm on Day 3.

Thought of the Day:  Chocolate
Song of the Day:  Sqeezer-Saturday Night

Love your neighbor

In our most recent Bible Study, the last question read:
As one who has been born of God, are there ways you can see the family traits of obedience and love developing in your life?  What things or circumstances has God used to bring about those changes?

We all know that suffering builds character.  But if I break the suffering down, I realize that most of it comes from people.  Difficult people.  God has taught me more of what it means to love by placing unlovable people in my life.  People who are stupid and ugly (which is a pretty awful combination).  The disagreeable.  The racists.  The awkward.  The bastards.  I obviously never prefer to be around such neighbors, but the Lord keeps placing them in my life.  However, it is amazing how God uses them to make me into a more loving person.  You'd think that having many lovable people around you would teach you to love more.  No, it is quite the contrary.  It is the terrible who have taught THIS terrible person to love even more.  It's these people who are perfect mirrors when I see myself before God.  The worse the person, the worse my heart.  The worse my heart, the greater the grace.  The greater the grace, the greater I love.

I'm still working on it too.

Thought of the Day:  Great Sunday
Song of the Day:  Glee Cast-Somebody To Love

Bye Bye Bye

Many things are coming to an end.
-2009.
-Eunice is leaving Korea.
-종성 is finally graduating from college.
-My Korean diary has three pages left.
-Westminster Shorter Catechism has about 20 pages left.
-And I've finally finished all five seasons of The Wire.
*"The fourth season of The Wire has almost been universally lauded and hailed as one of the best seasons of television ever produced. As of November 2009, it is the highest rated TV season of all time on Metacritic with a score of 98, outscoring even The Sopranos, another HBO series of far greater fame and notoriety."
-Wikipedia

I forgot how funny The Office was after not watching any episodes for over a year.  One thing that I did not expect to see was the fact that

Beadie from The Wire was actually

Holly from The Office!

I downloaded over 60 more Tim Keller sermons today.  It's official.  I'm definitely a fan.

Thought of the Day:  Paraguay
Song of the Day:  Turtles-분홍빛 크리스마스

Audition

Last night, I watched this movie thinking that it was about romance.  Can you imagine how scared I got when I saw that phone call scene with the bag?  After that scene, I had to turn the lights on and fastforward through all the scary parts because I couldn't handle them.  I used to love horror movies as a child and especially as a teenager.  I'd done all the Freddys, Jasons, and Chuckys.  Then The 6th Sense came out.  Then The Ring.  Then The Grudge.  Then Saw.  I used to love the thrill and excitement of anticipating the monsters and ghosts popping out when you least expected them.  It's funny how I matured into a coward though.  Now whenever I watch the really scary parts, I just get stress.  It's not worth it.  It's not enjoyable.

Here's another movie that looks awful scary:


At the same time, I do know the joy of being able to scare someone.  The priceless looks on people's faces.  The incomprehensible sounds that they utter.  The involuntary movements in their reaction.  It's all so funny when it's not you.


Thought of the Day:  2 Corinthians 12:14 
Song of the Day:  Kim Tae Woo-사랑비

Happy Thanksgiving

Jae asked me for an update on 종성, so here it is:

Thanksgiving is the saddest day of the year for me in Korea, but God gave me a special reason to rejoice this year.  Although 종성 is two years older than me, I consider him my closest KOREAN friend.  He is the only person I know who never received hakwon or tutoring but was still able to get into Seoul National University right out of high school.  He took time off for a couple of years to study for one of the most difficult and competitive tests that Korea has to offer.  I have seen him go through many internal and external struggles as he studied and prepared for hundreds of hours for a couple of years.  I would always text him to see if had passed his first test.  I would always text him to see if he had passed his second test.  Tonight, I was privileged to celebrate his passing of the final round of tests.  김종성 is now a 공무원!!!  We prayed and we prayed and we prayed...not for success in his test but that God would lead him in the future that God had already ordained.  Join in me thanking our God who used all of 종성's efforts in coming closer to fulfilling his dream that God had given to him.  As 종성 said, "All glory to God."

Thought of the Day:  Thanksgiving
Song of the Day:  CL & Minzy-Please Don't Go

Dawkins: Evangelist an 'idiot' on evolution

"Hunches aren't interesting, hunches aren't valuable. What's important is scientific evidence. It doesn't matter what mister whatever his name is, Comfort ... what his opinion is. It doesn't matter what my opinion is. What matters is evidence. And the evidence is clear. The evidence is in favor of evolution."
-Richard Dawkins

You guys heard him.  It doesn't matter what his opinion is.  So you can go ahead and disregard what Mr. Dawkins just said.

Thought of the Day: 조선호텔
Song of the Day:  Shane & Shane-My Hope Is Built

Laughter is the best medicine

I think laughter is one of the greatest gifts from God.  Humor.  Comedy.  Jokes.  YouTube has many cool videos, but I think the ones that bring us laughter are praiseworthy.  Here's a video clip that my brother and I used to crack up at all the time when we were young:

MadTV had it's very few moments with its very few talented comedians.  One of those actors was the talented Aries Spears:

Finally, we got some old school fellas like Cedric The Entertainer talking about some recent events in history:

"Kiss my ass, that's funny."
-Steve Harvey

Thought of the Day:  Glossolalia
Song of the Day:  CL & Minzy-Please Don't Go

"I want a perfect body I want a perfect soul"

CNNGo: Where is the pressure coming from, that causes men to be embarrassed by their appearance?

"Sakura": The media. All of the celebrities on TV have plastic surgery -- constantly trying to morph into an unattainable ideal. In Japan, if there's one example, it applies to all, so if you fall through the cracks, you stand out and internalize that difference.

I've always thought about plastic surgery and the many reasons why people choose to get it.  Living in Korea, I find myself being surrounded by people who highly value appearance and beauty.   You'll find mirrors in subway stations, elevators, and even church hallways!  But the funny thing is, even I find myself caring more about the way I look or what people think of me.  The scary thing is, I've even had times where plastic surgery crossed my mind!

But as for my current stance, I believe that Psalm 139 teaches against cosmetic surgery.  If God intended to make us with the exact features and characteristics that we have, then shouldn't we be content with our appearance no matter what society says or looks like?  When we put our faces or bodies under the knife, aren't we practically telling God that His work and creation were faulty or insufficient?  "You didn't make this good, so let me fix it for you.  Let me improve your work!"

If you've gotten an operation done before, I don't condemn you.  I can understand the pressures that surround us, perhaps even in the church.  Nevertheless, I personally will seek to be content with the way God has made me and even ages me as time goes on.  I will seek to encourage others to find their beauty and glory in God and not their own temporary bodies that will one day be glorious and perfect.  Media, stop burning garbage into our brains!

Thought of the Day:  했긴 했죠
Song of the Day:  Misty Blue-한밤의 꿈

Why join a church?

As an active member of my church, I think a lot about our ministry and the people who are involved.  One major phenomenon that we have been experiencing is a decline in numbers.  People have left.  People have left to other churches.  People are planning to leave to other churches.  I can understand how people may have been disappointed or discouraged.  Some may have different visions or goals with ministry and worship.  A few may simply leave because their visa, job, or program is coming to an end.  Whatever the situation is, I hope that every believer will join a church.

Why join a church?

"Here's the problem with modern Americans.  Most of the reasons why you should join a church are not what you get out of it.  That's the biggest problem.  There are definitely advantages to being members if you really know your own heart.  The main advantage to being a member actually is an increased sense of accountability.  Almost all of the reasons for being members is not what you're getting out of it but what you give to the church and what you're giving to God.  You join the church because everything the Bible's done is in covenant.  Everything is vows and covenants because you don't trust your own heart.  Another reason why to join is so that you can vote.  You can take part in the major decisions.  Another reason to join is so that you can serve possibly in some leadership positions where you have to be a member in order to serve.  Almost all of the reasons for joining are not 'What do I get out of it?'  They're almost all 'What does the church get out of me joining it?' and the church gets a whole lot out of you joining it.  We live in a consumer culture and because we live in a consumer culture, I think a lot of people aren't going to join cause they're saying, 'I don't see what I get out of it.'"
-Tim Keller from Q&A

Love and join the church because Christ loves and joins the church. 

Thought of the Day:   Praying Our Tears
Song of the Day:  Jaurim-미안해 널 미워해

Food & Cartoons

Yesterday, my aunt made me so much kimchee that my dad had to buy a 700,000won kimchee refrigerator. Many of my aunts on my mom's side know that I am a kimchee killer.  Even natives look at me and go, "Dang, that boy loves his kimchee."  But one secret 반찬 that many people do not know about is my love for raw garlic.  My dad always comments that we're the only family in Korea that eats raw garlic as a side dish.  I devour that junk up.  Every meal.  Remember that one episode from the Super Mario Bros. cartoon when they had to eat garlic?

I don't care if you should eat garlic to maintain your health or to beat King Koopa.  I eat it because it's wonderful!  Here's another very old cartoon that I watched SO MANY times as a child:

It's actually pretty hilarious watching it now.  It's funny to realize now that the girl was going through rehab!  Here is another very old cartoon that was in the same video:

Man, I used to get so pissed whenever I saw that scene where the kids threw their soup away.  I used to fantasize how good it would taste, and that scene would just kill me as a child.  

It's funny thinking back on my young childhood days when I used to watch the same videos and work on the same puzzles over and over and over again.  Although life was so simple and easy, I now realize that even as a child, I would always be fantasizing or coveting something new or fun.  I guess I'm still that same child but in a bigger body.

Notice how all the cartoons relate to food?  Maybe that's where it all started...

Thought of the Day:  Haokip
Song of the Day:  Shane & Shane-My Hope Is Built

This week's persecuted church: Columbia
The indigenous Kogui community in Columbia has a population of 11,000 with only 120 of them being Christian.  Kogui governors have repeatedly threatened to expel them from their land, and a group of Christians were forced to leave the reserve a few years ago.  At a recent meeting called by the governor, 16 Christians were taken prisoner and the leaders verbally abused them throughout the night.  They took the group to a more remote area where they would be held prisoners until they renounced their faith.  Two of the infants being held are now seriously ill.  The Kogui Christians are not protected by the Columbian government and have no guarantee of religious freedom.

Ghetto fabulous!


Thought of the Day:  Hebrews 10:14
Song of the Day:  Shane & Shane-My Hope Is Built

Some of you may be surprised to know that I still play Go/Stop with my dad late at night.  We average about three days a week, so we've played hundreds of games together.  But of all the games we've played, I had the craziest game tonight.

5광
피박
5Go

Homeboy owed me 99,200won.  Fortunately for him, our limit is 10,000won.  As my dad put it, I hit a royal straight flush!

Thought of the Day:  Mongolian vowels
Song of the Day:  Rainbow-Gossip Girl

Today, I had this crazy dream that my parents were going to have another son and daughter. I even remember their names: Anthony and Cecilia. I remember being so happy that I was going to have a younger sister to take care of. I have a special heart for younger girls, probably because I'm the older sibling and grew up only having Simon. In fact, I specifically remember not giving a hay about Anthony. I was so happy in the dream that I also remember specifically saying, "Please don't let this be a dream!" Bah.

Joey Tribiani was once asked what he would choose between sex and food. I've heard others pose a similar question but between food and sleep. My question to you is, "Why WOULDN'T you choose food?!"

Saturday - 순대국
Sunday - 돼지갈비 (+오겹살 for dessert)
Monday - leftover 오겹살
Tuesday - 김치찌개 with 삼겹살 (leftover 오겹살 for dinner)
Wednesday - leftover 오겹살
Thursday - probably leftover 오겹살

If I had lived in the Old Testament times, I probably would have been the first one to get stoned for eating my favorite unclean animal.

I wonder if I have raging cholesterol.

I don't care much for soccer or Star King, but this crap was amazing.


Thought of the Day: Pepero Day
Song of the Day: Supreme Team-Supermagic