robchang0822's Xanga

oh christmas tree, oh christmas tree...

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 03:44:28 GMT

Just discovered Jim Gaffigan - he is so funny, interesting perspective on American holidays. Just saw this on tv, and ironically I was just thinking about how Christmas trees are a weird tradition...

it feels good to be gansta...

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:47:28 GMT

Day 1 - Friday April 11

Everytime I come back to Taiwan, one or more of my uncles comes to pick us up. I hop in the back of a darkly tinted car and he hands me a cellphone to use once I'm there. In the past when we'd get to my grandparents house a big pot of tang yuan would be prepared for us, and a red e nvelope or a big wad of cash was passed to each of us.

I have no idea if this is normal but it's normal for me.

Sorry friends if I hadn't told you beforehand about this trip - it was so whirlwind to get out here - I'm now on my way back in the Kansai (Osaka, Japan) airport. I just spent a week and a half in Taiwan, for my cousin's wedding.

pics from day 1:

in front of G-ma's house, mom and g-ma talking to a a woman selling vegetables.

meeting the newest and cutest member of the family! (niece)

What I've been doing with my time...

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:30:23 GMT

This past week was the first week I got a lot of sleep. This 60 minute special is worth a gander. I never took sleep so seriously but when you attribute some major world tragedies like Exxon Valdez and Chernobyl to sleep deprivation...I no longer wear that "badge of honor".

I've also been doing some of this.

most accurate:

and here was the most fun

and the one that cracked me up the most.

work/jesus/afro-cuban rhythms

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:41:41 GMT

Yes they all tie together.

Feb was an insane month, most nerve-wracking was a presentation I had to give early Friday morning on leap day to all the Learning Leaders of GE Infrastructure. Aside from combining words and saying "farting" aloud during the presentation...I don't even know what two words I was trying to say...all things considered it went well. Thankfully the Chief Learning Officer said something worse! The leaders of GE are more mature than I am and can handle it. Let's just say he used the "balls in the air" analogy and he made up his own from there...

The combo of wicked early and high stakes got me all knotted up inside but it was interesting, as I was sitting and listening to all the presentations about learning concepts I was thinking about how it's neat that Jesus taught in parables. What an interesting way to convey messages. A story. Something people will remember. It was neat to think of the son of God on this earth, teaching people important concepts, using an effective method to convey the message. As I was daydreaming about this the presenter mentioned the same thing - people remember stories and it's an effective means to relay information to your audience.

//
Now that it's March, I feel like I have my life back. Afro-cuban started up tonight at the professor's house. It's been a loong time coming. So funny thing is how work has influenced me here...one of the biggest learnings for me becoming the team lead is how undefined things can be. People are always seeking structure and the way "things are supposed to be." It's really stretched me to learn how to put definition and direction to the future which seems otherwise nebulous, and giving people the vision and the infrastructure to carry out that vision.

One thing that's always been elusive to me is soloing on the conga. We've always learned the different parts (tumbao, segundo, the claves, the bells) but playing the quinto has always been a mystery. What am I supposed to play? Stay in the clave? What does that mean? Well, we were all in the zone tonight and I was the first he asked to play the quinto and somehow I just felt the rhythm, and started defining the future. It wasn't perfect or all that special...but it finally happened. Another facet of being able to do it is just to be bold, uninhibited. Something sad people have said to the effect of people in pain/druggies/[pick your poison] make the best music. Oftentimes it's true because it's their sole passion. They're not a [?] that also makes music. Here's to taking a step to better music without baggage/paraphernalia.

whoops, where did the time go?

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:22:25 GMT

One month later...it's been a crazier beginning of the year than I anticipated. But here are some interesting things I've experienced lately:

BAM! I kicked it up a notch, but I wasn't cookin'. I went to a one day conference at about the Business As Mission initiative. Here's some highlights taken from urbana.org (I can't share things I learned at the conference because of the sensitivity of some of the material, they asked not to publish it to the intarweb.)

What is business as mission?

Here's our definition, which is adapted from the Lausanne Occasional Paper, no. 59: "Business as mission means releasing business people to use their gifting in business, integrated with biblical principles, to transform their own communities and nations and to carry the good news to the ends of the earth through commerce. Business as mission works both within a business setting and through its purposes and capacities. It seeks to harness the power and resources of business for intentional missions impact in the community, nation, and world at large."

Business as mission includes, but is not limited to:

Starting a business as mission enterprise in the developing world which impacts a community economically, socially, and spiritually
Enabling such enterprises through training and availability of capital (e.g., microfinance)
Infusing Christian values and perspective into the global conduct of business (e.g., ethics, Christian leadership principles)
Ministering to counterparts in the marketplace with the gospel of Jesus Christ

To learn more about our working understanding of business as mission, check out our resources page, which includes a link to the above paper.

One major organization that was represented was Interserve. Check them out if you're interested in using your professional skills for more than positively affecting a corporation's bottom line ;)

Speaking of sensitive material...here's a scary clip from Zeitgeist I saw recently. What do y'all think about this??

On a personal note (in poetic form):
Friday morning, less than a mile from work.
Soft powdery snow gently falls.
A phone call from a co-worker. The GM thought our meeting was a half hour earlier.
rush, rush, rush down the windy driveway.
panic, brake, slide as an oncoming car barrels down.
smack, crumple, crack as I collide head on with a wooden guardrail.

The worst part is - I forgot to add rental car insurance when I hit a deer, which ironically happened right after I switched car insurance companies. No, actually the worst part is my insurance agent still tried to convince me that it's not worth it. How is paying $25 a year for up to $900 in rental car coverage better than paying for 2 weeks of rental car usage which I'll be up to with both accidents now?? He keeps telling me of the financial consulting the agency also offers...but I'm not sure that's the best idea.

PS - So I don't get many comments via actual xanga comments but many of you stop me in the street or call or email so I guess there's more than 3 of you reading this thing. I've recently added a site-tracking thingamabobber...so if you've never commented or subscribed...will you just let me know you're out there?? Like who's subscribed to me on Google Reader from Oklahoma? Or the stalker from DC?? I just want to know so I can sleep easier at night.

Yours Truly,
Sleepless in CP

I shopped when I was hungry...

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:58:29 GMT

Oops, I know it was a cardinal mistake, but I was half hungry, half looking for normalcy in my life.

Having gotten back from a tiring trip to ATL, then a whirlwind weekend trip to CT, and then Flushing to help my parents pick out tile/flooring, the break in the clouds was that we had some amazing Chinese food...at the Flushing Mall! All of our first time, and a bit apprehensive of any mall food, it left me wanting...

Beef noodle soup, dumplings, rice-breaded steamed pork ribs on a bed of yellow sweet potatoes and yams...lotus root soup...MMMM!

As I was shopping today it reminded me of when my parents first came to the US and how my mom never complained about how much more inconvenient it was to get around and get good food here - she just adapted, being a very resourceful DIY kinda woman she made a lot of the things from the old world, tofu, soy milk, and of course a million amazing dishes with what was around then. It's funny to think about how even tofu wasn't readily available back in the day so she made it herself. Now its' a quick trip to the local Asian grocer. Where I found myself tonight in Albany.

It was a far cry from ordering something hot and delicious that would be ready in minutes, but seeing all the familiar foods, and checking the GPS to see if there was a good authentic/quick Chinese restaurant nearby, I decided I had to roll up my sleeves tonight. As I approached the counter, I broke out a, "hi, ni hao." As always the cashier is surprised I can speak Chinese. She took a guess and asked if I was Malaysian...I've been called many things but this was a first!

My mind flashed a million places. It reminded me of the time I went out in the morning with my uncle in Taiwan for steamed buns and soy milk. The old lady selling them overheard us discussing whether or not we wanted to shop at her place and called to us, "New Zealand doesn't have steamed bread and soy milk this good!" I was puzzled for a moment, then realized she thought I was from New Zealand from my accent when I speak Chinese. I was sad that my Chinese wasn't accurate to Taiwan Mandarin. Funny that I locked that away and a few years later, we were in Taiwan again watching/talking to a man do some glass blowing of little horses, and he asked if I was from Taipei. I was elated! Another memory I'll probaly latch on to for a while.

So I dunno if I looked Malaysian to her or if I sounded Malaysian...but I'll take it. It was fun connecting with someone in the mother tongue. It was nice to do something besides work and sleep and travel for a change...even cooking.

//
Um, so I totally forgot the best part of the ATL trip in my last post! I finally reconnected with an acquaintance from CT, whom I was unable to visit with last time. Coolest thing...I heard Christ Tomlin on the radio, and my C-dar was going off...so I asked, "Are you a...Christian?" I didn't know him that well growing up so maybe he was most of his life...he said, "Yeah." We moved on to something else but I bookmarked that as a topic to come back to later.

It was great catching up since I haven't seen him since like high school. It was interesting how similar our lives were and what we related on - unrequited love and our never die attitudes, about how we both became managers of a group of ~15 of our peers without much training (oh btw, great resource on pursuing an MBA through self study (http://personalmba.com/manifesto/)...just what I was looking for!), and about how our walks...turns out he found God about a year ago (through similar circumstances that I discovered I needed an attitude change towards missions)! So cool to share with him about all this stuff. Anyway, that was the best part. Holla atcho boy! Laterzzzzz

hello friends, it's been a while

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:23:22 GMT

whew! it's been busy. I had a great three days in Atlanta, benchmarking our e-Learning with other institutions like Cox Communications, SPSU, Georgia Tech, Delta Airlines, etc. Though the schedule was hectic and we went from pre-dawn to post-dusk..it was great to meet such a variety of people from different fields, share similar struggles/best practices and see amazing innovations...this time we missed out on Coke, Home Depot and Chick-Fil-A, but there's always next time...

maybe more later...i just got home so now it's time to zonk.

feed the hungry through eLearning

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 07:20:16 GMT

I haven't been to this site in a while but what a great intersection of learning/awareness and making an impact on poverty. The upside: It's pretty addicting! The downfall: you may feel dumber and unable to help those in need...

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Happy New Year :)

Monday, December 31, 2007

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 03:22:39 GMT

Wow...this was so cool! Are you right or left-brained? I am definitely right. Trying to get her to switch directions was wonky - but stare at her feet and eventually it switches!

this might get ugly

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 22:09:22 GMT

So it's been an interesting week, spiritually speaking. Last Sunday I went to my home church, saw some familiar faces and everything. It's always nice to go home. Thursday I went to a bible study that Nadia, one of the students my mom adopts over the holidays invited me to. I was intrigued as the denomination was "meeting hall" (?) so I thought I'd check it out. They have interesting ideas which have great intent - like they don't call it "something something Church" because the church are the people. The church website mentions the teachings of Witness Lee and Watchman Nee. Semi-familiar with those names I did a little research and it seemed kinda oogy but not terribly off.

the setup
Things started clicking for me as I was putting all these different things together. This year I've had some interesting discussions with people from reformed theology to emerging views, and now the teachings of Witness Lee.

the worship experience
We started singing songs of which I knew like none of - not a big deal...but a bit surprising. I scanned some of the lyrics in the songbook and there were a lot more...prophetic-ish lyrics, and I'm not sure why but one song was about oil dripping down Aaron's beard onto his clothes. Turns out it's just this Psalm but was a bit disorienting when I flipped through and saw a lot of lyrics about all these things I wasn't familiar with...

application
It opened my eyes to something though. As we all shouted out songs to sing at this bible study I asked for Nothing But the Blood, about the only one of a thousand songs I knew. They sang it a different way than I was used to. We sang it both ways in fact but stylistically it was still somewhat different. At EGBC a lot of people weren't too thrilled with a young guy coming in and playing that thar rock 'n roll music. So this is what it must feel like for those at EGBC to crave to express themselves in worship with something they know, and nothing quite seems to fit. I found myself longing for something familiar. It wasn't just a style thing, it was something deep in the soul type of thing. I see now how I marginalized the views of those who love their hymns to an organ, having been put in their position. I'm humbled.

On another front, even though the worship leader kept shouting about unity in the body and how important it is, I knew we couldn't all be one that night. I just couldn't bring myself to sing a lot of the songs they were singing. I couldn't put my finger quite on it but I knew I didn't agree with or didn't know what they were singing about.

bible study and epiphany
The most saddening thing for me was the way the bible study was done. We just read a chapter once, and then read through it again line by line to allow everyone to respond to it. Most of the responses were just "wow, what an amazing verse!" Once in a while someone would chime in and say something halfway profound. One person started talking about how the word canon came from the same root as cane - which was used as a measuring rod, and how the Bible is our measuring rod... but he just ended it with the fact he can't believe people out there are missing out...on this measuring rod we have.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no nay-sayer of being in awe of the holy scriptures, it's just...it became so evident how important it is to have a systematic, wholistic view of the scriptures. In this, the most extreme case I felt like we were taking a 1,000 piece puzzle, looking at each piece and saying "wow, what a beautiful piece, with such pretty colors" and putting it back in the box instead of seeing how it fits with other pieces. With the mystery of God I don't think we'll ever put it all together until heaven, but maybe we'll put a few pieces together and we'll have clusters of it and see glimpses of what this puzzle might be of. Even more amazing when you can put a couple big clusters of pieces together...

evangelizing...me?
After the study I talked to this guy who just came back from California, doing a 4 month stint - some type of ministry training. I had asked him a question about the beliefs of the church especially since it was influenced by the teachings of Witness Lee - and he started talking very excitedly about all this stuff about how our chief end in life is to all become like God, no doubt on a high from his recently acquired knowledge in Cali. It was hard to follow at first what he was really saying because he was using terms like organically and metabolically when describing how we would be changed by God. Also - I asked him to define what he meant by us becoming like God. It worried me at first but then it seemed like he was saying we would be changed by God on no effort of our own and our nature would become like His. I can dig that. How reformed of you I thought :). But then he was saying we would actually become like God, not in authority but...everything else. Back on the organic, metabolic trail. Yikes...funny thing was, he was trying to convert me, but he didn't have the tools to do so. I told him I wouldn't be attending his church regularly, not only because of our different beliefs but also because I live too far away. He tried to see if anyone could think of any meeting halls in my area.

poor non-Christians...
I had to wonder - is this what it feels like to non-Christians who are approached by ill-equipped Christians to convince them of something they don't quite understand themselves? I kinda felt bad for this guy as he used one verse to try to explain something to me, but I cited the same one to counter his argument, actually diving into the meaning of that verse. He frantically looked for another verse (at random) to support his ideologies...and he read something, then quickly closed his Bible so that I couldn't rebut, and went on to interpret what it meant to me. Sigh...he might as well have read it in Latin and explained to me what it meant in common language.

where I land
Turns out in my journey this year, I've learned that my views align with that of the neo-orthodox reformed view...but getting there on a different horse. It's interesting to have been exposed to this now - and now being able to have more thoughtful conversations with my former IV staffworker, who was always a wellspring of wisdom, whom I was excited to have a chance to talk with as I realized he's been going to a Presbyterian church and does hold neo-orthodox beliefs. Another realization...there are more reformed thinkers out there than I thought...scarily it seems like we're surrounded. Even Shane Barnard flys his banner high. Well, at least Steve Neihaus of Big Yardage Ministries and Ravi Zacharias (RZIM) in the same camp still...

what I learned from reformed theologians
Though I've had many a good debate this year with some reformed thinkers, and will continue to...especially in the area of total depravity, what that means vs. having goodness in us, being made in God's image...one thing's for sure now more than ever - studying theology in a systematic way is important! Otherwise, like my staffworker said...some people may just be talking in circles, but those that refute may just have bigger circles and don't even know it!

I also like what Heather said about her conversation with her dad..."He basically said he'd rather be discussing whether or not there is a literal hell and if scripture is inerrant than have a debate over whether or not someone can wear jeans to church." But that's a whole 'nother story...

chinese church
Today I went to a nearby Chinese church, bringing along Nadia since they had a Mandarin-speaking service...and I had wanted to check it out myself. It was really neat being able to hear things about the gospel in Chinese that I never knew how to express - and to connect words from familiar songs in the hymnal with meanings I knew in English. It was neat to hear a friend's father whom I only met a couple times pray - I'd only heard him speak English before but it flowed so naturally and it was beautiful to be a part even though I couldn't understand everything.

suplise!
So I thought nothing of the info card I filled out on request of one of the greeters...but at the end of the service they announced that there were four visitors today that had filled out these info cards, and they'd like each one to stand and say a little something about themselves (gulp!!). I'm glad they called Nadia first. When it was my turn, I just said the first things that came to mind, everything was going as smoothly my mandarin could flow...and then I definitely said something wrong...because I was corrected in front of the entire congregation...by the guy who had a mic.

Ah well - in the end Nadia was able to connect with some young professionals, she was invited to attend their small group so all in all, hopefully she'll be able to steer away from the meeting hall...