Let my contrite heart rejoice.

God, be merciful to me,
On Thy grace I rest my plea;
Plenteous in compassion Thou,
Blot out my transgressions now;
Wash me, make me pure within,
Cleanse, O cleanse me from my sin.

My transgressions I confess,
Grief and guilt my soul oppress;
I have sinned against Thy grace
And provoked Thee to Thy face;
I confess Thy judgment just,
Speechless, I Thy mercy trust.

Some guy - Richard Redhead, I believe - wrote music and put the lines from Psalm 51 into it, and it's beautiful. I have to thank Jars of Clay for singing this song in their Redemption Songs album because I don't know if I've ever heard it before. Anyhow, it's had such a huge effect on me that I've read Psalm 51 as a prayer for the past few days now.

As Easter nears, I've been thinking a lot about how I've been dealing with my actions and my sins against God. Sometimes I feel I am taking advantage of Christ's sacrifice and abusing God's mercy and grace. Jesus' death and resurrection shouldn't be taken so lightly to sin so freely yet do nothing about it. This has been on my heart.

This hymn has been a wonderful song of repentance and redemption to me. I read Psalm 51 with such sincerity it almost brings me to tears. Sin is rampant in this world; it is rampant in me! Let's all remember Easter everyday of the year, and let's always go through everyday in a Christ-like manner. It's impossible for us, but something we should strive for.

I am evil, born in sin;
Thou desirest truth within.
Thou alone my Savior art,
Teach Thy wisdom to my heart;
Make me pure, Thy grace bestow,
Wash me whiter than the snow.

Broken, humbled to the dust
By Thy wrath and judgment just,
Let my contrite heart rejoice
And in gladness hear Thy voice;
From my sins O hide Thy face,
Blot them out in boundless grace.

A God-made shower.

How come no one told me that Magnolia was three hours long? I started that movie at 9 thinking it would be over around 11 pm, but noooooooo! Interesting movie. Not sure if I understood the point of it all, but that's okay. I was thoroughly entertained trying to understand it.

I was going to write a lot more than this, but now I can't remember exactly what I was going to write about. Something profound or interesting I observed today. I can't remember. I'll say that the rain was very welcomed despite the fact that it canceled all the baseball games I was planning to photograph. I stood outside for a while with my face towards the sky. It felt like God was crying about something today, but it was like a joyful cry because I felt very happy to be standing out there. Everyone should enjoy rain outside rather than inside.

As David would title this, "Tidbits."

Brooks demands a lot from us poor students. It's nice that they want to make these classes as close to the "real world" as possible like having assignments with one-hour deadlines and all that jazz. But it sucks when you don't have a laptop and can't transmit your photos while out in the field. I guess it's expected that you have a laptop by the time you enter your final year here. Unfortunately, I haven't quite given into taking out an extra hefty loan just to buy myself a laptop. They make us buy our own digital cameras along with its accessories, it's pretty absurd that I would have to go out and spend an extra $1500 for a decent laptop.

I shouldn't complain. I'm the one who chose to come to this school. What was I thinking???

Anyhow, things have been pretty hectic. Friday and Saturday were especially crazy, and I was completely burned out by Sunday. Being a bum never felt more rewarding than today. Yesterday I had a gig with The American Enterprise Magazine to shoot four family portraits for an article. The growing Catholic community has created its own sub-culture in Santa Paula, and so they needed someone to get portraits of the families and the Father of one of the churches there. The pictures turned out okay. They could have been better, but then again...they can always be better. Because the lights I brought malfunctioned, I was stuck using my one and only flash. Oh, well. Things happen. I'm getting paid for this, so I'm happy. Hopefully the art director of the magazine will be happy too. :P

A couple weeks ago I watched the entire Firefly series and Serenity. I've been meaning to do that for a while now, and it was well worth the three days spent watching it. One of the better sci-fi shows that came out in the last few years. It's a shame that it got canceled after its first season. Fox should have known better. Well, Fox should just know better about a lot of things.

I also saw V for Vendetta last week, and Inside last night. I enjoyed both of them. Natalie Portman never ceases to amaze me with her superb acting skills and her awesomely good hotness. Clive Owen is the bomb. Denzel Washington actually plays a role where he's calm 90% of the movie and isn't screaming at the top of his lungs. It's sort of funny the only role that Hugo Weaving can land is one where he doesn't show his face, but he played V very well. The action is good in "V for V." Inside Man is clever and the story was well-delivered.

Oli and Nem came to visit for Saturday, and that was a lot of fun. We went out to lunch at the Habit. Hung out and watched lots of Family Guy. The Bozarths threw a party to honor Morgan's acheivement in running in the LA Marathon last week. Makes me feel like a bum. Oh wait...I am. Anyway, Oli and Nem didn't mind the party much, but I could tell they didn't have a blast. That's okay because we left early to watch Inside Man. We win.

Oh yeah, I finally compressed a video slideshow of my photographs over the years for the web, so you can view that now here. I threw a link to it on my blog a while back, but I sort of did it in a subtle way; and only the most keen of internet surfers could catch it. Anyway, that was a low-res version of it, this one is a higher-res and much bigger version. It's about 30 mb, so be patient.

Enjoy life!

What the deuce?

I'm up at 3 am blog surfing. I'm so awake, and I don't know why. I'm going to blame Starbucks for their mocha that I had at 8 pm. You would think that coffee couldn't keep you up for seven hours, so it must have been something else. I'm not willing to just blame myself, so I'm going to blame Bush because everyone likes to blame Bush.

Gatorade, Cash, and Barbie-Doll Legs

Gatorade is the bomb. I may like it even more than soda, which is saying a lot, but I get a better feeling like I'm being more healthy drinking Gatorade. Soda is just bad for you overall and makes no attempt to being beneficial, at least Gatorade gives the illusion that it can fuel you for the day (without using caffeine).

Anyway, I'm in sports photography this session. Now I need to go out and actually photograph people and go up and talk to human beings. Not because I want to get to know them, but because I want caption info. Who do you think I am, some kind of people person? Though, I'm looking forward to taking pictures of sports since I like them in general. I'm hoping to cover the track and field event at APU tomorrow, and I'm going down to LA for the marathon on Sunday. Awesome. I'm already hoping to take some pretty dang awesome pictures. I just wish my Nikon D70 was cooler than it is right now, which is not very cool at all. I'll manage.

Tim and I jammed last night from 7-10. That's a pretty long time to mess around on guitars and drums, but it was good. We mostly played worship music, and it was nice to do that for three hours. Not only is it good to sing praise to God for three hours, but it was a good time to practice. We even hooked up a mic, and I got to hear what my voice really does sound like when we play. You get that whole, "Oh my gosh! Is that what my voice sounds like" realization, and I didn't want to sing ever again. Oh, well. It's FUN to sing!

My last blog entry got some pretty negative responses regarding the album cover to Youth. Sorry if it really did offend anyone, but I've been putting album covers to lyrics I quote ever since the beginning. No need to be inconsistent because someone's Barbie-doll legs are on there. I've seen worse, and it isn't that bad anyway. C'mon, people. They're just legs.

...

Nevermind, you're right. I won't put covers like that on my blog again.

Ray Charles just came on my iTunes singing Georgia on My Mind. Now I feel like I miss a place I've never actually been to. Ray just reminded me to say that I finally watched Walk the Line last week. That movie and Ray gave me full confirmation that rock stars should NEVER be idolized. (Warning: Slight spoilers) I didn't like Johnny Cash's music that much, but I pretty much dislike him as a person now. Ray wasn't any better; in fact, he was worse in my mind. All this infidelity is really sickening, and Cash was totally ruthless to his first wife. The first three-fourth's of the movie I was just yelling at him, "Just divorce her already!" What a punk. His infatuation with June Carter felt more like an obsession than true love, as some would see it. But maybe I'm just being too critical of the man. He did change his ways later, and that's cool. Nothing like some redemption in a movie. And overall, it was a great movie about a musician's life. I just don't approve of the way he lived; I'm glad his latter half of his life was a bit better.

Okay, that's it. This blog is a little all over the place. Sorry about that. Maybe I should organize my blog entries like Mac does with titles and sections and stuff.

Better Now

Collective Soul's Youth

Better Now

I'm newly calibrated
All shiny and clean
I'm your recent adaptation
Time to redefine me

In between.

I apologize for the lack of posts on this blog. I just haven't been in the mood for it lately. It's probably because of a mixture of WoW, late-night television, hanging out with friends, and school. But it's probably mostly WoW.

So my session is over. I'm in the middle of break week, and I'm not doing anything special or going anywhere far away. I did debate whether or not to go up to Nor Cal, but I'm really low on money. Oh, well. I really wanted to see the family, but that is what you get for choosing a school 500 miles away. I managed to finish pretty strong in my class, pulling out an A- on my final project (5-10 minute documentary piece). I pretty much procrastinated till the very last week. I filmed for like three days of that week, then edited it all in one very long night. I'm so awesome. The teacher told me in the critique that the video was..."not bad." That's a compliment coming from him.

A friend of mine graduated after this session, and it made me realize that graduation is not far at all. It's a little scary to think that I won't be doing school anymore, and I will have to depend on myself from now on. I won't be able to pull the "Ask Mom and Dad for money" move after then. I'll need to find a good place to stay, pay my own bills, actually eat decent meals...being grown-up is a lot of doing things that aren't very fun. But then again, being a not-grown-up is a lot of that as well. I guess life won't be better or worse; it'll just be different.

Maybe I'll take that job at CityTeam.

Oh, man.

I felt like writing a blog right until I opened up the blog text box, so I'll just say some brief random things:

-Moulin Rouge is an excellent movie. It was hardly what I expected it to be, but then again I didn't know what to expect.

-Adult Swim on Saturdays suck except new episodes of Full Metal Alchemist and Aqua Teen Hunger Force

-Metallica sounds dang good with the San Francisco symphony playing behind them.

-Kareoke rules.

-

2005

I'm inspired to write up a top ten movie list of 2005. I won't go into much detail like I did in last year's post , mainly because as I was looking up what was made in 2005, I only viewed a fraction of what I really wanted to go see. This list could be much better, and I'm not too thrilled about writing it (I just feel it a little necessary). I just didn't have the cash this year to go to the box office, so I'm adding in movies I saw on video as well as one's I've seen this month but were made in 2005. Otherwise, my top ten will look even more pathetic that it does already.

10. Lord of War - I never saw the ending, but I'm sure I would put this as my tenth favorite movie of 2005. It was interesting, twistedly humorous, and had to do with guns. I thought it was an interesting view on war and why wars still happen today.

09. War of the Worlds - Though I love Spielberg and his style in movie-making, War of the Worlds only made it ninth. The story was really interesting till after Tim Robbins enters the scene, then it got insanely crazy - it was almost like watching a high budget episode of The Twilight Zone. I didn't like how it ended either as far as closure went. The character's development was good at the beginning, but then it seemed to hit a brick wall all of a sudden and left stuff hanging.

08. Cinderella Man - I remember someone noting how having Russell Crowe in the lead acting role and Ron Howard directing made this movie A Beautiful Mind 2. It was pretty funny. Anyhow, this is the sports drama movie of the year for me. I liked Ron's edgy approach to filming a boxing match, and again Crowe almost convinced me in the movie that he is a real sweet guy in real life.

07. The Great Raid - More WWII movies! Yes! Good movie about a rescue mission that took place in the Philippines. I liked it because it showed the importance of a good plan and higher commanding officers who don't do much grunt work, but they are definitely needed behind the lines. Also, historical war movies will always have a special place in my heart.

06. Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith - Redeeming close to the Star Wars prequels. Unfortunately, Hayden's acting still wasn't top notch, and Natalie became a helpless, mourning "housewife." Ewan was really good, though. I still think Lucas can't write, but can think up really good story. The "You're breaking my heart" and "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" lines brought a smile and a groan to my confused face. Sometimes I wonder if Lucas is doing it on purpose like Jessica Simpson seems to act like a total moron on purpose. But then I realize he isn't...just like Jessica isn't.

05. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - These movies just get better and better, especially with that little touch of Dawson's Creek in them. Adventure, magic, high school drama - it's all good, baby! No, really. This movie is a very good watch, and it doesn't feel like 2+ hours when you're watching it.

04. Crash - The quality of this movie isn't only found in the ensemble cast. The story, the way it's told, and the issues it addresses is disturbing and really gets you thinking about how you view people. The movie does give a hope in the end, but it's still hard to grasp that hope when you think about it after the credits are done rolling. Movies that make you think afterwards are always great in my book.

03. Batman Begins - The Batman movement is starting up again, and this movie is the reason why. The origin of Batman is a good story, and it's taken too long for someone to make a movie dedicated to that story. The casting was awesome too, and I can't wait to see them return in the next film...except maybe for Katie Holmes, though she was good eye candy.

02. Sin City - Another movie based on a comic book (or graphic novel...whatever), and I really enjoyed this movie. Yes, it's brutal, it's gruesome, it has nudity, and there are really disturbing images in this movie, but I feel that they were necessary parts for the plot and story. The violence and nudity wasn't thrown in just to get a couple more people in the theatre seats. A lot of people didn't see what the point of the movie was, but I thought the idea of vengeance justice and what is right and what is wrong to do was very interesting...even if I don't agree with them at all. The movie is also visually intoxicating with its special effects and how still images were adapted to motion picture.

01. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - Heh, what a strong contrast from the runner-up. I was very pleased with this movie because I was so scared that it would butcher the book to pieces. Everything in the movie did the exact opposite and was a strong movie adaptation to the book. There were a few added scenes I could do without and more screen time was needed for Aslan. All in all, however, it was a great movie. The Christian themes were definitely there, though you would have to look for them (the book is no different), so I'm glad that no one made an effort to try to take them out. Not that they could, really; Lewis just had so much of it in the story that it wouldn't be the same story without them. Anyway, it was the movie I enjoyed the most from 2005.

And there you have it. There were A LOT of other movies that I wanted to see. I'm sure if I saw movies like King Kong, Walk the Line, and Munich, they would have a place on the top ten, but this is just how it is. Booooo!

Go to David's list and Oli's list to see what they liked and didn't like last year.

Here is the list of movies I saw that were released in 2005:

The 40 Year Old Virgin, Assault on Precinct 13, Because of Winn-Dixie, The Brothers Grimm, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Coach Carter, The Constant Gardener, Corpse Bride, The Family Stone, Four Brothers, Guess Who, Hitch, Hostage, Ice Princess, In Good Company, In Her Shoes, Just Like Heaven, Kingdom of Heaven, The Longest Yard, Madagascar, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Must Love Dogs, The Pacifier, The Ring 2, The Skeleton Key, Stealth, Unleashed, Wedding Crashers

Lem Returns

I'm back in Ventura, California. I arrived in San Francisco on Friday. I drove down today. The only thing I have to say about the trip back is this: After watching four movies in a row, drinking one bottle of white wine, drinking one bottle of sake, and eating two airplane meals, I learned that choosing to watch four movies in a row, drink one bottle of white wine, drink one bottle of sake, and eat two airplane meals instead of sleeping is a grave mistake.

Now for a random Chuck Norris fact. (I have the guys to thank for finding this.)

From beach to mountains; from shorts to pants.

The family took a long weekend and spent time in at the Zambales beach for a couple days, then Baguio city for a couple more days. Actually, spent probably a little more than a day at each location; the bulk of our trip was probably spent driving. Nevertheless, it was a nice trip and we enjoyed total relaxation at the beach and being total tourists in Baguio.

The Malabuyo kids at the beach. Typical sibling pose. (I love it!)

Oli and I excited about the Baguio market.

I won't write a whole blog about our trip because I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (and I'm incredibly lazy right now). Again, Oli has put up a lot of pics of the trip on his Flickr account under the "Zambales Beach" and "Baguio" sets.

Have a nice day.

Init dito!

So it’s the fourth day of 2006. It doesn’t really mean a thing to me as it would to a lot people – people who speak of resolutions or starting over. I find resolutions to be futile, and one day that starts a new calendar year by no means wipes your past clean so you can rebuild your life. However, New Year’s Day does mark that it’s been 2006 years (give or take) since our Christ’s birth, and that is something to always remember. I also like to see it as one more year closer to the Second Coming, which is an overly optimistic way of seeing things since we have no idea when that day will be, but this is one thing I have no problem being optimistic over.

New Year 2006 was also a marker for three full years where I didn’t visit the Philippines. Kuya, Oli, and I spoke several months ago about visiting during the holiday season, and it slowly got more and more serious as the months went by. Unfortunately, Kuya and his family weren’t able to come, but Oli and I had the privilege of going. So Oli and I took off in the late morning of Dec. 30, and arrived in Manila just before the birth of 2006. We wanted to get back to Auntie Emily’s house before the fireworks kicked off, but we ended up driving the roads as bottle rockets, OG’s, fire fountains, and cobras (small fireworks chained together to explode in quick sequence) lit up the streets. Smoke and debris filled the roads; it looked like a war field.

We arrived at Auntie Emily’s around 12:30 am, where the party was still going on. The loudness of Filipino chatter and the high volume of the TV made me feel right at home. I sat down at the dining table and immediately grabbed a plate to serve myself some authentic Filipino food goodness. Half the things I had no idea was, but I ate it anyway. It all tasted fine if not good, even when I found out one of the dishes was ox tongue, which gave me the thought that most of what people think tastes bad is purely based on the knowledge of the food. I always thought it was strange when people don’t eat food if they see the head of the animal. It’s still fish. It’s still beef. It’s still pork. What difference does it make if you can see its face? The ox tongue was still good, the taste doesn’t change just because I know it’s ox tongue or not.

Anyway, we left the house to my parent’s place around 1:30 am. There we opened up the Balikbayan boxes we brought with us. Throughout our missionary years, Balikbayan boxes have become a sort of giant goody bag from the States. It’s filled with State-side candy, clothes, canned and packaged food, and other things that you can’t buy here in the Philippines. Most of the stuff is provided by our relatives, so opening up these boxes can’t wait till the morning.

We pulled out the Christmas presents from friends and family from the States, and Mom, Dad, and Rachel opened them all and loved them. Mom and Dad especially liked the Caleb photo album that Kuya and Chesney put together for them, and Rachel loved her new dress from Auntie Nene.

That was our first few hours in Manila.

The past few days consisted of visiting Mom and Dad’s church, having the relatives come over to Mom and Dad’s for dinner, and going to Greenhills Mall where Oli and I hung out with Khup and Nem and had dinner at Chili’s there – one of the several restaurants that we considered very nice places to dine way back in high school.

It’s been a lot of fun being with the family and being able to participate in their everyday living. Rachel made a friend here who is very much like her best friend back in Escondido, so it’s almost like visiting them in So Cal…except the Philippines rocks and So Cal is only so so. Ha!

This weekend we go to Baguio, but till then we are heading to Mega Mall to enjoy the five stories of Philippine retail goodness. Yes!

If you want to see pictures, Oli has posted our day-by-day living of our trip on his Flickr account.

P.S. I dropped my camera on its lens back at the SF airport. I do this a lot, so I wasn’t too worried, but I picked it up to find that the UV filter cracked in two places. Luckily, the actual lens is perfectly fine. The only problem now is I think the UV filter bent on the inside because it’s now jammed onto my lens and I can’t get it off. I’ll have to take it to a shop to get it off…or stick it into a vice. I suppose either option would work.

Across the Pacific.

Hello from Japan!

Reasons for continued questioning... (Part 2)

Because of the monster discussion that Part 1 created, I feel like I should write another blog to give you my thoughts. A sort of "conclusion," if you will.

To summarize what the this whole thing is about (for those who haven't read my blog lately), Switchfoot's Adding to the Noise was played during a Victoria's Secret commercial. Switchfoot fans, haters, and in-betweens took sides on the numerous issues that erupted - namely if Switchfoot truly and fully sold out or not when they moved into the secular market. I wrote a quick blog about it when I first saw it on TV, and it exploded into craziness. Mac even wrote about it. Read Part 1 and Mac's post if you want more detail on discussion.

With that, here we gooooooooooooooooooo...

---------------

Switchfoot surely wasn't joking when they decided the name of their band. Some can interpret the name as a term from "switching" from a life without Christ to a life with Christ. That is, at least, how a Christian could interpret it. (You could just take the name as nothing but a cool band name...your choice.) However, given the recent events of the band, one can now say that Switchfoot has taken the previous interpretation and turned it completely upside down. Not in terms of salvation, of course, but of marketing and business. Ironic how one's name can mean so much.

Victoria's Secret ad campaign during the Christmas season has been encouraging women and men alike to buy their products as gifts. "Give me sexy," they say, "Give me Victoria's Secret." It is no wonder why so many are sitting very unwell with the fact that Switchfoot's song would play on one of their commercials.

There are many arguments that fans (and those who even don't care much about Switchfoot) use to defend Switchfoot. What are they defending exactly? They're defending attacks against them that it was very unChristian-like for them to throw their music on such an unwholesome commericial; furthermore, lots of people are beginning to question that Switchfoot truly sold out when they signed with the Sony label - the VS commercial was like the nail in the coffin to them.

I will go through the arguments I've heard from my blog and this forum that Kuya linked to in Part 1, and I will give my opinion to counter these arguments:

Switchfoot has nothing to do with Victoria's Secret other than they have a song on their commercial. Are they dating the models? Are they having sex with the models? No!

Allowing Victoria's Secret to use their song is enough for Switchfoot to promote Victoria's Secret products. Especially for a commercial that promotes and uses sex and lust to sell their things. They don't need to date a VS model to be in the wrong.

The producers from their label made them do it.

This is most likely true. This is probably the only argument that I'll take very seriously because it's one I can see Switchfoot not being able to get around easily. It is a very sad case when a contract gets in the way of choices, and this is why I get skeptical when a Christian goes into the secular market. Anyhow, I feel like Switchfoot owes their hardcore fans some kind of statement. I feel sort of betrayed that I defended them so strongly about going into the secular market, but they're throwing their music around like a pimp with his whores. And they don't seem to care about it! (Note: For those who think Switchfoot doesn't owe their fans a statement - or anything for that matter - they owe the fans everything for being where they are now.)

Switchfoot didn't know, and had nothing to do with arranging it with Victoria's Secret.

This may be so, but I think they still need to tell people their thoughts on it. There's too much reaction to ignore it completely. Plus it just looks bad on them. To me, it looks like they just don't care and they just want the money. This would be the claim that they sold out. Could it be true that they just want fame and fortune? I certainly hope not because their music speaks against such views!

Victoria's Secret sells underwear. They don't sell porn, and they don't promote the idea of pre-marital sex.

This is true. But as Mac said, "It ain't so much about what Victoria's Secret sells, it's the way they sell it." VS definitely uses the idea of sex and lust to sell their product. Whether it'd be girls who want to buy it to attract men, or men who want to buy it because they want to see it on their girlfriend/wife/wife's girlfriend, it is incredibly unwholesome and degrading to one's soul. Switchfoot shouldn't have anything to do with VS for this sole reason. If the label forced them to do it, then they can always leave the label or write a statement to the fans.

Moreover, I wrote in Mac's blog that Switchfoot wrote a song against society's obssession with sex. From Easier Than Love, they sing, "Sex is currency/She sells cars, she sells magazines" and "sex is industry/The CEO of corporate policy." This is also what bugs me. Switchfoot is acting like a huge hypocrite right now. It almost sickens me.

"Does Switchfoot have to be glorifying Jesus with every move they make? Do you? Why do you expect more out of a band, they are human also and they need to pay the bills. Sure Jesus wouldn't PROMOTE a commercial but he also wouldn't condemn it, Paul would do that." - AldoDaldo

What...the...crap! How much more disturbing can you get when someone
actually writes this just to defend their beloved band! We must always strive to glorify God. Every move we make, every thought we think, and every word we say should be glorifying God. Granted that we, as people with corrupt flesh, do not do this even half the time we live on Earth, it is still indeed a true statement.

As the thing with Paul, Jon wrote in the comments of Part 1, "St. Paul, an inspired commentator on Jesus' life and sayings, by the Holy Spirit (the third person of that trinity that Jesus is also part of), is a good indication of what Jesus would condemn."

It isn't our business to concern ourselves with these matters. Who cares if Switchfoot put their song to a Victoria's Secret ad? If you think it's wrong, then it's wrong. If you think it's okay, then it's okay. Don't judge Switchfoot, leave that to God.

It's not a matter of judging, it's a matter of watching each other as Christian brothers and sisters. When a fellow Christian has sinned or is causing people to sin, it is definitely our business to set them straight. The idea that God will do the judging and we just need to look to ourselves is not a Biblical way of living. We aren't judging Switchfoot, we are just trying to show the correct way to see situations. Will Switchfoot go to hell for this? I highly doubt it, but that's not the issue. We must always concern ourselves with Christians' wrongdoings. Not to be smarty-pants or finger-pointers, but to help build each other up in our walk with God.

Switchfoot is using their music to reach out to people who watch that commercial.

Anyone who saw the commercial will know that only the intro guitar riff was played. None of the lyrics were sung, and no one who doesn't listen to Switchfoot would make any correlation to them and the music. With that said, what did Switchfoot do to reach out to the audience? Nothing. What did they get out of it? Easy money. Hmmm...

P.O.D. touring with Korn is a better example of reaching out to that type of audience. They are at concerts, talking with people, singing their music for all to hear their message. Switchfoot's song on Victoria's Secret did nothing but get models to prance around their underwear looking lustfully into the camera.

---------------

With all this said, I don't want people to think I'm some kind of high and mighty Christian who only sees the world from the clouds. I am a terrible and cruel sinner just like everyone else, but like I said, we strive to become more like Christ and help others along. One person said that we should just love Switchfoot and leave the rest to God. Is setting someone straight when they are wrong a way of love? I believe so.

Don't worry, I will still listen to my Switchfoot CDs. I'm still hoping for a response from them. However, until then, I will detach the person from the music and just listen to their songs as good Christian rock music. I don't know about their last two albums, though. It's just too painful now to listen to those. Their first three are still very good...and very Christian. :)

At its best.

Back on Thursday was my trip out to the city. I've never visited a large city on the Eastern side of the States, so I was excited. Clinton Bauman, one of the staff workers at CityTeam, took me to his evening Bible study group in the center city area.

The weather had been pretty crummy. At least, for people who normally lived in Philly during the winter time would think it crummy. I, on the other hand, was having a blast. It was cold - DANG cold! It had snowed during the day, but the precipitation had morphed into rained by the night's arrival.

I rode with Clinton to his apartment where we dropped off his car. We did a slight jog down the hill to the train station where we would take the 30 min. ride into the city. Stepping off the train onto the platform, down the escalator, and through the hallway, Clinton and I entered the main lobby of 30th Street Station. Before then, grand train stations like this had only been pictures and movie scenes to me. One thing I absolutely love about the East is the history found in the architecture. There was, no doubt, history in this building. The columns, the large lamp lights that hung from the roof 100 ft. above us, the benches that covered the hard floor. I wanted to pull out my camera.

But we were short on time, and Clinton wanted to get something to eat before his friend came to pick us up. We got a couple pretzels moments before Mac showed up. After a couple polite greetings, we were out of the station and across the street to his old pickup (with not extended cab, I might add).

We finally got to the apartment where Clinton and the group of eight young, Christian men gathered to study the Word. There I met guys with interesting backgrounds and careers. The most interesting was an FBI field agent - he wasn't even 28 years-old! I was amazed how old he looked. I would guessed he'd be in his early 30s at least.

So the Bible study lasted for a few hours discussing 1 John and the assurance of our salvation. At a few points, it led to pre-destination and free will and where the balance between the two was made. You can always find out how long a group has been together by how they react to the discussion, and you can tell that these guys had been together for a while...they forced the conversation to move on before the topic became more of a heated argument and less of a calm, quiet discussion.

After the lesson, the prayer requests were exchanged, the praises were shared, and the heads were bowed as we lifted to God Almighty our concerns and love for each other and fellow Christians. We did some casual talk, but the only one noteworthy was when Clinton asked the FBI guy if we could hold his firearm. He was very cool about it, and all of our eyes went big for a split second before we had to act non-chalant to pretend we were cool. He pulled out the clip. He emptied the chamber. He handed the glock to Clinton, and the rest of us waited in a impatient, five-year-old type manner.

Time rolled on. The later it got the more I realized that I wouldn't be able to see the rest of the city like Clinton and I had planned. Clinton had another thing on his mind...like if we could make it back to the train in fifteen minutes or not. Looks like we got a little carried away with the glock. Heh...

So Mac, Clinton, and I raced back to the pickup, which was parked a couple blocks away from the apartment. Through rain, snow, and ice, we jogged back. The dry air cut through my lungs, the cold temperatures broke through my jacket, and my ears rang out in a silent numbness; and it was all for catching a train on 30th Street in Philadelphia. It was the experience I was looking for from a visit into the city!

We got to the station with five minutes to spare only to find out that the train was eight minutes late. Clinton and I walked to the main lobby again so I could take a few quick shots. By the time we got back on the train and back into Chester, it was close to midnight.

I didn't get my Philly cheese steak sandwich from Abner's or Gino's (sorry David and Caryn), but I found my trip to be quite enjoyable. It's a shame I wasn't able to go back out during the rest of the week I was here. Tomorrow morning, I board a plane at 8:45 am back to California. It's been a good trip back East, but I'm ready to go home.

Time for pictures!

30th Street train station in Philadelphia. Too bad I wasn't spending days of free time here. I would have went out to Jersey and New York...THAT would have been grand!

Columns are cool.

I can't remember what this building is called. I really like this picture, though. So colorful. I think I'll come back to it and spend more time editing it to make it look really nice.

Here's a lame picture that I thought was cool and "artsy." Whatever. That's Curtis who just exited out of those revoloving doors.

Reasons for continued questioning...

A couple days ago I was watching some late night TV (it wasn't really that late - like 10:30 or 11 pm - but whatever). As I was waiting for the advertisements to take a break from air time, a commercial for the well-known Victoria's Secret Christmas sale campaign came on. Usually it is very unfitting for a young, single Christian man to stay tuned on the channel for various reasons...reasons that are unspoken yet understood at the same time. However, I was drawn this time to the commericial. It was odd and against my good sense of integrity, but yet I did not fight back. It was the music. The music was so cool and rockin' and I've heard it before...I even sang along with it in my head (there was no lyrics). The rhythm, the guitar riffs, the bass lines - they were all so very familiar. I named the song within seconds...then my jaw dropped when I named the band within a few more seconds.

"What was the band?" you ask. I will tell you...



It was SWITCHFOOT!!!



Yes, you read those big, fat (but cleverly tasteful) letters right. Switchfoot's intro guitar riffs to their beloved Adding to the Noise track was helping women rock out in clothing inappropriate for television.

Sometimes you love something blindly. Sometimes you love something even if you see their faults. And sometimes you gotta question why you love something when they start puting their music to Victoria's Secret commericials.

What is this white flakey stuff from the sky?

It's snowing! Yay yay yay!!!

I'm going outside to take some pictures.

UPDATE: I put a couple photos up that don't do much to show it actually snowing. The layer of snow on the ground was from last week.

Things of sort.

After going almost a whole month straight with no post, I decide to come back at 1:45 am to write something. I have to wake up at 7 am tomorrow, what the crap am I doing?

The past month has been incredibly busy. I've been working on this, a lot of this, some of this, and...oh yeah...this too.

Okay, just kidding...sort of. Here are the updates:


City Team-ups

As you all probably know (yet don't know anything about what's going on because of my unhealthy laziness to update), I've been on an internship with CityTeam Ministries for the past couple months. It's been a lot of work day-in and day-out. There are times where it's been slow, but when it picks up...it picks up! Thanksgiving week was especially interesting, as I had to run to three different locations on three different days for each of their three different Thanksgiving meal distributions for three different videos that I would have to make later in post-production. I'm still working on the San Francisco video, but the other two (San Jose and Oakland) turned out quite nicely. Hopefully, I'll be able to throw them on the web for all to see, but rendering those suckers to a reasonable size for download has been an absolute nightmare.

Pictures of stuff I've done for CityTeam can be found on their Flickr account here. Nothing before November is anything I've done.


Sharks Endure the Hurricanes

Lisa Cupples (soon to be Lisa MALABUYO) planned out a fabulous night with her friends to celebrate Daniel, Sandra, and her birthday. I think others put effort into planning it too, but I don't know about it and it seems everyone is giving Lisa the credit, so whatever. Anyway, after eating a yummy meal at the Spaghetti Factory in San Jose, we all walked off the food to the HP Pavilion to see the San Jose Sharks play the (whoever) Hurricanes. I'm not that much of a hockey fan, so I wasn't as diehard as someone like Mac or Daniel ("Come on Sharks--the Hurricanes can't touch you when you're already in the waterrrrrrrr!!!"); but playing roller-hockey with them gave me enough knowledge and understanding of the game to really enjoy it. Rooting for the hometeam, going nuts when they score, trash talking the visiting team...I love going to live sports games! The Sharks winning 4-3 made the night even more enjoyable.

Pictures of this event will be on Kuya's blog soon, no doubt. Stay tuned.


Enter the Narnia

Kuya, Chesney, and I went and saw The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe last Friday night. I was very skeptical about the movie after seeing previews with all the action shots and the video game that came out which is basically LOTR with four kids. It looked like another epic war movie to give everyone high on special effects and cool sword fighting sequences. It made me extremely sad. However, after hearing stuff from Oli, Phil, and Julie about how amazing and loyal it was to the book, I couldn't wait another day to go see it. I was happy to see that they were right, and my doubts were shattered as the movie progressed. Everything about the movie was very good, and I thought the cast was dead on. I absolutely loved Lucy; it was relief to see that they found actors who captured the kids so well. Scenes that were added didn't take away from the story or book at all; in fact, it magnified the story! Aslan carried on the screen well, though I felt he wasn't...magnificent enough...I guess I always pictured him being loving and kind but also one to tremble before as you stand in his mighty presence. I guess my view of God carries too much into the story, yeah?

All in all, it's a very good adaptation to the book. It was hard to let go of C.S. Lewis' writing and just watch the movie plainly because I kept remembering how Lewis wrote each scene and how much I loved his story-telling. It's almost as if his voice was a sub-conscious narrator in my head as I watched the film.

One more thing: This movie is the most PG-13 PG-rated movie I've ever seen.


Oh, WoW!

I hope you all got the message earlier that I have been terribly sucked into World of Warcraft. It's addicting, and I'm obssessed. The gamer in me has fully manifested itself as my character in this game, and I am now an ultra-uber dork. All I have to say is:

IT'S ALL KUYA'S FAULT!!!


Philly

Tomorrow I fly out to Philadelphia. CityTeam has a location there, and they want me to go out there and photograph their Christmas events as well as their daily workings in the building and on the street. From what Carol told me, it will be a lot of work. Not only that, but it will be COLD! I don't know how I'm going to deal being a Californian, but it sure will be an adventure. I'm really stoked, which is partly why I'm not sleepy. The other is because I'll be traveling all day tomorrow, and sleep is the best way to pass time; so I don't have to worry about sitting in an office editing a video and fighting sleepiness. I rock.

I will try to post more often, especially when I'm in Philadelphia. It's always fun to write entries when you're out of town - at least, to me it is.

Ta ta.

The difference.

Kuya and I went to the grocery store to buy stuff. Here are the two lists of what we got:

Kuya's list

1. Bread
2. Milk

Lem's list

1. Disaronno Italian amaretto liquor
2. Dr. Pepper
3. Head & Shoulders shampoo

There is a clear contrast in the things we purchase, as Kuya pointed out to me as we were pulling the items from the grocery bags. I am the young college boy who lives for no one but himself. Kuya is the family man who needs to look to people's needs.

Simply awesome.

You ask...

"What has Lem been doing since he got to Santa Cruz last week?"

Here is your answer.