Hello readers!

The last 3 weeks have been very intense to put it lightly. Not only did i have exams every week, but i also was away on the weekends.... hindering my availability... both weekends i was away on church retreats... which both were amazing! The first retreat was with a new group of people... Intervarsity which i have been slowly getting myself involved with this year... they're a great bunch of people and the key about it is that it's multiethnic! Multi-ethnic you say? YES that means the asian stereotype of being exclusive is broken into the world of other races/colors, in a great christian environment.... haha it's awesome to say the least! But anyways the retreat was quite a blessing... I met a ton of new people from various schools and bonded with some close(er) friends along with hearing a message that changed the way i think these days... living without fear and frustrations! Granted i still DOO have some here and there... i do not worry about them as often... a very optimistic view on things i suppose... it's something i want to hold on from now on though. Beyond the message was also a good time playing card games (Nertz especially!) into the wee hours of the morning and enjoying hot tea and food with new people!

Then when i thought i was going to miss retreat i was renewed with the fact that I'd be going on the C-Stone retreat the weekend after! wooo another amazing time, new people, long talks, and another moving message that made me and many of my peers think more about how we spend out time and money in today's society.... Social Justice is a very hard (if not impossible) thing to do and sadly our world today has just made it that way... taking for granted what we have is something we all do that makes us blind to the fact that we are better off than prolly 98% of the rest of the world today... one point i found very solid is that God gave us all life equally in his image... soo in a way the world has put it so that not everyone is equal... the right to live should be given to everyone, not just those with worthless pieces of currency... what really matters is the relationships we make in our life time!... Who's lives do we impact... many people probably... more so than you would probably think! The ways we interact with people is very unique to us... and we ripple through the people we associate ourselves with and interact with. Thus is our world today... we live it.. and I just hope that the interactions i have with people around me is worth something to them... Whether it be you reading this post or simply a "Hello" as we pass each other around a corner... every action happens for a reason...

So the two retreats were a real blessing for me and definitely a challenging time for me both spiritually and in reality. I was pushed with studying as i did not have any time on the weekends... even though i tried and failed horrible... i would either doze off (due to lack of lots of sleep) or there would be too many social opportunities to not take! haha On top of retreats and school I've been waiting on job interviews as well as apartment hunting!... it feels like it adds to the stress level in my life.. but in the end... i'm not that worried cause i know God will provide SOMETHING for me... I've had one interview so far... and it's for one of my top jobs... so i'm hoping i hear back from them next week! It's quite competitive for me right now since all the honors students have better GPAs than i do... and thus companies look at that first.... SO A WORD OF ADVICE TO ALL FUTURE COOPS/INTERSHIPS... dont put your GPA down on your resume... one of my friends didn't put his down and he got a bunch of interviews compared to someone who DIDput down GPA.... only put down your GPA if it's good basically... not saying that my GPA isn't good... it's just people are higher than me... I guess i have to wait to see which job/interviews i get to really make a good suggestion on the matter... but it's definitely something to consider...

Apartment hunting on the other hand is being pushed off constantly because it's hard to find apartments for a January move in at this time... better to start looking later in November i suppose.... I'll prolly update on it in the future...

As a little side note... this post was started like 2-3 days ago and i've added slowly here and there when i've had time... i thought i'd have time this weekend... but everyday i was busy till late late at night... and i just didn't have the energy to think about what to write... even tonight... i'm surprised i've conjured the energy to write the rest of this... maybe it was the Starbucks i had earlier hehehe...

So this is merely the surface of what's been going on in my life... I have some more specific topics to discuss possibly for the future... so if you scrolled down past the big paragraphs... in a nut shell I've been crazy busy for my own good... I do find free time here and there and i indulge in my hobbies that i'm barely hanging onto... as well as some friendships/relationships that need rekindling... i love spending time with people outside my normal routine... or maybe it's the other way around and i don't have a normal routine... and just do things as they come and go! haha sure i have the typical hangout with my friends in the late evenings... where we either watch movies or simply chill till the wee hours of the morning... but when the random social "dates" come into play... it spices things up, it's great!... anywayssss this could definitely lead into many more topics for discussion but i'll hold off for now...

I have another post that i want to complete with something more specific to myself and relationships... it's like half written... hopefully i'll have time to finish is tomorrow or on Veteran's day? meh we'll seeee


Thanks so much for reading!

DYung

Random thoughts and thanks...

Right now i'm thinking about how long this post is going to be... or potentially it could be... I haven't posted in a few weeks and i'm kinda disappointed i couldn't because i had a buncha things i wanted to write about and i think i forgot a handful of them.

My lack of posting has been contributed to a bunch of things... mainly that my brother came home from his college summer course... and i've been hanging out with him excessive amounts since this is one of our last times together for a long time... since he's graduating this fall and then probably getting a job and moving out of the house etc etc etc... along with the fact that i won't be home consistently for a long time as due to the fact that i'll be switching between co-ops and school for the next 3 years...

I'm curious as to what it's going to be like... going on coops and switching back to school... considering the fact that potentially half of my school peers aren't going to be at school when i am... and vise versa when i'm on coop... thus will I not really talk to them?? or even see them for that matter?!?! that's kinda strange to think about... to know someone for a year and half.. then sorta stop seeing each other due to technicalities... i mean then you bring in the power of facebook... which... as my brother was saying fills in for a buncha different things as i'm sure you know... for pictures... small talk... or real talk... and all those little things facebook provides us with lol...

(though i'm not totally keen on the new facebook layout... whenever it randomly pops up... i stick with the old facebook... new facebook is just ew.... like taking a pepperoni pizza and eating it with peanut butter..... or something like that)

Anyways it's sorta sad that everyone's already going back to college so soon... and started classes too... like... damn... at NEU we start later than everyone else... then get back earlier than everyone else... go figure eh... maybe we're just smarter.. and learn faster n stuff... lolz... (or it's because we dont get "Fall Break" and other BS days off) So i'm stuck around till September 5th... which surprisingly is coming up really fast... but i suppose it was going to come inevitably... this summer's been a freakin long one... 4 months... and maybe a little more... it's hard to think back to the beginning... i was pretty much a bum... sleeping till 3-4 PM... going to sleep really early in the morning... getting around 12 hours of sleep... i'll definitely miss it come this fall... where i have 8 AM classes.... ughhhhhh... though i can say this summer didn't go to a full waste being a bum... i got a bunch of money from working for my dad's company... which was very generous... my dad's company actually wanted to pay a generous amount... in order to keep taxes down... since he's made so much money this year already... but i guess i don't really mind. Money's money and i plan to spend it wisely! err i mean save it... wisely... yeah... anyways thinking back i just remembered going to Florida for a bit... then training for the 5K run... and watching the greatest StarCraft players in the world play while i worked... good times! man time flies doesn't it?

I guess it's good to look back... considering i've been quite occupied lately...

On another note my uncle is now Cancer FREE which is amazingly awesome... to actually be "cured" of cancer must be just the best news in the world. I'm happy for that definitely. I saw him when i went to Florida and he was just getting through with the Chemotherapy... he wasn't eating much and had lost a lot of weight... but by the time i left he was showing improvements in eating habits and the such.... All i can say is Thank You God! I had actually brought it up as a prayer request in my small group when i had received the news last semester... it's always a joy to know prayer goes a long way.

Yeah... i'm tired right now... and i gotta wake up tomorrow to say bye to my brother at the airport.... this post has been QUITE random i'm sure... but i didn't feel like making is dedicated to one topic alone since it's been awhile... If you actually read all of it... or even half of it... well... then you're cool in my books. =]

I'll write more soon!

Thanks for reading,

DYung

YouTube at its best

So i woke up this morning a little later than usual because i knew i'd be somewhat sore from my workout yesterday... so i didn't have to attempt to go running in the morning (which has failed for the past few days). So i showered and turned on my laptop... did the normal morning routine... read my blog subscriptions from various sources, xanga, and blogger mostly, drank my starbucks, etc. Then i opened an email from an old friend who sent out this link on youtube to a video that is suppose to make us 'think'.

Video summary (if you dont wanna watch it):

Basically this video is story about how a christian stood up to challenge a teacher's atheist views of God. The teacher would ask the class at the end of his course that if anyone believed in God they stand up, and that if God existed a piece of chalk he dropped would not be shattered. For 20 years no one stood up and the chalk shattered until this one case where at the end of the course a christian guy stood up and the chalk did not shatter. The teacher stormed out, and the kid shared his christian experience with the rest of the class...

So the video definitely points out some key points about faith. As a christian i look at it as another great work in our world through God (though i don't know if it's true or not it's still a good potential example of how God can work in our world today). My opinion on it may be a little bias since i believe it... and i myself have faith in such things. But what got at me the most was when i scanned through the comments and saw an epic youtube battle occurring between avid christians and persistant non-believers. Post after post i read arguments on both sides that both bring up good points... but i remembered random snippets of Janas's lessons in sunday college group... about how arguing about such topics never ever get things done. Maybe for the side viewer who is not sure which side to pick, the word battles may swing them one way or another, but in the end any christian reading the comments or hardcore atheist/non-believer will stick to their side respectively.

Another excellent point is today's conception of heaven and hell. There were several comments on how average people today are brought up in a society that poses heaven and hell at different levels. Where people who are not christians want to go to heaven... and not hell.. yet they are not christian.. so what do they believe in? I don't know you tell me. My guess is they are under the impression that in the end some sort of judgment will be bestowed upon them and their fates will be decided... i dunno it's sorta messed up... but it's also sorta become a norm... that non-christians say they'd like to go to heaven, but don't believe in God. I guess it's a perfect opportunity for us christians to introduce or encourage them to find out why they want to go to heaven.

Reading the comment war between christians and non-christians got me annoyed at both sides... mainly for fighting... like i mentioned before fighting from separate sides of an issue goes no where except make each side bitter towards the other.

Then i saw a video response and it was a mockery of the original video basically... then at the end of the video they had the nerve to say that if God existed he would delete the video or something ridiculous like that... i can't find the video again for some reason. That kind of ignorance is so UGH.... and on top of that they spelled a buncha stuff wrong... i can just imagine a young kid who thinks they know everything... i know i'm being cruel.. but that kind of ignorance/immaturity gets on my nerves... I just shake my head now.

-DY