First day & olympic fun

4 years of UIUC engineering leads up to tomorrow, the first day of work. I’ll be working as a “CIO Analyst” (whatever that means) at Accenture. Everyone has been asking me, “Hey Jimmy, what are you going to do at work?” and every time I simply shrug my shoulders and whisper, “I dunno.”

But the fact of the matter is, tomorrow, I find out.

In other news, the Olympics in Beijing are officially over after tonight. The United States and China had the highest medal counts with Russia as a distant 3rd. But which country “won” the Olympics (if you can actually win them). Some say it’s the number of golds you have (in which case China would win) and others say its the total medal count (where the US would win). So just for fun, I propose a weighted value on each medal: 3pts for gold, 2pts for silver, and 1pt for a bronze. Under this weighted system, each country would have the following:

United States:  36 Gold, 38 Silver, 36 Bronze = 220pts

China: 51 Gold, 21 Silver, 28 Bronze = 223pts

And China would have a slight edge over the US. Oh well, I’m ABC (American Born Chinese) so it’s win-win for me (not that national pride means anything… ). Chicago in 2016!

I was blessed by a plague

Genesis 12:10-13:1

[17] But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

[18-19] So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? … Now then, here is your wife; take her and go.”

…

[1] So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the Negeb.

One thing I tried doing this summer was teach my summer school kids that God is the main character of the Bible and all of history. I was recently reminded of that, so today I paid extra attention to when God takes action. In this passage, Abram was just called from Haran to the land of Canaan. God had said that he will bless Abram, make him into a great nation, and that he would give Abram’s offspring the land (Gen. 1:7). Then Abram heads toward the Negeb (Gen. 12:9)

But in verse 10, there’s a severe famine and Abram leaves the land and head’s toward Egypt, which is hundreds of miles away. While they’re there, Sarai acts as his sister so that the Egyptians don’t kill him (because she’s really pretty) and Pharaoh takes a liking to her and takes her for his wife.

Now in verse 17, God takes action. He afflicts Pharaoh and his house with some plagues. Pharaoh finds out the truth about Sarai and then kicks Abram out of Egypt and they go back to the Negeb.

I just feel blessed by God’s action in this passage. God had a plan for Abram & Sarai and in order to get them back on track, he sends plagues to Pharaoh and kicks the couple out of Egypt.  God is incredibly loving and faithful to his people and nothing can stand in the way of his promises, not even their stupid mistakes or ignorance. I feel like I don’t know how to listen to God and I often find myself not doing what he has told me to do. In fact, I find new ways to rebel each day

Honestly, I didn’t consult God as much as I should have before I have taken this job in Chicago, yet here I am. I’m not 100% sure this was the best choice. Is it a mistake? Is it where I’m supposed to be? I’m not sure. But because I know that God loves his children, even though I’m still learning to be faithful and still learning to listen, I can trust that God is working in my life and He’ll bring me “back on track” (one way or another). Praise God, praise God!

My neighbors aren’t home & pineapple crush

So I’m an incredible introvert and decided not to meet any of my neighbors until now…week 3 in Chicago. Unfortunately, none of them were home. Next time, my roommate and I will draw them out with cookies. (Yum!)

So these past few weeks have been a little crazy. I actually haven’t been in Chicago that much because of retreats and spending time with some home churchers. I haven’t started work yet either, so in my free time I’ll play guitar, read a little, pray some more, read books I should’ve finished years ago, discover new music, and try my best not to blog.

But tomorrow should be a new day. I have to force myself out of this apartment, ride the el around town, meet my neighbors, and explore! So far, I’ve only been to this nice little Mexican café, a chicken joint that sells 2 pieces for $0.99, and Staples (which doesn’t really count because I live above it…).

One more thing, did you guys know they made pineapple flavored Crush? I didn’t until today. It’s actually quite tasty. And just like the chicken, only $0.99 at the local convenience store

New home

So I’ve finally moved into my new place in the city. I don’t start work until the end of the month and I gotta learn all the ins and outs of the city. Seriously, right now, I only know of a Staples downstairs and a lil Mexican café across the street. I’m such a City n00b. I hope to update more with some more meaningful stuff. I think I’ll give a book recommendation or a guitar shop plug sometime soon too. Anyways, onto the pics.

Here’s a picture of my new room (btw the acoustics are amaaaazing, maybe I’ll throw some recordings here too):

 

Here’s the living room:

 

And here are the complimentary gifts from my brother (I’m sure he’ll come take these back as soon as he realizes he left them =P ):

 

But my place has pseudo-walls. They don’t even go up to the ceiling…fake privacy…

Confession #1

I have come to the conclusion that I judge people a lot.