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| - A Schrute-ism
Michael: So, what have I said that's inspired you, Dwight?
Dwight: Don't be an idiot.
"Don't be an idiot - changed my life. Whenever I think about doing
something, I think, 'Would an idiot do this?' And if an idiot would, I do not do that thing."
- If you've earned more than $3,000, there's a $300-600 rebate from the government coming your way
- The Yi kids
I really enjoy hanging out with Jen at the Yi house because when I go, I usually get to see Megan and Eli (John and Esther are cool, too). The first time I had dinner there, Eli was sitting next to me and was starting at me a good chunk of the time as if to size me up and tell Jen, "This guy is up to no good." Haha, girl knows me too well.
Since then, she's gotten used to me. Early on she got tricked into thinking I was her uncle because my name (Mike) sounds similar to Esther's brother, Mark, when coming out of Megan's mouth. So for the last two months, whenever she saw me she always greeted me with a, "Hi, Uncle Mark!" which resulted in all of us cracking up, and Esther and Megan telling her that I was "Mister Mike", not Uncle Mark.
Within the last month, she got the "Mike" part down, but I am now "Miss Mike" (phooey on the difficulty of multi-syllabic sounds & living with older non-related girls). Doesn't matter - the kid's so sweet, she's fast rising in the ranks of my favorite-kids-at-Lighthouse. =]
- "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow" (Js. 1:17)
There's been a lot of goodness that's been showering down from the Father these past 2 months:
- my relationship with my Mom (we talk 2-3 times a week to check up on each other, provide listening ears, and sympathy and encouragement)
- a job that keeps me busy enough that I never look at the clock and die of boredom; a co-worker who I can laugh with, share my life with, and use words like "Sweet!" and "Dude" with; is teaching me a lot about accounting through working in a 4 man department and is still providing many opportunities for professional growth; and a company that caters lunch for us once a month and has a fully stocked kitchen (i.e. Mike doesn't need to buy breakfast foods, fruits, or beverages of any type)
- a free desktop computer, reformatted
and even better than my old desktop, courtesy of Abe's donation and
Thomas' work. *My last desktop stopped working after the New Year's
Eve party at our house when the video card took a shower in hard liquor.
- friends near and far who IM via GoogleTalk, email, provide food for and reminding me to keep lifting my eyes up to Jesus when I forget how lovely He is
- God, who never changes (Malachi 3:6) even when my soul fluctuates like the Richter Scale.
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| Update
Wow...2 months since I last posted. Since I have a lot of free time this week, and a lot of things that I want to update and share with you guys, I thought I'd post another entry.
- Sandy Eggo
It's pretty hard to believe it, but I'm back in San Diego. Since I moved down last Sunday, I'm still tripping that God brought me down here, for a number of reasons. Maybe it's the means through which He provided (applying for a job, getting an interview offer, interviewing, and getting the job offer within 8 days). Or it might just be the fact that while I was in Japan, my heart was either in San Diego with Lighthouse and Co. or at home with my Mom.
In any case, right now I'm living with a sweet Scottish dude named Patch McAdams. It's a pretty sweet deal living out here in Manila Mira Mesa: rent & utilities are a $100 cheaper than when I was living in La Jolla, every useful store is on Mira Mesa Blvd. (ex. Target, Marshall's). Although I enjoyed the La Jolla days, I am digging the physical distance between La Jolla and Mira Mesa. While it's only a few miles, it does create a distinction between work and home which has been nice thus far. My new roommates are pretty chill guys, too and kinda have the living room decked out with an XBox, a Wii, and a huge TV to boot (it's almost as long as my body and 2.5-3 feet high). This is nice because while I would never purchase video games, I won't say no to a little bit of Guitar Hero from time to time.
For those of you who I haven't had the chance to talk to personally, I am super thankful that God provided me with this job. I guess the feeling would be comparable to when you applied to colleges and heard back from a school that you were sure you wouldn't receive an acceptance letter from. It's pretty much everything I had on a job wish-list: great location (in La Jolla next to UTC mall), a lot of opportunity to learn (our department is only four people), an accounting job (which I knew would be tough, given that I only took one accounting class at UCSD), an above average starting salary, and great co-workers. I'm working in the corporate setting and honestly did not expect to meet too many authentic and/or nice people, but it does seem like the people in this office are for the most part, very down to earth and human. My co-worker that's been training me is another blessing that I'm thankful for. You know how there are some people you just get along with? It's like that. Besides being a pretty cool dude, we also seem to have a lot in common: class of 2006, being both Filipino and good-looking, and living about 2 miles from each other in Mira Mesa. This might not seem like much, but in my limited work experience, I've found that it's pretty rare to have co-workers where you can really be relaxed around and be able to talk about non-work related things (hobbies, non-work life, giving him advice on where to visit in Japan, etc). So it's also been pretty sweet because we've had quite a few non-work related conversations so far (hobbies, sharing about our personal lives, giving him advice on sites to see in Japan when he goes). Because we get along pretty well, I'm hoping to make the most of this opportunity that God's given me to share the gospel with him and be a witness of the value of following Jesus through the way I speak, act, and work.
- My Mom
Although our relationship has been sinoidal (I'm not sure if this is a word, but I'm referring to a sine curve) over the past few months, it has been sweet to see God working in both of us and making the periods of amity much longer and more frequent than the periods where we don't get along. When I think about it, it's like another affirmation of Philippians 1:9 where God's been saying, "Kid, I'm not done with you yet." As a side note, isn't it sweet to see how capable and committed God is to making us more like the Son (especially when we contrast that to how overly sinful we are)?
I think it took me quite some time to realize this, but my mom is pretty cute. Not only is she small, she's also got some of that fobby silliness remaining in her (ex. imitating my dancing with crazy motions in the car). It's been amazing to see how the Holy Spirit's been changing my heart to want to be kind to her and tangibly follow through with that. It's also been equally amazing to see my mom solidly affirming me in coming down to San Diego. She was pretty sad when I first told her that I was seriously considering moving down, but after a couple of days she pulled a complete 180 and told me that she wanted me to go. I think part of what's helped is that she knows I'm not moving down for lame reasons, and because my affirming her of my love for her through some reminders from Kev, JR, and Peter.
There is more I'd like to say, but these are the two major updates of the moment. In summary though, it's been nice to see the blessings after the trials, and to get a better view of the Blessing Giver through it all.
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| Thank God for the media
As I've been watching the TV reports on what's going on, it's times like this that you're really thankful that we do have a public broadcasting system and means of obtaining information to keep us informed. I know most of you are probably keeping your eye on the TV updates, but here are a few I found online which are encouraging:
- Help from Northern Cal
Some 700 firefighters from 16
city and county fire departments stretching from Monterey to Del Norte
County were rounded up and sent south to help. Hundreds more from the
California Department of Forestry were deployed to fires in seven
Southern California counties, including Los Angeles, Orange and San
Diego.
- Lets pray that the winds would die down
The hot, gusting winds, not expected to let up until late Tuesday,
at times grounded fire-fighting airplanes, which are pivotal for their
ability to dump tremendous amounts of water and fire retardant
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| For the last 3 months leading up to my homecoming, all I could think about was how good it would be back home.
"Man, I'll be able to understand everything peopel are saying around me!"
"I can't wait to eat at home, and be able to eat something besides Japanese food!"
"I can't wait to hang out with Martin, and the rest of the homies in San Diego!"
"Wow...I'm finally gonna get to hang out with Jen!"
But in my eagerness to be back here, I downplayed the difficulties I'd face in being back here.
Initially, it was tough to be back at home - after living on my own for a year, it was difficult to adjust to the fact that under my mom's roof, her rules reigned supreme. Although it took me a couple of weeks to get used to the fact that an unmade bed, and clothes lying around in my room just wouldn't cut it, I eventually realized that the marginal cost of keeping things tidy was nothing compared to the benefit - her not nagging me to clean my room, her not being upset, and my not getting frustrated because of the nagging.
The next difficulty-ninja that I had to face was Time. When we're strapped for time with school or work + extracurriculars + hanging out with people, we always wish, "Man, I wish I could just take a day off and just lounge." But it's a catch 22 - when all you've got is lounging and no one to hang out with, you start to look forward to your weekly library visits. Although it's still been a bit of a challenge to use my time productively, this problem has kind of worked itself in that I've been tutoring about 10 hours a week, and have jobs to apply for.
This brings me to the Level 3 ninja of Unemployment. This sucker is pretty tough to defeat. This week I applied for two jobs - one at HP, another at Sony. After receiving an e-mail from HR at Sony telling me that I wouldn't be getting that job, I began to realize that this ninja was a lot tougher than I originally thought it'd be. Job searching has been difficult in a three-fold sense - 1) as I look at my resume, I realize that I have no relevant experience to offer prospective employers, and 2) I feel like I've wasted my undergrad years (in not getting an internship or a job that counts), and 3) pretty bummed out in thinking how unlikely (at least in my mind) it is that someone will hire me. Although this Ninja tends to land some good hits on me, thankfully God's given me a Nathan Algren-esque helper in my Mom who's helped me to fight depression through encouraging e-mails, talks, hugs, and I love you's.
The toughest Ninja? Obedience. The other day when I was reading Genesis 12,I noticed something in the text that I'd never thought much of before then. Verse 4 says,
"So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him..."
God told him to go, and Abram went. (I imagine a little dog being told by his master to go to the corner, and going without question).
The reason why this verse struck me was because Abram was in a very similar situation as I am - in a transitional time in his life and given definite promises although he had no idea of how or when they'd tangibly work themselves out.
These past few weeks have been really tough to be faithful to God through how I live when the specter of unemployment and the resounding "Failure..." echoes in my head. But it can be done. God, help me.
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