nothing in particular..

so i finally got my new car this past saturday. a brand new black nissan sentra 2008. it's very comfortable and enjoyable, and although i'm a little disconcerted by the facts that cars don't even come with keys anymore, it makes everything easier and convenient i guess. but yeah, as for the ordeal, it took a while.. we got to the nissan dealership at around 1 pm and left around 4:30 pm or so. this venture mainly consisted of paperwork and waiting for my car to get serviced (car wash by hand and filling up on gas).

the strange thing is that i didn't really see anything that lent credence to the stereotype car salesman. the only time it did feel that way, as i recall, was when i was in the financing dude's office. if i had to describe it, i felt like i was in the principal's office to be disciplined.. it felt like i was being told my list of mistakes and citations, and that the only way out of them was to sign up for their "gap insurance" and "warranty". so it wasn't really the actual salesman but the financing people that reeked of that craftiness normally associated with the "salesman" archetype.

so yeah, i've enjoyed having my new car. when people get new toys or possessions, etc, we all like to play around with it in the beginning, especially if it's something like a car. the only downsides are the precautions i have to take, which are twofold: first, because it's a black car, i'll have to wash it often, and second, because it's a new car, i must be extra careful when parking/driving so that i won't carelessly get scratches, etc on it. in a way, when i had my old beat up camry, it was easier driving it around knowing that i didn't have to be so ginger/conservative driving it around, since it was already scratched up, etc.

school is pretty good. i don't think i've mentioned it before, but i'm taking two political science courses (European Thought II and Sex Power & Politics, both by the same professor) as well as a music class for fun (Hip Hop Music & Culture). the euro thought polisci class isn't too bad.. readings are, for the most part, interesting and engaging, though the time of the class (10 am) is a bit too early for my liking. as for my second polisci class, i don't know what it is about gender/sex studies or relations classes and girls, but the former sure attracts a lot of the latter. i think in my class of 50-60, there's probably only about 8-10 guys, at most. kind of feels like im walking into an amazonian forest everytime i go to class. last class is pretty interesting too, we basically learn about the history of hip hop and just trace the origins of DJing, sampling, lyrical content, etc. and get to listen to songs throughout hip hop's history. This is really great because I can actually discover old-school artists and check their stuff out like Kurtis Blow, Afrika Badfafndnanttee (i forgot the spelling), etc.

so, just to update.. working out and dieting are continuing on, and i'm slowly but surely regaining my wind as i work my way back up to my normal running routine. and though the results aren't as obvious as i make it out to be, one must remember that the first step towards becoming thin is mental -- thinking you're thinner. it actually helps.

as for my fast on thursday, all went well. surprisingly God was able to sustain me from whatever I had the day before and for the most part, I wasn't really hungry that day. Of course, the reason why I decided to fast was not because i wanted to abstain from food, but to really stretch myself and seek God (in prayer, in the word, etc) for refuge. I think it was a success on that front because my readings and prayers were very productive and managed to make my hunger subside and leave me in a content state of mind. another reason why i decided to fast was that thursdays are coincidentally kcm general meetings, and i thought that by fasting, pastor mike's sermons would be that much more savored and appreciated. and to that end, that is exactly how i reacted.. his sermon was a great reminder about how often we take grace for granted and exercise cheap grace rather than costly grace, which reminds me a lot about what i read from Bonhoeffer.

finally, tonight i just had dinner with pastor dave, mostly to get his thoughts on his experiences in china and india missions, as i'm deciding about where i want to go, as the deadline approaches. in short, i went into dinner tonight with japan/china and then uganda as my top choices, but afterwards, they changed to japan, uganda and china/india. another thing i picked up on was that, especially as a multi-timer on STSM, i really lacked direction in my convictions on going overseas. yes, i have desire and the right motivation, but it was this big ball of energy that really was directionless, and i think, especially as a returning trainee, God needs to really reveal to me why I'm going... so just when I thought my application was complete, I now need to re-read and change some answers.. it's a good thing the application isn't due for another month!


i'm getting tired, and i haven't even updated my other/lakers blog yet. anyways, thanks for reading and i hope you didn't feel like you wasted time haha.

- BH