Records

I did as much as I could before checking all the code in and left my laptop with my manager so he can get it fixed. It's a dual core but somehow Windows only recognizes one core. It should be all good when I come back in two weeks.

Went to Fry's and got me a few 8mm tapes, using the gift card I won last Saturday at Dallas Tech Fest. I thought there were 8mm to VHS adapter but apparently I got confused between 8mm and VHS-C.

Thuy's graduation is tomorrow morning at TCU. Then there are at least three election watch parties in the evening but I won't make it since Thuy's having a graduation party in the evening as well.

This Sunday is Mother's Day. Will celebrate at church after the service then I'll head to the airport and fly out to Frankfurt to see my uncle and his family before heading to Tel Aviv. I'll be in Israel the evening of May 13th. I'll spend the day roaming the city and see how the Israelis celebrate their 60th anniversary of the establishment of the modern state of Israel on Wednesday, May 14th before meeting up with the Precept group for a two-week Biblical tour.

Will be back on the 26th. If I get access to the internet and not too tired, will try to post something between now and then.

Here is a great article on who is Becky Miller. Don't forget to get out and vote. In Vietnamese we have a saying, for every time you get caught, there would have been ten times you didn't.

Spent the day attending Dallas Tech Fest. Learning a few new things, among them the Microsoft Robotics Studios. Getting a little more familiar with things like REST, Groovy, and Spring. At the end of the day, I won a $50 Fry's gift card. I rarely ever won anything at these drawings. However, that was different today. The top prize was a Mac mini with 120GB hard drive together with a copy of Microsoft Vista. This fest was sponsored by two notable sponsors, Sun Microsystems and Microsoft, who are now partners rather then competitors, and a few other sponsors. I overslept a little bit and missed the first morning section on Google Android this morning.

Work has been crazy. We are growing so we hired three new developers, two Java and one Axapta. Then two senior developers left to pursue other opportunities. So we backfilled those two positions. We have five new developers who aren't exactly well versed in our system. And I am taking off for Israel in two weeks so ....

The municipal elections are in full swing all around. Tim O'Hare running for mayor of Farmers Branch, Ron Branson for mayor of Carrollton, Sue Richardson for Irving city council.

I am learning so much in my Precept class as we go through the book of Daniel in detail. You should check out to see if there's a Precept class in your area and join it.

We got to hear from State Representative Linda Harper-Brown tonight at the Dallas County Young Republicans monthly meeting tonight. She's obviously a conservative legislator, passionate to serve the people of this great state. She's one of those doing her best in whatever position she's been elected to and not just use it as a stepping stone to that next higher and bigger office. She will give you an honest answer to every question asked. A great listener, willing to work hard, doing her due diligence to read and research every bill before she votes on it.

Finally got my taxes done. 2007 was a very blessed year. My AGI crossed into the six figure territory. I hit the Social Security tax ceiling, however was able to avoid the AMT. According to Turbo Tax data, my charitable giving was more than twice that of the national average of people in my income bracket and I am very proud of that.

All in all it has been good this weekend. Friday, our company's entire IT department moved to the new office location in Richardson. We moved into the facility of a company we bought last year. All they had there is a NOC and a support call center. The cube at the new place is bigger, with more open space, half wall and a lot of clear glass. Will see how the noise is on Monday, when everyone will be there.

Saturday, spent most of the day in class for my real estate license. I want to be a broker, so I don't have to pay anyone when I start buying and selling real estate investments.

Started doing my taxes on Saturday night, almost finish except I realized I need the information on the disk in my desktop computer that crashed about a month ago for capital gain and loss.

Today after church I went to Ron Branson's meet and greet. Ron will be challenging the incumbent mayor in the upcoming May 10th municipal election. Hope we'll get her out of there because she's done nothing good in office but plenty of things to annoy, irritate the good people of Carrollton all around.

Afterward I headed over to Micro Center to grab me 3MB of memory for my Mac mini, and a couple of NAS so I can read the data of the disks. I had two disks in my desktop running Windows XP x64, one old IDE and an SATA, with certain critical data mirrored from one disk to the other. The problem is that the entire box crashed and I need information on long term capital gain and loss to do my taxes. So here I am going with a new strategy, Mac and NAS. I wanted the D-Link DNS-323 for my 500GB SATA disk and the Eagle Consus T-Series ET-CSTNASU2-BK for my 120GB IDE disk. It showed quantity of one in stock but neither I nor the guy who worked there could find the D-Link so I settled with a Vantec eSATA/FireWire/USB2.0 external enclosure instead.

Got home, tried the Eagle Consus, couldn't get it to work. I can assign an IP address to it but can't write anything to it to configure the SAMBA server or the FTP server. Tried to use the USB connection instead but my Mac mini couldn't recognize it and my Windows XP laptop recognized an "IDE to USB" mass storage device being plugged in but couldn't access it. So, do not buy the EagleTec T-Series if you are looking for network storage. The VanTec works perfect with my Mac mini, plugged it in with the FireWire cable, powered on and whoa la, it's right on my Mac mini desktop. I pulled the file I need, and now I need to go finish up my income tax return. Finally opened up my Mac mini again, stick the two new sticks of memory in and whoa la, I have 3GB of memory in my Mac mini. A very happy camper I am indeed.

Lost my blackberry on Sunday when I went to buy weed block fabric from Lowe's in Arlington for our church's volleyball court. So went and got me the Blackberry 8820, the latest BB without a camera offered by AT&T.

Got the 3Gb of PC5300 667MHz but it seems I cannot get it recognized when inserted into my Mac mini. No beep, no error message, just cannot see anything on screen. Will have to figure out why, probably because no PRAM "zapping" since I don't have an Apple keyboard and the video memory is shared with main memory.

I went out and got me a Mac mini to use until I can fix my Windows XP 64 desktop. I enjoyed getting used to this Mac. It runs pretty well consider only on 1Gb of memory.

I was out walking for Randy today and there was this lady, who opened the door after I rung her door bell and just started spilling all the expletives at me. I guess she must have been sleeping. Anyway, I apologized, got the door shut in my face, and moved on to the next house. She came back out, started yelling at me and asked if I have a solicitor's permit. I said no, what I am doing is protected political speech. She threatened to call the police. I again patiently explained to her that I wasn't selling anything and that it's protected political speech, my first amendment right. It's just crazy!

My desktop went dead. I woke up one morning, sat down in front of the computer, moved the mouse, clicked on something but nothing happened. I tried rebooted the machine, that didn't help. Now Windows XP 64 just kept rebooting by itself. Sometimes things are all mangled up on screen. I think my video card just went bad. Will find sometimes to get a new one and put in to see what happen. Until then, my computer use at home will be limited to necessity, not so much surfing on this tiny little laptop screen as I would have on my 24" flat screen LCD monitor. Granted I could hooked up the laptop to the monitor but I am too lazy. Plus, I still need to help Randy with the runoff so no surfing equals more time to help with the race until April 8th. And I am serving in Senatorial District 8 nominations committee so that takes some times too.

Caught the tail end of oral argument in the case of Dick Anthony Heller vs. District of Columbia.

Here is the gist of the D.C. ban:

First, D.C. Code § 7-2502.01(a) generally makes it unlawful for any person to possess an unregistered firearm within the District.

Second, D.C. Code § 7-2502.02(a)(4), which was enacted by the D.C. City Council in 1976, generally bars the registration of any “[p]istol,” which is defined as “any firearm originally designed to be fired by use of a single hand.”

Third, D.C. Code § 22-4504 prohibits carrying a pistol without a license.

Fourth, D.C. Code § 7-2507.02 requires that all lawfully owned firearms—both pistols and long guns—must be kept “unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock or similar device unless [the] firearm is kept at [the registrant’s]
place of business.”

Number 1 & 2 basically bans ownership of hand gun.

Number 3 limits to security & law enforcement personnels only.

Number 4 is the most grievous of all. What used is it if you are under tremendous distress, imminently fear for your life and limbs, and for the life of you cannot remove the trigger log, or for heaven's sake, be able to assemble and load your gun in the dark.

What's interesting is the argument by the proponent of the ban, now they want to leave it in the hand of the legislature(s) instead of the court(s) to make law. It's also interesting to note what the chief counsel for the District of Columbia had to say: "the law is reasonable regardless of constitutional right." Now that's scary! What happens to the protection of minority? Is this now mob rule? The majority can pass whatever reasonable legislation without regard to the minority? Remember the words of Benjamin Franklin said, we are given a constitutional republic if we can keep it.

What puzzled me is the fact that the counsels for Dick Heller kept stressing the fact that the right to keep handgun at home. Heck, I have a constitutional right to self defense, subject to reasonable regulation such as federal building, secure area at the airports, ..., places where I can be sure no one has gun. If I go down to Oak Cliff, you betcha I want my concealed carry piece on my person because there is no cop to cordon off the entire area around me at all times to make sure no one else has a gun either. And for small guy like me, a six foot five three hundred pounds guy can do me serious harm even without a gun so I still need some means of self defense that is immediately available to me unless I have a bodyguard with me at all times.

Sure, if you ask all the cops, every one of them would agree that if nobody else has a gun, their job would be so much safer. But reality is that you cannot prove a negative, ie. it is not possible to guarantee that no one else possesses a gun. Do the criminals care to obey the ban, you betcha not.

Congress already has put plenty of law in the book, let's strictly enforce those:

The most frequently applied provision generally prohibits the possession of firearms by any person “who has been convicted in any court of[] a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.” 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1).

: this is already ridiculous, what if it's non-violent crime, like tax evasion?

Section 922(g) also generally prohibits the possession of firearms by fugitives from justice; unlawful users of controlled substances; persons who have been adjudicated as mental defectives or committed to mental institutions; aliens illegally present within the United States; persons dishonorably discharged from
the armed forces; persons who have renounced their United States citizenship; persons subject to restraining orders that include a finding that the individual is a credible threat to the physical safety of an intimate partner or child; and persons convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence (unless such convictions
have been expunged, etc.). 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(2)-(9).

In addition, Congress has prohibited the private possession of firearms at particular locations. See, e.g., 18 U.S.C. 930 (2000 & Supp. V 2005) (federal government facilities); 40 U.S.C. 5104(e)(1)(A) (Supp. IV 2004) (Capitol Grounds and Capitol Buildings); 49 U.S.C. 46505(b)(1) (“concealed dangerous weapon” “when on, or attempting to get on, an aircraft”).

ISI put together an event for supporters in the Dallas area Thursday night. We heard from general Josiah Bunting III, who served as superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute during the time when the US Supreme Court ruling came down forcing VMI to accept women. He talked about what a classic liberal arts education should be, so different from what we see now in America's colleges and universities. He talked about negative learning at the Ivy League schools such as Yale, Princeton, .... Problems with the board of trustees being overwhelmed with liberal professors who have many Ph.D. degrees and not standing up to them when they try to impose their views on their students instead of teaching the students to critically think for themselves. But that problem is starting to be addressed, thank God!

Spent most of Saturday and Sunday afternoons walking and knocking on doors for Randy Dunning, who is in the Republican Primary Runoff election on April 8th, early voting begins March 31st.

I was in Austin Friday afternoon and Saturday morning for the Republican Party of Texas quarterly SREC meeting. Then went on to Gunsmoke in Columbus, Texas for the ATF day, hosted by the Austin YRs. I personally don't smoke or drink but do shoot and I celebrate everyone's right to do so. Government should have no business telling us how to live our lives. I think I am falling in love with the Marlin Model 1894 Cowboy lever action and will have to buy me one that shoots .357 Magnum / .38 Special. We camped out last night and had Cowboy church on site this morning. It was so much fun.

I along with five other guys helped my friend Kelly moved her piano this morning. Then I went home for lunch and then picked up the election judge supply. Afterward walked a precinct for Randy Dunning before heading home to clean up and got ready for the Dallas GOP Lincoln Day dinner tonight.

It's scary during the discussion tonight I discovered that a candidate for National Committeewoman for Texas, telling me that my right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are given to me by the US military and US government. I was like, NO, I was endowed by my Creator, the US military and US government secure, preserve and protect those rights. Nobody gives me those rights but my Creator. The constitutional republic form of government and our brave men and women in uniforms and patriots through the ages have shed blood and laid down their lives to make sure evil men like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro and the likes do not infringe on my rights. She must not have read the US Declaration of Independence, the part that read as follow: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, ...."

Talking about government, Carrollton mayor Becky Miller hates my guts, even comment I posted on an article in the local newspaper got removed but thank God for the internet, here is a cached version.

I've been practicing my guitar pretty consistent, ten minutes a day, not skipping any day, even if it means from 2:30 to 2:40 am before I hit the sack. Proud of myself!

It's been a while since I last posted. It's unlike me but the primary comes at me fast. Before I know it, I need to pick up the election materials this Saturday, then Monday go to the polling location to make sure everything I need for Tuesday is there. Between now and then, a lot of phone banking. I am turning everyone I know out for Mike Huckabee, Robert Francis, Randy Dunning, and Bill Fay.

On top of that, work has been extremely busy. We were already growing and in need of more software engineers, then two senior developers left, so the problem compounded. My boss is interviewing and hiring as fast as he can. Can't seem to get enough resume of experienced folks, even with all the recruiting firms. It's just crazy but it's a good problem to have compare to what I was facing at Nortel over the seven years I was with them.

And I have been reading as much as I can all the recommended reading materials and watching all the recommended videos before my trip to Israel this May. I cannot stop being amazed at all the miracles God has done with with his chosen people, especially the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the nation of Israel, the UN vote on November 29th, 1947, and then declaration on May 14, 1948; and the six day war in 1967, Yom Kippur war in 1973.

Finished my first half marathon on Saturday. I was aiming for 2:20:00 but just past the 11th mile marker, I had a massive cramp in both calves and so had to limp all the way to the finish line. Every time I tried to run again after that, the cramp would kick in immediately. It's embarrassing and maddening when runners one after another just past you and even at the finish line, where all the cameras trained on you and for the life of me I couldn't even pick up the pace to finish. Being a political animal that I am, I noticed Charlie Geren yard signs were all along the marathon route, and thought what a smart politician. Talking of politician, presidential candidate Alan Keyes came to the Dallas YRs happy hour yesterday. I told his people he should concentrate on running and getting elected governor first.

Had a great time at the TYRF quarterly board meeting in College Station. Heard from great speakers: Dr. Dave McIntyre, Director of Texas A&M University's Integrative Center for Homeland Security, and Justice Felipe Reyna of the 10th Court of Appeals.

It looks like the establishment won out today in Virginia. But this is a state that elected a Democrat governor in 2004, and where George Allen lost in 2006. Maryland and DC are hopeless. I have been preparing for the Texas primary, mostly volunteering for Randy Dunning, but will now put in some additional time for Mike Huckabee as well. I believe Mike will carry the Lone Star state, despite the governor, and both senators going for McCain.

It must be very painful for Ann Romney right now, and if you listened to Mitt tonight, you know she's ready to call it quit. But he's going to carry on, even to the convention, though I hope that will not be the case. He does not need to spend all the money for a lost cause.

It's great day today for Mike Huckabee, starting with West Virginia in the afternoon, and Arkansas as expected. The numbers were slipping the last few days but it looks like the enthusiasm among his supporters in Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, and Tennessee will carry it through. I am glad to hear that there was no direct contact between Huckabee and McCain when Mike was asked about a back room deal with McCain in West Virginia. That way Huckabee is free to choose his running mate and not having to make deal with anyone. The only sad thing is that it does not look like there will be reconciliation between governor Romney and governor Huckabee. Mike Huckabee will need to find a running mate from the north to balance the ticket, I don't know who it would be right now. Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steel was mentioned by some but I am not sure since he lost the senate rate there in 2006 by 10%. But then 2006 was a bad year for Republican overall and the loss was less than 200,000 votes.

For McCain, his anger and profanity, his adultery and divorce, his actions while he was at Hanoi Hilton, giving the enemy more than name, serial and rank, and almost turning his back on the GOP, and his trouble among conservatives in his own home state of Arizona, are very troublesome.

I was running on the treadmill at Bally's and watching the Florida primary return without the audio. Here are the visual observations:

Ann Romney, the wear and tear of the campaign has taken a toll on her. I hope Mitt won't work her too hard. I suspect Ann to Mitt is more like Laura to George W. The young lady right behind Mitt on the other side of Ann, my guess is one of his daughters in law, had a look on her face that said: "there's no way I'll ever let my husband talk me into letting him do this."

Cindy McCain, didn't exactly stand behind him but rather front row with him. She's to McCain as Hillary is to Bill. She's so far the best looking potential future first lady. Coming from a family with old money has its benefit, you know how to take care of yourself. Talking about money, McCain was very smart to marry into the Hensley family and its wealth. But he should be ashame of himself for cheating on his first wife Carol Shepp, who stood strong waiting for him and did everything she could to bring him home from Hanoi Hilton only to have him divorced her later because she was disabled from a traffic accident and gained weight. What happen to in sickness and in health, til death do us part? However, to be fair, he was a gentleman with the divorce's settlement. But if you married a millionairess, you can afford to be generous.

Judith Nathan, had the look of a tagged on mistress, no more and no less. A lot of the young ladies I talked to just cringe at the thought of her being first lady. Rudy should have stayed married to Donna Hanover.

Charlie Crist, the governor of Florida came out looking pretty good tonight, like a king maker. I truly believe if it wasn't for him, Romney would have come out on top. On the other hand, Texas governor Rick Perry gambled and lost. It seems to me Rick just can't seem to catch a break, keep making one wrong choice after another.

Mike Huckabee put a smile on my face when he said "not all will be there but I will be there" in reference to the debate tomorrow in California. His declaration of "we are going to play all nine innings of this ball game" just warmed my heart to no ends.

If John McCain gets the Republican nomination, the Democrats will have a field day with this.

Check out this hilarious video clip in which Romney junior had fun at his dad's expense.

I am sad that Congressman Duncan Hunter has ended his presidential campaign. I wish he had run for governor before attempted the presidency. But I am glad to have him back on the hill, limiting the damage the Democrats will be doing there.

On the other hand, I wish Fred Thompson had dropped out of the race right after the New Hampshire race instead of waiting until now. It would have saved him from further humiliation, as well as saved his supporters all the agony going into South Carolina and finished fourth. And who knows, Mike Huckabee could have used the sixty four thousands votes to come in first place in South Carolina.

I think I pulled a muscle in the left inner thigh when I ran last Monday so I have been ever so slightly limping around since. I prayed about everything else but didn't pray for healing for myself. The pain continued unabated until Friday. I started to worry and thinking about going to my doctor for some muscle relaxant. That's when I started to pray and it was dramatically improved the next day. By Sunday, I was no longer limping at all. Praise God for that. I could be back on the treadmill hopefully Friday.

Staying informed, let's read a few campaign finance reports from the candidates running for state representative district 112:

Republican Randy Dunning, note how many small amount contributions by individuals. Talking about regular guy, who shares your hope and dream, citizen legislator as Texas founding fathers wrote into the Texas Constitution.

Republican Angie Chen Button, note the $160,000 she loaned to her campaign, and the giant sum by fat cat donors. Unless you have that kind of money to donate, who do you think will have Angie's ears? Also check the Federal Election Commission for the names of all Democrat candidates Angie has been helping, from Eddie Bernice Johnson to Regina Montoya, ... The information used to be available on the Texas Ethics Commission public access database but not there anymore, think what you like.

Republican Jim Shepherd, note the equal amount of $15,000 pledge contributions from outgoing state representative Fred Hill and state senator John Carona, and Jim Shepherd himself.

Democrat Sandra Vule, note the out of state interest.

Some background for those who are not familiar, Randy was on the Garland city council, which appointed Angie to the DART board.

Look and see to whom the political expenditures are paid, and see who's out there bashing other candidates, and make the correlation yourself.

posted by Karl Ninh : 08:28  0 comments links to this post

Got my little travel study tour guide in the mail today. I am so excited. Will spend two weeks in Israel this coming May. It's a Biblical study tour but I hope to see a lot of 60 year anniversary celebration as well.

Zyrtec will become an OTC drug on January 28, 2008 and will cost less than $25 for 30-day supply, which is good news for a lot of folks who have to depend on it for their allergy.

Making steady progress in training for my Cowtown half marathon. I can keep a running log at LogYourRun.com, and it's intergrated with Facebook.

Hosted the first fund raising dinner at my place tonight for Randy Dunning, who is running for state representative district 112. Charles Lingerfelt catered authentic Texas BBQ.

The Dallas County GOP held an Executive Committee meeting Thursday night to draw lot for the order in which the candidates' names appear on the ballot for the primary election on Tuesday, March 4th. We also had senate district caucuses meeting.

It's time for Fred Thompson to exit before further humiliation.

If I were Mitt Romney, I wouldn't lend my campaign any more money. I wonder if having Bush '41 introduced you at his presidential library, having Karl Rove advising your campaign, having Fox News set up focus group to give your campaign a push, though everyone knows the relationship between you, Bain Capital, and Fox News, poured tons of money into running negative ads against anyone who has better poll numbers than you, ... really helps.

And certainly Ron Paul should start spending some of the money he's collected. I am glad to hear him mentioned transition, ie. terminate government programs in a manner that you don't throw people whose lives totally depend on them, out onto the streets. Now, if he has the same policy regarding foreign policies, it makes his position more palatable.

On the Democrat side, the Clintons had once again proved they are the come back kid. I suspect going down the road, people will vote for the devil they know (Clinton) instead of the devil they don't (Obama).

We had a show of hands and I was outnumbered four to one Democrat to Republican in my small group at work. And after hearing John Edwards spoke tonight, I have two words summarizing the difference between Democrats and Republicans. Republicans believe that government is a necessary evil while Democrats believe that government is a benevolent dictator, ie. the source of all that is good. You never know the day when the benevolent dictator has acquired absolute power and control and you are totally at his whim. You suddenly find another King George III, which your founding fathers pledged their lives, liberty, and sacred honor so they can be free from him.

It was a great win last night by Mike Huckabee in Iowa. I believe that the American people vote with their hearts and not their heads. They do not vote for the smartest guy or gal, they vote for the guy or gal that they can connect with, who understands and shares their hopes and dreams. Negative ads will work if you give them enough time to sink in. Romney hit voters in the head with negative ads. It didn't have time to sink in to their hearts. And it's pathetic when he had to be dishonest about Huckabee's record.

I think I finally nailed down why my gut feelings told me not to support Fred Thompson. It's well known that he's not a church goer. When you want to become the single most powerful person among more than 6 billion people worldwide, and you may not believe in a higher being to whom you have to answer to, whatever you can do without getting caught, you'll do it. That fact makes me uneasy in my guts.

Check out these centenarians, and their interesting quotes. That's one more added motivation for me to work out regularly, eat healthy, so that you can chase women and/or be chased by them when I make it past 100.

I found myself nodding in agreement with Huckabee on C-SPAN when he spoke at a campaign rally in New Hampshire today. People who choose to live an unhealthy lifestyle should pay more for their health insurance than those who choose to eat healthy, work out regularly, and take care of themselves. Just the same way you pay higher auto liability insurance premium if you have a reckless driving record. And I saw him playing the bass guitar with the mama kicks. Someone in the crowd asked how long he's been playing. His answer was since he was eleven. That's a long time, forty some years. No wonder he's good!

Talking of working out regularly, I ran 5 miles in 53:21 this past Wednesday. I hope to be able to bring it under 10 minute mile within the next few days.

I made it to the office by 7:59 am this morning, without skipping breakfast, my quiet time with the Lord, or the morning round of news reading before I got out the door, yay!

I have much to be thankful for this year 2007.

Financially it has been the best of all my 31 years. I received bonus from Nortel in March, then they let me go at the end of April. I started working for Shared Technologies immediately and got year end bonus payout from Shared just last week. The severance pay from Nortel was pretty good as well. I managed to increase my net worth by about 25% this year. Yes, obviously I have a very small denomination to work with but again I am a first generation immigrant, not a child of trust fund. All in all I cannot praise God enough for this year.

I finally bought a house in May and after some fixing up, I moved in the middle of July. I bought it from the estate of the couple who built it in 1963 and had owned it since. Had to rip out the wall and redo the tiles in both bathrooms, paint the entire interior, and replace the carpet in the dining, living, the hallway and the vinyl in the kitchen with high end laminated wood floor, replace the oven and cook top, kitchen sink, and the washer.

And yes, finally I can say that I learned to play the guitar. I was encouraged to be part of a 6-member guitar ensemble for the Christmas Eve service at our church. It turned out well, no major screw up.

I was appointed this year as the State Republican Executive Committee Liaison for the Texas Young Republican Federation. I was also appointed to the Young Republican National Federation Information Technology, Policy, and Outreach committees.

For the first time ever, I ran the 8 mile Dallas YMCA Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot. Already registered and is training for the upcoming Cowtown Half Marathon on Saturday, February 23rd. I now benched 185 lbs, the most ever for me, and that's 15 to 20 lbs above my body weight. Hopefully I can cross the 200 lbs limit by the end of 2008.

My dad has been to the emergency room about 4 times this year. The doctors have never figured out what's wrong with him. But he's getting up there with age so I learn to accept it as a fact of life and praise God for every single day that I still have him and my mom, knowing that God knows everything.

My new year resolution for 2008:
1. Move up my time of coming to work earlier, like 08:00 or maybe even 07:30. That way, I can have time to work out everyday, then go to a lot of functions in the evening.
2. Get accepted into law school.
3. Saving up for the next car, which in all likelihood will be the X5.
4. Continue to practice my guitar, and hopefully I'll be able to play pretty decent by year end 2008, maybe even some classical pieces.

Long term things I want to do here before going home to my Lord, Savior and Creator:

1. Speak Spanish fluently.
2. Get my private pilot license, first single engine VFR, and eventually multi-engine IFR.
3. Learn how to play the piano.
4. Read and write at least another language: German, Chinese or Russian.
5. Run one or two more half marathons and then go for a marathon.

I ran 10 miles today in one hour and 59 minutes, training for the upcoming Feb. 23rd Cowntown half marathon. Then went for dinner and the ice show at the Gaylord Texan with my brother, Thuy & Nam. Practiced my guitar and now I am ready for bed. Got the autographed copy of the book Foreign Policy of Freedom by Ron Paul that Jeff sent me in the mail today.

I thank God for the annual year end company bonus that was paid out today but I cursed the evil government who takes more than 33% of that away from me. I mean where is the consent of the governed? I absolutely object to funding all the condoms being passed out to school kids without their parents' consent. They are going to be curious and do it anyway, right? Then we need to build a detox room at every school so after the kids got drunk, they can go in there and wait until they sober up before they get behind the wheel driving while intoxicated. And let's have school nurse run a needle exchange program at every school. If "Just Say No" to drug works, why can we do the same with abstinence education, "Just Say No" to sex until marriage?

I'll tithe 10% and I'll pay 10% tax, but anymore than that is absurd. God gave me everything, and I mean everything, and He, God, the ruler of the universe, only suggested I give him 10% back. I always gladly tithe 10% and give above and beyond for mission works, for the poor, ... as a cheerful giver. I am absolutely angry, fuming, to see the government taking more than 3 times what God requires, to fund Planned Parenthood so they can kill unborn babies.

It's undemocratic, it's insane, and it's inhumane anyway you look at it.

I had a great time tonight at the Dallas County Republican Party annual Christmas reception. I am glad to see so many Ron Paul supporters show up. There is hope for the Republican party returning to its root of limited government, doing only what is both good and necessary and allowed by the constitution.

It's a shame that the Republican state representative district 97 seat of Anna Mowery went to the Democrat in the runoff tonight.

I am putting together a "Get it done with Dunning" Texas BBQ dinner at my house for my great friend, Randy Dunning, who is running for state representative district 112 to replace Fred Hill who has thrown in the towel. So contact me for more information.

Friend of mine, Bill Burch, will be running for state representative district 93 against first term Democrat Paula Pierson in Tarrant county. According to Bill, she's as anti business as they come and she's highly vulnerable among all the Democrats. Plus, Bill has Leslie Sorrell taking care of the fund raising so that should be in good shape there.

Karen Wiegman, Karen Wiegman Campaign, 3729 Green Hollow Drive, Grand Prairie, Texas 75051, has announced that she will be running for the state representative district 106, the one where incumbent Republican Kirk England switched party a few months back. Contact Cory Kennedy, 512-636-0509, if you'd like more information.

There are now two people running for the Criminal District Court No. 3, Bill Fay and David Sprinkle. I have gotten to know Bill and his wife Rachida since the 2006 campaign. Both are great folks. I am looking forward to helping him with the campaign as well as Bobby Francis running for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals place 4, Jonathan Neerman running for County Chair, Mary Murphy running for the 5th Court of Appeals, John Fowler running for 14th district court bench, ....