Go Cornhuskers Go!




So here I am in Lincoln, Nebraska, home of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. OK, so this city isn't as small as one would imagine (it is the capital of Nebraska state, afterall), but it certainly looks like a sterotypical American mid-west "hick" town...

*Everything* is Cornhusker here... even the highway, but I guess that's expected. I actually can't wait to go to an American college football game though, to see the loyal fan base out in full force (even though they're not doing well this year -- they were the champions a few years back). That won't be this week -- I'm coming back on Thursday in time for the CBV. So.. actually, I really should get back to studying.

But just wanted to say that my hotel room is *sweet*! We're at the Embassy Suites [and it is a huge hotel here... actually, the buildings here are pretty big, although you don't see much people around] and I have a full suite to myself. Pretty much, I have a living room / office, not to mention a microwave and bar sink if I wanted to make some basic food.

Too bad I'm just enjoying the room on my own though [you could comfortably sleep 3 people here, at least!]... but that's okay, I need to study. =p

I'm here with the engagement partner and manager... and I got a free counselling session on the plane, haha... hm... *should* I do a MBA? =p

As usual with going to the States, I'm full after every meal because there is so much food... good thing I can better digest everything because as a good Chinese person, I brought Chinese tea bags from home... =)

Yes! I've told my dad... and he's receptive! There's a plan... get ready to roll, Yam... =)

I guess I haven't felt *stressed* in a long time... pretty much since before summer. Even though I generally like the stress, this times it seems like I don't know how to deal with it... it's been too long, haha.

Praise God for giving me a good summer -- I actually took advantage of most of the 35 hour weeks. Of course, the reason why I could is because I slacked and procrastinated, and now it's all tumbling down on me. The main thing is, I REALLY NEED TO STUDY!!!

I can't believe I worked most of the day today, and I had to go to Jonathan's mission sharing night. I really dragged my feet there, and was frustrated the entire drive. But God is always present and I know I needed to be there...

It was amazing to hear about God working in Turkey, about the change going on in the country, in the people whom he met. The time of worship was much needed because I really needed to let go of my worries, *my* stresses, *my* time... but refocus back onto God.

And I really needed (need) to be humbled... God is the one who works to change; *He* is the one who works through us. If we weren't here, I'm sure God would find a way through someone else... this is not an argument for shirking, just that the focus cannot be on ourselves.

Thank you, Jonathan... as I've said many times, you have always been an inspiration to me. I've learned from your struggles last year upon starting up Delta and still look to Delta as an example of something that started from a vision of one who only wants to live out your life for God... I've learned a lot since God put you in my life.

[And you called my bluff, eh ;p]

Everything happens at the same time... ah! It's funny how murphy's law works -- and I already don't have it that bad...

But my weekend is already starting to roll and soon enough, I'll be in sunny Lincoln, Nebraska.

"Oh no, Nebraska! Is there a plainer state I ask 'ya!" [At least I'll get studying done then!]

Oh yes, Nebraska!

I'll be sure to take many pictures of... corn. Yum!

Can't wait until next Saturday when I'll be off camping with friends... really looking to the quietness after a week of whirlwind hecticness...

Back to trying to write more "meaningful" blogs...

A while ago, we had a TCCC English congregation praise and worship night. It was great -- I really enjoyed the worship, which included singing a number of songs from Urbana (since 80% of the worship team went in December), and the wonderful time of open sharing, which I wrote about before.

There have been a number of other things that have reminded me about Urbana, such as a picture on Andrew's blog and worshipping at the Michael W. Smith and MercyMe concert. And I am reminded of my experience there, and of the commitments that I made.

The main one was to go on a short-term mission trip this year -- ashamedly, I've foregone that plan for the remainder of the year. Due to my laziness, I basically missed all the deadlines in May for the summer / early fall trips. I *did* have a Plan "Z" opportunity to go to Australia with Pastor Tim. However, even though I know the experience would have been great regardless, it didn't feel right to me to go on the trip (I think he's off in a few weeks).

I felt that if I went, I would be going for the sake of going, so that I would fulfill my commitment. What I really want to do is to experience a cross-cultural trip... and as much as Australia would open my eyes, I didn't think I would be challenged in the way that I wanted to be. Granted, God works in many amazing ways, I don't think my heart was truly in it to go to Australia this time.

So now, I need to diligently look for opportunities and apply... I actually did have a potential opportunity in China last year, but had many apprehensions from my family given the political climate of the country. But for some reason, I never really looked into Taiwan... Hm...

And now that I *have* disclosed this -- please keep me accountable to my commitment... good intentions only go so far.

I finally watched Fahrenheit 9/11. Overall, I enjoyed the movie, and appreciated the structure that any effective persuasive communication would embody: logical appeal, ethical appeal and emotional appeal, in that order.

Although knowing that the movie is entirely propaganda and every point must be taken with a grain of salt [since really, who really knows the truth in this matter to make a reasonable evaluation?], I could not walk away without thinking:

"I wonder if we will identify the 'mark' when we see it..."

Or to continue the thought, albeit along a somewhat horrifying train of thought, "I wonder if we've all already taken the mark but don't know it yet."

I'm not a radical apocalyptic type of person, but I must say that the movie was quite unsettling for me, and it's difficult not to think about the end times... "Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?" -- Revelation 13:4

... Hm... are we ready?

Of course, this is probably just another part of the emotional appeal of the propaganda... who knows?

Ran off this weekend on vacation with the girls...

Thanks Janey for doing the blogging. =p

A gkyam dorkism...

Well, we all have these, don't we? Or do they only occur to a select few? =p Thought I'd share this story for your amusement...

The Michael W. Smith, MercyMe and David Crowder concert was held at Kingswood theatre at Wonderland. Since security has heighted over the past few years, there are bag checks going into the park, and they even check purses!

For those who know me, I am a big advocate of taking Vitamin C to prevent illness, and I swallow these huge Vitamin C pills [referred to as my horsepills] instead of buying the chewable kind. I have a few of these pills in a sandwich bag in my purse and often offer them to my siblings at the dim sum table... haha... my brother laughs and says he doesn't want to accept any drugs under the table -- literally. Even though I've been lazy lately and haven't taken them in a while, I've just left them in my purse, still in the ghetto sandwich bag.

So as you probably know where this anecdote is heading, the huge pills certainly raised an eyebrow at Wonderland security and when asked what they were, I could only sheepishly answer, "um... they're Vitamin C pills". Luckily, the security guard just kind of laughed at me, "fake" sniffed the bag, and let me into the park.

I guess it's a good thing this happened to me because otherwise, given my absentmindedness, I probably would have left them in my purse while trying to get into the U.S. on vacation, so I could have potentially saved much unnecessary hassle... =p

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Seattle and Vancouver has been fun, especially just "hanging out" and catching up with people... seeing how people are doing now and where people are headed in the future.

Just one incident that I'd like to share now is about Alaskan Ling Cod:

Patty, Tim and I went out for seafood in Seattle and on the menu was an item "Alaskan Ling Cod". Pardon our ignorance, but we did not know that this was a type of fish, and thought that there was a typo and that it should have read "Alaskan King Cod". So when Patty ordered, she ordered "Could I please have the Alaskan [softly]... ing [back to normal] Cod?"

The waitress, being of relatively perky character responded with, "Sure, the Alaskan LING Cod."

Anyway, it was a lasting moment for me because it reminded me of Ally McBeal [and of course, *everything* relates back to Ally Mcbeal... haha]. During the second season there is a character Ling Woo [played by Lucy Liu] who is extremely cold -- her theme song when she comes onto the scene is the Wizard of Oz's "Wicked Witch of the West".

Since Ally and the other members of the firm hate her, they refer to Ling as "*L*in*g*" with a "hard L, hard G". Of course, Ling corrected everyone: "My name is Ling, with a soft 'L', soft 'G': 'ling'."

Anyway, this totally does not make sense without a live example -- does anyone know how to rip a scene off of a DVD to a relatively small size and host it on the Internet?? Please let me know!! =)

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Arrived in Pittsburgh with no problem! My impression of this city is quite pleasant -- during the landing I saw a lot of green and many neatly lined houses. It reminded me of a "perfect neighbourhood" like in the "Truman Show". The aerial view shows lots of green, perfectly round trees, nice winding roads with driveways leading up to houses with wide lots... too bad I didn't take a picture.

So, of course, flight delays are inevitable. It seems like every single flight has been delayed lately. Although we appeared to be on schedule leaving Pittsburgh, it turned out that some repairs needed to be made... what better a time to catch up on lectures, blog a bit, and finish my Web-based Learnings for work! Haha...

Ok, turns out that the first plane was not flight-worthy and we had to switch planes... SO... 2.5 hour delay... gotta learn the importance of being flexible in a just-in-time environment...

So my vacation is on the *bestest* of starts... but it's a vacation... it's also been nice to travel alone too. Kind of refreshing. =)

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Vacation!

Vacations are actually kind of stressful -- so much has to be done before going away -- especially when I am in the middle of an audit at work. Sigh... why do I care so much? Oh well, pretty much everything is taken care of... it's just weird that I send work emails at extreme hours of the day.

My destination is Seattle. I'm meeting up with Patty and visiting the west-coast people. Really looking forward to talking to people again and just hanging out... not to mention see whatever sights are there in Seattle and Vancouver. I'm so unprepared... well, the past 24 hours has been a whirlwind of activity to finish everything that I needed to do for work in addition to scheduled gatherings.

Mahjongg is always fun -- too bad we didn't total up the score to see how much I can collect. =p Haha... dinner with some high school friends was really nice too. Very reminiscent of "old times" especially with Sherrie's scrapbook for me; very thoughtful of her! I chose to go to a restaurant in the Distillery district -- it's cool there! I would go back, perhaps try to see more of it in the daytime. I guess it won't be as "happening" when it turns cold though.

So my itinerary is as follows:

Outbound:

Sunday, August 22:
Depart Toronto at 3:29pm, arrive Pittsburgh 4:40pm on US Airways 2300
Depart Pittsburgh 5:55pm, arrive Seattle at 8:02pm on US Airways 781

Return:
Depart Seattle 11:20pm, arrive Pittsburgh 6:48am on US Airways 36
Depart Pittsburgh 7:50am, arrive Toronto at 9:08am on US Airways 2260 -- right in time to play softball playoffs!!

Well as at 2:42pm, my flight is delayed for at least half an hour... it's only at the airport that I have time to blog now, using dial-up courtesy of EY. =) I guess I could technically work on my Reporting package now.. haha. Hopefully the flights turn out okay! Anyway, it's nice to quiet down and blog... it's been a crazy week.

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

No bookings tonight... please leave a message.

Finally, some quiet time to myself. I was really looking forward to a quiet house this week [despite having to take care of the house], and it is really nice. I don't think I've ever used my computer in the kitchen before, so that I could blog while cooking and eating my steak a la Edward Yam, not to mention blog for the past month and the next. =p And all in one shot -- no bother to ration the posts from my stores.

As alluded to earlier, I've had a whole bunch of thoughts that have been backlogged and I just haven't taken the time to document them. Not that I really like to use my blog as my weekly (or monthly) thought repository, but writing essays or pieces really took too long than I cared for. I also admit that I like to refrain from deeply personal thoughts on my blog for the sake of my facade. =p I really do need to journal and process my thoughts though, otherwise fleeting thoughts are simply valueless, and I suppose that strangely, the internet is likely the most transparent form of communication there is.

In terms of busyness, August is, for me, comparable to the December Christmas season. It didn't help that my birthday "week" also turned out to be one of the busiest weeks at work since busy season. So after a week of sleeping no earlier than 3 a.m. in any given day, I am reeling... It must be bad when all I feel is,

"God... I miss you...."

Spending time with people has always been important to me, and this month is no exception. But without God's strength to carry me on, socializing, as much as I enjoy it, is really draining. So I thank God for nudging me when I need it (otherwise, I could very well still be bubble tea-ing after a movie and a late dinner) and giving me a quiet house to re-energize and revitalize at the right time. Hm... perhaps the self-inflicted guilt of not going on vacation with my family was an unnecessary side effect to a blessing in disguise.

Thanks to everyone who dropped a note or "celebrated" my birthday on Thursday. As much as it is *my* day, I honestly don't enjoy the attention, but it *is* a great excuse to get-togehter with people. [Much better, of course, than spending the entire evening at work!! Which was a probable event for me last Thursday!] Not that the "celebrations" are over yet... but I am truly enjoying this year's birthday.

It was great to have dinner with my family and some close friends together. Family...

I've been to a couple of weddings this year, all very nice and meaningful... contrary to what people may perceive, I think I am pretty emotional -- in fact, I cry *really* easily. But weddings don't particularly touch me... until at the banquet, if it's a western-style banquet, the bride's dance with the father is what does me over.

Perhaps it's because I'm a girl (i.e., I'd hope to be a future bride), the love between two people pales in comparison to a father (or parents) who spend all of their adult life working and toiling so that the daughter can leave home and start a life anew... how selfless and beautiful is such a love. I know that I experience it every day, and am a product of it. I think that if I were to do the western style and dance with my father at my wedding, I would completely break down and bawl... mainly because of many years of pent up appreciation and gratitude that has yet to be directly released.

Yet, would I / do I cry for my heavenly father who has done amazingly more than I could ever imagine? Yes... I have in the past... recently? I think I've been a lot more jaded and caught up in the pace of the world than to reflect on it. But thankfully, Friday's TCCC English congregation praise and revival night attempted to get us to think back to the time when we first accepted Christ as our personal saviour. I really enjoyed the beautiful time of worship, the inspirational testimonies, and the open sharing.

I've never really seen a successful "open mic" style sharing at TCCC before. But on Friday, it was encouraging to see Harry share first without refrain, and great to hear people's honest struggles and stories of praise. I think the longest bout of silence was only one minute! [Mind you, this is not just a "pass the {item} around the circle"-type share -- it was a "go to the mic at the front of the crowd"-type of sharing.] That night brought me back to many times of sharing at CCF. A transparent kind of sharing that is characteristic of true community. It's exciting to finally see / feel it at church. It is also a challenge for myself to play a part in developing this community that has started...

Back to friends... I had a wonderful time of dinner and post-dinner [at the office, nonetheless] with some of my closest sisters-in-Christ [missed you Ina...] in "Joy Luck Club" fashion, to enjoy each other's company, laugh at each other's quirks and dorkisms [no, not just Anita!], chat about our careers, spirituality, communities, and of course, guys [in general! Well it was for me, at least...! since only the younger two members are in relationships =p]. I'm glad the latter was not the only topic of conversation. =) Despite being in all different years, I consider them all to be peers whom I admire and strive to embody their various characteristics. It is our peers who walk alongside and pick us up when we need it, yet, understand the trek while we are walking it, unlike mentors or other authoritative people who have walked ahead of us.

Of course, thanks again to everyone who dropped a note or took time to see me last week! I do appreciate it very much! Oh yes, going back to my "get-in-shape challenge", the target date *was* my birthday -- and I felt pretty good a week prior to my birthday. Last week I just ended up eating and eating... as expected, I suppose. At least, I *do* feel pretty good physically! I highly recommend working out before one's birthday because the age is felt to a much lesser extent!

Thanks to Andrew for David Crowder's "Illumination" -- now I am officially in the "club"! Thanks to Jonathan for "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" -- I really look forward to further developing and sharing ideas from the book. And thanks to Brian for a chance to see David Crowder on Sunday! The Michael W. Smith / MercyMe concert was great, and featured the David Crowder band as the opener. As eBrian has already raved... it was amazing to see the artists perform together! I also liked MercyMe's use of media to complement their songs -- much better than Michael W. Smith's creation of a big Windows Media player screen [i.e., just moving shapes and shades]. It was also neat to see how David Crowder would perform his music live since it includes so many electronic components. I wonder what programs are being run on those computers, which form an integral part of the band. =) All in all, it was a great time of crazy jump-in-the-air worship, reminding me of Urbana.

Anyway, even I think this is getting really, really long now... but thank you for reading this far. I think this would be a pretty good gauge to separate my real friends from those otherwise.. =p

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Busy busy busy...

I'm finally suffering the consequences of 3 weeks of procrastination at work, in addition to convergence... why does everything happen at the same time??

Oh well, at least this can make me smile in the meantime:



*That's* why I changed my name from my normal "GY" to "Yam" something, to be consistent. Haha, I love my family... I love YAM. [Not to mention that we were the only ones online at 3 in the morning...]

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

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Addendum:

Haha... the YAM-wit race is on... =p

I was debating whether or not to release this publicly because I don't know if I was ready for this level of transparency, but perhaps this information will be beneficial to everyone and not just high school students. =P I present to you my blog for my Relationships 101 Sunday School class at TCCC:

Relationships 101!

If you do want to read it, please give me feedback and accountability for what I teach... it is important that it is God-honouring and upright because those who teach *are* held to a higher standard.

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Seinfeld and Superman... haha... I think this is really funny, nicely written. =p

So... less than two weeks until my "get into shape" deadline! But it hasn't been that bad -- despite not shedding as much volume as I would have liked, it's been great to increase my strength and endurance in the pool. Hopefully any increase in swimming endurance will transfer to endurance in running for our double-header Ultimate frisbee game on Monday! Patty and I have also been trying to teach ourselves the butterfly stroke... too bad learning to swim isn't that easy from the internet, but I thought this site was pretty cool and helpful [so *that*'s how you breathe!]

The Prayer of Jabez - 1 Chronicles 4:10
And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying,
"Oh, that You would bless me indeed,
and enlarge my territory,
that Your hand would be with me,
and that You would keep me from evil,
that I may not cause pain!"
And God granted him what he requested.

I finally bought and read this book. When it first came out a few years ago (and was free off the 'net =P), I must say I was pretty skeptical about it. I didn't see how anyone could take four simple verses and stretch it out to suggest a new attitude or a new faith. But that demonstrates how much faith I lacked at the time, as well as how much I looked to myself to accomplish what I wanted to do.

I highly recommend this book to anyone truly seeking to stretch your faith. It is inspirational and really gave me motivation to trust God to provide in *all aspects*, no matter how big. There really isn't anything that God cannot do, however, the idea that "anything is possible" has always been a difficult-to-grasp concept for me. But this book really demonstrated the power of asking God for amazing blessings, including making use of my most scarce resource: time. And really, the point is not to figure out or understand God, which is something I often try to do, but just to have faith -- even though I constantly say I strive to have faith -- it is evident from reading this book that I have a long way to go. But since God is always faithful, His hand is with me every step of the way. Faith....

Lazy Saturday afternoon...

I haven't had a Saturday when I had no plans in the daytime for a while...

But it was good because I need to prepare for Sunday School class tomorrow [I should really sleep] and got a chance to pick up some golf lessons with my uncle at the driving range. This comes extremely timely because the EY golf day is on Tuesday! Haha... we'll see how *that* goes... =P

For dinner, I caught up with a high school friend with whom I haven't seen in 9 months! But she's a crazy "do whatever she wants" type of person, and is experiencing the start of a budding career in movie production design and co-ordination. Also got a chance to watch some other high school friends play roller hockey and really missing my gang of high school friends. So I'll try to make it out to their games every so often...

And somewhere in between all of these, I managed to sneak in 6 episodes of Ally McBeal season 2! Almost halfway through now...

Hopefully Sunday School will be okay tomorrow, that the students will warm up to me and that I connect with them, and that I can wisely facilitate anything that may come up from this easily difficult subject. =P

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Somewhat ashamedly, I played my first ultimate frisbee game on Monday! [Ashamedly because my high school friends and I have been making fun of our friend who is participating in three leagues this summer...] The game also informally kick-starts my mission (and PL's mission) to get back into shape over the next 6 weeks! ["In shape" for me is defined as my state in 4B when I took "TKO" class at Waterloo.] So, I am off to join Bally's to hopefully go swimming at least twice a week. Hopefully swimming will also increase my endurance because I was pretty winded after a couple of changes of ultimate. And I'm too slow at keeping track of the directions! Otherwise, it feels great to just run around. =p

It's nice to have a clean room again, especially a clean desk for me to call it my "office". At least devotions / reading have been going well for the first couple of days of this new initiative. Hopefully they will keep up... Following from my previous blog, I have been terrible at taking the time out to read the Bible and to spend in reflection or meditation. But now, I'm very motivated to get back into the Word and to study it deeply. So get ready, small group... =)

It's been great to feel like everything is starting anew, to be refreshed in all aspects: spiritually, work, church...

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Well, I *finally* got around to cleaning up my room... although I am still far from finishing! It's been pretty gross in here, after so many months of treating my room as a "hotel" with no room service.

Some things that have surfaced:

- my MHQ karaoke membership card! =p
- a Bible study guide that I got from Urbana on "Relationships" for $1! I figured that for $1, it was virtually a no-risk investment! And it was because...

I'll be teaching the high school students on Relationships this summer at TCCC! Haha...we'll see how things go. =p I'm very excited and thankful for this opportunity, but it does mean that I will need to give my time up to God so much more. I know I haven't been very good at that for the past month... ever since I got a rest from any particular examination, I've been going out a *lot*. [Part of my "work hard, play hard" philosophy...] On one hand, it's been good to catch up with friends, or meeting new ones. But on the other, I admit I've been pretty reckless at disregarding the importance of personal quiet time to spend with God. I was reminded by one of the devotions from My Utmost for His Highest by Osward Chambers on June 18: You do not know when His voice will come to you, but whenever the realization of God comes, even in the faintest way imaginable, be determined to recklessly abandon yourself, surrendering everything to Him. And in terms of surrendering, I think I have slipped a lot from where I was, once upon a time. So now, being able to recklessly surrender my *all* is again something that I am trying to work on, by His grace...

Back to cleaning my room, at least my desk surface is more clear now. The main motivation was to do my devotions at my desk rather than on my bed; with a clean study area I'll be more inclined to study or read. Target of five out of seven...

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

Back to the one post per month quota... although, going forward, I really do hope to post more. Despite my complaints about the time it takes to post, I do realize the value of journalling my thoughts through this medium, and I have a number of thought-threads that I've been meaning to get down... just a matter of time...

I've found myself to be very sluggish lately -- it feels like I haven't *thought* about anything of substance in the past while. But not only in terms of substance -- I've just felt *slow* in general. Anyway, to rectify that, I've taken to playing video games, haha! No RPG's... that would take too long [I *did* start FFIX upon returning to Toronto in September but obviously didn't go very far in that =P], but one of my two favourite puzzle games: Intelligent Qube ("I.Q."). The other is Devil Dice, but that takes too long [especially with two players... once, I played with my brother and I ended up being really late for a dinner because we didn't want to stop -- we got up to level 99 =P]. But I.Q. is great for strategy, memory, and agility! The music in this game is really funny, too. =P

Needless to say, this past week and on Canada Day, I've spent more time playing video games than I would have really liked to... that's the problem of "filling up" my time when I could really spend that time in prayer or reading.

But the game is just so fun! And I need to build up my I.Q. so that I can systematically achieve "true genious"! Haha.. =P

OK, still not a post of substance, but it's a post nonetheless. =)

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.

[Breathe]

CFA has come and gone... thanks for everyone's prayers! Hopefully, everyone I know passed!

Finally, I am enjoying some time to update my blog, clean my room, watch Ally McBeal (finished season one now.. no onto season two!), and play piano.

And also... catch up on some sleep... =)

Until next time, this is Gladys Yam.