Monday Night Dinner

On Monday night, I went to this restaurant named Budakkan, an Asian-Chinese-fusion restaurant at Chelsea district. It has 3 dollar signs on Yelp which a little bit pricey but that is also why we chose this restaurant to get our free team dinner. The interior design and ambiance of the restaurant are truly and awesomely one of a kind in a cool and cozy way while being elegant. The food is delicious in a delicate way that much care and effort is put into quality control for every dish, but this is expected given the price that we pay.

After being impressed by the reception counter and bar/waiting room, we were greeted with this majestic and spacious dining hall on the way to our reserved private table.

Grandeur

Contrary to the photos here, the lighting inside is dimmer than depicted here, but is still well lit enough to read the menu and see the food. I haven't been to any other restaurant which is less lit than this one and I think that it turned out to be not bad at all, except that it is not friendly towards my lowly smartphone camera.

From below

 Best of the night: Crab fried rice

Coming in close: Mongolian Lamb Chops

Dessert to end: Crying Chocolate. Cry for it!

And many more not posted here. This will probably be the only interesting happening during weekdays this week, other than the two financial classes that I will be taking. Have a nice week!

Revisiting ...

Surprised myself to see that my last post is dated just 2 months ago, I wonder what triggered me to write something around that time. I also revisited my older and more colorful posts, new posts now stay closer to the colors of my life and prevailed introverted self.

In an attempt (or maybe out of desperation) to venture out of my solitary life and reconnect with the world, I have participated in two charity events this week with "City Harvest" and "God's Love We Deliver". While I'm not totally entirely sure about how do these two organizations operate, I don't see too much wrong in their fundamental causes and I would recommend people to check them out too.

Coincidentally, both the organizations' primary cause is related to food. Basically, City Harvest runs a food rescue/recovery program that aims to find and save the food that are still fit for consumption but will otherwise go wasted if left unattended. Then they try to distribute the salvaged food to people who need them. Examples are leftover food from restaurants, bakeries, caterers and so on, or good but less desirable food from the grocers and wholesalers. While some people might sneer at these perfectly fine food, there are a lot of starving people out there who would appreciate highly to get these life sustaining supply. The event that I took part is a 3 hours food repackaging activity to pack and deliver food supplies to the victims of the recent hurricane Sandy. However, one regret for me personally is the amount of trash that will be generated in this effort, especially because we packed things in plastics bags and a lot of the food are originally packed in plastic containers.

More info: http://www.cityharvest.org/

God's Love We Deliver in summary and quoting their own word, is the tri-state area's leading provider of nutritious, individually-tailored meals to people who are too sick to shop or cook for themselves. Personally I haven't had any close encounter or relationship with critically ill people and I am grateful that people around me are not doing too bad, but even without having the experience, I can imagine how terrible it is going to be. I think it's a wonderful effort to try to serve these patients and hopefully to alleviate some of their pains, that the society care about them and God's love is around.
More info: https://www.glwd.org/

Life continues

Started working in a corporate environment, or training to be exact, currently. Training is pretty intense but it is very possible to ace with sufficient focus and prioritization. I haven't done exceptionally well but it is never too late, 3 more weeks!

Awakening

Matthew 5:14“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

 

Matthew 9:37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

 

Matthew 11:24Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 

 

Matthew 8:22But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

 

2 Corinthians 5:16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 

 

Matthew 7:13“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

 

Matthew 7:7 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

 

Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

 

Romans5:1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, wea have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And web rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

 

Matthew 11:28“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

 

Romans 8: We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

 

Proverbs 3:5Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

 

*Reader's discretion is advised, remember look into the context of each scripture.

Stories Around the World

Amy and Kelly visited my church today, Amy is the special guest speaker who just came back from a two weeks tours to visit India's Gospel for Asia mission sites. It must had been an intensive eye opening experience for her as it was very obvious about how much she was shaken by the condition of life in India and impressed by the work of God in India, especially for an elderly American who has spent her whole life in the United States.

It must be very much true about her answer to me that it is indescribably different between just hearing or reading the stories versus experiencing the stories closely in person, that everyone ought to get such experience whenver there is such an opportunity. I might not be strong enough to witness and testify for Christ, but I think going on such a trip might help me to get there. Even if such trips does not turn out to be a spiritually stimulating, it still be a humanitarian journey that is mentally intriguing and educationally meaningful.

Aside from that, I have collected a lovely story from the brothers and sisters in my fellowship. Y and J joined the fellowship during the time I was gone and they have already become a precious part of the church family in a short amount of time. I wonder how did they become convinced by the gospel especially for Y who is a highly educated physics postdoctorate researcher, and how much of that was caused by their insecurities and needs after moving here to a new environment, but it is still good for them that they have found love and sense of belonging at the church.

Y and J started dating during their undergraduate years but were soon separated after they enrolled into different graduate schools almost 2000 kilometers apart. In the very beginning, Y had to travel as long as two days just to meet J at her university during school holidays and they meet around 4 times a year, which is very impressive considering the patience and endurance. Fortunately, their living conditions improve and Y can travel faster by air. Their relationship persisted and eventually, they got married after graduation and are now expecting their first baby and their baptism together in a few months. It took a little while for them and they are not that young anymore but perhaps that is why they always look so close and appreciative and happy together. God bless them.

At night, I got a free meal and personal stories from the doctorate research whom I am assisting, very hard working and talented person he is, even though he chaffed me for my decision to apply for an honor society lol. I don't exactly know what am I getting involved in but hopefully it's gonna turn out meaningful.

Dream Accomplished

How nice it is to have your dream accomplished? Must be heavenly.
Dreams after dreams, the unending chase, the infinite heaven, must be awesome.

 

I had buffet lunch from 1pm to 3.30pm and hotpot dinner from 4pm to 6.30pm today, that was pretty amazing too!

Twenty

The special fellowship home-gathering today started with the sensational linsanity, it is different watching his godly highlights versus his full game performance, nobody is perfect, but at least his effort is almost perfect. It was followed by movie of the night - Courageous.

The stories, characters and overall plot was pretty straightforward and predictable, full of "Christian elements". However, there were still some pretty solid content/lessons for becoming the biblical man.

The notion of man being the leader of the family has undoubtly been challenged to some extent with the emphasis of equality and proliferation of women's evolvement from their traditional roles, with the consequent adaptation of the men. However, the biblical manhood is pretty directly and clearly defined in the bible, which is certainly challenging though remarkable if followed.

Suddenly, Looking Back

Was looking back at old facebook photos and cherishing the old times. Man, those are a long time ago indeed, the time before I came to this totally different living enviroment. I miss the college abd college friends, the seaside city and the pink house, how in the world did we especially my father pick pink color to paint the house... Anyway, it is coming soon!

Some good old motivation words from the inspiring Professor Randy Pausch:

"The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!"

"If I could only give three words of advice, they would be, "tell the truth." If I got three more words, I'd add: "All the time."

"You get people to help you by telling the truth; by being earnest. I'll take an earnest person over a hip person every day, because hip is short-term, earnest is long term."

Remembering St. Valentine

While it is currently abnormally warm in North America with people complaining about losing their winter, at the same time it is unusually and frigidly cold in north Europe and Asia, with thousands of people losing their homes and lives,

While the emerging economies are growing rapidly, the enlarging economic gap is also growing rapidly, with the riches becoming richer and poors remaining the same or becoming poorers, especially the aboriginal people around the world.

While Islam is currently the fastest growing religion in the world, Christianity is the slowest growing among major religions in the world.

Maldives, the land known to be the vacation paradise on Earth has recently had a coup d'etat while confronting the fate of being one of the first nations in the world to be flooded and disappear with the rising sea level.

China, the fastest growing economy in the world is creating lots and lots of farmer workers who have to leave home to work in the big cities/industrial areas and could only return home once a year for only a few days.

Europe is still struggling with their mounting sovereign debt, seemingly unrepentently and cluelessly while watching it becoming worse day by day.

Iran is getting squeezed tigher into the corner and is almost of the brink to going to war with the western world with the seemingly mischievious backing of China and Russia who have economic profitability ties with Iran.

Syria is already having an almost all out civil war, threatening the already shaky situation in the middle east area surrounding Israel.

Jesus Christ is known for giving, never known for receiving, so are the twelve disciples and supposedly all the genuine Christians crowned as saints. Let my Valentine's Day be a day of reminder for giving and showing love and charity.

 

Acts 20:35 New International Version (NIV)

35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'

 

Sleeplessness

Sleeplessness actually induces headache! But I'm not in the worst condition compared to some other people out there, I guess. At least, I still can swim!

First Day of Feb

Laptop fan stopped working suddenly, costed me almost 4 hours to disassemble and reassemble the laptop, including one time to find the missing hole to put the extra screw back in! Visited the Malaysian professor today to get some lunar new year snack from Malaysia, stuff from home is always good!

Health is wealth

In a severe lack of sleep, I slept only 3 hours on Sunday night and most likely tonight also I need to spend less time on social media even though I am looking into social network research currently.

This is the second week of my final semester, I should not still be so reserved in class, need to make more breakthroughs! And of course, to be humble, enjoying, thankful and happy.

Ballet

My good friend attended her first ballet performance today, the Sleeping Beauty with music from Tchaikovsky's, must had been wonderful.

Social

It was not a very productive day academically, but it was a pretty engaging day socially. The lunch was pretty interesting due the little stories about people's lives that they talked about. The dinner was a disappointment because the laksa Singapore did not turn out as good as before, when I used a more expensive laksa packet. Cooking and serving other people is definitely more demanding in term of attitude and quality of the food, which is a good learning experience.

"If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes." - Andrew Carnegie

Appearance/Impression

First day of class of final semester, it is going to be busy semester again, even though I can choose not to be, but I guess busyness can be good sometimes. It is true that people treat you nicer when you wear better clothes, looking better. It feels good to spend all the leftover energy and attention at the pool at the end of a day, leaving no room for the development of any negativity. Good semester, good night!

Hatred is no man's friend

Drop(ped) the hatred!