we’re gonna dance dance in the freedom we know

i kno i havent posted in awhile, which is a little weird i guess, since i was planning on updating this thing pretty regularly.  i didn’t even get to really write about my trip to taiwan.  i guess i’ll do that sometime.  i wonder how many people even read this thing.  xanga’s nice because you kno your friends are all reading your thoughts, but wordpress is kind of obscure i guess.  it looks so nice though, so i guess that can’t be helped.

anyways, i dont have a whole lot of time now, so for now I’ll leave you with this little tidbit.

temporary site

peep the new Passion Church blog. i believe it’s fairly stylish.

here’s one for the kids yo.

that’s new life right there.

quite ill

FUN song!

Spongebob: It’s not about winning, it’s about fun
Plankton: What’s that?
Spongebob: Fun is when you…fun is…it’ like…it’s kinda…sorta like a…
What is fun? I…Let me spell it for you

Spongebob: F is for friends who do stuff together
U is for u and me
N is for NE where and NE time at all

whole cast: down here in the deep blue sea

Plankton: F is for fire that burns down the whole town
U is for Uranium…BOMBS!
N is for no survivors when you-

Spongebob: Plankton! Those things aren’t what fun is all about!
now, do it like this,
F is for friends who do stuff to-

Plankton: Never! that’s completely idiotic!

Spongebob: Here, Let me help you…
F is for friends who do stuff together
U is for u and me, Try it!

Plankton: N is for NE where and NE time at all

whole cast: down here in the deep blue sea

Plankton: Wait…I don’t understand this…I feel all tingly inside…
should we stop?

Spongebob: No! That’s how you’re supposed to feel!

Plankton: Well i like it!! Lets do it again!

Spongebob: Okay!

Spongebob & Plankton: F is for frolic through all the flowers
U is for ukulele
N is for nose picking, sharing gum, and
sand licking here with my best buddy

*weird laughter

ok, small disclaimer for the last post.  as many of you may have surmised, i was not the author.  that was the work of my wonderfully endearing sister.  i gave her permission to have a little fun.

so i’m back from Asia.  it’s an interesting feeling.  i do feel different.  isn’t if funny when you go on a trip to minister and instead you get ministered to?  put succinctly, God hit me pretty hard.  i felt like i met Him for the first time all over again.  it’s kind of embarassing to admit it, but for a long time ministry, whether it’s singing a song or praying for a friend, had become a hollow shell of pious action.  but at the same time it’s liberating to find that for the first time in awhile things have meaning.  i finally “do” because i am His son/friend/ambassador/servant/you-get-the-idea.  everything looks different now.  everything feels different now.  everything, though not completely clear, makes more sense.

do you know what’s the worst feeling in the world?  to hear “Jesus loves you” and not be moved.  what’s worse than the worst feeling in the world?  to say “Jesus loves you” to others (even strangers) and have no true personal understanding of the statement.  it’s a personal hypocrisy that dulls the mind and numbs the heart.

when you meet the Holy Spirit it’s over.  all your fears, all your doubts, all your excuses of why you don’t love Jesus.  they disappear.  they’re completely incinerated by the fire of His presence.  this is not to say that everything is solved in an instant.  don’t get me wrong.  He intends to take you on a journey.  a hard journey that leads to intimacy.  but the power you encounter is like nothing you’ve ever met before.  we are guilty of making the Holy Spirit too weak, too small, too impotent to affect change or do miracles.  let Him tear your world apart.

if you are reading this and you feel the numbness i’m talking about i urge to get down on your knees and repent at this very moment for neglecting Him.  cry out like you’ve never cried before.  dont stop till He lets you.  then ask Him to fill you.  you’re life will never be the same.

it’s hard to give this post some sense of consistency.  there’s just so much that’s on my heart that i can’t yet express on paper.  or html for that matter.  more to come later.

i am home

i am home and it is so suhweet. my sister picked this layout for me. asia was bomb and i am obsessed with women and clothes, clothes, clothes! あの女もう一度会いたい。

continuing on the trip

wuttup all,

 i’m at the hk airport right now which is just about the tightest airport i’ve ever visited.  there’s freakin free internet here!!!  and with regular keyboards!!!  you guys do not know how special that is for me.  for the first time ever, me and jaeson got dropped off here by his gangster driver (who looks like a triad, shaved head, sunglasses, and all), checked in for our flight and moved through customs and security within a pain-free timespan of fifteen minutes.  after india, i think any kind of airport situation will seem great.  but today is especially nice.

 so pray hard for us because now we’re actually gonna start the work that we originally came here to do.  i feel like hk was a two days three days repose for the seven days of hell we experienced in london/india.  i’m not exactly sure what it all was for yet but i think in the end it’ll make sense.

 quick note to self: when you have time, make “the great escape” post.

hk was the boooomb.  i’m totally going back when i have the chance.  great food, great places to visit, great girls–jp.  forreal ahaha.  not to be mean the girls there just weren’t my type.  one look at their clothing, purse, and blingy cell-phone told it all: high maintenance.  besides that they were either largely androgenous or ridiculously pale and anorexic.  anywaaaaaaaaays, i’m not obsessed with women.  i promise.  :]

so my aunt and uncle spoiled me for the past three days.  auntie judy took me all over hong kong each day and bought me sweet new pair of airmax 90′s.  pictures soon to come nuckas.

holy crap, i just discovered the first mosquito bite i’ve had in like three years.  i gotta say we’re pretty spoiled in cali when it comes to weather and bugs.  dang it’s so itchy.

i was afraid it would be awkward in hk with just my aunt and uncle but it was actually super cool.  most of the time i was just with auntie judy and it was pretty bomb.  we talked about all kinds of family things, relationship issues, etc.  with uncle ludy i got to expand my views on international politics and american foreign policy, which i’ve recently grown a taste for.  by the way i just checked myucla.  i got an A in that class, haters.  it’s just chill talking with uncle ludy too.  he’s just an intelligent, fun-loving guy.  he says that he tries to act mean so that people wont rip him off but he’s got mad love.

 ok, this is getting too long so i’ll write more later.  maybe.  pics to come.  stay tuned for taiwan action yall.

peace

at laaaaast

if you dont know the etta james song i’m referencing, then you are quite unfortunate and must not have been keeping up with the last thirty years or more of pop culture. but anyways, that’s not what i’m here to talk about.

i’m in the hk!!!!!! uhhhhhhh whaaaaaat???? hahaha, i kno that was corny but you guys do not understand how happy i am. it’s like heaven here. i totally recommend this place as a vacation spot for anyone. plus, my relatives have been spoiling me from day one so the experience has been totally awesome. thankyou auntie judy and uncle ludy.

uh oh, we’re out. i’ll post more later. payce yall.

finally in the real london

so today jaeson’s friend artie, a london local, met with us at the hotel.  since we couldnt get our visas in time, we get to spend some extra time in england.  the problem was that we didnt have housing and the hotel we were staying at cost about £160 which is about $320 US.  heeeeeck no.

 interestingly enough, artie was planning to let his friend stay here for the next two days and got both days off of work but the plans fell through.  so instead we get to stay at his pad and get the real london experience.

it turns out that Westminster, the place we were staying, was the beverly hills of London.  “that’s where they suck out all the tourist’s money,” Artie cheerily recounted.  me and jaeson just hung are heads in shame.  apparently things arent nearly expensive as i thought they were, which is a relief.  to be sure things still are more expensive but it’s not as bad as i though it was.

 we rode the train and bus to his place, which i think is the best thing about london.  they have the bombest transportation.  you can buy a ticket for £5 that lets you take the train AND bus around london all day.  needless to say, i’m pretty impressed.  we wont get to sight-see today but we’ll visit Artie’s church tonight and let jaeson watch the shawshank redemption after service.  i cant believe he hasnt seen that movie yet.

 the weather here is beaaaaaaauuuuutiful.  i havent been in such good weather in a long time–and i’m from socal!  we went for a walk around the park and got to just enjoy a little bit of nature.  this borough is called hackney and it’s a nice quaint little part of london.  tomorrow we’ll head into the city and hit some museums before we visit the 24-7 boiler room.  then if all goes well and we get our visas we’ll take the 9pm flight to India and visit Anton Cruz’s orphanage.  then it’s off to Taiwan we go, which i’m really excited about.

 aight, that’s it for now.  maybe i’ll post more later.

so fresh and so clean

i decided to repost my “london madness” entry since i spent so much time on it but never plan on returning to my newly divorced blogspot.
london madness
you guys do not know how long it took me to get this stupid blog up. maybe i’m just an idiot but i think that this is one of the most non-user-friendly interfaces that i’ve ever used. arrrrrrg. think positive thoughts.

ok, so i know that my post on xanga seems really disjointed and weird so i’ll attempt to bring some more continuity to it.

so yeh, here i am in england. for those of you who don’t know, i’m out of the states right now with jaeson. we’re heading from here to india and then taiwan. it’s going to be my first time in each of these places so i’m pretty stoked. the trip started out pretty good. we hopped on the 10 hour flight and dropped into our hotel and met up with jaeson’s relatives from hong kong. they’re ballers so we got wined and dined at different cafes and this super posh french restaurant. i still think london/europe is great but things have been going wrong as of late.

so yesterday me and jaeson found out that we actually have to have visas to get into india. no sweat, we thought, we’ll just visit the embassy tomorrow and things’ll work out. wrong. after rushing from three stores this morning to get passport photos (which we got from this nifty little machine), we waited for forty-five minutes at the indian high commission only to find out that we won’t be able to get our visas for three to five business days and our flight leaves tomorrow. so we’re basically screwed right now. to top it off, jaeson’s reservation for the flight to india got cancelled for some obscure reason and if we don’t get to india we have to buy whole new tickets to taiwan. it’s safe to say mr. travel agent screwed up. in the words of russell peters, “soommebody gonna geta hurt.”

things i like about england:
1. people talk in cool accents. everyone. whether you’re white, asian, black, indian. it’s just so darn cute.
2. the cafes here are so quaint and nice. all the servers have homey little french accents and the atmosphere is just warm and nice.
3. the weather here is great right now. it’s like 70 degrees outside and it’s totally not humid at all. it feels like norcal weather.
4. there’s mad history all around. i just havent had a chance to see it yet

things that are really pissing me off right now:
1. we’ve been stuck in this godforsaken area all day trying to fix this mess somebody else made.
2. i have one of those hard red pimples you can’t pop right near my right nostril–the type that hurts every time you rub your nose. that’s one of the worst places to have a pimple because you always forget about it and end up hurting again when you touch anything remotely near it.
3. this keyboard is sticky (both the surface and the responsiveness of the keys) and the apostrophes, quotation marks, etc. are all in random places. my seasoned typing hands are fumbling all over the place and the backspace has the responsiveness of an alzheimer’s patient. the shift button is ridiculously small so whenever you think you’re trying to capitalize something you insert a “\” next to your completely uncapitalized letter.
4. someone told me no one in europe is fat. they were wrong.
5. both me and jaeson already nearly got broadsided by big red buses final destination style. the people driving here make new york cab drivers look like grandfathers. there’s not even a honk and the customary “whataya crazy?” warning we all enjoy in the big apple. the british cabbies–and anyone who’s been here can attest to this–literally accellerate when pedestrians step into the street and drive nochalantly by after they’ve nearly turned you into roadkill.
6. everytime i open my American mouth i feel strange and ugly.
7. nobody holds the door open for anyone or smiles when they make eye contact. except for a couple girls. jp.
8. people refuse to walk around you. i was standing on the sidewalk waiting for jaeson to grab some questionable fish and chips and i was hit by three different people. i was just standing there, not moving and people did not choose to change their paths. i felt like peter parker in spiderman 2. i was beaten for being american. i just know it.
9. this is an internet wasteland. nobody has wireless and internet access costs $40 an hour in the hotel. i find it ridiculous that such a modern nation is so unconnected from the rest of the world. even china is more wired than this web-forsaken desert.
10. everything costs an arm and a leg. shopping in london is the most sinful thing an asian can do.
11. it’s not true that all the food is bad here. the problem is that all the good food will cost you your soul and affordable food does not exist. even the fish and chips were $10.
12. whoever says there arent pretty girls in london was lying. there’s just an unusally large amount of ugly people. haha jp. but none of the pretty girls speak english and according to my friend from here they’re not interested in americans much less asians with nappy hair.
13. the pimple under my nose has reached enormous proportions and a clever white cap. i sense the end is near. for the pimple that is.

i kno that it seems that the latter list far outweighs the first and that i must hate england with a passion but i really dont. i think jaeson and i just found ourselves unprepared for new experiences on a particularly stressful day. in the words of my good friend freddy “it’s just one of those days when you dont wanna get up, everybody sucks, everything is”—yeah you know that limp bizkit song. hopefully we can find ourselves a good pub and grab a pint and we can let bygones be bygones. right after we get this stupid phone card to work and give the travel agent a little pep talk.