On Life...

Friday || Hubbard woods – it has a nice small town feel to it. I was shocked to find that there was still snow on the ground. I guess, in retrospect, I shouldn't have been that surprised: there was a lot of snowfall this past winter.

Other places: Chili's, CCI, Goodrich.

Saturday || Le Peep w/Cristina @ 9am. I haven't been there in awhile. I've always enjoyed it. For once (or maybe the second time ever), I didn't get fruit cakes.

Whirlyball + 2437 R Ave: I do really enjoy hanging out with Focus – they're really amusing in their own way. What was doubly amazingly cool is that we were joined by some members from the downtown site as well. That definitely made things much more lively. =)

Sunday || O'hare: we drove Grace to O'hare. Albert didn't get to finish telling her about his weekend before we shooed ourselves off. We also stopped by Costco along the way.

Other places: Ravenswood, Helen's.

Overall, another filled but enjoyable weekend. Time flies.

Hide me now
Under your wings
Cover me
Within Your mighty hands

When the oceans rise and thunders roar
I will soar with You, above the storm
Father, You are king over the flood
I will be still and know You are God

Find rest my soul, in Christ alone
Know His power, in quietness and trust

[Hillsong's "Still"]

Debatably one of my favorite worship songs for at least the past year. I struggle a lot with learning and making time to be still these days.

Hung out with Evanston Focus @ Karen's place yesterday. It felt very classy. I felt kinda out of place, but that's okay. Figures when you're the weird one with a penchant for cutting/arranging/plating fruit (well, among other things).

There are also accidentally noisier ways to deliver care packages, too.

I love care packaging. It's a quiet way to show God's love.

Anyone and everyone deserves them. =)

Story of my life.

One of the things that I enjoy about Focus is that we occasionally sing those "really old" but still really wonderful worship songs.

And You loved me before I knew You
And You knew me for all time. [Hillsong's You Rescued Me]

It was intended to be a day of rest when God created the universe.

I decided to follow through with that thought (retrospectively) and ended up staying at Helen/Lou's place to watch "Taking Chance" after planning meeting. Besides the work done at work and flipping through a couple of pages of an orientation/training packet on Renal R&D @ Baxter, I can safely say this is probably the first day in a very long time when I haven't done any work-work (i.e. Baxter, CAPE, or journal paper) after work.

I was originally planning to cook and even do (hand) laundry after the meeting, buuuut I think I'm going to treat myself to an early bedtime tonight. I think my brain's enjoyed the mini-break.

I spontaneously decided to visit & hangout at Cece/Chiarng's place today. It was actually rather uncharacteristic as I've been wanting to spend some time to myself after having yet another crazy week filled with [[work --> meeting(s) --> sleep] and repeat (5x)]. I'm really happy that I allowed the spontaneousness to carry through as I've never really had the opportunity to hang out with them in the non-academic context while we were still in the throes of stressful school life. This probably sounds incredibly dumb (and speaks to our/my sad life-engulfed-by-school life back then), but I still find it slightly foreign (albeit quite amusingly sillily fun) to talk to them about non-academic/BME related things, i.e. musing whether our eyeballs have nerves or whether our eyelashes get in the way of our view.

Since Cece has lots of things due this week (well, comparatively), Chiarng and I cooked dinner. We decided to be creative in a different manner. Usually, Chiarng likes to be experimental with the ingredients that go into his dishes, but today we went for shapes. What was originally meant to be a casual question directed at Chiarng – a "How do you want the chicken?" – resulted in a creative suggestion from Cece that ultimately became reality: a star-shaped chicken piece. ;) Apparently, our next challenge will be a dragon or a bunny. :P

Food gets a lot of attention here. :P

We visited some DM people yesterday.
It was actually the first time I visited during DM and not afterwards to see them out. Funny how I did it after I graduated. Hm.

On a dreary cold wet Friday night, 28 Java+DCAF members packed into four cars (well, 3 cars and a van) for a trip to Baker's Square and then bowling.

There were a lot of us. I think we had quite a bit of fun. =)

I visited/studied/worked in Christine's room with Anna, TimLin, and Lan after Prayer Gathering on Thursday. The girls all had their unity lizards on their keychains. =P

[Trivia: Blog title is from a book]

Today, I attended Focus for the 2nd time ... ever. =P
It was a good Bible study, being [Luke 10:1-12], as it raised the recently ever-present question that's been going through my mind these days: "What/Where is the patch of land that God's given to me to sow and/or harvest?" Besides the discipleship, partnership, and mission mindset aspects, I was also rather struck/reminded of the element of faith involved.

Yesterday, we had our first separate joint LG of DCAF + Java. It was loud, lively, and laughter(+chatter)-filled. One of our activities involved making "unity lizards".

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! [Ecc 4:9-10]

I got in before 8am today and left almost 10 hours later (courtesy of fellow Baxter-ee, both ways) – debatably one of the longest (and more productive) days I've spent at work.
Surprisingly, it was bright outside and very pretty for both times.

This would not have happened a month ago.

Wow, it's been a month.
I am still daily thankful.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. [1 Thess 5:16-18]

One of my favorite moments of each and every day: the anticipation of sleep – more specifically, sleeping under my covers in my childhood bed surrounded by various pictures, prayers, and notes for/from my family & friends.

It's exciting to the point where I have a daily habit of eagerly bounding/leaping onto my bed.

I'm silly. But that's okay. I like to end my day on a joyful note.

Helen and I visited the Hsin family today. It's Nathan's third week!

Nathan exemplifies the process of waking up quite nicely: Goood morning! (at 7:30pm =P)

He also got the hiccups. It was so adorably cute and very legitimately sounded like, "hiccup!"

Increasing reoccurring problem: headaches.
Possible cause: eyestrain (not ice cream as some life group members misheard earlier tonight).

It was particularly bad yesterday since I was combing through a ton of [scanned] historical documents.

Sleepy prayer/goal as I drifted off yesterday night: no eyestrain tomorrow [a.k.a. today], please!

Today: I spent the entire time from 9:30am to 4:50pm in lab. Granted, the sides of my thumb and index fingers are fairly chapped/dry and tender from twisting, pushing, pulling, yanking, etc. a lot of plastic tubing and adapters. But! That also means I literally spend almost no time (relatively) in front of any computers at work today, which means – no eyestrain and no headaches!

It's amazing and amusing how God answers even the most random prayers. Praise God! =)

On another note, today marked the start of week 3 at Baxter. It snowed again today. It's kind of funny, but my first impression(s) of Baxter are just.. snowy. It was snowing the day I went in for the interview. It snowed very heavily on my first day – so heavily that my second day was a work-at-home, and the commute on the following day (by car, thank you Ryan) turned out to be almost twice as long as normal ... because there was so much snow. Basically, snow is very ingrained into my Baxter experience – so much that the sight of blue skies and bare grass on the campus was... odd. :P

This was actually taken last week, when it hit the 50's.
And then it started snowing again yesterday. XD

Two things to learn:
1) let the eyes and mind rest (at least occasionally).
2) feed the self better-ly (more often).

Two random things:
I like colors – both the tangible and the intangible.

Tangible: I recently acquired more colorful hi-tec pens and clothes.

Thank you, Chiarng and mummy, respectively!

Intangible: Occasionally, I get to see pretty colors in the sky.

06:38 / 07:02 / 17:16

Oh, one last random thing. I like patterns. I am posting this on 02/21/2011 @ 21:21. Whee.
What a(n otherwise) dull entry.

by the guys in Java – it was super cute to say the least. =) [Photos: mix of Bernard's & mine]

The guys

Of course, we must have the happy and then serious poses. =P

(The process of) Their creations of both edible and non-edibles ...

The final products..!

The girls.

Annnnd everyone together! (Yay for self-timers!)

(Original full-size image uploaded on website)

Blessed to be a blessing: Let's live it out, brothers & sisters in Christ. =)

I will bring praises. Even if it's just singing worship songs in my head, or out loud with other people. I really enjoy "spontaneous" worship. =)

Haha, okay, I suppose you can't consider the hour of worship & singing today in LG to be spontaneous since it was planned for yesterday. :P

We/Helen also read a series of psalms today. They all had to do with (surprise!) singing and rejoicing in the Lord.
For reference, they were: Psalm 19, Psalm 47, and Psalm 100.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be pleasing to you... [Psalm 19 (Shane&Shane style)]

Indeed, indeed. Even when I'm extremely sleepy/tired and sitting on the train going to/coming back from work, may I still be able to sing praises to the One who sustains me.

Mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of Your Name. [Hillsong's "Shout to the Lord"]

(Haha, oh dear. Here's to another hastily cobbled together entry. Good night!)

1) I "worked from home" today. Essentially, it involved simply reading many packets of training material. (Am I considered nerdy for actually enjoying some of the reading?) Actually, I didn't bring home enough to read. My only consideration yesterday as I organized and stuffed packets into my bag was (1) whether they were semi-related [okay, okay, and I'll be honest – and on the more interesting side] and (2) whether the weight of the paper (and, thus, amount I bring home) was too heavy/thick. Both of my dear messenger bags have been showing signs of wear & tear from very devoted use in the past 5 years (well, the one on the left has only been, perhaps, 3?), so I'm trying to travel light these days when I use them. Still, I'm somewhat enjoying this training process because I'm actually learning very relevant things! (I just dearly hope I can vaguely remember everything/the more relevant points).

2) I believe today was the first time I cooked for-real (beyond, for example, instant noodles). Granted it was only a veggie dish (芥蘭/jie lan/gai lan), but! it was actually my first time cooking w/ a not-nonstick pan. I like the result. =) Or, perhaps, because I dared to use a bit more oil than I normally do (which is, I'll be honest, almost next to nothing). It was originally meant to be part of a dinner for two, but... my dinner date overslept her alarm. So, instead, it will now become a part of my lunch/dinner for tomorrow (and... probably the next few days)!

These don't relate to the entry title (haha, I wonder if anyone is wondering how the previous two points relate to preparations. They do in my mind.), but I'd like to stick it somewhere for memories. [All of these/The originals are all on Facebook. I love being able to link all my photos from Facebook.]

Progression of the snowstorm/blizzard from yesterday/today:

View 1:

22:26 (on 2/1) / 08:43 (on 2/2) / 10:29 (on 2/2) / 14:48 (on 2/2)

View 2:

All on 2/2: 07:35 / 08:43 / 10:28

1) Baxter: First official employment (albeit as a contractor) in industry. I started today.

2) Blizzard/thundersnow: First lightning/thunderstorm accompanying extremely windy snowfall experience (forgotten childhood memories excluded from consideration).

This is woefully abruptly short, but I am tired. Walking outside made me more tired than work itself. I will update more later.

It's already February! 2/1/2011!

I think these three s's are the three most powerful triggers of my otherwise rather poor memory.

Of smells: This is probably my most random one... but I really like the smell of my current soap/bodywashes. Each of these three pictured ones remind me of a distinctive period in my life: in all cases, it's when I used first them. In particular, the Palmolive one reminds me of our England apartment because we always used it as handsoap in our hallway bathroom; the Olay one reminds me of the dorms since I used it pretty religiously throughout my first two years at college; and the Dove one reminds me of this past summer. Pretty random, huh? And now, since I somehow have all three options at my disposal, I always ponder for a bit before my shower, trying to decide which I should use for that night (which period of my life do I want to be reminded of?). Haha, I'm totally kidding about the pondering; but I do admit, I'm pretty weird in my penchant for smelling shampoos, soaps, or lotions. =P

View outside was-my room in the England apartment. (Haha, notice the weather in the right one: sunny but raining – oh, how I love paradoxical weather.)

Of sounds: One of the strongest triggers, ironically, is that of a lawnmower or an airplane passing far overhead, especially if it's on a sunny day. Both remind me of the lazy peaceful childhood days when I would be doing work in the dining room of our humble Hightree Dr. house in Columbus, or - after we moved - sprawling on the floor of the family room in our Cincy home reading "Anne of the Green Gables." The sound of the violin or piano, especially if it's a piece that I've played before, is also very reminiscent of my entire childhood.

Left: Hightree Dr. days / Right: Samstone Ct. days

Of sights: Photographs are, in themselves, an excellent reminder since they capture discrete moments of life: I love occasionally skimming through my massive photo collection (which I'm doing right now, haha) because I'm reminded of the past – either that of yours truly or of God's creation.

I think I've already said this a million times, but I absolutely loved my senior year @ NU. Despite the fact that I overloaded my schedule and suffered through extremely bewildering, heartbreaking stresses during the spring, no words can really express the amount of joy that I constantly experienced through all the absolute craziness of especially the winter and spring quarters. I probably cried more honest tears than I have for the previous 20 years of my life: of true pain, as I saw how brutually a life could be ripped apart by a disorder; of laughter and joy as I witnessed God working in the lives of those around me, proving himself faithful to those who earnestly searched for Him and slowly revealing himself to those who had never before cared to experience or even think about Him.

I love Creation. I love how it manifests how great the Creator is. Seriously, the beauty that one experiences in Nature really renders one speechless (well, at least those who know how to appreciate the simple unblemished sights in life). How great is our God? Greater than anything you can fathom.

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. [Romans 1:20]

The whole earth is filled with Your glory, Lord / Angels and men adore, Creation longs for what's in store - Starfield, Filled with your Glory

Yeeeah, that was my random revelation for the night. Blast, now for sleep.

Such a gap between entries rarely occurs unless (1) I am incredibly busy, (2) I am incredibly lazy, or (3) there just hasn't been that much going on in life on which to report. In this case, I think I'd have to blame all three fairly equally. Actually, I might also try to blame the fact that I am seemingly becoming less coherent with time, which makes me less inclined to try to make coherent the incoherent. I remember back in high school, I could bang out decently/nicely-written English essays (granted it took forever/usually the entire night and throughout the day the paper was due) in which I showed my wittiness and (what I see now as) really strange sense of sarcastic, silly, and spontaneous humor. In college, I lamented the loss of my more creative writing voice/style as I proceeded to write tens of project reports and hundreds of lab reports (I am honestly not exaggerating these numbers that much; strangely, BMEs seem to have a lot of reports and papers compared to, apparently – say/according to Helen – EEs). Well, I can't really say I lost it since I was credited, even in high school, for sounding like a textbook at times. Ah, what a tangent.

Returning to Evanston for winter quarter as a non-student has been, thus far, a bit weird with a dose of amusement. For the first week, I amused myself, asking friends here and there what classes they were taking in hopes that, perhaps, if it was interesting, I might sit in and learn. "Wait, seriously? Why would you do that to yourself?!" most people would ask. Don't forget: I love to learn. =P Ultimately, I settled to sit in on BME 371 – not so much because it's exciting, but because I've never taken the class, yet I've been working for the professor developing online practice problems (the whole CAPE/eLMS thing) for the past year and a half.

Other than that, we have recently celebrated the birthdays of two wonderful girls in our lifegroup. Anna held a crazy massive party in Norris's Game Room; or we can rephrase that as "HMCC pretty much overran the game room." Joy – well, we had some sort of baking/studying/telephone pictionary gathering at my place yesterday; we pretty much confirmed the fact that my apartment probably paradoxically could make do with less furnishings (to accommodate more people more comfortably) yet more furnishings (to dampen the sound; according to Helen [and I agree], voices seem to resonate more because it's so empty). =P

There are seriously too many pictures (not in a bad way!) of Anna's birthday party (cf. Anna's, Bernard's, or my Fb albums for a lot more, haha).

I think Joy was pleasantly surprised by the cupcakes: those were the only things that were not revealed to her beforehand. =)

HMCC's Winter Retreat was last week. For the first time ever in my HMCC career, I registered as a non-student: I think it was then, selecting my lifestage as "single adult," that I became woefully aware that I can very officially, sadly say I am no longer a student. ... But that's beside the point. I'm actually still trying to process and organize my thoughts from the retreat, so those will come later. For now, I bring you some pictures! =) [Photos: mix of mine (Canon S95) and Bernard's (Nikon D5000, I think)]

Being on fire for God! (Well, actually, this is during game time, but - hey - sometimes, worship times aren't too far off. =P)

I started making a collage but soon got sick of trying to find/organize photos.

And, of course, many permutations of different group photos:

Class photos (the nice ones at least =P)

Catalyst (class of 2014) / All-in (class of 2013) [they were kind of not ready :P]

Remedy (class of 2012) / Frontline (class of 2011)

Life Group photos

NU North campus: DC al Fine & Java.

NU South campus: Word & AMP.

Focus (I realise it's supposed to be 2 separate, but humor me); UIC campus: Masterpiece.

Other miscellaneous ones too cute/amusing to pass by:

Awww + Hahaha (note Albie & Ian's poses). Actually, I just realized, putting these two pictures together adds even more hilarity/slight disturbing-ness.

Nothing out of the ordinary greeted the flip of the calendar page in the darkened house on Samstone Ct: all inhabitants were well-immersed in their respective worlds – Discovery Channel (on the computer), Asian drama (on the TV), or Harry Potter (the books). Rather, it was only when one particular inhabitant was roused from their entertainment and, yanking off the headphones, asked in a slightly surprised/irritated voice in response to some dreadful-sounding noises, "What's that?" when it finally registered that, "Ah, it must be 12am." The most obnoxious sounds ever – the squeaky toots of horns and popping of firecrackers set off by celebrative neighbors – continued, adding the extra reminder which another inhabitant voiced rather indifferently: "Oh, right, New Year's." The two momentarily disturbed inhabitants then returned to their respective worlds. And all was quiet again in the house.

And, thus, "another year slips by."

I have to say this has been one of the stranger winter breaks. The first week was entirely taken up by a mixture of check-up appointments and CAPE/Python testing/debugging (not unlike last year's break); the second week – a massive mish-mash of prowling on the web for jobs (quite unlike last year); and the third week – a strange hodgepodge of anything from more job-prowling to making Chinese steamed buns to rediscovering childhood (mostly through rediscovered stuffed animals and books).

Christmas plushies: these were the lucky few that sat out for two weeks or so. The rest remained tucked within the plastic storage bins. (Haha, can you tell that I like Peanuts/Snoopy? :P) / Harry Potter: Even though I miss the chapter pictures in the American copies, I like that the British versions have the cover pictures on both the book jacket and the book itself.

The weather has also been quite strange, as it snowed only during the first week and became progressively (rather uncannily) spring-like and warm by New Year's Eve.

Note the progression: snowing, snowed, and gone.

Apparently, it reached 66F yesterday: people could be seen wearing a varying number of layers – from the little girl in t-shirt, shorts, and flipflops to the older folks still decked out in their furry winter coats. My frontdoor neighbor even decided to pull out his lawnmower today. Bet you don't see that too often on a normal New Year's Day in Cinci.

(Aha, I just looked back on my first entry for 2010 and discovered that it, too, meandered its way through the topic of weather.)

I find it quite ungraceful to have ended last year's entries with the most ridiculous/random quotes. Ah well – nothing too unexpected, eh? =P

Happy 2011!