hmm, where to start? oh yeah, as you notice my constant attempts at spirituality, my greatest thing i noticed today is that as you begin to exercise spiritual discipline, you really just how out of touch the mass media is with any reality. they just aim at the outside of yourself and convince yourself that happiness through material wealth is everything(to generalize things). which is obviously not true. however, i won't go about denouncing them repeatedly, because i also read a book beforehand which showed that jesus himself wasn't a political activist in his day; he lived by example, not by words. his deeds were the biggest showing of his morals. and that's what i aim to do; i hope all christians realize this too; dislike the mass media, but live the life, don't preach it.

on a lighter note: yeah, being a christian typically means you pray before a meal. however, i consider that dinner doesn't start until you are about to chow down on the main course. so i don't pray til i get my prime rib, or what not. whereas some of my other friends thought that dinner begins when you dig into the salad, soup, appetizer, whatever you get first. (btw why do they call it an appetizer? it doesn't clear any room in your stomach, and actually fills you so that you can't eat as much, since your stomach gets to work earlier; oh well. also funny noticing how one of the appetizers at chicago pizza had curry in it; i thought pizza was italian).

i found a pic of Leo the ninja turtle meditating(from an SNES game), tite; i'm gonna cut and paste it into my website.

new song that i like: East West, "She Cries"

i'll make today's thought quick, since the library's closing; heck, i think i see the lights starting to dim, no wait, you, don't turn off my computer you-

*silence*

ok, so basically, where was i? yeah, quick thought: it's not how much money you have, but how you view that money that determines your happiness. we all know that too much money leads to love for it(usually), but it's been noticed that those w/o money tend to be the ones who covet it the most. in fact, all that Jesus wanted you to do was seek him first, then everything falls into place. oh yeah, the rich farmer in Luke who decided to tear down his barns and build bigger ones due to a bountiful harvest? we would have called that prudence these days in business, but jesus saw past that, knowing it was hoarding and called him a fool.

little reminisce: i remember reading examples of college entrance essays that sucked, and one of them started off like "i like myself, i really do." okiedokie.

segment of yesterday's AIM dialogue w/bringbring:

wisebone: aaaaaahhhh?
reacharred: aaaahhhhhh!
wisebone: chinese is only offered in saratoga and sj
wisebone: a great CONGRATULATIONS!

haha

here's my thought of the day:
while most of us christians would be willing to die for our own faith, another thought to put is, would i be willing to die for someone else's faith? i know most of you have probably heard of the situations where someone is point-blank at gunpoint and asked if they believe in god, and they said yes and died for it. but would you be willing to take a bullet for someone else? i remember one of my friends last friday stating that he'd take a bullet for anyone in our church, and that got me thinking; i would be willing(though hesitant at first) to die for my faith, but would i be willing to die for others? that's christlike thinking for you. cause he died for us. (there is of course a difference between this and the suicide radical Islamic bombers; violence in the costume of religion is nothing but evil).

i know God answers prayers; he did for me once(in a sort of miraculous way); i'll put down the story later.

sometimes i have trouble doing what's right. but then i go and do it, what's my motivation? there's this new testament verse that goes something like if you fear and love the Lord, you'd follow his commands. so i think to myself; i'm not doing this for (insert person here), i'm doing this for God.

3 reasons for God not being more painfully obvious(many people think that by doing so people would line up to believe him):
-God already did that; read Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy to see a time when God WAS painfully obvious and yet the people didn't believe him
-God predicted that once he gave Israelites the land of Canaan that they would eat their fill then forget God(hence getting everything doesn't always lead to a more spiritual life)
-2 words: Jesus came

why do christians need a church?

here's my take:
the way i see it, church helps give basically 3 things to christians: bible study, worship, and accountability. now, bible study can(with some difficulty) be done solo; i've done it before(w/God looking over my shoulder); not necessarily something to brag about, but yes, it can be done with motivation. worship can also be done by oneself; i was a worship leader and love my fender strat, so yes, it can be done solo. the 3rd factor is the real reason why we need a church and what you can't do by itself; accountability, or other christians to help look out for you. unless if you are moses who had God speak to him face to face, being humans we find it hard to become (for lack of words) a better Christian unless if others help us. that's why we need a church; not for the spiritual food itself, but for the encouragement to take the food. so if your church aims too much at worship or a great speaker but not at building friendships to keep one another accountable(which i hope isn't the case with the churches nearby uc davis, ucla, uc berkeley and uc riverside), go look for another church. btw, it doesn't mean that worship and bible study don't matter(a church w/o these 2 things in place is a cult), but that i believe that fellowship matters the most.

sidenote: i really can't believe how much my youth group thinks of me; it's really encouragement to keep up my walk with God. one guy told me to keep up my closeness w/god since he stated that he's admired it more than i can imagine. another person stated how she admired me because i ignore what others do and just do what i want. (so God, if you're reading this, which i'm pretty sure you are, please help me to keep leaning on you, to do your will, follow your commands and never to forget you)

*sigh* i'm out

This is my 1st post on this site. I feel that it's better to post here than to continuously update my site w/my thoughts, since I will have to load up my webpage w/word 2K, retype, save, then log on to angelfire.com, log in, load the page, etc. one heck of a job(actually, it's probably more simple than I put it).

That said, here's my arcade gaming thought of the day: yes, some fighting games, the characters are going to be more balanced than other games, and there's basically no cheesy tactic(currently VF4). However, you can't say that these games are 100% balanced even in that case; certain characters will simply be able to do more damage in more circumstances than others or have better strikes or throws for situations. this is why we have tiers. yes, skill plays a bigger role, which is why chibita dominates with his lion. but not to get sidetracked, top tier characters have more and better options available against others and tend to be more successful with winning because of those options.

I've currently gotten better with songwriting w/my electric guitar; i can now rap(to a limited degree) while playing power chords. this opens new avenues to what i think i can come up with by myself. *thinks of remixed worship songs* ;D

biblical food for thought: if the Israelites had driven out ALL(and i stress ALL) the Canaanites, would that have guarenteed that they would not fall to idolatry? and your side course to that: what would happen if Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of life, or if only ONE of them ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

why do laptops not have joystick ports? do those guys not think that gamers actually buy laptops? what am i gonna do w/my 4-button 2-speed rapid fire ps-style gamepad?

that's it; i'm out