1/11/07

The people I look up to


I remember babysitting them when mom and dad would go out. I remember playing swamp monster with them on the trampoline on hot Sunday afternoons. I remember going to Disneyland with them and screaming in the Haunted Mansion and running around with the Mad Hatter. But that was a long time ago and now they're all taller than me.

Here's the latest from one of my little sisters in Japan:

So, I went to Nasu on P-day which is why I didn`t write this on Thursday. You`ll have to forgive me if my punctuation is a bit off. Somebody rearranged some of the keys on me. . . but I guess all the letters are in the same place.
Yeah, so my comp is awesome! She is a go-getting, hard-working, Japanese-speaking, fun-loving, hula-dancing, dendo(missionary work) machine!!!! This is her last transfer, so I get to kill her off.
Man, I lucked out! Oyama is the Mecca of sister missionaries in the TOKN mission. Everyone wants to be here and I can see why. The members are loving, concerned member-missionaries in the best way. So great! And they LOVE missionaries, so we are well fed and looked-after. Too well-fed, actually.


She's serving her mission in Japan right now and is "on fire" as we say. I think she's the smartest person I've met, or at least has the best English grammar. I used to be really jealous of her because she was the second child and stole my fire, and now I'm really jealous of her because she gets full-ride scholarships and goes to Japan on her mission. Or maybe it's more like "holy envy."

My next little sister is an artist. Not just a visual artist (that's all I can show here), but an artist of words and music and life. I remember sitting with her at the old piano downstairs in the Cooley house and teaching her the theme song to Jurassic Park, and wondering how she could learn it so fast when she couldn't even read the music. Now she creates her own music and her own life and both are uniquely hers.


My little brother is tough. I hope he doesn't remember this, but I used to push him around a little bit more than everyone else during swamp monster because I wanted him to be the "man" of the siblings - I was more of the "brain" or the "lego-master" or something puny like that. Now he could beat the crap out of me if he wanted to, but he wouldn't because I hear from everyone that he has a heart of gold. (my bro's in black - he might not have the technique yet, but he's sure got the strength, at least to crush this guy's head in):








If it doesn't work, click here

I love these guys. I don't see them often enough anymore to really express that, but I think about them all the time. I don't think they know that. They don't know that I pray for them by name, but I do. They don't know I check their myspaces to see what life is doing to them, but I do. They don't know I would do anything to help them avoid the stupid mistakes I made at that age, but I would. And it's funny because I'm kind of stuck between the "big brother" and "little brother" stage. I've watched out for them my whole life, but I think the time is coming (or already here, or long gone) that they don't need it anymore. So now what do I do? I guess just see them for who they are now, not 10 years ago. Siblings? Yes. Little? No. Friends? Definitely.


2 comments:

Triet said...

uh, i DO have flash, and all i got was the cool words...in firefox, no less. i guess I'll imagine my own video of your brother in black -- maybe as a ninja...

xanghe said...

Oops, you caught me right in between switching players. I'm using FlowPlayer, which used to only work in Firefox for me, but now it works in IE and NOT Firefox. Ah! Anyway, I'll try to fix it later. I'm tired.

travel log
  • 02.13.08 - to the temple with Luan and his mom, good to be back
  • 02.14.08 - Mẫu's alive! and staying for the weekend
  • 02.15.08 - floor hockey and Thái food makes for some strange dreams
  • 02.17.08 - frisbee and swamp monster at the park: fun but I'm pooped!
  • 02.19.08 - just read Triết's response to my last post - game on!
  • 02.20.08 - raining and expected to continue through Sunday - thank goodness!
  • 02.21.08 - 3-hour nap is a bad idea right before bed
  • 02.23.08 - to the beach to watch kites, a baptism @ 5pm, and homemade bulgogi - what a day!
  • 02.25.08 - just gave myself a haircut - woo, cold head!
  • 02.26.08 - 75° and spring cleaning - couldn't feel better
  • 02.27.08 - fed the elders bún đậu tonight - think it's their first time
  • 03.01.08 - working on new background...
  • 03.02.08 - finalized javascript to change background without muffing up my other scripts
  • 03.03.08 - fhe: "In his strength I can do all things" (Alma 26:12)
  • 03.07.08 - some decisions are harder than others, but some are downright excruciating
  • 03.08.08 - there is life after work... i almost forgot
  • 03.11.08 - the distance between good and bad is much shorter than between better and best
  • 03.12.08 - conversion is sometimes a gradual process, so much so that we don't even notice
  • 03.14.08 - for some reason everything was a little harder today, looking forward for bed!
  • 03.15.08 - last night after blog reading, I missed OnlyBlue, today I find she's back
  • 03.16.08 - best day of my life!
  • 03.19.08 - "Pray for the answer that they've been looking for"
release notes v1.0 - FINALLY DONE!
  • 12.07 - first thought of starting a new blog
  • 01.08 - busy with election stuff but blog design still on back burner
  • 01.13.08 - first idea to imitate jk rowling with the "desk" theme
  • 01.28.08 - start sketching current design, breaking down development into phases
  • 02.02.08 - election only days away but still drafting final plans
  • 02.04.08 - v0.6 LAUNCH
    • main components (blog body, sidebar, header, etc) designed and implemented
    • styling for font, links, drop caps, etc. finished
  • 02.07.08 - v0.8 LAUNCH
    • image style to imitate polariod
    • moveability - post-it notes and static clings can be repositioned by drag and drop
    • release notes styled and written
  • 02.16.08 - travel log (beta) added in hopes of catching the mundane
  • 02.22.08 - lightbox 2.03 reinstalled and working fine (hopefully - let me know otherwise)
  • 02.26.08 - v0.9 LAUNCH
    • travel log seems to be working, so I'll keep it
    • lightbox also seems to have passed the test, so it's a keeper
    • some credits/info added to bottom (will expand)
    • keeping old Viet terms in archive for future viewing
  • 03.18.08 - v1.0 LAUNCH
    • installation and testing of time-sensitive background completed (for now)