Records

John, whom I worked for from 1997 to 1999, is retiring today from JCPenney after thirty some years with the company which he joined after he got out of the US Navy. He was a very nice boss to us, very frequently bought us kids working for him breakfast and coffee. Not only that, the way he treated you, professional, undemanding, no micro-management but motivated you at the right time in the right way, push the right button so to speak, so you felt like you wanted to get the job done when it needed to be done.

Got my White House Christmas card today. The Bible verse this year is Psalm 95:2 (NIV).

My investment certificate with the Alliance Development Fund matured on November 15th so I had it renewed for a 5-year term, which is currently yielding 4.4%, the best can be found on Bankrate.com at the moment. Even if the rate were a little lower, I would still park my money with them because the money goes to help churches to take out loans for their needs.

I got off work, went to the gym and then stopped by the Guitar Center to get me a music stand.

The Dallas County Young Republicans had a quick board meeting tonight at the Tin Star restaurant. The sweet and sour salmon was an interesting dish, I like the salmon, though not as good as the grilled salmon at Olive Garden, but not the other stuffs that came with the plate. Their service was excellent, even if it's a like a fastfood style restaurant.

The Christmas lights at the Gaylord Texan are not all that spectecular, parking is $7.00.

Had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving yesterday. We indeed have a lot to be thankful for.

I was out doing home improvement shopping this morning at Lowe's. Looking at the 48-inch fluorescent light bulbs, I found GE has the best product: two 40watts, 3150 lumens, 15,000 hours, 72 CRI, 4100 Kevins for only $3.98. Some of the competitions have the worse products in the same category for the same price. This gives me even more confidence to hold on to my GE stocks beside the fact that I like the dividend paid quarterly.

It appears that Republican candidate Dino Rossi has won the automatic recount by 42 votes. He beat Democrat Christine Gregoire in the original count by 261 votes. As normal, the Democrats want a recount, by hand of course. Being the party that touts science and technology incessantly, they don't trust the machine since the machine doesn't discriminate between Republican or Democratic votes. I guess it's so predictable now that it no longer surprises Americans to see Democrats want to recount until they win.

Stop by the local Circuit City to take advantage of their pre-Thanksgiving sale and look for an MP3 recorder with a direct line in, either quarter inch or RCA but didn't find it. Went and check Pricewatch and really like the new makeover.

A few weeks back, I became aware of Target deciding not to allow the Salvation Army bell-ringers to solicit at their stores, which costs Salvation Army 20% of their donation. I took the wait and see approach. Finally, after I heard on KLIF this morning who was behind the move, I finally had it. I just called and closed the Target Visa account and told them that I don't plan on shopping at Target for as long as they have that policy in place. They had a couple people tried to explain their position and convinced me not to close the account but I told them I was sorry that they took the stand as they did but as long as that is where they stand, I want the account close.

State Rep. Talmadge Heflin and his lawyer have formally filed a challenge with the Texas State House of of Representatives, after found evidence that there were illegal votes cast, ie. people not in the district or county. Now the Speaker of the House, Tom Craddick, will have to deal with the challenge.

I just love this piece by Fred Barns.

Wish I have more vacation to join the Texas STOMP (Stragegic Taskforce to Organize and Mobilize People) hitting Louisiana to turn out the votes for two Republican candidates in the December 4th Congressional runoffs: Charles Boustany in Lafayette and Billy Tauzin III in Lake Charles.

We were talking at lunch last Friday and Jeffrey declared that there are no fish without eyes. Roy said there are, especially those lived at the very bottom of the sea and with hardly any light down there. I agreed with Roy and just told him to go read Britannica. Just thought I check and here it is: blind fish.

I watched the news and learned something new on TV tonight. They were talking about gypsy cop and I did not know that there is lesser charge than involuntary manslaughter, it's called criminally neglible homicide.

A great quote from our beloved 40th president, the late Ronald Reagan: "Politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality's foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide. We need it because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they're sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires in order to survive."

I had fun strolling around a little antique mall in Plano this morning with a couple of friends.

Stopped by work a little bit and then worked a little more at home.

We, the singles group at our church, had fun tonight going out for dinner and a game of bowling at the Main Event in Grapevine. We find that area rather convenient for all of us, from one end of town in Allen and the other in Mansfield. I seriously need to go and get some sleep because it's already started with the dull headache, you know, the kind when you lack oxygen at high altitude. In this case, I lack sleep.

Check out this interesting study by The Barna Group.

Let's see if senator and the new US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter will live up to his written statement on the Senate Judiciary Committee which he issued yesterday, Thursday Nov. 18th, 2004.

A succinct and clear article regarding the shooting of a wounded Iraqi by David Perlmutter of the Indianapolis Star.

Let's see, I booked the hotel, bought the airline tickets: American non-stop from DFW to DCA, and reserved the car rental for the trip to Washington DC this January for the inauguration. No need to worry about that anymore, praise God.

Reserved the bowling lanes for our singles group this Saturday at Main Event.

We talked about the election results tonight on the regular monthly VPAC-DFW radio show in Vietnamese, anywhere from the presidential analysis to the senate races to the current on-going count still in Washington to the rapid reshaping of the Cabinet.

The Dallas Cowboys lost a miserable game last night 49-21 to the Philadelphia Eagles. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the Eagles' quarterback running around for over 14 seconds without being tackled or the Cowboys double coverage of their receiver and still allowed him to catch the ball in the end zone. Last year we at least get into the playoffs, even if just for one game. This year, even the Houston Texans is having a better record than us as of this moment. If it's any console, the Carolina Panthers is at 2-7, the San Francisco 49ers is at 1-8, worst than us! Since nothing is going for our own team, a bunch of our guys have switched to root for the best, which they believe is the Pitsburgh Steelers this year.

Check out this 2004 Generosity Index by Catalogue for Philantropy. Make sure you read the Technical Notes. The highest ranking blue state (state that voted for John Kerry) is the Empire State came in at 26th.

It didn't take Taylor and Henry too much time to get through US Customs yesterday coming back from Cancun. I picked them up before headed over to the VPS going away party for Quang at Saun's place.

As of now, it appears that the Evergreen state may have a Republican, Dino Rossi who beat Democrat Christine Gregoire by 1,920 votes out of 2,755,159 votes cast, for governor and a Democrat, Brad Owen who beat Republican Jim Wiest by a 54% to 38%, for lieutenant governor.

The Cabinet reshaping is rapidly taking place. By this morning, Commerce secretary Don Evans, Attorney General John Ashcroft, secretary of State Collin Powell, Energy secretary Spencer Abraham, Education secretary Rod Paige, Agriculture secretary Ann M. Veneman have submitted or will be submitting their resignations.

We had a whole day of training people for children ministry with MS Bien at our church today. We went shopping afterward for ThaoTrinh's babyshower tomorrow. Stopped by MS Dinh's house to rest a little bit before came back to church for the combined fellowship tonight. Van came by our church for the first time today and came back for the fellowship tonight with her sister. All in all a productive day, praise God!

Got my little Reebok watch from Overstock.com today. Just try to pull out the crown to adjust the time and it came all the way out. This is the second time I got something from Overstock.com. The first time, I got a Swiss Army watch with altimeter on it but the altimeter never worked correctly. It showed the same altitude on the first floor as on the fourth floor. My mom had bought something from them a year back and she was as dissatified as I am now. I thought I'd give them a second chance after the first time but this time, that's it. I will never be able to bring myself to buy anything else from these guys.

Here is an excerpt from the article by Tom Worstall on TechCentralStation today that could serve as a quick guide to make head and tail of all the national newspapers in the United Kingdom: The Telegraph is for the conservative upper and middle classes, the Guardian for progressive such, the Independent for confused ones, the Times for, well, providing Rupert Murdoch with social respectability? The Mail and Express fight for the middle ground (the Mail from the right, the Express not very hard recently). The Sun for right-wing working class, the Mirror for left such, the Star for those who find two syllable words too tough and the Daily Worker (if it still exists) for Communist Party supporters.

I usually work out three times a week, you know, to stay in good shape and keep my cholesterol level down. However, I had to work late yesterday and ran to the Metrocrest monthly meeting so I missed my day at the gym. Today, I took off to the gym, worked out and then came back to work. After kicked things off to run, I went to DFWAACC post banquet appreciation dinner for all the board directors and then back at work again. It's rather frustrating because I suppose to wrap up this project this week. It's already delayed one week and I really do not want to slip again. Things never really go right when you need them to but I thank God for whatever His purpose is in allowing me going through all these troubles, developing patience and learning to trust Him completely?

This article appeared today on the Star Telegram highlights a rather interesting situation we have here in one of the Texas House races. A political newcomer of Vietnamese descent running as a Democrat, Hubert Vo, appears to win the election for state rep. district 149, western part of Harris county, by a margin of 31 votes out of some 41,000 votes cast. If the 22-year Republican incumbent Talmadge Heflin, chairman of the House Appropriation Committee, decided to challenge, the House, which is 88-62 Republican advantage, could declare the election null and void and order the governor, Republican Rick Perry to hold new election. Being a Republican of Vietnamese descent, I hate to lose but I wish that Mr. Heflin had turned out more votes so we don't have this to deal with.

I'd like to strangle the guys who wrote this new variant MyDoom.AH@mm.

Cynthia Figueroa Calhoun, the Dallas County's Clerk was our speaker for the monthly Metrocrest Republican club meeting tonight. I did not know how much stuffs going on at a county clerk's office or that Dallas county is one of the largest ten counties in the country. About 2,500 to 5,000 documents go through that office daily, yes, every single day. It has the real estate office where all your real estate documents file with the county must go through; the trust department that invests/manages about 40 million dollars for minors or people who have been declared incompetent by the courts; supervises all the county civil, criminal, and probate court clerks .... The county clerk is elected every four year in the gubernatorial election cycle, not the presidential one. That means the next one is 2006 in the state of Texas.

This great article by Carlos Watson of CNN calls president Bush a political genius: "In 10 short years, George Walker Bush has won not just one but three high-profile political races that most able politicians would have lost. In 1994, with no real previous political experience, he beat a popular incumbent governor in the nation's second most populous state. Six years later, he beat a sitting vice president during a time of peace and prosperity. And last week, with a mediocre economy, an unpopular war and a well-funded and unified opposition, he not only won his race but also helped increase Republican majorities in the House and Senate." Yes, he is one without a doubt but I would also acknowledge Providence. It also echos the point I heard at a political grassroot training by the Leadership Institute a few months back: it's much harder for a senator to win the presidency than a governor. The only senator that won the presidency in the last 100 years was John F. Kennedy. There were many governors from both political parties: Reagan, Clinton, and George W. Bush.

A great article "Hispanics for Jorge" by Michael Gonzalez about the Hispanic votes which appears in the Opinion section of the Wall Street Journal today.

I put the wrist wrap on my right wrist and get back to weightlifting today after about two weeks off allowing the wrist to heal after the twist. I didn't venture anywhere near the max weight that I normally do. Will increase the weight gradually as I progress this week. Also need to start working seriously on the cardio part because I am going skiing in about 7 weeks.

It seems that the "mainstream" media don't get it at all. People want the news as objective as you could report without asserting your own opinion too blatantly. I saw on CNBC while doing my cardio on the treadmill that the people of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were here to observe the US presidential election. However, they kept headlining the meeting those people held today as "international MONITORING" of the election. The United States of America is an independent and sovereign constitutional republic and we are quite capable of free and fair elections as much as any other independent and sovereign nations. They are here to observe and not to monitor, otherwise they would not be here at all. And why don't these people stay in Europe, as it said in their organization's name? Last time I check, the great land that we call the USA is not part of Europe, am I right or am I right?

I had an eventful day, starting with a trip to take Truc and Ha to the airport for their honeymoon. Then went to church. The deacon board had a long meeting after the service with a lot of items on the agenda. Afterward, I went home and change to my comfortable jeans and t-shirt before coming over to Larry and Tiffany's house to see the baby, Luke and meet up with Helena, Caroline, Quan and Oanh to go to the VPS party. I've put in a lot of miles today just because all the places are far apart.

Truc and Ha's wedding today went quite well. I am not all that tired at all being the best man all day. Met Chet and Jo Jo, friends of Truc's family.

Last night we had our weekly small group at Tony's new home where he and ThaoTrinh just moved in a few weeks ago. A beautiful and spacious house with high ceiling and irregular shape rooms which made it very artistic in a way.

My limit order to sell AMV at $6.95 was executed automatically on October 28th while I was in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Didn't have time until today to find something worth buying.

Reading I Kings 21:1-29 reminds me of the issue of private property ownership vs. eminent domain, public use vs. public benefit.

There are now rumors of the resignation of AG John Ashcroft. I wish he would stay, a wonderful Christian man who has done a great job as attorney general and has taken a lot of heat for it.

President Bush endorsed Arlen Specter and even traveled to Pennsylvania to help him win the primary over prolife candidate Pat Toomey. Because of term limit, this pro-death senator from Pennsylvania will replace senator Orin Hatch as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Arlen Specter warned president Bush not to nominate prolife judges, who would follow their conscience and overturn Roe v. Wade, for the US Supreme Court. You see what a liberal will do to show gratitude, doesn't matter whether they are Republican or Democrat?

On the other hand, it should be noted that senator Harry Reid of Nevada is a prolife Democrat, who in all likelihood will replace Tom Daschle as the senate minority leader. Also, Kristen Day, the executive director for Democrats for Life today issued a press release "urged the Democratic National Committee to concede it's pro-abortion position today on the heels of one of the worst Election Day performances in recent memory."

Thank God senator John Kerry didn't follow the plaintiff trial lawyer John Edwards' advice but instead had decided to do the honorable thing and conceded. If you know anything about provisional ballots, you know that 99% of them probably will not be valid: vote from registered voters who somehow didn't have their names in the database or on the roster on election day. It's more likely that they are not registered at all or have registered after the cut-off deadline for this election in their particular state.

All in all a great election for us Republicans except for Danny Chandler in the sheriff race in Dallas county and Arlene Wohlgemuth the US House seat for the 17th congressional district.

Hubert Vo became the first American of Vietnamese descent to win a seat in the Texas House. He ran as a Democrat and got 20,584 votes against incumbent Talmadge Heflin who only got 20,532 votes for state representative district 149, which has a high concentration of Americans of Vietnamese descent. However, the margin of victory were only 54 votes. Unless he switch party, I am afraid he's going to lose in 2006.

There's always a first time for everything. The Redkins lost the game on Sunday but the party in power, the Republican Party did not lose the White House as the media people had hoped but rather retained it and gained 4 seats in the US Senate as well as a minimum of that many seats in the US House.

I got to the polling location, Central Elementary School gymnasium this morning at 06:30 and there were already people waiting in line. The poll does not suppose to open until 07:00. We scrambled to get everything in place and was able to get everyone started voting at 07:00. We had a poll watcher appointed by the Democratic candidate for sheriff, Lupe Valdez. Worked hard all day until 19:00. Had already started doing the paperworks during the day. Was able to finish everything at 20:30. Went home, had a little something to eat and changed into business dress for the victory celebration at the Radisson hotel on Central Expressway with the all the Dallas county Republicans.

If I may borrow a quote from Jonah Goldberg, which is found in week 43 brief of the Federalist where he described why the liberal diversity is absurd: "Aren't conservatives against diversity? Of course not. We're against the silly ideology that says you've achieved diversity when you have a room full of people who all look different but think alike."

Had my first Carrollton Library Advisory Board meeting today.

Went to Central Elementary School to set up all the voting booths afterward. Now I've got to initial all the ballots and make sure I have all the stuffs necessary for tomorrow: extension cords, duct tape, clear tape .... Can't wait to celebrate victory tomorrow night.