Here’s a good read as the upcoming Presidential election comes around: Seven things that Christians should think about with regards to politics. The two that I found especially good were #5 and #7: “Scripture tells us to pray for our governing leaders (2 Timothy 2:1-4) and to respect those in authority (Romans 13:1-7)” and “Stop saying, ‘This is the most important election in the history of our nation.'”
It’s something worth thinking about.
I was struggling to sleep, so I started to just look up random websites on my laptop. There’s a website that a buddy of mine showed me a while back called “The Wilderness Downtown”. The design and concept was pretty stunning. It was to a song by Arcade Fire called, “We Used to Wait”. As you interacted with the site, you were given an opportunity to send a postcard to your past self, typing whatever you wanted. I decided to play along and thought about what I should write. I looked back on the past couple of years and thought about what I would write to my past self…
A few years ago, I made a comment about a soccer player. It was about a player from Barcelona that I felt was one of the best players in soccer. A little midfielder. I’m sure everyone was assuming I was talking about Xavi. But it was the other midfielder that hasn’t been in the limelight until recently: Andres Iniesta. Continue reading Iniesta
If you hadn’t heard of the story of Steve Zakuani, it’s definitely one to read up on. For those that didn’t know, while playing a MLS game against the Colorado Rapids, Zakuani took a horrific tackle from Brian Mullan. As a result, Zakuani suffered a broken tibia and fibula. However, after several surgeries, rehabilitation, and some reserve games, he finally made his return to the field. The Sounders wrote an article that you can read about here.
His return obviously was definitely a heart-warming event. It looked as though he could have been gone from the game for longer (I’ve seen two other tackles from Arsenal players that were pretty savage that put them out of the game for quite a while too, Eduardo and Aaron Ramsey). But he finally made his return. But what impressed me wasn’t just the return itself, but what happened afterwards. He met with Brian Mullen at the end of the game, shared a hug and exchanged shirts.
I don’t think this was by any means a PR stunt because exchanging shirts is typically a gesture only shown to people that have respect for one another. You usually see that with players of the same sort of caliber or class. It could be friends too. But obviously they aren’t of the same kind of caliber. You’d think after such a tackle, they wouldn’t be considered friends or even be shown any kind of respect either… That’s why this is such a display of sportsmanship and forgiveness on the part of Zakauni. To forgive the person that could have put your career out of the picture was stunning and such an act should be applauded. This is rarely seen in sports these days.
It’s even more fascinating to me when I was reading random posts from Yahoo! Sports of people that are still saying “Mullen should be banned for life. The guy is a bastard. Get rid of him from the game.” Maybe it’s time for people to just find some closure in all this. Zakuani said he quickly forgave the guy after the accident, and remember, it was his career that was put in doubt. Why can’t everyone else do the same?
Steve Zakuani was truly a class act that day. His comeback was the story of the day, but his forgiveness really showed true character.
Driving these days has become somewhat of a necessity for some people, unfortunately. With the gas prices going upwards to about $4.17 here in Seattle, it’s definitely a burden on one’s wallet. So being able to save money on gas is rather important. So when you see two gas stations kiddy-cornered to one another, one with $4.17 (the cheapest between 87, 89, and 92) and the other being $4.03, your first instinct is “Hey, let’s go to the one that’s $4.03 because I’d save $0.14 a gallon”. Right?
But is this really the case? If I were to see a Chevron for $4.17 and an Arco for $4.03, I actually would hesitate to go to Arco. I’ve actually told people to not go to Arco lately because of the logic I’m about to write here. Let me explain…
Continue reading Saving Money by Filling Up on Expensive Gas?
Here’s a great article from ESPN’s Soccernet with regards to a team from Switzerland, FC Basel, and two of the members of the team: One of them being a South Korean, and the other a North Korean. It’s quite an interesting story, as the politics from their countries do have an impact on their footballing careers. Yet, they still can go above that and work together.
So it’s 2012 now. And we all have our new year’s resolutions. Work out more, eat healthy, be on Facebook less. It’s all stuff we want to improve on… Or at least say we’re trying to do. But how about trying different endeavors… Like programming? Codecademy has a concept that surely will interest some people. And it’s worth trying, whether you’re a nerd or not.
A friend sent me a link to this new programming course called Code Year. Basically, it’s a one lesson a week course that started earlier this week. It teaches people how to program in JavaScript. And if you’re curious, it’s actually a useful programming language… You’ve probably used it while surfing the web. In any case, you get a lesson plan that teaches you some basics and you follow that up with a little “challenge” or application to what you’ve learned.
I decided to try it out myself since I’ve always wanted to learn JavaScript (but just been too lazy to actually buy a book and read up on it or ask my buddy Benji to borrow one of his books). One of the first things that stood out is that it starts users with a console instead of just an empty area to write a block of code. This allows you to see immediate results from what you’ve coded. It also makes finding errors a breeze. Try finding an error in a block of code as a beginner, to only find out you were simply missing a semicolon.
In any case, the early lesson plans are suited for the beginner. So for those with programming backgrounds, it’ll be somewhat boring and quick to complete. You go through the basics of what a programming language is capable of doing and then proceed to learn the syntax and other capabilities of the language. Afterwards, you get the opportunity to apply what you’ve learned through writing your own first application (and thus facing the arduous task of reading and writing a block of code). However, it’s worthwhile and pretty fun to complete.
Code Year definitely opens up an avenue for many people who haven’t even considered with free programming lessons for the masses. But it also opens up even more than just the ability to program. Farhad Manjoo of Slate.com wrote this in his article of Code Year:
But knowing how to code will improve your life even if you don’t ever program anything useful. I learned the Basic programming language when I was a kid, and then I sharpened my programming skills in high school and college. I am by no means an expert programmer, and I rarely take up coding in my job, but I learned enough to alter the way I approach problems. And that’s the most interesting thing about taking up programming: It teaches you to think algorithmically. When faced with a new challenge—whether at work or around the house—I find myself breaking down the problem into smaller, discrete tasks that can be accomplished by simple, repeatable processes.
I think he is accurate on this. I know when I took programming classes in high school, it made me think more “algorithmically”, that is, looking at a problem logically and attempting to solve it in a specific way. In essence, it helps improve our ability to approach problems that we might encounter, whether around the house to a specific task on the job. It makes us think differently about how we see those problems. I don’t just go about things in a guess-and-check methodology these days. It’s analyze the situation and work through it step by step. It also improves your efficiency as well, which is crucial in a day and age where you can’t be wasteful with your time.
Overall, Code Year definitely provides an opportunity to learn to code and does a good job of it for the person that has never touched programming in his or her life. Code Year won’t make you an expert programmer and get you a job at Google after finishing it by the end of the series (though that would be awesome). But it does allow you to think differently and enables people to learn how to program. For some people, they might find their calling and actually enjoy programming. From there, learn Python, Java, C#. Then you potentially get a job at a huge company like Microsoft or Google. Who knows? Anything’s possible right?
“$30. That can feed a family of four in Viet Nam for a month.” –My Dad, to me
… I headed downtown with some guys in my small group this past Monday as part of a serving event we participate in. We get the opportunity to serve Seattle’s homeless dinner with the Lord’s Table, a program that serves the homeless every Monday through Thursday. It’s good in the sense that we know that they’ll get a good hot meal that evening. It wasn’t exactly the warmest weather either. But getting the opportunity to talk to them, hear their stories, and just serve their needs is something we’re called to do as Christians.
We’ve all served through the Lord’s Table numerous times. But as the first couple of individuals came around, I think for a number of us, there was a bit of surprise and heartache. Continue reading $28
Taking a break from studying and figuring out applications needed for my group’s project for class, I started watching some of the highlights from the UCL championship game between FC Barcelona and Manchester United from Saturday afternoon. After watching the game on Saturday, I was kinda disappointed that Man United got beat handily by the team from Spain. Granted, I’m an Arsenal fan and definitely no Man United fan, I figured they would have prepared a bit better for the match when in fact they didn’t. The point of this article though isn’t to criticize Man United’s approach because they had to go about their own way to try to beat Barca.
The point of this article is understanding Barcelona’s approach to the game. What people don’t realize is that this team is, for the most part, the polar opposite of what most teams are these days. Most of their team is quite small. They’re also not the fastest team, nor the most physical team out there either. Yet, they manage to win games with such ease that it’s quite unbelievable. Sure, you can account skill for some of it, but when you watch their game, it doesn’t have the kind of explosive appeal that other teams might have, like say Real Madrid, Arsenal, or Manchester United. They don’t counterattack other teams nor do they regularly take powerful shots outside of the 18 (though Saturday’s game was definitely a change of pace with two goals scored from outside of the box from both Messi and Villa).
In order to understand Barca’s game, you have to understand Tiki-Taka. Tiki-Taka is the game in which you try to promote the short passing game, possession and patience. It’s not about getting goals quickly. It’s about controlling the pace of the game to your own pace. By controlling the possession, you not only enable the opportunities that you get to score goals, but also create few chances for your opponents to score, as well as tire them out from having to chase after you. The emphasis here is on the short passing. Rarely do you see a ball go across the field in the air in an attacking position such that they head the ball in. It’s just to create space and maintain control. Continue reading Understanding Tiki-Taka… Barcelona’s Game
These were the lyrics of a song from Good Friday service last night. Powerful, to say the least.
Oh my soul, oh my Jesus
Judas sold you for thirty, I’d have done it for less
Oh my soul, oh my Savior
Peter denied you three times, I have denied you more
As the nails went in, I was standing right there
As you breathed your last, I shook my head and I cried
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my soul, oh my Jesus
Judas sold you for thirty, I’d have done it for less
Oh my soul, oh my Savior
Peter denied you three times, I have denied you more
And the blood ran down, I was standing right there
And the water poured, I shook my head and I cried
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
As the nails went in, I was standing right there
As you breathed your last, I shook my head and I cried
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
Oh my God, what have we done, we have destroyed your Son
— Lyrics for “What Have We Done”, The Northern Conspiracy from Mars Hill Church