The Journey

Thursday, 11 December 2008

Tuesday, 09 December 2008

  • Starting Again

    Yesterday my wife spent almost two hours reading through one of our friend's blogs and after catching up on their life, it made me want to start updating mine as well. Our life is not nearly as interesting, but this might be a good way to record thoughts on life as we get older.

Wednesday, 28 May 2008

Monday, 12 May 2008

Wednesday, 07 May 2008

Monday, 28 April 2008

  • Currently Reading
    Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
    By Anne Lamott
    see related

    Grace (Eventually)

    So, for those of you that knew me in college, I used to be quite a reader.  I think my taste in books have been changing, but I thought I would start reading some books that I probably wouldn't have picked up normally.  My most recent BART train rides have been filled with Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott.  My brother was reading this book and I pilfered it when I was visiting him in San Diego a few weeks ago. 

    Anyways, I remember reading her previous books Traveling Mercies a while ago when I was in college.  I think what I appreciate about her writing is the honesty with how she portrays her thoughts and feelings, the personal struggles she shares, and the theme that normal daily experiences can be filled with incredible spiritual lessons (even if sometimes it takes a little digging to see them).  I find it refreshing because in my own life, faith and religion don't always appear so black and white, clean or neat, but instead are filled with questions, struggles and a lot of grey areas.  I also find that most of the time, my experieince with the reality of God occurs, not in an overwhelming moment at some spiritual event  (though that can happen too), but instead during the day-to-day activities.  To be honest,it's exciting to know that life could be filled with so many moments of divinity, if only we were just to keep our eyes open.

    I would say that I don't agree with all of her philosophies, but she is a good writer, she keeps me entertained with her stories, and she makes me think, which again, is something that I always appreciate in a book.  So, if you have some free time, I would put this on my list of recommend summer reads.  Enjoy....


Thursday, 24 April 2008

  • The Big Hurt...

    Bay area sports are struggling to find their place in the sporting world (in order of best to worst):
    • The San Jose Sharks took 7-games to down the Calgary Flames to sneak into the second round of the playoffs.  I actually know very little about hockey, but was fortunate enough to be at McCoveys to see it happen.
    • The Warriors won 48 games and had a winning percentage of .563 and still missed the playoffs
    • The Niners went 5-11 last year and took a step backwards in their journey back to title town.
    • The Raiders went 4-12 last year, but are looking to improve with some decent off-seaons pickups
    • The Giants are 9-13 and are in 4th place right now.  Thank goodness the NL west is equally as bad and they are only a 1/2 game out of 2nd place (and 6.5 games out of 1st - YIKES)
    But, I am happy to announce that the A's are 13-9, tied for first in the AL west, and yes, they're bringing back the big hurt:

    http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/articles/2008/04/24/20080424bighurt.html




Tuesday, 22 April 2008

  • Catching Up (Part III) - San Diego

    Work sent me out to San Diego for work last week, and I ended up getting a room at the Omni Hotel near Petco Park.  When I was going to school, the whole eastern part of San Diego was a dump, and now it's the trendy "east village", filled with hotels, condos, and yes, even a soon-to-open Pinkberry.  Unfortunately, the poor people just keep getting pushed further and further south in the city.  Pretty soon there won't be anywhere for them to live.  =(

    The best part about my trip was staying in a room with a balcony that overlooked Petco Park.  The Padres were playing a night game when I was there so I could hear the crowd from my room.  Here's a video clip I took with my camera:

Monday, 21 April 2008

  • Cathing Up (Part I)

    Well It's been a while since I last updated, so I have some catching up to do.  I think it was two weeks ago when the Olympic Torch toured San Francisco, and since the craziness was so close to my office I decided to check it out.  All I can say is that the crowd was about one punch away from a full on brawl.  One of my coworkers suggested that I should randomly push someone in the back to get something started, but I didn't want to get arrested.  I guess I should be thankful that nothing serious happened out there, but I have to admit I was hoping for a bit of drama =)

    Anyways, I think I'm pretty ambivalent when it comes to the whole Olympics & China thing.  On the one hand, the spirit of the games has always been praised as an attempt to unify the world, and I feel bad for the athletes that have spent so many years training for this event, but are now being labeled as having to be pro-Tibet or pro-China.  At the same time, if it were me, and I wanted to protest something on the world stage what better opportunity would I have then when the whole world's watching.  This should be an interesting summer.  Anyways, here are some pictures from the day:

         




kcharmander

  • Visit kcharmander's Xanga Site
    • Country: United States
    • State: California
    • Birthday: 3/29/1981
    • Gender: Male
    • Member Since: 8/27/2003