Shadowfeet

I know it’s old, but I’m digging Brooke Fraser these days.

I like the simplicity of the video. It’s clear and therefore classier. None of that seizure-inducing like a g6 crap.

 

Future

It’s funny. When I was in school, I was told “[XX] percentage of people don’t end up working in the field they hold their degree in.” I never thought I’d be one. Apparently I am. But then again, when I think about the future, I remember that I never intended my accomplishments in life to be determined by what job or career I have. There’s something else I’m aiming for and despite what I thought I saw and what I see now, it would appear God has kept me on track. And that makes me pretty happy.

again…

Wow, more than a year since I’ve posted! A lot has changed but I feel like commenting on a certain Alexandra Wallace, albeit a little late.

Or maybe not. Apparently this is the day and age of social media. For better or worse, there is hardly a delay for news to travel anymore. I feel sorry for Alexandra Wallace and people like her. It may seem cool to do these blogs, videos postings, twitter things, etc. about what you’re feeling in a moment, but it’s incredibly dangerous too. A dumb three minute rant earned her enough death threats to have the UCPD recommend she change her exam schedule. And her apology, while I’m sure is heartfelt, is entirely understated:

“Clearly the original video posted by me was inappropriate. I cannot explain what possessed me to approach the subject as I did, and if I could undo it, I would. I’d like to offer my apology to the entire UCLA campus. For those who cannot find it within them to accept my apology, I understand.”

Clearly. CLEARLY. Let that be a warning to all, myself especially included, who think themselves witty, funny, smart, etc. Unless you were hoping someone will autotune it into a viral smash hit (re. double rainbow, antoine dodson, etc.), words are more permanent than ever now.

Starfield – Rediscover You

So at church this morning, the praise team started singing this song, but the head Pastor went up halfway through and we closed out worship his prayer. Luckily, I managed to scribble down the lyrics so I could look it up later. The lyrics really reflect what I feel has been my state of being recently:

I need to just admit
my faith is paper thin
I’m feeling so burned out
On religion

I say an empty prayer
I sing a tired song
I need to just admit that the passion’s gone

And I want to get it back

You told me
Look for You and I will find
So I’m here
Like I’m searching for the first time
Revive me, Jesus
Make this cold heart start to move
Help me rediscover You

I want to learn to pray
The way that David prayed
I want my soul to burn when I hear Your name
I want to feel like new
I want to hunger for you
Bring me back to life like only You can do
Cause I don’t want to stay the same

You told me
Look for You and I will find
So I’m here
Like I’m searching for the first time
Revive me, Jesus
Make this cold heart start to move
Help me rediscover You

Lord, I want to be Yours today
I want to know the passion of the saints
And how they were changed

You told me
Look for You and I will find
So I’m here
Like I’m searching for the first time
Revive me, Jesus
Make this cold heart start to move

I want to burn for You
Bring me back to life, Jesus
Help me rediscover You

10 mile fail

Today:

Ran: 1 Mile. It was painful.

Biked: 15 Miles. It was a little less painful.

“This Charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,” 1 Timothy 1:18

Epic Fail

Wow did I not succeed at last year’s new year’s resolution or what? It’s been so long, I forgot I was using wordpress. All I remembered was my username, so I tried: http://chautime.blogspot.com/ and found out that it was, obviously, not mine. that was interesting, though. If it didn’t come up in all pink, I probably would have spent a good 30 minutes trying to figure out if I had really written that.

Life has happened in the mean time. I’ve started working and moved to Maryland, moved back to Virginia and moved back to Maryland again since last year. Work consumes most of my life. It’s funny because on the off moments that I’m not thinking about finding time to drive down to Charlottesville, I’m wondering if what I’m doing is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.

I want to get back into making videos. I don’t know, but I think maybe God really is calling me to it. Is it a vision? Or a temptation? Do I dare to continue to dream? I guess you’ll find out in one year, which is probably the next time I will update again.

“Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face evermore!” – 1 Chronicles 16:11

We’re back! A Dinosaur Story.

The first 11 I started about half a year ago on facebook. Is it sad that I was never able to finish it? Or cool that I was out doing too many SUPER cool things to finish it?

1. This will be a slow process because it takes me a long time to write something when I try. usually writing comes when I’m super tired or bored. But usually when I’m super tired, I delete it because i’m paranoid i’m going to regret writing it the next day. right now i am bored. i am also in class. these two facts often go hand in hand.

2. i have a super power: the power to completely tune out any person while they are speaking. however, i am still struggling to control this power. especially in class.

3. arizona green tea is money.

4. i have an innate fear of barber shops/hair cutteries. that is, i get extremely nervous when i get hair cuts. why? because i always have this horrifying fear that shop will catch fire and everyone, particularly myself, will run out of the shop with a ridiculous half head of hair and it will be utterly embarrassing until it gets fixed.

5. when i was a kid, i wanted to be a mad scientist when i grew up. not just a scientist… a MAD scientist. why? because i wanted to have my hair stand straight up. my parents encouraged it so i would study hard in school. of course, i soon discovered that i could do the hair thing with gel and did not have to actually succeed in life to get my hair to stand straight up.

6. my 5 desert island books: C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, Michael Crichton’s Jurrasic Park, Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (Return of the King if I’m not allowed to bring the massive 3-in-one edition), some field survival book and last but not least, Twilight…. to burn. stupid edward…

7. my favorite form of in class entertainment is this little game i devised: I read fmylife.com during class and try to see if i can make it without laughing out loud in front of the professor. so far, me – 0, fmylife – 11

8. there are a few things that make me genuinely excited about life: 1) God, 2) new camping/hiking gear, 3) a fresh notebook and a good pen, 4) marriage

9. i love those kids cartoons with slightly asian spin and lots of humor. namely i’m thinking of teen titans and avatar. my sister think it ridiculous but i could watch those shows allllllll day.

10. Dwight Schrute Liz Lemon(/Tina Fey) is the funniest person I wish I knew.

11. When I am bored, I sometimes play this chess game on my computer. Usually I lose. When it is late at night and I’m looking for something to put me to sleep, I also sometimes play this chess game. Then, I usually win. Interesting…. and… we’re back!

12) I like SYTYCD. I wish there was a show called IWICD (I Wish I Could Dance). I don’t know what it would be about, but I would definitely be on it.

13) Work sucks. I should  be grateful that I even have a job. But in reality, I’d rather just  be playing Nintendo Wii. Hollerrrrrrrrrr. Exception: If i was working at my ideal job (see 18)

14) I get really really dark sometimes. When I cut my hair short and don’t shave for a few days, people often think I just crossed the border (illegally). My mom calls me a “hai ren.”

15) I’ve developed a taste for Brewery and Taphouses. Correction: I’ve developed a taste for bar food. Clarification: I’ve developed a taste for burgers, nachos, sandwiches, fries and other types of deliciously greasy food served at alcoholic joints. But I’m still waiting for that “acquired taste” for beer to kick in.  Actually I think it’s kicked in for pale ales and alcoholic ciders. I’m just weak sauce.

16) Emoticons express emotions better than i do. except for frustration. I show that one pretty well.

17) 30 rock is fun!

18) my ideal occupation would be a pokemon trainer

19) If I could be any animal in the world, I’d be a panda. Why? cuz they’re so gangsta. What? Haven’t you heard the joke? Okay, so a panda walks into a restaurant. Itorders its food, and eats it. Upon finishing its meal, it whips out a pistol and shoots the waiter dead. Then it calmly proceeds to walk out the door. The host at the door is shocked and gasps at the panda as it walks out, “What was that for?!” The Panda almost rolls its eyes as it says, “I’m a panda, it’s what I do. Look it up.” The host looks it up and sure enough, in the dictionary it says “Panda – noun: Black and white marsupial. Eats shoots and leaves.”

20) I’m really bad at writing at will. when there’s the slightest hint of pressure, I get completely turned off of writing. That’s probably why it took so long for me to finish this. Oh wait, i already said this.

21) I like to pretend like I know how to cook

22) I feel like I’m a lot smarter than people give me credit for. As in, I think I give a lot of good, learned, and well-thought out advice, but people don’t take me seriously. For example, Sharon. Maybe I’m just too good looking to be taken seriously.

23) My most recent obsession has been a Shun Elite Utility and Santoku Knife. Droooooooooooooooooool. I don’t know what I would use it for though. Decoration? Combat? definitely not cooking…

24) I used to think that if I could have super powers, i would have the one that allowed me to absorb other people’s. Then I realized that super powers don’t actually exist, so my power would be useless. and non-existent. Yeah, I’d just like to talk to animals or teleport.

25) I try hard to be a good son. I try harder to be a good brother. I try hardest to be a good future husband. But in the end, only Jesus makes any of my efforts worth anything. I think that’s the most honest statement in this entry.

DONE. FINALLY.

Public

So I’ve been waiting for a good time to go public with this blog. At least officially. I know I didn’t want to reveal it right after graduation, because then it would have made it seem like I was one of the other hundred people who jumped on the wordpress bandwagon at the same time (not that I’m judging anyone else! Okay, maybe I am… heh). Other than that, I don’t really know why I kept it a secret for so long, but I think it’s about that time.

In all honesty, I started this around the time I saw read Joash’s first few blogs on his wordpress (http://oshkoshjoash.wordpress.com/), which is when I realized the first exodus to wordpress. I made an account then, but stuck more with Xanga. Actually, I made several accounts under different names, most of them dumb but romantically suave. Eventually, I stuck with my familiar.

Dan, a more recent migrant to wordpress (http://dansponderings.wordpress.com/), just realized today that chautime is a play on “chow time” and references to food, which I eat in great quantities. While this is one of my intended interpretations of “chautime” my main theme was a time devoted to me, or at least my thoughts, most of which are selfish and take the form of ridiculously run-on sentences and lack proper grammatical structure, capitalization and often sense.

Some of my thoughts are strange, embarrassing, insightful, narrow minded, and/or some combination of these, and more. I am determined, however, not to delete any of my postings because I don’t want to have to hide what I’ve ever said. In my opinion, there is only so much you can take back in life. I believe it is more productive to see the whole story, and the evolution of character. My hope is that I can follow and learn from my own growth, as much as I can determine, from this blog. That way, if I become some super rich and awesome person in the future, I, and others, will be able to read how. On the other hand, if, God forbid, I become some psycho criminal, this will serve as a record of how that came about as well. Realistically however, this will probably turn into some personal memoir of an life average to the average reader, but special to those who are special to me.

End of Real Life Week 1

Growing up, in a way, I always looked forward to working life. After my first week of it, I realize now that I was a seriously misguided child.

I think I’m terrified of falling into that pattern of work, eat, sleep, repeat. To me, that’s a waste of life, which I believe needs to mean something.I want to skip to the part where I have a family that I come home to. Not an empty room in a house. But hey, that would be a waste of life to skip that far, right?

Anyways, it hasn’t been that bad. In my first week of work, I didn’t eat a single home cooked meal. I went to Subway 3 times, Five Guys once, Potbelly’s twice, Hard Times Cafe, and I forget what else. Also, for breakfast of my first day of work, I ate cereal out of a mixing bowl with a measuring cup, because I hadn’t unpacked any diningware, and failed to bring any silverware from home. Now, however, I have a complete set of plastic cutlery, courtesy of potbelly’s. Other than that, work has been fine. Simple work so far, but we’ll see what happens in Real Life Week 2!

Pre-Real Life

Hello!

This is my first blog from my new home in College Park Maryland, where I will be spending most of my free time (6pm-7am, Monday-Thursday). It’s a rather expensive home, but it will have to do for now. Now, I teeter on the edge of post-college person and working professional… the difference being that I will start working full time, and no longer bum. As much anyways.

My new home is a 10 x 12 room in a 3 story house in college park (supposedly the safest place in PG county). I’m trying to live simply, by having as little as possible, but we’ll see how that goes. I’m a hoarder of many things that seem useful. The other tenants here seem nice, except I had a traumatic encounter with one of them, involving the bathroom…

My new job is with AB Consultants, Inc., located in Lanham, MD. My position… staff engineer of somesort (geotechnical, technically). I actually started last Thursday, two work days ahead of my original date (tomorrow), so I already have kind of a feel for the environment. Except not really. I’ve just been doing data entry work.

But life is an adventure and, more or less, I’m ready to embark on the next journey.