Archives for category: hooray!

Presbyterian 2.Oh!

June 22, 2008 //

Congrats to Bruce Reyes-Chow, who was just elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA)! As with any institution, being on the leading edge of change can be difficult — and it’s good to see the PC(USA) take a proactive step in engaging culture 2.0 rather than waiting and then eventually reacting (and usually defensively by that point).

And, for a denomination that can sometimes feel like the same old boys’ network (despite rhetoric claiming otherwise), it feels nice to have a young, urban, Asian American pastor become its new face.

Check out Bruce’s personal blog for some great, witty insights into life, family, ministry, web 2.0 and the occasional baseball post.

Categories asian american, church, community, faith, hooray!, ministry

Kids Rule!

June 19, 2008 //

Working with preschool and kindergarten-aged kids this week at VBS has been awesome! The three year olds that we just welcomed into the group are hilarious.

For example, I was telling the story of Jesus putting mud onto someone’s eyes to help him see, and I asked the kids what dirt is good for. The older kids (four and five year olds) knew that you can plant seeds in dirt or put it into the garden. The threes, however, were all confused.

So I asked them if I should use mud to brush my teeth. They all smiled and nodded enthusiastically. After giving them a quick personal hygiene lesson, I asked if I should use mud to wash my hair. Again, smiles and nods all around!

Seriously, it is such a joy to participate in telling Bible stories with them. When we told the story of Peter walking on the water, we had them make “waves” with a large blue cloth — so much fun! Maybe a more immersive, participatory approach will keep our adults awake during our Sunday gatherings :)

Categories church, faith, hooray!, ministry

The Price Of Gas Is Inversely Proportional To Happiness

June 10, 2008 //

The other day, we took one of our cars in for repairs in the morning (an aside: upsell drives me nuts. Seriously, just fix my brakes. Don’t try to sell me the overhaulin’ twin-cam dual overhead shift on the fly transmission flushing filter replacement “manager’s special.”) and when we returned to pick it up that same afternoon the price at the local gas station had gone up over five cents a gallon.

Ugh.

So, given skyrocketing fuel prices (and our sadly static income), I decided to follow DJ Chuang’s advice and drive slower in order to conserve gas. People here in SD drive fast. From my experience, most drivers on the freeways are driving between 70 and 80 mph. Given my chronic tardiness, and my bionic lead foot, I tended to be towards the higher end of that spectrum.

For the last week I have been driving about 65 mph and, wonder of wonders, it really does conserve gas. If being tailgated even though I’m driving in the far right lane doesn’t kill me first, I think we could stand to save over $400 a year at this rate. Crazy, just crazy. Plus, beating up on my car a little less should make it less angry with me.

* * * * *

Can someone tell me why the gas mileage on the 1984 Honda Civic (51 mpg city/67 mpg highway) utterly crushes the 2008 Toyota Prius (48/45)? How does that make any sense at all? It’s hard not to believe there’s some sort of conspiracy afoot when dealing with those kinds of numbers.

Is there some correlation between the amazing gas mileage of the ’84 Civic to the magical year of the Tigers’ last World Series victory?

Categories family, hooray!, stewardship

That’s My Girl!

May 21, 2008 //

Ever since the drought in Georgia and the wildfires here in San Diego last October, our almost-five year old daughter has been very conscious about conserving water. In fact, since then our family has taken steps such as keeping a bucket in the shower, turning off the water while shampooing and generally taking shorter showers. We want to teach and model stewardship to our daughter, so that she will see that following Jesus is something we do with our whole lives.

Our daughter’s favorite water conservation technique is to collect water from the main tub faucet after switching off the shower head. She always makes sure to tell me, “It’s for the plants.”

Today, after her shower, I asked her why we should try to save water. She looked at me with a huge smile and said, “Because I want to take care of God’s Kingdom, Daddy!”

That’s my girl :)

Categories asian american, environment, faith, family, hooray!, ministry, stewardship

The Wii Fit Cometh

May 19, 2008 //

Couch potatoes nationwide are holding our collective breath in anticipation of the sculpted abs and mean physiques we will undoubtedly develop as a result of the Wii Fit, which is being released in the States today (May 19). The unit is selling like hotcakes (fitness hotcakes, mind you) in Japan and the UK and is expected to be a best-seller here in the States. And what would a highly anticipated release be without a massive marketing blitz, a high-profile advertising and some good old controversy?

[Edit]: I’m on my way to Best Buy to see if I can score a Wii Fit of our own. I went to Best Buy in hopes of picking up a Wii Fit, only to be told that the actual release date is May 21. Looks like I wasn’t the only one who was confused. And, to add insult to injury, they didn’t even have Mario Kart Wii to stave off my disappointment. Still hoping I’ll survive the stampede on Wednesday, though.

Being a font nerd, though, I couldn’t help notice how similar the Wii Fit logo is to the Honda Fit. Compare and contrast the two logos below for the real controversy…

Categories family, games, hooray!, just grinning