today, i worked an overtime shift at fs29 and we went drilling up at griffith park in the hills. we went up to mt. lee, where the hollywood sign is. it's funny seeing the sign from behind it up close. we also got to do some helicopter operations. the best part was when a pigeon came flying too close to the main rotor blade and the force of the spinning blade sucked the bird in until i heard and saw the pigeon become an instant poof of feathers. it was almost like a disappearing magic trick, except guts were shot out everywhere. parts were all over the ground and the guys closest to the chopper got sprayed with bird blood. awesome... afterwards, we all took rides in one of our dept's new helicopters. the pilot gave us a tour of the city and took us along the coast and a flyby of the hollywood sign to end it all. i cannot i get paid for this kinda stuff...

hungry phoenix...

this is a resurrection of sorts. i'm goin old skool. back to blogger. everyone that graduated college after 2000 probably don't even remember blogger. it's the granddaddy to facebook. so, anyways, i'm coming back to posting thoughts, at least for now. thanks to facebook, and blogger being bought by google, i can log into blogger using gmail, then post automatically onto facebook. cool. so, here goes... i'm a lil rusty...

flip-flops
by no means am i a shoe expert. i'm a dude. i have one pair of shoes for each purpose. any more and i'd feel like i was wasting money. brown shoes, black shoes, gym shoes, flip flops...and so on. and i'm no podiatrist but i know and appreciate comfort. flip flops have been on my mind lately. and a catalyst to this posting was my friend hiro's comment on crocs, "i've grown to appreciate these ugly pieces of shit on feet." awesome. what better way is there to sum up crocs. however, i don't think i'm man enough to pull it off. i cannot get myself to buy a pair of these things. reminds me of the kind of goofy sandals i had to wear as a fobby kid growing up. scars. anyways, i'm pretty secure in my manhood but these are too much. maybe if i was a real man and had to stand on my feet all day....like a male nurse or a starbucks barrista.

i also live in the oc. this means i can feel comfortable anywhere in flip flops. even church. i love the comfort and the wind in my toes. i hate wearing socks. i hate taking off warm, moist socks after walking around all day. you can sense the steam coming off your feet. i disagree with hiro about rainbow sandals. unfortunately, i followed the crowd on this one and bought a pair awhile back. they suck. no comfort, no arch support.

my dream is for a new pair of reef mick fanning flip-flops. this is the king of flip flops. i bought a pair when i was in hawaii and wore it for 4 yrs until they finally fell apart. the new mick fannings have an air bag in the heel and a bottle opener in underneath the sole. i don't know how often i'd use the bottle opener but these are the best pair flip flops i've ever tried on. if i could go back in time, i'd take a pair and offer them to baby jesus to use for his future ministry instead of those leather n lace craps.

i dream about these flip flops. i go online looking for deals cuz they cost $42 and that's too much. i've even wasted precious study time to write about them. get these, trust me. if you have them, tell me about them. if you see a deal on them, please tell me...

our beloved friends of koh yao island, thailand.

thailand, best birthday, new station, clon...

my future wife and i will be going to thailand for a short missions trip along with two other couples and a single female. it's tentatively planned for july, which means that we'll be going as newlyweds. we've been joking that it'll almost be like a second honeymoon for us. they were all a part of her team that went to thailand last summer. i'm getting more and more excited. God is awesome.

this past saturday, cathy threw a party for me at mosun in laguna beach. it was the best birthday ever. especially cuz last year i spent my birthday without her. everything was perfect. great friends, food, and dancing. just wish my other friends could have been there.

last friday was my final shift at south central. it ended with a nice house fire in the morning. got back to the station, prepared my gear, took a shower, and said goodbye. starting this wed, i'll be at my new, permanent station in west la.

i just got finished watching a korean news documentary on one of the guys from the 90s k-pop duo, clon. before they formed clon, they choreographed and served as back-up dancers for a bunch of well known groups before them, creating many of their signature moves. anyways, the guy is now in a wheelchair after a horrible motorcycle accident, which left him paralyzed from the waist down. his partner died some time ago, unrelated to his own accident. however, they didn't say anything about how his partner died. his wife seemed like she had a former career as a model. i thought to myself how hard it must be to be married to a paralyzed husband who needs his diaper changed. then, the report showed home video clips of her taking care of him just after his accident years back when...get this...she was just his girlfriend. after i heard that, i got all choked up. call me cynical, but this day in age, i don't think most people would stay in a relationship under such difficult circumstances. as i look forward to marriage, it's encouraging to hear stories of people that honor marriage as a commitment.

love is...
i spent valentine's the day after cuz i had work. so, we went to redondo and had crab. we decided to keep it simple. afterwards, i was still hungry so i got a corn dog on our walk back to the car. now, mind you, corn dogs are great when you got the munchies and it's cold outside. it's also great cuz of the fried corn meal batter that's both crunchy and soft. but, as we all know, the best part of a corn dog comes at the end when one gets to scrape the crunchy end with his teeth. as you might have guessed, i gave this long awaited treat to cathy. now, if that isn't love, i don't know what is...

here's an excerpt from an email i sent:
also, i have a couple prayer requests. first, i'll be transferring to a new station in early march. please pray that i will be quided by God in this decision. i need to turn in a list of my preferences on saturday. secondly, my dad is at or near kidney failure and has already started dialysis. please pray for his well being. the effects on those around him, and for a future transplant. i cannot quite express how it feels to see the mortality of your own father. it's not depressive or anything. in fact, there are some positives. it feels nice to be needed by my dad and we have been growing closer lately. the other day, i trimmed my dad's stray eyebrow hairs and his nose hairs that were sticking out. i think as you get older, the hair on your body rebel and decide to grow at an independent rate of the others. this accounts for random 2 inch long hairs on eyebrows, noses, toes, ears, and chests for guys. the disclaimer here is that this observation is not at all scientific. i digress...the important point here is that my dad is not an invalid. i just did it for him. it's a bonding experience. it's a "chimps picking each other's lice" thing. thanks guys.

fear is when you start hydroplaning on the freeway and there's a car right next to you. way, way too much rain. but, i guess it's better than shoveling snow every morning.

the daily show with jon stewart is pretty damn funny. much more entertaining than regular news and yet you still feel like you're catching up on current events.

strange. it used to be good to be an american in a foreign country. now, you wanna be anything but an american in another country for every reason. our arrogance is finally catching up to us.

natural citrus listerine is cool. i've been using it regularly at home and at work. cathy even bought me a bottle to use at home. it was so thoughtful of her. she's speaking my love language. but, now that i'm thinking about it, was she hinting at something?

Good Eats...
around christmas time, i took cathy to a place called Asia de Cuba for dinner. it's up on hollywood and attracts the rich crowd. all the valets stand out in their all white west palm beach-like outfits. expensive. family style. eclectic, sometimes overzealous fusion choices. for example, asians eat fried rice and cubans eat plantains, which equals plantain fried rice. however, they went a lil overboard and topped the dish with a lightly tangy avocado mash. this blemished what would already have been a great fusion dish. what did go well was the black beans and edamame side dish. subtle mix of differing flavors and nice colors. the calamari salad was awesome and more than plentiful. it had crispy calamari, hearts of palm, plantains, and the sliced bananas actually went well with the other flavors. the greens were fresh and the dressing light, just the way i like it. like all the other family style dishes, the butterfish was well portioned, but i think the chef took the fish off the pan a little too early cuz the alcohol he used to cook it wasn't reduced enough. i think it was rum, considering the restaurant's name. it was really strong and got a good whiff of it before you even took a bite. he shoulda turned up the heat to burn off the alcohol some more.

recap. we had a sushi roll appetizer, the calamari salad, butterfish, and two sides, plantain fried rice and the beans. this would have easily fed 3 and maybe 4 if one guy and three girls.

the best part, however, was before the meal when we waited for our table by the wonderful view of hollywood. at the bar we ordered a mojito and a mango mojito. dude, i love mojitos now. and as everyone knows, i barely even drink. we ordered a thrid, a pineapple mojito. best was the mango. great drink. later we found out it was 12 per drink. ouch. at least the bartender liked cathy and gave us the third one for free. girls get all the stuff for free. geez.

happy new year. i just got off my shift this morning so i'm kinda tired and need to get back home to do the family thing. not too many runs yesterday. just heard lots of gunfire at night. don't they know that what goes up, must come down? stupid people. we even parked our cars under a shed just in case some stray bullets fell our way.

still kickin...

guess who's back? back again...guess who's back, guess who's back......
yes, i'm back. and if you're reading this, then you must be weird, considering the fact that the last time i wrote was in july. why are you still checking this site? whatever your reason, i'm glad you decided to stop by. what better time to write than on the eve of our Lord's birth.

it's been dificult to write. i've been busy. i'm not quite the same person that used to write on this blog. i've learned some things about myself. i learned that i don't communicate or face conflicts as well as i thought i did. a girl showed me that. i also learned that i loved this girl and that i couldn't live without her. so i asked her to marry me. if only it was that simple...haha. sittting here, writing this, i feel like a soldier back from battle. shellshocked by the various trials and struggles faced throughout the year. once i submit this with a click, i know that i have to re-enter the battlefield. don't get me wrong, there are no regrets. i'm happy. i'm learning...how to love, how to trust, how to trust, how to earn trust, how to be self-controlled.

by the way, she said yes. in sf, at the palace of fine arts. with the sun bouncing off the pool of water, the columns standing tall, birds in formation, and texas danny snapping away at his camera behind the tree. it truly was a magical moment. i coulda sworn i heard a frog stand up and sing..."kiss the girl!!"(little mermaid reference). please excuse my writing. it's been awhile. i've forgotten how to organize my thoughts and i have much to say. for those who actually care, it's a modest sized princess cut on a platinum setting with pave set diamonds on the side. i went for an elegant, contemporary, and antique look. gotta see it to appreciate it. custom made to my specs. handmade and no wax molds, it'll stay as a true one-of-a-kind. just like the person it was made for. for those who are dry heaving at this point...shut up.

before i go on. i'm very proud of peter. finished his first semester of law school. still remember when he was considering it while we were still living together. thought he was crazy. i'm glad you proved me wrong. and you're studying hard too. however, not hard enough that he still has time to blog and im. i guess some things never change. but those are the things that make you smile. like the fact that the next time the guys find themselves at a denny's, we'll order rasberry iced tea and someone will yell at frank to chug it down. anyways, pete, i'm looking forward to attending your graduation.

it's funny the way God made us. our bodies are so fragile, yet our spirits are so much more resilient than we can ever imagine. i never thought i'd be able to handle some of the things i see every day at work. with each passing shift, i am quickly amassing quite a catalogue of short stories gruesome enough to frighten little boys around a campfire. just last week, i was at a two car head on collision in which both drivers died at the wheel. close up, i viewed each corpse slumped over their respective steering wheels. prior to this incident, i learned what brain matter looks like after a gun shot wound to the head. i'm still debating in my mind how much i should actually share about these incidents. i've learned to deal with them. to place them in a compartment in my mind called 'work.' so far, i haven't had any bad dreams or visions off duty.

one reason that i'm very willing to share about my work is that i realized people don't really know what firefighters do. part of my job is to educate the public. it allows me to do a better job, and makes it easier for us to do our jobs. also, i want people to be able to imagine asians as firefighters. break the barriers, you know?

enough for now. if i write too much, i won't write again for another five months...

i'm happy to report that cathy and the rest of her team returned safely from their missions trip to thailand yesterday. i've already been blessed so much by the stories she has shared with me. God used her to bring three women to Christ. in such a short time, she made a great impact on her teammates, the missionary there, as well as the people of thailand. i truly do not deserve this woman of God.

in case you didn't know, my girlfriend (for now) is in thailand for a 2 week missions trip with a team from our church.  cathy and her team have one more week to go.  i would greatly appreciate it if all my friends would pray for her and her team.  i'd be more than happy to update you on how and what they are doing there.  for one thing, they seem to constantly emphasize how much they are enjoying the food there.  who says missions had to be filled with suffering?  i'm not one to advertise very often, but this is very important to me and more importantly, it matters to God.  so, as the cliches go, please join me and partner with me in praying for fellow brothers and sisters with the same goal.  on a side note, through this experience, i'm learning to be a better sender.  i'm trying to learn the different roles we can play in missions, and not just as goers.  in speaking of missions, i wanna welcome back my dear brother, danny (tex, that is).  i look forward to sharing God's wisdom in your life.

love is all at once the greatest pain and the greatest joy.

i'm at a new station now. i'll be spending the next 4 months out in venice near the boardwalk. it's been quite busy so far. lots of calls after midnight. and yes, i do slide down a pole.