12/30/07

Happy Birthday to me! and the New Blog


Ok, it's not my birthday, but we are approaching this blog's one-year anniversary. So it must be my blog singing that song.


Let's take a quick look back at the past year. The first blog I created got only two posts. That was before I found "blogger" and found out it worked with a google account. Click on the picture for a "sneak peek" of my blog - from last year.


Next came this blog, which has transformed in the last year from somewhat relevant to completely superfluous, but I love it anyway. Take a trip back into the past - take a look at the first post here.


Now, I've done it again. I've started another blog project, but this time my aim is a little different than blowing off steam or trying to be funny. This time I felt a pull to aim at building something of a community, something that reaches a larger audience than just my friends and family (I think this blog's readership may be up to 10 by now). As this idea sprouted in my mind, my wife pointed out an article on the Church's homepage: Apostle Urges Students to Use New Media by Elder M Russell Ballard. The transcript is here. After reading this great address, I realized that I could use a principle of the Gospel to form my idea into a tangible blog. So here it is - a sneak peek at what may become a thriving community of faith or just another failed attempt at innovation in a saturated market.


12/19/07

Make this Christmas Special

Please take some time this Christmas season to remember and cherish the loved ones in your life. Last week, I received an email from a friend that her sister had gone missing. After 6 days of exhaustive investigation and searching, her body was found in a landfill. Please keep the family of Ann Lisa Nguyen in your hearts and prayers this holiday season.

We are so blessed to be surrounded by friends and family - let us not forget that life is fragile.

The Nguyen family dedicated a Christmas tree to Lisa in San Jose's "Christmas in the Park" and plans on sponsoring a tree for several years to come. If you would like to show your support during this difficult time, please visit Lisa's Tree website to donate for the sponsorship of Christmas trees in the future. Lisa loved seeing the trees at Christmas time.

UPDATE: The Nguyen family created a website in memory of Lisa, here's the homepage:
AnnLisaNguyen.com



12/16/07

Chinese Chess - never play after a 3-hour, late-afternoon nap

It was a beautiful day today, but we didn't take advantage of it because my cold from last week somehow made its way to my wife and she was in bed all day. However, after napping for several hours this afternoon, we decided to try a rematch at chinese chess, our new "thing to do" at home. Last time she whipped me two matches to one, but this time I put up a better fight. The only problem is that we got down to a few pieces and we're both too stubborn to surrender, so we just played and played until we were blue in the face. Literally. We both went a little wacko at that point, pushing the pieces extraordinarily long distances and capturing three pieces (including the general) in one swoop. Click here to see what happened next:




12/7/07

November Rain (and Decemeber, too!)


It rained last Friday and it rained again today. I love it.

I believe my blog has now fallen into the "Boringest Blogs in the World" category, if it ever left that category in the first place. No pictures, no thought-provoking thoughts, just me blabbing. And not even very often. Pitiful.

It is election season, which makes it difficult for me to blog at work (don't tell my boss) and homework is adding up (finals are coming soon) so I don't have a lot of time. I've been busier, but I'm getting old so I can't hack it like I used to. And I just got sick, so anytime I move too fast I feel like my head is caving in. Let's see... anymore lame excuses...??? Nope, that's it.

So much has happened in the last few weeks, I can't fit it all in here. I've sworn off drawing (oh yeah, that's another lame excuse for not blogging) because it takes me too long and then I either get discouraged and quit or I think it's a work of art and drool over it when really it looks like crap. I've finally written out the text for my storybook (by the way, I've been trying to write a storybook) and my original intention was to illustrate it myself but that's gone down the drain. By the time I'm talented enough to do that I'll be 50. Plus, I'm trying to pick up an extra income somewhere (and praying for a promotion!) to recharge our monetary reserves, so I don't have time to practice. I'm looking for someone to illustrate and I think I've found an artist whose style I've really taken a liking to, but I don't know how to get in touch with her. So that's that.

I have started playing the piano again. I try to get a little bit in each day so that I might be able to play the hymns when our regular organist is not at church. My fingers are starting to remember how to jump from key to key without me prodding them too much. It will take awhile but I hope in a year I'll have several songs down. My wife enjoys the background music much more than the click click click of my laptop or the scratch scratch scratch of my pencils on paper so I think I'll stick to this hobby. Mutually beneficial. That's what marriage is all about.

I was talking with my friend on Sunday about "the fire." You know, that massive force deep within your soul that moves you to action, the feeling that something inside you is bursting with light and you can almost see it coming out of your fingertips, the burning desire to be perfect and pure. The feeling that is followed by focused, poignant faith and vision that opens all doors and clears all obstacles in your path. The power that radiates from your eyes, that demands attention and belief from bystanders, that crushes opposition and invites success. The sense that whatever goal you're aiming at has already been accomplished and you just have to go claim it, the result so tangible that you can almost feel it before you even see it. That's the fire. At times, it's all-encompassing and exhausting and absolutely perfect. At other times, it's gone. Like, all gone. That's when depression sets in. We came up with some good stuff on how to get it back, how to rekindle the fire, but you had to be at our joint FHE last week to get it. :) The most important thing is to keep on going and never give in, to not stop dancing just because the music is gone, and to remember that before and after any great moment the opposition will mount almost to the point of collapse (please read this great address from which we find the oft-quoted line "...beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now.").

Thôi, viết tới đây đã dài quá rồi đấy, ngừng nhe. I'm stopping here, this is way too long.


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)