Records

Had a productive NDPC committee meeting with Jack, Tom and Donna tonight.

Things are on track at work for the Geographic Disaster Recovery feature.

The heart of the wise inclines to the right,
but the heart of the fool to the left.
Ecclesiastes 10:2

I left work yesterday going to get a haircut but didn't. Today, worked hard to get the FN (Functional Notes) document done and sent out the meeting request for a review since the FRS (Feature Request Specifications) has been closed and the testers want updated documents. Started on the RD (Requirements Description) and will have to finish it tomorrow.

Got my haircut today so I am happy. However, that means I won't be able to see Mr. S this week. Nor next week because I will be in Los Angeles and San Diego until next Saturday. Well, I must remember to send him a postcard.

A rather interesting article from the Wall Street Journal pointing out how ironic the Democrats are at a disadvantage politically because of their support for abortion.

Finished two books: one is "Rodzina," a Polish word for family. The book is about the orphan trains in the 1930s. The second is about female pirates in the late 1700s in British and Jamaican settings. Both were interesting but I like Rodzina better, maybe just because I haven't heard anything about those orphan trains and it was written from an innocent 15-year old Polish orphaned girl's perspective.

Had the second of three required membership classes at Baruch HaShem today. It was quite a testimony by the rabbi Marty Waldman.

Went to VPS general meeting and had my picture taken for the VPS Dallas website.

Watched the Miss Texas USA pagean. After they picked out the 20 finalists, I thought Miss Patricio Ashley Walker was quite beautiful. When it was narrowed down to 10 finalists with the evening gown competition, my guesses were Miss Patricio Ashley Walker and Miss Central Plain Tyler Willis. I can't believe Miss Patricio Ashley Walker didn't make it to the 5 finalists, her gown was sparkling. From the five finalists, my guess remained Miss Central Plain Tyler Willis. She picked such a beautiful and conservative evening gown, one that you would not mind taking her to a state dinner, especially in the conservative state of Texas. And I was right, she was crowned the Miss Texas USA 2005. I have been picking winners watching these pageans and I've been right 90% of the time, based on the evening gown and the answer to the final question.

Went to the Shabbat service at Baruch HaShem. Then had lunch at home and then went to help Dung & Hang moved things that they don't want to take to South Carolina to store at Thanh's house. Had dinner with my brother after that at Thanh Thanh's restaurant at their new location.

It's sad that Jack Ryan had to withdraw his name as the Republican candidate from the Illinois senatorial race. Though I do not agree with Dennis Prager on the KSKY AM 660 radio talk show regarding how much we should know about private life of a politician, I agree that if the press is going for so much details in another person's life, their own lives should be examined with the same measure.

Found it on my friend's blog: Katie LeClair. This is just adorable. .

Countering all the 527s out there, this is a 501(c)4: Let Freedom Ring.

I am thankful for people like the honorable John Hostettler, the congressman from Indiana, who is the author of a bill in the House right now that would affirm the 2nd amendment right. Specifically, that would seek to guarantee a concealed carry licensee's right to carry across stateline, to guarantee a concealed carry license issued by one state is honored by another just like a driver license.

I've been meaning to go to sleep early, meaning before midnight, but haven't been able to so far. Will keep trying.

How many name could one conjure up for ACLU? So far, I have seen American Criminal Liberties Union, Anti-Christian Litigators Union.

My dad was taken to the emergency room after he fainted at work. He's still in the CDU (Clinical Decision Unit), waiting for the doctor to read the result of his MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) taken this morning. They already had a CT (Computed Tomography) on him yesterday. My church is praying for him.

I am confirmed for the hotel in New York. They will have the National Asian American Republican Convention on Sunday so I have to find out the worship service time at church in New York and work out my schedule to help.

The outdoor worship service started a little late on Father's Day today but it went on pretty well. MS Ngoc delivered the message. I enjoyed riding behind the boat and being tossed around. Got sun-burn pretty bad.

Had so much crawfish today that we had some leftover, couldn't finish.

Bach and ThienThanh's wedding went very well. Simple but elegant. The santuary of Northpark Presbyterian church is so beautiful. The organ sounded just so lovely and majestic. I love the harp playing by Cynthia Gaertner the whole time during the reception. The ceremony was quick but to me standing as best man, my feet and legs were hurting. They chose a shade of blue that look so good on the bridemaids. The restaurant Gershwin's, 8442 Walnut Hill Ln., Dallas, TX 75231, 214-373-7171, catered delicious food.

After the reception, we left the church's and went to Reunion Tower cocktail lounge for a view of downtown Dallas, had some good non-alcoholic drinks and cakes, cheese and fruits.

Then some of us got back to cThuyTrinh's house to marinate the meat for tomorrow's Father's Day outdoor picnic right after the worship service, also outdoor at Bowman Springs park pavillion.

My group at work took me and Darrell to lunch today. His is not until the 27th of this month. Mine was last Sunday.

We had a good wedding rehearsal tonight. The santuary is beautiful. MS Ngoc and the kids: Joy and Vince finally made it in at 20:00. Good soup at aHuy's house.

Texas Association of Counties

I am glad to have the Rev. Anthony Womack, who was trained as a Biochemist, join me as guest at the Republican National Convention in New York later this summer.

I felt really good with the workout today. Follow Jesse's max-weight suggestion. Hopefully by August, my musle mass should be much higher.

The radio show tonight went OK. We reported on the death of president Reagan, talked about the Texas Republican state convention. I and aHieu went out for dinner afterward.

As Vietnamese American Public Affairs Committee - Dallas Chapter vice chairman, I received from mayor Mark Stokes of Carrollton a proclamation recognizing the Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag on behalf of the Americans of Vietnamese descent who live and work in the city of Carrollton today at their regular 7:00 pm council meeting at city hall.

Met Tom McCormack at the state convention and he introduced me to the new Northern Dallas Pachyderm Club. Attended their first monthly club meeting tonight. It was good food and very insteresting speaker: Mr. Herschel Alan Weisfeld and topic: the problem of homeless and city of Dallas unwillingness to address the problem. The city wants the county to take care of the homeless because state law says so but the city is the entity that got federal funding. Mayor Laura Miller is unwilling to put in on the agenda. It takes five council members to agree to put anything on the agenda. Got to see Alexandra Fincher after so long, almost two years since Andy Olivo campaign. Met judge Lisa Fox, judge Diane Jones, Arthur Chow (Joe's son).

How about modifying your images using script: http://www.imagemagick.org

Learned a lot from the first membership class at Baruch HaShem today. Had a good lunch also.

We, the small group in Arlington, started with Discovery by Scripture Union today.

Picked up the Rubik on my desk and worked it so that I can still get all six faces within reasonable time, 3-5 minutes.

Had lunch with aHoang and we had a good talk.

I need to go practice at the gun range sometimes soon.

I love this: http://www.kerrylied.com/

The 3rd annual city of Garland Open Dialog dinner went pretty well, thanks to Jennifer and Thomas Nguyen and the Vietnamese American community of greater Dallas. They had the mayor, Bob Day spoke and then open up for questions. The city manager: Mr. Dollar, police chief: Mitch Bates, and various council members as well as the director of personnel of Garland ISD were there to respond to questions.

We heard from three sergeants of the 1st Marine division tonight at our monthly Metrocrest Republican club meeting. I thank God for their sacrifice for our freedom. It is said that they went to Iraq, offering the people there two choices of "No better friend" or "No worse enemy" and it's up to the Iraqi people to choose.

I am so glad to hear that the first lady, Laura Bush, stood firm against stem cell research and would not endorse former first lady Nancy Reagan call for restriction on stem cell research to be lifted.

We love the 40th president. The Texas state convention in its third and final general session this past Saturday stopped all of its business on the floor and sang all verses of Amazing Grace when we got the news that the president had gone on home to be with his maker.

President Reagan state funeral will be held this Friday, June 11th, 2004. The question is; who gets to have a state funeral? The answer is presidents, former presidents and presidents-elect are entitled to state funerals. It is left to the family to decide whether one should be held and how involved it should be.

The 1st meeting of the Dallas county Republican executive committe went well. We nominated and approved judge Beth Maultsby as the Republican candidate for the 303rd Family District Court on the November 2nd ballot, since the previous office holder, judge Richard Johnson, had died after the Republican primary in March.

There were two speakers for the evening. First was Matthew Dowd, the chief strategist for president Bush re-election campaign. He lives in Austin and only moves to Washington DC for the duration of the campaign.

Next was ambassador Jeanne L. Phillips, appointed by President George W. Bush as the United States Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in Paris, France. Ambassador Phillips led the U.S. Mission OECD from August 2001 until June 2003. Her primary policy interests were the enforcement of the Anti-Bribery Convention of the OECD, corporate governance and reforms of the OECD for the 21st Century.

This was the first time I flew with Southwest airline. Overall it was a positive first impression. I just wish that they didn't have the Wright and Shelby amendments: travel into and out of Dallas Love Field is subject to the limitations of the Wright and Shelby Amendments; federal law prohibits Southwest from offering transportation for sale between Dallas Love Field and any point beyond Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Mississippi, and Alabama. I was amazed at how efficient they operated their flights. Boarding took place only 15 minutes before departure. As soon as everyone was settled into their seat, the plane departed the gate. Both cases for my roundtrip, they departed the gate about 5-7 minutes later than schedule, the arrivals were however on time. The only thing I didn't like is that they have free seating, based on how early you checked in at the airport. I wish I can pick and choose the seat at the time I buy the ticket online.

The Republican state convention went pretty well. I learned a whole lot. A very wonderful surprise, I will be part of the Texas 24th congressional delegation to the national Republican convention in New York this coming August 30th through September 2nd, 2004.

One of the funny phrases I learned at the convention is: "Blessed are the brief for they shall be re-elected." Also, if you've got something to say, stand up, speak up and then shut up.

Work is rather busy these days. Didn't have the time to prepare much for the radio show but God gave me the words to speak. The show went pretty well. I just got home before another storm comes in.

Now got to go do my laundry and pack, get ready to fly out tomorrow at 0700h to San Antonio for the Republican state convention.

The meeting went well tonight, to God be the glory and praise. There were myself, my brother, my dad, aHoang, aHieu, cTeresa, Duc, cHanh, Anthony, Phuong Khanh and her dad. However, it started late and I had to stay after the meeting so I missed the monthly meeting of all Grace Hospice volunteers. Will have to call Marcia and apologize tomorrow. Will have to call Mr. S. since I won't be able to see him at all this week.

Now, the next thing on my plate is the radio show with VPS tomorrow night.

There are now outside thunderstorms and gushing wind up to 40 knots, causing all planes to be grounded at DFW and Love Field. A big area in Arlington, where a quite a few people in my church live, lost power and were in a tornado watch.

Caught a glimpse of Miss Universe tonight on NBC. Shandi Finnessey, Miss USA and Miss Missouri 2004, is the most beautiful among the five final ones. However, my take is that her conservative answer and a great answer at that, children are the greatest contribution women have made, for otherwise none of us would be here now, the mentioning of stay-at-home mom did not go well with the liberal judges and thus causing her to lose the crown to Miss Australia, Jennifer Hawkins. Among the rest, I thought Miss Norway Kathrine Soerland, Miss Italy Laia Manetti, Miss Paraguay Yarina Gonzalez, Miss Canada Venessa Fisher, Miss Estonia Sirele Kalma, Miss Sweden Katarina Wigander, were particularly beautiful.