My Room

My old roommate Patrick moved out to go to Washington DC for the UCDC program. He's done after this quarter, so he's not coming back in spring.

The result? I get to have one of the biggest rooms in the house all to myself!

For the past week, I've been cleaning and rearranging my room, converting the double into a single. I love it...

My room:

A view from the entrance (north):

If you ever visit my room, please respect the Japanese/Korean culture and take off your shoes. The red carpet is so soft, you would want to take off your shoes anyway. Whatever you do, just don’t step on the red carpet with your shoes on, please!

A view from the southeast corner of the room:

That’s my desk, my big executive chair, and my lovely iMac G4. Oh, and yes I do sleep up there. I use my desk and chair to climb up to my bed.

A view from the southwest corner of the room:

That’s where Patrick used to be. His bed is empty, and I put his desk against the wall to maximize the space. There’s a stash of chocolate on top of the microwave, but I never touch it. They are for my guests.

Of course, cleaning was not easy, and it was definitely not without some surprises. When people move out, they tend to leave stuff that they don’t want in the room, usually because they think other people could use them. Patrick, like everyone else, left some of his stuff that he didn’t want, such as a bunch of disposable paper plates, bowls, and plastic eating utensils (he would eat cereal in the room every morning). He also left a bunch of napkins, which is very useful.

Something that surprised me the most was that he left a cardboard box on the floor of the closet. In the box, there was a bottle of olive oil tipped over, and the oil had leaked out of the bottle and had soaked the bottom of the box and the floor underneath it! Good thing the closet had hardwood floor, unlike the room which is carpeted. The box also contained some random trash and a huge bag of potato chips (still half full with chips, but probably very old).

The thing that grossed me out the most was this:





































Patrick’s Legacy:

Yup, those are potatoes. And yes, things are growing on them. The potatoes were really soft. Very, very disgusting. Thanks a lot, Patty!

Memories

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want, bad or good. When you're finished, post this little paragragh on your blog and be suprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.

Ultimate Sudoku

John, one of my little bros, gave me a book for Christmas. It’s called The Ultimate Sudoku Challenge!



He knows that I love to solve sudoku puzzles in my spare time. I used to do them every morning on LA Times during summer. I would tear the sudoku out of the newspaper, time myself, and post the solved puzzle on the board in the dining room. I used to get around 7 minutes on medium level, but now I’m probably a bit rusty.

This book has what they call megasudoku, which is a sudoku on a 25x25 grid (as opposed to the regular 9x9). Here’s an example:



Yeah... Let’s see if I’ll ever have time to solve this.

Thanks for the gift, Crandall! I really appreciate it. I hope your tummy feels alright. ;)

Funeral Service

This past Tuesday and Wednesday, I went to Jason Lee's funeral and burial services at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier.

In the past I've been to two funerals, one for my grandmother and one for my grandfather, both on dad's side of the family. Both of them were when I was in elementary school, and I only have vague memories of what they were like. However, I remember that I had never seen a corpse before this Tuesday. The week before that was the first time I've seen a dying man. Seeing things like that makes me think about life and how fragile it is.

The whole situation with Jason Lee made me think how terribly frightening death can be without the hope of eternity. I imagined death in a world where there is no God... When you die, you cease to exist. All that you had, all that you knew, everything will be gone... forever. Just imagine that. Isn’t that frightening? To think of Nothingness? It is to me.

Then I think how wonderful death is with the knowledge that you will be with God eternally! When you die, you don’t lose, but you gain everything through Jesus Christ! And I know that I’m not just believing this because it sounds good to me... It’s right there in the Bible, tried and true. Seriously, life is so sad and meaningless without the hope of eternity.

Many people think if you are somewhat good in your life, you will go to heaven. As long as you’re not one of them, murderers, rapists, thieves, prostitutes, homosexuals... But the truth is, no one, and I mean NO ONE, is good enough to be with the all perfect GOD.

To GOD, every one of us self-righteous beings are just as bad as those we think that are lower than us. Then how can anybody claim he/she is good enough to go to heaven? ABSOLUTELY NOBODY!

Then are we all condemned to hell? Certainly not!

The good news is that GOD Himself has provided the way to Him! Jesus Christ, His only Son, lived a faultless life and died for all of our wrongdoing; big and small he paid for them all. Not just that, he rose from the dead to show that he even has power over death!

By believing in what Christ did for us, anyone can be saved from eternal condemnation. ANYONE! Isn’t that amazing or what?

And it’s not even just made up! It was prophesized long before Christ, and Christ himself fulfilled the exact prophecies! It’s a crazy story, I know. But if you doubt it, try it and see for yourself. I have, and I know it is true.

That’s why it gives me peace and joy when I think about death.

This is the inside view of SkyRose Chapel where we had the funeral service for Jason.

One More Thing...

I forgot to mention in my previous entry that I got a call from a “restricted” number around 6:30pm today (1/1/06). Luckily (or maybe not luckily – it could have been a friend wishing me a happy new year... although less likely), I was asleep sine I was dead tired from the night before. Whoever’s reading this, if you block your caller ID, make sure to leave a message AND your number... Or else I’ll assume it’s Mrs. Hymers calling. Don’t worry, I’ll still answer the phone. If it’s Mrs. Hymers... well, anybody have a good suggestion? Just hanging up is lame. Let me know if you have any idea what I should say to her. If you are one of the victims like Jane, let me know if there’s anything you want to say to her. I’ll try to say them for you.

So what was I doing the night before, you ask? (or even if you don’t ask...) I was dancing my night away!! Well, maybe not exactly (^-^; I was at CCC conference in San Diego, and they had an end-of-the-year party. So I danced with all the UCLA CCC people for about three hours, did the count down, and worshiped God together for 2 hours after that. It was an awesome night. My friend Eric and I drove back to Orange County afterwards, and I got home around 3:40am. I’ve wrecked my voice and my body is sore all over... Good times nonetheless.

More on Robert Hymers

A friend of mine read my blog entry about the weird church in LA (entry titled Freaky Phone Calls), and told me that she too had a similar experience. In fact, she has gone to their church once. Like I was planning to do, this friend of mine (I will call her Jane to keep her anonymous) went to one of their events with her friend.

Basically, she regrets going because it was a complete waste of time. Apparently, they make girls wear dresses and little hats and make guys wear suits. They had her guy friend change his clothes into suits when they got there. The service, in Jane’s opinion was kind of cultish.

Prior to her going, Jane told Mrs. Hymers that she didn't want to go anymore especially after being told that she couldn't bring her cell phone. Then Mrs. Hymers responded angrily saying something like, “I’m sick and tired of you guys lying and making up excuses!! You told you’d go right?! WELL, then you lied to me. Did you or did you not lie to me?” and so forth. Mrs. Hymers made Jane feel bad, so Jane said she’d go.

Couple days after Jane went to their “party,” Mrs. Hymers called Jane again, and told her that she was expecting Jane to come again. Jane responded politely saying that she was already going to a church. Then Mrs. Hymers raised her voice and started talking rudely. So Jane tried to fight back, but she said she should have just hung up. I don’t know what Mrs. Hymers told Jane, but Jane said she’s never been talked to in such a way by anyone in her life, especially from a pastor’s wife, and for telling her that she already had a church to go to.

So, thanks to Jane for saving me trouble.

I did a quick Google search on Robert Hymers again, and found a recent blog entry of of someone who had been part of the “church” a while back. Apparently, as everybody had expected, according to this blog entry, Hymers is a cult leader, or at least he used to be a cult leader in the 70’s. Some people may remember him for this incident in 2003:

In Los Angeles, R.L. Hymers Jr., the pastor of the Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle called on his 400 member congregation in a prayer for the death of Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennen, Jr. because he supports a woman's right to have an abortion. He also ordered up an airplane to circle overhead trailing the message "Pray for Death: Baby-Killer Brennen." "I think it may be that we're on the avant garde: we're doing something that others will do later," said pastor Hymers.

I think I’ve heard of something like this before. Well, he wasn’t the only one who did something like this though. According to this blog I found, Hymers’ group recruits at UCLA (and probably on other campuses) during finals week, “exploiting the emotional vulnerability of students during this stressful time.” I guess that’s what they were doing to me few weeks ago. It was in fact finals week when I met that guy who I gave my phone number to.

So watch out everybody! Especially during finals week! Don’t give your number to some stranger inviting you to a “party.” If you want to be sure, ask the person if they are part of Baptist Tabernacle or with Hymers.

If you ask me, I actually don’t regret giving my phone number (despite the uncomfortable talk with Mrs. Hymers), because this was such a learning experience. I don’t think I would have ever been exposed to a real cult otherwise. I’m also grateful that I didn’t actually go to their “party,” thanks to my friend Jane.

If you want to read more about Hymers or the blog I found, just Google the paragraph about Brennen (copy and paste the entire passage). The author of the blog had some interesting things to say, since she lived with the cult for two years when she was a teenager.

May He Rest In Peace

Jason Lee, a deacon from my church, passed away from cancer on the evening of Wednesday, December 28, 2005.

Only three weeks ago, when he was in Iraq serving the US military as an intelligence officer, the pain started. He was transferred to a hospital in Germany where he was diagnosed of pancreatic cancer. However the tumor had already spread too far, and the doctors could not do anything to save him. Then he was transferred to a hospital in southern California, but again the doctors could not help him. He was told that he may live for two more weeks, up to a year. Two nights ago, he was moved into his home. I visited him yesterday, but I could hardly recognize him. He had already lost much of his body mass, and his cheeks caved in. I could not believe my eyes... Three weeks... There were many of his relatives and friends. My father, who is the pastor of the church, lead in prayer and worship. We prayed earnestly for miracle. Just as God granted 15 years to King Hezekiah at the point of his death, we prayed that God will do miracles for Jason, too.

December 28, 2005, was Jason’s 48th birthday. God put an end to his suffering and gave him eternal peace and rest. May the LORD God, the Creator of the universe, the Giver of life and death, the Righteous and the Just, be glorified forever and ever. Amen.

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Philippians
by SLO Crusade - Waking

By death or by life
I will give myself as a sacrifice
To live on in flesh is fruit from labor
To be with Christ is far far better, is far far better

In nothing at all shall I be ashamed
To live is Christ
To die is gain

In nothing at all shall I be ashamed
With all boldness I’ll spread your name
May your name be magnified
In my body glorified, glorified, glorified

I bring to you everything I am, everything I have in you
All else I count as loss, All I give is worth the cost