I have much to be thankful for this year 2007.

Financially it has been the best of all my 31 years. I received bonus from Nortel in March, then they let me go at the end of April. I started working for Shared Technologies immediately and got year end bonus payout from Shared just last week. The severance pay from Nortel was pretty good as well. I managed to increase my net worth by about 25% this year. Yes, obviously I have a very small denomination to work with but again I am a first generation immigrant, not a child of trust fund. All in all I cannot praise God enough for this year.

I finally bought a house in May and after some fixing up, I moved in the middle of July. I bought it from the estate of the couple who built it in 1963 and had owned it since. Had to rip out the wall and redo the tiles in both bathrooms, paint the entire interior, and replace the carpet in the dining, living, the hallway and the vinyl in the kitchen with high end laminated wood floor, replace the oven and cook top, kitchen sink, and the washer.

And yes, finally I can say that I learned to play the guitar. I was encouraged to be part of a 6-member guitar ensemble for the Christmas Eve service at our church. It turned out well, no major screw up.

I was appointed this year as the State Republican Executive Committee Liaison for the Texas Young Republican Federation. I was also appointed to the Young Republican National Federation Information Technology, Policy, and Outreach committees.

For the first time ever, I ran the 8 mile Dallas YMCA Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot. Already registered and is training for the upcoming Cowtown Half Marathon on Saturday, February 23rd. I now benched 185 lbs, the most ever for me, and that's 15 to 20 lbs above my body weight. Hopefully I can cross the 200 lbs limit by the end of 2008.

My dad has been to the emergency room about 4 times this year. The doctors have never figured out what's wrong with him. But he's getting up there with age so I learn to accept it as a fact of life and praise God for every single day that I still have him and my mom, knowing that God knows everything.

My new year resolution for 2008:
1. Move up my time of coming to work earlier, like 08:00 or maybe even 07:30. That way, I can have time to work out everyday, then go to a lot of functions in the evening.
2. Get accepted into law school.
3. Saving up for the next car, which in all likelihood will be the X5.
4. Continue to practice my guitar, and hopefully I'll be able to play pretty decent by year end 2008, maybe even some classical pieces.

Long term things I want to do here before going home to my Lord, Savior and Creator:

1. Speak Spanish fluently.
2. Get my private pilot license, first single engine VFR, and eventually multi-engine IFR.
3. Learn how to play the piano.
4. Read and write at least another language: German, Chinese or Russian.
5. Run one or two more half marathons and then go for a marathon.

I ran 10 miles today in one hour and 59 minutes, training for the upcoming Feb. 23rd Cowntown half marathon. Then went for dinner and the ice show at the Gaylord Texan with my brother, Thuy & Nam. Practiced my guitar and now I am ready for bed. Got the autographed copy of the book Foreign Policy of Freedom by Ron Paul that Jeff sent me in the mail today.

I thank God for the annual year end company bonus that was paid out today but I cursed the evil government who takes more than 33% of that away from me. I mean where is the consent of the governed? I absolutely object to funding all the condoms being passed out to school kids without their parents' consent. They are going to be curious and do it anyway, right? Then we need to build a detox room at every school so after the kids got drunk, they can go in there and wait until they sober up before they get behind the wheel driving while intoxicated. And let's have school nurse run a needle exchange program at every school. If "Just Say No" to drug works, why can we do the same with abstinence education, "Just Say No" to sex until marriage?

I'll tithe 10% and I'll pay 10% tax, but anymore than that is absurd. God gave me everything, and I mean everything, and He, God, the ruler of the universe, only suggested I give him 10% back. I always gladly tithe 10% and give above and beyond for mission works, for the poor, ... as a cheerful giver. I am absolutely angry, fuming, to see the government taking more than 3 times what God requires, to fund Planned Parenthood so they can kill unborn babies.

It's undemocratic, it's insane, and it's inhumane anyway you look at it.

I had a great time tonight at the Dallas County Republican Party annual Christmas reception. I am glad to see so many Ron Paul supporters show up. There is hope for the Republican party returning to its root of limited government, doing only what is both good and necessary and allowed by the constitution.

It's a shame that the Republican state representative district 97 seat of Anna Mowery went to the Democrat in the runoff tonight.

I am putting together a "Get it done with Dunning" Texas BBQ dinner at my house for my great friend, Randy Dunning, who is running for state representative district 112 to replace Fred Hill who has thrown in the towel. So contact me for more information.

Friend of mine, Bill Burch, will be running for state representative district 93 against first term Democrat Paula Pierson in Tarrant county. According to Bill, she's as anti business as they come and she's highly vulnerable among all the Democrats. Plus, Bill has Leslie Sorrell taking care of the fund raising so that should be in good shape there.

Karen Wiegman, Karen Wiegman Campaign, 3729 Green Hollow Drive, Grand Prairie, Texas 75051, has announced that she will be running for the state representative district 106, the one where incumbent Republican Kirk England switched party a few months back. Contact Cory Kennedy, 512-636-0509, if you'd like more information.

There are now two people running for the Criminal District Court No. 3, Bill Fay and David Sprinkle. I have gotten to know Bill and his wife Rachida since the 2006 campaign. Both are great folks. I am looking forward to helping him with the campaign as well as Bobby Francis running for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals place 4, Jonathan Neerman running for County Chair, Mary Murphy running for the 5th Court of Appeals, John Fowler running for 14th district court bench, ....

An idea I had when I first got my GPS, namely no-subscription-fee-open-source peer-to-peer traffic condition network, has now been implemented and will be market ready in Q2 of 2008. Don't know if there will be a fee to maintain the center server acting as a hub.

Listened to the US Comptroller General David Walker on C-SPAN and agreed with everything he said. Especially "if a company operates the way the US government does, the CEO will be sitting in jail and the board of directors would need a serious shake up." The shake up was just what happened with the congressional election of 2006. Wish more Americans would pay more attention. The fact that Ron Paul's message resonates with people and he's able to raise $6 million in one day tells me that the American people are smarter than we give them credit for, just as Mr. Walker commented in his speech. The American public do pay attention but not enough of them as a percentage of population just yet. Ron Paul will change that for the better.

One last thing, every time Jessica Simpson showed up, the Dallas Cowboys lost. Therefore, she needs to stop showing up at Cowboys' game.

As I was leaving the Dallas Convention Center, I walked outside and saw a woman with a child no more than 3 years old, homeless with the big plastic bag we, Operation Care Dallas, gave out on her shoulder, walking away from the convention center. I thought I did some good after four hours of washing feet, applying lotion, putting on new socks and shoes for folks, but the image of that woman made me so sad. How much could I do to help? I prayed for her and her child right there and then, knowing that God knows and I don't have the answer. But maybe I can take on homelessness as my project with the YRNF Policy Committee. I've seen so much during the four hours I volunteered today. I washed, or more accurately wiped with body wipes, the feet of a man who has been locked up for 16 years, longer than I have been in America. I washed a man's feet whose toe nails looked more like melted lead pooled together. Some were too embarrassed to let me washed their feet but rather just take the new socks and shoes. But on the other hand, as I walked out, I also see some folks who were driving up in nice cars, who I believe went in and played the role of homeless folks to receive all the stuffs we give away. Some as I were going behind the curtain to find shoes their size, were grabbing as many of the socks as they can and stuffed them down at the bottom of their bags. Human nature hasn't changed a bit over six thousands years!

I had an opportunity to hear state representative Linda Harper-Brown discussed tonight, among other things, transportation with obvious passion. She's one of the few reliable conservatives in the Texas House, determined to speak the truth and do right by her constituents. She is definitely not one of those who always weigh every vote to see how it would look when they run for that next higher office.

A car driving itself at race speed, check this out.

I had a fantastic day!

Heard from Dr. William Brody, M.D., president of John Hopkins University at lunch. Got a little history of health insurance, started by the folks at Baylor as a sick fund in 1929. The first plan had an annual premium of $6 and the Methodist hospital in Dallas started selling for $9, paying the hospital $6 and made a $3 or 50% profit. Most of the candidates running for president have touched on only two C's , Cost and Coverage, of the five, Consistency, Complexity and Chronic Illnesses, that he believe we must address to have a better health care system. Though he professed to be impressed with Mitt Romney, Dr. Brody declared he does not like any of the candidates we have right now. When I asked him whether he thought Mike Huckabee got it right when it comes to chronic illnesses, he admitted he hasn't talked to Huckabee yet and it's on his to do list.

The evening US Chamber holiday reception was great. We heard from Dick Armey and Martin Frost, moderated by Mark Davis. Mr. Armey said one thing that really summarized the principle of conservatism, government should only take action when it is both a correct and necessary thing to do. Asked why we should conclude the war in Iraq in an orderly fashion rather than total victory, he said there is a point at which we do not want any more cheese but just want out of the trap. Mark Davis loudly disagreed and I agree with Mark. These Islamic terrorists came to our shore to attack us and they aren't going to leave us alone. Asked on the immigration issue, Mr. Armey blamed the inefficiency of the government agency formerly known as the INS. I wholehearted agree with him. He brought down the house when he said the Republican can't expect the Hispanic voting bloc's support with the way we've handled the immigration issue, just like you cannot call a girl ugly all year and expect her to go to prom with you. I don't necessarily agree with him on this one though I wish the national dialog on this issue had remained civil without resorting to militant name calling the way it has been.

I took off afterward and went shopping at IKEA. They were closing down before I had even seen everything I wanted to see. It had so many new things every time I go there.

I had a great time at the SREC meeting this weekend in Austin, hanging out with Terri and Chip, the other two Young Republicans who were in attendance. I finally also took the time to stop by and visit the LBJ Presidential Library on Sunday afternoon.


Karl Ninh

I was able to wrapped things up at work and headed over to Paul and Sharon's place to watch the Cowboys goes against the Packers tonight. Great food and great football. I ate too much again just like last Thursday. Thank God the Cowboys is now 11-1, second only to the Patriots. When we see them again in the Super Bowl, it should be a totally different game than the last time we saw them. We are going to return the favor.

The White House Christmas card came in the mail today, mailed from Crawford, Texas on November 27th. Scripture quoted this year is Nehemiah 9:6 (NIV).

I am impressed with my iRobot Roomba 550, which was able to clean three rooms, and got back to dock in the charging base, with the help of a couple lighthouses.

Caught the tail end of the CNN/YouTube debate tonight when I got home. From the post debate panel review, both of my candidates, governor Mitt Romney and governor Mike Huckabee, did a pretty good job. On the contrary, senator Fred Thompson is pretty much done with. He made the desperate attack on both Romney and Huckabee. I don't have anything against the man except my gut feelings. The fact that he does not attend church and that his wife wants to be first lady more than he wants to be president didn't exactly help either.

I finally admitted to myself that I am both too busy and/or lazy to vacuum so I picked up an iRobot Roomba 550 while I was at Costco tonight.

I had a great Thanksgiving, eating too much like everyone else. But I did run the 8 miles Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, officially clocked in at 1:32:50.35. That's a full 10 minutes improvement from the Saturday before, when I did 8 miles on the treadmill for 1 hour and 42 minutes. I used to be able to run 8 minute mile but haven't run for a while, at least a year, and had only three weeks to prepare to it. My goal is 64 minutes next year.

Vivian told us about Operation Care Dallas, and I signed up for it. It will be Saturday, December 15th from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm at the Dallas Convention Center. We went to the orientation meeting for volunteers at First Baptist Dallas on Sunday and stayed for the 6:00 pm service. My first time seeing Dr. Robert Jeffress preaching in person.

Got off work today, went to our Dallas County Young Republicans happy hour at Champps in Las Colinas tonight. Had a chance to talk to a bunch of Ron Paul supporters. We engaged in great conversation. It's glad to see young people like me who are knowledgeable and are willing to engage and make a difference.

Got home, ate dinner while listened to Rudy Giuliani speaking at the New England Council Politics and Eggs forum, shown tonight on C-SPAN. He listened well to the questions. He was asked about his dealings with illegal immigrants in New York City while he was mayor. I thought he handled that very well. He presented the circumstance to the questioner and asked if she would not have done what he did. I am going to be more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The YouTube people came back and said my previously submitted clip was longer than allowed and advised me to shoot a new one that is 30 seconds or less. Here is the new clip, where I pulled the camera up higher, sat up a little straighter, and talked a little faster.

Check out my question for the upcoming YouTube debates.

The YRNF Fall Board Meeting and TYRF quarterly board meeting all rolled into one this weekend at the Westin Galleria in Houston. I had a great time, meeting so many new friends and seeing old ones.

YRNF Campaign Chair and Co-Chair Rachel Hoff & Julianne Britt.		Minnesota delegation Natalie Miller & Dan Reiff		Arkansas delegation Leslie Rutledge, Josh, Jill Presley Cox, Elizabeth Aymond, and Yolanda Hugg.
Karl Ninh & Termite Watkins.		Texas delegation.		Texas delegation.

With KBH's sight set on the Texas governorship, I am changing my prediction to a Romney/Huckabee Republican ticket. I hope Huckabee will stand on principle and not agree to be on the ticket with Giuliani, God forbids, should Giuliani get the nomination.

This is good.

I am wondering what conservatives like Pete Sessions, Rick Perry, and Pat Robertson see in anti life, anti gun Rudy Giuliani that I don't.

Caught the first visit of French president Nicolas Sarkozy to the White House today on C-SPAN. I really like the little speech he gave at the dinner. A few great excerpts:

France and the United States are allies, have been allies, and will continue to be allies, and have been so forever.

In my country there are thousands upon thousands of white crosses to remember those men who didn't know France, and yet who came to die on French soil.

And I also came to say that one can be a friend of America, and yet win elections in France.

So here I am in Washington on a first Tuesday in November. Now, I have no electoral ambitions when it comes to the U.S.

After spending some times at Bally's to condition myself and get ready for the 8 miles Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot coming up on Thanksgiving day, I got home, flipped on the TV in hope of catching the tail end of Monday night football. Didn't find it but instead stumbled across the tail end of the October 16th City of Carrollton council meeting where Herb Weidinger was bashing Carrollton resident Paul Kramer just because he exercised his first amendment right and was at a protest. Last time I checked, I thought this country of ours was a constitutional republic where people have the constitutional right peaceably to assemble. I found myself in agreement with councilman Tim Hayden, who said basically that the article itself said nothing about what Paul Kramer did or didn't do that was so bad. I guess Paul committed the unforgivable sin of disagreeing with mayor Becky Miller and her band of dictators. What was even more astonishing was the fact that my own place 3 council member, Pat Malone, seconded the motion by Herb Weidinger to remove Kramer's name from the resolutions to appoint people to the various boards and commissions. I guess it really opened my eyes about the person who represents me on the council. A point on diversity: a room full of people who are all looking different but think alike isn't diversity. But that wasn't it. The most frustrating thing was the way mayor Becky Miller was running the meeting. I mean for a kid coming from a third world country like Vietnam, I now after fourteen years residing in this great land, have come to learn the basics of Robert's Rules of Order. I mean it's not rocket science, just having attended enough meetings, you should get the hang of it. And it's not too much to ask, if you are going to be mayor, I would at least pick up some materials to read, or point my browser to Google and do my homework so I won't embarrass the entire city of some 116,000 people for electing a mayor who has no idea how to conduct a meeting. If we could find a way to put that video segment on YouTube, we would have a great laugh sharing it with all other folks, especially the Young Republicans around the 50 states. But I have to be careful since the dictators are also very petty.

I had an opportunity to hear governor Jeb Bush speaking at a luncheon hosted by the National Center for Policy Analysis.

He believes that a leader must take risk but manage it to make a difference. Examples of it while he was governor of Florida were the elimination of the civil service commission so that those who are ineffective can be fired just like everyone else. He outsourced and streamlined state government so that the state has 13,000 less employees, cut $20 billions in taxes, ended affirmative action in college admission but reached out to disadvantage kids, ie. created a color blind scholarship for students who are the very first one in their family to go to college, managed 8 hurricanes in 14 months, state bonds went to AAA rating, and a total of 2,558 budget items were vetoed.

Five things for those in leadership to consider:

1. Leaders ask why not. A couple weeks after he was sworn in as governor, he walked to the state capitol and noticed that there were no Florida state flag flying on top of the dome. He inquired and was told there were enough space on the pole for only two, the US flag and the POW flag as required by state law. A committee was formed, and he was presented with a half a million dollars budget item to build another pole for the Florida state flag. Why not go with smaller flags so three can fit on the existing pole? That was accomplished with no cost to Florida tax payers.

2. Fill the space. People will have to response to your agenda. Have Big High Audacious Goals. As governor, he saw to it that high school students can declare a major, graduation rate increased and drop out rate decreased, with mentors in schools, ended social promotion, ....

3. Stick with it. He has two people he admires in this aspect, Winston Churchill and his brother, president George W. Bush. Big ideas are going to take time to implement and it requires determination in an instant gratification world. Focus on the long term with passion.

4. Communicate. Use every means possible to communicate and listen to people. Show humility by truly listen. People are busy with their lives. They are not going to watch your everything you do, unless you really screwed up. So tell them what you do and achieve. And don't let your people pump you up to let you think you are way smarter than you really are.

5. Cast a vision. Tell people what's on the other side of this jagged hill that you are asking them to climb. People will be receptive to bold ideas back up with substance.

A question was asked what advice would the governor give to a young person thinking of going into politics. The answer was to be a successful person first, be it a mom, dad, business leader, .... Don't make politics a career. Don't pursue the petty ambition and miss out on life. When you succeeded, you can then run and share your experience. On the hot topic of immigration, he believes we've got to take control of our border but isn't worry as much as some about losing our culture. That argument has been made every generation. We need to continue to encourage the cream of the crops from all over the world to come here and pursue the American dream. That's how we stay strong and being the best in the world. He then told the story of Marco Rubio, a second generation Cuban-American who at 35 became the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives while he was governor.

Asked about the White House and said he had no further aspiration. All he wanted was to be governor of Florida and he was.

I really like the governor. He was a great speaker, speaking with such simplistic but powerful style. You can feel that he's very relax, comfortable, just like talking to a group of friends. He's also very personable, listens very well. He's definitely someone who could end up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Are you offended by the following being read while the flag is being folded? The established clause said: "Congress shall make no law ..." so if you are not congress, why are you being prohibited from doing whatever?

The first fold of our Flag is a symbol of life.

The second fold is a symbol of our belief in eternal life.

The third fold is made in honor and remembrance of the veterans departing our ranks who gave a portion of their lives for the defense of our country to attain peace throughout the world.

The fourth fold represents our weaker nature, for as American citizens trusting, it is to Him we turn in times of peace as well as in time of war for His divine guidance.

The fifth fold is a tribute to our country, for in the words of Stephen Decatur, "Our Country, in dealing with other countries may she always be right; but it is still our country, right or wrong."

The sixth fold is for where our hearts lie. It is with our heart that we pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The seventh fold is a tribute to our Armed Forces, for it is through the Armed Forces that we protect our country and our flag against all her enemies, whether they be found within or without the boundaries of our Republic.

The eighth fold is a tribute to the one who entered into the valley of the shadow of death, that we might see the light of day, and to honor mother, for whom it flies on Mother's Day.

The ninth fold is a tribute to womanhood; for it has been through their faith, their love, loyalty and devotion that the character of the men and women who have made this country great has been molded.

The tenth fold is a tribute to the father, for he, too, has given his sons and daughters for the defense of our country since they were first born.

The eleventh fold, in the eyes of a Hebrew citizen represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon, and glorifies in their eyes, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The twelfth fold, in the eyes of a Christian citizen, represents an emblem of eternity and glorifies, in their eyes, God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.

The thirteenth fold: When the Flag is completely folded, the stars are uppermost reminding us of our Nation's motto, "In God We Trust." After the Flag is completely folded and tucked in, it takes on the appearance of a cocked hat, ever reminding us of the soldiers who served under General George Washington, and the Sailors and Marines who served under Captain John Paul Jones, who were followed by their comrades and shipmates in the Armed Forces of the United States, preserving for us the rights, privileges, and freedoms we enjoy today.

Let's see, a couple conference calls today got me a little more informed. The preparations for the 2008 Republican National Convention is going full speed ahead with the Minneapolis Saint Paul 2008 Host Committee gearing up to hire about 140 full time staffs.

Governor Huckabee is gaining in the nationwide polls. I understand it's largely because people start to catch on with his support of the FairTax plan, which taxes consumption and not productivities or savings.

The issue of water shortage in Georgia is a little more serious than I read. Governor Purdue's lawyers are finding way to allow the president to waive some of the Endangered Species Act provisions so nobody has to face the choice of children vs. mussels because the children are going to win everytime. The midwest will be next to experience water shortage as well if the ridiculous water consumption to make ethanol is to continue. It takes about 1,700 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of corn ethanol, which is pretty incredible to me. Texas is pretty creative in proposing to pay royalty to the folks if they are willing to sell their private properties so water reservoirs can be created in east Texas.

Bella portraits such a beautiful story of family, love, understanding and compassion. What is even more amazing is the story of the lead actor, Eduardo Verastegui, who on the verge of breaking it big, doing $30 million projects, began to refuse to play a part in any project that portraits the stereotype of Latino as womanizer and liar and Latina as a sex object. Eduardo said he wanted to make movie that he can take his grandmother and mother to see without any scene where he has to cover their eyes. He went so far as to not being able to make his rent next month without compromising his beliefs. Even while he was presented with projects that he could have taken and paid for a house. The rest of the world imitates America, and America copies what Hollywood portraits. The one repeated theme by both Eduardo and the producer Sean Wolfington was that they want to light a candle instead of cursing the darkness. So we need to support them by telling everyone to go and see Bella. They are only released in 164 theaters nation wide instead of the general release to 4,000 theaters but their tickets sold by mid day Friday of this opening weekend could have already broken the record. Even if you couldn't make it this weekend, just buy the ticket anyway to support great movie like this one.

I had the opportunity to hear from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at a luncheon put together by the Heritage Foundation along with the National Center for Policy Analysis and the Federalist Society. More than 1,500 people were in attendance at the Adam's Mark hotel in downtown Dallas. Justice Thomas was interviewed by governor du Pont about his life and his book, My Grandfather's Son.

He was asked first about the process how the US Supreme Court decides on which case to hear. Petitions are given to the justices. They read up, make their decision and then vote on it in conference, starting with the chief justice going down on seniority. If there are four votes, the case is taken up. The opinions are also derived in similar fashion. There is hardly ever the case of going back and forth in conference between justices, especially under chief justice William Rehnquist. No one justice ever tries to change the opinion of another since it's very much futile. Each justice has come to the opinion he has on a particular case from very widely different approaches.

The justice moved in with his grandfather after his dad left the family. His grandfather was the greatest human being he had ever known. He told justice Thomas to "not do as I say but do as I do, emulate me." That's tremendous responsibility, like the apostle Paul said. His grandfather's mom was the daughter of a free slave but he's not bitter and do not blame the world. In his Catholic school, he learned from the nuns that everyone is inherently equal in the eyes of God. In 1964, he made the decision to become a Catholic priest and went to seminary in Georgia. When Martin Luther King was basically executed, he heard another seminary student, not aware that Thomas was behind him, said "I hope the SOB die." In 1968, Clarence Thomas felt angry and felt justified for it. He later got caught in a riot, actually not caught because he went to the riot. But it wasn't he that did it, it was the alcohol. He credited the maturation process, the growing up that helped him to ask himself why was he angry to the point of self destruction. He asked God to take hate out of his heart. Went to Yale law school. When he graduated from Yale, went to interview in Atlanta, New York, Washington DC, and Los Angeles but didn't get a single offer. That he said cheapen his Yale law degree, not his education at Yale, because some people he helped in law school was hired but he was never considered.

Asked about the confirmation process. Justice Byron White, in whose office he moved in, was nominated and confirmed within ten days. He was justice number 106 on the US Supreme Court so apparently the nation was doing just fine with over one hundred justices before him with not so lengthy confirmation process. The nominees used to not even go to the hearing. It's thought to be beneath the justice to be asked questions by the senators. He wanted us to ask ourselves whether the bitterly drawn out confirmation process of modern time is good for our country. He definitely does not believe in putting people who are interested in a particular outcome to be in charge of selecting someone who, although may be flaw, but must be impartial. He used a rather humorous example. Let's say a referee made a close call on pass interference at last year's red river shoot out game that resulted in the Longhorns losing the game. What are the chances that UT officials would confirm that referee for the game this year? What are the chances that particular referee gets out of Texas alive? He said president Bush asked him but one question, will he call it as he sees it? He's there on the court to interpret the law as it is written, not to be a policy maker.

Justice Thomas vows to himself never to treat anyone the way he was treated during his confirmation process nor would he ever do as poor a job as those people did when he was at their mercy. He believes he owes it to the men and women in uniform to do the best he can on the court to defend freedom, for which they are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. He takes his clerk to Gettysburg at the end of every Supreme Court term so they realize what took place there.

Asked for advice he would give to college student considering law school. He jokingly replied that every time he planned something, it would always end up in a mess. The evidence of there is a God is that God saved him from himself every time. He encourages aspiring law student to put aside the US News and World Report ranking and go to law school that can help them truly get an education. Although 8 of the 9 justices tend to replicate themselves and pick their clerks from the Ivy League law schools, he himself does not.

The Young Republicans were all over Louisiana campaigning this weekend. Our particular group went in to Natchitoches, pronounced /Na-kee-dish/, about an hour south of Shreveport and Minden, about half hour north of Shreveport. In Natchitoches, we campaigned for Rick Nowlin, who is running for state representative district 23 and Gerald Long, running for state senate district 31. Rick has run an amazing campaign. A couple months ago, he had 3% name recognition compare to his opponent, Joe Sampite who has 90% name recognition since Joe has been the mayor of the town for 20 years. Rick came out ahead with 35% of the votes and will be in a runoff with Joe who garnered 33%. If you live in the district, which includes Natchitoches and a small part of Winn parishes, please vote for Rick on Saturday, November 17th, 2007. Senator Long won out right with 54% of the votes, a great and sweet victory over Democrat Taylor Townsend. The race in Minden was lost but Bobby Jindall, who at 36 and of Indian descent, carried the night with 54% of the votes. He learned from his mistakes four years ago when he lost to Kathleen Blanco because he had decided to take the high road and not response to attacks. I learned from Jeff, our local field director that in Louisiana, the governor is pretty powerful because he gets to appoint the speaker of the state house and president of the state senate.

On November 6th, 2007, Texans will be presented with 16 proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution. As of this moment, I am definitely for Amendment No. 8, and generally yes on the rest because they received not only the 2/3 required majority but almost unanimous votes in both of the legislative chambers, with the exception of the followings which are definitely a big bold NO vote from me:

Amendment No. 12: TxDOT does not need anymore money to do crazy things like video taping drivers on Texas public highway without even a simple public notice, let alone consent. And why does a public agency need to spend money to advertise is beyond me. They are up for sunset review next legislative session so I hope for a lot more scrutiny into how they spend our tax money.

Amendment No. 15: There is no need for the creation of another cancer research center. Plus $3 billion is not enough to start something from scratch and play catchup. If we need to, put more money in to the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The House vote on this, which is HJR No. 90, was 116 for, 26 against, and 1 present, not voting. Among the votes shown as yes, 7 people had a statement saying they intended to vote No, with one no switched to yes, and three additional yes. So the final tally was 113/32/1. Among the nays are the conservative members I trust, who are good people trying to do the right thing: Linda Harper-Brown, Frank Corte Jr., Jodie Laubenberg, Ken Paxton, Robert Talton, and Bill Zedler.

Amendment No. 16: I don't like to spend more money and the House votes on this is 113 for, 22 against, 1 present not voting. Among the votes shown as yes, 6 people had a statement saying they intended to vote no, with one additional no. So the final tally was 107/29/1. Among the nays are the conservative members I trust Linda Harper-Brown, Robert Talton, Myra Crownover.

I did not realize that I was in the top 25% of income tax filers in 2005.

Percentiles Ranked by AGI	Adjusted Gross Income Threshold on Percentiles	Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
Top 1%	$364,657	39.38%
Top 5 %	$145,283	59.67%
Top 10%	$103,912	70.30%
Top 25%	$62,068	85.99%
Top 50%	$30,881	96.93%
Bottom 50%	$30,881	3.07%

Source: IRS (Tax Year 2005)

Our CEO gave us each a copy of The Fred Factor to read.

A couple pictures from family camp this weekend at Pineywoods and the link to videos of us playing spoon.

       

I am angry to read that TxDOT was videotaping license plates of drivers on Texas highway, without any public notice, let alone consent. This is in addition to them using my tax dollars to advertise to Texans to give them a good public image. Certainly the legislature need to tell them a little more specifically what they could and could not do with the tax payers' money. I pay them to keep the road well maintained and to pay their employees well so they can keep doing a professional job serving the public. I have friends who are engineers working for TxDOT and I understand they aren't paid very well. That makes me all the more mad. I'll make sure governor Rick Perry hear from me about this.

This Slingbox is a cool idea.

It was such a roller coaster game tonight for the Dallas Cowboys against the Buffalo Bills. The Cowboys didn't seem to be able to run the ball at all. Every pass seemed to end with an interception. What can you do? But thank God they were able to save the game with two field goals, first one spoiled by the time out called immediately before the snap by the Bills' head coach Dick Jauron.

I caught the tail end of the presentation Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Steve Russell gave to the Heritage Foundation folks. He's the kind of inspiring leadership that make this country the best place on this globe. He pointed out that it's not a civil war in Iraq because the insurgents are only about 10,000 to 20,000 male, while the population of Iraq is 25 millions people. That we do not hear of the successes of the provincial government. The fact that Tikrit, Saddam's stronghold, has not been in the news is an amazing victory for our troops and the Iraqi security forces. Check out his organization, Vets 4 Victory.

It's so encouraging to see governor Mike Huckabee's poll number keeps going up and up and up. He's now in third place with 12% behind Mitt Romney 29% and Fred Thompson 18% in this Des Moines Register poll. Not only did he pass mayor Rudy Giuliani 11% but he's number one favorite "among the one-fourth of likely caucus participants who say their minds are made up, Huckabee comes out on top with 19 percent, followed by Romney at 16 percent and Thompson at 15 percent." Newt Gingrich said Huckabee would be the dark horse candidate if he has some money, which is something I found out for myself when I first met the governor in Plano a couple months back so I am taking it upon myself to raise a few bucks for the governor among my family and friends. With what he has been able to do without money, I can't wait to see what he can do with some money.

I had an opportunity to sit down and have lunch today with a couple of Panamanian young political activists who came to the US through the State Department International Visitor Leadership Program. Adolfo Tomas Valderrama is the Youth National Secretary for the Panamenista Party and Catibel del Carmen Franco is the Secretary of Women's Affairs for the Patriotic Union Party. The subject of discussion was grassroots politics and young people's involvement. But we talked about a lot of stuffs. I learned a few interesting things. Money creates scandal in French but not sex. Sex does it for the British but not money. Both of them will cause you great pain and trouble in these United States of America. Talking about corruption, which is plaguing Panama, we agree that once you are believed to be corrupted, you are done in the US but not in Panama. They told me another interesting fact I did not know was that Panama seems to not have any natural disaster. Hurricanes make landfall on the countries north and south of Panama but sparing Panama every time. They had a saying that God was born in Panama.

Flipped to C-SPAN in time to see congressman Steve King of Iowa pointed out that the SCHIP program, which seeks to provide federal subsidy for health insurance for children of low income families, if allow to raise the income ceiling for eligibility to 400% of federal poverty level, would make 75,000 families in America who are subjected to the Alternative Minimum Tax qualified for SCHIP. So you are subjected to a federal income tax that is created to target the rich, but qualified for federal subsidy for your children's health insurance. Can the Democrats be anymore ridiculous than that? I wouldn't doubt.

I had a great time last week on a 5-day Caribbean cruise with a whole bunch of singles from my church. We had shore excursion in Cozumel and Progreso, Mexico. I now understand what people are talking about when they talk about clear water of the Caribbean that you can see the bottom. It's a beautiful turquoise color. We went snorkeling in Cozumel, went to see the Mayan ruins in Progreso and shopping in both. I wouldn't mind having a vacation home in Cozumel.

       

We were out at the American Heart Walk this morning in Fort Worth.

   

I would never have imagined that I could agree on anything with Dianne Feinstein, the godless socialist the people of California has for a senator. But I finally heard it today on FoxNews: Alberto Gonzalez has been a disaster for the Department of Justice. I hope it would be the first and last thing I find myself agreeing with her.

This morning, I had an opportunity to chat with Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, who is only 36 and has already argued six cases before the US Supreme Court with the 7th one on its way, the most any Texas attorney has done. His father came to the US from Cuba with nothing but the shirt on his back and $100 sown into his underwear. He put himself through UT and went on to graduate school. Ted grew up in Houston, graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law. He went on to clerk for chief justice William Rehnquist before going to private practice. Among the things that were mentioned was one alarming note that Bush signed an order asking the state courts to vacate a death sentence against a Mexican national because the International Court of Justice said so. The president swore to preserve, protect and defend the US constitution, and therefore US sovereignty, against foreign and domestic enemy, which he failed to do in this case. If he does not know then his legal counsel should know, that the president has no power over state courts. Bush is getting more and more things wrong. He's now been in Washington D.C. for too long. Thank God there is a twenty second amendment providing for the two terms limit.

I got home after church and caught the tail end of the Washington Redkins game against the Miami Dolphins. The call to kick a field goal and end the game during overtime by coach Joe Gibbs was great. End the game as soon as possible, why risk injury and who knows what else. I admire that coach. I had never really understood why Christians should be involved in dangerous extreme sport like car racing and risked their lives until I read his book. Doesn't matter what you do, as long as you redeem every available opportunity to share the gospel with people, you are fulfilling the great commission. And God is sovereign anyway, so if it's time for you to be with Him in heaven, you will go. Otherwise, you will be here until God so choose to bring you home with him, whether you are involved in dangerous sport or not. Better risking your life in obedient to God than just sit on your behind and wait for heaven, like so many Christians are doing.

Really enjoyed the US Open Men's Final. Roger Federer is the stuff a champion is made of. I wished Novak Djokovic had exercised greater self control but again he's twenty years old. He will learn and will gain the experience and he will be great. It was interesting and fun to watch Maria Sharapova cheered for Djokovic.

The night was capped off with the Dallas Cowboys win over the New York Giants. I was a little worry there at the end when the Giants caught up to 35-38. But thank God their defense was not so strong. I am rooting for the New England Patriots next week. I am still the only guy in my church who loves the Patriots. Everyone else is "any team but Patriots" so I imagine they will all be cheering for the San Diego Chargers.

Here are a couple picture of me and my family on board the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi.

I spent the entire evening watching TV, which is very unusual. First the US Open, starting with the Jelena Jankovic match against Venus Williams. It's a great game to watch since Jankovic is pretty expressive, smiling and looking really relax, showing off how flexible she was. Then the Andy Roddick against Roger Federer. Andy is good, but extreme and I would say "inconsistent." Not in the game itself because I am no expert but it reminds me of a friend I have who is just like him, extreme good but not very consistent, not holding it altogether for a long enough period to prevail.

Then onto the rerun of the Republican Presidential debate in New Hampshire. I thought governor Mike Huckabee was particularly brilliant in the exchange with Ron Paul, in the comment about honor and his praise of senator John McCain, and his forceful push for the Fair Tax. He's my number one guy. Next comes congressman Duncan Hunter. Then surprisingly senator John McCain would be my third choice. He's in a league of his own, who I believe has the best foreign policy experience among all the candidates. Then comes mayor Rudy Giuliani. I wouldn't believe I could support mayor Giuliani before the debate tonight but watching him has given me more positive feelings about him. Though I disagree with him about his private conducts have no effect on his discharge of official duty, I thought he handled the question well. Governor Romney didn't come off very well. He does not project a very decisive image and therefore contributing further to the flip-flop thing. Senator Sam Brownback, who I have a lot of respect for on his work in the area of religious freedom, didn't come off very strong either. Congressman Tancredo is the same, almost a single issue candidate. Congressman Ron Paul is the extreme, almost laughable, and his non verbal communication didn't go well on TV either, with him wringing his hands while being asked a question. A lot of what he said in principle is right, but policy implementation the way he suggested is all wrong. He needs a reality check.

I took Friday off heading to Corpus Christi for a family vacation over the long Labor Day weekend. It sprinkled the entire weekend so I didn't have to worry about applying sun block, which was great. Left the camera in my mom's van so will have to get the pictures uploaded later.

Because of the vacation, I missed the Texas GOP straw poll. My observation is that Fred Thompson already lost before he even starts. Here is the biggest state as far as Republican delegation is concerned and he didn't even care to show up. He's back by some heavy weight statewide GOP figures and came in at a distant second compare to congressman Duncan Hunter, who not only won more than 41% of the votes but could potentially carry his own great state of California in the general election.

I am all for congressman Duncan Hunter after my favorite candidate, governor Mike Huckabee.

Since Texas Secretary of State Phil Wilson will be attending the Dallas/Fort Worth Asian American Citizens Council 7th annual banquet on September 15th, I am working on providing his office with the details of the event. This is my first time dealing with his staff since he's appointed to the post by governor Rick Perry back in June, I say he's got some great staffers, specifically scheduler Katie McArthur and communications director Scott Haywood.

I am thankful that the USA is the country with the most privately owned guns in the world. If you think about doing us harm, think again. I am surprised however to read that China is the 3rd in the number of gun ownerships, consider that it is a communist dictatorial regime.

A nice article about governor Mike Huckabee. I don't think pen and paper can do the man justice. I think he's so much more. I am all out strongly supporting this man for president.

Sometimes I do think it's unfair to compare first generation of immigrants to the disadvantaged native minority because the immigrants could be the cream of the crops in their native country so they carry with them that drive to success and all the psychological advantages. However, Carl Brashear presented an inspiring model for anyone to strive to follow. So no, you do not have an excuse even if you are a native formerly oppressed disadvantaged minority in this country. You face the obstacle, stare in its face, overcome it, get around it, do whatever you need to do, and earn the respect, not demanding it through equal opportunity, or affirmative action, or whatever "I have a right to this or that" means. Yes you do, but God has a purpose in it to perfect your character. Life on this earth is only 70 to 80 years, eternity is more important. God is more interested in you becoming like Christ than to guarantee your rights for the short period here and now.

Usually if I am in Austin, I go to the Vietnamese Alliance Church to worship on Sunday. The service is at 11:00 am, usually is just perfect when you don't want to wake up early on Sunday. However, this past weekend, the board meeting started at 11:00 am so I was looking for an 8:00 am service somewhere. I thought of looking up First Baptist of Austin but Daniel just happened to IM me and so I asked him where does he usually go to church when he's in Austin for school. He told me about Hyde Park Baptist Church so that's where I went to service with Daniel on Sunday morning. We went to the "traditions" service and heard Dr. J. Kie Bowman preached. I was surprise when Daniel said let's go to the "traditions" one instead of the contemporary one. Maybe it was the best because according to the website, for the contemporary one, the sermon is a live broadcast of Dr. Bowman preaching and not seeing him in person. After the service, Daniel stayed for Sunday school, which he hinted was for college students and that I was too old for it. I went back to the Omni for the Sunday morning breakfast with Borah Van Dormolen, president of the Texas Federation of Republican Women followed by the board meeting.

Even with GPS, I was right in front of the Omni hotel in downtown Austin and still didn't realize it. The GPS said "you have arrived" and I was like, where? But over all, the GPS helped tremendously this weekend.

I arrived in the room where the Rules committee met about 20 minutes late but found myself not missing much since it was just started. We got through in about an hour or so. There were separate proposals to both eliminate the minority report and raise the percentage of committee membership required to have a minority report to 30% instead of 20%. Both were defeated. Afterward a group of us went to Katz's for dinner. Met and talked with Alan Steinberg, a 24-year-old from Fort Bend county who is running in the upcoming primary to earn the right to face the Democrat to retake Tom DeLay's 22nd district.

Congressman and presidential candidate Duncan Hunter spoke on Saturday morning. He's a great, principled, articulate guy. I just wish he had run for governor before taking steps to run for president. My favorite is still Mike Huckabee. And I found some more of his supporters at the convention, Nate Lambert of Tyler and Leslie Rutledge of Arkansas who is a member of the Young Republican National FederationBoard. We also heard from Texas Supreme Court justice Phil Johnson, Republican Party of Texas Communications & Political Operations Director Hans Klinger, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson as well as captain George Hurd, an Iraqi veteran. I felt particularly at home and comfortable among all these Republicans who understand that the 2nd amendment is most important as it guarantees all the rest of our rights as free people.

Steven Crowder was hilarious at the Saturday night gala. We also got to hear from former US ambassador to Bahrain Sam Zakhem. He's a great American, and a bold Arab Christian who is not ashamed to declare his faith and trust in Christ and the grace and love of our God before men.

During the entire convention we were graced with a delegation of conservative Lebanese Christians who came all the way from Lebanon to attend our convention.

I was appointed the SREC liaison at the new TYRF board meeting on Sunday. My counterpart will be Terri Flow from Austin. I am looking forward to attend these quarterly SREC meetings in the coming year.

After the board meeting, I stopped by Thi's house, we visited and chatted a little bit then headed to Starbucks to meet up with another friend Khanh, hung out a little more before I and Thi met up with Daniel for dinner at Rudy's. The drive home was so much easier when the sun has gone down. I always get very sleepy while driving with the sun shining brightly and reflecting off the road.

A good night of sleep last night still did not help me recover yet from two consecutive nights of 2-hour sleep each Friday and Saturday. Eliza Vielma and her team put on an excellent state convention. You go girl.


Former US ambassador to Bahrain Sam Zakhem and Karl Ninh


The Lebanese delegation and Karl Ninh


Dallas YRs at the 2007 TYRF annual convention

Even though the Dow recovered today nearly all the losses it took earlier in the week, I am still more than $6K down from the high I had at the beginning of July, when last contribution to my Nortel 401k was made. The Shared Tech 401k wasn't doing much better since I've been contributing starting July 1st, when all the stocks were at their high. But on the Shared Tech account, contributions have been continuously made so I hope stocks were bought while they were low on Monday. All is for long term. I still have 39 years before having to deal with forced distribution at 70 and 1/2.

Rule for success: "Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise" from Ross Perot in the audio book Forever Texas I am currently listening to. Since I am working for someone else and have no control over advertising budget, I would modify it to "Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and exercise."

My experience with the GPS, it takes longer to adjust the measurement of speed at which the vehicle is moving, at least 3 to 4 seconds compare to the coordinate, which are adjusted much faster, almost every second but then the exact location has a margin of error from 5 to 10 meters. Also, if the vehicle is moving at 45 mph, it covers the distance of one second, longitude or latitude depends on whether you travel east-west or north-south, at an elevation of 500 ft from sea level. Just simple useless roughly estimated observations as I was on my way to work this morning.

I have a compass in the truck and mobile Google Map on my blackberry so I thought never have to worry about getting lost again. Wrong. When there is no street sign whatsoever, as in the case of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida after Rita, or Biloxi, Mississippi after Katrina, how do you suppose to turn left or right on to a street without any street sign. So I went and got myself the Maestro 4040 and I am pretty happy with it so far.

We went out for sushi tonight at Fujiyama. I rarely ever eat fish unless it's sushi. I typically get my sushi fix once a month. I just love their butterfly kisses house special there and my brother likes their lobster rolls. Their Sashimi are also pretty good. Tempura udon is also a decent item.

I am a pretty reasonable guy as far as going green and striving to be environmentally friendly. But it has to make economic sense and it must be my own voluntary decision. I am absolutely against forcing it down people's throats by legislation or the court's fiat. I am all for educational efforts to raise awareness of the issues, with facts rather than hypes. Everyone is for sustainable energy, and saving their own money. But as British architect Bill Dunster said, it has to be tested out first, make sure it's not only proven theoretically but practically. Whatever alternate energy product must not be consuming more energy to produce than it's producing, which I believe all the craze about ethanol is. I mean even for people who without Christ would forever be tortured in the lake of fire in hell, Christ didn't force it down their throats but patiently waiting and giving everyone a choice. It's a stubborn thing called free will, Bruce Almighty comes to mind. God, the Creator and the Redeemer, who left all His glory, came and took on our sins, died to give himself as a ransom for everyone who would accept His forgiveness and thus eternal life instead of damnation, for a person's own good for eternity, didn't force the person, who die and make Al Gore "god" to tell me how to live my life? With that out of the way, I believe these are the five reasonable ways from the September 2007 issue of BestLife Magazine that each one of us could individually consider to save energy and to save money at the same time:

1. Hot-water Panels.
2. Solar Roof.
3. Wind Turbine.
4. Water Harvester.
5. Geothermal Well, which is what president George W. Bush already has installed at his Crawford ranch.

A group of us community leaders had lunch with Dallas mayor Tom Leppert and his wife Laura today at city hall. My first impression with Tom during the campaign was that he is a committed business leader. He was questioned about his standing on green buildings. His answer was that he's all for it but it must make business sense. That impression was cemented today with his many answers regarding the direct flight from Asia to the DFW airport, the Trinity River Project, Dallas air quality, Dallas' competitiveness in the flat world economy, .... His wife Laura has great political sense, who provides great support to her husband, and does all she can to promote his public image, unlike some of the political spouses like Giuliani's wife Judith Nathan, or Fred Thompson's wife Jeri Kehn, ... who manage only to generate bad press for their husbands.

Here is where I am. I agree with the president on the war, in Iraq and Afghanistan and wherever else that US special forces are cleaning out the terrorists. I am very appreciative of the president for his appointments of strict constructionist to the bench. However, I am very disappointed with the president and a Republican congress unable to get the tax cut permanent and reform Social Security with personalization. I strongly disagree with the president on his legalization of illegal immigrants. How many of you Republicans, both fiscal and social conservative, out there stand where I stand with regard to the president's policies?

I replaced a 512Mb memory module on my work laptop with the 2Gb module supplied by Dan and now have 2.5Gb of memory. It's sweet! No more paging to file on disk. I love my job and work is even more enjoyable now, praise God! One noticeable difference is that when I popped the laptop out of the docking station, don't have to wait for the system to adjust at all. Everything instantly look as if the laptop has never been docked.

Check out this amazing weapon that is now deployed in Iraq.

I agreed with this. I always prefer to driving my own car rather than anyone else's, doesn't matter if mine is a beat up car and other's is the latest luxury SUV.

Why didn't I think of it.

Listening to the audio book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Pretty interesting and enjoyable. I would recommend it. For those in the know, who would be the modern version of Kate Chase?

Yours truly was quoted in this article by Dallas Morning News reporter Sam Hodges today. We chatted about a lot more things but they did not made it into the article. I don't doubt it's those "evil" editors cutting it out. Just joking. They are not "evil," just doing their jobs.

I bought an Acer 24" LCD with a 1920 x 1200 resolution for $399 online from Costco yesterday and should get it by Tuesday. Costco didn't have it in store so I had to pay shipping and sales tax, urgh! But it's still cheaper than any other vendor. My CRT right now has 1600 by 1200 resolution. I set my sight on 1920 by 1200 LCD a couple months ago but it was selling for over $600. I had hoped that the price would be down to around $400 by July 4th but it didn't happen until now.

Imagine being able to get from home to work or wherever you are going at 50 mph, with no traffic stop and no traffic jam, not worrying about traffic tickets for school zone, or any other moving violations for that matter. The Moller M200G Volantor will be just the flying car you need.

We heard from Edith Jones, chief judge of the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals at a luncheon put together by the Dallas Chapter of The Federalist Society. She touched on a few subjects, and was particularly eloquent on the issue of Supreme Court justice(s) referenced foreign laws. Unless the justice(s) reads Spanish, or Arabic, or whatever the foreign law was written in, the justice(s) should not venture to reference it in the published opinion. It would make it an inconsistent body of statutes if the frame of reference is ever shifting as to what foreign law will be taken into consideration. It was a really educational experience for a non-lawyer like me.

Tested with PCPitStop and my Verizon FiOS connection is as good as advertised: 5,058 Kbps downstream and 1,868 Kbps upstream.

Let's see, VBS was well done. Our theme this year was the Coconut Island. The kids still remembered last year's theme, which was what I can't remember now. My mind sometimes just went blank like that. One of the parents came to receive Christ after Jason, Larry and I witnessed to him Thursday night. He came back on Friday, brought his wife, mom, and youngest son.

Saturday, I woke up, went to Costco and bought the dresser as well as a full size safe. One that you can have a gun rack inside. I had wanted that for a while. When we got home, I and my brother couldn't get the safe off the truck. It was too heavy. So we left it on the bed of my truck inside the garage. We went to play paintball with a group of singles at church. Game over, a couple guys came over to help me and Quan unloaded the safe, then we went for dinner.

Sunday, we had pizza after the service and then went bowling. And then birthday party for little David. We had a great time playing Taboo. Then we went to see Transformers. I didn't like it that much except for Megan Fox's beautiful eyes and Rachel Taylor's cute English accent. Saw Hitch last week and I actually like that movie. Why can't we have more movies like that, exploring all the intricate aspects of human nature. All the while with beautiful actors and actresses. I failed to see what's interesting about metal clanking and crashing, building on fire, shooting in every directions, things exploding in every way this and that, ....

Oh, and I am posting this blog through Verizon FiOS internet, which was installed and activated earlier today. I like what I see so far.

Filed the second quarter sales tax return for Principle Media. Also filed the Dallas County North Republican Club semiannual campaign finance report, which is due July 16th. Had some trouble filing the report electronically but a call to technical support took care of it.

I had ADT Security installed the home security system on Saturday. Verizon FiOS folks were out digging to lay the fiber optic cable today. The service itself is scheduled for installation next Monday, July 16th. Got an old English style leather sofa, a leather recliner, an 84" nice bookshelf from Costco. Still has to go and get a dresser, won't have time until Saturday since this week is vacation bible school (VBS) at church. VBS went well the last two days. We fed the kids banana split today so I splurged on the ice cream as well.

Cindy Sheehan threatens to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying the Democrat Congressman has not delivered on the promise to end the war. It would be great if she can draw enough votes away from Pelosi that a Republican will win the district.

This Live IP Map is cool.

Remember next time you walk with your backpack or pull your luggage behind you.

I did not realize all the different businesses Amazon operates until until I was told today. Check them out:

free overnight shipping of shoes and handbag,

the subscribe and save concept, which if they do it cost effective enough, would be able to cut into Walmart's pie,

Library Wish List,

highly customized information deliver to customer,

Japanese watches.

Interesting to say the least.

I've been slacking off, busy with home improvements, but I am getting back into staying in shape. Haven't spent enough time to train to push beyond the 150 lbs benching but will be soon.

Talking about home improvements, due to miscommunications, the folks that suppose to come in and put in new tiles in my bathrooms didn't come last week. They will be coming this week and all would be done by this weekend. Also just realize with all these rains that the gutter is not all around my house. In fact, the down spout and splash block are on the side of the house. And it's just my guess but the water has been coming down that area for too long that the concrete walkway is sinking a little low such that water is making a puddle there when it rain hard. I need to add more gutter so it runs all around the house and move the down spout somewhere else.

Let's see, I am listening to This just in by CBS news anchor Bob Schieffer. I had always thought that Jimmy Carter was just a peanuts farmer from Georgia who was too inexperience for Washington, and thus the incompetency of his administration. But I suspected inside was a kind hearted obedient Christian, though misguided in the belief of peace at any cost, as many Christians, some at my church, who do not believe in the 2nd amendment. But apparently there's a selfish heart when he rudely left one of his staffs and a member of the press in the cold on the campaign trail in 1975 as well. And his recent anti-semitic activities confirmed even further that his understanding of the Bible maybe less than what I had expected from a Sunday school teacher.

Kaitlin emailed me this, watch and give thanks!

More home improvement: installed outside security flood light with motion sensors. My dad did the landscaping, it looks great. It is of two layers, roses will grow tall on top and the ground is covered with different colors of carnation. I have always loved carnations and the fact that they can survive winter in Texas makes it even better. Bought some track lighting and will be installing them in the living room.

VPS Dallas hosted a dinner and then charity poker tournament tonight at the Westin Galleria. Everyone had a good time and the proceeds will go to raise awareness of the tragedy of human trafficking.

It gives me a great sense of optimism tonight with Tom Leppert pulling through at 57.85% of the votes to become the next mayor of Dallas. What impressed me most about Tom is his ability to come across assertively without being too affront, in-your-face kind of thing. He won me when he said that business should strive to go green, but with a competitive business sense, doing it cost effectively and not just do it for the sake of doing it at any cost.

Talking about municipalities, did you know that Seattle was built on taxes collected from prostitutes? I didn't know this but Josh told me all about it when we got together at Ann and Paul's house yesterday. During the boom fueled by the lumber industry, the area had over seven thousands men working and over two thousands women, who all list their occupations as seamstress. I was told also that the money from the lady that ran the largest brothel is still financing all the public schools today. I have to check that out.

Thanks to my friend Sharon Albertson, I had an opportunity to meet my favorite governor and presidential candidate, former governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas. Told him I love the volunteer tax contribution account he set up in Arkansas while he was governor. He's the one candidate that I can see myself spending my own money to travel and go door to door knocking to get out the votes for. He is very personable, shook everyone's hand. He took the time to listen, actually listened to what you have to say. He touched on a few things while addressing the group. He wants to restore the optimism in America. He started with a humble beginning. His dad, a firefighter, worked two jobs to support the family. He's the fist male to graduate from high school in his family. He believe in the intrinsic value of every human life, from the moment of conception. That's nothing new to his supporters. We've known that for years and years. We celebrate lives, unlike the Jihadists, who celebrate death. He wanted restructure the entire tax system, not just tweaking a little here and a little there. He believes we should not be taxing productivity. Tax should be on consumption. America should be a tax heavens for companies to come here, not to flee away. He believes in a family consists of a mom, a dad, and children. A school with balanced curriculum, putting back arts and music into school, make school interesting for kids to learn.

He remembers where he comes from. He is proud that his campaign is run very efficiently. He compared it to being an electric car of presidential campaigns.

He's gotten a great sense of humor.


Karl Ninh and Mike Huckabee

My SQL was a little bit rusty but I had a chance to brush them up with the new job. Today, I was dealing with adding a foreign key constraint in mySQL database. I had fun. I love my work, and getting paid to do it just make it all the better.

I turned 31 today. Fourteen years ago today, I was still in Vietnam, not knowing whether I would be able to go to college because of my parents' links with the former South Vietnamese government or able to afford the college tuition. There was no such thing as financial aids. God is good, very good. Today I am living the American dream. A college graduate, with advanced graduate degree. A job that pays well. A decent balance in my retirement fund with enough change in the bank. I own my own house, yes, with a mortgage just like most people my age have. But I am doing better than most with no other debt, no student loan payment, no car payment, no credit card payment, .... I pay off the balance every month on all credit cards I used since I started using them in my sophomore year in college. And like they said, the first million is always the hardest. Well, I don't have a million dollars yet but I can say that the first $100K was hard. After that, things get easier and easier.