You know how there always seems to be those one or two months (or weeks, in this case) where it seems like you know someone with a birthday every day? Starting from April 1, I remember that I have a childhood friend's birthday, April 2 is P. Bruce's, April 3 - 5 (or is it 3 & 5? 4 & 5? Hmm...) have birthdays from high school friends, and the list goes on and on.
Given my propensity to remember the birthdays of close friends, this can sometimes get to be a little...well, much. hahaha BUT! If they're around and I'm available, I do at least make an effort to make them feel appreciated on their special day. This has been a topic that I've talked about with my parents for YEARS, as my parents are basically of the mindset of "unless they're here and we're super close, no need to contact them" whereas I'm of the mindset of so long as we're close, I'm probably going to either call or text you rather than just leave you a line on FB.
Oh well, let's get on with the blog post. I'm gonna rant about birthdays if you let me, so...MOVING ON!~
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So...I'm cheating a wee bit :P The photo on the left here is NOT from a birthday celebration, but it IS from the night that P. Bruce came over to our place to watch the video! His birthday was on Monday, but due to having to wait on people to get the videos to me, find time to sit and edit said video, and finally find time to meet up with P. Bruce, Wednesday ended up being the only logical choice.
Hilariously enough, P. Bruce had actually forgotten that I had something for him (unsurprisingly, he assumed it was food) on Wednesday and was out on a birthday lunch with the church staff! Whoops!~ XD As a result, he came over and he watched the video at my house. He ended up staying to chat with my parents, which inevitably (yes, I use that word b/c when you come over, we WILL feed you. It's not a question of IF, it's a question of WHEN lol) led to dinner.
Be sure to watch till the VERY end! I put a cheeky little edit at the end :P
The song I chose is titled "翻转地球" (fan zhuan di qiu) or "Turning the World Upside Down" (referring to how the disciples of Jesus turned the world upside down with the gospel and how God has called us to do the same as Christians). I thought it was quite appropriate for a birthday video for our head pastor who looks after and shepherds SO MANY international students.
Just yesterday, Mom told me that one of the girls in CCF got teary-eyed watching the video. She liked how it flowed and it also tugged at the heartstrings a bit. For a video editor...that is the highest compliment! :D I got emotional myself even as I was EDITING it, so I knew exactly what she meant. But still. :)
What did YOU think of the video? Comment below and let me know. Would LOVE to hear your thoughts. :)
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School : Projects and Praise Reports
As always, there's some good news and there's some not-so-good news. I'm not going to come right out and say bad, because it's not like I can't bounce back from it, it's just that it's a little stressful right now. So, having been working on a MYRIAD of things (a lot of which was actually Missions / International Sunday related), to say that my mind and time have been on other things isn't too far from the truth.
Let's start with the good news. (happened 4/8 - 4/10)
I'm not going to get into it here (maybe in another post at the end of the year or something), but God LITERALLY gave me an assistantship for my time in grad school. There is no logical explanation for how I got it and there were so many "exceptions" that I fit into that it was something that I 100% believe was only possible through God's divine favor and intervention. That said, I had yet ANOTHER one of these "Whoa. Did God just do that?" moments over the course of this week.
My current academic situation is that after this Spring semester is over, I really only have 3 classes left to take to complete my degree. One of these is happening over summer (not offered in Fall), and the remaining two are offered in Fall. Normally, this would be perfectly fine, but in the paperwork for my assistantship, it says, very clearly, that I need to be in THREE graduate level classes. I had already had to take a class I didn't need last Summer 2017 to hold on to my assistantship (it was a weird situation, not gonna get into it now) and it was an experience I don't care to repeat. Not that the class was bad, but I was stressing out over trying to keep up with the class on a graduate level in a field that was NOT my own.
I went to God with my plight and left it in His capable hands because I had stressed for a week and was SO. DONE. with the situation. I had already looked for possible classes I could take and found a resounding NOTHING. There was an undergrad level course I was interested in taking, but it would do me no good with my assistantship. Finally, on Sunday, I went to the back of the church to pray (as the worship team always does prior to beginning the service) and found myself alone because no one was there yet. I took my shoes off, stood in front of the heater in an attempt to not freeze, and sang quietly (amazingly, it was in Chinese lol) to myself and the Lord. It was then that the idea came to me to speak to my boss about it. I fought the idea for a while, telling myself that I KNEW what the paperwork said and just could. not. shake the feeling that I really should talk to my boss. That's when I knew it was God speaking. I thank Him, prayed the idea back to Him for good measure, and told my boss about my situation on Monday.
...she came back to me yesterday and told me that the three class situation WAS a set-in-stone situation, with the EXCEPTION OF (here we go again, Lord) a grad student's LAST semester. In other words, I'm going to be allowed to only take the two classes I need to, STILL retain my assistantship, and spend my time on my own personal health, projects, and most importantly, job hunting.
THANK. YOU. JESUS!!!
Now, for the not-so-good news.
Long story short, I've got tons of work that need to be done, in a little under a month now, for my three classes. My workload at work isn't decreasing either, and while "down-time" at work is possible when I've finished the grading for the day and I may have leftover time to work on my homework (as we're told to do with our spare hours), the subsequent modules for the course I'm the TA for only get busier from this point on. So down time is HIGHLY unlikely.
In addition, there's a new software that I have to learn for one of the classes and while I had been ON schedule up till Spring Break to do fine in that class, the software's tutorials (which I HAVE to do to learn it) absolutely refused to run on my computer / laptop while I was on break, setting me back 1 full week. Then, after returning, my dad tried everything he knew to do (as did I, I contacted the author of the textbook to ask for help and went to the tech help desks on campus with nothing being resolved) and it STILL wouldn't cooperate.
Ironically, the software's tutorials run on HIS laptop just fine, which means I have to complete the tutorial on his laptop. Workable, but highly inconvenient. As a result of being behind schedule on the tutorials, I'm behind schedule on my project. *sighs*
Hopefully this helps you understand why things like candles, tea, and fuzzy things are in such abundance in my room now. It definitely puts me in a better mood overall, and better mood = better mind = better concentration and likeliness to stay put where I am and not get distracted. It's amazing what taking a very specific 10 minutes to set things up to my liking will do for my ability to focus.
So if you decide to pop by for a quick visit whilst I'm working at home, don't be surprised to see me in a fuzzy bathrobe, fuzzy socks, listening to some kind of cafe-ish music, with a lit candle and warm tea on the desk. :)
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Sayaka's Birthday Celebration (Dinner 4/10, Birthday 4/12)
By this point, it's no secret that our family LOVES Sayaka, possibly due to our common roots from Asia, or our mutual love for Japanese food (and culture, as far as myself, Ash, and Dad go), or just the amazingly adorable and bubbly personality that she exudes from her entire being, but we LOVE Sayaka :)
As such, it should ALSO be of no surprise to ANYONE that we had her over to treat her to a birthday dinner of her choice. She went with Vietnamese beef noodles, or Pho (there's supposed to be a ^ over the O, jsyk). Pronounced as "f-uh" not "f-oh". Just so we're clear :)
As as special treat, we had Kim over as well! To the right is the mandatory group photo. lol
I need a better abbreviation or like...a hashtag or something for these. If any of you come up with something pithy, do let me know? :)
This was Kim's first time. We've played it with Sayaka before and given what a rare chance it is that we get to play (it's a slow, relaxed game that takes you through a traveling experience in Japan back in the days of the Tokaido road), we decided to play it that night :)
Mom's more of a fast-movements kind of gaming gal, so she sat this one out. We played with 4 players: Sayaka, Kim, Dad, and myself. If you're interested in playing (hopefully even more so after I put out the FF2018 post), let me know and we'll make an evening or tea break of it! :)
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As far as next week's plans are concerned, I'm visiting my sister in Champaign tomorrow to see her Kpop dance performance in the Illini Union (like the Student Center here in C'dale). Missions / International Sunday is also coming up this weekend, so next week's #WeeklyWednesday2018 post should be very jam-packed with fun stuff.
I'll see you guys then!
~Byee
Let's start with the good news. (happened 4/8 - 4/10)
I'm not going to get into it here (maybe in another post at the end of the year or something), but God LITERALLY gave me an assistantship for my time in grad school. There is no logical explanation for how I got it and there were so many "exceptions" that I fit into that it was something that I 100% believe was only possible through God's divine favor and intervention. That said, I had yet ANOTHER one of these "Whoa. Did God just do that?" moments over the course of this week.
My current academic situation is that after this Spring semester is over, I really only have 3 classes left to take to complete my degree. One of these is happening over summer (not offered in Fall), and the remaining two are offered in Fall. Normally, this would be perfectly fine, but in the paperwork for my assistantship, it says, very clearly, that I need to be in THREE graduate level classes. I had already had to take a class I didn't need last Summer 2017 to hold on to my assistantship (it was a weird situation, not gonna get into it now) and it was an experience I don't care to repeat. Not that the class was bad, but I was stressing out over trying to keep up with the class on a graduate level in a field that was NOT my own.
I went to God with my plight and left it in His capable hands because I had stressed for a week and was SO. DONE. with the situation. I had already looked for possible classes I could take and found a resounding NOTHING. There was an undergrad level course I was interested in taking, but it would do me no good with my assistantship. Finally, on Sunday, I went to the back of the church to pray (as the worship team always does prior to beginning the service) and found myself alone because no one was there yet. I took my shoes off, stood in front of the heater in an attempt to not freeze, and sang quietly (amazingly, it was in Chinese lol) to myself and the Lord. It was then that the idea came to me to speak to my boss about it. I fought the idea for a while, telling myself that I KNEW what the paperwork said and just could. not. shake the feeling that I really should talk to my boss. That's when I knew it was God speaking. I thank Him, prayed the idea back to Him for good measure, and told my boss about my situation on Monday.
...she came back to me yesterday and told me that the three class situation WAS a set-in-stone situation, with the EXCEPTION OF (here we go again, Lord) a grad student's LAST semester. In other words, I'm going to be allowed to only take the two classes I need to, STILL retain my assistantship, and spend my time on my own personal health, projects, and most importantly, job hunting.
THANK. YOU. JESUS!!!
Now, for the not-so-good news.
Long story short, I've got tons of work that need to be done, in a little under a month now, for my three classes. My workload at work isn't decreasing either, and while "down-time" at work is possible when I've finished the grading for the day and I may have leftover time to work on my homework (as we're told to do with our spare hours), the subsequent modules for the course I'm the TA for only get busier from this point on. So down time is HIGHLY unlikely.
In addition, there's a new software that I have to learn for one of the classes and while I had been ON schedule up till Spring Break to do fine in that class, the software's tutorials (which I HAVE to do to learn it) absolutely refused to run on my computer / laptop while I was on break, setting me back 1 full week. Then, after returning, my dad tried everything he knew to do (as did I, I contacted the author of the textbook to ask for help and went to the tech help desks on campus with nothing being resolved) and it STILL wouldn't cooperate.
Ironically, the software's tutorials run on HIS laptop just fine, which means I have to complete the tutorial on his laptop. Workable, but highly inconvenient. As a result of being behind schedule on the tutorials, I'm behind schedule on my project. *sighs*
Hopefully this helps you understand why things like candles, tea, and fuzzy things are in such abundance in my room now. It definitely puts me in a better mood overall, and better mood = better mind = better concentration and likeliness to stay put where I am and not get distracted. It's amazing what taking a very specific 10 minutes to set things up to my liking will do for my ability to focus.
So if you decide to pop by for a quick visit whilst I'm working at home, don't be surprised to see me in a fuzzy bathrobe, fuzzy socks, listening to some kind of cafe-ish music, with a lit candle and warm tea on the desk. :)
Sayaka's Birthday Celebration (Dinner 4/10, Birthday 4/12)
By this point, it's no secret that our family LOVES Sayaka, possibly due to our common roots from Asia, or our mutual love for Japanese food (and culture, as far as myself, Ash, and Dad go), or just the amazingly adorable and bubbly personality that she exudes from her entire being, but we LOVE Sayaka :)As such, it should ALSO be of no surprise to ANYONE that we had her over to treat her to a birthday dinner of her choice. She went with Vietnamese beef noodles, or Pho (there's supposed to be a ^ over the O, jsyk). Pronounced as "f-uh" not "f-oh". Just so we're clear :)
As as special treat, we had Kim over as well! To the right is the mandatory group photo. lol
I need a better abbreviation or like...a hashtag or something for these. If any of you come up with something pithy, do let me know? :)
smiling Sayaka and selfie-queen Kim lol
garnishing veggies + bowl of Pho (yes, I realize the O needs the little ^ thing)
There was a game that I had come across a long time ago on Kickstarter called "Tokaido". It looked very interesting and I was highly inclined to participate, but was REALLY disappointed when I saw that it had already ended.
To my surprise, I saw it again in a Books-a-Million store in Paducah. My best Chinese friend, Yvonne / YuCen, who was with me, immediately said she'd get it for me, but experience told me to go look for it on Amazon for a cheaper deal. Lo and behold, it was there and much more affordable than before. She got it for me and now, three years later, I have the board game, and two expansion packs. lol (there are 4 in total)
I'll do a #FeatureFriday2018 on it soon, so look out for it!
playing Tokaido, as you can see, we're about 1/3 of the way through
This was Kim's first time. We've played it with Sayaka before and given what a rare chance it is that we get to play (it's a slow, relaxed game that takes you through a traveling experience in Japan back in the days of the Tokaido road), we decided to play it that night :)
Mom's more of a fast-movements kind of gaming gal, so she sat this one out. We played with 4 players: Sayaka, Kim, Dad, and myself. If you're interested in playing (hopefully even more so after I put out the FF2018 post), let me know and we'll make an evening or tea break of it! :)
--------------------------------
As far as next week's plans are concerned, I'm visiting my sister in Champaign tomorrow to see her Kpop dance performance in the Illini Union (like the Student Center here in C'dale). Missions / International Sunday is also coming up this weekend, so next week's #WeeklyWednesday2018 post should be very jam-packed with fun stuff.
I'll see you guys then!
~Byee
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