Friday, November 23, 2007


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Tuesday, November 20, 2007


This is Tue Nam.
Although we were raised
in different homes,
we are brothers.

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...Because being brothers is not about sharing the same last name.

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...It's about looking out for each other
as if we were family.

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"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them."
-Thomas Merton


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Hanging out with "Noisy" with our matching outfits. We're that tight. That's why he's my dawg!

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Wednesday, November 14, 2007



"Arms Of A Woman" by Amos Lee

I am at ease in the arms of a woman.
Although now,
most of my days I spend alone.
A thousand miles,
from the place I was born.
But when she wakes me,
she takes me back home.

Now, most days,
I spend like a child.
Who's afraid of ghosts in my mind.
I know, there ain't nothing out there.
I'm still afraid to turn on the lights.

I am at ease in the arms of a woman.
Although now,
most of my days a I spend alone.
A thousand miles,
the place i was born.
When she wakes me,
she takes me back home.

A thousand miles,
the place I was born.
When she wakes me,
she takes me back home.

I am at ease in the arms of a woman.
Although now,
most of my days I spend alone.
A thousand miles,
from the place I was born.
When she wakes me,
she takes me..
Ya, when she wakes me,
she takes me back home.
When she wakes me,
she takes me back home.

Here is a great bluesy interpretation of the same song by Ernie Halter.

Rodolfo sang this song with a rock edge. The way he looks and sounds reminds me a bit of Jon Bon Jovi.

Ccarleto gave this song a country feel that is definitely worth checking out.

You can get the chords of the songs here. I put a capo on the 7th fret of my guitar when I play this song.


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Sunday, November 11, 2007

All Grown Up

I took my friend Hoon and his family on a photo shoot at a park today. The girls received traditional Korean dresses from their grandfather as birthday gifts, and Hoon wanted to send pictures back home to him in Korea. Here's a little funny exchange between Lana, Hoon, and me....

Lana: George.

George: Yes, Lana?
Lana: I put on my socks.
George: You mean, you put them on by yourself?!
Lana: Yeah.
George: Good job! High five! (Gives Lana a high five)
Lana: I put on my socks yesterday.
George: You put them on by yourself yesterday too?
Lana: Yeah.

(Hoon joins in the conversation)

Hoon: Lana's a big girl now...putting on socks all by herself.
Lana: Yeah, Lana's a big girl.
Hoon: Lana could move out of the house now, huh, Lana?
Lana:
Yeah.

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Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Blind Sided

I was going to tell Jenny how disappointed I was in her. I've always pride myself in being the kind of supervisor who was fair-minded, flexible, and shows genuine care for the welfare of my staff. Whenever one of them wants to take extra time off, arrive a little late to work, or was forgetful to follow up on something I had requested, I try not to be too harsh or critical on them. Although they occasionally make mistakes, I know that my success would not be possible without their hard work and loyalty to me. I look for opportunities to show my appreciation, whether it is taking them on an impromptu trip to the local Dairy Queen from some ice-cream or thanking them for putting in the extra effort. That's the reason I was a bit irritated when I got back from lunch today and saw Jenny chatting on the cell phone. I didn't make a big deal about it. We all take personal calls from time to time. But I became more annoyed when she got up, continued to carry on her conversation, and disappeared for more than ten minutes. All the while she was gone, I was running thoughts in my head on how I would reproach her... "Look Jenny, I don't mind it if you've got all your work done. But I've left numbers for you to call for the past two days, and you still haven't done it."

But before I was able to verbalize it to her when she finally returned, she immediately apologized for what had happened. "I'm sorry... I was on the phone with the mother of my friend," she paused. "She told me that my friend got into a car accident and passed away." Jenny began to cry softly. "My friend called me at four in the morning to ask me to pick her up. She had been out drinking with some friends. I told her that I can't pick her up.... I've picked her up many times before, but this was four in the morning." In Jenny's mind, she felt partly responsible for this tragedy. Hearing this feels like getting punched in the stomach. All the air was let out of me along with the words of criticism I was ready to deliver. Now, I sat frozen at my chair, not quite knowing what to say or do. I made a feeble attempt to ease her guilt. "It's not your fault... It's not your responsibility," I reasoned. "It was your friend's choice to get behind the wheel. She could have called someone from her family or got a cab." I shouldn't have said that, I remember thinking. I shouldn't have said anything. Better to have just said 'I'm sorry' and be there for her, I thought. "I know...," Jenny wondered. But what if? I asked Jenny if she would like to take the rest of the day off, but she declined. Perhaps it was better this way. Work may keep her mind off her grief, even if it were temporary.

I thought about what happened today. How many times have I made assumptions about another person's behavior without knowing all the facts? You think that you know of their motives, their feelings, their inner thoughts, their fears, their opinions about you and you of them and so forth, but you really don't know unless you ASK and dig deeper. Maybe you're too afraid to find out the truth, so you avoid asking. Maybe you have too much pride. Too lazy to ask. Or maybe you're just too concerned with your own needs to hear above the noise. I am reminded of a story I read long ago in which passengers on a train became increasingly irate at a father who allowed his young children to played wildly on the train. When an angry passenger confronted him, the man apologized for his children's behavior. He explained that they are usually well-behaved. However, they have just come from the hospital that morning where the children said their last goodbye to their mother who lost her battle with a terminal illness.

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Tuesday, November 6, 2007

True Passion

One of my favorite pass time is to watch aspiring musicians do original and cover tunes on Youtube. I am simply blown away by the vast talents out there being broadcast from America's bedrooms and basements. I want to share with you a video of a very gifted singer named Jeremy, a.k.a "passion", singing a cover song of Ryan Cabrera's "True".

If you want to try your hand at playing this song, you can get the tablature here.




"True" by Ryan Cabrera

I won't talk
I won't breathe
I won't move till you finally see
that you belong with me

you might think
I don't look
but deep inside in the corner of my mind
I'm attatched to you
mmmm

I'm weak
it's true
cause I'm afraid to know the answer
do you want me too?
cause my heart keeps falling faster

[chorus]
I've waited all my life to cross this line
to the only thing thats true
so I will not hide
i'ts time to try anything to be with you
all my life I've waited
this is true

you don't know
what you do
everytime you walk into the room
I'm afraid to move

I'm weak
it's true
I'm just scared to know the ending
do you see me too?
do you even know you met me!

[Chorus]
I've waited all my life to cross this line
to the only thing thats true
so I will not hide
its time to try anything to be with you
all my life I've waited
this is true

I know when I go
I'll be on my way to you
the way that's true

[chorus]
I've waited all my life to cross this line
to the only thing thats true
so I will not hide
its time to try anything to be with you
all my life I've waited
this is true

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Thursday, November 1, 2007

Treasure Hunter





This is Rudy, a treasure hunter. He digs for valuables once lost, hidden beneath the surface waiting to be rediscovered.

For the past weeks, my car smelled of burnt motor oil after long drives. I decided to take it in for a precautionary check up. While waiting for my car to be worked on, I took a walk at a nearby park to pass time. It was there I met Rudy and his wife Mary Jo, a couple of retirees turned real-life treasure hunters. Rudy has only been treasure hunting for about 3 months. For the previous 35 years, however, he had worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District as an engineer, a job that he treasured (no pun intended) because he had so much "fun" doing it. Now that he's retired, he spends his days traveling to various local playgrounds with his wife to play the game of hide and seek.

I sat on top of a wall and watched them work methodically sweep their metal detectors from side to side near the swings. Whenever the detector recognized the presence of a metal substance, it would emit different pitch sounds depending on what kind of metal it is. Whenever that happened, Rudy would take his trowel and gently dig below the surface to reveal what is underneath. Most of the time he ends up with duds, like pieces of foil paper, bottle caps, and soda can tabs. But in rare cases, like the first time he went treasure hunting, he discovered a large diamond ring. Recently, he found a beautiful graduation necklace with the name of the school inscribed. I asked Rudy what he plans to do with it. "I'll put it in the 'lost & found' section of Craigslist," he replied. "Maybe someone will see it, and I'll return it." These are the moments that keep him going long after the last beep has sounded. Then there are days like today when all the pennies and nickels he collected couldn't even get him a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Most of us would simply toss back the pennies we find. Not Rudy. Whether it was a penny or nickel, he stored it away in his pocket. I couldn't make sense why anyone would bother to save such seemingly worthless objects."What are you going to do with all those change?" I asked Rudy. "I don't know... I'll put them in a jar and give it to my grandson," he answered.

"Do you see where it says penny, nickel, quarter, and dollar?" he pointed to the monitor on his metal detector. "It doesn't know exactly what's underneath. It only gives you a good idea of what you might find." When I think about what Rudy said, I suppose that we are all treasure hunters one way or another, searching for that elusive find waiting to be discovered. We may end up with a lump of coal or a diamond in the rough. These are the chances we take. There are no guarantees, only possibilities. It takes time, patience, and perseverance. Above all, it starts with the leap of faith that the best is yet to be discovered.


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