HELP!
I AM ADDICTED TO YELP! =O
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
Another Side of Mother Theresa
"The smile," she writes, is "a mask" or "a cloak that covers everything."
she sounded desolate: "Such deep longing for God — and ... repulsed — empty — no faith — no love — no zeal. — [The saving of] Souls holds no attraction — Heaven means nothing — pray for me please that I keep smiling at Him in spite of everything."
Martin, responding to the torch-song image of Teresa, counterproposes her as the heroically constant spouse. "Let's say you're married and you fall in love and you believe with all your heart that marriage is a sacrament. And your wife, God forbid, gets a stroke and she's comatose. And you will never experience her love again. It's like loving and caring for a person for 50 years and once in a while you complain to your spiritual director, but you know on the deepest level that she loves you even though she's silent and that what you're doing makes sense. Mother Teresa knew that what she was doing made sense."
"The tendency in our spiritual life but also in our more general attitude toward love is that our feelings are all that is going on," he says. "And so to us the totality of love is what we feel. But to really love someone requires commitment, fidelity and vulnerability. Mother Teresa wasn't 'feeling' Christ's love, and she could have shut down. But she was up at 4:30 every morning for Jesus, and still writing to him, 'Your happiness is all I want.' That's a powerful example even if you are not talking in exclusively religious terms."
Interesting article from NY Times (Thanks AA)
she sounded desolate: "Such deep longing for God — and ... repulsed — empty — no faith — no love — no zeal. — [The saving of] Souls holds no attraction — Heaven means nothing — pray for me please that I keep smiling at Him in spite of everything."
Martin, responding to the torch-song image of Teresa, counterproposes her as the heroically constant spouse. "Let's say you're married and you fall in love and you believe with all your heart that marriage is a sacrament. And your wife, God forbid, gets a stroke and she's comatose. And you will never experience her love again. It's like loving and caring for a person for 50 years and once in a while you complain to your spiritual director, but you know on the deepest level that she loves you even though she's silent and that what you're doing makes sense. Mother Teresa knew that what she was doing made sense."
"The tendency in our spiritual life but also in our more general attitude toward love is that our feelings are all that is going on," he says. "And so to us the totality of love is what we feel. But to really love someone requires commitment, fidelity and vulnerability. Mother Teresa wasn't 'feeling' Christ's love, and she could have shut down. But she was up at 4:30 every morning for Jesus, and still writing to him, 'Your happiness is all I want.' That's a powerful example even if you are not talking in exclusively religious terms."
Interesting article from NY Times (Thanks AA)
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Nose Bleeding
LA has been really hot lately, so the AC is on all the time.
I've nose bleeding in both morning and evening the last few days.
I think my body is not used to the dry air.
I've nose bleeding in both morning and evening the last few days.
I think my body is not used to the dry air.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Childhood Games
Instead of going out to bars and clubs on this Saturday night, Daphne, Sally, and I spend the night at Cha For Tea (which may explain why I am up at 5AM in the morning, but I'll save that for another post).
How did we decided on doing this low key activity for a Saturday night?
Well, it started out with Daphne and I were itching to have a competitive game of Go. This being her last weekend in LA, it was either now or a long time later. Since I didn't own a set of Go at home and Chinese boba cafes usually carried stash of games for their customers to play, we thought that we could play Go at one of those cafes. I must'd called a dozen places, unfortunately, none of the boba stores had Go. However, by then, the idea of going to a boba cafe already planted in our head.
At Cha For Tea, instead of going for Chess or Checker, we played tons of childhood games. We started out with Connect 4 (played in elementary school). However, that's a 2 persons game and we didn't want to leave the 3rd person out, so we moved on to Jenga. After Jenga, we decided play cards. We played Speed (I loved this game in junior high), Slapjack (junior high/HS era), Go Fish (kindergarden era), and Bullshit. It was great fun. Our favorites were Jenga and Speed (I also really like Slapjack) so we played these several times. We were screaming and yelling the whole time we were playing. Although Cha For Tea was full of high school kids since this is a popular hang out place for teenagers, our table was probably the loudest.
Board games are so much fun.
I should start a collection!
How did we decided on doing this low key activity for a Saturday night?
Well, it started out with Daphne and I were itching to have a competitive game of Go. This being her last weekend in LA, it was either now or a long time later. Since I didn't own a set of Go at home and Chinese boba cafes usually carried stash of games for their customers to play, we thought that we could play Go at one of those cafes. I must'd called a dozen places, unfortunately, none of the boba stores had Go. However, by then, the idea of going to a boba cafe already planted in our head.
At Cha For Tea, instead of going for Chess or Checker, we played tons of childhood games. We started out with Connect 4 (played in elementary school). However, that's a 2 persons game and we didn't want to leave the 3rd person out, so we moved on to Jenga. After Jenga, we decided play cards. We played Speed (I loved this game in junior high), Slapjack (junior high/HS era), Go Fish (kindergarden era), and Bullshit. It was great fun. Our favorites were Jenga and Speed (I also really like Slapjack) so we played these several times. We were screaming and yelling the whole time we were playing. Although Cha For Tea was full of high school kids since this is a popular hang out place for teenagers, our table was probably the loudest.
Board games are so much fun.
I should start a collection!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Where Do You Want to Live?
The city one lives in affect many aspects of one’s live. Thus, where to live is a big decision. Big city offers more culture and entertainment than small town. However, small town is often cheaper and makes greater financial sense.
“It is more important to live in the city you like. I want to live in San Diego, so I move here and things eventually fall into places.” My college landlord told me.
He met his wife in Texas, whom is a native Texan, but he always wanted to live in SD. Accordingly, as soon as he finished his military duty, they moved to San Diego. They managed to buy a charming house and raised a family with just their teacher salaries. They seem quite happy.
On the other hand, with the housing market being sky high, many people are starting to look for more affordable cities to move to. In this blog entry, the author argues that by moving to a small town, one’s living of standard will improve since less money goes toward rent/mortgage; consequently, cheaper housing and lower expense also increase one’s options to pursue his passions.
In many ways, especially from financial standpoint, I agree with him that it is a smart move to relocate to cheaper housing areas. Living in Los Angeles means I have to live with many disadvantages that do not exist in small town USA, some of these includes sky high rent/mortgage, traffic, smog, pay premium for parking, etc. Nevertheless, I like living in Los Angeles and have no plan to move in the near future.
There are many great reasons for living in Los Angeles. Many cite beautiful weather, beaches, culture, food, and variety of activities as their top reasons. Since I am young, having all the above reasons definitely enhance my live. Most importantly, my (both immediate and extended) family is here. Although I am very independent and do not spend as much quality time with them as I should, I like the fact that I am near them.
Would you choose small town USA over big city?
“It is more important to live in the city you like. I want to live in San Diego, so I move here and things eventually fall into places.” My college landlord told me.
He met his wife in Texas, whom is a native Texan, but he always wanted to live in SD. Accordingly, as soon as he finished his military duty, they moved to San Diego. They managed to buy a charming house and raised a family with just their teacher salaries. They seem quite happy.
On the other hand, with the housing market being sky high, many people are starting to look for more affordable cities to move to. In this blog entry, the author argues that by moving to a small town, one’s living of standard will improve since less money goes toward rent/mortgage; consequently, cheaper housing and lower expense also increase one’s options to pursue his passions.
In many ways, especially from financial standpoint, I agree with him that it is a smart move to relocate to cheaper housing areas. Living in Los Angeles means I have to live with many disadvantages that do not exist in small town USA, some of these includes sky high rent/mortgage, traffic, smog, pay premium for parking, etc. Nevertheless, I like living in Los Angeles and have no plan to move in the near future.
There are many great reasons for living in Los Angeles. Many cite beautiful weather, beaches, culture, food, and variety of activities as their top reasons. Since I am young, having all the above reasons definitely enhance my live. Most importantly, my (both immediate and extended) family is here. Although I am very independent and do not spend as much quality time with them as I should, I like the fact that I am near them.
Would you choose small town USA over big city?
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Life of Artist
Several friends and I went to watch El Cantante tonight. El Cantante is about the rise and fall of one of salsa's most inventive vocalists, Hector Lavoe. I left the movie sad and depress.
There seem to be a correlation between fame and happiness, the more famous you become, the more mess up (drugs, womanizers, depression...) you are. And it also guarantee that I will get sad and depress after watching these movies. That holds true from all the movies I saw so far about famous artists; such as Frida, Ray, and the movie I just watched, El Cantante.
Note to self: Do not watch any movies about the life of famous artist.
There seem to be a correlation between fame and happiness, the more famous you become, the more mess up (drugs, womanizers, depression...) you are. And it also guarantee that I will get sad and depress after watching these movies. That holds true from all the movies I saw so far about famous artists; such as Frida, Ray, and the movie I just watched, El Cantante.
Note to self: Do not watch any movies about the life of famous artist.
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