Sunday, July 31, 2005

The Amazing Race - America West ...

alright, i left Portland,OR earlier today and headed for Boise,ID ..
i googled the maps and directions for it .. sounded pretty simple ... about a 500+ miles drive, should take about 6 hrs ... well it actually took me around 7 and 1/2 hrs to get to Boise,
i guess the tough part of the drive were driving through the desert (which was MOST of it) and drive upwards on mountain passes ... mountain passes were way cool, but my car is not made for mountain climbing so that kinda slows me down a little.
i was amazed and amazed again by the nature today ... the mountains in Eastern Oregon and Western Idaho were great ... they amazed me, somehow after living in the concrete forrest for a while we kinda forget how great and creative our God is. He puts mountains, sand dunes, rivers, canyon and lakes all together to form a great scenery ... great art work of His. As i drove into Boise, the back drop of the city is one of the mountains, and that looked great :o) ... anyways ...
i also saw some other cool stuff ... like "dry lighting" ... lighting striking the ground in the desert where it wasn't raining ... "half-sized" rain bow .. where the rain bow did not go across the sky but was reflected off one of the "cylinder shaped" clouds (kinda like the one God used to lead Israel outta Egypt .. hehe .. " anyways ...
those are my adventures today ...
keep on be amazed by God ...
keep on praising Him because He is the Beautiful One ...
:o)

... what's next ...
Salt Lake City will be my next destination,
i'll take a tour of the temple of mormon and see what they really think about Christ ...
then i'm off to Cheyenne,WY .. Yeeeeeehaw ... absolutely western cow-town that i can't miss ..
i'll make a stop in Philmont (righ?) NM to visit Stephanie then to Alburquequer,NM for the night before heading to Amarillo,TX
from there it's the home-stretch drive home to College Station,TX

:o)
give thanks to HIM , daily.

~love y'all.
daniel
(somewhere near Idaho's Capital Building)

Friday, July 29, 2005

end of a chapter ...

my bags are packed again,
i've concluded the latest chapter in my life -- "Living in Portland : MTV meets Jesus Freak" ...
j/k .. just kidding ...
anyways,
i've concluded my internship up in the Northwest,
and getting ready to go back South. I realise it's going to be a big change,
therefore i am going to take a few days to let things settle in. So, instead of taking the 5 hrs flight back to Houston, i am taking a 36 hrs car ride, sound fun huh?
i've learned quite a bit up here, lots of deep questions had bombarded my mind,
sometimes i just don't wanna think about them and keep my life simple ...
anyways ..
i am going on another journey again,
this time the journey home,
i might not find it the way i left it,
because i've changed,
and i realize other people have also change,
so it's another journey,
another chapter of my life ..
let's call it -- "Living in Aggieland : So far yet so close ..."

macster :o)

Matthew West !!



Daniel - Matthew West - Esther

Whoop!

http://www.matthewwest.com

Pictures with Avalon!


Avalon ( cool Christian band) with us !
from the left ...
Jody,Melissa,Jordan,me(Daniel),Esther,Jana,Greg,Erica and Carl ..
:o)

Wednesday, July 27, 2005


the bridge ...

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

High Desert

i spend my time at Oregon's High Desert over the weekends with some friends from church,
it was an interesting experience. Central Oregon is beautiful ... the scenery feels like heaven i would say (well .. no golden streets) but snow-capped mountains, clear streams and rivers, transparent lake, huge canyon, and it's a desert by some chance. It's beautiful, it's definitely a time well spent, though i didn't really really enjoy the watersports because i am "aqua-phobia" i did do some tubing and lots of hiking ( my foot really really hurts right now) ...
it was time well spent ..
pondering on life questions like do i really follow Jesus ? what does it mean to do so?
and do i really believe that i am God's workmanship or am i just some random combination of luck .. yep... tough questions with answers from the basics of my faith yet i still messed those up sometimes.
anyways ... i better start packing for my journey back home,
oh sweet home texas.

~daniel

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Seattle - Black and White











Seattle - Black and White ..

PodCasts

i think i am going to start my own podcast,
there are just so much thoughts that goes thru my mind everyday that weren't being captured anyway. lol , well not really, i did enjoy podcast though .. i subscribe to the PodCast of Kj52 (a cool rapper and ESPN) .. i know i know .. i am just like any other typical guy .. :o)
anyways, i've been reading thru some interesting article that includes second to the last chapter of the book Blue like Jazz by Don Miller and the latest email article from Relevant Magazine ...
again the issue of being real and secure comes up. i mean we are insecure beings aren't we? we want people to love us, like us and agree with us. My community group talked about that the other day, what if Jesus lives among us today? He would not have that insecure feeling because He is totally secure .. that's what we are made .. "secure in God" but the fall had broken the security and now we are trying to regain that "secured" feelings and ended up even more insecured with earthly things etc. So, the conclusion we came to is to be secured in God, and stop defining ourselves from the eyes of others, which is not an easy thing to do, well nothing is easy anyways. We also talked about how a believer should act in a situation where he/she is tempted to lose the "security"... our reactions and perspectives must change .. or else we are no different than anyone else on the planet ...
that's just some deep thoughts from my heart ..

here some other thoughts...
Q : why do we like "feeeeelin'" miserable?
A : so we can relate to the songs on the pop radio ....
HAHAHA
i guess one thing i've learned about myself is i love being miserable,
it felt kinda "sweeet" actually,
maybe that's just some messed up theory,
but think about it,
why does it take so long for someone to go through a breakup,
or get back up from the hole that we fell into?
let's get up y'all,
sometimes we just gotta get pass the point of self-pity / self-hatred ..
and learn to love ourselve...
i gotta learn to love myself. (well andlearn to receive love from others and God)

~daniel
... so about the pop radio ...
some sweeeet songs : Howie Day - Collide (always made me feeeeeeeeel real goood)
Three Doors Down - Let me go (yeah so let me go !.....)
J.M - Beautiful Soul (oh yeah ... another feeel good song)
Relient K- Be my escape (gotta need this one ..)

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Texas on my mind

so i was back in Texas for a few days,
and i had a great time :o)
Texas is like home to me, though i did miss my family in m'sia and Taiwan, i miss my other family (a huge one) in texas as well .. ya know what i'm talking about ..
anyways ..
last thursday night, a thunderstorm swept through south central texas and we (jordan,jeff,adri and i)got to see some pretty impressive lightings ... great lightings that again put me in awe of the nature .. i've seen mountains and such up in Oregon, but i do miss storms like that in Texas ..
i guess God never stops amazing us with the wonders from His hands whether it's the nature like the mountains, oceans, lightings and rainbows ... or the way He changes people's mind from totally stray away from Him to trusting Him ... or the miracles that He performed to save the one who love Him or to comfort and show love to His creation .. :o)
so i guess .. next time when you get a chance .. turn off that TV and sit and watch a thunderstorm goes through the town .. or .. go hiking or find a rainbow ..
you'll be amazed , time and time and time by the creation of this wonderful Creator,
and of course, be in awe of Him too.

As my time in Oregon draws to the end,
i did had a great time up here,
friends that i've met and hang out with,
relationships that i've build,
let's just hope that it will last forever ... like my other relationships.

:o)

ahh
and i shall give you some yellow roses of texas ...
(yellow roses = friendship)
(texas = tejas = friendship)
that's right ...

daniel

Monday, July 04, 2005

Happy 4th of July

happy 4th of july,
hopefully this is not another day of fireworks and bbq,
americans fought for this freedom from the british empire,
americans fought for this freedom of worship,
freedom of trade,
of rights,
of peace.
4th of July!

remember, freedom don't come free.
~daniel :o)