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Almost 1/2 of all Americans have donated to help Haiti recover. But Haiti needs something more fundamental than relief from the present situation; they need jobs that they can count on for years ahead.

According to this article in the NYTimes, Haiti is full of possible sources of export including Mangoes, Coffee, light manufacturing, and possibly tourism but needs basic infrastructure like roads, electrical grids and ports.

Found this link through Harvard Econ Prof. Greg Mankiw’s blog.

Still news of aftershocks and estimated 150-200k dead. Please continue to pray for Haiti and her people as well as for the relief efforts that are still under way.

If you have time, please watch this report from Mars Hill Church and Churches helping churches.

The following story deals with my own struggles in America. It also deals with culture and rule of law. It all started with my wife her craving for buffalo wings.

There were a bunch of wings restaurants… Chantilly had Buffalo Wings Factory, Buffalo Wing University in Fairfax, Buffalo Wild Wings but out in Gainesville. There was also Glory Days, Hooters, Hard Times and a bunch of other restaurants. But I knew it was going to be expensive, usually coming out close a buck a wing. For that price, I can get $1 sushi or stuff off McD’s Dollar menu.

Hard Times Cafe in Fairfax said they had cheap wings on Wednesday nights… but today was Thursday. Next one. I call up Glory Days in Centreville and ask if they have any specials on Buffalo wings. The guy said yeah, they’re five bucks after nine. So Mommy G and I decide to make a run for it after the girls are asleep. We take a bath, get settled in bed, read a story, pray a bit and then it’s almost 11PM. I tell Mommy G, I’m gonna go get the wings. She says okay… cuz she’s still craving.

When I get there, I see a big sign saying $5 Appetizers after 9PM*… there is an asterisk next to the price… * dine in only. I think to myself “what should I do?” I literally ran through all the options.

Option 1. Negotiate dine in price to go (cuz it’s like saving a few bucks, a few dirty plates, and some time)
Option 2. Dine in, eat a couple and take the rest to go (cuz it’s like saving a few bucks)
Option 3. Buy at regular price to go (cuz it’s all about my wife)

I walk up, the host asks to sit me down. I ask him straight up, “Can I buy the buffalo wings to go but get the dine in price?” He says “No.” Okay next option. “Can I dine in, eat a few and take the rest to go?” Um you’ll have to order it from the bar and ask the bartender he says. So I go up to the bar. I ask the lady behind the bar the same question.

I opt to start with Option 1 again, just to clarify my intentions. “Can I buy the buffalo wings to go but get the dine in price?” “No” she says. “Can I dine in, eat a few and take the rest to go?” I pull out the sympathy card, “I have a wife and kids at home…” “I’ll have to ask the manager” she says. She leaves for a few minutes, talks with the manager, the manager comes out and gives me the schpeal. The price is for dine in only. I tell him, I have a wife and kids at home waiting for me. He tells me there are plenty of tables for them to come next time. I tell him, that’s fine, but in my mind, I was like, it’s 11PM at night, I ain’t taking any of my kids out that late. So I go straight to Option #2 “Can I dine in, eat a few and take the rest to go?” He hesitates, but ended up saying sure.

I sit back down at the bar, the lady asks me for my order. Okay, I’ll take two buffalo wings appetizers. Dine in. But I’m gonna only eat some and take the rest to go. She takes the order. Then she has this conference with the manager discussing the situation like football refs discussing a play. I guess this is not the standard practice. She comes back and tells me “we are making a huge exception for you.” I say thanks, didn’t know I was that special.

Anyways, the order comes on plates. The lady behind the bar makes sure they were on plates to designate I dine in… I give her the sign that I want to check out. She hands me two to-go boxes and the check. I scoop everything into the boxes and pay the bill (making sure I tip them enough) and head out. Feeling a bit embarrassed for going through all that trouble for a few bucks… but also feeling like I shouldn’t feel embarrassed for having done nothing wrong.

So here’s the thing, was I in the wrong? should it be okay to ask for the special price and not feel like the biggest jerk in the world for just asking? If I was in China there would have been no problems negotiating a price, but here at Glory Days this was definitely taboo… Should I have paid regular price and left it at that? Did I push the envelop too far by asking?

I did say “Thanks” when I left… because they made a huge exception for me. But I do know that I won’t expect the same treatment next time.

Received this from Michael Dudiut’s newsletter: It’s been some years since I heard the term “generation gap” in conversation, but the annual Beloit College Mindset List reminds us that each new generation has its perspective shaped by its own experiences. Most students entering college for the first time this fall were born in 1991. The list for the Class of 2013 has just been released. Here are a few of the items:

~ For these students, Martha Graham, Pan American Airways, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss, Miles Davis, The Dallas Times Herald, Gene Roddenberry and Freddie Mercury have always been dead.
~ The Green Giant has always been Shrek — not the big guy picking vegetables.
~ They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
~ Margaret Thatcher has always been a former prime minister.
~ Salsa has always outsold ketchup.
~ Tattoos have always been very chic and highly visible.
~ Rap music has always been mainstream.
~ Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream has always been a flavor choice.
~ Babies have always had a Social Security Number.
~ They have never had to “shake down” an oral thermometer.
~ Bungee jumping has always been socially acceptable.
~ They have never understood the meaning of R.S.V.P.
~ McDonald’s has always been serving Happy Meals in China.
~ Condoms have always been advertised on television.
~ Cable television systems have always offered telephone service and vice versa.
~ Bobby Cox has always managed the Atlanta Braves.
~ Desperate smokers have always been able to turn to Nicoderm skin patches.
~ Their folks could always reach for a Zoloft.
~ They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.
~ Women have always outnumbered men in college.
~ We have always watched wars, coups and police arrests unfold on television in real time.
~ Amateur radio operators have never needed to know Morse code.
~ Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania and Estonia have always been independent nations.
~There have always been flat-screen televisions.
~ Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.
~ Britney Spears has always been heard on classic rock stations.
~ They have never been Saved by the Bell
~ Most communities have always had a mega-church.
~ The status of gays in the military has always been a topic of political debate.
~ There has always been a computer in the Oval Office.
~ Migration of once independent media like radio, TV, videos and compact discs to the computer has never amazed them.
~ Nobody has ever responded to “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
~ There has always been blue Jell-O.

It really is kind of mind boggling how fast this world is changing…
Of course there is Ecclesiastes where it says: there is nothing NEW under the sun…

Was reading through my old blog entries… this one still gets to me… though I don’t remember the context in which i was writing back then. Who are you, the fallow or the plowed?

“There are two kinds of ground: fallow ground and ground that has been broken up by the plow.

“The fallow field is smug, contented, protected from the shock of the plow and the agitation of the harrow. Such a field, as it lies year after year, becomes a familiar landmark to the crow and the blue jay. . . . Safe and undisturbed, it sprawls lazily in the sunshine, the picture of sleepy contentment. . . . Fruit it can never know because it is afraid of the plow and the harrow.

“In direct opposite to this, the cultivated field has yielded itself to the adventure of living. The protecting fence has opened to admit the plow, and the plow has come as plows always come, practical, cruel, business-like, and in a hurry. Peace has been shattered by the shouting farmer and the rattle of machinery. The field ? has been upset, turned over, bruised, and broken, but its rewards come hard upon its labors. The seed shoots up into the daylight, its miracle of life, curious, exploring the new world above it. Nature’s wonders follow the plow.

“There are two kinds of lives also ? the fallow and the plowed.

“The man of fallow life is contented with himself and the fruit he once bore. He does not want to be disturbed. He smiles in silent superiority at revivals, fastings, self-searchings, and all the travail of fruit bearing and the anguish of advance. The spirit of adventure is dead within him . . . he has fenced himself in, and by the same act he has fenced out God and the miracle.

“The plowed life is the life that has . . . thrown down the protecting fences and sent the plow of confession into the soul . . . Such a life has put away defense and has forsaken the safety of death for the peril of life. Discontent, yearning, contrition, courageous obedience to the will of God these have bruised and broken the soil till it is ready again for the seed. And as always fruit follows the plow.”

– A.W. Tozer in Paths of Power

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 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?

Here are two quotes.  One from Francis Schaeffer and the other Tim Keller.  I haven’t been reading much on justice or politics as I used to, but I was reminded of it as I was re-reading my old blog… The Lost Years.
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I stumbled upon the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 from Salina, KS. USA.

It was taken from the original document on file at the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

I wonder what ever happened to actual learning… now it seems like the education system cares more about our self-esteem than actual content of what we learn… but again, the stuff concerning character is something we should be learning at home…

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From the latest Virginia Tech Magazine… I truly hoped this was an April Fool’s joke.

Pritchard Hall, currently the largest all-male residence hall on the East Coast, will transition to a co-ed residence hall in fall 2009. Pritchard will house a mix of 41 percent females and 59 percent males, a reflection of the gender balance of the student population on campus. The hall has housed 1,016 men during the 2008-09 academic year and has housed more than 40,000 men since it opened in 1967. The decision to open the building to female students was based on an increasing demand for co-ed housing and the changing gender balance of the Virginia Tech campus, with a higher number of females in the general population electing to attend college, increasing popularity of Virginia Tech among female students, and a higher number of women choosing to remain on campus after their first year.

I lived at Pritchard my freshman year of college. It was great. I met some of my closest college friends that year in that dorm… though I don’t think it would be great as a co-ed dorm. I enjoyed the male bonding that goes on there… or at least went on there. It’s different when you add girls to the mix :) Anyways, Pritchard was the dirtiest of the dorms, nasty to say the least. I hope they clean it up some before allowing the girls to move in.