Records

I've been slacking off, busy with home improvements, but I am getting back into staying in shape. Haven't spent enough time to train to push beyond the 150 lbs benching but will be soon.

Talking about home improvements, due to miscommunications, the folks that suppose to come in and put in new tiles in my bathrooms didn't come last week. They will be coming this week and all would be done by this weekend. Also just realize with all these rains that the gutter is not all around my house. In fact, the down spout and splash block are on the side of the house. And it's just my guess but the water has been coming down that area for too long that the concrete walkway is sinking a little low such that water is making a puddle there when it rain hard. I need to add more gutter so it runs all around the house and move the down spout somewhere else.

Let's see, I am listening to This just in by CBS news anchor Bob Schieffer. I had always thought that Jimmy Carter was just a peanuts farmer from Georgia who was too inexperience for Washington, and thus the incompetency of his administration. But I suspected inside was a kind hearted obedient Christian, though misguided in the belief of peace at any cost, as many Christians, some at my church, who do not believe in the 2nd amendment. But apparently there's a selfish heart when he rudely left one of his staffs and a member of the press in the cold on the campaign trail in 1975 as well. And his recent anti-semitic activities confirmed even further that his understanding of the Bible maybe less than what I had expected from a Sunday school teacher.

Kaitlin emailed me this, watch and give thanks!

More home improvement: installed outside security flood light with motion sensors. My dad did the landscaping, it looks great. It is of two layers, roses will grow tall on top and the ground is covered with different colors of carnation. I have always loved carnations and the fact that they can survive winter in Texas makes it even better. Bought some track lighting and will be installing them in the living room.

VPS Dallas hosted a dinner and then charity poker tournament tonight at the Westin Galleria. Everyone had a good time and the proceeds will go to raise awareness of the tragedy of human trafficking.

It gives me a great sense of optimism tonight with Tom Leppert pulling through at 57.85% of the votes to become the next mayor of Dallas. What impressed me most about Tom is his ability to come across assertively without being too affront, in-your-face kind of thing. He won me when he said that business should strive to go green, but with a competitive business sense, doing it cost effectively and not just do it for the sake of doing it at any cost.

Talking about municipalities, did you know that Seattle was built on taxes collected from prostitutes? I didn't know this but Josh told me all about it when we got together at Ann and Paul's house yesterday. During the boom fueled by the lumber industry, the area had over seven thousands men working and over two thousands women, who all list their occupations as seamstress. I was told also that the money from the lady that ran the largest brothel is still financing all the public schools today. I have to check that out.

Thanks to my friend Sharon Albertson, I had an opportunity to meet my favorite governor and presidential candidate, former governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. Told him I love the volunteer tax contribution account he set up in Arkansas while he was governor. He's the one candidate that I can see myself spending my own money to travel and go door to door knocking to get out the votes for. He is very personable, shook everyone's hand. He took the time to listen, actually listened to what you have to say. He touched on a few things while addressing the group. He wants to restore the optimism in America. He started with a humble beginning. His dad, a firefighter, worked two jobs to support the family. He's the fist male to graduate from high school in his family. He believe in the intrinsic value of every human life, from the moment of conception. That's nothing new to his supporters. We've known that for years and years. We celebrate lives, unlike the Jihadists, who celebrate death. He wanted restructure the entire tax system, not just tweaking a little here and a little there. He believes we should not be taxing productivity. Tax should be on consumption. America should be a tax heavens for companies to come here, not to flee away. He believes in a family consists of a mom, a dad, and children. A school with balanced curriculum, putting back arts and music into school, make school interesting for kids to learn.

He remembers where he comes from. He is proud that his campaign is run very efficiently. He compared it to being an electric car of presidential campaigns.

He's gotten a great sense of humor.


Karl Ninh and Mike Huckabee

My SQL was a little bit rusty but I had a chance to brush them up with the new job. Today, I was dealing with adding a foreign key constraint in mySQL database. I had fun. I love my work, and getting paid to do it just make it all the better.

I turned 31 today. Fourteen years ago today, I was still in Vietnam, not knowing whether I would be able to go to college because of my parents' links with the former South Vietnamese government or able to afford the college tuition. There was no such thing as financial aids. God is good, very good. Today I am living the American dream. A college graduate, with advanced graduate degree. A job that pays well. A decent balance in my retirement fund with enough change in the bank. I own my own house, yes, with a mortgage just like most people my age have. But I am doing better than most with no other debt, no student loan payment, no car payment, no credit card payment, .... I pay off the balance every month on all credit cards I used since I started using them in my sophomore year in college. And like they said, the first million is always the hardest. Well, I don't have a million dollars yet but I can say that the first $100K was hard. After that, things get easier and easier.

I love Google Mobile Maps on my blackberry, especially the format of giving your one turn at a time.

Let's see, the floor is done in the new house. Picked up the paint from Sherwin-Williams today. Everything should be ready for move in next week. The whole house would be painted very light green. The office would be light blue and the guest room would be light orange.

Listened to the book Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson, learning a whole lot about weather and weather forecast.

Start seeing some decent high resolution LCD monitor. I am so used to 1600x1200 that I can't go back to anything lower. Hopefully I'll be able to get a 24" LCD which can do up to 1920x1440 for a reasonable price, ie. $400 more or less, comes July 4th sales.

Got a birthday card from my company Shared Technologies CEO Tony Parella in the mail yesterday. The company ranked 12th in Texas as one of the best companies to work for last year. We are striving to be on the list of 100 best companies to work for in America this year, joining the ranks of companies like The Container Store, Google, Cisco, ....

We had a productive day planning for our Vietnamese Alliance Youth Southwest Spring break camp next year. We stopped by Mozart's Coffee to hangout a little bit, playing the mind games Green Glass Door and Black Magic before heading to Oasis for dinner. On the way to Oasis, it just dawned on me that I had forgotten to make reservation. Called but they were full for the night so we just went home, ate dinner at a TGI Friday in Waco instead. We stopped in at Cheddar's but the line was long, 45 minutes wait. According to Oanh, a student at Baylor, people in Waco really like Cheddar's for some reason.

We rolled out a new software release tonight so I was on a chat room with folks at work while listening in with our weekly cell group.

The issue of dealing with homosexual folks come up. I personally have met many who are gays. The ones I have met are kind, educated, wealthy. It's just that we can't condone the lifestyle. We have to love sinners, which we all are, but not the sins. We learn from Jesus as he dealt with the woman who was caught in adultery, let those who are without sin cast the first stone, but then we ought to urge the woman to sin no more as well. Speaking the truth in love. Love without truth is licentiousness, cheapening the grace of God. Truth without love is legalistic, forsaking the command to be merciful as God is merciful.

Talking about Paris Hilton, how about Alabama Republican state senator Charles Bishop who punched Democratic state senator Lowell Barron. That's not how learned man, an elected official, possibly a father and grandfather, set an example. Doesn't matter what the other guy called you, you shouldn't let him control how you behave.

I fancy myself developing applications for my Blackberry. I skipped the simulator and loaded directly onto the blackberry. Well, I paid for my carelessness with having to reload the blackberry. Now I have to go and set all the email filters again, urgh!

Almost finish the audio book Rosa Parks by Douglas Brinkley. Hopefully finish it on my way to Austin after work tomorrow for the planning meeting for our Vietnamese Alliance Youth Southwest Region 2008 Spring break camp.

Why do reasonable, sensible people have to apologize for airing their opinions, like NASA chief Michael Griffin had to? I mean people like Al Gore, and all the scientists whose careers depend on grant money being shelled out for research of imminent and catastrophic danger cause by alleged global warming are free to say whatever they want, some of them most ridiculous?

VPS Dallas will be hosting a poker tournament next Saturday, with $50 buy in and first prize being a 50-inch LCD, check it out if you like to play poker and support a good cause. We carry on program like teaching ESL at the community center, organize film festival, academic challenge programs, ....

If you want to be a Fredhead, like Texas national committeewoman Denise McNamara put it, here is the website.

I want to be on the record as a supporter of president Bush's nominee for Surgeon General, cardiologist Dr. James Holsinger, who stated his belief that gay sex is unnatural and unhealthy. Let's see, it's unnatural because they can procreate themselves. It's unhealthy, just look at the one group that is dominant among the AIDS patients.

Press Release
Texas Education Agency
5/24/07

Since the average life of previous statewide tests (TABS, TEAMS, TAAS, and now TAKS) has been five years, it is not too early to plan for the next test.

The new instrument will be the Texas Assessment of Cognitive Operations (TACO).

It will have a remedial version (Soft TACO), a regular version (Hard TACO), and an advanced version with many more pages (the Gordita.)

It will be graded on a normal curve (the TACO Bell).

Districts receiving the lowest scores will be put on probation with a Basic Educational Appraisal-Not Satisfactory (BEANS).

A second low rating earns the dreaded additional designation: Remediation Factor for Individualized Education Deficits (REFRIED BEANS).

This rating will probably cause a lot of hot air at campus faculty meetings.