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Here’s my daughter’s impression of a zombie…

these are my babies…

Was looking through craigslist for random stuffs. Saw someone selling an Ipod for $25… the only thing was the LCD screen was shot. So my first gut instincts was “trouble, yet interested.” You can’t beat a deal. So I email the guy for more info. I’m still a little hesitant, but it is such a good deal.

We decide to meet at Jerry’s sub in Fair City Mall at 7PM Monday night for the exchange. But wouldn’t you know, we had guests visit us. Friends we haven’t seen in a while, they stay and chat… by the time they leave, it’s about 6:59PM. I’m sweating… my $25 Ipod is waiting at Jerry’s and I’m about half hour away. I call him real quick and reschedule to meet him the next day. He was pissed, but I guess he wanted to unload it. I find out he’s a college kid that just bought a newer Ipod. Anyways, he agrees to it, and the pickup went without a hitch. So everything worked on the Ipod except for the screen.

I go straight to Ebay to see if anyone sells screens. Of course, lots of screens for sale. So I order one… then noticed that that they charged me sales tax… which means the seller is in Virginia. I email the seller. He lives in Alexandria. Okay, I work in Alexandria… I ended finding out that he used to work at my current work. He quit and is headed down to FL. Anyways, he lets me pick up the new LCD screen and gives me a quick tutorial on how to open up the Ipod.

So that same night… I decide to fix it. I first watched the video at http://www.ipodhowtovideo.com/video/videolcdreplacement.html. Of course it only takes that guy five minutes to fix it. How hard can it be? I spent about 30 minutes trying to pry the ipod open. It’s much harder than it looks… but I manage to do it even after breaking the soft pry tool the guy gave me. Success!! Anyways, installation was much easier than expected. The only hard part was opening the darn thing.

So for future reference… If your Ipod is having issues… fixing it is much easier than you think. Parts are found on Ebay and all you need is time (patience), steady hands, and guts (there’s risk you will destroy your ipod)…

That is the story of my $25 Ipod. And it works!!

Here are some recent pics of the two girls… little boy looking on…

Been meaning to write this post just because we really loved this film but I wasn’t sure how to write about it. There were so many good things about this I don’t know where to start. It was one of those movies that makes you think about over and over again in your head. Many themes throughout the movie: life, death, redemption, justice, inner city, gangs, fighting your personal demons, finding peace, racism, coming of age, and I’ll even include finding God… though I’m not sure the catholic priest did such a good job at that. You can see a lot of symbolism in the movie.

The acting wasn’t all that, Clint Eastwood directed and pretty much carried the acting. The other characters were largely Hmong actors who weren’t that great at acting, but they didn’t need to be. The story carried itself and Clint Eastwood played the part that he was meant to play.

Both my wife and I highly recommend this movie, though full of foul language and the grit of life when have a run down town, a war vet, and gang related activity. But you can’t help but root for Clint Eastwood throughout the movie… through his good and his bad.

Anyways, to summarize this movie… it is bittersweet.

Just playing in the neighborhood with bubbles. Everyone loves bubbles.

#2 is enjoying the view from her seat. Hand-eye coordination seems to be improving.

This time #1 has found a way to make #2 giggle.

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday as I attended a high school graduation with the commencement speaker. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spoke to the WT Woodson 2009 graduating class in a rebuttal-like fashion. Very funny man with lots of historical examples (precedents)…

First to put it in context, the student speaker speech was filled with cliches and platitudes (kids these days)… so Scalia, as always, dissented from the normal feel-good speech. He started off saying that he will dissect some of the more commonly used platitudes and instead give his take on it.

Platitude #1 We have overcome unprecedented challenges – this comes from a lack of knowing your history. Scalia went on to talk about how Troy was surrounded by the Greeks and then us facing the possibility of nuclear war, and then terrorism, etc. as examples of when people faced annihiliation and other challenges. His conclusion was that there is nothing new under the sun or learn your history.

Platitude #2 Follow the north star (follow your dreams). – In a direct response to the student speaker, Scalia encouraged people to be zealous, but zealous for the right reasons. He warned people that sometimes following your dreams may not be the best option… especially if your dreams are not based on what is right. He pointed out the many follies of men who were so blinded by their dreams that they did evil instead of good. He mentioned people like Hitler and Lenin who stuck to their convictions, their north star, but ended up in the wrong. So instead he concluded: “seek wisdom, seek good, and then be the captain of your boat” or “it’s better to stay still than to work your butt off in the wrong direction.”

Platitude #3 America is the greatest country in the world.. Off course he agreed with that statement, but not in the way most people do. Some say we are the greatest because we are the free-est, but freedom is not merely the exercise of liberty. He went on to say that it is within the context of laws that our freedoms were created and it is with responsibility of the citizens that our freedom is upheld. He gave an example of spitting gum in the street. If no one did it, then no law would have to be made… but if everyone spat gum in the street, them there will be need for some sort of regulation. He was not talking about gum spitting. He then went to the founding fathers and quoted from Federalist Paper #51:

“The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

Anyways, I think he was trying to say America is greatest when her citizens are most responsible… my take: we are greatest (and free-est) when we exercise our responsbility. Or our greatness isn’t how much liberty we can exercise, but how much responsibility we take.

And there was another one, but I can’t remember right now. But overall, I liked the way he pointed out folly and turned the audience back to wisdom.

My final take: Remember history or you’ll repeat it, you’re not as smart as you think you are, seek guidance from your elders, you’re part of a greater community so do your part…

Just reviewing my ten goals in 2004. I’m pretty happy with them. I eventually accomplished some of the ones I set out to do.

1. read the bible in a year (#1 is ongoing/failed)
2. start grad school (update: started in 2004 and completed in 2005; restarted in 2006)
3. get in shape (aka buff) (#3 failed miserably)
4. find a job (check: 2004 (FDIC), 2005 (FCPS), and 2006 (USPTO)
5. share the love of Christ with people (ongoing/failed)
6. get more involved with christian fellowship (#6 somewhat, joined a church end of 2004)
7. be more proactive in relationships particularly with friends and family (haven’t been very proactive with anyone)
8. do some traveling (china??) (update: made it back to china in 2005)
9. make some big purchases (property??) (update: bought a house in 2008 with major renovations in 2009)
10. last but certainly not least… make new friends (esp. ones of the female gender) (update: met a girl in 2004, engaged in 2005, married in 2005… so i’m gonna hold off in making any more female friends)

I’ll give myself a 5/10 even though some of the more abstract goals were hard to evaluate and the goals weren’t accomplished within the time frame. I do like how ambitious I was… haha… I’ll try to update with my new top ten list sometime in the near future.

So, what are some of your goals?