April 29th, 2006 - ...hey churches, don't forget about the part about repenting.

setting: subway train going to church on sunday afternoon for my usual 3 o'clock contemporary service.

i see a grandmother eye-balling her grandson as he wears his gilligan hat (from Gilligan's Island) up rather than down. the grandmother tells the child's mother that he's wearing it upwards. the mother goes to her son to show him the proper way to wear it. and i remember thinking to myself about the grandmother why the hell are you so stressfully concerned about your grandson wearing his hat that way, mrs bitchy lady?

setting: 3 o'clock church service in myeung-dong @ IWE, international worship in english.

the preacher's sermon seemed long and drawn out. seemed almost too irrelevent for somebody like me. but for about 3 minutes i suddenly started to listen and see things like a rabbit or a fox. the preacher started to talk about repentance and the changing of a christian's life when he/she makes the commitment at heart...of all sunday messages that message brought me to remembrance of my spiritual faith conviction and where i stand with it. of all the messages and songs i've heard over the past year this is the one i needed to hear just once again. a message about repentance, to change my ways and thinking and its ramifications and the reasons behind it... all the talk and readings about the new kind of christian or spirituality and all the messages about a 3rd culturally relevant church body in a new era... all that talk and all that jazz couldn't bring me to this, not in a million years. sometimes the message needs be black & white and clear as glass. and this truth is not always the truth we are willing to acknowledge and accept. repentance is the hard truth we must give in to. the 3 minute spiel, so simple and to-the-point, was all about describing what repenting is, which is all i needed to hear. and of all the places to get this point, this point that is such a critically massed junction in my life that only God and I know about, happened to hit me soft, like falling leaves, from the other side of the world.

setting: after 3 o'clock church service.

a good friend of mine, powerful and committed to Christ, tells me what i need to hear, that i must trust in God and that everything happens according to His time. and she also reminded me that God will give what i ask for with my heart. she said she will pray for me and told me that my decisions in life will come from God. i'm happier knowing this.

a clear day in Seoul

koreans eat lots. if you youngest in a crowd you might be told to eat remaining food (or maybe asked?). my foot hurts from all the walking. but despite exercise me getting fat. my fear of public toilets go away today. got very interesting offer from another english education institution, a very interesting proposition i might take. a good friend talking business with people around the peninsula to get me hired as a mobile developer. would be very nice to live here again.

note to self: pack lighter next time, and bring more dark chocolates, and a hat.

about a toilet

some time between '02 and '03 a friend and i go to a restaurant to eat food. my friend comes back from the restroom saying how refreshing the hi-tech toilet is. i go to the restroom intrigued and to see for it myself. the toilet was not so friendly lookin. it looked like it would grab you in an uncomfortable fashion, like a robot designed to molest you. i pushed random buttons for the heck of it and a funny twig-like device comes out of the toilets and then retracts back in. i turn around to use the old fashion urinal (ah, good 'ol urinal). next thing i know the toilet is spraying water behind me against the wall.

i sat down on one of these molesting toilets because i had no choice. i sat down and noticed how it responded to my weight, like it was doing some calculations based on my weight or something. a few red LED lights turned on and made hi-tech computer beeping sounds, and for a moment i was too alarmed to even "go." but you know how it is, when you gotta go you gotta go. so i went, naturally.

good night.

early bird sleepy head.

although this is not my first log entry since hitting california and seoul to travel, it is however my first blog entry since.

i woke up at 4:30 am this morning even though i didnt get much sleep. im walking the sidewalks here approaching my former employer to say hello. alas the building's not even open. it's still stinkin 6 in the morning. local coffee shops open at 11am, even starbucks. oh well, i dont like coffee anyways.

the air here is just as bad as i remembered it. in fact it's probably worse, especially with the sand storm going on in china. i'm teaching myself to start a nasty habit - spit. and not just regular spit. i'm talking about haulking up a good from, from the throat, so i can expel all the dirty particulates. pick your bugars in Seoul and they'll be black. so dont pick. just haulk a big one a spit. haulk from the diaphram too. until next time, cheers!