mok's blog

2011-03-29T15:00:00.005-05:00

Hello, blogspot, my old friend!

Remember how you felt when Jordan came back (the first time) out of retirement?

Yeah, it's kinda like that for me right now.

More substantial posts to come!

2008-04-01T18:33:00.004-05:00

i'd like to thank my brother..
..for making me look and feel so dang smart.

exhibit A: jason mok

Mr mmMok: um
Mr mmMok: hakeem is coming back?
mok says: shaddap

right then and there, without him having to go on, i knew exactly what was going on. he coulda just left it at this, and saved himself any further embarrassment, but no, he continued..

Mr mmMok: http://www.clutchfans.net/
mok says: do i really need to look at this
Mr mmMok: apparently yao and mutombo have been recruiting him

at this moment, i coulda joined in on the act and tried to get him all riled up and excited, but i decided to be a nice guy and just let him in on the trick.

mok says: it's april fool's man
mok says: i'm not even gonna read it
Mr mmMok: hm.
Mr mmMok: hah

so it was done. finished. he had been stumped for just a couple seconds, but now he saw the light.. right? wrong. here comes our hero.

Mr mmMok: it's confirmed by espn
Mr mmMok: http://sports.espn.clutchfans.com/nba/news/storyid-3322476/

poor kid. what's that line? "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." yeah..

mok says: are you trying to trick me
mok says: or do you really not know
mok says: espn.clutchfans.com
mok says: you kidding me?
Mr mmMok: oh
Mr mmMok: iddn't see that
Mr mmMok: good call
Mr mmMok: you win once again
mok says: as always
mok says: clutch can't get me
Mr mmMok signed off at 5:30:45 PM.
Mr mmMok is offline and will receive your IMs when signing back in.

in my mind, i figure this is when he gets offline to laugh at himself a little bit and just take in everything that's just happened. you know, maybe lay low for a few hours so i can't make fun of him about it. but join with me as we assess the mood behind these next few lines.

Mr mmMok signed on at 5:34:35 PM.

okay so he's back. at this point, he's contemplating whether he should IM me again.

Mr mmMok: why are you so smart

i'm thinking he's in a state of admiration for me right now. can't really blame the kid, can you? i mean i just saw through the april fool's joke that had him all tangled up without even clinking on the link.

Mr mmMok: i feel dumb

okay now he starts feeling a bit ashamed for falling for such a trick.

Mr mmMok: thanks again

i'm sensing feigned appreciation now, with a hint of sarcasm.

Mr mmMok: I HATE YOU

it quickly turns to hatred.

Mr mmMok: BYE.

dismissal and probable denial.

mok says: maybe next time rookie
Mr mmMok signed off at 5:41:22 PM.
Mr mmMok is offline and will receive your IMs when signing back in.

and our protagonist exits stage left. i'm guessing as you are reading this, he is probably crying himself to sleep in the corner of his dorm room, but hey, i'm just a genius, not a prophet.

it's time to bring this toast to a close. i wouldn't be as confident in my intelligence without his help, so raise your glasses to mr. jason mok. i couldn't have done it without you, bro.

2008-03-04T18:07:00.004-06:00

top 10 sports moments (cont.)
the moment you've all been waiting for has arrived -- the top 5. no more talk, here goes.

5. paulino's game-winning 3-pointer against WV to reach the elite 8

i remember i was in my room working on a poster that took an eternity to ask ophelia to go to o&w with me. sat through a game before the UT one, and then watched the entire UT one while cutting up and gluing construction paper. if you know me, you know that college basketball is nonexistent to me until march rolls around because we all know it's all about march madness. UT had dominated the first half but allowed west virginia to crawl back into it, with them tying the game with a long 3. i couldn't believe that first 3 went in, i think i almost dropped the scissors i was holding in my hand. but then without calling a timeout, texas comes back, and paulino wins the game! man, 2006 was a great year for UT sports, wasn't it?

4. music city miracle

it was january 8, 2000. it had been less than 4 years since the houston oilers had been moved to tennessee, so i, along with many other houstonians, still considered ourselves titans/oilers fans. the titans jumped to a 12-0 lead, only to let buffalo take control of the game with a 1-point lead with 16 seconds left. it all seemed lost, as if it would be another repeat, to a lesser extent, of the 1993 playoff game between the oilers and bills, where the bills overcame a 32-point houston lead to win the game and complete the largest comeback in NFL history. but then, the miracle happened. i remember i was ready to turn the tv off so i wouldn't have to watch the bills celebrate on the field, when frank wycheck lateraled the ball across the field to kevin dyson, and the rest is history. this play has been the source of many IM football trick plays, believe you me. unfortunately, nobody else in my family cared/cares about football, so i was the only one rejoicing in my living room. good times nonetheless.

3. tmac game-winning shot against dallas in 2005 1st round

the beginning of the houston-dallas rivalry, this was my sophomore year at UT. i remember for this game, we had everybody and their momma pack into the jester fireplace lounge -- rockets and mavs fans alike. it was a back-and-forth game with one side cheering before being silenced by the eruption of the other side of I-45. then, finally, with dallas down 2 with less than a minute left, dirk did the impossible and made a clutch basket to tie the game. dallas fans were going nuts, but tmac, without calling timeout, calmly dribbled the ball up the court, got a pick from yao, and drained a 22-footer over keith van horn. THAT'S when the place went nuts. i remembering high-fiving dennis, chest-bumping MJ, and just yelling my head off. and then, for about 2 months after that, i copied that gesture he did after he made the shot.

2. vince young game-winning rushing touchdown vs. USC in 2006 rose bowl

ah, the 2006 rose bowl. never in my wildest dreams would i imagine the 2006 version being anywhere near as dramatic and exciting as the 2005 version against michigan, but man oh man, what a ballgame. i gathered with hundreds of other UTers at sugar land's town center, where they had set up a gigantic projector to display the game. i sat in the front in a "lucky" lawnchair -- can't remember whose it was -- but on vince's 2nd-to-last touchdown, as he was 5 yards away, i knew that he was gonna make it, so i stood up and raised my arms to the heavens. unfortunately for everybody else at town center that night, i also blocked the entire projector in the process, so nobody saw how he got in. suckas! anyhow, with UT down 5 points with 26 seconds to go, it was 4th and 5, and it was now or never, do or die, and insert whatever other cliche you can think of. it was the moment that would define vince young's college career and send him, inevitably, into the waiting arms of the NFL. vince dropped back to pass, then scrambled to the corner of the end zone, and the rest is history. 41-38, who wants some?

1. chris burke's game-winning, series-winning walk-off home run in game 4 of the 2005 NLDS against the braves

the MLB is very sheisty about its videos being put online, so no video for this one. but it's okay, cuz i remember this game like it was yesterday. took a short road trip back to htown for this game -- weili, simeon, and lawrence bought me my ticket as a birthday present. it was one of those typical low-scoring astros games, with good pitching and good defense, and it ended up going into extra innings. a LOT of extra innings. so many that by the 16th or 17th inning, i decided to look around the stadium for some grub cuz i was getting hungry. to my dismay, there was no food left in the entire building, but the show, or game, must go on. when i returned to my seat, it was the bottom of the 18th inning, and chris burke was up to bat. for you non-baseball people out there, a normal game lasts 9 innings. so there had been, in essence, another full game played. we got our money's worth fasho. anyhow, chris burke was up to bat, and with one swing of the bat, he hit the ball into the crawford boxes for a home run, and the house went CRAZY. storybook ending to the game -- couldn't have written it better myself. man, is it baseball season yet?

and thus concludes my top 10 sports moments of my life, and here's to the hope of many more.

2008-01-23T19:53:00.003-06:00

top 10 sports moments
sports is a huge part of my life. to be honest, i can't imagine my life without it. i've thought about it, and many of my happiest (and saddest) moments came at the hands of cheering for my favorite teams.

anyhow, for no apparent reason, i've decided to jot down my top 10 sports moments of all time. well, one reason is that this will be something interesting for me to look back on a long time down the road. i can even remember exactly where i was, who i was with, and what i was doing at each moment.

some quick rules, or guidelines, rather, about these sports moments. they are all moments that i personally witnessed (in person or on TV) live. in other words, it can't be just some random game i saw on espn classic, or a summary i caught on sportscenter after the fact. i guess that's the only guideline. well, here goes!

honorable mention: jeff kent's 3-run game-winning walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning in game 5 of the 2004 NLCS against the cardinals

i was leading a sophomore prayer meeting when this happened. i remember i wanted to watch this game SO bad, and it made it even worse that i could hear yells and groans from people watching in the jester TV lounge. weili texted me right after this happened, and my first reaction was pure disappointment that i did not get to see it for myself. but then, i came to my senses, and thanked God for the win.

10. yao's game-winning dunk to beat the lakers in OT (1/17/03)

this was yao's first encounter against shaquille o'neal. prior to the game, o'neal had jokingly made some racist comments towards yao, but the game started with yao scoring 6 points and blocking shaq twice. i remember watching this game at david zhu's house with a bunch of other guys, and with the score tied in the final minute of overtime, francis drove into the lane and dumped it off to yao, who slammed it home for the game-winner. we went absolutely nuts after that point. granted, it was just a regular season game, but c'mon. it was yao's coming out party!

9. biggio's 3-run game-winning home run against the phillies (9/8/05)

this is actually kind of a random memory, but there was this one day my junior year in 151, when we had a few people over and i was just watching the end of the astros game that day. the NL wild card race was real tight, i think we were only up by 1 game, so every game was huge. in this particular game, we had a lead until the bottom of the 8th inning, when our bullpen gave up the lead. so, going into the 9th inning, the astros were down by 1 run. we got 2 men on base, and with 2 outs, craig biggio walked up to the plate. it was the first time he was facing his old teammate, billy wagner, who threw over 100 mph. so here's the random part. i just remember simon and lawrence were also in the room, and we just so happened to have some extra craig biggio posters lying around from when someone went to an astros game. what are the odds, right? so we each grabbed a poster, and started cheering for good old craig to pull us through. then he hits the 3-run game-winning home run while we were holding his posters! naturally, we all went crazy. sigh, good times.

8. eddie johnson's game-winning 3-pointer against the utah jazz in game 4 of the 1997 western conference finals

if you are a rockets fan, there is perhaps no more hated team than the utah jazz. from the dirty play of karl malone and john stockton, and just the annoying look of jeff hornacek, i would rather lose my legs than say anything good about the jazz. so in one of the epic playoff battles between the rockets and jazz, the score was tied going into the final seconds of regulation. the jazz led the series 2-1, so a loss in this game would be devastating. i remember watching this game in my old house, in one of those "i don't want to watch but i have to" stances, just hoping for the best. it ended up being a very broken play, and i was prepared to just fight it out in overtime, when eddie johnson launched a very long 3-pointer, and it goes in! the crowd goes wild, eddie goes wild, and i go wild! i was just yelling and screaming in the living room, with my brother and sister copying me, wondering what the heck was going on.

7. hakeem blocking starks to end game 6 of the 1994 nba finals

ah, the nba finals on NBC. anyone else miss that old school stuff? this was truly an awesome series to watch. i was watching at home with the rest of my family. it was game 6, and the rockets were down 3 games to 2, meaning if the knicks won the game, the championship was theirs. the rockets held a 2-point lead, when john starks (who btw was shooting red hot that night), pulled up for the game-winning 3-pointer. luckily for houston fans everywhere, the dream rose to the occasion and blocked the shot, sending the series to a decisive game 7. and of course, we all know what happened after that. that moment was truly one of the most clutch plays i have ever seen.

6. hakeem's game-winning tip-in to beat the orlando magic in game 1 of the 1995 nba finals

it was a bit tough cheering against the orlando magic in this series because penny hardaway was my favorite player back then. just ask anyone who used to trade basketball cards with me back in pastor tow's office at HCC. i would trade any players away for sam cassell's or penny hardaway's. needless to say, penny hardaway eventually lost me a buttload of money, but that's a whole other story.

anyhow, this game in and of itself was simply amazing. the magic stormed out to a 20 point lead at one point in the game, but the rockets, led by kenny smith's 3-point shooting, gradually clawed back into the game. in the final minutes, in what i see as THE most UNclutch performance of all time, orlando's nick anderson had a chance to seal the game by just making 1 of 4 free throws, but he missed all 4, and the magic's lead remained at 3. on the very next play, kenny smith hit his 7th 3-pointer of the game over my boy penny to tie up the game and send it into overtime.

in the waning seconds of overtime, with the score tied, clyde drexler drove into the lane and flipped up a layup that bounced off the rim to the other side. hakeem was there to tip it up and in off the backboard. at first, i didn't know what to think because i don't think even hakeem knew that he had just won the game. but finally, he raised his arms in triumph, and me and the rest of my family celebrated like there was no tomorrow.

this post is pretty long as it is, and it's taking a lot more time than i anticipated, so i'll split these things up. so here are the bottom 5, the top 5 will be coming soon. any idea what they are? $50 to anyone who can name my top 5.

2008-01-15T03:06:00.000-06:00

plantar fasciitis
For about a month or 2, I have been experiencing some pain on the bottom of my right foot. So, naturally, I did what any self-respecting man would do, and I went to get it checked out by a doctor.

Of course, I am not only a man, but a money-conscious Asian man, so I did what seemed like the most obvious thing to do -- I asked my good med school friend for a free diagnosis. Close enough to a doctor, right?

Enter Simon Yau.

mok says: hey i got pain on the bottom of my right foot
mok says: can you diagnose it
Simy85: u have plantar fascitis
Simy85: the glen rice season ender
mok says: really
Simy85: its probably the arch of ur foot right
mok says: it's like
Simy85: is it deep or superficial
mok says: middle
mok says: kind of feels like a bruise
mok says: not really
Simy85: sharp or dull pain
mok says: nothing visual
mok says: i guess it's not too sharp
mok says: just nagging
mok says: been about 2 months
Simy85: hmm
Simy85: yeah
Simy85: probably a strain
Simy85: mihgt need to amputate

Hm, an amputation was certainly not what I expected. I decided to seek a second opinion. Soon-to-be Dr. Sime0n Kwan to the rescue.

mok says: i got pain on the bottom of my right foot
mok says: can you diagnose it
sime0n kwn: yeah
sime0n kwn: plantar fasciitis
mok says: serious?
mok says: what is that
sime0n kwn: haha
sime0n kwn: look it up
sime0n kwn: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantar_fasciitis
mok says: that's a real injury?

So apparently I don't get enough arch support. I'm flat-footed as it is, and while I don't want to come to the horrifying conclusion that this is all because of my crocs, it's hard to argue that point. Anyone else smell a lawsuit?

Anyways, I suppose the moral of the story is:

Who needs doctors when you have Simon, Sime0n, and Wikipedia? That's 2 medical opinions and some free treatment advice. I probably saved myself about $100. What a deal!

Alright, gotta go get this thing amputated. Doc's orders.

2008-01-11T00:09:00.000-06:00

the final semester
monday the 14th marks the beginning of the end of what has been an amazing college career. i'm taking 6 hours this semester. 6. SIX. i would jump on the bandwagon and post a picture of my schedule, but i'm pretty sure that would just be rubbing it in. but yeah, that's it. MW 2-5. how amazing is THAT?

unfortunately, it won't be all fun and games, as tomorrow i will begin studying for the CPA exam, which i will be taking this year. and that, my friends, is gonna suck. so in the end, it really all evens out. 6 hours of class + CPA exam = full schedule. maybe not, we'll see. here is a picture of my study materials. doesn't that just make you wanna dive right in and go nerdy?

anyhow, today, on the other hand, was the first day i hit the gym in 3 years. 3 years! when i say "hit the gym," i mean to work out. unfortunately, whenever i had the slightest notion to go lift weights, i would end up just going upstairs and shooting hoops. but alas, this time shall be different. planning on going at least 3 times a week. when will i stop? when you start seeing me walking around campus without a shirt on, then you will know that i am done working out. so i guess there's something for everybody to look forward to.

tickets have been purchased for my los angeles/las vegas spring break trip. all i've gotten back so far are a bunch of "maybe's," so let this be a sign that i'm serious, yo. and you cali folk, suit up. because it's gonna be legen..

wait for it..

2008-01-01T16:48:00.000-06:00

hello fans
it's been a while, huh? i've actually been meaning to update this thing with various stories, but i've just never gotten around to actually getting it done. sorry about that.

well for the past few days, my family has been on vacation. well, let me put questioning quotation marks around the word "vacation." whenever i happened to tell someone that i was going to the state of arkansas for vacation, i'd get 1 of 2 reactions. they would either start chuckling or just stare at me blankly.

i can only assume that the first reaction is because they thought i was joking. the second one, i guess they were just waiting for the punchline.

my family and i went to arkansas to visit my dad's host family. it was my grandma's (host family grandma) 80th birthday, so we drove up to surprise her. let me just say one thing: when i am 80, i hope i have old 80-year-old friends to invite to my birthday party because it was pretty awesome being at hers. makes me wonder who i'll be hanging out with when i'm 80.

everytime we're there, grandma likes having someone play piano for her. so the first night we were there, while we were eating cake, she asked me to play piano for her.

grandma: play some piano for me, jonathan!
me: i don't know how..
grandma: go sit over there and play!
me: alright, you want me to play?

i stroll over to the piano and start playing "mary had a little lamb." perfectly, as a matter of fact. everyone laughs a bit, and then i finish the song.

grandma: play me a real song!
me: no, seriously, i don't know how..
grandma: how old are you?
me: 23.
grandma: then you're old enough to play me a real song!

all this while the rest of my family is just sitting there laughing. my knowledge of the piano consists of 2 weeks of lessons when i was about 5. so unless she wanted me to play "twinkle twinkle" or another rendition of mary and her little lamb, i was not the man for the job.

so this exchange of lines went on for a few more minutes, until she finally gave up. now i look like a jerk who wouldn't play the piano for a sweet 80-year-old woman on her birthday.

on a different note, happy new year! you'll hear from me later.

2007-11-16T01:43:00.000-06:00

friends
this semester, i took the time to watch all 10 seasons of friends, the greatest sitcom ever. today i completed my journey with the series finale, and, admittedly, i shed a few tears.

isn't it amazing how easily we can connect with tv shows and fictional characters? especially with a show like friends, that aired for 10 years, with so many people watching and hoping for stuff like ross and rachel to end up together, or for chandler and monica to get a baby, or for the show to just never end.

i think it's because deep down inside, whether we want to admit it or not, we want to be 1 of the 6 on the cast of friends. something in us wants to belong to a group, to be loved, and for things to never change.

the more this semester flies by, the more i realize that the end of an era is quickly approaching. and not just any era, but a really good one at that.

but i guess the nostalgia can wait until another time -- for now, i'm just gonna enjoy the rest of the ride.

2007-11-07T18:19:00.000-06:00

it is done
after 4.5 years of longing and frustration and moral victories, my college intramural sports life has accomplished its crowning achievement -- an IM championship. not to take anything away from the other 23 IM teams that i have been on in the past 4 years (i counted), but there is just something about being the "champion" that really gets me. or maybe it's just the tshirt.

blazin' saddles 2007

showin' off the new shirt
before the game, when we were trying to warm up and just throwing the ball around, i jammed my right thumb. after the game, i now think that it is fractured because it is swollen like crazy. i've actually had the same injury on my left hand back in high school, and i think it feels and looks the same as before. i would take a picture of it in comparison to my other thumb, but i just realized i wouldn't have a hand left over to take the picture with.

ah well, either way, injury or not, the championship is worth it. good thing i stayed another year, eh? not like i really had a choice, but still.

2007-11-04T23:22:00.000-06:00

E for E. coli!
chuiCHUI train: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/01/pizza.recall.ap/index.html
chuiCHUI train: clear your freezer!!
mok says: FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
chuiCHUI train: owned.
mok says: i was about to eat one for lunch
chuiCHUI train: HAHHA
mok says: F
mok says: the numbers match
mok says: MAN
mok says: there goes $2 i'll never see again
mok says: good thing i already ate 2
chuiCHUI train: hahahha
chuiCHUI train: sick

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (AP) -- General Mills on Thursday recalled about 5 million frozen pizzas sold nationwide under the Totino's and Jeno's labels because of possible E. coli contamination.

The problem may have come from pepperoni on pizzas produced at a General Mills plant in Ohio, the suburban Minneapolis-based company said.

CHECK YOUR FREEZER
The recall involves the following frozen pizzas and product code numbers:

• Totino's Party Supreme, 42800-10700
• Totino's Three Meat, 42800-10800
• Totino's Pepperoni, 42800-11400
• Totino's Pepperoni, 42800-92114
• Totino's Classic Pepperoni, 42800-11402
• Totino's Pepperoni Trio, 42800-72157
• Totino's Party Combo, 42800-11600
• Totino's Combo, 42800-92116
• Jeno's Crisp 'n Tasty Supreme, 35300-00561
• Jeno's Crisp 'n Tasty Pepperoni, 35300-00572
• Jeno's Crisp 'n Tasty Combo, 35300-00576

a little e. coli never hurt nobody, right?

2007-10-27T20:32:00.000-05:00

a quick explanation
i've been waiting for something to write about, but i guess i've kinda been busy. some people have asked about the couple of narratives or whatever you want to call them that i wrote a while back.

they weren't just stories, but they were real stuff that happened. not much else to say, but just to prove it, here's a picture of "the puzzle."

2007-10-01T17:23:00.000-05:00

i'm an idiot
1. i got a skull-cap tan from the IM football game yesterday.

2. i drove back to houston after the game in order to watch mama mia with ophelia's family, but i left in such a hurry that i forgot to bring the directions.

3. i got lost trying to find the hobby center.

4. after the show, i got lost going home and ended up driving for double the amount of time it should have taken.

5. i woke up today at 7:30 and left by 7:50 so i could get to a class at 11:00, but then i got pulled over for speeding, going 83 in a 70.

6. i got to class at 10:55, looked around, and realized that my class is at 12:30, not 11:00.

7. i'm an idiot.

2007-09-06T16:36:00.001-05:00

the book report(s)
so way back at the beginning of the year i made a half-whole-hearted commitment to read a book a season. for you quick people out there, yes, that equals 4. and lo and behold, i've gosh darn done it! so this post is not here for proof of my reading abilities, nay, it is for the benefit of all the readers out there who might be looking for something good to read. or want to discuss a book they've already read. book club, anybody?

faith on the edge
by paul tokunaga , kevin blue , amy brooke , robbie f. castleman , bobby gross and jon tran

i read through this book with ophelia, and to be honest, i had started the book before january 1, 2007, but to my defense, i did finish it this year and read every single page. so bugger off. anyhow, this book is published by IV press, and i suppose the general thinking behind it was, the more authors the better.

but it was a book filled with various "real-world" topics that try to get you to find out what it means to truly follow after Jesus in your own life. good book, i recommend it, especially for something like a discipling relationship or in a small group setting. all in all, the book gets a 7.47 out of 10.

kite runner
by khaled hosseini

when i first got this book as a gift from ophelia, i had very mixed feelings. i was glad i had a new book to read, but at the same time, one that goes through the history of afghanistan didn't really get me all psyched up.

but on that infamous spring break trip to new york (the one where jason and i missed our flight), i lugged the book along with me and just couldn't put it down. i finished the entire book in 2 days, and it is a lengthy one. now i can't say that speed reading class my parents made me take way back when never came in handy.

the author does an awe-inspiring job of connecting the reader to the protagonist and uses an amazing sense of irony and connectivity to make the story unbelievable, yet strangely believable, at the same time. i felt as if i was reading an autobiography, even while i knew it was fiction, but the book was just so, powerful. it's just one of those books that you really can't put down -- cliche, i know, but c'mon. it's coming from me. i don't read. period.

there have been at least 3 instances in the past few months that this book has been mentioned in some form or another, the most recent being in a sermon by pastor gideon. and yes, i felt so incredibly intellectual to have read the book before it got popular. and now there's a movie coming out! okay time to calm down before the nerd accusations rain down.

rating? 9.8. yeah, it was that good.

yogi, it ain't over..
by yogi berra and tom horton

last year, the aacm leadership team had a short retreat before school started at the house of one of andy's friends, james. then, on his shelf, i saw this book. i mean, i love sports, and baseball is probably my 3rd favorite sport, and it's a book about yogi berra, perhaps one of the most colorful characters in baseball history. can you REALLY blame me for borrowing the book?

well, andy can. and a few other people still do, but i am convinced that not only did james never notice it was missing, but he would probably never touch the book again in his life after putting it on that shelf. so in essence, i saved the book from a couple layers of dust.

anyhow, i brought this book with me to hong kong this summer, and it sure came in handy. over the entire 3+ weeks of my internship at pwc, my average commute time was about 45 minutes. that is a LOT of time to kill on a subway.

so i started and finished the book. i wouldn't recommend it to everybody, especially those who don't appreciate or understand the game of baseball. it's one of those books, obviously, being an autobiography and all, that y ou gotta be interested in the person to find the book interesting. as for me, i enjoyed the book for the most part, so i'll give it a 6.23.

the catcher in the rye
by j.d. salinger

jason tells me mrs. spradley hates this book. i love it.

yet another book that i conquered during my commute time, this book had a way of making a point without making a point. and there was just something about it that made me want to be an author or reconsider journalism. it wasn't really good or really bad, but in the end, i was glad i had read it. 8.3 rating, i'm feeling generous today.

so that's all for now. if you are interested in reading these books now that i've hyped them up a bit, then you should go check out barnes or amazon. i'm sorry, i have no books to lend out. i didn't bring the first one back to UT with me, jennifer is reading the second one, i feel as if i should return the third one, and the fourth one is jason's.

so until next year, good riddance to reading books (for fun).

2007-08-20T23:19:00.000-05:00

He grabbed a box of puzzle pieces and took a seat on the uncomfortable chair. He had always liked puzzles, mostly because it gave him something to do while still feeling somewhat productive -- no one ever gets nagged on for working on a puzzle.

The cardboard pieces spilled out onto the table. As he flipped over each one, he thought about how the hundreds of individual pieces would somehow fit together to form the final picture. It was this kind of completeness that truly intrigued him, yet it was this same concept that had nearly brought his faith to a crushing fall.

He still vividly remembered that night, when everything had changed. He remembered running with no destination in mind, nothing but a hunger to escape familiarity. He remembered the darting glances from strangers here and there, wondering what was wrong, while still remaining apathetic enough to keep their distance. But most of all he remembered the one word that would haunt him for days to come -- why.

Nothing happens without a reason, and he had simply longed for a reason, any reason. Something to make things click so his world would make sense again.

He was halfway done with his puzzle. His back ached and his neck was sore, but he couldn't stop. The picture was beginning to take shape.

Days had turned into weeks, and he had grown accustomed to puppeting through the motions. A church service here, a fellowship there, he made his appearances, but deep down inside, he knew his heart had gone cold.

Then one night another word stuck with him -- crucified. Crucified. And just as suddenly as it had appeared, it suddenly vanished. With the thought of someone so righteous being crucified on a cross for a people so evil, any remaining doubt turned to dust. Unswerving anger turned to overwhelming peace. So many times Jesus had been faithful, yet with the first sight of trouble, his desperation for answers had blinded him to his own faith.

He seized the final puzzle piece and tucked it in into its rightful place. He looked down, disappointed. He had spent hours slaving away at the puzzle, only to find that it had several pieces missing.

But then he smiled. Perhaps it was the way it should be -- for now, at least.

And he got up and left the waiting room.

2007-08-18T20:51:00.000-05:00

He knew the words that would spill out of her mouth before even a whisper escaped her lips. He tried to look her in the eyes but found it to be damn near impossible, so he gazed out the window, desperately hoping for something, anything, to catch his attention and distract his thoughts.

It was at that blurry-eyed moment when his world shifted. Everything became nothing. All the past arguments seemed petty; all the hope for improvement, tardy; all the future plans, pointless.

He didn't know how to react, so he did the only thing he could -- he left.

2007-08-05T20:19:00.001-05:00

coca-cola ftw
so after about 5 weeks in hong kong, i completed my trip around the globe with a pitstop in los angeles, california for a few days, where alby and timmy were gracious hosts. there was one day in particular that is currently up for nomination to make my top 10 days of ALL TIME (emphasis added) list: july 26, 2007 -- a day whose legend will live on forever. or at least for a while.

okay who am i kidding. that's not nearly enough hype. this day was so awesome that both alby and timmy, naturally very nice and kind-hearted people, have resorted to borderline assault and harrassment, IMing me about 5 times each day saying nothing but..

actually, it's easier to just show you.

chuiCHUI train (12:05:02 AM): blogtime
chuiCHUI train (11:20:21 PM): blogtime?
chuiCHUI train (7:24:56 PM): blogtime?
chuiCHUI train (1:51:57 AM): blogtime?
chuiCHUI train (3:29:51 PM): blogtime
chuiCHUI train (7:48:05 PM): blogtime?

and i'm pretty sure some of the unmentioned messages and facebook wall posts could be classified as threats. lawsuit please?

but let's get this party started before "that day has disappeared into history and we have no proof of its existence." overdramatic much?

timmy's coca-cola friend was working at the fair, and you know i can't turn down turkey legs and funnel cake, so we all decked out in coca-cola gear to pose as employees so we could get in for free. don't we look professional?

i have to admit, i had my doubts about our chances of filtering through the gates, as i was more than ready to pay the $6 admission fee. timmy had one of them official "i'm somebody" badges attatched to the hip, so i knew he could get himself in, but in the back of my mind i half-expected him to turn around, point at alby and i, and rat us out. but timmy proved to be clutch and sweet-talked all three of us into paradise.

i must admit i felt a bit on the rebellious side. i mean, think about it. this was like, using a fake ID to get into a baller club. except for the fact that this baller club WAS A FREAKIN' FAIR! i was like a kid in a candy shop, didn't know what to get first. then reality set in and i realized i still had a stomach virus, so i just got a huge lemonade and an excessively large pile of chili-cheese fries.

but of course, the fair saved the best for last. after we had circled the place for a bit, we were headed for the exit when i got one of my cravings for dippin dots. so i skip over to the stand, and gaze at the menu as i weigh the delicious options. one of the 2 girls working there noticed my gorgeous crocs and commented on them. hook, line, and sinker. she then saw my name-brand coca-cola outfit and asked what we were doing there. i said we were just dropping some equipment off, nice and cool so she wouldn't suspect we were just there to beat the system.

the girl gave a disappointing "oh" and said that if we had been giving away some cool stuff, then she could hook us up with some free dippin dots. WHAT? free dippin dots. COME AGAIN? YEAH, FREE DIPPIN DOTS.

luckily i kept my composure and looked down at my hands. hey, whaddya know, i was still carrying 2 free x-large coca-cola tshirts that i was supposed to give out. CAN YOU SAY, DEAL OF THE CENTURY?

so the total amount of grand larceny breaks down like this:
parking - $5
admission for 2 - $12
dippin dots - $5.50
masquerading as coca-cola employees to sneak into the fair - priceless

after this start to the day, things were looking mighty good. we hit up huntington beach next. the weather was perfect as usual, sunny with a high of 75, and the water was nice and cold. we tired ourselves out throwing the football around and playing 2 versus 1 volleyball, interrupted only by the occasional business call for timmy. yeap, this is timmy, hard at work.

we drove back to LA and made a pitstop at jamba juice to try some of their secret flavors. did you know they had secret flavors? well now you do! all you gotta do is ask about them. alby and i tried white gummy bear and timmy got strawberry shortcake. it tasted like a gummy bear and all, but personally, imma stick with the originals cuz you know i ain't big on variety.

anything that is free is a good thing. a ne-yo concert is a good thing by itself, but when it's free? that's called a bargain. heard him sing a couple of his recent hits then "an oldie but a goodie" with "so sick," the song that has been stuck in my head for years, but i always just assumed mario sang it. sorry ne-yo.

after hearing that song, i went to hit the venice beach courts "white men can't jump" style. btw i just saw that movie for the first time. how come none of you fools told me what i've been missing for the past decade?! holding out on me, you lil weiners.

a recurring topic in los angeles was what i like to call the food scale. it's really fun and interesting and also a good way to pass some time and get hunger attacks. anyways, so basically everyone has a scale ranging from 1 to 10, and then you name a food, and everyone says where they would put that item of food on their scale. for instance, i gave benihana's fried rice a 10 out of 10. that's right -- it's that good. or at least it usually is. the one is los angeles was slackin'.

but i digress. the concert was over, and it was suddenlyl dinner time. if you never had a frito burrito from taco bell before, i kinda feel sorry for you right off the bat. those things are so delicious they should be illegal. they were one of those off-the-menu-but-pros-know-they-make-them deals for a while, but now they just stop serving them altogether. on my food scale, i gave them a solid 7.5.

as i am typing this, my mouth is watering for some frito burritos. so anyhow, we went to a nearby albertson's and bought fritos, fajitas, ground beef, cheese, and an onion (and some guacamole for the appetizer). simple ingredients, amazing results. these babies were scrumptious! wow did i just say babies? i feel like mike tyson.

to end this wonderful day, we watched the rose bowl. unfortunately, alby and i were so exhausted that we passed out before vince's last 2 touchdowns. whoops. well, i blame it on that cushion thing. and naturally, timmy seized the opportunity and took a picture of us.

what a day.

now guys, i did it. you see, patience is a virtue. where was the fire? sheesh.

FYI for those of you who don't know, FTW means For The Win. you have been enlightened.

2007-07-20T13:01:00.000-05:00

pinch me?
i finished my 4th book in record time, but the book report can wait.

if daryl morey ran for president, i would vote for him. every day and twice on fridays.

2007-07-10T01:34:00.000-05:00

75 percent
"i think i've been averaging about a book and a half a year. but this year, it's time to up the ante to a book a season. any recommendations? let's start a book trade club thingie. anyone interested?"
can anyone guess where that is from? props if you can. it's from my january 2, 2007 blog post, duh. (is it weird that i am quoting myself?)

well every once in a while i like looking back on old posts, and this time i had a reason for doing it. i have just finished my third book of this calendar year. impressed much?

i figure i'll wait til i finish my fourth book before i do a book report type deal, but the book was "the catcher in the rye." you ever read one of those books that makes you want to be a writer? well, this book did the trick for me.

i don't know why, anything from being a sports columnist to a mystery book author sounds superb right now. is this just a phase?

either way, i figure i may start with writing a few short stories on here. so consider this post somewhat of a disclaimer of things to come. i just don't want anyone being confused as to what the heck i am writing about because from now on, i write fiction too!

2007-07-03T05:54:00.000-05:00

a sore thumb
in africa, the two words i heard a dozen times each day were:
1) mzungu
2) wazungu

why? in swahili, "mzungu" means "white person." and, you guessed it, "wazungu" means "white people." pretty much all foreigners were regarded as white.

it was pretty futile trying to fit in in kenya and uganda, so i didn't bother trying. i was too light-skinned to be regarded as anywhere close to a local.

then i come to hong kong, thinking people will see me as just another canto bro, but nope. i am now too dark-skinned to be regarded as anywhere close to a local.

los angeles is next on my list, and i am pretty sure i will fit right in there.

fit right in with the latino population. como estas?

2007-06-28T04:37:00.001-05:00

draft day
oh, talk about butterflies. tomorrow is nba draft day, and a very highly anticipated draft day at that. there have been so many trade rumors and hype and hopes and wishes, and tomorrow everyone will see whether all of their dreams have come true.

here's some random predictions that i will make now so i will either look like an insightful genius or a complete fool come tomorrow night:

1. portland has first pick, and while they really should pick durant, all signs point to them taking the safe route aka oden.

2. seattle will go with durant. easiest. choice. ever. (and next year's rookie of the year, by the way)

3. atlanta: trade pick

4. memphis: al horford

5. boston: yi jianlian

...26. houston: HOPEFULLY the pick gets traded along with a package of expiring contracts and whatnot to the pacers for ike diagu and another player. i know we have a new man at the helm and all, but after reviewing the rockets' terrible history in the draft, i really just want to get that pick as far away from our hands as possible. i don't want another bryce drew or eddie griffin or malick badiane or (insert name here) happening.

it's your time, mr. morey.

git r done!

2007-06-26T06:49:00.000-05:00

short and simple
i got to see ophelia for the first time in 3 weeks on saturday. then she left on sunday and i won't see her for another 5 weeks. woe is me.

BUT, the one day i did get to see her, it was our 1 year anniversary!

happy one year =)

i'm still working in hong kong, and though it's tiring at times, i suppose it is all still very worth it. the 40-minute commute can be rather lengthy though.

here's a picture of the canton stampede that happens every day on the way to work in the morning and every day on the way home in the evening.

newfound fun thing to do: one of the best feelings in the world is just making it onto a subway train. and when i say "just making it," i mean stepping through when the doors are sliding closed indiana jones style.

of course, at the same time, a newfound pet peeve is just missing a subway train.

oh and one more pet peeve.

i think this one is self-explanatory.

2007-06-21T05:57:00.000-05:00

man of my word
so today being my second day of work, and me promising to post about my first day, here it is.

my cousin, hill, had shown me the route to get to work the day before, so following instructions was a breeze.

speaking of a breeze, i sure wish there was one. hong kong weather right now is like houston's worst x 10, if you can imagine it. the best part of this story is that i didn't know what i was supposed to wear. so, wanting to be professional on my first day, i wore a full suit.

it's about a 35 minute commute, and with about 5 minutes to go, i was sweating like a turkey before thanksgiving. i was walking like a stickman so my clothes wouldn't stick to me. you know, i had to find the perfect medium between not walking fast enough to make me sweat even more and not walking slow enough to make the trip last any longer than it had to.

at last i emerged from the subway station, only to see this.

as much fun as it looked, i didn't have time to join them. i went to the building, went up the elevator, and was greeted by a chinese man behind a counter. i couldn't decide whether to talk to him in cantonese or english or mandarin or spanish or pig latin, so i waited until he spoke first.

he asked me if i was there to work. i said yes. then he gave me a sign-in sheet and asked me to write my chinese name. i hesitated for a second, but i was clutch and able to pull through. there's 10+ years of chinese school for ya!

went into another room, met 3 other interns, and then watched an introduction video. and for anyone who might be wondering, every big 4 firm uses the same actor for the video.

after getting a computer and stuff like that, i had to move to another building, prince's building, WHICH HAS NO A/C!

just kidding. but wouldn't that be something.

after a quick tour, i'm told which audit i will be working on, and then i join the team. i meet a nice girl named irene who starts giving me my first assignment. she speaks very quickly, and then she starts pointing at some chinese characters. i give a face.

after a short conversation explaining why i can't read, i start my work. oh yeah, by the way, this entire time i have been running off of 2 hours of sleep because of jetlag and a stomachache the night before. the rest of the day was rather uneventful, and i somehow managed to stay awake thanks to two of my suddenly good friends, caffeine and adrenaline.

so there is my first day in a nutshell. oh and just in case you were wondering, today (my second day), i made a new friend on the bus. everyday i take a shuttle bus from my aunt/uncle's place to the MTR station. today's buddy was named sam, and he is in form 1. we chatted for a bit during the 8 minute ride, but right when we got to the station, sam went canton on me and jumped up off his seat to race off the bus. i thought i had scared him off, but then when i got off the bus, the kid was there waiting for me and we got to talk for a few minutes more on his way to school. 1 new friend yesterday, 1 new friend today -- what a pace! so begins my hk-changing mission.

oh also in today's news -- today i found out that i am working for peanuts. less than US minimum wage. i probably should have done the math earlier.

2007-06-20T09:46:00.000-05:00

h to the kizzle
something about cantons and large transportation vehicles -- they just can't wait to board.

my flight to hk was on monday, and i had a connecting flight in newark that was supposed to leave at 3pm. it got delayed until 6:00, but that didn't stop all the asians in the entire northeastern region of the united states to congregate in front of the gate like there was a sale at welfarm.

then when one of the continental airlines people finally announced that they would begin letting people on the airplane, there was a mad dash to the front of the line. i'm pretty sure a couple innocent americans were trampled under the stampede of yellow legs.

what's the rush?? i really didn't get it. actually, even now, i still don't get it. it just doesn't make any sense. first of all, you should know by now that they always let the people with seats in the back of the plane board first. second of all, is there a secret prize given to the first 10 passengers on the plane that i don't know about??

i gave everyone the benefit of the doubt and told myself that it was just because the flight was delayed for so long, and people just wanted to sit in the nice, comfortable chairs that you can't recline until the plane is in the air.

but no. this same theory applies to every transportation device known to mankind. when the subway comes in hk, there is no such thing as common courtesy of letting the people inside get off first. of course, it would make too much sense to both free up space inside and make sure the people don't miss their stop. instead, it is an all-out war, with faces pushed up against the glass, limbs flying everywhere, blood and guts, the gnashing of teeth, you name it.

and the weirdest thing about it is, people rush inside just to..stand there. silently. in fact, if you do as much as say hello to your neighbor, they wonder if something is wrong with you.

freaking cantons. why the awkwardness? what's the use of piling inside just to give each other blank stares?

well i'm going to change hong kong. one reluctant, weirded out person at a time. so i got another 32 days here, let the humanizing process begin!

tune in tomorrow to find out about my 1st day of work. gotta keep ya coming back for more.

2007-06-18T15:31:00.000-05:00

the people have spoken
and apparently everyone wants a post. or more cowbell, i forget.

kenya was amazing. i've sent out an email to all my supporters, but if i happened to miss you or you haven't heard anything yet, i'll just share this one story with you here. kind of a sneak peek. and then you can decide whether or not you want to ask or pay for more.

Robert's Vision
The team had the opportunity to visit a village near Jinja, which is the source of the Nile River. Once there, we were asked if everyone on the team was saved. We said yes, then we were paired up, given the help of a translator, and sent off. Simple as pie.

I have to admit it was a bit overwhelming at first because we were all taken by surprise. I was introduced to the people I met as a "preacher from America," which was kind of weird until I realized I was a preacher from America. I ended up meeting a man named Robert, who was hanging out at the village pub. When he saw me and Sarah, he immediately told us about a dream he had the day before about the two of us arriving in his village and said he was ready to follow Jesus. So we started talking, and eventually Robert led us to his home, where we met and prayed with his family.

It was amazing being a witness to Robert committing his life to God, but it was even more amazing knowing that God had once again gone ahead of me to pave the way.

well there ya go. and a picture to boot!

for those of you who have already read this story, i can't let you walk away feeling shortchanged, can i? so here's a picture for ya'll.

i am currently in hong kong, just fyi. so if anyone is or will be in the area, gimme a holler.

more posts to come.

2007-05-28T16:58:00.001-05:00

in case you were wondering..
first things first, jason graduated. i believe congratulations are in order.

sigh time really flies. has it really been four years since i graduate high school? geez.

well moving on.

abridged version:
may 29 - june 14 : kenya/uganda
june 15 - june 17 : houston
june 18 - july 23 : hong kong
july 24 - july 31 : los angeles

a (little) longer version:
so i'm leaving for africa tomorrow. the feeling is a bit strange, but i'll get used to it soon enough. i feel mostly prepared to leave, except for a few more errands to run and a few more things to take care of. this time around, i just want to remember. remember everything. because i think you remember things you have a heart for, and i want to come back home with a huger heart for the places i see and the people i meet. i don't want it to just be a short 2-week stint where i go there, do my thing, and come back and live exactly the same way i did before i left. i want to be changed somehow.

through some family connections, i got hooked up with an internship in hong kong with pricewaterhouse coopers. more or less, it's a good reason to go back to hong kong and see some family and friends. oh, and it should also be a good experience too, or so i hear. i'm definitely looking forward to it. anyone else gonna be in the area?

my internship ends on july 13, so after a few more days in hong kong, i'll be flying over to LA to visit timmy and alby. hopefully we can squeeze in a short trip to vegas too. hopefully this will be a perfect end to a long time away from home. anyone gonna be in cali at the same time? let me know.

anyhow, i've got a lot on my mind and even more stuff to do, so peace out, playas. i'll see ya when i see ya.

2007-05-21T00:17:00.000-05:00

I think I'm gonna take a little break from the year-by-year nostalgia. Partly because the posts take a lot out of me -- physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, you name it. And the other partly because I figure I can do the same thing kind of faster through facebook. So here's my first facebook photo album ever: click here!

Enjoy!

2007-05-14T01:43:00.000-05:00

1st is the worst, 2nd is the best?
sophomore slump? maybe, just maybe it's true. i came in knowing there would be some trouble, some drama, but as always, the good times outweigh the bad.

i think this was the year i learned the most. or the year that really got me pulled back down to earth. i figured out that i'm really not perfect. actually, i'm nowhere even close, but little by little, i learned that that was okay.

this is the year we took over a hallway. jester 5th floor, on the side opposite what used to be called chinatown -- the elevators.

IM football was awesome. on a team led by simeon and weili, just let the good times roll. remember that one night when we pulled a mattress out into the hallway to practice touchdown celebrations and/or front flips? and then we moved it to the elevators to get more room? good times.

oh the wrestling. or at least this one glorious night. me, simon, and xiao, wwf style, with peter as the cameraman. chokeslams, clotheslines, chest slaps, pedigrees, and frog splashes all over the place. i don't think i've ever sweated so much in my life. the night finally ended when xiao stepped on a banana.

and let's just call this year the year of the birthdays, because those are the moments i remember best from my sophomore year. starting with..

peter's birthday. i don't remember how, but we got a good number of people out to jester courtyard in the middle of a frosty night to try to spell out "happy bday" with our bodies. i'm not sure if it worked out too well, but you can be the judge of that. after that, we went to make ice cream for his birthday. most of it tasted good. the rest, let's just say it's not worth it eating bad ice cream when you're already lactose-intolerant.

my birthday was like talent show part 1. well, there certainly were enough acts for it. it was like a surprise skit night or something, and man, did i feel loved. from songs to skits to even a video feed, it was a great night. it was funny too, because i remember i didn't even know half of the freshmen who were there. they were probably like, who died and left this guy in charge?

jenny's birthday? haha usually i would say no to a bunch of half-naked guys, but for this idea (i can't remember who thought it up), i just couldn't turn it down. perfectly planned, perfectly executed. i especially loved meson's contribution.

spring break in jackson, mississippi. great bonding time with the boys. and rachelle, being the only aacm girl there. i think we probably scared her off a bit. i just remember john sleeba constantly coming in to our rooms when we were piled on one bed resting with a camera in hand and a goofy smile. i think he meant to use those pics as blackmail later on, not knowing that everyone already knew we were like this. funny guy.

let's get back to the birthdays. mr. phillip lee time! here's a recap. some kids brought him up to the top of the jester parking garage where there was a car. phil, knowing it was his birthday, thought they were going to some ice cream place, where he would get "surprised" there. so they're walking up to the car, and lex just happened to be in crutches since he had injured himself earlier that week, and he asked phil to put his crutches in the trunk of the car. so phil pops open the trunk, only to find a screaming jenny wong with 2 water balloons in hand. "aaahhhh!" she yelled. it was a battlecry reminiscient of braveheart, as water balloons started raining in from the overhanging bridge. then more cries as people pour out the side of the garage, eager for some destruction of their own. and just when phil thought the party was over, 4 people with bags of flour in hand douse him head to toe. so THAT'S how you make dough. thanks phil.

then finally there's xiao. apparently i did not know this guy at all, because i never thought that this plan even had a chance to work. so titus started playing starcraft with xiao on his birthday, and then this girl named xxlilangelxx joins too. they play for a while, and then chat in between games. long story short, titus convinces xiao to invite the girl, "eyvonne," to jcl for a late snack. she obliges, and says that she will be wearing red. so xiao heads downstairs and into the courtyard, only to find all of his friends wearing red and laughing hysterically at him. then he finds out that eyvonne is really alex fan. you know, i would feel sorry for the kid, but no, i just can't bring myself to do it. i don't know him.

man all this stuff was so long ago, i can't believe it. let's just end this segment with, what else, senior farewell. it's crazy the stuff peter and i can come up with late at night with nothing to do. but it's even crazier how people will go along with it. the place was definitely alive with the sound of sophomores, as we performed our first musical -- the sound of music. matching unis, 4 songs, it was cute. just like our class. cute.

man i don't know if i can do many more of these posts. these things are bringing back some tear-jerking memories.

2007-05-01T03:41:00.000-05:00

i'm a fish hear me roar
you know, it's about that time.

things have just been sneaking up on me all over the place. why didn't anyone tell me this week was the last week of classes already? i'm pretty sure someone is in charge of stuff like this.

anyway, as my 4th year in college is coming to an end, i'd like to take a quick look back on each year. look back on the laughs and the tears -- i want all of it back. honestly, it has gone by way too fast.

freshman year was all about just having fun. i was a small fish in a big pond, but i still felt like the king of the jungle. the late night food runs every day with the honorary non-freshman/upperclassman, the endless nights of playing goldminer, doing everything with johanna and titus.

this was the year that titus really found his love for basketball. he came in as a scrub, i gotta admit, but four years later, he is the most improved player for sure. he gets the monta ellis award in my book.

i remember spending so many nights at san jac that the front desk guy tried to ban me. he knew me by face and name, and even though i tried my darndest to befriend him, he would have none of it. by the way, i am the sole reason that san jac now has a limit on how many nights someone can be signed in for a semester, i kid you not.

shaving our heads. what a cultish move, but i loved it. no holds barred freshman year.

remember after every large group all of us freshmen would parade down to pho? looking back, we were such fools, but we didn't care. this was when our class really started to display our musical talents, you know, pre-lion king. we would sing backstreet boys songs in the middle of the restaurant. we even got song requests.

every so often us JPG's would joke around about breaking out of AACM, then CBS, and forming our own fellowship. you know, joke around in that half-serious kind of way. we saw so many things that were wrong with how things were going, but we decided to stick with it and try to fix things instead of leaving. what a decision that turned out to be.

i met alby, the guy who didn't go to UT but was always in town anyways. johanna would always ask me about it later, how me and him were friends after only a day or something, but i just told her it was a guy thing. you know, guys get a bad rap for not understanding girls, but i gotta tell ya, we usually know more than you think. it's the way girls don't understand guys that truly perplexes me.

JPG's stuck together. we took what we had in high school and transferred it to college life. life was good. we were the new kids on the block, and we were definitely here to stay.

for senior farewell, we started a tradition with our class that has gone to rather epic proportions. i loved how everyone came out and just did whatever was asked of them. shameless, we thought. but then again, it's all relative.

what can i say? my class was, is, and will always be the shiznit. hands down. that is all for now -- come back later.

2007-04-25T18:12:00.000-05:00

now back to utah for the sweep?!

2007-04-23T00:05:00.000-05:00

2007-04-16T16:16:00.000-05:00

We live in a jacked-up world -- pray for Virginia Tech.

2007-04-03T16:40:00.000-05:00

step aside, oscar
You gotta go into a movie with some sort of status quo to compare the film to. Therefore, it's taken a considerable amount of time, but I have composed my official "top 10 movies of all time not counting the movies I have never seen" list. So from now on, every movie director out there will have a spot on this list as their primary motivation for creating a quality movie.

Feel free to let me know if you think any movies were mistakingly left off.

1. Love Actually
2. Hitch
3. The Prestige
4. The Butterfly Effect
5. Ocean's Eleven
6. Braveheart
7. The Usual Suspects
8. Zoolander
9. Moulin Rouge
10. US Marshals

Why would anyone want an Oscar when you can get a Mok?

2007-03-23T15:05:00.000-05:00

NYCSB
new york city spring break.

our flight was supposed to be at 7:30pm monday, but when we got to the gate it had been delayed til 8:00. the waiting area was rather full, and i don't think my brother likes sitting next to strangers, so we sat at a neighboring gate. there was an intercom system that was blasting information about all the surrounding gates, so we figured it would notify us of any changes in the flight schedule. at 7:45 or so, we went back to check, and watched as the flight got delayed from 8:00 to 8:45. with a sigh, we headed back to our seats. at about 8:25 i went back again to check. imagine my disbelief when the gate no longer said new york, but new orleans. this has gotta be some sorta joke, right? the waiting area was still bustling with people. so i go to check the monitors displaying all the flight schedules, and my flight is nowhere to be seen.

what's going on? where'd everybody go? am i being punk'd?

i head back to the gate and ask the lady where all the peoples at. she asks to see my ticket, looks it over, then hands it back to me, saying the plane had already taken off.

i wasn't sure whether to laugh or sob. so i laughed, and headed back to where jason was waiting.

me: let's go, we missed our flight.
jason: no we didn't.
me: seriously, we missed our flight. it took off already.
jason: no.
me: our flight's gone!
jason: i don't believe you.

well i guess seeing is believing cuz a few minutes later he was laughing too. i mean, what am i, the boy who cried wolf or something? why would anyone not believe me?

so we go to the service desk and i told the lady there about our situation. she told me that all flights going into jfk were booked for the rest of the week. AWESOME! but she told me i could standby for a flight into a different airport leaving within an hour. i questioned how long the standby list was. she said it was very lengthy. AWESOME!

as another lady was helping jason print his standby ticket, she asked what had happened to make us miss our flight. we had explained everything in rather full detail to the first lady, but she simplified things by saying, "they were at the wrong gate."

i have never felt so smart in my life.

miraculously we end up getting the last 2 tickets onto the flight, even though we were on the 3rd page of the list. what are the odds?

details are tiring. i think pictures will suffice for the rest of this post, alongside brief descriptions.

boston university looks like my brother's top choice, so we visited the campus. my brother is convinced that the person who took the 2nd picture for us left thinking we were partners, if you know what i mean.

i don't think i could ever work or live in new york city. it's just too busy for my taste. i mean you spend just a little time down in the subway and you realize that the city is just too fast-paced and busy for anyone to take the time to take pictures like this.

we also did a bit of shopping there. this is the stylish jacket that i purchased. i like it.

overall it was a very enjoyable trip. much thanks to our host, eddie, and all the people we met up with there, who will probably never venture to read this blog.

2007-03-20T16:29:00.000-05:00

note the changes
this post is dedicated to informing you, the reader, of some of the changes that are happening in both my life and the world that we live in.

with the emergence of spring break, my internship with kpmg has come to an abrupt end, which means no more cash flow entering my wallet for a while. yesterday was mmy first day of class in quite a while as i discovered that i do in fact still remember how to get to the business school.

as far as work goes, i am contemplating over whether or not to accept a job offer for kpmg houston, which would start after i graduate next year. oh and since i am no longer working, this blog will no longer be "updated every workday. usually" to "calm down i will update this thing whenever i get the chance or whenever i have something to post, whichever comes first."

going back to school is great. not really, who am i kidding. 3 hours of class each day monday through thursday is not exactly the dream scenario, but i'll live. it's just super tiring sitting in the same seat for 3 hours at a time. hm, i wonder how i survived work life, working 8-12 hours at a time..?

oh and i don't know if i missed the memo or what, but where the heck did the periodicals section of the PCL go? what's going on back there? i guess i haven't been in a while, but for some reason or another i ventured into perry casteneda's domain this afternoon only to find the entire section blocked off. i felt so lost, so..betrayed. i knew going to the library was and always will be a mistake.

then i tried to go to j2 piano lounge to do some studying, but little did i know that apparently that place also doubles as an oven for baking cookies. i was there for less than 5 minutes and i swear i saw people using it as a sauna.

so i decided to give up on the whole "studying" thing and just walk home. as i strolled past the st. austin's catholic school behind guadalupe, i once again overcame the urge to go own up in their daily game of dodgeball. or maybe i was just distracted by their new unis.

(quick story. last semester i took cms306m, which is a speech class. whenever i hadda give a speech, i also had to dress up. problem is i didn't have any dressy clothes up here in austin. so i borrowed a shirt here, a pair of pants there, you know, just trying to mix and match to the best of my ability. one day i borrowed hao's red shirt, and jonle's khaki pants, and all was well except the clothes weren't exactly the best fit. then i ventured into jester and some mean girls mentioned that i looked like a kid from st. austin's.)

maybe the school is like the nba where they have special days that they wear alternate jerseys, or maybe throwback jerseys for the old school st. austin's look, but today all the kids were wearing white shirts! it was nuts! if they had't have been caged into that asphalt playground, i wouldn't have been able to tell any of them apart from some really small UT freshmen.

have i been gone too long? has everything changed? what's going on?

oh and speaking of changes..

2007-03-05T23:44:00.001-06:00

The Monkeyballers would like to thank all of the employees who helped make this year's "Final Hurrah" all the more memorable. We would also like to give a shoutout to the many fans who have come out to support the team over the past 3 years.

and another of my favorite photos from the final hurrah:

It's been a good run, has it not?

2007-03-01T18:15:00.001-06:00

In light of Fara’s birthday on Tuesday, how about a serious post? Yeah?

Talent Show was this past weekend, and I believe many prayers were answered -- not only with a great production, but with a great response.

The goal of the show was to dare people to move. We even had a speaker flown in from Chicago in order to share his testimony with the 1000+ in attendance.

I thought the show was a huge success.

Then I heard some comments about how people felt “tricked” to hearing a sermon, and an “offensive” sermon at that.

I've been thinking and thinking and thinking. The word "trick" is a very tricky word. But the more I think about it, the more I believe that this would only be true if we gave off the impression that we were some sort of talent agency that did nothing but put on nice talent shows.

But, alas, we are in fact Asian American Campus Ministry. Granted, not many people knew there would be a speaker, but the topic of the entire night was AIDS, and I think Christopher's testimony flowed seamlessly with the rest of the night.

So that brings us to the bigger issue. People were offended. Some non-believers were offended. Some believers were offended because some non-believers were offended. Some believers were offended by themselves. I can't say for sure what people's circumstances or feelings are, but I can only ask a simple, yet loaded question. Where should the line be drawn between being bold for Christ and being offensive?

Here's my two cents. Chances are if someone is sharing a story as powerful and life-changing as the one that was shared Saturday night, someone is bound to get rubbed off the wrong way. That's just how it is. With someone who came from a life of drugs, premarital sex, homosexuality -- three things which I'm sure most of the audience there could somehow relate to -- there will be one point in the story where a decision must be made. God, or the other stuff? Christopher shared that he chose God.

Yeah, I guess you could say that that was an overly simplified version of the circumstances, but so what? I think Christians nowadays are too scared to step across that PC line. The last thing we want to do is, God forbid, "offend" someone.

I believe the story of Jesus and what it takes to follow after Him is one that is never about being nice and getting along with everyone. Should we just skip the parts in the Bible where Jesus called people out? Where He overturned tables in the temple? Where He was angry?

A few weeks ago at large group we were taught to speak the truth in love, and i think Saturday night was a tremendous example of this.

2007-02-26T19:56:00.000-06:00

aacmaballers, shotcallers,
20 inch blades, on the impala,
ballers, lookin' good tonight,
yell it out loud as we count to five!

1..2..3..4..5..

AACMABALLERS!

2007-02-22T18:03:00.000-06:00

lucky #8!

2007-02-21T13:16:00.000-06:00

i want a baby
i am convinced it is almost impossible to watch this video without at least smiling once.
what a good break from work.

speaking of babies, the senior manager at my job here has a wife who is pregnant with their first child. it's very exciting. but you know what's more exciting? adding gambling to the equation.

so last week we took $5 wagers around the office of the specific time of birth as well as the baby's measurements.

here's my winning ticket:

2/22/07
5:01 pm
7 lb 6 oz
22 inches

i really have no knowledge of babies at all, so i just picked numbers that are familiar to me, such as the fact that yao ming is 7'6". either way, i'm pretty gosh darn confident in my answers -- easiest $50 i will ever make in my life.

yesterday i asked my senior manager if he would let me name his son once i won the bet.

he chuckled.

i stood there for another 10 seconds until i realized the conversation was over, and then i walked back to my cube.

i'm still not sure what that response meant, so maybe i'll ask him again tomorrow.

2007-02-20T13:33:00.000-06:00

hit the road, jack
driving with penny is more or less a request for scratched skin, torn clothing, and a j-lo buttload of patience.

after driving to houston on friday night with penny refusing to stay calm in the car, i figured the ride back to austin would be better. she had to have gotten used to it, right?

nope. she firmly rejects the nice bed i had made for her on the passenger seat, so i just decide to let her sit in my lap the entire ride.

unfortunately, the good ol' civic was low on juice, so i had to stop to fill her up.

i hop back in the car, ready to hurry back to campus to coach the aacmaballers, but penny is nowhere to be found. i even check the glove compartment, though i'm still not sure why. i finally look under my seat, and there she is -- nestled in the crevice of arguably the dirtiest and dustiest place in the entire car.

it takes me a total of 12.14 minutes to yank her out from under there, and i would have totally confused her for a huge dustball if it wasn't for the purring. but back on the road we go..

2 minutes later, apparently my lap isn't good enough for her anymore, so she claws into my chest and just starts climbing. she gets to the top of the mountain known as my torso and decides to set up camp. i will convenient provide you with visual evidence of this situation in order to show you the full extent of the circumstances thereof.

in hindsight, i probably should not have taken these pictures because it was most likely during this 2 minutes or so that i miss the exit from i-10 to highway 71. then everything starts looking more and more unfamiliar, until finally i call up ophelia to see if she knows the exit i'm supposed to take. she tells me it's exit #295.

sweet! i haven't missed it yet!

"oh, but the numbers are counting down. so if your exit number is less than 295, then you've passed it already."

i was at exit 265.

2007-02-15T20:41:00.000-06:00

kenichi!
you know i had mentioned the place was too crowded.

there was just enough room for one waitress to get by at a time, and if one thing went wrong, you could picture a disastrous domino effect with everyone sitting within breath-smelling distance of each other.

we had enjoyed a delicious meal and were just waiting for the pineapple upside down cake to top everything off.

enter a waitress from the right side with a tray in hand. she came over to our table, looked down at us, and asked if we had ordered a drink. ophelia and i looked up at her, then at each other, then up at her again, shaking our heads no.

the waitress was confused. with a puzzled look on her face, she started backing up, but i see it all in slow motion. from the left comes the restaurant manager, but he's looking over at the kitchen..

even the best fall down sometimes
even the wrong words seem to rhyme
out of the doubt that fills my mind
we somehow find you and i collide

so they howieday-ed, and the glass of red wine just tips me over and pours me out.

all on the right side of ophelia's beautiful head.

when it was all said and done, somehow i also got splashed with red all the way across the table.

free dinner, free dry-cleaning..i guess you could say a memorable valentine's day?

2007-02-14T13:36:00.000-06:00

look how happy this kid is..

you know why?

cuz it's valentine's day!

have a good one.

2007-02-12T17:33:00.000-06:00

ransom?
when i got to work today, i saw this on my seat:

i'm not sure if you all will understand this, but over the span of the past 4 weeks of my internship, i have grown quite attached to my office supplies.

i didn't get my goodies back until 2pm today =(

2007-02-08T14:46:00.000-06:00

the sandwich
today I woke up 10 minutes earlier than usual so that I could make myself a sandwich for lunch.

cheese meat, cheese cheese meat, and that's it. (baby you know it's hot and juicy. and jack won't make it til you order it.) anyhow, so i make a delicious sandwich, and I even add a few strips of lettuce in there for nutrition's sake (although I hear that lettuce has no nutritional value).

i roll into the office at 8:45 and proceed to place my delcious home-made sandwich in the mini-fridge.

3.24 hours later, it's time for lunch. I excitedly take out my sandwich, only to find that it is ice cold. ice ice, baby.

turns out i put my beloved sandwich in the wrong, forbidden section of the fridge, and it was nearly frozen.

this is what i get for trying to be healthy. i want that 10 minutes of sleep back.

2007-02-07T22:58:00.000-06:00

IM basketball
Here's this year's basketball schedule for yours truly. I might be going pro after this year, so catch me while you can! Just kidding.

aacmaballers
Sunday at 2:30
Record: 1-0

yaobute
Sunday at 3:30
Record: 1-0

monkeyballers
Sunday at 11:30
Record: 0-0

old school
Thursday at 8:30
Record: 1-0

JPG's
Thursday at 11:30
Record: 0-0

Stay tuned for news about Monkeyballers' season finale -- you KNOW you don't wanna miss that. Ya heard?

2007-02-01T23:30:00.000-06:00

so..
how bout dem rockets?

all you houston people, if you haven't already done so, just go ahead and hop on the bandwagon now. that way, you'll be able to look down upon the later bandwagoners once the playoffs start.

so tomorrow is my last day working here in monroe. oh btw I learned something new today. monroe is pronounced "mun-row" and not "mon-row." crazy, huh?

anyways, like i was saying, tomorrow's my last day, so tonight we went out to a nice restaurant for my farewell dinner. i really appreciated it, actually. everyone came out for dinner, even this one lady who never joins us for dinner. i felt quite loved.

there's alot of little things I'm going to miss about this place. the people, of course. the food, no doubt. most of all, probably the entire atmosphere. easy-going, yet hard-working. it's an interesting mix.

but one thing I'm looking forward to at my new engagement? 40-hour weeks.

anyways, going home this weekend. deuce.

2007-01-31T10:02:00.000-06:00

“how’s work?”
Lo and behold, the million dollar question.

Or perhaps more pertinent to your sense of curiosity, “What do you actually do all day?”

Well all that praying had paid off because today both of these mind-boggling questions will be answered with tremendous detail, and with pictures to boot.

Work is good.

Okay I’ll elaborate a bit. Don’t mind the cliché, but the past two weeks in Monroe, Louisiana as a KPMG intern have been a great experience. I’ve learned how to interact and work with different people with different personalities and different expectations. I’ve been able to talk to my coworkers about everything ranging from Tony Romo to Jesus Christ. It really is going to be bittersweet leaving here after this week.

So what is it that I do..? In the words of Hitch, nobody knows what I do -- that’s why I get to charge them so much. But in a nutshell, I do whatever they need me to do. I’ve taken a mini road trip to deliver a laptop, made copies, shredded papers, edited work documents, you name it.

Before I begin a short picture blog of a “typical day,” I feel the need to clarify what I’m doing here. I am an audit intern with KPMG, which is one of the Big Four accounting firms, and as an auditor, I never visit the “office” in Austin. Basically everyone is assigned to an “engagement,” which is just a fancier way to say “project.” So right now, I have been assigned to the CenturyTel engagement, which explains why I am sitting at a desk in the audit room in the CenturyTel building in Monroe, Louisiana. Tada!

But without further ado, here is a visual representation of a typical day here. I would call it a liveblog, but it’s not. Anyone ever seen that movie, “Being John Malcovich,” or something like that? Yeah, this is sorta like that. Except you can’t control me.

More or less, right now my life consists of working, eating, and sleeping. I set my alarm for 6:30am, snooze for 20 minutes, then shower and leave the hotel room by ten past seven.

I don’t have a car here, so I carpool with a coworker everyday. Can you carpool without a car? Maybe I’m just jacking a ride to work everyday, that’s probably more correct.

So here is my view from the passenger seat every morning.

We arrive at CenturyTel at approximately 7:28. It’s an outdoor parking lot, so I cherish those few ounces of sunlight as I scurry into the building. For serious, that’s all the sun I get.

I’m supposed to stop at the front desk everyday to get a visitor sticker, but I decided to go covert op style and dodge them for the three weeks that I’m here.

This is the audit room, where I reside for the majority of the day.

More specifically, this is my spot. Sweet landscape, huh?

Like I said, work/eat/sleep. Lunch takes place in this cafeteria downstairs. The food is actually quite delicious, but I seem to be one of the few who believe this. I look forward to lunch every morning.

I work until 7 or 8pm, then a few of us usually go out to eat somewhere as a team. Firm policy is that whenever 3 or more employees eat together, the most senior person picks up the tab. Let me just say this. It’s a good thing we’re accountants and good with numbers because with some of the bills we get at restaurants, you’d think they got the decimal in the wrong spot.

Yesterday we went to Tokyo’s for David’s birthday. David’s the other Asian guy there. Everyone say “happy birthday” to David. Good.

After dinner, it’s about 9 or 10pm – time to return to the hotel to, you guessed it, sleep. I’m not sure why I require 2 beds, but whatever.

So that’s a day in the life of Jonathan Mok in Monroe, Louisiana. Hope it was as time-consuming for you to read as it was for me to write.

2007-01-30T18:05:00.000-06:00

"Meaningless! Meaningless!"
says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless!"
- Ecclesiastes 1:2
Gideon talked about this passage on Sunday, and it's really got me thinking. True, sometimes the processes we go through just seem repetitive because it resembles one endless, inevitable cycle. You go to school to get your degree to get the job to get the security to get married to get the family to get the house to raise the kids to go to school..

Is that it?

If that is all you are living for, then yes. That's it. It is meaningless. If that's all God wanted us to do here on this earth, then that's pretty freaking weak. God's got so much more in store for us. Is it wrong to have all those things? No, it isn't, but they should not be our end goal, in my opinion.

I was talking to Peter about this, and he said we all have to get rid of this bolted-down idea in our minds that "full-time ministry" is the holiest and most glorious option available. In essence, our entire lives should be our "full-time ministry," right?

It bothers me when people are too idealistic in their thinking, but I'm rather sure Ecclesiastes chapter 1 was not meant to turn the world apathetic and cynical. I mean, if everyone just thought "to hey with it, it's all meaningless anyways" and quit their jobs, where would that leave us? Is nobody "called" to the working world, then? I hope that sounds as absurd to you as it does to me because in my mind, you can send as many missionaries to far-off countries as you want, but there's a reason thousands of missionaries are sent here every year, and it sure ain't all because of the people living on the streets.

2007-01-29T22:28:00.000-06:00

oh a choice!
I've been told to offer a disclaimer about the change in schedule from the whole "40 posts in 40 days" thing. the reason for that marketing campaign was to revive blogspot, but seeing as to how many people now know what hibachi is, i think i can safely say that blog is back. either way, i've skipped a few days here and there for various reasons, but I've decided to change my motto to be "updated every workday." of course, this essentially means every "weekday," but workday sounds more official and/or professional. this way, every day after school or work or lunch or dinner or whenever you decide to waste time in front of your computer, you can depend on www.mokalus.blogspot.com to hold your attention for at least 1 minute.

but on to the post. today, for the first time in this blog's history, you can help test out this beta version of a "choose your own adventure" post. anyone remember those books? they were great. this adventure is based on a true story known as "this past weekend." I don't think it's exciting enough to be deemed an adventure, but hey, you're here reading this, so you must have nothing better to do anyways.

so here it is. hope this works. i'm not entirely sure how to write or organize one of these dealios, but we'll see how it goes.

The following takes place between 12:00 PM Saturday and 11:59 PM Sunday.

1) The alarm goes off, but you're exhausted after the previous night's Bang! club meeting. You hop in the shower to wake yourself up, only to walk out 10 minutes later to the sound of Lex singing some gospel song at the top of his lungs in an attempt to either wake Peter up or kill the cat. Xiao is there as well and asks if you're still going to Saltlick for Jonathan Barker's birthday. Do you go?
If you choose YES, go to section 2. If you choose NO, go to section 3.

2) Wise choice, young grasshopper. You drive all the way out to Slaughter Lane to pig out on pigs and cows. You also receive a front-row seat to witness your adopted son, Caleb, chow down the most brisket you have ever seen in your life. After 7 rounds of gluttony, you top it all off with the most delicious peach cobbler ala mode imaginable.

On the way back to campus, you remember that Lawrence asked if you wanted to go see the UT basketball game with him. Considering the fact that you've never been to a game, as well as the continually more-obvious conclusion that Kevin Durant is not going to be here next year, do you decide to go?
If you choose YES, go to section 4. If you choose NO, go to section 5.

3) You fool! Saltlick is a once a year ordeal, and guess what? So is Jonathan's birthday. So by skipping out on this, you are 0 for 2. Your friends come back from Saltlick with full bellies and intriguing stories, and you die from the overwhelming jealousy.

4) You show up at about halftime and try to enter the building with Weili's student ID, since you don't have a sports package. The ticketing agent just happens to be of Asian descent, so he doesn't think all of us look alike. You get arrested, only to be let go 30 minutes later due to your uncontrollable sobbing that the police mistake for a seizure. Bad choice.

5) You watch the 2nd half of the game on TV, which ends up being a better view as well as within close proximity to a clean toilet, which is always a plus.

Ophelia calls you up, and you ask her if she wants to watch a movie. She says sure, then mentions that she has a couple at her place, including "Underworld." You normally say nay to movies that have anything to do with vampires or werewolves, but this one includes both species. Do you watch the movie?
If you choose YES, go to section 6. If you choose NO, go to section 7.

6) The movie turns out to be much better than you expected, and you found a reason to get out of your apartment. You win. GG.

7) You decline the movie, claiming it'd be stupid to watch it since vampires and werewolves don't even exist. Then your cat leaps onto your back and digs her teeth into your neck. You lose.

Well, I was gonna do the whole weekend, but this is taking a lot longer than I thought it'd be. Sunday was basically basketball (managing and playing), vox (with david crowder), and hyde park bar and grill (with the gf).

speaking of basketball, though, my knee was pretty sore today. and i didn't even run or jump on it real hard yesterday. knee injuries are just scary. i feel for ya, shaq. and lawrence.

aite peace out. remember, updated every workday!

2007-01-25T19:53:00.000-06:00

meet penny

cuter pictures and more info to come, i promise.

note: pictures courtesy of johanna yu, target manager / professional photographer apparently

2007-01-23T14:50:00.000-06:00

tree killers
after 6.5 days of working with kpmg, i am convinced that my employer is the sole reason for the destruction of today's forests.

so much paper is wasted, it's ridiculous. if i had 1 penny for each piece of paper that i have trashed or shredded this past week..

..well, i'd have a lot of pennies.

apparently the centurytel building where i work at is mistaken for gregory gymnasium quite frequently. every day there are dozens of people in track shoes power-walking around the perimeter. i used to humor myself watching them strut their stuff lap after lap, but since i sprained my knee on saturday, it's kinda sad thinking that they could all probably beat me in a race right now.

also on saturday, i got a kitten. i will be receiving a digicam shortly, so look for a short bio somewhere in the upcoming posts.

2007-01-22T22:02:00.000-06:00

case of the mooondays
at 9am today, i was back in the centurytel audit room in monroe, louisiana.

but there was a problem. some guy, we'll call him chuck, on the engagement team had a huge computer problem, and he was planning to drive back to the shreveport office, an hour and a half away, to give the computer to the tech guy there to fix it.

oh yeah, the problem? the manager didn't want chuck to waste a half a day to and fro to fix the computer. the solution?

my senior manager walks in the room. "jonathan, how would you like to see shreveport?"

i start to chuckle. he's still looking at me.

"oh..seriously?"

so today i saw shreveport.

2007-01-18T11:43:00.000-06:00

inventions
the greatest invention in the world is the game of basketball. but this post isn't really about that. within the span of the past 3 days, i have compiled a relatively short list of the top 10 inventions found in the office. well, at the moment, i can only think of 2 off the top of my head, but i'm sure i can come up with the rest of the list soon enough, so let's continue, shall we?

10. magnetic nameplates
these things just make you feel all official. and did i mention they're magnetic? now who doesn't like magnets?

9. laptops
i pretty much sit in front of my work laptop all day. thanks to weili, i recently discovered the beauty of meebo.com. i can't even imagine what work would be like without this thing.

8. highlighters
highlighters brighten my day and make me feel artistic. sad, huh?

7. red pencils
so at kpmg, the hierarchy system is determined by what color pencil you use to write on all the official documents and whatnot. and i am an intern, so i use the lowly red pencil. don't tell anyone, but i think the red pencil's the best anyways.

6. electric pencil sharpeners
i've loved these things ever since elementary school. they're loud, exciting, and they eat pencils -- what's not to love?

5. big calculators
every so often, i get to use a humongo old-school-looking calculator to do my work. i'm not sure why i like it except for the fact that it makes me feel like a real accountant.

4. paper shredder
i know it sounds shady having a paper shredder be my #4 greatest invention after the whole enron/arthuranderson thing, but have you guys ever tried one of these things? they're amazing! multi-purpose too. like if you needed, say, uh.. streamers.. or really long confetti.. thin slices of paper.. you know the list goes on and on.

3. those little colored flag things
ya'll know what i'm talking about here? they're the little flag things you put in binders and whatnot to mark your place? you know? except mine has like 25 colors on it. it's amazing. i wish i could find a picture of these things, but this is what popped up in google when i typed in "colored flag" =

2. stamps
no, not the snail-mail stamps, these are the cool ink stamps that were so popular back in the day. yes, granted the stamp i use isn't that glamorous or spectacular (all it says is "PREPARED BY CLIENT"), any stamp is an upgrade over zero stamps.

1. electric 3-hole punch
this is literally the machine that motivates me to go to work. all day long i sit here just wondering when my next chance to use it will be. basically you stick some papers into it (it says max 20 sheets, but i like to push it to the limit) and press a button. then it makes this sound that kinda sounds like a paper shredder, and 1 second later, wala! the papers have all been hole-punched. it's amazing, just take my word for it.

so there it is. and just a quick plug, you should watch "the office." it's eerie how realistic that show can be.

2007-01-17T12:06:00.000-06:00

sunny with a high of 35
i am experiencing a "light snow shower," according to weather.com. i must admit i'm kinda disappointed that it snows the one week i'm not in austin (i mean seriously, what are the odds?), but i won't blame it all on global warming like peter does and just accept the fact that i am over here in monroe, where it is 31 degrees outside, just like austin, but "feels like" 24. i wonder who is in charge of measuring that whole "feels like" thing anyways. it's probably just some random person who wakes up earlier than everyone else and goes outside and updates the website with some arbitrary temperature.

don't get me wrong, i'm not complaining that i still have to work. being out of town and all, i want to work all that i can. you know, cash in on those overtime rates. i'm scheduled to work 55 hours this week, so i'll take that. i mean, what am i going to do if i get out of work early? not that monroe isn't a great place -- it's actually a lot bigger and a lot more lively than i anticipated.

oh and just to clarify, i am working as an audit intern with kpmg in the austin office. they have me on an assignment here in louisiana for the 1st 3 weeks (but i return to austin on weekends) and then i'm back in austin for the last 5 weeks of my internship.

and and peter, i took your gap jacket with me. i hope you don't mind.. not like it's freezing over there or anything.

2007-01-15T21:37:00.000-06:00

kpmg-unit
i know, i know, i've been slacking, i know. but there's always tomorrow.

today i slept at midnight. okay i'm lying, it was 12:45. but still early.

and i slept for a good while until 3:45am. i woke up, and peter went to sleep. we take shifts like that. why did i get up? to pray while it was still dark. like Jesus.

except i also took a shower and packed to catch my 5:40 flight.

ophelia graciously took me to airport at 4:45, and i tried to rush through airport security. except my bag went through the x-ray machine, and then the lady opened it up and jacked my toothpaste. she said she would allow 4 ounces or something, but mine was 6, i think.

come on, what harm am i going to do with toothpaste? the lady said she was going to trash my crest, but i should have followed her. she probably stashed it away in her back pocket when nobody was looking.

slept through the first flight to houston, then got off the plane and realized i had 10 minutes before i had to board my next flight. i get to the gate and the door's closed, so i figure hey, i got time for some bfast real fast. so i stand in line eyeing the menu, only to hear on the loudspeaker a few minutes later:

PASSENGER MOK, PLEASE COME BOARD THE AIRPLANE.

so long story short, i'm now in monroe, louisiana working at the centurytel client site as a part of an 8-person engagement team, none of which are from the austin office. kind of a strange situation, but so far so good. more updates later.

2007-01-09T23:32:00.000-06:00

where's waldo?
hello friends. to all who are wondering, i am currently residing in orlando, florida for job training with kpmg. that is all for today.

2007-01-08T23:04:00.000-06:00

in all seriousness
It’s been a week since Urbana ended, and I know I kinda promised Fara a somewhat serious/spiritual post every once in a while, so here it is. This isn’t the official post-Urbana article, so if you’re browsing for that, I apologize.

On the first night, Jim Tebbe offered an illustration with a bible and a cell phone, with the former representing God’s will and the latter repping our world. I personally thought he was just going for some dramatic effect with the view of thousands of cell phones lit up all around the arena.

A couple days later, I accidentally left my cell phone in the hotel room, and I was without it for the entire day. It was then that I started to think more about what he had said that evening.

I realized that, yes, in many different ways, my cell phone did represent my world. It was my way of connecting with people. But the more time that passed that day, the more I felt a sense of guilt in the fact that somewhere along the way, I had forgotten to seize the moment.

Things like evangelizing had become convenient. There were countless times where I know that the opportunities to share my faith were obviously present, but after a few moments of hesitation and rationalizing, I put it off each and every time. And the reason was always the same. I could do it later.

But soon enough, the “laters” turned into “nevers,” and inevitably, the timing was never again as perfect as it had first seemed to be.

So in this unofficial post-Urbana post, let me just say that those few days in St. Louis have convicted me to forget all the excuses and just seize the moment.

2007-01-07T23:12:00.000-06:00

just call me zane
yesterday i strolled around the mall with the mizzou city moks, not to be confused with the delaware or northwestern moks.

i was looking for work clothes. you know, i'm seriously turning a new page in my life. it's kinda sad, actually. work life has begun, and with work life comes the need for work clothes, which i realized i am very much lacking. it's like i gotta start all over with the whole clothing collection, back to square one. so no more tshirts and hoodies unless absolutely necessary. it's time for dress shirts and polos, all the way. baller shorts? put 'em aside, cuz it's time to make room for the slacks and khakis. hip shoes? no mas, says me. it's time for the black and brown variety to shine. i could go on, but i think you get the idea.

so i walk into banana republic, fling aside the clothes on display as fast as humanly possible in a fierce rage after glancing at the ridiculously high "are they really serious how could this shirt be so much" prices and race to the only section of the store i can feel somewhat sane in -- the sales section. you see, banana republic has this cute little tradition where the employees skip around the store making up absurd prices to put on all their items and reserve a small section of the store for the "normally-priced" (and i use this description liberally) clothes.

so i'm perusing through the goods, when i see this nice gray wool jacket. it looks pretty good, but i'm still not convinced, so i touch it. and man oh man, it was LAFT (love at first touch, fyi).

i try it on and decide to purchase the thing, so i did. i was in the process of walking out the door, when of course, with my mom being there, she gave a little shriek,pulled it out of the bag, and took about 10 minutes flipping it inside-out, making sure the zippers worked, and ensuring that the jacket contained no holes, scratches, ants, termites, lice, or weapons of mass destruction. it was like airport security all over again, i kid you not.

and along comes sunday morning. i'm getting ready for church service and realize that i hadn't really brought any clothes back with me from austin. so i throw on my habachi shirt and the brand spankin' new jacket and head on out.

on the drive to church, i kept looking down at my jacket. it was really distracting. cuz every once in a while, it seemed like it changed colors. by the time i got to church, i had no idea what color it was. depending on the viewing angle, anything from the range of gray to dark green was a possibility.

with much help from my church-going comrades, the case has been settled -- my jacket is green. which is a good thing, actually, since i don't have that color anyways. and it's still oh so comfy.

the only problem is i am now 100% paranoid about my potential color-blindness. so if i ask you to confirm the color of this or that, don't give me a confused look. all you gotta do is tell me the color. and please, the correct color would be nice. zane, if you're out there, please teach me to survive with this. but first things first, i gotta go memorize all the bang cards now. zane knows what i'm talking about. BRB.

2007-01-06T23:38:00.000-06:00

james bond
you know, i could be 007. easy.

what an exciting life, huh? not too stressful either, minus the killing part. but then again, secret agents always seem so aloof. yep, that's an SAT word.

saw casino royale with ophelia tonight, and it was a rather good movie, if i might say so myself. if you haven't seen it, you probably shouldn't read this next sentence. or the one after that. or this. WHY DID THE GIRL HAVE TO DIE? ophelia insists that she felt too guilty. but, come on, now. killing herself? that's a bit extreme, is it not? they have therapy sessions and stuff for that sort of thing, don't they?

i've heard quite a few knocks on this new bond fellow. one of them was that he is too clean-shaven. like, his entire body. do y'all really want a robin williams as bond? that'd be kinda weird. i think daniel craigh is a good fit for the character. OH, and speaking of hair/fur, remember that one scene near the end of the movie where they are chilling on the beach? that whole scene, for like 5 minutes, the guy's chest hair ala alex yang style if you know what i mean just took up half the screen. i mean, we were seated in the 2nd row, so those strands were really all up in our grills. do si wo de face, ya heard?

so bottom line, 8 thumbs up (out of a possible 10).

2007-01-05T16:11:00.000-06:00

jason mok
mok says: there's another jason mok
mok says: that used to work for kpmg
mok says: in california
mok says: but then he got fired
mok says: 6 months ago
mok says: but the systems didn't update it
mok says: so i took his old email account, jmok@kpmg.com
mok says: and now there's a lot of problems with it
mok says: because he is still on file
mok says: stupid jason mok
Mr mmMok: haha

but thank goodness it's friday. and not just ANY friday. casual friday, meaning blue jeans friday. what a treat.

i am really stretching the definition of the "business casual" dress code. me a rebel.

2007-01-04T18:11:00.000-06:00

hibachi!
let me take a moment to share with you the story of my favorite non-Rocket basketball player, agent zero.

some of you may know him by his alias, gilbert arenas. he is in his 6th year in the NBA, and he plays point guard for the washington wizards.

the reason he wears the number 0 is that when he showed up at the university of arizona, all his homies told him that was the number of minutes he'd be getting on the court. gil still wears the number as a reminder of his humble beginnings.

arenas is a real cool guy. you can tell by just reading his blog, which i've been reading for about a month now. just a down-to-earth, fun-loving son of a gun. here's a short excerpt.

I brang out the hibachi against Dallas. That’s when I first started saying it, that I was the "hibachi."

It was some legal terms with one of my teammates. I had to buy the name from him. Brendan Haywood, he takes all the good names and waits for someone to buy it, so I had to buy the hibachi grill from him.

He’s been saying it, like if somebody did it to us he would be like, “Oh man, you got the hibachi grill tonight.”

so i guess i can help to decipher this quote to some of you. this is a hibachi grill:

it gets real hot. like his jumpshot.

Me and Antawn turned on the hibachi grill and we was cookin’.

Every time I make it, every time I shot the ball, I screamed out, “Hibachi!”
still don't get it? well fear not. i got this shirt delivered to me a couple days ago, so it might help to clear some things up:

zero to hero, baby. zero to hero. HIBACHI!

2007-01-03T19:51:00.000-06:00

the first day
i wore my own dress clothes today. for the past semester, whenever i have had to dress up for a presentation or something, my outfit would be an ensemble of items of clothing from my penthouse neighbors. it didn't work out especially well, especially once when i borrowed a red shirt from hao and khakis from jonathan, and ellen said i looked like a kid right out of st. austin's, the catholic school right across from lantern lanes.

but today is a new day of a new year, and i finally had my own clothes up here in austin. and i looked good.

what did i dress up for? for my first day at work at kpmg austin, duh. work today consisted of filling out paperwork, getting a laptop, and scarfing down a free lunch. all in a day's work, eh?

today i earned $200 pre-tax. i'll take it.

2007-01-02T20:34:00.001-06:00

reading rainbow
i can fly twice as high! it's in a book, just take a look! reading rainbow!

so i'm back from urbana, but i guess you could say i still need some time to process through what transpired in st. louis. so in the meantime, i'll share one of my new year's resolutions.

at urbana 2003, peter and i bought a combined 30 or so books. at the start of urbana 2006, we realized that we had read a combinied 2.42 of those books in 3 years.

then i recently discovered that people actually read. it's not just some ancient thing that people used to do when there was nothing better to occupy their time.

i think i've been averaging about a book and a half a year. but this year, it's time to up the ante to a book a season. any recommendations? let's start a book trade club thingie. anyone interested?

2006-12-25T21:14:00.000-06:00

possible hiatus?
so apparently urbana is coming up. oh and merry christmas.

due to these somewhat unforeseen circumstances, i am now announcing a possible maintenance check aka lack of posts until the january 1. so maybe 40 posts in 46 nights or something instead. not definite, but it's got a relatively high chance of happening.

so today was spent going to the mall with the familia. no, not inside, mind you, because the mall is closed. but we, like any other normal family, fought the bitter cold to take some pictures outside of first colony mall.

yeah. i'm not kidding.

anyhow, leaving for dallas at 10:30, which is in about an hour, because peter, xiao, my sister, and i gots a flight to catch at 7am. you see, we wanted an extra day to frolic in st. louis.

if you are going to be praying anytime in the next week or so, feel free to pop one up there for me. i'm not really feeling it yet. not in the urbana spirit. on the contrary, i'm actually still pretty tired from this past semester and am just looking for some rest. unfortunately, right after urbana ends on the 1st, i come back home for one night and then head on back to austin for work training on the 2nd.

but enough feeling sorry for myself. before i forget, happy belated birthday to money man bryan yu.

also, happy belated to melody chien, who has told me to not call her a sketcho anymore. or just for today, i can't remember.

and just so no one else feels left out of the birthday shoutouts, happy (belated) birthday to everyone here.

2006-12-24T16:58:00.000-06:00

the social experiment
stopped by first colony mall today with peter in an effort to get rid of the $600 beast of a machine, thinking amdist the christmas eve frenzy there would be one desperate parent looking to make their spoiled kid happy, only to find that the ps3 was harder to sell than a bible on 6th street.

so peter and i are calling it a "social experiment," well, cuz it just sounds better phrasing it that way than saying it was just a waste of 2 hours of our time.

i was in charge of carrying it around the mall the entire time for a chunk of the profit, but this turned out to be my biggest workout of 2006. not only was the thing 25 pounds, but the freaking strap broke after 10 minutes, so i was lugging it around like a big belly.

but anyways, here's a sample of the conversations that occurred:

guy: wow where'd you get that?
me: bought it a few weeks ago at best buy -- you interested in buying it?
guy: oh how much are you selling it for?
me: $750.
guy: what? aw come on, man.. (walks away in disgust)

i got this reaction a lot today, but i can't for the life of me understand it. do people not know that this thing is sold out everywhere? do they not know the retail price was $650 after tax? so is asking for a mere $100 profit really that absurd? am i supposed to offer coupons and discounts?

but i continued on my trek..

guy: how much you get that for?
me: bout it for retail price of $650, but i'm trying to sell it.
guy: oh really? how much you selling it for?
me: $750. you won't find a better deal anywhere else.
guy: oh..do you have an xbox360?
me: not with me..

uhh yeah...you want an xbox360? let me check my storage room to see if i got any left. what's going on? i was holding a ps3 box with 2 hands. does it look like i got another system stowed away in my back pocket or something?

we finally find some lady who's really interested in buying it. but she just keeps questioning peter as to why he would wait 2 days in line to sell it for just $100 profit. i think she got mixed up as to who the seller and buyer were, cuz it sounded to me like she was trying to drive the price up. but anyways, after much delay..

lady: i'm going to call my brother in israel, and i'll get back to you.
me and peter: okay...

30 minutes later, she tells us she doesn't want it.

what i really wanted to do was just smash the ps3 and be done with it. we walked around a while longer, then finally decided to leave. on the way out, one of the best quotes of the day..

guy: you looking to sell that?
me: yeah, for $750.
guy: oh f*** that.

and that, my friends, concludes the social experiment.

bah, humbug.

2006-12-23T23:18:00.000-06:00

yao ming
Houston's Great Wall of China just fractured his knee.

the grinch stole Christmas =(

someone send me back into the matrix..

2006-12-22T21:42:00.000-06:00

even fara's reading!
Dear Fara,

I hope you are having a wonderful day. Today (yesterday) I decided that it is time to revive my blog. When I told Xiao this, he immediately discouraged me by reminding me that you only read Grace's blog. So I was wondering if I could interest you this Christmas break in some light daily reading. I have committed to 40 posts in 40 days, somewhat in response to the guilt in my heart for leaving my blog unattended for such an extended period of time. Please consider this offer. You will be my biggest sponsor. I promise to make the posts at least somewhat entertaining and educational and thought-provoking. And maybe some spiritual stuff if you're into that. I would be so proud of myself.

www.mokalus.blogspot.com

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

mok

Fara's reply:
all right, i'll read your blog too...since you asked so nicely...but don;'t expect me to comment! i don't even comment on grace's...

Hi Fara!

(btw, that spells FARA)

2006-12-21T23:20:00.000-06:00

the gmat
standardized tests used to be my thing.

the gmat itself wasn't tough -- the toughest part was just getting there.

got home yesterday pretty late due to "yay for friends" celebrations, so I decided it was probably time to check what time I had to take the test this morning.

the confirmation email said 8am. I looked at my cell phone. it read 3am. spectacular.

I had originally planned to do a few activities yesterday night, most notably a practice test and a shower, but why do today what you can leave for 7am in the morning, right? is that how the saying goes?

so I power-nap for 4 hours, jump in the shower for a quick run-through, and check my email again to discover the location of this testing center. then I notice that there's this little note that says I should arrive half an hour before the test is supposed to begin. I looked at my cell phone. it read 7:30. spectacular.

I google-map the directions. the time estimate of the drive says 23 minutes, 7 minutes to spare! spectacular.

so i get in the car, with my laptop buckled into the passenger seat, and speed off -- 1/2 the time with my eyes on the road, 1/2 the time looking at the directions, and 1/2 the time doing some practice problems off the screen. I'm pretty sure those percentages add up. 30 minutes later, I'm there! spectacular.

oh, and the gmat itself wasn't tough -- the toughest part was just getting there.

and here's the standard picture to fulfill my quota.

2006-12-20T10:44:00.000-06:00

2nd half comeback
After falling behind to a seemingly insurmountable 6-0 cavity deficit in the 1st half, Jonathan Mok rose to the occasion in the clutch, shutting out The Dentists with superb brushing skills and a magnificent array of flossing playcalling. However, the BCS was not so kind, as he will not be playing in the championship come spring break. Instead, Jonathan will be playing in the Holiday Bowl against The Oral Surgeons. The key to this game will be whether or not he can protect his star players, the wisdom teeth, against his numbing opponent. The outcome doesn't look so good, but Mr. Mok is praying for a miracle.
so no cavities this time compared to 6 my previous visit, but once again, my dentist reminded me for the umpteenth time that i need to get my wisdom teeth removed. she sounded a bit annoyed, so i tried to use my amnesia act, but most likely to no avail. the more i go to the dentist, the more i wonder what their deal is.

is there a worse feeling or sound than that of the dentist scratching your teeth like captain hook? i don't understand this at all. with all the tools they have in there, you would think you were in aisle 14 at home depot. if you ask me, they're going just a tad overboard trying to prove that you haven't been brushing 12 times a day. if you really need to use a metal hook to scratch every angle of the tooth in order to say "HA! HERE'S SOME PLAQUE!", most likely the patient is doing a decent job of cleaning them pearly whites.

after all the metalwork, the dentist then proceeds to brush your teeth with some motorized spinning thing and then floss your teeth for you like there's no tomorrow. what is that?? i mean, i can understand you doing this for small children who are still learning the do's and don't of dental hygiene, but come on, dawg. i don't think i need you to brush and floss for me, thank you very much. and i certainly hope you don't think i'm gonna tip you for this.

so i guess the most puzzling question is this -- being in a teeth-cleaning facility and all, where art thou toothbrushes? oh, right. they give them to you as party favors on your way running out the door.

is it just me, or is this process entirely whack? for one, how about this novel idea: use the TOOTHBRUSHES for teeth-cleaning and give away the KNIVES/HOOKS/METAL STUFF as party favors. yeah?

or how about this. everybody hates going to the dentist, so how about an incentive program. you go to your appointment and get checked for cavities first and foremost. if you pass the test with flying colors, then you're outta there like stromile swift and houston. if you have any cavities at all, then you will be punished by having your teeth cleaned. fair enough?

so who wants me as their dentist?

2006-12-19T18:14:00.000-06:00

pay it forward
so went to ball today at church, played a few games, then played like a dallas maverick out there going 0-7 with 2 turnovers and decided to call it quits for the day. get in my car and put the pedal to the metal to the jack-in-the-box drive-thru. sitting in the drivethru, salivating at all the scrumptious overpriced items on the menu, when all of a sudden, i hear a huge screech. then another. and another.

okay honest moment. i was a tiny bit scared. so first thing i did was lock my car door. but then the screeching stopped. whew.

then it starts again. SCREECH! SCREECH! SCREECH!

i quickly pull up to the mic and order some food, but on my way to the pickup window, i see where all the fuss is coming from.

if you can't tell from the cell phone pics, it's a truck that is stuck halfway between the jack-in-the-box drive-thru lane and the adjacent denny's parking lot. it had been raining, and the back tires were caught in some mud. now first thing that comes to my mind is, how the heck did this happen, and how long has he been here. it smelt like burnt rubber.

so i roll down my passenger side window and ask him if i can help at all. he says yeah, sure. so i say okay, and speed off to get my food and go home. jk, but maybe that's what he thought i was doing, cuz i went to get my food first.

so i get my food, pop outta my car, and for the first time in a while i lock up my car because, well, i don't want my dos tacos getting stolen.

i'm walking up to the guy, and even though i was really curious, i didn't want to ask him how he managed to get stuck like this. probably embarrassed enough already. so he tells me to try pushing while he backs up. i'm like, are you kidding me, that's your best idea? but i go along with his little plan, and i push it off the curb without him even pushing the gas!

alright who am i kidding. i don't think i made any difference at all. it had been raining, so the concrete was slippery as crap. so i don't think i was doing anything other than wearing out the bottom of my shoes (OH what a perfect plug for crocs. you know, if i was wearing my crocs, it wouldn't have been slippery AT ALL).

good thing i actually have some experience with this sort of problem. what you need to do is get a piece of wood or something like that and just stuff it down right by the tire so it can have some friction to get outta the hole. but of course, we're not in the wild, so there wasn't a random piece of plywood lying around. darn.

after a few more futile tries, a couple denny's workers step out for a smoke or something and spot us. they come over with their truck offering to help. they immediately started laughing and asked how this happened. the guy was kinda annoyed and told them that he was in the drive-thru line, but it was taking so long. he couldn't wait a couple minutes longer, so he tried to take a shortcut across the lawn to freedom.

ironic, huh? sounds like something deborah would do (jk) (not really). tries to save a couple minutes, and ends up losing half an hour. i did my best not to laugh, but instead busted out with my cell phone to take the pictures above. i hope he didn't mind me doing that. he looked over a couple times while i was trying to get a good shot, but i pretended like i was on the phone. i don't think he bought it.

anyhow, with the other people's help, we successfully got him outta the rut and on with his life. and therein is my good deed of the year, as well as my 2nd post in 2 days. book it!

(do i get treasures in heaven for this? Jesus, you're keeping track, right?)

2006-12-18T23:36:00.000-06:00

it is time
the semester has come to an end, and what a semester it has been. but even as unbearable as finals week was, i still got the feeling that Fall 2006 was much too short. SO, on that note, this session of mokalus.blogspot.com is titled "it is time."

it is time for me to blog more. you know, old school style. i thought very hard about making the trecherous switch to xanga. in my mind, i was gonna take that world by storm, cape and all. but then again, xanga's pretty much dead, and i don't feel like working no miracles right now. still a blogger 4 lyfe. so my apologies to you if you have been coming to this site every day and twice on sundays since september 29, just praying for an update. my bad to all 2 of you. for the few of you who have been pleading for a comment system on here, i'm sorry but i haven't worked that out yet. if you are really burning to leave a comment, try facebook. but apparently that is dying as well. ha, my mom leaving me comment on my wall? wouldn't that be something.

it is time to treat next semester as my last. yeah, i know i still have a full year left, but i feel like this past semester went by so quickly because i allowed it to. so what's my plan of attack? not sure specifically yet, but somehow i feel like having to go to work in austin instead of going to class will help my cause. i'm also gonna make sure i'm more methodical with remembering things that happen, probably through a facebook photo album/scrapbook thing with pictures jacked from people, most likely paparazzo amanda moon.

it is time to find out what i can do with my life. sounds like such a daunting task, i guess maybe because it is. thing is, what i've realized this past semester is that i have a lot of specialized knowledge in subjects that don't really have any practical use in everyday, 9-5 life. i can talk/debate/argue for hours about sports of any kind, except maybe anything of the frozen variety, but what good will that do me? sometimes, no, actually all the time, i feel like i could maybe find some niche in the sports business to plug myself into and really, truly enjoy it for the rest of my life. but then again, i could also see myself doing alot of other things. this whole future thing is tough.

okay i feel like i'm just rambling, so i'll bring this post to an end. future posts will have more of a central theme fosho. maybe i'll do it nba playoffs tnt style.

40 posts in 40 nights?

2006-09-29T02:21:00.000-05:00

time for a refill, yo
it's finally caught up to me. all these thoughts that have been amassing and ricocheting around in my mind have finally found an escape. but think of this as some sort of lottery, each little segment has the same probability of popping out of the machine at any given time, meaning it's all random. a random sample! okay sorry, i've been paying too much attention in my statistics class. soo..let's get ready to ramble!

mok says: it's raining
JEN nn: ?
JEN nn: rainginw hat?
mok says: here
JEN nn: oh
JEN nn: it's predicted to snow here
JEN nn: in 2 days..
JEN nn: ................................
JEN nn: and it's october........................
mok says: that's normal
JEN nn: ugh no it's not
JEN nn: Texas is normal

only in texas would 75 degree weather with a westerly wind of .049 miles per hour be considered a cold front in the frigid month of october. i think if a weatherman predicted it to snow here, he would be shot on the spot. especially at any time before february.

that's my sister, btw, who is up in northwestern. strangely enough, at this time last year, i pretty much assumed she would be chilling with me here at UT. i even started planning all sorts of brother-sister events full of picnic baskets and matching outfits. okay that may be a bit overboard, who am i kidding, but still, it'd be tight if she was here. even more peculiar (or not interesting at all, depending on your point of view), is that 4 years ago, when i was anticipating college acceptance letters, i probably would have attended northwestern if they had wanted me. ouch, that sounds so rejecting. well, yeah, it was.

so speaking of rain, it was beautiful today! rain pouring down since 4 in the morning, the entire campus sopping wet, just beautiful. i don't remember the last time i felt so superior. rain? no problem. i just put on a tshirt and some shorts, grabbed an umbrella, and slipped into my freaking awesome crocs. non-slip, baby!

i purposely walked through puddles. i coulda conquered the red sea. step aside, moses. step aside, noah. who needs an ark when you have crocs? shoot.

i saw a girl slip today. i felt kinda bad, so i almost walked over to her to help her up and evangelize to her about crocs. well i would have if i had a third hand. i had one hand holding up my umbrella and my other hand clenching a plate of 4 pepperoni rolls (it was buy one get one free tuesday). actually, if i had a FOURTH hand, i would have helped her up. i would need my third hand to eat my pepperoni rolls, duh. either way, there's a happy ending, because before i could even reach her, 2 popped up to help her out. i don't know if they told her about crocs or not, but i'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

word of the moment: sketcho. you ever hear a word that just kinda sticks with you? words of the past include "chump" and "wanker," but step aside, you words have got some competition now. the new word is "sketcho." if you need a definition, then you are probably a sketcho yourself. alright that doesn't make much sense, but this is one of those words that you just gotta figure out by yourself. props to the sophomore girls, actually just cantonshortie, for coming up with this one. real woman of genius.

here is a sketcho pictured with a manfriend.

i watched da vinci code a couple weeks ago with johanna, and i believe it! jk, but it definitely got my mind rolling. i love stuff about controversies and conspiracy theories and whatnot, and this was no different. of course, this isn't really anything more than a silly story, but at the same time, so what if jesus was married? what does that really change? it doesn't discount the fact that he died on that there cross for our here sins, does it? so in my opinion, nothing. nothing changes.

rockets landed bonzi wells for about $2 mil. clutch city is back, that's all i gotta say. bonzibuddy 4 prez.

it is tuesday afternoon, and OU still sucks. had a little get-together on saturday to watch the game. grilled some burgers, devoured some queso, scarfed down some cookies, and in the end, everyone had a food coma. oh, and we won. and now colt mccoy will return to hollywood to finish shooting season 8 of malcolm in the middle.

it's a bird! it's a plane! no, it's my GPA plummeting to the ground!

i miss being a freshman. i guess nostalgia swooped in for an early visit this year. for good reason, too. it's just that everybody and their mom is graduating on time this year (well, except for the cool ppa kids and their moms), so i'm gonna start a little mini-series entitled "remember when.." or "another jog down memory lane" or something cheesy like that. so here's the first one. remember this, back in freshman year?

holy crappers, 22 is a huge number. many many xiexie's (thank you's) to everybody for all the bday wishes and whatnot. and special thanks to ophelia and peter for setting up the surprise for me. sigh and i got caked. at a birthday celebration that wasn't even for me. what are the odds.

okay that's it for now. hope you got your fill. this is mok, signing off.

2006-08-17T23:19:00.000-05:00

so i went to the dentist today. 6 filled cavities with no anesthesia at 8:00 in the morning. cruel and unusual punishment?

make sure to check this movie out in theaters everywhere. i am the main character.

anyhow, moving into penthouse on saturday! be excited.

2006-08-07T02:52:00.000-05:00

there is some good
wowza it's been a while, huh? did you miss me? i'm surprised i still remember how to post on here. i don't know why this thing has been so neglected. actually, i have a couple ideas why:

1. my blog used to be my homepage. it just made sense to me to do that -- i'm not sure why. but then all of a sudden, one day, i was feeling a bit narcisstic having my own blog be the first thing that popped up when i opened internet explorer, so i changed it to www.cnn.com. okay actually at first i changed it to www.clutchfans.net, but after a couple days i figured this wasn't as justifiable as CNN, a reliable newsource to keep me connected to the joys and pains of the rest of the world. of course, i have only taken time to browse through CNN once since making it my homepage, but that is beside the point.

2. i haven't really had anything to write home about. you know?

anyways, i guess i should give everyone who cares a quick catchmeup on my life. i am still in austin, with one week of summer school left. it's been kinda good being away from home, away from that sort of routine, but in many ways it doesn't feel like summer up here. but life has been good. good friends, good times.

so back to the point. i finally found something to write about. something that is worthy of being shared with the rest of the world. something to ignite my hands to pick up my pen (laptop) and write (type) away.

yesterday was an interesting day. i had planned to wake up at 9 AM to go to costco to pick up a new 37" lcd hdtv with alby and titus, but i was exhausted and decided to sleep a bit longer. when i woke up, they were gone to san marcos, along with titus's spacious SUV, but i said what the hey, i can fit a new 37" lcd hdtv into the back of my civic.

so i go to costco, sign up for a new membership, and all that snazz. go over to the TV section, pick out the tv, grabbed an employee who grabbed me a cart, and went and bought myself the tv.

at the register, i ask if anyone can help me pack the tv into my car. the guy says that all i have to do is bring my car to the front of the store and there will be people there to help me. jazzin', i say.

so i head outside, leave my cart with a costco employee, and wheel my car around. we try to stick the box in the backseat, and uh oh! it doesn't fit.

we continue trying for the next 20 minutes or so, and by this point, i am sweating like whoa, but all to no avail. by this time it is 4:00 pm.

i was very discouraged. i tried calling people who were in austin to see if they could drive their huge junk-in-the-trunk cars to costco to give me a hand, but i couldn't get in contact with anyone. then the costco employee who had been helping me try to load this darn thing says, "well i get off work at 4:30, and i got a truck. i can help you bring this thing home."

you know when people sometimes say things like that but don't really mean it? like when there's one slice of pizza left and somebody tells you to take it, but all the while really expecting you to decline the offer? yeah.

well this time it wasn't like that at all. there was something different about the way he said it. even though this guy was a complete stranger, i could tell that he was being genuine. so i said okay.

i spent the next 30 minutes filling up my gas tank and eating quizno's, and then i returned to costco. he was there waiting for me. he told me that what he was doing was against store policy, and if anyone found out then he would probably get fired, so i parked my car and wheeled the tv all the way to his truck in the back of the parking lot. we loaded it and got ready to leave, when all of a sudden i realized i didn't even know this guy's name. so i introduced myself and found out his name was eric.

i told him i lived near campus, and i asked him if he lived close to that area. he said no, he lived in the opposite direction, but it was okay.

so i thanked him, told him to follow me, and got in my car. the entire 15 minute drive back to penthouse, i was just thinking about how this guy could screw me so bad. he could just speed off with my tv or something, but somehow i just trusted him. then i started thinking about how i could repay him. the only thing i had on me was a $20 bill, so i thought i'd give him that to help pay for his time and help.

we got to penthouse and he helped me carry the tv up the stairs and into the apartment. i thanked him again and tried to pay him, but he just smiled and said "don't worry about it."

i asked him if there was any way i could repay him, and he just said, "next time i get a huge tv, you can help me move it." then he got in his car and drove off.

eric is quite possibly the nicest person i have ever met. and the whole ordeal has got me thinking about why people do things for each other. i think pretty much everyone does something good in order to get something in return. or maybe it's combined with a sense of obligation, be it through friendship or whatnot. but to go so out of your way for a complete stranger? for no particular reason, other than to just help someone out? that's almost unheard of.

there is some good in this world.

2006-06-24T17:24:00.000-05:00

2006-06-15T16:31:00.000-05:00

what i learned in kenya

You know when you come back from some place far, far away and everyone asks the inevitable question: "so, how was it?"

This is such an impossible question to answer. It's not that I don't enjoy sharing my testimony or a story or two from the trip, it's just I never know how to answer it properly. In my mind I'm thinking, okay, so does this person want all the details or just a simple "it was awesome" statement? And if it's the former, I start thinking how i should go about explaining all the amazing things God did, and that in itself is completely overwhelming.

As a result, I have decided to take this time I have today to just type out my best possible response to this crazy open-ended question, and if it gives you just a glimpse of what I saw or learned in kenya, then praise God.

Kenya is a beautiful country. It is still light years behind America, but in many ways, I envy that. Here at home, thanks to technology and whatnot, we have become 24/7 people. We live and die by our schedulebooks, keeping ourselves as busy as possible. One of the first things we learned when we got to kenya is that "Westerners have watches, but here in Africa, we have time." They take time to rest, to catch up with people, to do all the little things, and that is something i think we have all kinda lost sight of.

I think I am one of millions of people who call ourselves devoted Christians yet live with a dangerously segmented mentality. Sure, everything looks good on the outside, but sometimes we get so caught up in the logistics behind it all that we forget to consider the most important part -- the heart. Let God time be God time and me time be me time, we say, perhaps because we've forgotten what following Christ entails. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" What if we really acted like new creations? What if we lived every minute of our day for Him and His glory?

I saw a billboard sign that read "Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever," and then I came across the exact same statement in a book I was reading. I find it amazing how no matter how far you are from home, no matter which language is being spoken, no matter what the people look like, the story of Jesus never changes. In some of the places we visited, we were the first Chinese people that they had ever seen, and they seemed to regard us with a sort of frightened curiosity. I suppose that we were like aliens to them -- the children might have read about China or seen a few pictures in school, but I guess we went a step further and brought Area51 to them. And yet, even though we may have been Asian pioneers, God still beat us there. We worshipped the same God, called the same Jesus our savior, and were filled with the same Holy Spirit. I saw that there is indeed no place I could possibly go that He hasn't been before.

I met thousands of passionate kids who reminded me to always live with an uninhibited childlike faith. Luke 18:15-17 states:

"People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.'"

What would it look like if everyone took this to heart? How different would our lives be if we all received the kingdom of God like a little child?

I think I will leave you with that wonderful mental picture.

2006-05-29T15:13:00.000-05:00

move along move along
it has been 16 days since my summer officially began, and oh what a crazy 16 days it has been. i know none of you have anything better to do than sit here reading this thing, so i will not restrain myself from being verbose.

well recruiting season finally came to and end 2 fridays ago. you would think i would be sad about not having any more free food, drinks, or just junk, but on the contrary, i felt like a huge burden was lifted up off my shoulders. no longer did i have to toil with things such as proper dinner etiquette or the difference between business casual and semiformal dress -- at last i could return to my disgusting, filthy, uncouth self! jk i rather enjoyed the last week of recruiting. they put me in the nicest hotels, and i got to ride in a stretch hummer as well! but at the same time, thank goodness it's all over. i received offers from both KPMG austin and PWC houston, but i am planning on joining the K-team tomorrow morning.

oh recweek oh recweek, how i was NOT looking forward to thee. prior to leaving for camp buckner, i had one thought in mind: this is gonna be the longest week of my life. i'm not sure why i was so against going, but it was probably a combo of factors, such as just wanting to rest, knowing the vision team gets super stressed out during the week, and all in all, just not really "feeling it." you know what i'm talking about? you know what i'm talking about.

but God definitely saw me coming. recweek was amazing. that's all i can say. this is a much more "in-person" kinda thing, this keyboard could not do the week justice.

okay but i will share this: "for Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. and he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for he who died for them and was raised again." (2 corinthians 5:14-15) YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR MIND! <-- vteam joke.

so if you didn't know already, my family is moving to pearland.

ha! gotcha! but we are indeed moving, and out of sugar land for that matter. all the way across texas to missouri city. i wonder if i still count as SL now. then again, these dulles people never really counted anyways, even though they still consider themselves SL. shrug. we've spent the past 2 days moving an insane amount of furniture to the new crib. we will be officially moving in after kenya.

speaking of kenya, i am leaving tomorrow morning for kenya. do me a favor and pray big for me? just do it right now while it's on your mind, or while you have time. pray for changed lives, yo. pray that God will change the lives of not only the people in kenya, but the people on our missions team as well. pray that God will show just a glimpse of how incredibly unspeakably awesome He really is.

i've run out of things to say for right now, and sorry, no pics to relieve you of this stressing thing known as "reading." so i'll leave you with a single question:

kenya dig it?! (rhetorical question -- no reply needed)

(okay fine i can't resist putting a pic up. but this is all you get, for at least 2 weeks, so sit back and enjoy it in all its glory. the first day we're in kenya, our team gets to go on a safari, and i do believe i will be seeing some of this:

watch out larry, i'm coming for you.

2006-05-20T10:56:00.000-05:00

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

- Romans 15:5-6

2006-05-05T02:45:00.000-05:00

but you can't stay here
in commemoration of my last day of class as a junior, i suppose it's time for an update! and guess what, it's your favorite kind -- the written form of the mumbo jumbo that is being shaken up silly in that thing i call my brain.

so since classes just ended, i guess i'll say a lil somethin somethin about my academic career this past semester. my second semester as a PPA student has been quite interesting. interesting in the sense that i have become quite the unmotivated fellow when it comes to studying. however, as of right now, i am expecting 3 or 4 A's and only 1 or 2 B's, so i must be doing something right. the main reason for this lack of motivation would have to be recruiting. for what seems like forever now, i have been going to event after event after event with ernst & young, pwc, and kpmg.

to be honest, i know i am spoiled. i get all this free stuff, and firms are practically forcing a nicely paid internship onto my lap, so i shouldn't complain. but MAN, this recruiting thing is so tiring. it's almost like a boot camp, but it's definitely been a good experience. breakfasts, lunches, dinners, paintball, luau, scavenger hunt, and even golf -- it's been a long 3 weeks.

so a couple of days ago, peter asked me to go to class with him. i must have confused "come to class with me" with "you want some ice cream" because for some reason, i said yes. so we suffer through the blazing heat for about 5 miles until we at last arrive at the engineering building somewhere in the city of austin, and though we're 5 minutes late, we stumble into class.

and...there's a pop quiz! hooray! so i plop down in a seat next to pedro and read over the question. something about x being a random variable in a uniform distribution of variables from 1 to 10,000, and what is the probability that the sum of these digits is greater than 4? i rummage through my backpack in search for a pencil or a pen, but somehow all i brought with me was a freaking orange highlighter. yipee. i then spend the next 10 minutes doing 3 things:

1. pretending like i was deep in concentration whenever the professor glanced in my direction
2. whispering to peter to give me a pencil
3. wishing i had never agreed to come to that stupid class

peter finishes his quiz, and i grab his pencil. i put my name as "michael jordan," and just to show some work on the paper so i don't look like a complete fool, i scribble down something like "X: 1,...,10000" and "(D1+D2+D3+D4)>4." then it's time for the grand finale of an answer: "the probability is somewhere between 0 and 100%." i turned the darn thing in and jetted outta there, and that, my friends, was my sole experience in an engineering building. i vow to never again enter such a building again.

so orange and white was last week, and i had lots of fun. thanks ophelia for putting up with me for an entire night, and thanks to lex for paying for everybody's dinner! whattaballer. oh and i think it's safe to say that i am now a ballroom expert. and a self-proclaimed merengue pro. i hope everybody who got elbowed or kicked or stepped on in some form or fashion because of me has healed since friday.

goodness gracious this update is taking so much more time than i expected. i guess this is it for now. smell ya later.

2006-04-16T08:30:00.000-05:00

if there's one thing i've learned this year, it's that when you're living with roommates, there's no need for an alarm clock. the general rule is you just get as much sleep in as possible before a snorefest begins. anyways, it's 8am on easter sunday, and i am wide awake, so i figure i might as well do some reflecting or something of that sort while i'm up.

the story of easter really bewilders me sometimes. whenever we dig into the bible, there are countless times when it's so easy to just dog on Jesus's disciples and call them idiots for the idiotic things they do or say, and "holy week" is no different. Jesus hints to them over and over that He will die and rise again, that this has to happen, etc etc, and yet the disciples still have no idea what He's talking about.

it doesn't ever click until easter morning, three days after his crucifixion, when our Savior conquered death.

while it's easy to question the disciples' faith, if not their intelligence, i find that 2000 years later, i'm still struggling with that same lack of ____. i'm not really sure what to call it. maybe it's a lack of faith, maybe it's a lack of understanding, it's probably got a little bit of everything mixed in there.

but either way, time and time again i fail to see the bigger picture. i forget that God is the great Redeemer. He defeated this little thing called "death," and yet i can't even trust Him to help me through some of my small problems? it's sad, it really is.

but if there's one thing i've learned from all these years calling myself a Christian, it's that our God is a god of love. that's why we were created, that's why Jesus died for us, and that's why we are able to be in a personal relationship with Him. and no matter how many times we fall short of His glory, cast Him to the side, or doubt His plans for us, He is still there with open arms.

happy easter -- remember, God redeems.

2006-04-11T17:53:00.000-05:00

random thoughts, in no particular order:
1) baptisms are fun
2) my dad's got some ups
3) i don't think my mom knows how to jump
4) we have no shame

2006-04-08T02:40:00.000-05:00

where is jonathan mok going to intern?

march madness isn't over yet! enter your picks by 9am monday for your chance for a tshirt!

many will enter, one will win.

2006-03-28T06:17:00.000-06:00

constant
so i was feeling a bit out of it yesterday after eating a jcl yogurt parfait, so i decided to lie down and take a nap at 6:30pm. i woke up a bit later, looked at the clock, and saw that it was 5am. does that even count as a nap anymore? you look jealous.

so lately it's really hit me how much things are going nuts. my dad's working in delaware now, my sister's about to go off to college, we just got a new house, etc etc etc. life's just crazy like that, i guess.

i went home this weekend, and for the first time in a while, i realized that amidst all the change and chaos going on all over the place, home is still home.

that was a cool feeling.

2006-03-21T13:56:00.000-06:00

school spirit
i used to never be able to understand how people could have so much darn school spirit. in fact, i often found it rather annoying.

now i've found that i have become one of them.

over spring break, my family took off on a trek around the world. well, not really, just delaware, new york, maryland, pennsylvania, and illinois.

at upenn, i visited alex yang. they have tighter security than airports up there. my family wanted to see what his dorm room looked like, and even at 3 pm in the afternoon all of us had to sign in with photo ID. i noticed that the guy working at the front desk had a USC jacket on, so instead of giving him my driver's license, i gave him my UT photo ID. for some reason when i'm around people with USC stuff on i get this overwhelming sense of superiority -- is that wrong?

then at the university of chicago, which is the possible future college home of my sister, we sat down next to some random girl for lunch. she started sharing with my sister all the good stuff about u of chicago. she mentioned all the gothic architecture, the nobel peace prizes, the science department, the economics department, the museums, the liberal arts, etc etc etc, all with me sitting right next to her. as if this wasn't "bad" enough, right before each of her arguments (it seemed like she was trying to start one), she would say something like "well, no offense to UT, but..."

she just kept going on and on about how great the school was, and at some point in the onslaught my mom turned to me and said, "maybe you should share some good things about UT to try to persuade her [my sister] to not choose chicago."

i told her i didn't really need to say anything. i mean, the school really speaks for itself. i don't know a single person who goes or went to UT and did not love the school like mad. looking back, it's interesting how everything worked out with me not getting accepted into upenn, northwestern, and whatever other schools i applied to because now, i wouldn't trade a semester at UT for anything, and my sister knows that quite well.

i mean, if i were to really share all, or even just some of the reasons why she should go to UT, that just wouldn't be fair at all to the other schools, right?

after all, who am i to decide whether she goes to the best school in the world or some dreary, boring university in the windy city?

but in an attempt to allow other prospective students to the university of chicago to know the greatness of the university of texas, my brother and i decided to leave them a couple subliminal messages. you know, just to get their mind on the possibility of becoming a longhorn. so in the administration building, there were a few computers in the main lobby, so we changed the desktop backgrounds to a picture of the monkeyballers and a beautiful burnt orange UT sign.

hey, a little propaganda never hurt nobody -- hook' em \m/

2006-03-14T01:22:00.000-06:00

just checking in from delaware

2006-03-09T23:53:00.000-06:00

oh sick!
it all started because i was thirsty.

last wednesday, simon was in my room before our small group meeting, chomping away at his jcl meal. i grabbed his drink, but right before i tasted that coca-cola goodness, he uttered those fateful words, "hey i'm sick."

i hesitated for a second, then kind of sarcastically replied, "it's okay." at this point, i was kind of on the fence about whether or not i was still going to drink it.

then all of a sudden phil laughed and chimed in with something along the lines of, "you're gonna get sick if you drink it! you'll be crying in 2 days!"

and it was all over after that. the last inkling of reluctance disappeared. i mean, my immune system's pride was on the line here. so i adamantly declared "i don't care" and downed those daring gulps.

afterwards, of course, i felt fine -- more than fine, perfect. talk about the calm before the storm.

thursday morning my throat hurt. i thought nothing of it and went through the day as usual, no biggie.

friday morning my throat hurt a bit more, and my nose was a bit stuffy. but hey, it was friday, so i thought nothing of it and went through the day as usual, no biggie.

saturday morning my throat didn't hurt much at all, but my nose was stuffed up the wazoo. it was like a snot vessel exploded in there or something; i couldn't breathe through my nose at all.

and every day after that, it got progressively worse. i started plugging my nostrils with paper before i went to sleep at night just so i wouldn't wake up in a pool of my own loogeys in the morning. even the process of eating became life-threatening since i couldn't breathe and chew at the same time. somehow i've managed to survive til now.

all the sneezing and nose-blowing that i've had to do in the past week has really made me miss high school. remember when each student had to bring a box of tissues for the class inventory? wait, or was that middle school? either way i miss it. i can't even remember the last time my nose came into contact with a high-quality tissue. i have been reduced to using jcl napkins, wendy's napkins, or on rare special occasions, toilet paper.

quick question, when you blow your nose, do you look at the goo before throwing the tissue/napkin away? is it just me? it's weird, i can't NOT look at it. i'm almost intrigued by how much stuff comes out. i see all that green and white stuff on the paper and i'm like, wow, all that was just in my nose. shrug, just a thought.

in case you are in the dilemna of not having any kleenex on hand and are wondering what the general paper preference is for nose-blowing, here is a quick critique:

jcl napkins - rating: 1 out of 10
this stuff is trash. i don't even know if it's paper or plastic, because it doesn't absorb anything at all. whenever i used these napkins, i felt like i was just smearing my snot all over my face. i quit using these pretty quick in fear of getting a blister on my already-irritated nose.

wendy's napkins - rating: 4 out of 10
these are decent because they at least absorb some of the gooey crap that comes flying out of your nose. however, they are yellow in color, so it is difficult to see all the damage your nose did.

toilet paper - rating: 7 out of 10
comfortwise, they're almost as good as kleenex, just almost. but i guess if you carry a bunch of TP around, you're just fanning the flames as far as asian stereotypes go. wait, is that a general stereotype? all i know is my dad does it.

alright well i hope this post has given you a slight update on my life, or, if nothing else, enlightened you on what material to use when blowing your nose. you will all be happy to know that this story concludes with a happy ending, for after a few scattered prayers, a dozen multivitamin tablets, several hours of rest, and a cup of tea, i am now back to my normal, healthy self.

2006-02-28T23:18:00.000-06:00

monkeyballers '06

special thanks to:
andy yu, ninja monkeyman
sharon chin, official photographer
alex yeh, mop-boy
yeeland chen, peanut guy
meson woo, personal trainer
hao liu, head coach
david park, head coach
lawrence chen, PA (not pictured)

aacmapella, national anthem performers

and thanks to all the fans who came out to support us..

hope you enjoyed the game, along with all the festivities..

and feel free to come out and support us again =)

2006-02-25T05:27:00.000-06:00

AACM Talent Show 2006
Hogg Memorial Auditorium
February 25, 2006 8PM
Free Admission
More Information

Monkeyballers' Season Finale 2006
Gregory Gymnasium
February 26, 2006 11PM
Free Admission
More Information

2006-02-23T02:58:00.000-06:00

i turned this in for my human sex (EDP363) class today. the topic was "what is your favorite love song, and why"?

My favorite love song would have to be “I Promise You” by the Backstreet Boys. I enjoy this song because I consider myself to be a prototypical helpless romantic. I believe in concepts like true love, and the lyrics to this song just sum it all together. I like the idea of relationships being an overall promise of commitment to loving and caring for the other person. As opposed to many of today’s mainstream songs concerning sex, promiscuity, guys being horny, etc, I enjoy this song because it doesn’t talk about any of that at all – it conveys an ideal picture of love. I think the world today focuses too much on the physical aspects of relationships without considering the emotional side of it. Pretty much everything the media throws at us is filled with sex, and the only things having to do with anything close to love are labeled as “chick flicks.” Sure, sometimes these movies can be overly cheesy and rather ridiculous, but I believe they are somewhat necessary. People have to hold on to this concept of love and romance, at least to some extent. It’s sad how far society has fallen with issues such as abortion, rape, and divorce. It’s almost as if there is nothing really holding anyone back from just their innate, animal desires. Nobody has any sense of commitment anymore, let alone love. There are broken relationships everywhere you turn, and yet things are only getting worse, not better. I’m not sure what needs to be done, but it’s certainly got to be something drastic. Maybe boy bands need to all team together and make a huge comeback or something, or maybe chick flicks need to overtake the movie industry because in the words of the Black Eyed Peas, “where is the love?”

ah, exactly 300 words long, just as required. not bad for 5 minutes work, eh? too bad someone said her "suspicions" of my sexuality were confirmed after she read this..whatever that means.

2006-02-18T12:28:00.000-06:00

when you're rendered speechless..
now that's a cool feeling.

about two weeks ago, i went to a POP meeting and met a guy named john. we broke up into groups, and when his turn came to share prayer requests, he told us about a situation going on in nueva laredo, mexico.

he had gone there on a missions trip, and things had been amazing. the small community welcomed their team, and during their stay, they helped construct an entire church building for pastor pedro and the congregation. they left the town in high spirits, for they knew that the people there now had a place to gather together and worship the one and only God.

but things had gone downhill since their departure. it turns out that the land that the church had been built on was not actually their land to begin with. so they had no choice but to stand by and watch weeks and months of hard work get trampled by bulldozers, and unfortunately, some of their hopes crumbled as well.

the past couple weeks i've been thinking about what i would do in that situation. would i just be angry with God? would i question His wisdom, His will? i mean, it all seemed so "right," didn't it? so much prayer and planning and everything going into building this church, and now all of a sudden, it's all gone. and sad to say, it feels like all that effort was in vain.

yesterday after large group, i had a chance to talk to melvin about the whole situation. i expected him to give me some typical, watered-down christian response about how the circumstances have pulled the community closer together or something of that sort, but what he told me totally trumped anything i could have even imagined.

he told me that after the church had gotten destroyed, some government official caught wind of the story, and he decided to donate some of his PERSONAL LAND to pastor pedro to build a new church home.

and that was the end of that conversation because i couldn't muster up anything else to say except "wow."

2006-02-13T19:00:00.000-06:00

info session: thursday and friday
1st event: party saturday night from 11-2 feat. dj pete
2nd event: come throwdown at the xiaodown sunday from 11-2
3rd event: mokalicious mixer monday from 7-9

info session and all events take place in jdubz151 -- holla front.

2006-02-06T15:20:00.000-06:00

GOD GOD GOD
so about a week or so ago i had a nice, long post about random stuff. and then my computer crashed on me before i could publish it, and i was quite annoyed. but all hope is not lost, for i have decided not to ditch this blog just yet.

i feel like i've been going through a year-long writer's block. stuff will happen or thoughts will cross my mind, and i'll think about writing about them, but then i either forget or just don't know how to put it down on paper, figuratively speaking.

anyways, an interesting thing happened today. i got to my 9:30 marketing class a little early since it's just down the hall from my 8am, and i started talking to this girl in there about her weekend. i've known her since freshman year, when we were in the same ba101 class together.

so she mentions that she went to some waco missions conference thing over the weekend. i ask a few questions about it, and it sounded pretty interesting, so i decide to mention urbana to her. turns out she's never heard of it, and then i said something like, "yeah, it's going to be in st. louis this year; if you're interested in missions you should check it out."

"i'm just interested in GOD."

that was her reply. it kinda caught me by surprise, probably somewhat because it was at 9:25 in the morning, but mostly because it was just so direct. in today's society, i've found that the word "GOD" has become, unfortunately, pretty much taboo. in my business classes they always stress not talking about God, and if you have to talk about your faith, talk about a specific organization that you're involved in or leading.

it's gotten so bad i'm surprised quarters still have "in GOD we trust" engraved on them.

and it's not like it's just the "secular" world either. even in the Christian community, we lose sight of the big picture. sure, we're involved with activities and programs up the wazoo, but is that really what matters? of course not, and that was a rhetorical question. all of that means diddlysquat if the relationship with you and GOD isn't on the right track. if your heart's not in it, just don't do it.

unfortunately this doesn't just hurt individual people. it bleeds through into areas like outreach and witnessing and evangelizing. for some reason it still scares the bejeezees out of us when we set out to do something as simple as start a conversation with someone about their faith or beliefs. shouldn't it be the other way around? i mean, sharing your testimony is only the greatest news you could possibly give someone.

GOD isn't something to be ashamed of -- maybe it's time we start acting like it.

2006-01-27T04:40:00.000-06:00

a time for change
hershey's insists that change is bad. i'd agree for the most part, but then again, you can't argue with the good ole bible:

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace,
a time for jordan 18's and a time for huarache 2k5's.

- ecclesiastes 3:1-8b, NIV and MOK version

(disclaimer: i am not liable for any charges of blasphemy or anything of that sort displayed here)

let us never forget the past..

..while always looking to the future.

"Don't fear change, embrace it."
- Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book

it's game time.

2006-01-14T23:05:00.000-06:00

y'know what they say..
all good things must come to an end.

actually, i hate this saying, and i don't believe it at all, but i suppose when it comes to things like christmas break, it's inevitably true.

but this is not going to be a bitter post displaying my resentment for this unstoppable concept we call "time." instead, it's meant to celebrate the fact that while time truly does fly, there is much to be thankful for in the past month.

for instance, my sister getting accepted into a college of her liking, the family vacation to california, my uncle and aunt trekking over from hong kong to visit, a white christmas, my first snowboarding experience, texas winning the rose bowl, and my dad getting a job offer just to name a few in a single breath.

i'm not exactly sure why, but there just always seems to be an extra hop to my step when spring semester rolls around, and this year is no different. i'm psyched about this semester. i feel like i have some unfinished work to do, some harvested energy left to unleash. more or less, i feel like last semester pulled a quick one on me and just flew by, leaving me rather speechless as to where all the time had gone.

5 semesters down, 5 to go. as i return to austin today, i will be starting the 2nd half of my college career. it's been an awesome 1st half..

..and yet something tells me the best is yet to come :)

GET EXCITED!

2006-01-11T01:07:00.000-06:00

Let it all out
get it all out
rip it out remove it
don't be alarmed
when the wound begins to bleed

cause we're so scared to find out
what this life's all about
so scared we're going to lose it
not knowing all along
that's exactly what we need

and today I will trust you with confidence
of a man who's never known defeat
but tomorrow, upon hearing what I did
I will stare at you in disbelief
oh, inconsistent me
crying out for consistency

and you said I know that this will hurt
but if I don't break your heart then things will just get worse
If the burden seems too much to bear
Remember the end will justify the pain it took to get us there

and I'll let it be known
at times I have shown
signs of all my weakness
but somewhere in me
there is strength

and you promise me
that you believe
in time I will defeat this
cause somewhere in me
there is strength

and today I will trust you with the confidence
of a man who's never known defeat
and I'll try my best to just forget
that that man isn't me

reach out to me
make my heart brand new
every beat will be for you
for you

and I know you know
you touched my life
when you touched my heavy heart and made it light

- relientk::letitallout

2006-01-05T00:30:00.000-06:00

oh BABY!
you know that song, "the 12 days of christmas"? does anyone actually understand it? i've loved that song all my life, but for the heart of me i can't understand why there would be 12 days of christmas. but, for tonight, i'll leave it up to my own interpretation. december 25th being the 1st day of christmas, january 5th would be the 12th day of christmas. hooray! here's my version of the song to try to encompass everything that happened today:

on the 12th day of christmas, my true love gave to me,
12 s and twelves of fellow longhorns,
11 hundred yards of total offense,
(#)10 aka mvp vince young,
9 total touchdowns,
8 hours at town center,
7 dollar chipotle meal,
6 heartwrenching fumbles,
5 seconds on tv,
4 hours of cheering,
3 crossword puzzles,
2 hooked horns, and
1 sweet texas victory!

if you're real bored or real excited you can try to sing it.

and here are some pics, courtesy of melody, cynthia, and olivia:

5 seconds of fame?

hook 'em!

you know, it's really all about the chair

town center reprezent!

jester west 151 reprezent!
all in all, i can't believe that this game not only lived up to all the hype, but that it was also a more exciting game than last year's rose bowl. my voice is gone, i've yelled "oh baby" many more times than necessary, and i stepped in some gum over at the town center, but i don't think ANYTHING could ruin today.

oh BABY!

2006-01-01T02:41:00.000-06:00

2006

"I do think New Year's resolutions can't technically be expected to begin on New Year's Day, don't you? Since, because it's an extension of New Year's Eve, smokers are already on a smoking roll and cannot be expected to stop abruptly on the stroke of midnight with so much nicotine in the system. Also dieting on New Year's Day isn't a good idea as you can't eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover. I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second.
- Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones's Diary

well whether i should technically start following new year's resolutions on january 1st or 2nd, i figure it's never too early to start thinking about them.

this time of year, i always hear of people's resolutions and stuff like that, and i've boiled it down to 2 main theoretical approaches:

1. shoot for the moon, because even if you miss, you'll land among the stars
2. set your goals low and you'll never be disappointed

the first one just kinda annoys me because that's what i used to do every single new year's. just set huge, lofty expectations for myself that ended up never being completed. most of the time i'd just keep putting it off until it was the end of the year and i realized i hadn't even attempted to fulfill the goal. and, well, the second one is just too cynical, so here is my single 2006 new year's resolution:

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
- 1 corinthians 10:31

i'm not sure whether that even "counts" as a new year's resolution, but i'm gonna stick with it. i figure it's a pretty darn good credo for this year. i mean, you really can't go wrong with it. this way i can sorta just live one day at a time and not have to worry about completing some huge project that i kinda stuck myself with doing on new year's eve.

i guess more than anything i really want to lean on God this year. heh, i guess i say that every year, to some extent, but lately i feel like i have been lacking consistency with Him. for some reason, it seems like i tend to pull away from Him at times when i truly need Him the most, most of the time feeling too unworthy to be in His presence at all. i suppose the concept of His grace is still something that completely astounds me, but hey, i'm not complaining.

happy new year's everybody, and may your 2006 be filled with countless laughs and memories.

2005-12-29T03:43:00.000-06:00

alive and well :)

2005-12-22T16:49:00.000-06:00

goodbye, fall..
..and hellooo winter. man talk about the fastest semester ever. is it just me, or did this past semester seem like 2 months long? ah well i guess i'm not complaining. so you want an update? emm..what can i feel safe sharing, even to some would-be stalkers..

well. school was pretty difficult, to say the least. first semester of ppa turned out to be quite an adjustment, but all in all, my grades weren't too shabby and my gpa didn't suffer too bad a drop. God's been good, teaching me a whole lot of crap about myself that i didn't even realize. one thing that i'm gonna need to work on is consistency. check up on me with that. i think aside from the whole humbling aspect of this semester, God revealed to me the absolute wonder of His grace. it's something that i always just kinda took for granted, but man, grace is the most beautiful thing ever. just the concept of it can really blow you away.

i guess that's enough about fall 2005. in the back of my mind, it is still the "beginning" of the year, so i'm gonna treat the spring semester as the rest of the year, where i try to do everything i didn't really have time to do 1st semester. but woah now, that's enough thinking ahead for now. i can't believe i just mentioned next semester already.

anyhow, i'm leaving for california tomorrow evening. we're gonna fly there and then drive around in a 12-passenger van, with a total of 11 passengers! yipeee this is gonna be cozy. not really sure what we're gonna be doing there, or even where exactly in cali we're going, but i think i'm gonna try snowboarding. i guess more than anything i feel like i just need a break from..everything. a break from texas, a break from home. hopefully i'm not too tempted to just stay over there in the OC or something. actually that doesn't sound so bad right now. so i'll be back somewhere between 11 days of never.

so in the spirit of "christmas cheer," i'd like to share this song. i've been playing it on repeat for the past day and a half, so i think i'll declare this the official christmas song of 2005! yahooo!

I Celebrate The Day
- relient k
And with this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say to let You know how much You've touched my life
Because here is where You're finding me, in the exact same place as New Year's eve
And from a lack of my persistency
We're less than half as close as I want to be

And the first time
That You opened Your eyes did You realize that You would be my Savior
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did You know that it would change this world forever

And so this Christmas I'll compare the things I felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That You have come to meet me here

To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
In the hope that what You did
That you were born so I might live
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me

And I, I celebrate the day
That You were born to die
So I could one day pray for You to save my life

merry christmas, happy new year, and all the typical stuff everyone says this time of year.

(oh and for the illiterate, aka "i-visit-blogs-just-to-see-pictures" people, here is a picture so i can fulfill my quota:

if you don't get it, sorry. just chuckle a little bit to pretend like you do.)

later chumps

2005-12-18T05:03:00.000-06:00

i'm a foolish boy. whenever stuff really goes wrong, i tend to doubt God's goodness. i don't mean to, but it just happens. i mean everybody loves a scapegoat, right? well it's not that i really blame Him, i just sorta question His wisdom. yeah i know it sounds silly just saying it. me? questioning God's wisdom? that's as crazy as it gets, but that's how it ends up playing out. more or less, i ask Him, "are You doing Your job up there?" then He teaches me something absolutely amazing through the hardship that could not have been possible beforehand. sometimes it's something about myself that i never saw before. sometimes it's a new side of Him that i've never even considered. most of the time it's a combination of both. then i question why i ever doubt His goodness at all. i'm a foolish boy.