Kai, The Informologist

(more on flickr)

I’m one of those that prefer to watch people dressed up than dressing up myself. And this Halloween the dudes I’ve met were all in cartoon character outfits. This is Dispsy and Po from Teletubbies. I’ve also met Luigi from Mario (no, his brother was no where in sight). And finally, the all-time girl favorite, Winnie the Pooh. I did saw one Fubu (the bird that talks and freaks people out), but it wasn’t a camera situation so I’d left him alone.

Ever since last weekend, I’ve been experiencing the Halloween spirit even though I wasn’t too much involved in it. Kudos to folks who had dressed up. Thank you for making my day with D40 worthwhile.

Following an enduring period of poor finishes, shocking sacking, praises for the youthful, the big threes (yes, not counting Liverpool) are finally going strong. The English Premier League has seen its progress to a much more competitive game, especially after the rise in the number of foreign takeovers following Roman Abrambovich’s Chelsea move.

Manchester United is my club and I’ll focus my attention on their progress so far.

1-0 wins were the Arsenal games. Yes, a win is a win, but after spending more than $50 million pound, the return on investment seems a little stingy, not just to the board, but surely to the fans. But ultimately, the words are with Sir Alex, and his words did turn into reality. The breakthrough against Wigan marks the end to any impatience that now must have grown within the dressing room. It’s one thing to break a record, but a record is meant to be broken, but its another thing to instill confidence and stability inside and outside of the club. Fans should no longer sweat over misplaced shots, thinking it may just be the last. With the combination that Tevez and Rooney demonstrated in the last game against Middlesbrough, much should be anticipated for the rest of the EPL and CL season.

To be perfectly honest, Tevez’s first goal, as assisted by Rooney should genuinely mark the beginning of a new era, a new era that may be seen through by a different manager. The previous years of preparation and rebuilding has finally paid off. The crossings, shots, tackles, headings conjured and ultimately reaches the goal net. This will be a season for multiple trophies. Yes, we are out of League Cup. But we also gained weeks of rest for a trophy that brings more harm than benefits for a Champions League bound team (as Arsene Wenger had mentioned).

I’m not foreseeing an unbeaten season, as hiccups does occur, and shocks are definitely possible as a team gets bigger. And we do too have challengers for the trophy, such are the well-manned teams like Chelsea and Arsenal. Chelsea has definitely regained its momentum after being virtually crippled by the lost of the ‘Special One’, but with hindsight, he might have, to a certain extend restricted the team’s creativity. Creativity are everything the super stars got and it has been put to good use under the management of former Israel manager Avarm Grant. 6-0 beating of Man City is no joke, considering Man City’s form this season under former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson. On the other hand, consistency is still seen at the Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal FC. Currently on top of the league with one game in hand, the young gunners are doing a good job following up to Thierry Henry and co.’s footstep. Notable players includes Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie.

This season, like I’ve said, is going to be an open run for everyone, even West Ham has the potential to challenge for a spot for Champions League football (at least I think they should). But undeniably, the character that had seen the Dream Team through so much, will get them to the trophy stand of both EPL and Champions League at the end of the 2007-2008 season come May next year.

(via: Kai’s Photostream)

Highlights: Definitely Brown County Park. I’d been dying to visit the state park since the first leaves turned yellow/orange. Heard it was a pretty good Halloween party down at the Great Wall.
Movie? Transformer x4, yes, its the guys from Cybertron once again. Fourth time around, the slow motions and the seemingly unnecessary head shots seems redundant.
Bible Study/Fellowship: Finished up Hebrews, rattled a lot more discussion about Jesus’s humanity, the importance of his death and the temptations that he have had. Again, ant’s story helps me understand a big chunk of it. Going to Edinburgh is a form of fellowship, right?
Food Watch: Yuanyuan’s cooking after a long day at the church/park, beats Chow Bar and Lucky Express combined.

(via Kai’s Photostream)

Everyday, hundreds if not thousands of student walks by this building designed by I.M Pei (who also happen to designed the Louvre Pyramid in Paris), and the red sculpture that decorates it, but rarely does anyone enters the building.

Here’s the thing: entrance fee = $0 (FREE).
So please drop by sometimes.

Something cool about this building: the structure is unique in that no walls come together to form a 90 degree angle.

Today is day #1 for the Bloomington Daily Photos series as a replicate of the Seattle Daily Photos

Watching people dressing up is fun.

New shots uploaded! (more)

45 minutes of quantitative.
I do need a lot more practice, even if the answers were supposedly vague.

One process leads to another, one choice leads to another, every action leads to similar or equal reaction.
We are free to make choice, but we must also bear its consequence whether it correlates with our prediction or not.

Your way, or God’ way?

Trying so hard but you can’t succeed. (more photos)

One of those days where nothing you did was fulfilling. Falling asleep in classes, no energy to work on homework, again needing more sleep back at home. Facing the GRE giant, Precise on Thursday and Flash on Friday, I should have been more pumped/active(?)

I think I need to read more from the Word to distill my mind off work and preoccupied mentalities. I’m kind of confused about where I’m currently standing with quite as much uncertainties or implications for the future. In terms of ministry, I’m not really standing at a favorable position in terms of spiritual maturity. I just heard Pastor Judah preached on discipleship, and looking around, I’ve either been shying away or have been feeling lackluster about my knowledge bank to start discipling anyone. In terms of school, grades are fine but GRE is quite distant for me, even after investing $50 odd dollars into study guides. In term of personal life, I’m either getting old and prefer to retreat back to home, or I’ve lost the old charm with socializing. I feel rusty at times, and I don’t like to feel rusty.

Sitting here, there just seems to be quite a load on my mind and yet I’m not absolutely sure what they are.
But thinking about it, it’s actually quite simple, if I can just be obedient.
I probably just need to go back to basic, go back to God.

One of my favorite songs from Coldplay – Fix You has really awesome lyrics with hope and all.

When you try your best, but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse?

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worst?

Lights will guide you home,
And ignite your bones,
And I will try to fix you,

Follow the light.

Running child. (for more)

Highlights: Probably about eating again? Hot-pot on Saturday was kind of necessary for a calmer weekend. It was really fun hanging out with the Timothians and making dumb jokes, everyone let loose and was really relaxing. I’m making slideshows of the series of photos we’ve taken on the day.

Movie? 疯狂的石头. Crazy Chinese comedy shows that Chinese can make awesome movies too. Laughed the heck out of Yuanyuan and I.

Bible Study: Hebrews 2:5-13. I enjoy the study where we learn why Jesus became Man, verses His deity in Hebrews 1. Many stories in this study, including the one that Yuanyuan shared with me, the story of ants. Even if you shout at them not to go a certain direction, to protect them, they are will still tend to move to that direction, unless you talk to them in ant-language. Same thing with God and His reason for coming down as 100% man.

Music: Yuanyuan played for Camerata with Mark Kaplan’s violin solo. Classical music did its usual thing on me, but the food at the reception was excellent. Bloomington South High School is a heck of a rich school. It’s indoor stadium is on the second floor!

Food Watch: As the temperature drops, its the coming of the hot-pot season! Be prepared!

P/S: Too busy last week to summarize Su’s visit. It’s generally, food, and food, photography, a little shopping and food. Quite abit of driving too. But it was fun-filled.

For more – please visit my photostream.

GRE should be around the corner in order for me to get things in by the December 1st deadline. I’d just started studying and buying books.
But nonetheless, I will not be intimidated!

Definitely leaving Chelsea – Didier Drogba

Caption of the picture under the headline on Soccernet.com – Didier Drogba: Something is broken with Chelsea. He is quoted saying

‘I want to leave Chelsea. Something is broken with the club. The damage has been big in the dressing room because we know now what happened and who caused Mourinho’s departure. Nothing can stop me from leaving now.’

Yeap, there you have it. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to many, especially after the sacking (yes, by mutual consent) of Jose Mourihno back in September. And the seemingly effect it had on Chelseas games.
Effects of his departure? Well, Mr. Didier Drogba scored a combine 33 goals last season for Chelsea FC, both domestically and continentally, 20 of them in the English Premier League. Now Chelsea scored a combined 64 goals in the league last season (06/07), and Drogba contributed 1/3 of that number. And if you have even seen the replays/highlights of his goals, commentators always label his goals as ‘powerful’, ‘mighty’ and such. A £24million signing from Marseille back in 2004, his value probably has grown or even doubled since then.

Being a Manchester United fan, I’m definitely not a Chelsea supporter in whatever realm or scenario, but I do recognize good player, and Didier is definitely one (even though cheating is sometimes on the plate). Losing him on top of Mourihno (and the addition of Grant, the current Chelsea manager) might just seal the Chelsea’s EPL 07-08 fate.

No, I don’t think the comeback (if there is one) of Ballack or Shevchenko is going to do much (or possible even). Maybe, just maybe Salomon Kalou can be the replacement? But I’d thought Chelsea should have more, with so much invested. I guess not.

Studying with a ‘visual aid’ – more.

Exam #2 week hasn’t been all that jolly after I decide to have a study-free weekend. Nonetheless, it was a good weekend. Thanks Su, for riding the 8-hour long Greyhound down to visit. And it has been a good week so far, especially with the last paper done, and I manage to keep my job! On top of that, D40 on Monday – superb addition (which ranks highest in digital SLR cameras satisfaction, got it from Nikonation’s writeup).

I’ve been snapping away on my D40, irritating my roomates, Yuanyuan and Pipi (and maybe Spot, which I forced The Thing to ride on). I’m sorry guys/girls, but I just can’t resist the urge to try the camera out. With the weather starting to tune down and trees turning color, it might just be about the time to go back to the Brown County Park to have a photo shoot or something.

Ah, baby.

I loved the first shots coming off it. (more coming your way)
So I finally got my hand on the Nikon D40, 3 days after I clicked “Proceed to Checkout” on Amazon.com last Thursday.
It has been working great.
I don’t really like to use flash in my photographs, I’m really enjoying the “non-flash” feature that it provides.

There is a lot more to be explored. But for now, I am really loving it (just need a bag to go along with it and protect it).

9 days ago, I turned 22.
And although I thought my birthday will commence after a duck feast and celebrating Kevin’s birthday (and finally winning Uta in Mario Party 8), Yuanyuan and co, prepared a surprise party.

It was a pleasant surprise at 11pm with fruit plate and all that.

Cake: $9.99
Marshmallows, which Joy heated over the electric stove: $3.99
Good ol’ surprise filled with love: priceless

(Yes, I know it sounds cheesy as hell, but I have to do it)

Thanks a bunch to all that has taken part, and especially Yuanyuan for planning the surprise even though she just got done with concert at Columbus.

Moon in mid-day. (more)

Sitting aloft the control ‘room’ above the ECC congregation, with worship music playing. All the ushers serving God, all the musicians serving God, all the pastors and other technicians serving God.

What is true love for God?
In the bible, Jesus himself asked Peter three times, “do you love me?”

It’s not an answer you can come up with your mind, its a statement that can only be declared with your heart. You can do all kind of things in the world that is deemed necessary in the bible, but it takes sufficiency to answer this question.

Reading the bible, praying, thying, serving is all part of the deal, but checking them off the box daily doesn’t always mean love. There’s more.

What will you say if today God asks you, “Do you love me?”

So its been awhile that we had such a comprehensive study on the word, even when I didn’t stay for the entire session.

Hebrews is a book on the deity of Jesus and of faith and encouragement to the Jews. We went through the first four verses in the second chapter, and here’s the gist of it that I’d gotten out of.

1. Jesus is the “express image” (Greek: charaktar) of God, meaning: exactly the same – He is God. While we only reflect part of God (Genesis 1:26). This is an important concept to grasp hold of to understand the significance that Jesus is God and His death on the cross meant everything in the world.

2. The meaning of “attention” (Greek: prosechō) has a more in-depth meaning. It’s not just as simple as sitting in classroom and paying attention to your professor by taking notes and all. It’s literally attaching yourself to the word, the gospel, the truth. Be more aware, read more about it, meditate over it, mixing it with faith, regulating your life around it (commentary from Matthew Henry).

3. This is my last point and one I think all Christians should hear and be aware of – drifting away (Greek: pararreō). Here’s why:
- drifting away is a gradual process
- we have to be away of not drifting away so as not to slip away. That’s just our nature, to go with the flow of the environment, to forget to work hard.
- 不要让我们的信仰随波逐流。

As we go deeper in the words, we learn more weaknesses in our daily livings, more things we need to learn and work on to be more like Christ.
Thanks Jason and Daniel and Timothy, awesome study last night (even though it was a good ol’ chi-glish version)

Suhendra from Suhendra.

I hope its a fun-filled weekend with lots of photos, and food.

Yuanyuan, Daniel, Shawn, Auston, Megan… I did it! I finally did it! I never thought I was going to actually do it, lest doing it during shift!

I (actually it was Megan who pushed me) clicked the biggest 3-word I have ever clicked in my life (I feel, at that moment) “Proceed to Checkout“.

Comparing to someone’s retail therapy, mine is like nothing. But still, its the biggest online purchase I’ve ever made (apart from the collective airplane ticket).

It’s said to be arriving on the 15th, that’s Monday if not Tuesday (skipping Sunday) – now I can take pictures while reading a book. Woohoo.

Yes, I know, Oprah’s Book Club. BUT, its Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Just can’t mash no Cameleons and poker.

Mashable is a site that’s dedicated to news of Web 2.0 involving topics related to social networks (which has crazily sprung up from everywhere). Below are some of the applicable links that I would like to mash around with.

Food.tv – Learning to cook? Preparing a candle-light dinner? Learn it all from here, not just words, not just pictures, but with video. Things couldn’t (and shouldn’t) get any easier.

30+ HTML Tools and Tutorials – Still struggling to get your web page to stop looking like a 1997 starter page? Here you go.

Ask Poodle - Asking a local community for service that they specialize in. This is really cool.

Google now holds a market capital of around $188 billion and shares at $600 a piece. So what can Google buy at that price? Find out.