Moving To Dandis!

Discontinuing this blog!  Migrating everything over to http://blog.dandislee.com.  You can find both Candis and I there from now on!  Opening up this new chapter of life with a new URL and a new location.  What better way to go?  With Dandis 2012 creeping up, gotta put some time in and catalogue the journey.

Selling All My DVDs, FCFS

Very simply, I’m selling all my DVDs.  Let me know if you’re interested.  I’m just trying to clean out some old things.  Hit me up if you are interested in any of these.  Or, if you want to buy all of them for $315 you can do that too.

 Relive all 12 of Pastor Min’s sermons where he used this movie!  Miracle – $5

Saved by The Bell Seasons 3 & 4 – $10

Anger Management – $3

Broken Arrow – $5

I Robot – $3

Drumline – $5

The negotiator – $5

Monsters Inc, Special Edition – $7

The Goonies, one of the greatest movies of all time.  $5

Out Of Time, with denzel and eva.  $3

Old Val Kilmer Movie, Top Secret.  Pretty hilarious.  $5

Traffic – $5

Good ole Dooly – $5

So all the following… I have box sets of Family For the first 5 volumes.  $10 per set.

  Trail end of one of the sets of family guy.  Also, RED vs. BLUE.  Halo Lovers should know.  $5

More Dooly – Box Set – $10

Classic Kill Bill Vol 2.  $5

Star Trek First Contact $5

Another set, $10.

LOL, so funny.  $5

Elf $5

School of Rock $5

Match Point $3

Fun with Dick and Jane $3

Kate and Leopold, fantastic movie.  $5

Also a fantastic movie.  $5

Can’t beat bolt.  $5

SBTB Seasons 1 & 2.  $10

Ratatouille Special Edition.  $10

Another dooly box set $10.

Always funny.  $5

Band of Brother Tin Box Set.  $30

Incredibles Special Collectors Edition.  $10.

Spider-man.  $3

Hitch $3

Rush Hour $3

Don’t judge me.  $3

Garden State.  $5

Too good.  $5

When Harry Met Sally.  $3

One of the MOST AWESOME movies of all time!  $7

Last Samurai.  $5

Classic.  $5

Good ole MI.  $3

One of the best movies ever.  =)  $5

Mummy with Jet Li, not a bad idea.  $5

Star Trek Generations $5

Star Trek Insurrection $5

RENT $5

Die Hard $5

Awesome.  $5

Classicly awesome.  $5

Enchanted Collector’s Edition.  $5

Classic awesomeness.  $5

Da Vinci Code $5

Such an awesome classic movie.  $5

Always fun to watch.  $5

One of the greatest performances of all time.  $5

It’s a good movie =).  $5

Classic.  $5

Finding Nemo Collector’s Edition.  $10

Entertaining.  Makes me wanna have Indian dancing at my wedding.  $5

too good =).  $5

Always good.  $5.

Star Trek Nemesis.  $5

Another FG set, $10.

Entertaining.  $5

Or you can buy all of these for $315.  Thanks yah.

Project Dandis Officially Goes Live!

Last Sunday, on July 17th, 2011, I was privileged to ask Candis to marry me, and she said yes =).  It was quite the fiasco, but all I have, and all Candis has, is the many deepest thanks to our friends and family who made it all possible, and who kept it quiet for several weeks leading up to the big day.  I had originally thought of something outlandish to do for a proposal, but in keeping with what is appropriate for us, and doing something that would be meaningful and special for us, I opted for simplicity.  So here a few pics and some context =).

All photo credit goes to Dowoo Lee, who I’ve known for just about a decade now.  Thanks Dowoo for your hard work.

So this place has a lot of meaning for us, we’ve been here often, Ra Sushi in the Glen.  We used to go here a lot to get our sushi fix and actually after a long while of knowing each other and having dinner here, we finally sort of started our journey here at this restaurant.  Sharing sushi is one of our things that we love to do.  We find out where the new sushi places are, and crack down on the place.  We’ve always been very happy with Ra both for their sushi, (and imported green tea), and the memories that we’ve had sharing food here.

With the restaurant just gearing up for dinner there were plenty of seats to choose from, and with it being a 95 degree day and like 80% humidity, it didn’t make much sense to eat outside, but funny how things work out, when we walked in we were “mysteriously” escorted outside. 

Candis: “Why not eat inside, it seems like it’d be more comfortable because it’s so hot outside!”
Dan: “Ehh… heh, yeah, I like the patio, don’t we always eat on the patio?  Anyway, what was that roll with the mango in it?”

For some reason, I was stuttering like a 3 year old child.  Either way, it was hot and we were both scowling at the temperature.  Luckily Candis tells me that she did not expect anything at this point.  =)

At this point, thanks to some clever planning by a few ladies who you’ll see in a bit, I put down the wine list, and out comes Zack, one of the managers at Ra, with a special sushi plate for us.  As everyone knows, Dragon rolls are the defacto standard when you want to compare one sushi restaurant against another, and having loved and ordered this roll many times in our history, I thought it’d be nice to work with that, doing what we love together, sharing the food we love together, with a little added inedible bonus sitting in a box in the middle of the plate.  Zack drops off the plate “compliments of the sushi chef” and Candis looks at me with the, “… heyyyahhh… what’s that!!” look.  =)

So I said lots of things here, and yes I teared up like a baby, and Candis started crying too.  But by God’s grace after the question was popped, she said yes! 

A quick shot of the sushi plate.  Love the dragon roll hearts.  And hey, seriously they were delicious.  After all of the stress was gone, I was actually really and ate these up pretty quickly.  So a quick funny side story.  As all this was going down, I realized I couldn’t hold on to the ring, and I had to some how get it up to Chicago a week before it was supposed to go down.  At Tek’s wedding, none other than Danny Bae agreed to transport my camera equipment and the rock to Chicago for me.  At that point, he gave my gear to Dowoo, and then passed the rock on to Christina.  Nervous work going on behind the scenes, as it’s stressful carrying someone else’s engagement ring and passing it around.  But everything went smoothly. 

I actually got the ring in March in anticipation for this day, and I put it inside my roommate’s room knowing Candis would never go in there.  Good ole’ Karlo.  Funny thing, I never looked at the ring after that day that I bought it, so I had Christina look inside it for me, because I wasn’t sure after all those months if there was still a ring in there, boy that would have been bad if it was missing.  =)

A big hand shake from Zack and congratulations as well.  He was instrumental in getting it all to go down.  But even more so were Dowoo, and these two ladies here, Naly and Christina.  To put it succinctly, they outright beasted the planning process for this proposal.  The level of specificity and feedback I got, as well as their helping hand… it was quite amazing.

You really can’t beat a picture like this.  It’s golden =).

 

High fives from Christina and Naly, but it was really more so me giving them high fives as they made it so easy for me to do it all with their help and planning.  At this point, Candis was getting the story as I’ve told it here.  Blessed indeed.

What was great about this whole thing was that Candis was completely unaware that this first part was a surprise yes, but the second part was an even bigger surprise.  After dispersing at Ra, I told Candis we were actually gonna have dinner somewhere else, and I only chose Ra because of its sentimental value for us.  So, Dowoo, Naly, and Christina quickly jetted off to the second location, while I delayed a bit with Candis.  Meanwhile, a huge group of our friends along with my parents from Seattle, and the entirety of the immediate Kim clan awaited our arrival for dinner at Chef Ping.

Here’s our entrance =).  Funny story again, Candis was like, “Ohh Chef Ping!  We wanted to try this place for a while!”  But she saw Christina’s car in the parking lot, and then she saw TASIA through the window, and said, “So we’re gonna have dinner where Tasia is mysteriously ALSO having dinner??”  In my head I was like, DOH! 

Suffice it to say, she had no idea the scope of the surprise until she walked into the private party room at Chef Ping, and 40 of our friends and family congratulated us with thunderous applause.  =). 

This was actually the real surprise, knowing how important it was for Candis’ family and friends to be present to celebrate with her.  =)

My mom running out giving Candis a big hug, sort of a preemptive, welcome to the family.  Candis was pretty blown away by the whole showing of my Mom and Dad who flew out for this occasion. 

Shock.  At this point, all the guys were like, “aww she’s shocked,” but then all the ladies went, “OHHHHH!!!”  And imitated her like she was trying to show off her ring, HAHAHAHA.  I heard someone say, “oh your hand must be so heavy girl!  You better be shocked with the other hand!”  And someone else said, “way to cover your mouth with your left hand… OHHH!”  Girls are funny.  I assure you it was not premeditated.  If you know Candis like I do, you know when she’s exclaiming like this, it’s always the left hand haha.  The guys just were yelling “woooh… yeahhhh!” and clapping their hands, haha.  Funny the differences in what people notice.

 

My good friend James blesses the food before everyone is befuddled with the meal.  One of the many friends who commuted a long way to be here at this dinner.  He along with so many sacrificed quite a bit to be there, and again, our feelings of thankfulness to our friends and family are still strong in our hearts. 

Shortly after the prayer, Candis hit up a quick hug with Hannah, long time friends.  Hahaha, Kodak moment there, nice one Dowoo.

It looks like I have to clean my sensor haha =).  I know all the photogs out there are like, “I see that dot Dan…”

I think I might be covering up Naly!  Sorry Naly!  A group shot outside to capture those in attendance =).  Thank you so much to everyone for coming out and being a part of this crazy surprise.  I know so many of you sacrificed a lot to be there.  And I know a few of you had to painfully keep quiet for a month while you saw Candis, met up with her for meals or coffee and what not.  We wanted to share this special moment with you guys because much of why we’re together is because you all prayed and supported us, and it is the absolute minimum and least we could do to thank you. 

To answer everyone’s immediate question, the date is pending, but stay tuned =).

A few quick shoutouts.  Firstly, we know God orchestrated everything and made this all possible.  From grace to grace He provided the means and the way for us from the first day we met at Smith Memorial Hall for special praise practice, to this day where we now are engaged to be married.  We know He provided us with family who prayed and supported us, friends who labored and partnered with us through every stage, and to God we are eternally thankful, and to our family and friends who helped to get us here, we feel such a burdened thankfulness. 

It is our hope that sharing this moment with us was a blessing for you, and it is also our hope that the food was good =).  Again, it is the very least we could do to show our appreciation to you for your prayers and support throughout the years. 

Special thanks to my mom and dad for trekking out to Chicago for this big day.  Thanks to the Kim Clan for being a huge support system for us both in prayer and in every other imaginable way possible. 

Special thanks also going out to Naly who, with her fantastic professionalism and attention to detail made the proposal a smooth and enjoyable time for us.  Also thanks to Christina and Danny who were involved in doing the risky and stressful work of transporting the goods and holding on to them until the time was right.  Special thanks to Dowoo for sacrificing his time and at times his own enjoyment of the festivities to serve us with his photography.

Special thanks to Hannah and James who helped me out with ideas and gave me some honest feedback throughout the planning process.

And again, thanks to everyone who came out and all those who could not make it to the dinner as well.  We attribute nothing of this to ourselves as we know we are products of prayer, and products of God’s grace.  This is one of those “phew” moments for many of you as you can relax for a bit knowing your prayers were not in vain haha, but then… don’t relax too long cuz we still need more prayers =).  We covet our friendships and partnerships with each and every one of you.  This is truly a story that shows the beautiful body of Christ.

Project Dandis officially went live on Sunday, July 17, 2011 at 620pm at Ra Sushi in the Glen.  We can’t wait to see what our engagement time will bring as we prepare to start the next chapter of what God has in store for us.  =)  Thank you God, like wow.

The One Who Saves

Come join the song, lift your voice
As Heaven and Earth give praise
Fall to your knees at the feet
Of the Son of the One true God

Turn from old ways, lift your eyes
For the kingdom of God is here
Open your heart, offer all
For Jesus Christ is here, oh now

We will find our home
We will find our peace
We will find our rest in the One who loves
He will light the way
He will lead us home
As we offer all to the One who saves us

Call on the name that is hope
Jesus, the Son of God
Lord over all, He is good
And His mercy endures always

His love endures
Forever His love endures
Forever His love endures
Forever and ever

Blech…

Worst… day… ever…

Developers Win

People have been over the last few weeks going nuts over what has potentially been one of the most anticlimactic seasons in technology since I can remember.  Both Microsoft and Apple reveal plans for their next generation operating systems.  Apple doesn’t release a phone update.  E3 is a dismal failure aside from a few key things here and there.  The Android market continues to grow, but sadly not on pace with iPhone, and continues to fight amongst the non iPhone using population for market share.  And don’t get me started about the world of information security.  All arrows are now pointing towards a new revolution.  The public has spoken through where it spends its dollars and where it gives praise and where it grows loathsome in woes.  Platforms are out, and software content drives the beast now.  This is seen most readily at E3 this year as every keynote attacked the idea of a central gaming experience in one place, and pushed a unified gaming experience where content was available dynamically wherever you went.  Sony brought the PSVita (which was its stab in the dark attempt at reviving its dead mobile gaming market share), XBox Live sported innovative new collaborative and content sharing tools, Nintendo pushed the ideas of conventional gaming with the Wii, only to find itself sitting in a happy medium place between full abandonment of gaming controllers, and the old days of NES and SNES.  All to say… that content wins, and the medium by which we sift through the vast content is what is most important to people. 

Now being a gamer now for my whole life, or nearly my whole life… (I watched my older sisters play Mario Brothers on NES when I was just a baby), I can say I am partial to the old ways.  Give me stunning content, visuals, an immersive story, and a controller with maybe some shock-ness to it.  Don’t give me gimmicky, laggy controllers that I wave around with ridiculous looking colored balls on them, or to-be-updated later-now obselete wii-motes.  The complete abandonment of controllers doesn’t suit me either, though that niche has some definite possibilities, and provides the basis for some bleeding edge collaborative gaming tools.  It is no longer about the means, more than it is about the content.  Whether I sport a PS Move (horribly named), or Microsoft’s Kinect, or use the wii-motion-plus, the idea is to contextualize your experience physically.  And in the last two years I’d say there’s been a real drop in quality content, to accommodate the hardware boom that many believe to be the future in gaming.  Innovation in this area isn’t really lacking since things keep moving along nicely, but it’s clear that the advent of these technological marvels in gaming has led to poorer and poorer quality in the content that utilizes that technology.  And now the cry for quality content is being heard finally.  I say… lose the gimmickry and give me an immersive story that is well thought out.  Now I’m just one person who loves certain types of games. Needless to say there are those casual gamers who want to turn on their XBox, and play mindless and pointless games and get achievements, pat themselves on the back after playing for 10 minutes. 

The whole call to lose the gimmickry and return to the fantastic content that used to drive these platforms is clear.  Don’t just give me a shooter with fantastic visuals, but give me a purpose and story behind it that invests me in it.  Don’t just give me a flying simulation, or a combat simulation, but give me a purpose and a story behind it that invests me in it.  Platforms will continue to evolve promising that the hardware will enhance the gaming experience, but without the following of quality software to back it up, the lost interest will be enough to cripple the industry. 

Even within the OS struggle between Microsoft and Apple, the market share is currently 88% Microsoft, and 7% Apple.  True enough Apple continues to innovate with its stunning hardware and backs that up with its software platform to work for that hardware.  They’ve done what any business would love to be able to do, increase their “perceived value” to be far above the actual value it provides.  Forget that Apple software is so proprietary now that the word “open” is used even less than their Microsoft big brother.  Forget about the entire argument of OS vs. OS, because at the end of the day it’s going to be content which drives the platform not vice versa.  Will developers make games for Windows?  Will they make apps for windows?  Yes.  Will developers make games for Macs… no.  Will they make apps for Apple, absolutely yes.  What about productivity software?  Yes for both.  What about development software… not really for Apple, yes for Microsoft.  What about secure software environments… LOL, I won’t get into this since I don’t want to appear to flame a company for their complete lack of attention to security.  All this to say… there is still a major disparity between what platforms people are willing to work on vs. others.  88% to 7% is indicative of that.  But the point is, if there was no disparity between what platforms people were willing to work on, they’d work and develop on both, that goes without saying.

Final Fantasy 13 was released multi platform, and the next iteration of FF13 will also be multi platform.  The days of platform dependent software is over.  Now, we’re likely not to see Mario jumping around on an XBox, or Zelda slashing around with a gold dusted sword or throwing bombchu’s on a PS3.  But even a major developer Square Enix, which has been pridefully sticking by its lame platform partner in Sony understood that it could no longer survive with that sort of strategy.  Now, the advance of the Apple app store for example is indicative of content driving the beast.  And where Apple dominated the market share for mobile app development for a time, the advent of the Android environment will now start a second competition.  As I mentioned before, the ease that developers have on a platform in developing content for that platform will drive the content market share.  Apple, now having to share that space with a few platforms will be hard pressed as a platform to keep its developers happy as Android steals some market share, and as other tablets take the scene with similar functionality and quality. 

I mean, no one really knows, and though the market seems to be crying out for content more than content delivery systems, the gimmickry may become front and center at some point.  Though I am not confident that the professional world or the consumer world is headed in that direction, we’ll probably still see some unneeded level of attention paid to those areas of the hardware or platforms we utilize.  It’s not so much a question of Windows 8 vs. Apple’s Lion, or Nintendo’s Wii-U vs. PS’s next generation vs. XBox’s next generation platform.  It is more of a question of, who will be willing to write content and solutions for these platforms.  There is less of a disparity between developers on XBox vs. PS3 for example, compared to those on Windows vs. OSX which is heavily Windows preferred.  For platforms to be competitive they will have to woo developers to the ease of developing on their platform.  The gaming market is ahead of the pack when it comes to this realization.  The major computing bases will have to follow suit if they wish to survive.  The “features” and gimmickry will have to cease since people will be demanding that their desired software runs on the platform they have.  Can I justify spending 3000 dollars a Macbook Pro to get the pristine use of gestures and the touchpad response and feel of the OS (which are top notch in Apple’s case) vs. spending 900 dollars for the exact same hardware and get a Microsoft or Linux solution with less refined “feel” but exact same functionality… I don’t know, probably not.

We’ll see what happens!

Where will you be?

Lots of little conversations I’ve been having with people as of late have reminded me of how quickly life can take over and overwhelm what used to be the default hope we have in Christ with the fear that becomes something that sort of hits you like a freight train one day.  Others are more sensitive to it, others are less sensitive to it.  But at some point it hits you one day that life is stressful, and what a great sadness and heavy heart we must have for people who do not know Christ as they stress about life apart from the hope that exists for believers.  I myself have been wondering where I will be a few years from now, where will I choose to plant myself and with whom will I be doing ministry and in what context.  I’ve been thinking about even the short term with the same questions.  I’m not really stressed about it since my sensitivity to fearing those sorts of things is not very high compared to most people.  But what does stress me out is more stuff that happens right now in my imminent present.  So perhaps it’s more ‘what am I doing’ more than ‘where will I be’ that could best describe how I deal with things.  Therein lies my lack of foresight sometimes, or difficulty in seeing what is coming.  I’ve gotten a lot better at this over the last few years, but still my default is to consider present over worrying about the future. 

It’s interesting to see how life changes your heart more and more, while Christ changes your heart less and less as you grow older.  Anyone who denies this fact is just in denial.  Does it have to be that way, no, not really, but you can’t ignore the addition of life’s stressors which affect your ability to be clear minded about your life in the context of the Word.  Where we thought we’d never be, suddenly we are there.  Where we thought we’d never let ourselves get to, suddenly we are there.  The kind of person we said we’d never become, suddenly we are there, all to say that the effect of growing up has had a larger impact on us than we had originally anticipated.  What drives the beast… what drives the fear, the anxiety, the near fight or flight response we have to these issues… interestingly enough, I am the happiest when I’m at work, and find myself more hopeless when at church.  What was once an unstoppable passion for people and ministry and an excitement to be involved in what God’s doing here has turned into a very clear and present apathy.  And I’m the first to admit it’s my own heart’s attitude paired with my disagreeable demeanor that caused this attitude.  You wonder why or how you became the jaded person you said you’d never become, and then begin assigning blame and pointing fingers at all possible culprits including yourself, only to come back to the question that drove this whole thing from the beginning… what am I doing here, really. 

I’ve been taking my bible reading through different OT books, and have been doing my QT’s through Daniel, and it’s been a fair realization to me that circumstance does not drive God’s people to reaction, but it is God who drive’s God’s people to reaction.  You’d be hard pressed to find a circumstance in life that was out of God’s control, in fact the whole idea of that is quite impossible.  It’s strange how you can find yourself thinking that very fact however, that perhaps this circumstance or situation was not specifically designed for you, but you’re just some innocent bystander caught in the wake of some released pressure wave of someone else’s problem.  Honestly, I hate inheriting someone else’s problem, and I’m not a fan of working in poorly conceived systems or ineffectual mindless bureaucracy.  And yet, I find myself surrounded by that… the red tape and the sense of being out of touch with real people seems to loom over me in every aspect of my life.  So, the real question is, what’s God doing with this situation, and what am I learning through it.  I dunno, recent conversations with others have caused me to see an aspect of my life and my surroundings that I’d never thought I’d consider, even a year ago.  Where will I be next year, or the next, or the next.  Understanding that God’s doing something is not a moot point, it is the only point. It doesn’t matter where, or what, or how, when the conclusion to all the questions is God, God, and more God.  There are logical specifics that go along with this, since in the execution bit of life you do need to know some of those details.  Where will I be?  Not here.  What will I do?  As long as it’s not here, who knows.  How will I get there?  Find a way as long as it’s not here.  The interesting part of this whole thing is seeing it play out in people’s lives around me.  The paralyzing fear of what is coming, and not knowing where to point yourself, and how to orient yourself. 

I am hopeful because I know God is good.  Admittedly it is a sad thing that hopelessness increases with my proximity to church at times, but what can be said about God’s track record thus far in my life.  He’s grown me, and done a pretty fantastic job.  I can be sick to death of current circumstances, and can be a dreamer and someone who hopes of something more, though I need to really curb that since it can become the source of unfounded and unbiblical discontentment.  Suffice it to say, I’m really learning that my only solace and peace is found in Christ, and whatever is coming is coming so there’s no point in fretting about it.  As I get older, I am really longing for Jesus to come back soon. Getting pretty sick of sin and pretty pissed at its effects, and getting equally sick of my difficulty in combating it on a day to day and moment by moment basis.  Either way, we still press on, such as it is… persevering, hopefully leading to some hoping, hopefully leading to some biblical and God given realization of those hopes.

Looking for options…

Time to start looking for options!

Random!

At SBUX with some downtime with JP and Dowoo… good times =).

Been a while!

Work has consumed my life, but I am thankful to God for His continuing provision in my life!

Some things to look forward to… photography stuff, and a new local project with some familiar faces will be going live hopefully by the end of the summer.  Also looking forward to picking a new book of the bible to go through for QT.  Been doing Joshua, though I haven’t been posting them, and it was fantastic.

Let’s see… also looking forward to more work too! 

And, looking forward to mowing my lawn. 

Suffice it to say, some fun stuff coming.  Yay!