Records

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, ....

An idea I had when I first got my GPS, namely no-subscription-fee-open-source peer-to-peer traffic condition network, has now been implemented and will be market ready in Q2 of 2008. Don't know if there will be a fee to maintain the center server acting as a hub.

Listened to the US Comptroller General David Walker on C-SPAN and agreed with everything he said. Especially "if a company operates the way the US government does, the CEO will be sitting in jail and the board of directors would need a serious shake up." The shake up was just what happened with the congressional election of 2006. Wish more Americans would pay more attention. The fact that Ron Paul's message resonates with people and he's able to raise $6 million in one day tells me that the American people are smarter than we give them credit for, just as Mr. Walker commented in his speech. The American public do pay attention but not enough of them as a percentage of population just yet. Ron Paul will change that for the better.

One last thing, every time Jessica Simpson showed up, the Dallas Cowboys lost. Therefore, she needs to stop showing up at Cowboys' game.

As I was leaving the Dallas Convention Center, I walked outside and saw a woman with a child no more than 3 years old, homeless with the big plastic bag we, Operation Care Dallas, gave out on her shoulder, walking away from the convention center. I thought I did some good after four hours of washing feet, applying lotion, putting on new socks and shoes for folks, but the image of that woman made me so sad. How much could I do to help? I prayed for her and her child right there and then, knowing that God knows and I don't have the answer. But maybe I can take on homelessness as my project with the YRNF Policy Committee. I've seen so much during the four hours I volunteered today. I washed, or more accurately wiped with body wipes, the feet of a man who has been locked up for 16 years, longer than I have been in America. I washed a man's feet whose toe nails looked more like melted lead pooled together. Some were too embarrassed to let me washed their feet but rather just take the new socks and shoes. But on the other hand, as I walked out, I also see some folks who were driving up in nice cars, who I believe went in and played the role of homeless folks to receive all the stuffs we give away. Some as I were going behind the curtain to find shoes their size, were grabbing as many of the socks as they can and stuffed them down at the bottom of their bags. Human nature hasn't changed a bit over six thousands years!

I had an opportunity to hear state representative Linda Harper-Brown discussed tonight, among other things, transportation with obvious passion. She's one of the few reliable conservatives in the Texas House, determined to speak the truth and do right by her constituents. She is definitely not one of those who always weigh every vote to see how it would look when they run for that next higher office.

A car driving itself at race speed, check this out.

I had a fantastic day!

Heard from Dr. William Brody, M.D., president of John Hopkins University at lunch. Got a little history of health insurance, started by the folks at Baylor as a sick fund in 1929. The first plan had an annual premium of $6 and the Methodist hospital in Dallas started selling for $9, paying the hospital $6 and made a $3 or 50% profit. Most of the candidates running for president have touched on only two C's , Cost and Coverage, of the five, Consistency, Complexity and Chronic Illnesses, that he believe we must address to have a better health care system. Though he professed to be impressed with Mitt Romney, Dr. Brody declared he does not like any of the candidates we have right now. When I asked him whether he thought Mike Huckabee got it right when it comes to chronic illnesses, he admitted he hasn't talked to Huckabee yet and it's on his to do list.

The evening US Chamber holiday reception was great. We heard from Dick Armey and Martin Frost, moderated by Mark Davis. Mr. Armey said one thing that really summarized the principle of conservatism, government should only take action when it is both a correct and necessary thing to do. Asked why we should conclude the war in Iraq in an orderly fashion rather than total victory, he said there is a point at which we do not want any more cheese but just want out of the trap. Mark Davis loudly disagreed and I agree with Mark. These Islamic terrorists came to our shore to attack us and they aren't going to leave us alone. Asked on the immigration issue, Mr. Armey blamed the inefficiency of the government agency formerly known as the INS. I wholehearted agree with him. He brought down the house when he said the Republican can't expect the Hispanic voting bloc's support with the way we've handled the immigration issue, just like you cannot call a girl ugly all year and expect her to go to prom with you. I don't necessarily agree with him on this one though I wish the national dialog on this issue had remained civil without resorting to militant name calling the way it has been.

I took off afterward and went shopping at IKEA. They were closing down before I had even seen everything I wanted to see. It had so many new things every time I go there.

I had a great time at the SREC meeting this weekend in Austin, hanging out with Terri and Chip, the other two Young Republicans who were in attendance. I finally also took the time to stop by and visit the LBJ Presidential Library on Sunday afternoon.


Karl Ninh