Depression has a brother - it is laziness. Granted, the world has a right to be depressed- it is running on its own; a hamster on its wheel, never knowing its own blindness. But you have a purpose, a Gift, a mark to run for and cherish. The only reason a Christian has to despair is if God leaves you; he is struggling or lacking in faith; or he is lazy.

"I will never leave you nor forsake you." He promised. It will never happen.

Sh*t happens. We've all faced adversity. Its part of life and a necessity for believers. But in it, waiting on the Lord is righteous.

If someone is lazy, he should work. Depression festers when free time and apathy mingle. Do some real work, not busybody work. Depression here is more or less the flesh's way of lying its way out of working. Get over it, Get to it, and get your act in gear.

In all of these, depression sometimes seems to great to encounter. But as the word and countless examples show, it can be a vapor to some. Remember Who reigns and calm the war within.

It's called Fo-pah. I think I've finally come to understand Korean's obsession with 'presentation.' What do I mean by that; its everywhere. Hagwon's demanding ties worn when teaching Kindergardners, Baskin Robbins packaging cakes in ornate ice chests packaged with solid CO2, pizza boxes with ribbons on them, ladies decking themselves out in stilettos and fashionista clothing for a day at Lotte World. To us it seems a bit ridiculous, to them its a basic rule: the way you look, is your first contact.
Its a slap in the face to me. I always grew up hating that mentality and I still sincerely believe that the character of a person speaks much louder than a person's attire. But I have to admit character speaks slower. And maybe my refusal to adhere to these outlandish requests suggests my character may have some flaws as well?
In any case, I believe I've come to a vague understanding of this aspect of the culture. When you come, it'll hit like a fart in the wind. Why does Korea do this? Need this? I still don't know why. I don't know why 50% of all the players down by the court come decked out in their Bryant, James, Paul jerseys ready to rock, but can't shoot worth beans. (Mind you, I have played with some friggin' good players here too. And not that America doesn't have its share of primadonnas, but at least they're only blips on a radar, not the entire domestic fleet) I don't know why, I don't know WHY we need to wear ties when we're not businessmen, but teachers. Even professors aren't required to wear them in lecture. I don't understand why everyone wears North Face in the Winter, and girls wear heels and leggings. Maybe I'm making a big deal of nothing. So suit me.

I've finally got my browser sorted out: firefox 3.1 I'm a believer. I'll tell you why. Chrome is alright, but I need something a lil more powerful. It feels like a kiddie's toy. Opera was great, but let's face it, it can't handle everything like firefox can. IE. nope. Safari. Let's face it. Like Quicktime, like iTunes, who knows if its great on a Mac, but it wasn't built for a PC. So can that one. Firefox hasn't always been my cup of joe, but with Tracemonkey now in, and after having gone through many many browsers, I've settled. Don't let me down Mozilla!!!!

And now for the addons:
1. Firegestures - can't live without it. For those of you who don't know, it speeds up your browsing like crazy. And it lets you get rid of those annoying "back" "forward" and "reload" buttons that are completely unnecessary. Not that you need firegestures to get rid of those either, but whatever. Just download it. It rocks when you get used to it.
2. Speed Dial - Another thing ripped off from Opera, but again, indispensable. Chrome went ahead and copied it too. I feel really bad for the people at Opera because they had so many good ideas, just so unable to put it all together.
3. Foxmarks - This one's a new one for me, but I've found it to be necessary for me. Especially for a guy like me who goes to websites, just to start going to websites. Next thing you know, I've opened up 30 tabs and I need all of them bookmarked! I guess you could call me inefficient but still, I never know when I'll need all 101 tutorials for photoshop effects handy okay? Get off my inefficient case already.

Some other addons that I've found pretty useful:
cooliris - This pretty much just makes searching sexy. If you want to look cool in front of your friends, I definitely recommend this. For my purposes though, I wish they'd allow a way to easily put an image onto the clipboard. Maybe there already is a way and I'm just stupid.
fireFTP - although they weren't quite on top of updating once 3.1 started betas, this addon was invaluable for many of my operations for awhile. It saved me the unnecessary searches for old freeware versions of cuteFTP and explorerFTP I just got tired of using that. Using IE's FTP just got old after awhile.
Wizz RSS - I haven't used this one in awhile, but if you're into RSSing, it makes feeding a lot easier.

And on another topic-but-not-so-completely-unrelated: I recommend rocketdock. Its like the object bar along the bottom of the MAC OSX. And yes, its an attempt at PC's trying to act like a Mac. Whatever. It just makes opening apps easier. And its a hell of a lot faster than the dinosaur object dock. So if you're wanting to spice up your desktop, have a go at it too.

The top 3 hits in Korea right now:

Big Bang - Lies
Wonder Girls - Nobody



Big Bang - Haru Haru

The 3 most annoying commercials in Korea right now

1. Fast Cash
2. Rush and Cash
3. Matiz

I just love this song:

Prodigal Me
by Shane Barnard

what have i done to get me here?
unraveled and undone, i need my father
what have i done? i've followed my feet to nowhere
now i'm here! as i ran, i can run no more
prodigal me

the mountains to the west, i know they laugh at me
they know i'm scared to cross and leave this life i lead
oh my pride! i give you up a barter for my freedom
what will they think as i come stumbling down to join their lives?

i need to cross this mountain and find my way home
i seek no greater fortune, rescue me
oh unmerciful divide be merciful tonight
show me the other side
prodigal me

the mountains to the east, they¹ve swallowed my beloved
this house completely incomplete, where is my mortar?
where did he go? he followed his feet to nowhere
please come home! you¹ve done me no wrong
each evening i look down that road
i hope and i wait for you
and my servants they look down that road
we watch and we pray for you

master, master, who's that man stumbling down that road?
could it be the one? could it be? could it be?
master, master, it's Your son
coming home to join our lives!

i'm looking down this mountain, i see my way home
there is no greater fortune, i believe!
oh unmerciful divide you laugh at me no more
oh i've reached the other side!
prodigal me

could i be the one? could i be? could i be?
Father, Father, we're Your sons
coming home to join Your life

we've finally crossed this mountain, and found our way home
there is no greater fortune than Jesus
oh how merciful is our God who gave His only Son!
oh we worship You tonight!

This is my first Blog trying to use Google Docs. I'd call it interesting. What should I write about?

Today was the first day it snowed. It was ushered in by one of my kids in kindergarten shouting at the top of its lungs right in the middle of my lesson: "ITS SNOWING!!!!!!"

I know its a little hard to make out- hopefully there'll be more to come. All I can say is its California upside down. And its been too cool - literally. =)


First Snowfall in Bundang for the Year from David Lee on Vimeo.

So look: at first I was too afraid to post anything because I felt like I would never get anything done. But now, I feel like there's just stuff I have to write about- actually there are a million things to write about being here, just the whole idea of living somewhere other than home for 20 years is a lot in itself. But I think Korea for example, is just a different breed of its own. One of the things for example, I find, is that its a small country. I think small countries have their own personality- as opposed to big countries obviously. But in Korea for example, everyone lives in tiny apartments. Even the super rich, still live in apartments. And you might say, 'well duh, that's how things are' but alright, even more so is the fact that because its a small country, it feels like all the facets and things of life seem crammed into it. The four seasons of spring, summer, winter, and fall are all nicely compartamentalized here. There's no question here its fall. Its as clear as the leaves are starting to make their way to litter the sidewalks and streets with red and gold and yellow.

I really wanted to harp on this because I really think its a special little country. In general too I think the adage really applies here: be faithful with little, you will be faithful with much. One of the things Esther really loves about being here is all the craziness companies, restaurants, pastry shops, and just stores in general is they all really value their service. From the bow and greeting every customer gets at the door, to the carefully and exquisitely wrapped, completely unnecessary bowtie that comes in a box of pizza. Every edge on service they can find, they do. Tutoring in English? Just teach an extra five minutes, its a nice gesture.

I mean I guess this has kinda turned into a spiel on korean service, but oh what the heck. Service here is completely different here. I wish America would learn a thing or two. Take for example, cell phone service. Got a broken phone? No need to trash the old one if you don't have insurance, just have one of the customer engineers to take a look at it. At the very worst, they'll replace the main board for 80 bucks. No 400 dollars for a brand new phone. And man, can I just say, I'm not sure if its just Verizon, but service there is just complete garbage. I once waited over thirty minutes for one tech support staff when there were like 4 sales reps just standing there. I was next in line. It made me racist, elitist, pissed off and fuming mad. None of that here.

What else? Did I mention ALL foods here do delivery? McDonalds, Chicken, you name it. AND, no tip. You eating there is their tip, they believe. Man, maybe if more restaurants in the US did that, less people would be food critics.

I'd care earlier since I'd want to include every last bit about the korean service thing, but really I just don't care anymore. I'm not gonna edit, revise, or care. This is what I wanted to write: service here is gold compared to America. Maybe that's why Korea gets taken advantage of. But that's another blog in and of itself.
=)