actually met joe chung on monday at target... that was a surprise.

cupertino library's pretty nice... best thing is probably the huge aquarium they have downstairs. at first i thought they didn't have microsoft office on their cpus like saratoga, but i was wrong.

btw, i think heat's gonna win over lakers... or at least i'm hoping it turns out that way.

i need to mail packages more often; i have no experience doing this stuff; next time i try to mail phil a gift, i need to actually WRAP the gift before going to the post office; i thought they would wrap it at the post office... boy was i wrong... but since i already accidently paid for the postage, and had the guy slap it on before i could say anything, it would've been a waste of 5+ dollars to go back home, wrap it, then come back... it's PRETTY obvious what i'm giving to phil...

----------------------------

there's nothing we can do to earn god's grace... there is everything we can do in a lifetime to show our thanks for it

but then, what is prayer then? it's not "earning god's grace," yet we know that prayer can change lives... so i've gotten weird thoughts about this... yes, the whole point of it is to talk with god, and yet...

what about the issue of selfISH prayer? i know god favors the selfLESS prayer when it comes to others, but what about the selfISH prayer? yet, i've known that he's granted these before, so you can only hope.

but no matter what selfish reason you approach god for a request, there's at least 2 things you're doing right for in this case; 1) you acknowledge that he alone has the power to change things (and your life), and 2) you acknowledge that he alone has the mercy to want to change things to help you. i like to think about hezekiah who was granted 15 extra years to his life, or the leper who approached jesus and said, "jesus, if you are willing, you can make me clean."

and where is the line of FAITH and OVER-CONFIDENCE? where's that lie? james states that when we ask for something from god, we must believe, or it's highly unlikely that we won't get anything. but how do i judge between what is true faith, what is being insecure(as opposed to knowing i have to pray more), and between that and what is overconfident?

then there's the matter of abraham and issac; in this example, we see that abraham desperately held onto the faith that issac would be saved, but ultimately trusted in god more to say, "ok, i'll obey you." however, i don't think all of us when we trust in god, will get our "issac" back, per see.

jesus himself in times of anguish stated that what he should've said was not "father, save me," but "father, glorify your name" of course, what all of us want to say is, "father, save me, SO THAT you can glorify your name." i don't think that'll work that way though.

which makes me all the more perplexed, afraid, and hoping that god will take care of my future, and HOPEFULLY, my plans match his. *deep sigh of distress."

i guess even though i know almost no one reads my blog, i'm still afraid to post my greatest sins on here.

wow, how did miami pull off that amazing comeback vs the patriots? i've never seen tom brady screw up that badly before monday's game, and suddenly, he's got more than 2 INT's in one night! he's overall, the most solid qb... his numbers from up-close to all the way out are very consistent... actually, new england's probably overall the most solid team all-around, and yet, miami refused to die... they made a game of it... unlike the niners... :(

i wonder if pacers had artest and j.o. and stephen, would pistons vs pacers then have been on abc this xmas day? (probably not sez a large part of my brain; no definite superstar for the casual bball fan to bandwagon on = abc's not gonna show it) i really want to watch this over miami vs la... both teams are built correctly from the ground up and play team ball and defense... although part of me says the game's in detroit's favor with a 7-3 chance... no o'neal, no artest, no stephen? oh sure, the crowd'll boo them all they want, and pacers have shown great heart despite them being out, but facts are facts; detroit, if they play well and don't do anything stupid, they got the game in the bag. detroit has had a habit of coming out weak in the 1st half almost every game this season though, so i think that seems to be their crux...

i would think, that for pistons to surpass the team that they used to be last season, darko needs to become better than okur, and delfino and coleman better than williamson... otherwise... they apparently gave up too much depth in the offseason.

i'd post more, but i promised i'd spend more time w/god each day starting after fall quarter ended, so i gotta read some before i hit bed