dingalinger's Xanga

Friday, January 30, 2004

Fri, 30 Jan 2004 13:13:44 GMT

happy birthday to my philthy friend

21 years.... i'm sorry

Thursday, August 07, 2003

Thu, 07 Aug 2003 12:48:44 GMT

[ APRIL FOOLS ]

a couple weeks ago, during our small group times after the sunday sermon, marc and sam started with an icebreaker question: "what's the meanest thing that you've done to someone?"

well, here are the pics from that fateful day. first, i gotta do some explaining. some background info, so you won't think i'm a heartless bully.
i woke up on around 9AM, tuesday, april 1. and i have my fluid biomechanics class in 10 min. NO!!! so i got my towel, my flipflops, my showering stuff, and head out. i opened the door, and there was masking tape and toilet paper covering my door frame. AND someone had also taped the condom box to the door. WHAT IS GOING ON??? and then i remembered, it's april fool's day. haha, real funny. the people who did also tried using rope to lock me in. didn't work so well. didn't even noticed until i was already out the door.
so anyways, this happened to another 4 of my friends on my floor. and we're mad. we want revenge. we want BLOOD. first, we gotta figure out whodunnit. hmmm.....

we're talking, trying to find out who the criminals are. "hmm, i think it was mike. he would come up w/ something like this. it could also be..." and as we're talking, guess who comes walking down the hall to go to the showers? MIKE! so we waved to each other. and as he entered the showers, we ran to my room to get the duct tape, thus exacting our revenge on him. the end result? =>

we ran back to our respective rooms. a few minutes later, he came knocking on our doors cause he couldn't get in. he was all wet, with only a towel on. i had locked my door, pretending i wasn't in. but i was laughing so hard that i was soon discovered.

we thought we got him good. until we found out that he wasn't involved. OOPS, sorry. hmmm.... then who could it be? anyways, to make a long story short, we found out whodunnit, and got our sweet revenage. another one of our friends on the floor had been involved, and he had taken pics of everyone while they were taping up our doors the night before. there were 3 people involved: che, zhong, and jieyoun.

REVENGE ON ZHONG
zhong decided to take a nap around 9PM that night.
here's ching and i prepping the tape:
ching w/ tape
me w/ tape
the procedure:
1 2 3 4
the end result:

or is it??? ching wants more
ouch
dang

REVENGE ON CHE
now che was the one that was taking pictures last night. he didn't do a thing to defend us. he took pleasure in the vandalism of our doors. so his punishment had to be special. che owns a curious george stuffed animal. it's his favorite. he's had it since he was a wee kiddie. last year, we had always threatened to do something to george. this year, well, actions speak louder than words...

today, i found out that one of the compounds used in our lab, heptanoate, has an odor that's described as "rancid goat". that would really stink if that ended up on someone's mattress. MUAHAHAHA. you wanna mess??? =D

Monday, August 04, 2003

Mon, 04 Aug 2003 10:58:16 GMT

freshman 15 for all u kids entering college. BEWARE!!! haha jk.

this past sunday, i was walking to get lunch after service, and on the way, i see my dad and mr. chan. so i say hello and make small talk. then mr. chan says (translated), "tony, it seems like recently you've been getting a little fatter."
later that night, mrs. chan comes up to me and said, "tony, it seems like you've been getting bigger." my reply: "no, i'm just getting fatter...."
and a few weeks ago, my parents said, "tony, during the school year you look so skinny. but when you come back during the summer, you get fat."

sigh.... someone help me get in shape. i need to go to a bootcamp or something. like that simpsons episode where they go to kamp krusty. and a drill sergeant was making all those fat kids - martin, uter, etc. - do pullups. hahaha, hilarious! i need that.

Friday, August 01, 2003

Fri, 01 Aug 2003 09:48:57 GMT

T-10 min.
i have 10 min. to prepare for my presentation at work. in front of the WHOLE department.
i really should be preparing, but ehhh... no use. you know what my parents said to me? "tony, you have to do a good job. the reputation of your lab is depending on you. don't 'lose face'." no pressure, right?
on the contrary, my boss said: "tony, just take it easy. it's small. don't worry about it."

i think i'll listen to my boss. oh well, here goes nothing. and i do mean nothing. (sorry, can't tell you what i'm talking about. if i did, i'd have to kill you (c: have a nice day!)

Thursday, July 31, 2003

Thu, 31 Jul 2003 17:16:42 GMT

check it out:

ghettopoly

Thursday, July 31, 2003

Thu, 31 Jul 2003 11:03:48 GMT

CASUALTY COUNT: 24
SURVIVORS: 0

20 mice
4 rats
1 black bag

monday we did the mice. we had to test a few compounds, so we had to inject it into their bellies. most of them started taking a leak while we were handling them. hahaha, DEFENSE MECHANISM! hey, if that were me, and i had a needle stuck into my belly, i'd be peeing like that too... over myself, and the person that was doing it to me. ok, sorry, too graphic.

Friday, July 25, 2003

Fri, 25 Jul 2003 13:51:57 GMT

those of you who know me know that i LOVE x-men, ever since i was a kid and saw the cartoon series. so i must ask:

WHICH X-MEN CHARACTER DO YOU THINK YOU ARE???

phil took magneto already. darn. magneto's hot everyone. he's the master of magnetism. basically, he can do anything.
who are you gonna pick?

Thursday, July 24, 2003

Thu, 24 Jul 2003 14:48:20 GMT

at the behest of a certain mommy phil, i've decided to again update.

happy anniversary!!!
it's been about a year. a year since what tony??? not a wedding anniversary, not a dating anniversary (gross - i'm happily single).
so what is this anniversary for? it's the second annual FLOODING of our church. last year around this time (7.14.02?), the bathroom flooded. this past tuesday (7.22.03), the game room in the basement flooded. yay...

Thursday, July 10, 2003

Thu, 10 Jul 2003 14:12:38 GMT

one more thing about hofstra

pink. PINK!!!!

we have to wear wristbands thruout the retreat. this year, college & career had to wear pink. PINK!
i kept saying to registration, "do not choose pink, do not choose pink. frank, NO PINK. give us the blue. little girls like pink...anything! even the bright yellow or orange, please?..." so using my powers of persuasion, i tried to convince the registration team to not give c&c pink. as you can see, that did not go so well.
and let me tell you, this is no ordinary pink wristband. it's a lightsource. kinda like glow-in-the-dark, but it's a perpetual light-giving object.

Monday, July 07, 2003

Mon, 07 Jul 2003 12:24:59 GMT

||| HOFSTRA 2K3 |||

again this year, i served as general manager for NYSC. here's what i had to endure.

nostalgia
to me, hofstra is deeply embedded in my memories of childhood. i've been going to the conference for the past 9 years, since 1995, and so every facet of hofstra is so familiar to me.
walking through the campus tuesday night, all the memories of hofstra flooded my mind. maybe it was pacing through the same rooms and halls. maybe it was seeing old faces. or maybe it was the familiar smell of hofstra cleaning fluid... whatever they used, they haven't changed it in a decade. i remembered one year, we skipped witnessing meeting to play cards. another year, we brought our roller blades and skated everywhere, even in the student center.
everything was the way it had always been... until the conference began.

changes
whatever i remember hofstra to be was not how it was this year. NOTHING was the same. NOTHING!!! here's why:
1) the crew was gone. i was the only person from my church to come. phil, james, dan, diana, where were you???
2) REPUBLIC - the career dorm. i've always lived in the towers... always. not so this year. the dorm was nice... too nice. i miss the rooms w/ the oh-so-familiar scent of urine. the rooms were ghetto, but they reminded me of hofstra. the rooms this year were nice, and that completely disoriented me. WHERE AM I???
3) martha syndrome.

if you were to ask me if i enjoyed the conference this year, i'd say no. i wouldn't even have to think about it. this year was the worst for me ever. the meetings were great - worship, messages, workshops. but i missed most of them. i wanted to give up by the 3rd day of the conference.

the entire conference exhausted me. i got little sleep the first few days - 7 in total for the first 2 nites. and every day, for the entire day, i would be running around running errands - to registration, back to the dorms, to the student center, to the other side of campus. by the 2nd day, my already awful knees were aching. they're still recovering now.

but it wasn't just physical stress. i can deal w/ that. i dealt w/ that last year, and it was nothing. it was the emotional stress that started getting to me. coming into the conference, i wasn't the happiest of GMs. and during the conference, it was like i was on an emotional rollercoaster... disappointments... gratitude... frustrations... hurts... disasters...
the worst thing that could possibly happen happened. all these years as GM, i've hoped i would never have to see someone get seriously hurt. i don't mean a sprained wrist, or a broken arm. i mean, an injury that could be fatal. and that's exactly what happened. some kids were fooling around in the parking lot. one of them fell off a moving car and hit his head on the pavement. i was inside the student theater at the time, when kenny, the small group coordinator, came running in and said that a kid has been hit by a car (which i later found out wasn't true). and then i jet out to the parking lot w/ the first aid kits, hoping that the kid is alrite. that's all i could really do. HE COULD HAVE DIED!!! anyways, the kid is fine. and GOD IS GOOD! through this experience, the kid behind the wheel of the car got saved. the Lord turned the bad into something amazingly good. He truly works in miraculous ways.
and then the next day was nancy's wedding. i'm so happy for her!!! and not just like, "wow, that's cool". more like, "oh my gosh, i can't believe this is finally happening." nancy has been searching for a while. i'm beyond thrilled that she's finally found someone.

ok ok, so i was stressed. but what killed me the most, what hurt me the most, was the spiritual stress the conference had caused. i had martha's syndrome - i was running around doing things, having to miss meetings to do so. but missing those meetings killed me. i was not happy about it. it felt so unnatural. and i suffered as a result. but i think through that, the Lord taught me a lesson the hard way: He wants my heart, my ears, my mouth, NOT my hands. seems simple rite? we've been taught this for years. surely i know it in my head. but now i know it in my heart. now i realize how important it is to first rest in the LORD. by missing those meetings, i was missing out on the presence of the Lord, and that's what hurt me the most.
on sunday, i finally got a chance to worship w/ my brothers and sisters. it touched me so much to return to the Lord's presence. that's some good stuff that i've been missing out on. and everyone, listen to this, cause some of you, especially at morris plains, don't see this. what makes a meeting blessed is not how good the sermon is, nor how good the music is... a meeting is blessed when the presence of the LORD is there. we gather not to hear good material or feel good. we go to see the Lord. and the Lord is there when we've glorified Him.

thank you Lord for taking me a step back to see that you want my heart.
thanks to all who served on the GM team. ben vuong did an awesome job as usher manager. next year, he will be the Meeting Director for C&C.
thanks ed for helping me serve as GM this year. next year, it's your turn to run the conference! i'm taking a courtside seat.
thanks manny for helping out w/ usher managing. but more than that, thanks for being a brother who was there when i needed someone to help me carry my burdens, when i needed someone to pray for me or to encourage me.

to everyone else, smell ya next year!