blog.JeffersonKim.com

DIY Cheaper Foam Mattress (Cheapurpedic)

2011-08-09T21:02:00.000-07:00

$194.99 FREE SHIPPING - King Memory Foam Mattress LUCID by LinenSpa 8" Memory Foam Firm Viscoelastic Mattress 20-Year Warrantyhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0050JL32U/ref=ox_ya_os_product

I don't know if this is a pricing mistake. This is REALLY cheap and you can cut it in half to create two twin size mattresses.

75% savings and cheaper than a Full and queen size mattress?

And if you want to make it even thicker, you can just add mattress toppers to the top.

NOTE:
This is a really good price in comparison to similar spec'd mattresses with 3.0 lb memory foam, 8" thick. Remember, this is for a KING size for $200! There are other models with higher density foam, (ie. 4.0lb or 5.0lb) but they cost more than 50% more!

My recommendation is that you try out this 8", and if you want to try out a denser foam, you can switch out the topper with whatever density you want from a place like: http://www.mattressbymail.com/memorytopper.html

Even if you buy a 4lb Memory Foam topper at 2" to top your existing mattress, it's only $106.99 more, which is still cheaper than the next alternative.

If you would like more information the "theory" of memory foam beds, check out: http://www.gmilburn.ca/2008/04/27/make-your-own-memory-foam-bed/ Once you understand the theory a little more, you can customize your bed for a truly DIY feel!

MAKING TWO TWIN BEDS:
The dimensions of the King Size is about 75" x 80".

So when I got it, I cut it in half to create two 40" x 75" twin size mattresses. I bought a twin size zipper cover off Amazon. Any will do depending on your needs. I needed pee-proof because my two kids were going to use them. Mark it down the middle, and then I had a cheap hacksaw with some very fine teeth, and it cut through fairly easily.

The mattresses even come with a King size zipper cover that I can use for whatever thing I see fit in the future. I actually already have a different mattress I had made back in about 2007 that I'll be able to use it on.

Personal Blog on Hiatus

2011-05-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

You've probably noticed I haven't "blogged" for a while.

That's because I'm focusing more on my professional blog:

http://jKimGroup.com

And also prepping for the blogs to my hotels.

Most of the worthwhile action happens at work anyway.

In terms of personal life, my "life" updates are typically easily summarized in a twitter post, placed on Facebook, my YouTube channel, or some other publishing medium that's not so profound.

Seriously, my personal life is not that interesting.

Made it to Top 10 in Diamond for StarCraft 2

2010-09-11T13:04:00.000-07:00

It's strange how these arbitrary rankings make me want to play more.

Canon Vixia HF M30 Review

2010-06-19T20:32:00.000-07:00

After tons of research, I ended up getting the Canon VIXIA HF M30. Here were some major criteria I had:

1) 1080P Capable
2) Microphone Input
3) Not crazy expensive
4) Reputable brand
5) Expandable memory

This pretty much narrowed my choice down to the Canon VIXIA HF family. Each of the other variations of this model pretty much only offered more internal, built in memory. I opted for one of the lesser internal RAM and figured I could get SD cards that would do the job just as well.

So far, I haven't had any issues at all after I ordered it on April 15, 2010. Compared to my old Canon ZR60 which used DVR tapes, this new system is absolutely awesome.

In fact, the native format of these videos are in a format that PS3s and YouTube.com read without any conversion necessary or editing. That's why you see a lot of my videos uploaded to YouTube.com without any edits since I just simply downloaded the videos straight from my camera and straight to YouTube.com

For some sample videos, check out any of my 1080P videos on http://youtube.com/jeffersonkim. I also did some room tours for my hotel which you can find at http://www.anaheimparkhotel.com. The room tours were completely unedited and are playing on a loop on a PS3 hooked up to a 46" LCD at the front desk in the full 1080P goodness.

I'm interested to see some of the other production videos I'll be able to make for the hotel.

Here are some other accessories I purchased as well:

Raynox HD-5050PRO, 37mm, 0.5x, Super Wide Angle Conversion Lens

Fits right onto the camcorder without any accessories needed! In fact, you don't want to put any extra adapters since the extra length will affect the corners when viewing out the lens with black out.

Adorama Heavy Duty L-bracket with 2 Standard Flash Shoe Mounts

You'll need this adapter to be able to use the directional microphone since the Canon shoe is a proprietary mini-shoe.

Chloe Throw Up

2010-04-17T14:51:00.000-07:00

My LendingClub.com Experience

2010-03-02T11:30:00.001-08:00

UPDATE (3/4/2010): I managed to sell all my notes and profited a total of $344.00 from both Propser.com and LendingClub.com holding the notes for less than 3 months.

I ended up investing over $20,000 in order to get this promotion they would give me 1% cash back.

After looking at the potential returns, I was super excited and invested aggressively.

Unfortunately, once I reviewed their stats and AFTER I invested my money, I realized that the stats weighed returns on notes that hadn't even had time to default, so they were heavily skewed.

In addition, the biggest risk is the fact that should Lending Club go bankrupt, then you could potentially lose your entire investment.

They don't really tell you that you could lose your money in case of bankruptcy, unless you read the fine print in the prospectus.

After reading this, I realized I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket and started selling my 250+ notes on their trading platform.

I have 3 notes left, some of them defaulted, but I managed to sell most of them and still make hopefully a little over $200 should this entire thing pan out.

If it weren't for the fact that I could lose all my money if LendingClub goes out of business, I would've kept my investment. Perhaps one day, assets will be protected from bankruptcy similar to how Vanguard protects the index funds should Vanguard go bankrupt.

But even then, I'd be careful. Check out the 45.3% delinquency on Prosper.com loans:
http://fred93blog.blogspot.com/2010/03/prospercom-022010-late-loan-stats.html

WARNING: LendingClub.com Statistic Innacuracies & Potential Downfall

2009-12-05T15:43:00.000-08:00

I was hoping to get returns on my investments with LendingClub.com at a range of 10% based off their website which states the average return is 9.67%

Upon further review, most of the money coming in is toward new loans which haven't had enough time (120 days) to go into default or to be charged off. This naturally skews the data.

So what I did was that I took the data off their website for loans originating in 2007 and 2008 and the results and returns I see are actually much worse and quite scary.

The reason for this is because most loans end up going into default after about one 6 months to a year. Everyone pays fine for the first couple of months, and then they TANK.

For example, try going to https://www.lendingclub.com/info/statistics-performance.action and set the custom dates from June 1, 2007 to December 31, 2008. What you'll see are some pretty sobering statistics.

None of the average returns are above 6% APR. The F class notes are even negative.

Here's a breakdown of each credit grade and the percent that end up getting Charged Off or enter into Default:

Credit	Total Loans	Charged Off	Default	% Fail
A	397	5	1	1.51%
B	692	44	15	8.53%
C	722	60	22	11.36%
D	519	64	14	15.03%
E	386	52	8	15.54%
F	163	43	5	29.45%
G	122	24	3	22.13%

According to http://www.peerlendingwealth.com:8080/LowRisk/MinimizeRisk.html the default rate you're seeing above is GINORMOUSLY more than what they're supposed to be.

The defaults are CRAZY. I can expect as high as 10%, but I can't believe I'm seeing almost 30% default rates for some credit grades. And these loans are supposed to be only for those with FICO scores above 650. We shouldn't be seeing anything higher than 6.3% default rates.

Perhaps the main saving grace is if you only invest in Grade A loans.

SAD REALITY
Based off the fact that index funds average 8% and have crazy volatility, I was hoping that LendingClub.com was going to offer me a much sweeter alternative. The true data suggests otherwise and I'm hitting my head for not delving into the data while I was initially investing.

Now I'll just be happy to get 6% returns over three years with LendingClub.com, but unless my loans end up turning out good, I'll still be relying on the good old index funds to bring in the average 8% over the long run.

And based off the data, I may just invest in Grade A loans for now on.

Selling and Buying Used Cars (And how I was reminded about taking advantage of low interest rates)

2009-11-20T12:54:00.000-08:00

This post briefly documents my used car selling and buying experience and my thought process.

WHY I SOLD THE 2006 BMW 325i
It started near the beginning of October when Hun from ghkim.com told me how he sold the exact same model car as me for a 2005 Toyota Prius. He cited the maintenance costs and gas mileage as the main reasons. I was surprised by him citing maintenance because when I was doing the initial research for the car, the maintenance fees weren't estimated to be that high according to Edmunds.com. They ended up revising the figures to be about double what they initially estimated. I had realized I had made an expensive miscalculation if I planned on driving the car until it died.

The 4 years of full maintenance was scheduled to end November 14, and I didn't want to have to deal with the expensive repair bills and maintenance required, especially since BMWs require specialist hourly fees.

Also, my wife doesn't like it when I drive like a mad man in the car, so it was loosing its driving appeal.

I got it for the chicks, and now that I'm married, it no longer has much of a purpose.

SELLING MY BMW
On about November 12, 2009, I sold my 2006 BMW 325i for $16,200 through Craigslist. The process was pretty nerve racking as I had to deal with multiple buyers with various offers over a 3 - 4 week period. Plus it was a stick shift, and having to deal with the hassle of test-drives wasn't pleasant. Craigslist has a lot of flakes but in the end it ended up giving me $2,000 more than a local dealership was willing to offer me.

If you considered my BMW to be between a Clean and Average condition, then I ended up selling my car about 92.55% of what Edmunds.com listed as a fair market value.

COST OF OWNING THE BMW
I bought the car originally in November 2005 while stationed in Germany. The original price was $26,840. I didn't have to pay any tax, so that's the total price. When I came to California, I had to pay nominal registration fees (about $250), but still no tax.

Also, through USAA, I got a 2% APR loan for about $25,000 of the loan. The total interest ended up being about $1,263.66 and I'm still maintaining the loan because the interest rates are so low.

My parents had given me some money to pay for the car, so I instead invested the money from May 2005 - October 2008 in stocks. In October 2008, I sold the investments and transferred them to Roth IRAs. I made about $5,968.48 from the original investment. . . of course, it has tanked while in my Roth accounts, but I'm not too concerned about that as I'll be able to pull the money out tax free when I retire where they would've recouped most of the losses.

In the end, here are the calculations of the 4 years of ownership. All maintenance and warranty was covered through BMW for the first 4 years:

2006 BMW 325i
Original Price 26840
Sale Price 16200

From Investments
May 05 - Oct 08 $5968.48

2.0% Interest Loan
Interest Cost to date 20091002 1263.66

FINAL COST
Difference $5935.18
Months Owned 48
Cost/Month $123.65

So about $6,000 total cost for 48 months of driving a new 2006 BMW 325i or $123.65/month. Very good :]

DECIDING WHICH USED CAR TO BUY

RELIABILITY
It was a no brainer for me to go for either Honda or Toyota.

SAFETY
I had to do some research on the IIHS website. Toyota Camry 2007 was the first year that Side Air bags were standard where it got pretty much "good" on all measurements. Honda Accords have side airbags being standard beginning in 2005. Side impact scores were pretty bad if they didn't have side air bags.

USED
I didn't want to pay for a new car for a long time.

CONSUMERREPORTS.ORG
I found out that 2007 Toyota Camrys, being the new model year, were actually having average transmission problems and other issues, so I ended up focusing more toward 2006 Honda Accords as the main interest because they were being rated higher in reliability.

2006 Honda Accord
I bid on a 2007 Toyota Camry with 33,000 miles and lost on Ebay for about $12,400, which ended up being a good thing.

I offered and got accepted for a really bad condition 2006 Honda Accord with 50,000 miles for about $9500. I'm glad I didn't go through with it.

Last Monday morning I was going to close on the 2006 Honda Accord for $9,500, but came to think about all the cosmetic damage and how much it would cost. Plus, I was able to find a certified, used 2006 Honda Accord with about 59,000 miles for $11,888, or $2,000 more. I figured, to get a warranty for 100,000 miles and having a car with near perfect condition was a much better bet.

So I went that route and discovered some extra benefits all in the same, long day.

Honda Accord is doing a special financing program where I was able to finance the entire vehicle, including tax, through their 4.9% APR for 60 months. I have cash to be able to purchase the car outright, but if I invest the money instead, and manage to get a 7% after tax return which I think would be easy to get through LendingClub.com & Prosper.com, I'll come out even further out ahead.

The dealer (Honda of Downtown Los Angeles) ended up signing me up for a $550.00 LoJack device at the last second. The value of this is TBD.

I also got to do a down payment of $3,000 through my credit card netting me a $30 cash back and I'm also getting one free oil change ($40 value).

PROJECTED FINAL PRICE CALCULATIONS OVER 5 YEARS

7% Returns:
Cost $13,617.89
$3,000 Cash Back -$30.00
Oil Change -$40.00
$10,617.89 Financed (4.9% APR) $1,316.04
$10,617.89 Invested (7% APR) -$4,274.25

Total $10,589.68

Should I be getting the returns as high as Lending Club is estimating, I think I can get returns in the 12% range after taxes and defaults:

Cost $13,617.89
$3,000 Cash Back -$30.00
Oil Change -$40.00
$10,617.89 Financed (4.9% APR) $1,316.04
$10,617.89 Invested -$8,094.46

Total $6,769.47

Hopefully, I can drive the car until 250,000 (or 16 years!) or when it finally dies. But if I were to sell the car at the depreciation rate that Edmunds.com projects after the 5 years (Final sell price of $7,000), then I could theoretically had made $230!

OVERALL LESSON
Don't forget to take advantage of super low interest rates WHENEVER possible, especially when you have the means to make higher returns investing that same cash elsewhere!!!

American Express Fidelity

2009-10-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

I just got the American Express Fidelity card to my credit card arsenal. It's 2% back on points which can be deposited into cash into my Fidelity cash account:

http://personal.fidelity.com/products/checking/content/amex_rewards_card.shtml.cvsr?showcard=all

So now I have a general card that I use for everything and get 2% cash back.

In combination with my Chase Amazon.com Visa Signature card (3% back on Amazon.com, 2% Restaurants, plus doubling the warranty up to a year of anything I buy) and American Express True Earnings Card (3% back at restaurants), I'm feeling fairly confident I have the best cards out there for cash back for my typical spending habits.

Here's a nice little grid I worked out:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AucDQtOT6qJIdC1uSmZOUVE2RXNUdHBfQ3Q5cUdkZ1E&hl=en

Pay off 2% APR loan or keep it?

2009-10-21T18:22:00.001-07:00

I have a 2% APR, unsecured loan in the amount of $5,955.28 through my bank, USAA. The original purpose of the loan was for my 2006 BMW 325i, but they didn't put my car as collateral for some reason.

It'll be paid off on Dec 2, 2010. Monthly payments are $440.37.

I have a savings account through Capital One, and they're giving me 1.64% APR due to an account I have opened up through Costco.

Analysts are predicting that negative job growth will continue until the end of 2010, when it'll bottom and possibly begin recovering. I don't imagine that the Fed will be raising interest rates within the next 12 months.

Would you pay off the 2% APR loan entirely? Or continue and let the money accrue interest and pay the monthly payments as required.

UPDATE (20:07, 20091021):

I did the amortization tables, and realized that the true cost to maintain liquidity is only $13.53. Maybe I shouldn't worry about it too much and keep it in

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AucDQtOT6qJIdDRSWEg1Sm1CbWZNd0RtcTI1LWR5N3c&hl=en

Keesler Blog Posting

2009-09-28T16:53:00.000-07:00

I copied and pasted from here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1510894/posts

I figured it may disappear with time, so I wanted to back it up.

Kessler AFB Shelter Commander Story
333d Training Squadron/CC ^ | post Katrina | Lt Col (USAF) Randy Coats

Posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 07:15:35 by RileyD, nwJ

Command: Category 4
Lt Col Randy Coats, 333d Training Squadron/CC

Command. There's no better job in the world. After seven years in jobs with “command authority” and two squadron commands, I figured I had a good idea what command was all about. I was wrong. What changed my mind? Four words--"Shelter Commander" and "Hurricane Katrina."

From 28 Aug - 2 Sep, I lived with 730 of my "closest friends" in 50-year old Bryan Hall at Keesler AFB, MS. It was my third stint as a shelter commander, but it was unlike anything I had experienced before. As life slowly returns to normal on the Gulf Coast and I reflect on the experience, I've come to appreciate the unpredictability of command and how much an event like Katrina can change people and communities.

First, you have to understand some basics. My shelter is a unique animal on Keesler. Most shelters here are dedicated primarily to one unit. Mine is not. I have all the active duty and family members from a wide variety of units--two training squadrons, CE and Security Forces (and prisoners), 100+ Marines, communications students (NCOs and roughly 60 Lt's), 150 NCO Academy students and their faculty, and 50 international officers and their families. The building is an old nuclear fallout shelter, with no windows and no shower facilities. With that setting in mind, I offer the following memories and thoughts on Hurricane Katrina.

25 Aug (Thu): One of my sharpest young MSgt points out Katrina "may grow into something over the weekend" and suggests we update our shelter/evacuation data sheets. I admire his enthusiasm, tell him “that's not a bad idea", then promptly forget to do anything because Katrina's not headed our way at all and I've got other things to do besides worry about a piddly Category 1 storm.

27 Aug (Sat): Two CAT (Command Action Team) meetings. Katrina has strengthened and is headed our way, due to arrive Monday afternoon. Tentatively plan to open shelters Monday morning. I remember the MSgt's words and begin repeating every officer’s golden rule--"Never ignore a SNCO…Never ignore a SNCO."

28 Aug (Sun): Turn on CNN before heading to 0800 CAT. Radar picture shows Katrina is Category 5, taking up the whole Gulf of Mexico and headed straight for us, due to arrive before dawn Monday. "Never ignore a SNCO…Never ignore a SNCO."
- 1000: Initiate full recall and order all personnel to evacuate or shelter NLT 2100. Many people out of town for the weekend. Accountability is a nightmare.
- 1700: Open the shelter. People/families begin arriving. Have to stop two refrigerators, one 21" TV set, and three mattresses at the door. Students (of all ranks) drafted to help carry bags into the shelter. People told to bring food and water for three days. Most bring food for two days; smokers bring cigarettes for twenty days. Have to break the news--no smoking inside the shelter and once you're checked in you can't go outside (Hotel California rules).
- 2200: Doors locked and boarded up from the outside by CE (one door in an alcove left uncovered).

TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Mississippi
KEYWORDS: airforce; command; humor; katrina; keesler; keeslerafb; leadership; usaf

29 Aug (Mon):
0500: Winds howling; can hear them best through vents in bathrooms at the end of the hallway (It didn’t sound like this during Hurricane Ivan)
0800: Shelterees (hereafter referred to as "the Natives") start moving around 0800. Smokers looking for nicotine fix, but remain calm.
1000: Local news reports indicate rising waters, violent winds. Plywood ripped from external doorways (I start getting uneasy; plywood has never moved in previous storms, much less flown away).
1200: News reports 20+ feet of water in local mall. Natives getting anxious. Smokers getting jittery.
Afternoon:
- Power goes out; generators kick in. Not good. CE told us power can only go out if high-tension cables that survived 200-mph winds during Hurricane Camille go down. A/C stops working; ventilation fans stop working. No windows, no open doors, 731 nervous people…in Mississippi…in August. Ask for generator fuel status and burn rate. Have enough fuel for two days.
- Natives who smoke starting to visibly shake; many look physically ill.
- Cable TV goes out. Natives get creative with antennas. Spotted the bottom half of an NCO sticking out from ceiling tiles. Apparently reception is better if you connect a stripped copper comm cable from the TV to pipes in the ceiling. I appoint a safety observer and hope for the best.
- CE reports primary generator has flames coming out of it, so shut it off. Lost internet connectivity. Down to one generator; power only in hallways and a few rooms.
- Water stops running. Toilets overflowing. With medical advice, I brief the Natives on how to use plastic bags for toilet facilities (someone used this method within 10 minutes). Disposal of plastic bags in a sealed building is a concern. Adventurous major goes into the basement and finds 1961-vintage Civil Defense Survival Sanitation Kits. Basically, a 3-foot tall cardboard porta-potty with a hole cut in the top. This does not look fun. However, 44-year old toilet paper (it was dated) is surprisingly soft.
- One hour later: Water comes back thanks to CE heroes going out in the storm to repair pumping station. I hug the first CE troop I can find. Sanitation Kits thankfully not used, but kept on standby.
- CE troops coming off shift report half of flight-line underwater; BX and Commissary 6 feet deep and rising; trees down all over base; CE building collapsed. Natives begin to get the picture--this is worse than Hurricanes Ivan or Dennis.
Evening:
1800: Winds still dangerous so cannot open doors. It's hot…it's humid…Natives are getting cranky. Smokers showing signs of extreme duress. One is carrying two unlit cigarettes around. I suggest he tear one open and put it behind his lip for a nicotine fix. He informs me he's already eaten an entire pack and it didn't help. Can't think of anything to say in response, so I pat him on the back and wish him luck.
- Babies and young kids getting grumpy; too hot to nap.
- Barely-visible news reports (on very fuzzy TV picture) report massive devastation in the area. Dead silence in hallway as Natives crowd around the lone TV with a discernible picture. Tension rising.
2000: Too hot to breathe. 731 nervous people generate a lot of sweat and a variety of smells. Command Post says stay locked down, don't open doors. Natives make strange noises when I walk by. Not sure the "Shelter Commander" badge is a good thing to be wearing right now. First Sergeant reports Natives consider me the embodiment of evil.
- Cops go on shift. The best NCO in the AF is assigned to patrol base housing; he offers to try to check on my cat during his shift (we left her in the hallway of my house).
2100: Even hotter. Poked my head outside--it's ugly but winds have died down. Command Post says stay buttoned up. Natives mumbling in small groups about how to eliminate a commander. Survival instincts tell me to get some air in here. Posted Marines at every exit and opened all the doors. I'm a hero; Natives love me. Haven't heard "thank you" this much since I put my shirt back on at the squadron pool party.
2200: Smokers running out of cigarettes to eat. Open a side door and rope off a 10' x 10' smoking area. No more than five people at a time; no more than five minutes. Sucking cigarettes look like blow-torches in reverse. Everyone loves me.
- Nobody sleeps much. Tough to sleep in pools of sweat.

30 August (Tuesday):
0145: One of my NCOs wakes me up because "Cops want to talk to you, Sir". SFS NCO is direct. "The good news is your cat is fine." Next question obvious. As he hands back my house key he adds, "The bad news is I didn't need this to get into your house." Doesn't quite register…"How'd you get in?" He looked me straight in the eye and said, "I walked through your back wall." That can't be good at all. Looks like a total loss. My wife was on a cot in the hallway. I woke her up to give her the news. Her response? "I guess it'll be easy to pack when we move next year." (She's getting anything she wants for Christmas, forever). Spend the rest of the night thinking of how to stay focused and project a positive attitude given that all my worldly possessions will probably fit in a gym bag. (note: we were eventually able to save most things above 4 feet)
0700: Bad news spreads like wildfire. Entire shelter knows about my house. Lots of supportive comments as I wander the halls but I see the struggle behind the words--they're sorry for my loss but worry about their own. Their concern for my family despite fears for their own touches me deeply. First time in 19 years I've really had to fight back tears, but I've got to do the commander thing and project a positive attitude. As I walk the hallways I truly feel "the burden of command." My family is safe; I have to push my losses aside for now. These 730 people have no access to information other than what I tell them. I am their link to the outside world. I see them watching me, watching how I react and looking for cues as they try to figure out how they should feel--is the commander scared? Depressed? Worried? Confident? I realize that their mood over the next few days will be a direct reflection of what they perceive as my mood. I've been tested in command before, but never like this.
0800: Drive to CAT meeting across base. Devastation is shocking. Trees down everywhere. Cars trashed everywhere. Windows out. Walls out. Buildings collapsed. Roofs ripped apart.
0930: Mass briefing to the Natives. Most uncomfortable briefing I've ever given. Reports indicate widespread devastation. Death toll probably in the hundreds. Power out for at least three weeks. Must begin water conservation. Minimum three months to resume base mission. Will not leave shelter for at least three days. 730 stunned and scared faces focused on me. All are easy to read. (1) realization of how bad it is, (2) fear of what it did to their homes. Worst possible situation for a commander--troops need reassurance I can't give. Struggle to keep my voice steady. Not sure how well I did.
Afternoon:
- Natives' supplies running out. Most critical shortfalls: food, diapers, baby food, and feminine hygiene products. Issue MREs for adults. Assign "Baby POC" to track baby supplies. Develop new metric for morning/evening briefings--diaper burn rate. 17 infants in shelter x 5 diapers/day & 4 jars of baby food/day. Have one day supply of diapers, two days of baby food, but at least three more days in the shelter. Submit urgent supply request to Command Post. Luckily, Sanitation Kits include 44-year old feminine products.
- Still no cable TV and no internet. Information is life. I average (I counted) no more than 10 steps before someone stops me to ask what's going on outside.
- Lieutenant students offer to take over operation of the Children's Recreation Room. One has been to Clown College; several brought coloring books. First Sergeant asks me later (a) "How come the officers have coloring books?" and (b) "How come some of the pictures were colored in before the children started using them?" Honor of the officer corps is at stake; I quickly assign the Shirt to a meaningless task to distract her. Hope it worked. Best not to ask. (Note: to be perfectly honest, that actually happened during Hurricane Dennis in July, but it's 100% true and was too good a story not to include here)
- Pregnant Native goes into premature labor. Ambulance evacuates her to hospital.
- Another uncomfortable night. All Natives (and myself) report profuse sweating in lieu of sleep. Set up special room with lots of fans for children to sleep in. Authorized Chaplain to take a small raiding party to Chapel next door to get rocking chairs for parents with small children.

31 August (Wed):
- Still hot. Two cases of dehydration evacuated to hospital. I'm dehydrated, nauseous, and weak despite drinking constantly. Can't believe I let this happen. Check with medics, but saline solution is in short supply and if I'm still walking I don't need it bad enough. They give me some good drugs to control symptoms. Eight hours, 240 ounces of water (I had to keep track), and 9,000 bathroom breaks later I feel much better.
- Lots of debris around the building. Still dangerous for people to go outside, but Natives are getting stir-crazy. Assigned a team to clear and rope off an area near the building. Post guards to ensure nobody wanders off, then allow small groups outside for fresh air for short periods of time. They love me again.
- Wing/CC reads off list of inbound aid at CAT meeting. Not the same as hearing it on TV. I never imagined that it would mean so much to know that so many people are focused on helping you.
- Baby supplies critical. Wing/CC orders a raid on what's left of Commissary and BX. Deliveries to shelters save the day.
- Another bad briefing to the Natives. Only one way to explain why they can't leave the shelter--tell them the truth as I know it. Looting rampant off-base. Looters in base housing. AF member car-jacked right outside the gate. No gas in local area; $5/gallon three hours away. Chaos in New Orleans is moving our way. Extra Security Forces with .50 cals on HMMWVs en route to help secure the base.
- Natives frantic about their homes. They fear anything that survived the storm won't survive the looters. Try to focus them on aid headed our way. Emotions running high. One woman goes into shock; evacuated to hospital.
- Another sweaty, sleepless night. Natives apparently locate world's largest stock of extension cords. Conservative estimates indicate we're running 500 fans off 5 power outlets and 2,000 extension cords. Confiscated the most impressive daisy chains as a safety hazard. Briefed Shelter Management Team to increase fire checks of the building.

01 Sep (Thu):
- Cannot release people to return to homes overnight due to security concerns. However, must let Natives assess their homes or risk bodily harm trying to keep them here. Strict guidelines for home assessments--provide written route of travel; must have a wingman; no dependents can go; max of one hour to save what you can and return to shelter; must be decontaminated before reentering shelter because many houses (mine included) have sludge/sewage inches deep. Lieutenants do great job controlling departure and decon lines.
- Natives return to shelter. Many are homeless. Commander School never taught me how to respond to "I have nothing left," or how to comfort women and men crying uncontrollably in my arms. Some cried for what they lost, some for what they saw. News reports didn't prepare them for seeing not just their home but their entire neighborhood destroyed, or for the cops telling them the bad smell they noticed was probably neighbors who tried to ride out the storm and were buried in the rubble. My only consolation is that I know how they feel. The stink in the house made me gag; the mud was gooey, sticky, and got on everything. My wife spent years building a beautiful collection of Amish figurines. Seeing the trail of broken figures across two yards (I never found the curio cabinet) was painful to endure. Crabs running across my feet in the bedroom (which scared the bee-geezus out of me) was a comical twist to a non-comical situation.
- In an attempt to improve morale, the chow hall (excuse me, “Dining Facility”) next to the shelter opens for one hot meal of whatever was available. Natives happily wait in line 2+ hours for rice with spaghetti sauce and a piece of bread. After the week we’ve had, it’s like Grandma’s Thanksgiving dinner.
- Third straight day of gorgeous weather. Security still a big concern. My DO reports her neighbors shot a looter (it may not be politically correct, but I applaud their initiative). Natives don't care, they just want out. Shelter Commanders compare notes at CAT—we’re all seriously concerned about tempers rising in the shelters. Believe the Natives are just about at the breaking point.
- Still no a/c. Lots of sweat and little sleep.

02 Sep (Fri):
- Security situation better. Natives' are about worn out. Wing/CC authorizes release from shelters. Six days and five nights we will never forget, and the recovery efforts have only just begun.

To say that Hurricane Katrina has been a "life event" would be an understatement. During my time running the Bryan Hall shelter I saw the best and the worst of people first-hand. Some sat in their little piece of floor space and watched others work to make the situation better. Most looked for every opportunity to help others and to make our little slice of hell a little more comfortable. I was amazed at how easy it was to read their faces. I could see clearly as fear changed to shock, disbelief, then anger. I watched in amazement as the anger was replaced with a calm sense of resolve and focus to simply move forward and do what needed to be done. From the little boy I found wandering the halls at midnight (obviously looking for a bathroom) to the lieutenants who stepped up, took charge when I asked, and showed all of us what "officership" is all about, every person in that shelter taught me their own unique and valuable lesson about command.
The CE troops and the Cops in my shelter taught me the meaning of dedication. I watched them tramp in and out on shift work throughout the storm and its aftermath. They were wet, muddy, sweaty, and tired. But every time they came through those doors they took time to find someone whose house they checked on and they always stopped by to give me an update on what they saw. To quote a favorite TV show of mine, "They were…magnificent."

My Wing/CC described it perfectly a few days after the storm. Some puffed-up colonel called him up in the CAT and said "General so-and-so is coming down there. I want to know who the most important person on that base is and I want their name right now." The boss' response was classic. "Well, colonel, the most important person on this base is a Staff Sergeant with a chainsaw and if you'll give me ten minutes I'll get that name for you." CE and Cops. If you're looking for the heroes of Keesler, I'll be happy to escort you to their buildings.

As for the rest of the folks in the shelter, they were just as amazing in a different way. For all but the first 16 hours of our 6-day adventure they lived in a hot, poorly-ventilated building with virtually no amenities but running water. Most slept on tile floors. All slept in puddles of their own sweat. All spent 5 days not knowing whether or not they had a home to go home to. Yet through all of it, they kept a sense of humor and worked together to make the best of a bad situation. Even in the darkest moments I never walked down the hall without hearing a constant stream of "Morning, Colonel!" "How's it going, Sir?" or "Hey, Sir! When's the beer truck getting here?" I was only chewed out once by a shelteree. I would argue that in a "typical" group of 731 people, I would've been chewed out several times a day at least.
In my 19 years of service I have never seen a better demonstration of the military "family", or a better demonstration of true professionalism. I have to add, though, that what I've seen in the 12 days since has been just as impressive. The base and its leadership have been amazing. In addition to bringing our mission back on-line in less than 3 weeks, we've provided critical support to local communities. At last count, we'd sent nearly 50 missions out the gates to deliver food, water, and medical support. I was the CAT Director when a local cop showed up and said the shelter down the street had an outbreak of diarrhea and vomiting. The boss had medical teams, food, and water on site within 30 minutes. The list goes on and on.
The same is true for my own unit. With more than one-third of my squadron homeless, my troops (military and civilian) have done things that will bring a tear to anyone's eye. Not one single person in my unit has cleaned out a storm-damaged home alone. We've had teams out every day helping squadron members and retirees (and sometimes people we didn't even know) cut trees and clean out flooded homes. They have made me proud to be part of their team and proud to be part of the US military. They have taught me when it comes right down to it they don't need leadership. They are, each and every one of them, leaders in their own right. Leaders with the willingness, the desire, and the compassion to do the right thing without being told. In truth, they don't need a commander, they only need a cheerleader who will give them the support and the freedom they need to do what needs to be done. When I look back in years to come and ponder what Hurricane Katrina taught me about command that may just be the most important lesson of all.

PERSONAL COMMENT:
The message/email above is exactly as it came to me in a widely distributed email - except for the few sentences I separated and made blue plus the few sentences at the beginning I boldfaced about listening to SNCOs.

When I read this I laughed and I laughed and I laughed and tears ran down my face.

RileyD, nwJ
"Only the humble are sane." anon

1 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 07:15:35 by RileyD, nwJ

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To: RileyD, nwj

It is Keesler, not Kessler AFB

2 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 07:17:01 by lmavk

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To: RileyD, nwj; SandRat

Hey Sand - here's that Keesler AFB story!

3 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 07:21:29 by StarCMC (Old Sarge is my hero...doing it right in Iraq! Vaya con Dios, Sarge.)

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To: RileyD, nwj

Wow!

I moved to the Gulf are in 1974 with my family, the remnants of Camille (1969)were visible but not too dramatic, I think this storm is leagues beyond Camille.

My family rode out Katrina in Ocean Springs (4 miles East) of Keesler, they wound up climbing into the attic to avoid the five feet of rising water inside the house. Talking on the phone does not give justice to what it was like. Thanks for the very vivid and descriptive email summary... it will be awhile before things are anywhere near normal.

4 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 07:31:23 by Cliff Dweller ("get thar fustest with the mostest." GEN Nathan Bedford Forrest)

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To: RileyD, nwj

First Sergeant asks me later (a) "How come the officers have coloring books?"

Ok - I know it's a fake now - no NCO - First Shirt or otherwise - has to ask why an officer has a coloring book!

5 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 07:34:57 by Tennessee_Bob ("You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.")

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To: RileyD, nwj

Moderator:
Please fix the title ... It should read Keesler not Kessler.
Thanks!
RileyD,nwJ

6 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 07:35:56 by RileyD, nwJ ("Only the humble are sane." anon)

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To: RileyD, nwj

Excellent post

Should be required reading in every high school civics course.

7 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 07:36:44 by BenLurkin (O beautiful for patriot dream - that sees beyond the years)

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To: Cliff Dweller

My brother in law lives in Ocean Springs. He also is in the Air Force, stationed at Keesler. He lives on the east side of Ocean Springs, near a road that runs out to the Gulf and there is a marina along this road. You may know where it is. I've only been there once so I don't know the name or address. He was very lucky and din't have any damage, except fro a fence blown down. Other homes in the neighborhood were destroyed.

8 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 07:52:12 by freedom4ever

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To: Cliff Dweller

CW,

Really hit home for my family as well. My bride of 34 years trained there, I trained there as a SSGT and as a civil servant, and our son trained there in 2002 - plus we all vacationed there for a few weeks one summer.

RileyD, nwJ

9 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 07:58:12 by RileyD, nwJ ("Only the humble are sane." anon)

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To: RileyD, nwj

Thanks for posting this.

10 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 07:59:26 by Gritty ("Eight more Clarence Thomases is the only form of human cloning I would ever support" - Ann Coulter)

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To: RileyD, nwj

I was a "diddy-bop" pinger at Keesler in spring of '73. We would launch a bottle rocket barrage on the classes marching across the old flight line at night. Ah...the memories.

11 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 08:03:16 by W.Lee

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To: W.Lee

Yup, I trained in Bryan Hall back in 78. Glad I missed this event!

12 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 08:34:19 by awelliott

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To: RileyD, nwj

"Never ignore a SNCO…Never ignore a SNCO."

The junior officers I worked for at the Pentagon knew this rule...

13 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 08:36:20 by dakine

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To: Tennessee_Bob

That's right...it's to keep them busy while the real work gets done by their subordinates....

14 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 08:42:17 by Gaffer

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To: awelliott

I left Keesler for overseas in late 1969? (one month before Camille hit) Can't say I ever miss much of Biloxi, it REALLY sucked back then (before the casinos). Went back a few years ago, and it had really improved...didn't see any of the barracks where I stayed....since then, I Google-Earth'd Keesler and saw the demolished 'foot print' of where I'd stayed while there.... My guess is the old WWII barracks had survived....

15 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 08:46:19 by Gaffer

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To: Tennessee_Bob

Ha Ha Ha......damned NCOs :)

16 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 08:54:22 by armydawg1 (" America must win this war..." PVT Martin Treptow, KIA, WW1)

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To: armydawg1

Here sir - have some crayons and go sit in the corner. We'll let you know when we need something signed.

17 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 09:01:25 by Tennessee_Bob ("You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.")

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To: RileyD, nwj

Thanks for the post. BTTT for further reading.

Carolyn

18 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 09:08:25 by CDHart (The world has become a lunatic asylum and the lunatics are in charge.)

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To: W.Lee

If I remember a "diddy-bop" was a morse code reader/radio operator...."TWs" were "male admin specialists", "tape apes" were communications center specialists.....and the list went on and on......

19 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 09:58:41 by Gaffer

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To: Gaffer

I agree completely. I spent two months there in 1978, then spent 10 months there in 1980 when I cross-trained. It was awful - the beach was nasty because of the effects of Camille (IIRC it created a huge sandbar that they never got around to dredging for many years). The facilities were horrible as it was post-Vietnam and during the lean Carter military budget years.

But the worst aspect was the relationship between the USAF and the neighboring community. I still recall the "Beautify Biloxi - kill an airman" bumper stickers. I can't say that I blame the locals as we brought much of it upon ourselves. Keesler was full of fresh-out-of-basic airmen, many experiencing freedom and responsibility for the first time, and many of us made a less than smooth transition to adulthood.

20 posted on Friday, October 28, 2005 12:59:57 by awelliott

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Kidnapped - Written in 1996

2009-08-15T11:13:00.001-07:00

I just woke up from a dream where I talked to "Susy" (Actual name different) in this story about this incident that happened. I never really talked to her about what happened in things from her point of view after the incident. I didn't really take much effort to go out of my way to talk to her, and our paths never really crossed through high school.

They had some kind of award ceremony after school for me one day after Susy was recovered that my whole family went to, but I totally forgot and ended up riding the school bus home.

I wrote this piece for my 8th grade English class in 1996:

“Caw! Caw!” an annoying crow called. I picked up a rock and chucked it at that dirty little pest. The stone was on its way to hitting the bird, but the crow flew off before impact occured.

It was the morning of a typical school day and I was sleepy from staying up late the night before. After I finished tying my shoelaces and checked for any other unexpecting crows I walked to my bus stop.

When I reached the bus-stop there wasn’t anyone except this little blue car occupied by a few people, so I fiddled with my fingers and took a big breath of the refreshing mornig air.

Finally, after waiting a few more lonesome minutes, one of my bus-mates, Susy, came out and waited beside me with her Keropi pencil pouch in her right hand. I wanted to say something like a polite “Hello,” but my soft embarrased voice was drowned out by the little blue car that drove into our neiberhood street. I just stood their with my hands in my pocket and looked down at my shoes that kept blinking on and off.

Some awkward moments passed by and that little blue car didn’t seem as little. It pulled up besides the bus-stop and two gangster teenagers came out of the car, grabbed Susy’s shoulders and started pulling her toward the inside of the car. Crying out in terror, “Help! Help! Jeff! Please help me!” she hit her captors with her Keropi pencil box, but the captors barely felt the pain and kept pulling her in. My face turned blank. I’ve seen TV shows that has a hero that saves someone from being kidnapped by karate moves or with fists of fury, but I was too caught off guard to do anything brave. I was still in one of my morning stupors. She was being kidnapped before my eyes, but yet I couldn’t do a single thing. Each time I tried to think of something to help her, she just kept getting closer and closer toward the inside of the car until, finally, she was swept into the not so little car with an incredible force. She gave a last cry for help and then it was cut off by the car door. The car zoomed off at a high speed and through all that excitment I managed to get a glance at the car’s license plate number.

At the other end of the street, two of my other bus-mates, Randy and Christina, came out had a look of astonishment and surprise on their faces. “Did you just see that?!” Randy said with and exasperated voice.

“Yeah, I was right ther and I saw the license number. It’s KIDNPR.” I replied.

“Cool, it’s a good thing you saw that. You’d better write the number on some paper and tell the bus driver about this when she gets here.”

“Okay.” I pulled some paper out from my Jansport backpack and I wrote down the number

When I finished writing the number down as the bus drove in. “You’d never believe what just happened,” I told the bus driver as I walked in, “A girl at this bus-stop just got kidnapped,” I paused to see her facial expression turn terrifyed, “by a couple of teenagers in a car. I have the license number right here.” I handed her the license plate number and she took it from my hand.

“I’ll call up the school,” she responded.

She called up the school on her radio, told the office what happened, and the school called up the police. The bus driver said to me, “Wow, that was really smart for writing that license number.”

“Well, thank you.”

When some of the other bus passengers heard about what happened they started to go into an excited hysteria about the whole situation. There was a, “Maybe we’ll skip school today,” a, “This is so cool!” and a “A kidnapping?” but there was one girl, Susy’s best friend, that came out and asked what was happening.

The bus driver tried to explain to her gently, “You’re friend, Susy, got kidnapped. We’re trying the best we can do for the moment and we got the car’s license number, so don’t worry to much.”

Unfourtanatley, her friend did worry and she sat down crying between her hands.

When I took a seat on the crowded bus next to my friend he asked, “Did you see what happened?”

“Uh-huh. Someone just got kidnapped.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think they’ll cancel school today?”

“Maybe, who knows?”

Before the kid could reply, the bus driver said to everyone on the bus, “Okay, everyone sit in your seat and keep your voices down. A police car will be coming soon to bring us to school. Remember to follow the bus rules.”

I had a few minutes while I sat down to collect my thoughts and sort out what happened. There was no remorse, anger, happiness, or cowardnice. I was... numb. I should had felt something, but what? I didn’t feel sad because I wasn’t a close friend of susy, and I didn’t get angry because there wasn’t nothing to get angry about.

By the time I got my bearings a police car parked in front of the bus. The officer stepped inside and said, “Everyone stay calm, we have received the car’s license number and we have several patrol cars searching this area for the car.” He said something to the bus driver then continued, “I’ll be in my car driving with you to your school.”

The police officer got into his car and we arrived at school. When we reached school grounds, the principal and security guard at our school came onto the bus and the principal said, “I want all of you to go to your classrooms. Your teachers will know where you have been, so you won’t need a note. For those who saw the actual kidnapping. You’ll be talking to us later in the day to give us information on this incident.”

I gulped down my anxiety. . I decided not to say anything and I walked off toward my class. Before I stepped off the bus, the bus driver said, “You’re going to be a real hero.”

“Yeah. I guess I will.”

Later that day, I was called into the office for a description of the events on that day. I told them everything to the best of my knowledge. They also questioned Susy’s sister and the two other people that witnessed the kidnapping. Susy was found a few hours later where she was returned to her family after a routine checkup at the local hospital. I got a hero’s thanks and received a certificate of accomplishment from Susy’s dad and the police department.

Through all of the events that would and should make any child cringe with fear. I didn’t feel any fear nor any feeling of accomplishment. I don’t know whether I was so scared that I blocked out all emotions or the fact that I didn’t think that writing a license number was so heroic. I just did what was needed and I thank God that nothing bad happened to Susy.

My First Flash Animation

2009-07-23T14:47:00.000-07:00

I ended up making my first flash advertisement to be shown at Krikorian Movie Theatre in Buena Park, CA.

The link to it is below.

http://sites.google.com/site/orangecountylan/files/MovieAd.swf?attredirects=0

1999 BMW 528i Wagon, 109,063 miles - $5,000

2009-06-15T14:26:00.000-07:00

I'm selling this car for my mom. If you're interested in purchasing it, you can schedule an appointment with me by emailing contact at jeffersonkim dot com or calling me at 714.733.6777.

I'm usually available M-F 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM. Any other times will need to be done by appointment.

The car is currently located in Buena Park, CA.

Here are some commonly requested facts:

- This car was bought used about three years ago.
- It is unknown if this car had its transmission fluid changed.
- There is no service report for the car.
- There have been no accidents with the car since ownership and it is unknown if the car had major accidents before.
- My mom owns the title outright and would be able to sign it over on the spot.

Some comparisons of what this car model is selling for:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cars-Trucks___Beautiful-5-Series-Wagon-Low-Miles-Extra-Clean_W0QQitemZ160321003139QQddnZCarsQ20Q26Q20TrucksQQddiZ2282QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item160321003139&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=72%3A317|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1308

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cars-Trucks___BMW-e39-5-series-wagon-99-528i-528iT-M-green-tan-17s_W0QQitemZ220374607144QQddnZCarsQ20Q26Q20TrucksQQddiZ2282QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item220374607144&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=72%3A317|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/ctd/1072969729.html

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/cto/1071843528.html

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/cto/1065171800.html

Useful Programs and Productivity Tools I Use

2009-06-05T23:44:00.001-07:00

This is a list of very useful programs I use on my home and work computer to make life easier for minimal to no cost. It's just a pain every time I reformat my hard drive. . . another reason why I prefer Web applications. It's just that often times, you just have to install the programs.

Feel free to list your most useful productivity tools in the comments section:

Category	Program
Audio	Audacity (audio editing freeware)
Audio	MP3Gain
Audio	Stealth Recorder (to record the front desk constantly)
Entertainment	BitTorrent
Entertainment	iTunes
Entertainment	VLC Media Player
Entertainment	OpenPandora
Graphics	Paint.net
Graphics	Inkscape (For editing .eps and PDF documents)
Internet Admin	DynDNS Updater
Internet Admin	LogMeIn.com
Internet Admin	GoDaddy.com
Internet Admin	IPView Pro (View my IP Security Cameras)
Internet Admin	Google Calendar Sync
Internet Admin	WinSCP (to remote and get GUI into linux)
Internet Admin	PuTTY (remote command line into programs)
Office Productivity	Microsoft Money
Office Productivity	Hardware keyboard shortcuts to various programs and folders
Office Productivity	Firefox Preloader
Office Productivity	Vista Search
Office Productivity	UltraMon (Thumb wheel on Revolution MX switches monitors)
Office Productivity	Three monitors
Office Productivity	X-lite (SIP Softphone connected to bluetooth headset)
Office Productivity	Microsoft Outlook and Suite
Office Productivity	Open Office
Office Productivity	Google Apps
Office Productivity	Google Desktop /w Gmail Gadget
Office Productivity	CutePDF
Office Productivity	ADF Paper Scanner
Office Productivity	Adobe Reader (Only this program makes thumbnails visible in Vista)
Office Productivity	Yodlee.com
Office Productivity	Multimon (the Ultramon Freeware)
Office Productivity	Bug Shooting (great screen shot tool)
Office Productivity	Firefox
Office Productivity	TimeTrex (Payroll)
Office Productivity	JasperSoft (Makes reports from the payroll machine and .csv files)
Office Productivity	Moffsoft FreeCalc
Other	Yawcam (Home security)
Other	Asterisk in a Flash (PBX)
Utilities	AVG Anti-Virus Free
Utilities	Syncback (Free backup software)
Utilities	EASEUS Partition Manager
Utilities	Live Mesh (Keeps documents synchronized and automatically backed up)
Utilities	7-Zip
Utilities	Alcohol 52% (DVD Ripping software)
Utilities	CDBurnerXP (Burning software)
Utilities	RealWorld Cursor Editor
Utilities	MyMobiler (remote into Windows Mobile device)

Here's the link to my most updated list on Google Docs:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rSPevyEx7a2T8Dca8FOa19w&single=true&gid=0&output=html

Brother MFC-7440N "Toner Life End"

2009-03-28T13:31:00.000-07:00

UPDATE (3/31/2011): Asad below in the comments offered this document as a trick to trick the toner and actually "reset" it. I downloaded it and am putting the direct link here because I noticed the site was kind of laggy. http://www.jeffersonkim.com/other-files/BrotherTonerRefill.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

UPDATE (3/28/2011): I just buy them from here now and don't seem to have any problems: http://www.meritline.com/newsearch.aspx?SearchTerm=brother+tn360

If you get this message, try putting a piece of masking tape on the toner cartridge hole on the right side. It's a translucent, white, circle that the printer "looks" through to detect how much toner is in the cartridge. You usually can extend the life quite a bit until the toner actually runs out.

If the error message remains, even when you replace it with new, re manufactured toner cartridges, then you'll need to bite the bullet, and buy an "authorized" toner cartridge.

At least, that's what I did to make the error message disappear. Then, I just switched out my old toner cartridge to make it work again.

Time to stop my belly aching

2009-03-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

It's time to take it up a notch.

My immigrant parents would've shriveled up and died with my work ethic.

I'm not an employee, but an owner. Paradigm shift in progress. . .

Reflections on being hated by so many people

2009-03-18T00:56:00.000-07:00

I've been working as a General Manager for my mom at her hotels since August 2007 after getting out of the Air Force. It's been over a year and a half of constant struggle and loads of conflict with different people. I'm glad to have influence that actually affects people lives rather than living a life of inconsequential existence. Of course, as Stan Lee states in Spiderman, "With great power comes great responsibility."

As a junior officer in the Air Force that was heavily overmanned, I basically got away with doing nothing at work. Even if I wanted to actually do something worthwhile, I'd get stonewalled due to my lack of experience. So I spent my time doing random pet projects and volunteering as much as I could in the hopeless Chapel system. I hated feeling like I was a waste of life, but I got to meet and hang out with some really cool and interesting people my age. No power. No responsibility.

Since August 2007, I've been the General Manager at my mom's two hotels. Working under my mom as a General Manager, day-to-day, I'm the owner of the hotel. Other than depositing the checks/cash into the bank and stocking the vending machines which my mom does, I pretty much deal with the day to day issues, and overall strategy of the hotel. I don't want to go into the details of what it's like to own your own business as this'll get way too lengthy.

My linked in profile goes through the "professional" accomplishments:
www.linkedin.com/in/jeffersonmkim

What it doesn't disclose are the personal conflicts that I've had to deal with:

- The meetings I had with the previous General Manager dealing with the over $20,000 in checks he embezzled.

- The numerous employees I've had to fire/discipline for not showing up, stealing money, making out with their boyfriend while on duty, watching TV instead of working their shift, not falling payroll procedures, etc. Some employees would chew me out while others would say completely nothing as they would just stop showing up to work without any explanation.

- Closing a $12.6 million sale of a hotel and (still) dealing with the legal disputes with the purchasers. . .

- Holding vendors accountable whenever they fail to meet expectations (which happens a lot)

- Going through the process of evicting employees/guests

- Getting verbally chewed out by guests for not refunding money, and just about every other reason you can think of

- Trying to communicate with your mother. . . who's also your boss.

And the list goes on. . .

20 employees. Business travelers. Tourists. Locals looking for someplace for a fling. Corporate. Vendors. The mortgage company. My accountant. Insurance audits. Federal Government. California State. Buena Park City. Orange County. Health Inspectors. The police. Lawsuits. Prostitutes. Guests trying to hustle you. Unpaid debts. The next door neighbor who's too loud at night. Hordes of telemarketers and salespeople. 131 hotel rooms. Your mom as your boss. And the profit of the hotel.

Every single person above has their own personal objective and my hotel is a means to their end. A lot of times I have to say "no" in order to maximize the profit of the hotel, or I have to confront and terminate relationships for the sake of the profit of the hotel.

For some people I facilitate their life objectives well, and there's a certain level of professional respect (but never love). For others, I'm the only thing between them and their objective. So naturally, I take the heat because there's no one else to contend for the profitability of the hotel.

I'm seen as a means to an end by most, hated by some, and loved by none.

I've never really had a deep need to gain the acceptance of others, otherwise, I'm in the wrong line of work. I'd rather change the world and be hated by all, then be loved by everyone and get nothing done. This is not to say that there are a lot of days where I'm just completely emotionally drained from dealing with so much conflict, but then I think about the fact that I can't really see myself doing any other line of work except upper management. Plus, I'm just glad to have a job in this economy with my young age and lack of experience.

From what I understand of upper management, this is just the nature of the job.

Any of you in upper management that can recommend ways to help cope with the constant conflict and resulting isolation?

JeffersonKim.com LAN Party Email List

2009-02-21T16:27:00.001-08:00

Subscribe to receive the latest news on the JeffersonKim.com LAN parties.

Email:

Blog has Moved!

2009-02-19T11:05:00.000-08:00

I'm starting up a LAN party and am going to be using www.jeffersonkim.com to direct to the LAN website directly.

The blog can now be accessed through hyperlinks on jeffersonkim.com or accessed directly at http://blog.jeffersonkim.com

Home Entertainment/Gaming Setup

2009-01-28T19:41:00.000-08:00

- 46" 1080P Samsung LCD. 1920x1080 resolution :)
- AV123 Surround Full-Tower Speakers (X-SLS, X-CS, X-MTM)
- HSU Research VTF-2 MK3 Powered (18 Hz rumble. BOOM)
- Ikea Laptop Stand
- Exercise Ball to sit on
- Gaming Rig /w 8800GTX

- Betamax player (to convert old home movies to digital!)

Some Pictures of the Hotel

2008-11-20T16:20:00.001-08:00

Posts from the past

2008-11-02T22:34:00.001-08:00

As I'm taking down my hosted site, I will be posting these as an archive.

Cheapurpedic

To make your own foam mattress you'll need two main parts:

The topper
The support

The topper I got is from memoryfoam.com for $158.99 (Queen, 3 In., 4.0 lb. 12 ILD MemoryTherm Memoryfoam Topper, #2109104).

Then for the support, I went to JCPenny.com and ordered for $109.99, 5" Extra-firm Topper -Queen 60x80" Item# RN725-5805A.

All of this includes shipping too! So for about $300, I get a sweet, home made mattress. I LIKE!

Not to mention, you may want to get a mattress cover from bed bath and beyond that is zippered to keep the pieces together. This one looks like it'll work $34.99 (Zippered Queen Mattress Cover with Antimicrobial Treatment). I chose instead to go to ShopSatin.com and got their mattress cover there for like $20.

And you don't even need a foundation. Actually, you want a solid foundation, but the floor will do just nice.

Goodbye Hosted Website

2008-10-30T21:34:00.000-07:00

As time has gone on, I've found I've not needed a hosted website. Especially with Web 2.0, I'm going to be transitioning to owning only a domain, and then using free services through Google Apps to manage my e-mail.

And then this blogspot will still act as my main "web page." So then that means that when you go to JeffersonKim.com you'll get redirected here, and not my original website. . . now I'm going to have to transition some of those pages to here for "safe keeping".

My everlasting business card

2008-10-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

I actually had about 1,000 business cards I had to throw away after moving hotels. . . and I'm guessing I'm going to be moving around a lot from this point on from hotel to hotel, so I had to make a business card that I can take with me everywhere.

My phone number is VoIP, so I'll be able to take that anywhere. I designed this through Microsoft Word and then uploaded it through Vista Print. About 1,000 cards for about $32 shipped. I'll get them in about 14 days.

The question I have is to see how the picture ends up looking on a business card. . . it could be a big waste of money.

My inspiration for the design was Guy Kawasaki's business card which can be found here:

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/05/the-art-of-the.html

My House Buying Experience Thus Far

2008-09-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

Kendra & I are looking to buy a house through Blair Newman (http://socalrealestatenews.wordpress.com/). I found him while searching online on research about the SoCal housing market.

A big help to me in understanding the economy as a whole and analyzing the data has been through: http://bigpicture.typepad.com/
That site is my main goto to understand what's happening in the market.

I used http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/business/2007_BUYRENT_GRAPHIC.html to help determine if we should rent or buy. We currently pay $1195 rent with a budget of about $250,000 for a townhouse. So according to the calculator, we're actually better off renting. However, we rent an apartment where we don't have W/D hookups and the garage is one car that's detached. In addition, we have a neighbor above us with three young boys (loud :) ). I don't mind it too much though. . .

The noise in our neighborhood is fairly loud. We're surrounded by two very noisy apartment complexes, less than 1,000 feet to a main freeway and railroad tracks. The racial makeup is majority Hispanic, which explains the two taco trucks that sit on our street, and the loud music we hear just about every morning.

So if I were to compare the $250,000 townhouse with a comparable rentable property of about $1500/month in a better neighborhood, we end up working out ahead.

I'll be getting a 5.95% APR loan through CalVet (thank you Air Force).

I've been looking off and on since about March. But it's definitely morphed as time went on.

Recently, we looked at about 4 townhouses. One was a short sale. . . but there was water damage, and the current residents were highly undesirable. . . not to mention a very flakey selling agent. Not worth the hassle.

The other three were much better. The main one I like is located in Anaheim. The amount I'm offering is based off of these detailed email. I think it may help you in determining what price you should aim for. I have very specific criteria, and time is in our favor.

Hi Blair,

$212,650 is what I'm willing to offer. Please let me know if there are any major holes in my logic:

- My target day to "close" any house sale will be in the January - February 2009 range based off of this chart (http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/08/july-existing-home-sales-record.html) when sales are typically the lowest of the year. This is to ensure that there will be less buyers and more sellers.

- With no major reason that's pointing toward a "bottom" anytime soon, I'll be pricing according to my projections of what the house will price at in the Jan-Feb '09 range. In fact, high gas prices, higher commodity prices, rising unemployment, the US's continual involvement in Iraq & Afganistan, and the continuing failures of major financial instruments of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stears, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Indie Mac bank, point toward the economy becoming weaker rather than hitting any sort of "bottom" within the next couple of years.

- I am pricing VERY aggressively because I would rather risk losing the house than pay more than I need to. We're not in any hurry to move out, and at our cerrent rent, moving up to a town house is a luxurious upgrade in both quality and cost/month based off of this calculator: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/business/2007_BUYRENT_GRAPHIC.html

- Based off of the data at http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Anaheim-California/, this is the data I have extrapolated to project future housing prices for 3 bedroom houses/condos in the city of Anaheim. I made up the numbers for Sep'07 & Dec'07 because they weren't available on the site.

Quarter	Median	Decline	Average
Jun-Aug '03	$350,000


Jun-Aug '07	$528,192	50.91%
Sep-Nov '07	475000	-10.07%
Dec-Feb '08	$425,000	-10.53%
Mar-May '08	$398,930	-6.13%
Jun-Aug '08	$360,000	-9.76%	-9.12%

Projection
Sep-Nov '08	$245,000	-9.12%
Dec-Feb '08	$222,650	-9.12%

Aug'07 median house prices for Anaheim have declined on average, 9.12%/quarter for 3 bedroom houses in the Anaheim area. This is probably based off of listing prices and not actual sale prices. Taking this 9.12% out to my Dec-Feb'08 quarter takes the original $245,000 that would be reasonable in Sep'08 to the price I project it to be at in Feb'08, which brings me to $222,650.

If you have the trends for actual sale prices for this time period, that would be more accurate in determining the actual trajectory of median sale price for 3 bedroom condos/townhouses/houses that could help me in determining a more accurate price.

- From a preliminary list of improvements that will be needed, the total cost would be about $10,000 for these improvements:

Item	Material	Ship	Installation	Tax	Total
Gas Range	599	65	19	53	736
Ventilated Range Hood	399	0	100	39	538
Dishwasher	499	65	110	52	726
Carpet (4 Rooms)	2,000		2,000		4,000
Padding	180				180
Bath Faucet Repair	80		100		180
Refinish Wood Stairs					1,000
Other Repairs/Cleaning					2,000

			Sub Total		9,360

- So from the $222,650 projection, minus the $10,000 minimum improvements that I saw at first glance, the price of initial offer would be $212,650.

Jefferson Kim

My Office Setup

2008-08-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

My inspiration to this article:
http://lifehacker.com/399296/the-lifehacker-editors-favorite-software-and-hardware

I'm always aiming to get the most optimized and efficient work environment. Being more effective is my goal with this setup. As you can tell, aesthetics isn't so much a priority. This setup isn't 100% complete, but to maintain a reasonable budget, it's good enough.

Monitors:
- Acer 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor (Vertical)
- Dell 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor (Horizontal)
- V7 22" Widescreen LCD (Horizontal)

Keyboard & Mouse:
- Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 (keys mapped to commonly accessed programs)
- Logitech MX Revolution (thumb buttons mapped to move windows to alternate windows, middle button mapped to switch between tabs, etc)

Chair:
- MATREX HIGH-BACK CHAIR (from Staples. I originally tried the Herman Miller, but I found it to be stupid expensive. I spent about $400 for this, and it's more comfortable than the $900 chairs I would've bought due to the headrest. It was hard for me to think that the $900 Herman Miller would've been more than 2x more comfortable than my current chair.

Other Peripherals:
- HP Scanjet 7650 (I use this to scan in documents and automatically convert them into searchable PDFs. I recommend not getting this model and trying perhaps this one (http://lifehacker.com/365016/scan-paperwork-to-pdf-in-one-step)

This is just my humble setup. Probably much than most, but if you're looking for the ultimate in tips, check out LifeHacker.com

I'm just testing out the vertical setup It seems to make reading a lot of websites a lot easier. I'll see if this actually works out though. . . I had to buy a Neoflex LCD Stand in order to get my 22" Acer to go widescreen.

Anything in your office setup that you are exceptionally proud of?

Memories from Growing Up

2008-06-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it was the huge amounts of Curry I ate for lunch, and the indigestion I got afterwords that prompted these weird series of memories from when I was about seven to twelve years old, but here's a broken list of memories.

I think I have lots of nostalgia, remembering a time of near innocence. Though I remember throughout this lots of crying, fighting, jealousy, and selfishness. So, not much innocence. Just no puberty.

This prop goes out to Eugene (Four years younger) & Jason (Two years younger), my brother, who shared in most of these experiences.

- Tae-Kwon-Do class, and every time we did the stretch where we laid on our back, and we would try and have our feet touch above our heads, someone would always fart. We would go through about 20 of these repetitions.

- Playing pillow fight in the entertainment room where I would aim for the head as Eugene & Jason would try and take me down.

- Jumping for hours on the big trampoline imagining we were ninjas fighting through a game.

- Playing hours of Contra on NES, along with this ninja game from the top down perspective.

- Getting freaked out playing Super Contra on SNES.

- The boiler room where we were freaked out of because it looks as though it had red blood in it.

- The father who was diabetic toward peanuts, but loved Baby Ruth's and the wife that would get angry at him for eating it.

- Riding in the plastic cars in the backyard area going around in circles, crashing into each other.

- Going swimming at the community pool very very frequently.

- Giving "korean-style" motorcycles. . . if you don't already know what this is, I don't think I should be sharing this with you.

- Playing Hero's Quest. Don't forget to ask Zargon to open the chest.

- Getting extremely competitive playing SNES Street Fighter II. I'd always be cheap and be Ryu with the fire balls & dragon punches.

- Mainly lots and lots of Nintendo.

Other Memories from before Age 7:

- Creating huge forts from couches and having sock wars. We would turn off the lights and have only one flood light on.

- Playing lots of Nintendo, where the older neighbor kid, Brett or Brent, would come over to play my Nintendo.

- Track and field, using Lego helmets from the space collection to more easily alternate between the A & B buttons.

Triple Monitors on Windows Vista

2008-06-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

I setup triple monitors just fine, with minimal troubles at home on Windows XP, but then, I discovered that it's actually much more complicated on Vista.

I don't want to go into too much detail, as it includes about 5 trips to Fry's, dealing with shotty PSU's from Dell, etc. . . headache.

But basically, in case you decide to do triple monitors, you need to make sure that the two graphic's cards use the SAME drivers. So if you wanted to use a GeForce 8400 with a FX 5200, forget about it! Windows XP lets you load graphics cards with different driver's, but Vista doesn't work that way for some reason. . .

I have an 8400 in my PCI-E and a 6200 in my PCI. I could theoretically go for four monitors, but two 22" wide screens and one 20" wide screen should do for now :)

Prime Customer Service: Logitech

2008-05-09T17:51:00.001-07:00

I ended up buying their Logitech mouse, Revolution VX and MX on the same day. The MX started having problems with its thumb button, where it would no longer click, and would just be mushy.

So I called in, and they sent me a replacement without me needing to return the defective one. For proof, I sent a receipt, except I accidentally sent in the receipt for the VX, rather than MX, and they ended up sending me the wrong model mouse.

I called in again to tell them they sent in the wrong mouse, and they apologized. They're in the middle of sending me the right one, the MX. So from one slight defective mouse, I'm getting two good mice in return for no charge!

This reminds me of another time about two years ago when I've had stellar service from them. This was when I bought the G7 mouse, cordless mouse, and the receiver started going all wacky. I called in, and they sent me a replacement for no charge, and I didn't have to send back the old one. The replacement mouse they sent me had the same problems, so they sent me another one, and the final one worked fine. Then later, the original replacement started working again for some reason I don't understand. So I got two good mice for one bad one.

I LOVE THIS COMPANY. I think I'm pretty much going to be a Logitech only company when it comes to high priced peripherals.

Now on Twitter

2008-05-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a lot about this and read you don't really know what it's all about until you do it.

www.twitter.com/jeffersonkim

Fun Dental Hygiene!

2008-04-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

Often times, I don't really research things unless there's a pressing reason. This reason came up, thanfully through routine maintenence, rather than pain.

I went into the Dentist for a routine visit, and all the two back molars in my mouth, for a total of about 8 teeth needed to have the fillings replaced. The original dental office, West Coast Dentist in Buena Park, said I needed to replace all 8. Then they told me that my HMO insurance through Costco, which charges a flat, $70 fee for the silver fillings, would not cover the "desensitizing" that would be required for my teeth.

The crazy thing is that this Dentist office charges about $45 for the process, while I called around and found another place that charges only $15. What the heck? Plus, I didn't have the option to not have the desensitizing through them, so I had to go through a different dental office.

Anyway, so, I'm going to another Dentist's office, 7 Day Dental in Anaheim, where they said I only needed 6 fillings refilled, but she did recommend a hardcore teeth cleaning where they'll dig deep to tear off all the hard tartar under my gums. I'll need to get a shot and do one side of the mouth at a time. . .

The nice thing is that through a combination of my HMO through Delta Care with Costco, and my veteran's payment plan, I can get it for free. Basically, the HMO plan makes dentist's only charge $70/filling, and my secondary plan, which covers about 80% of the $130 operation, would cover the $70.

Ok, onto the home reaction. My question became, how can I take care of my teeth better without having to floss? I have a strategy on three fronts:

1. Use Original Listerine after brushing! According to this study, http://jada.ada.org/cgi/reprint/135/4/496.pdf
using Original Listerine is just as effective as flossing in killing the germs that rest inside your gums. The store brands have not been clinically tested to see if they're as effective as original listerine, and the way they tested in the study, they had people use the listerine mouth wash after brushing.

2. Use Oral-B Proffessional Care Toothbrush. This one already bought about four years ago, when I noticed a lot of people in my fraternity using the Soniccare tooth brush. I researched it and found out that the Oral-B is more effective at getting rid of the bacteria over Soniccare.

3. Use Colgate Total. This tooth paste is the only one that is ADA approved and clinically proven to destroy the germs that cause gingivitis. Well maybe not the ONLY one, but the cheapest one.

Most of the times I try and use "generic" brands, but after researching and finding that a lot of generic brands aren't ADA approved, there's no clinical evidence showing that generic brands are as effective as name brand ones. In fact, my reading of the above linked study seems to infer that generic brands were tested but failed to show results.

If someone has studies pointing otherwise, please let me know.

Hotel Add Request :)

2008-02-20T15:59:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

If it's been a while, here's an update on where I'm at. I'm currently running a hotel near Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. I'm trying out an experiment to see if I can help market the hotel through MySpace and FaceBook. If you could add my hotel to your friend's list that would help me out in my experiment in seeing how far it goes.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Comfort-Inn-Maingate/10516567497
http://www.myspace.com/comfortinnmaingate

If you're ever down in the area, give me a holler and we can meet up! Thanks for your help.

- Jefferson

Strange Dream

2007-12-23T16:20:00.000-08:00

I dreamed I was back in home in Seattle (which I happen to visiting right now), and random, small clouds, were swooshing in. I could see their shadows follow along the ground. They would dump rain, in an otherwise clear day.

Then somehow, we "caught" one of these clouds in our bathroom, and found out it was made up of curly hair held together by, I believe, paper clips. So we thought someone was artificially creating these clouds.

there was more, but that's about the most interesting part.

Only a Jack Ass like me would actually do this

2007-12-20T21:13:00.000-08:00

This is a review I write on Thai Smile located in Anaheim, CA. . .

This place is not a very clean place, but probably falls under the category of "hole in the wall." There about 6 booths total for seating in the place. Typically, these "hole in the wall" places survive by having very good food at cheap price. Service isn't necessarily the reason why you would go to these places, but I'll describe it to you anyway.

PRICE

The price was $5.95 for the Phad Thai and Massa Mun Curry, and we paid $4.95 for the fresh spring rolls. So I can't complain about the price.

FOOD QUALITY

The portion size is smaller than most Thai places I've been to. The Phad Thai tasted like it had Soy Sauce in it and the Massa Mun curry was bland, thin, and didn't even have half a carrot in it, and maybe one whole potato. Also very little chicken. My wife and I also had the fresh spring rolls which had shrimp that weren't deveined. I'm not to say whether shrimp needs to be deveined or not, but after having the rest of their food, I couldn't really eat the spring rolls with much pleasure.

I wouldn't go here based solely on food quality and quantity as Thai Cuisine Express is superior in flavor and quantity and only costs maybe $.50 more than here.

SERVICE

Now typically I don't expect high class service at these kinds of joints, but it was so bad that I have to mention our story. My wife and I entered the facility for dinner and sat on our own because no one was waiting tables and no employee was in sight. I wanted to make sure they knew we were there so we could get the menus so I walked up toward the cashier desk and let them know I was there.

A gentleman came out and sat us down with menus. He came back within an acceptable amount of time and took our order. No complaints so far though it's a little off shooting to feel like you need to let the cooks know you entered their building.

The Phad Thai came out first. My wife and I ate it, and when we finished the dish the Massa Mun curry arrived. No rice was included so I asked for rice. The rice came out in two, rice bowl sized balls. After about another 5 minutes the Spring Rolls came out. During this whole time we were waiting for the food, I could hear yelling in the back of the kitchen. I'm thinking this is due to the chaos back there as it was a little strange that our Spring Rolls came out after the main dish? Maybe this is a Thai custom? Actually I'm not 100% if the family that owns it is Thai or not.

So far, the food isn't that good, and the quantity was low, and the service is iffy.

I'm ready to get out of there as soon as possible so I walk up to the cashier, and there's no staff in the main serving area, so I wait there as some other people in the restaurant yell inside the kitchen to let them know I'm there. I think the waitress who came to process my order was new or something, because it took her about 5 minutes to attempt to ring my order, but then give up and give it to what I believe was the owner of the place.

She's calculating the price, and because their cashier isn't working, and they're typing the final bill on a calculator, I want to double check their math with my Pocket PC. So I ask politely what percentage the tax is. I ask again what the tax is, but she doesn’t understand me, and so I ask again. I then get a loud voice behind me from one of the booths (which I later find out is her niece), that tells me it’s 7.75%.

Then the grand finale comes. There's a sign that says that they will charge $.50 on all credit card fees. I want to make sure I don’t get charged this, so I tell her that it’s against the merchant agreement with Visa & Mastercard to charge me a “processing fee” and that the state of California doesn’t allow that kind of charge (Ref: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=civ&group=01001-02000&file=1747-1748.7) The cashier doesn’t understand me, and her niece interrupts and tells me that I’m wrong. She justifies the charge by saying that the sign clearly states it and that it’s a common practice of many other restaurants in the area. I then tell her, that I don’t care what common practice is, and that the charge is illegitimate and I refuse to pay it. The niece’s male companion then yells out, “Man, it’s only $.50!”. And the niece offers to cover the $.50 on my behalf.

I pay, and leave, and will never be going back again.

Review for Managing Your Finances (Purpose Driven) by Crowne Financial

2007-11-08T00:04:00.000-08:00

Just so you get my bias: I follow under the banner of being reformed in theology but progressive in methodology. So in the camp of Mark Driscoll and Tim Keller. I'm in agreement with Gospel Centered preaching rather than Christ Centered preaching (the difference between grace & moralism).

I'm going through this program right now, and I must say I feel like shooting myself, or screaming very loud.

SUMMARY
This program is about 6 modules and goes through different sections on how to view money God's way. It's intended to be done in small groups. There's a lot of basic, practical advice, and like the "Purpose Driven" model, is peppered with one-liner Bible verses to support point by point structured lessons that are taught via a 15-20 minute DVD segment. So for example, they might have 3 points as to how you should save money, and have one-liner Bible verses supporting each point.

In each module, they have you take home and do "homework," which typically means that you need to meticulously keep track of every expenditure, categorize it, make a budget, do an asset inventory, debt-repayment plan, etc.

STRENGTHS
- It's a very good overview of how God views money and how Christians should view money.
- It brings the question of finances into the churches view in a very accessible way!
- Very good practicality (they provide Excel worksheets that'll do a lot of the "budgeting" for you)

WEAKNESSES
- Too simplistic. Nothing in this packet isn't something that you can easily find by googling in five minutes. I'm talking about the financial advice they give. The theological issues are items that someone somewhat knowledgeable about scripture can pull on their own (ie. All your money actually belongs to God!) This material could easily (and more effectively) be prepared in-house (well, I guess if I could've taught it myself, it can't be THAT hard? But that's an assumption based on the fact that all my "knowledge" has been gleaned from free material off the web, both practical financial advice and theological worldviews toward money)

- Teaches bad Bible study techniques. This program is littered with one-sentence or even partial sentence Bible verses. There's a "matter of fact" simplicity they use these Bible verses to support various points they make. For one thing, these verses are taken out of context and are often applied in a different manner than what the original author intended. There's no explanation of the context of the passages and how they were able to apply the verse to the situation. It's just a "here's the Bible Verse," and here's my point. The end. No further explanation. . . WHAT? Are you kidding me?

If you want to take a verse and apply it differently than what the original author's intent was, I think there should be at least some effort to at least mention that and explain the process in which you get to the "application."

They'll sometimes list about five verses, and one verse will be from Proverbs (very practical and explicitly referencing money) and another verse from Romans (that's more about "spiritual matters" and somewhat unrelated to money unless you make a bunch of connections). Of course, I may know that they're pulling "application" and some of the verses are out of context, and I may have better Bible Study skills and acumen, but what does their whole Bible study methodology teach?

Basically, the end truths they may get to are sound enough, but the means they get to it is very sloppy and simplistic. The ends do not justify the means, and by teaching a bad means towards a final interpretation of scripture, I feel does more harm than good.

I think it would be much better for them to just take one verse or passage, and dive deeper into how they pull out the applications. Less quantity, and more quality in their Bible support would practically serve better. This way you can teach solid Biblical scholarship, while teaching about money at the same time. Rather than teach horrible Bible scholarship but teach about money. At least if you teach good Bible scholarship, the individual will be better equipped to investigate further questions they have on their own.

I think in their quest to make the program more accessible to a wider audience, they looked sort of short sighted trying to spoon feed the points to the audiences, rather than looking longer term, to teach people how to study. More of the concept of teaching a man to fish rather than just giving them fish all the time. But in this case, by giving the fish so easily, this program essentially teaches a very BAD way to fish, and will actually hurt people should they try and do a Bible study with the same methodology.

So if I were to do this program, I would have to caveat the sloppy scholarship the program does, despite its truthful points. And then at the end, I would have to run another class to show how the whole program used the various verses to connect their "applications." But then at that point, I would point out that some of their application of verses was way off and show how. And so on and so on, undoing the harm the program did. I might as well not do it and develop one or two quality lessons with some practical financial management tools.

- Doesn't deal with the heart issues. Okay. . . is it because people just don't KNOW that money is really God's that they're not being generous about it? Is it because people just don't KNOW that they shouldn't be in debt because it puts them in bondage that they shouldn't go into unnecessary debt? Is it because people just don't KNOW that spending more than you make is being a dumb ass so that's why they do it? The SNL skit shows this fairly clearly at http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xt0c6_snldontbuystuff_fun

My point is that people know in their heads they should be more generous, or OUGHT to do things. People recognize their own sin and selfishness. But rather than seeing money as an issue of having idols, they see money as a MORALISTIC obligation (ie. I ought to give more money, I should save more, I shouldn't be in debt, etc.) . . .

The question more to be asked is why do we buy more than we earn or are not more generous? Why go into debt based on an instant gratification and hedonistic compulsion? And of course this question will be answered in different ways. But the bottom line is that the ultimate person who should be our greatest satisfaction (John Piper theology inserted here), Jesus Christ, is not our ultimate pleasure. Instead, we feel that some material possession or "functional savior" (Tim Keller theology inserted here), rather than our true savior, Jesus Christ, will save us.

Everyone has their own personal "hell" that they don't want to experience here on Earth, so they try to find some kind of "functional savior" to bring them out of their hell, rather than Jesus Christ. So hell for one person can be where their peers aren't respecting him/her, so that person may go into debt to maintain the image of being important. In that case, the money becomes the functional savior to the individual to buy those things that make him/her look important. What the individual should be doing is looking at their personal hell and asking Jesus to save them from their fear of no one respecting them. So in essence, allowing Jesus to weed out the root issue in the individual's heart.

Okay, so all that to say that the series I'm going through only shows the moralistic and practical methods of temporarily fixing the problem without actually digging deep to root out the true causes for the self-destructive behaviors people have with money and debt.

People may change their habits with money for about a month in response to the study, but long lasting change will only occur once the individuals have been fully redeemed and released from the "functional saviors" they rely on day-in-day-out by the true savior.

In the end. . . a lot of my observations/critiques can be applicable to just about most church programs/sermons, and I'm probably just more annoyed with the state of American churches as a whole.

3 Month Observations of Orange County

2007-11-08T00:02:00.000-08:00

I’ve been in Orange County, California, for about three months now, and here are some things that I notice are the difference in comparison to Seattle:

1) There seems to be a much more shattered/shallow sense of community. Maybe it’s the crazy commutes everyone has or the whole thing about how everyone moves to OC to live the OC life. Suburbia with minimal contact of your neighbor.

2) People don’t play computer/video games down here socially. Like up in Seattle, it was okay to be a nerd. Bill Gates is a nerd. Microsoft is a big nerd. And Seattle has a lot of nerds. If you’re a nerd and like nerdy things, that’s actually considered to be somewhat hip. In the OC. . . well, not so much. I think of more of “Bill & Ted” being more acceptable than a “nerd.” I think people are more concerned about maintaining the OC “image.”

To further contrast point 2, when I was in the Air Force, nearly EVERYONE was a nerd at heart. It was more accepted to play video games because when people went downrange, that was all they would end up doing on their off time because there was nothing else to do. I guess in the OC, there’s so much sun, no one really wants to stay indoors so there never was much affinity toward playing video games. People in the OC play outside!!! Crazy, I know.

So what does that look like in reality? When Halo 3 came out and I asked a bunch of people down here if they knew anyone who had a party with their friends over to play together . . . no one knew anyone. . . I was alone. . . and sad there was no one to play with.

But anyway, that’s about all I have to say about that. The more recent entry was really what cooked me to write a blog.

Hotel Furniture for Sale

2007-10-18T16:34:00.000-07:00

http://jeffersonkim.com/comfortinn/

Know any dependable web developers?

2007-09-15T00:54:00.001-07:00

www.comfortinnmaingate.com is the site that needs to be maintained/overhauled.

Know anyone dependable that's willing to do it? (for pay of course)

In Los Angeles! Goobye Air Force!

2007-07-31T20:31:00.000-07:00

It is now two days and a half since we flew in from Germany (my wife and I) to begin our new life here in Los Angeles (Buena Park, Orange County). Today I officially have signed out at the Los Angeles AFB to let them know I arrived safely and began to take my final vacation days until I'm technically out of the Air Force.

There's much more I'd like to write about, but I'll do that in the future once the craziness settles down. I'm still dealing with some jet lag, and have gone on Internet researching/purchasing splurges building my dream Home Theatre system I've been neglecting while being stationed in Germany. . . I'll tell you how I got $600 off a Samsung 4665F LCD TV ;-) from Best Buy.

My Past Two Years and the Spiritual Darkness of the Military Base

2007-07-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

CORRECTION: I didn't have a car for only two months rather than years.

It’ll be two years since I joined the Air Force in July 29^th. What’s the overall assessment? Suffering. . . but good (but no I would not do it all over again if I knew better. . .) Here’s a rundown of what I’ve experienced in the past two years according to category (you can get a more detailed description of the specific experiences by going through the history of the items that have an * next to them ):

Financial

1) Invested in my first Roth IRA

2) Moved into my first apartment in Germany *

3) Became financially independent from my parents for the first time

4) Bought my first, brand new car *

Church Community

1) Quit two ministries after active involvement due to differences in vision with leadership *

2) Got fired from one ministry due to my views of one of the ministries I quit above *

3) Listened to every single Acts29Network and The Resurgence podcast/vodcast along with most of Mark Driscoll’s sermons along with much of Erwin McManus’ *

Personal

1) Proposed on the Eiffel tower *

2) Got married in glorious Spokane, WA *

3) Traveled enough to know I don’t like it and got my first pick pocket experience

4) Had no car for two years and biked everywhere *

5) Learned a improved keyboard layout – Dvorak!!! *

6) JeffersonKim.com helps a long lost cousin reestablish contact *

Military

1) 9 months of working weird, 12 hour shifts, sometimes entire weekends (72 hours) all by myself without interacting with a single person

2) Volunteered to quit two years earlier than my four year commitment

3) Sheltered during Hurricane Katrina for 7 days *

4) Got my website censored from the networks

So we all learn the best through conflict and suffering. It’s fairly clear from my past posts that I learned quite a bit through the Church community and the military work environment. Now the question becomes on solutions. After much deliberation, I’ve concluded that there is no hope for the church community here. If I were to describe hell, I would probably describe this area.

As for military. . . there is hope, but that’s an arena that I don’t want to claim even enough experience or insight to be so bold as to publicize a possible solution. Basically, I have my opinions, but there are much smarter people in much more authoritative positions to be able to fix the problem. And I would say now that they’re actually laying off Air Force personnel, they are at least making the attempt to fix the problem, which is more than I can say about myself.

So going back to the church community around here. . . there’s no hope. And here’s why.

First, to discern what a healthy Christian community will look like it should have multiple aspects, and here are some.

1) Teach from the Bible exegetically, which means that they’re trying to understand the original intention of the authors and extrapolate to our context

2) Teach the Bible as though it’s a book essentially about Christ and not as a book on how man should live his life

3) A community that loves one another

4) A community that loves the local military community with the hope that they will come to know Christ

5) Reach their community as though they were missionaries in a foreign country

All items above need to be spearheaded by strong leadership. So until there is strong leadership, there can be no hope. Had I known there wasn’t strong leadership out here, I might’ve tried starting my own ministry out here. . . but seriously, would I do it knowing I would only be out here for two years? Probably not. . . so that relates to some factors that bring together hopelessness to have strong leadership:

1) People tend to live here and move within a three year period because the Air Force moves them. We’re talking an entire leadership, and congregational turnover within three years!!! That’s CRAZY enough to destroy a ministry and make any leader want to quit, but add more. . .

2) Military personnel have to deploy for 4 months or more and travel back to the states for weeks at a time. So not only can the people only stay for about three years, but then they deploy for months at a time! Not only that, but when holidays come around, they will most likely return back to the States for vacation or travel.

3) The American community is isolated with about 60,000 people. We’re talking a small town completely isolated from the rest of the world! No large city nearby (not even a German city) that people commute from. . . this is it! In other words, if you’re a talented leader, you’ll probably focus your energies on a large city stateside, rather than some small military community. For you Seattlites. . . imagine Everett completely isolated and see what strong church communities come from that. . .

4) Travelling. . . We’re here in Germany. . . what do you think most people are going to try and do on the weekends? That’s right. Travel! We’re only a four-hour drive from Paris!

It comes down to this. You need time to create meaningful community and strong leadership. Military personnel in the military predominantly cannot or choose not to commit to a meaningful community due to their unique position and transient lifestyle. Strong leaders will come to recognize that they can simply impact much more people by going stateside where they can disciple people for a longer period of time.

That’s just one of the prices military personnel face. Transient living.

The lack of Christ centered, biblical, and missionally focused community has been hell for me. Like, if I were to be in hell, he could just stick me here. Well. . . I guess if I knew I was here for three more years, I’d make something of it, but by the time I got kicked out/quit all the ministries and discovered that the leadership out here didn’t hold the same ecclesiology as me, it was too late to create something substantial of my own.

Well, hopefully the suffering I went through will teach me to be a lot more careful and discerning in the future before committing to a ministry or church community.

Information Bonanza

2007-06-10T08:10:00.000-07:00

For the past two years or so I've been d/l podcasts and vodcasts. I have so many that I can no longer keep up to listening to all the material! They have podcasts on just about every topic I need: Business, Indie music, Leadership, Tech, Gaming, Sermons, Foreign languages, This American Life, etc. I'm like a kid in a candy store!

I can say that the sermons, more specifically from TheResurgence, Acts29Network, have really gotten me in trouble with the established religious authorities, more specifically with the concept of missiology and reformed, biblically centered theology. This is how I got introduced to Tim Keller and Ed Stetzer, and other visionaries like Erwin McManus.

Then on top of this, most recently I've gotten into Google Reader's RSS aggregate reader. This will be information overload, but I love it! Now I don't have to go through like 50 different sites to get the news I look for. I put it all on one site. So now I don't have to keep clicking through Xanga.com subscriptions or slickdeals.net, or news.bbc.co.uk, or Tomshardware.com etc to got all the tidbits of knowledge I'm looking for. I can just go to one area and sort through more information in a timely fashion.

We're in the information age where it's more important than ever to be able to sort through the most important imformation and weild it for greatest effect. Knowledge is power. The power to wield influence and transform the world. I have no excuse anymore to claim ignorance.

. . . and I'm not even going to go into the world of BitTorrent in this entry. . . ;)

Wedding Pics

2007-06-08T08:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry for being late:

http://www.hskimage.smugmug.com/gallery/2823536#151057265

New Keyboard Layout!

2007-03-31T08:54:00.000-07:00

Now many of you are using the standard QWERTY keyboard method. I'd like to introduce you to the Dvorak style of keyboard.

After noticing my hand was getting some pains from typing, I remembered dabbling into the new keyboard layout. There's a whole history behind the Dvorak keyboard layout, but what I can say is that it's a much more efficient use of your finger movements. If you think you are typing fast now, just wait until you try out the other format.

Just google the word and you'll be able to see all kinds of entries about it.

Though I don't think I have fully reached the same speeds as I had with the QWERTY format, I can tell it feels like I'm hardly moving my fingers! It's freaking sweet and I wish I started learning to type in this format instead of the QWERTY.

Military Culture & The Jefferson: You Can Already Tell This Won�t Turn Out Good

2007-02-18T08:55:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows that the military isn't for everyone. If it was, then everyone would be in it. What do you do, though, when you're in the military, not of free choice, and you're not allowed to get out? Thus my predicament.

If I could get out right now, I would. But due to bureaucracy, and the massive size of the military, I am told to sit tight for about five more months until about July 28^th. There's a back story to that, but that's too long to go into here.

So thus an interesting predicament occurs which I will hopefully never face again for the rest of my life: I dislike the military culture and the military culture dislikes me. But neither one of us can get rid of each other immediately! I will separate this part into two main components of recent reflections on military culture both the officer corps and within the chapel system.

The Officer Corps

I don't need to go into specifics, but the basic jist is this. I am a bad officer and I don't care that I'm a bad officer. That bothers some people who have had to work so hard to become an officer. That creates some dissonance.

The Air Force Officer corps uphold ideals of perfection that are displayed on the outside. Because I do not have inner conviction of being and officer, the only way I can fully fulfill the arbitrary duties of an officer is to "fake it." "Faking it" is possibly the hardest thing for me to do because it goes against my philosophy of being a brutally honest and authentic person in every facet of life.

For example, I don't show up to work at 0730 every morning, but instead show up some minutes later. I still get all my work done and done effectively, but because I don't "check off" that box, it's looked down upon. Am I going to show up on time because of that? Probably not because I still get the work done.

Another example is that I refuse to go to pointless meetings and events. I refuse to waste my time "kissing butt." That's my main officer duty is to "kiss butt" and because I don't care about kissing butt, I don't do it. That causes friction with those who feel I am not fulfilling my duties of an officer.

Okay, that's enough about that. But the basic essence is that I am a square peg in a round hole corporate environment. I just have to endure through it until my day of separation arrives and accept within my heart that, "Yes, I am a bad officer." Any alternatives without dying to my personal convictions?

The Chapel System

After being participatory and recently excommunicated by the Chapel system, I have become a very large proponent of separation between church and state. If you ever wonder why Socialism would never work, I recommend you check out the military as a case study.

In any case, in the previous blog entry you can see my castigating email of the leadership of both the chapels and most churches in the area and United States.

Of course, the chaplains didn't appreciate me undercutting their religious authority and especially didn't appreciate the fact that I was teaching this to high school students.

I guess truth is okay to teach as long as it doesn't affect the established religious authority.

I'm being sarcastic, but I've come to some realization lately that under normal circumstances, I would never had volunteered to the Chapel in the first place for numerous reasons. However, due to the fact that I was new overseas and that basically every other Church around here was just as bad, I chose the service to volunteer in that was most strategically placed geographically to reach the lost.

What I failed to realize though, was that the deadness of the Chapel wasn't primarily due to a lack of adequate volunteers of the Chapel, but was a direct result of purposeful intention by the Chapel leadership to not be "missionally" minded.

I would call the leadership heretics and horrible teachers and considering that the primary reason for Christians' existence is to be the "light unto the world" and to go into the world as Christ entered our world, Christ would agree.

Thus, the whole ordeal was mainly due to my foolishness. No one would ever think that seriously dating an immature Christian would somehow end in a good way, in the same way, I "dated" the immature (and intentionally heretical) church and ended up being broken hearted. FOOL! Yes, I am a fool. And the lesson to be learned is to be smarter about who I spend my time with.

Like Christ, I should had spent my time aimed at the marginalized and outcast, rather than to the self-righteous, Pharisiee-like church attenders.

Lesson learned. And now I have to figure out how to communicate the Gospel most effectively through my life for the short time I'm here without being a part of a local congregation of believers.

More on Missional Worship

2007-01-29T08:56:00.000-08:00

This is an excerpt from an email I sent to a woman around the area I'm at that's leading a worship workshop around my area. Most of the info that I've gotten most of my thinking can be found Here

I was raised, converted, and had many intimate moments with the Passion CDs and Hillsongs' music, so they will always be remembered in my heart and I honor them for aiding me in becoming more intimate with Christ. However, as I have had more unsaved friends and tried sharing the music with them, they would often recoil in disgust over the style (rather than content) of the music, and it's become a revelation to me that instead of Jesus Christ being the stumbling block to spreading the Gospel, it's been the music style and the entire Christian sub-culture. If worship includes one's entire life, and music is but a small snapshot, and music style is but one of many vessels to "worship" God then as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 9:19:

19Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. 22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

To the Jew, I'm a Jew. To the gentile, I'm a gentile. For the grunge rocker, I become a grunge rocker. For the alternative rock, I become alternative rock. For the high-energy, scremo, angst ridden emo indie rocker, I become a high-energy, screamo, angst ridden emo indie rocker. . . Or to the level that I can being a white-washed, Korean-American. . . Because music style is not a central issue to the true heart of worship (John 4:23), Paul states style ought to change for the sake of the Gospel. My "audience" should not be primarily focused on those who are already saved, but the lost in the surrounding community as Jesus, as our example, states in Matthew 9:11-13, that "it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."

The prescription for the sick and dying is Jesus, and not worship music, style, or any of that. And if any worship music and style become such a huge stumbling block to the "regulars" and non-believers (where the "regulars" want the standard Christian "worship" songs, and the non-believers won't even tolerate listening to any of that because the style is so foreign and grates against their nerves), and it's not Jesus Christ, then the idol of music needs to be broken, and the "regulars" and leadership need to repent of their ultimately selfish ways -- placing their personal preferences to worship style over those of the dying community.

I'm focusing ultimately on music style, and not necessarily content -- true, authentic worship will always be bringing ultimate glory to Jesus Christ. That's a non-negotiable.

Unfortunately, the American Christian sub-culture, where most of the worship leaders were raised in including myself, along with the way the Air Force Chapel services are focused, promote a worship music style that is entirely foreign to the rest of the dying world. It's become such a sub-culture that Christian worship music has it's own genre! Perhaps it's not so shocking to us being raised in it for so long, but I could never imagine the Apostle Paul, though raised as a Jew, attempting to reach the Gentiles with the Jewish hymns he was raised with! Or another example, just as we wouldn't push American Worship music to African tribes, we some how think we should push it onto our neighbors, who are essentially completely separate from the Christian sub-culture.

The standard "Christian" genre of music has become irrelevant, and foreign (if not distasteful) to most (but not all!) dying world yet churches continue and push it on Sunday services for whatever reasons often stating that we want to build up the "believers" and are basically pushing away the non-believers.

Which leads to the underlying disease and dysfunction of the majority of chapels/churches along with their leadership (which includes worship leaders)-- the churches have lost their mission of making disciples of the nation, and instead have replaced it with a congregation-glorifying, Babel Gospel. It's no longer about glorifying the mission of Jesus, to go engage the dying culture around us, creating disciples of all nations, tribes, sub-cultures, people groups, tongues, etc. It's become a Babel gospel, where Christian families "circle the wagons" in a Sunday service to protect themselves from the evils of the world. It's not about going into the world to be the salt that transforms culture from the inside out, but it's more about erecting huge walls to separate the "holy" Christian community from the rest of the "evil" world.

Where is the church that weeps for its community as Jesus weeps for Jerusalem in Luke 13:31? Certainly, if the people and leadership had hearts that burned for the sick and dying as Jesus does, they would die to their personal preferences for the sake of bringing as many people to Jesus.

And the bigger question then arises, are we as a church missing what true worship is? Just because as worship leaders we play songs that are labelled as "worship" does that mean we're actually worshipping? If we say we love God through song, but don't love the community around us and not fulfill the second greatest commandment, are we not hypocrites and are actually displeasing God? If we say as worship leaders, that we're going to fulfill our personal preferences and those in the congregation over the preferences of the lost aren't we essentially hating and distancing from the community around us and ultimately hating God?

Aren't we being cultural imperalists saying to the unsaved that if they want to join the community and be witnessed to, they must first convert to the American Christian sub-culture, before converting to Jesus?

I write the above coming from the inside of Christian sub-culture. I was raised in it, and probably this revelation didn't become fully articulate to me until about over a year ago. It's always been on my mind, but I couldn't quite place it. I've been to hordes of Charismatic worship sessions and over and over I've noticed that the numbers of the "worshipers" were majority Christian-raised, and not new believers. We're doing something wrong as a church if new believers aren't added in large multitudes because the Gospel is THAT powerful. We've erected monuments to ourselves and to the Christian music genre to fulfill our personal preferences, rather than dying to ourselves for the sake of the gospel.

I've also done as much as I could to communicate and implement "Missional Worship" at SMA and the Protestant Singles of the Chapel, and what I've discovered is that what I'm talking about above is complete SUICIDE without full leadership support! Supposed "Christians" don't seem to care to reach the lost in these, what end up amounting to, Christian clubs. . . They're in a constant, "serve me" mentality, rather than a "how can I declare the glory of Christ to the dying culture" mentality. The leadership oppossed me, and I got swallowed up by the Pharisee-Christians. The leadership's mentality was to keep what they had, and not risk it for the sake of fulfilling the mission of the church. Leadership in communities like that, I would argue, are not Christ glorifying and are bad witnesses to the community around them displaying hypocrisy and legalism.

Sure, the leadership doesn't want to offend the people already in the pews, but what about the fact that they're offending Jesus!? In the end, isn't it about glorifying Jesus and not the people around us?

So I guess, Missional Worship isn't something that could even be implemented in most churches even if worship leaders tried to do it and if they did attempt to, the worship leaders would, in essence, be crucified by the very congregants and leadership! But nevertheless, bad teaching should not be perepetuated or encouraged!

Of the three ministries I've been involved with, only the Youth Group seems to be the place where it is allowed to happen. And that's only because I have full support from the Youth Pastor.

It's okay for us to be Missionally focused in Youth Groups, and when we go to foreign countries, but when it comes to our local adult community the resounding response is, "Forget it! Serve our wants, not theirs. Protect us from the evils of the world, and let's not engage it."

What's needed when less than 10% of the KMC area are bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christians, is for the leadership to have more than just a "holy-nudge," but a "holy-slap." There needs to be complete repentence from the music idolotry, and Christian sub-culture selfishness that's being promoted in many churches/chapels today. We need to understand worship to be much larger than just a music genre, and realize our entire lives, our entire congregations, our entire churches, are the actual worship.

To continue and work on worship music style and skill, rather than the heart of the issue -- the fact that many churches have placed our personal preference toward music style over the mission of declaring the Gospel to all tongues, nations, tribes, sub-groups, cliques, sub-cultures, etc. -- will ultimately be in vain and only perpetuate the idols we've created in "worship" music. God is not pleased by our narrow view of worship through music, and our selfishness ultimately hinders the Gospel.

It's no longer about being "politically correct" or being unnoffensive. Jesus was offensive. The cross is offensive. The established religious order crucified Christ for what he stood for. What Jesus cared about was doing the will of God and not the will of the established religious order. The Gospel is a radical lifestyle that should be radically implemented in communities that profess their allegiance to Jesus. The American Christian communities at large can no longer afford to remain unengaged with the culture around them. People's eternities are at stake and it will take a proactive, mission-driven, radical drive to turn around the dying churches and transform the communities through the power of Christ. Propelling a single worship style will no longer succeed in today's post-modern, multi-cultural world (though it did in the 80s).

I am now engaged UPDATED

2006-12-25T08:57:00.000-08:00

UPDATE:

Here's some of the footage my friends took who helped set Kendra up for the proposal:

Myself and her friends lied in her face to make it seem like I wasn't able to go to Paris due to work, so they went without me. . . or so Kendra thought, on Thursday night. Then on Thursday afternoon, I left work early to drive and meet them at the Eiffel tower to surprise Kendra.

So I get there around 8:00 PM on Thursday and they were still on their way as the video can tell. I scoped out the first floor to see where it wasn't too busy to propose. I found this small little gallery area about the history of the Eiffel Tower and text messaged Brad (the supporting trickster) where I was going to be and the one who was video taping. As I heard their voices getting near, I placed the ring on the ground in the box, and hid in another room. There was another tourist in there, so I made the universal sign to him "shhhh" with the finger over the mouth and ran to hide. I watched them enter the room, and slowly she looked down, and looked away, and everyone else in the group moved out of the room, when I moved in.

I picked up the ring off of the ground and I had to tell her to take her gloves off, and take of the ring she already had on her left hand. then I got on one knee and asked her to marry me. She said yes.

She can handle the Jefferson.

You can read her side of the story at her site

I am now engaged. I asked her on Thursday at the Eiffel tower. She didn't even think I was going to Paris. Anyway, I'll have the video up later, but for now, here are the pictures.

Long Lost Cousin!

2006-09-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

Long Lost Cousin!
I love self-promoting my own website. JeffersonKim.com

Hi, my name is jeffersonKim.com Nice to meet you.

But seriously, it paid off when my long lost cousin of 8 years was able to find my contact information through the web! I have heard of people googling my name, and the top 1 entry will be my website.

There is another time that the military investigators googled my name and were able to contact me through the phone.

Theoretically, I will always be able to be reached, no matter how much time passes, as long as I keep my website going with the most updated information. . . and for $45/year, it's well worth the cost.

My transparency & accessibility is everyone's gain.

Practicing Missiology

2006-08-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

While here in Germany, I've been going through a transformation on how I look at the church, and its function. I've always had some kind of understanding, but lately I've been able to better articulate and make direct applications of a missiology mentality. Ed Setzer's book on Breaking the Missional Code has been a very helpful tool in articulating what I've always felt on the inside. It's basically looking at the surrounding community as though a missionary would to an African culture. . . using indigineous culture to birth a unique church that speaks to its people, rather than have the church birth some culture of its own (the church sub-culture).

More details can be found through the new section I added on Missional Worship Music at JeffersonKim.com --> Resources --> Worship Music --> Missional Music

Longer than Gigantor's Entries

2006-02-27T09:18:00.000-08:00

- This past President’s day weekend, I was up in Belgium being a counselor to for a middle school retreat. I was sick prior, and was even sicker leaving the place (stupid wet willies. . .). It’s been about more than a week since I was originally sick, and am now getting to cleaning out my system with a nice hefty wad of phlegm and that thick nasty gooey snot. There’s just something really satisfying to getting rid of that nasty goo from your system. Praise Jesus for that satisfaction.

For the most part, I was in the back during the services, working the sound board, and it was amazing to see how God works. You know, I don’t know if I can say with such certainty that I “felt the spirit” or something like that as sometimes I sense him (being all sleepy from sleep deprivation, exhaustion, sickness, etc.). But I believe that wherever a large group of people come together with a mindset of meeting God, and you have an atmosphere of love and acceptance, of worship, that God digs deep into people. He goes in there like a surgeon and delves deep into the soul doing whatever work that needs to be done.

And that’s what happened the last night at the Retreat. It wasn’t one of those things where the lights were all dimmed or there was a powerful speaker or anything like that. In fact, it was such that the main speaker got really sick the last night, and someone had to fill in knowing like 1 hour before he had to speak! But the atmosphere, and expectancy from the students, to meet with God, was almost like an explosion. . . something that could not be stopped no matter how many “thing go wrong.” Many of the 7^th and 8^th graders, including 6^th graders, met God that night. They met God not in the kind of “brain” way, but met God in an intimate and close manner. Some for the first time, and some for the whatever number time. Some students accepted God into their heart for the first time, making commitments that will last for the rest of their life. . . some will get discouraged as time goes by. . . but what can’t be taken away from their memories, is knowing that for one momen, during a time of awkward middle school years (oh SO AWKward. . . ) they knew without a doubt that God existed, that God loved them, and that God would never stop loving them. Unconditional love. Unconditional, intimate love. . .

And then the bus ride home. . . 12 hours of rowdy middle school students back to their antics. . . screaming, singing, harassing. Like this one student named Austin, who screamed pick up lines to random females behind him. I gave him this one to scream, “Are your parents terrorists? ‘Cause you the bomb!” We got back Monday night at like 11:00 PM, and here I am one week later.

- Then that Tuesday, I led worship for the high school, Ramstein youth group, and it wasn’t clicking for most of the students. . . . but maybe because they couldn’t hear our voices, or whatever. But I’ve gotten to the point, after leading for so many years in various venues. . . knowing about the confidence that God works in every situation. That God works above my crappy music or what not. Even the best that I can give, even is still crappy compared to the work that God does.

Yeah, things go wrong, but God doesn’t, and the fact that they come every week, even though probably 50% of them aren’t saved, confounds me. God moves in that place, even when their voices don’t necessarily. . . like they’re on the verge of accepting Christ. . . or they just know that the love of God is in that place. In an often hostile environment on a military installation, these students come to the Tuesday youth group for refuge . . .

- Then last Friday we had a “worship night.” With my mistake, I thought it was starting at 7:00 PM, but it actually started at 6:00 PM. So rehersal was cut short, and I felt sort of like an idiot that I didn’t realize it. Then there were maybe like 20 people there. But probably less, but it was awesome anyway. Despite the fact that all those things didn’t go well. . . those that came that Friday night wanted to worship God, and God met us there. And God changed us. . . it was awesome, and it came to my realization that those days that I feel crappy about worship, are those days when the congregation doesn’t want to worship, and those days when it’s awesome are those days when those in the congregation want to worship.

When the congregation is not dead but alive. . .

I guess that brings to the reflection that I realize. . . the most fulfilling thing I get to do is use the gifts of music and leadership that God has given me to lead others into leadership. The days of Jubilee and the House of Prayer, one-hour small groups where we just prayed hardcore and worshipped hardcore Monday through Friday, have been great grounds for where I can pick up from and transfer to this venue. . . or probably not. But it’s something that I’ve learned a lot, but that’s just off topic.

But I can always worship alone and have my amazing times meeting with God, and those are fulfilling. But it just feels lame when I go and sing with a congregation, and they’re not feeling like meeting with God, but we still have to go with those songs. I feel sort of lame and disappointed, but then, I just have to realize God works in people always. God works in people always, and is around people always, and in them, and close by, but it’s always us, that blocks God from getting too close. It’s us as humans that put up that brick wall, from allowing God to be awesome in our lives. He’s there, he’s all around us, but He’s waiting for us to open that door for him to enter. And not just enter partially. Not have the door just partially open for God to partially enter. . . but for the door to be completely open, totally surrendered, that God enters, overwhelms, awes, and transforms.

- Then comes MySpace.com. I noticed and have heard about it for a while. . . not realizing just how big it’s become. I read it on the cover of this “family Life” magazine, called like Tech Life or something, and on it said the MySpace revolution or something and how it brings new challenges to families. . . which I can completely understand. But of the 300 people that graduated my class in high school, 95 have profiles! That for me sort of makes me go, “whoa” because this has never been before! Never before have people been able to simply check out other people’s lives from wherever, whenever, with such anonymity. And if you lived in the same area, could easily continue a relationship!

Myself for the most part, can’t create a new substantial long-distance relationship. Or at least of one that I’d like. But in any case. . . when it comes to the 10 year reunion (which I plan on going to), it’ll be weird, cause it’s like, when I see people, I’ll know what they’ve been up to if they’ve been keeping their MySpace site up to date with their blogs! An example dialogue, “Hey George!” “Hey Jefferson!” “I’ve been reading about your life on MySpace! How’re your kids, Jenna and George?” “oh they’re awesome. I’ve been checking out your site. You’re now in Los Angeles?” “Yeah that’s true. . . blah blah blah”

Ok, that’s interesting. You don’t have to go when you meet people being like having nothing to talk about, but immediately you know exactly what to talk about when you see them again. You know their marital status, their kids, their geography. . . etc. Shallow things, but enough to get small talk going. And that’s for anyone! As long as people keep their blogs updated, people, in essence would never lose contacts! You could have like thousands by the end of your life.

For the love of craziness. . . I’m able to keep updated on the lives of those back in the states, while here in Germany, because I read and comment on their blogs. If I were to go back, it wouldn’t be so weird, because I’ve been “hearing” from them virtually. What a strange, brave new world! Way better than email. . . email takes too much effort. .. too much brain power than to comment, “LOL. HAHAHAHAHA”

- Hmmm. . . I think I’m in a contemplative mode. . . that’s why there’s so much typing. Maybe this is more for me, because I doubt many people read this long ass novel. This is sooo long. But if you have congratulations and I hope that perhaps some words in here have encouraged you to keep pressing on in life.

Shalom.

IT HAS ARRIVED

2006-01-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

Thank the Lord for sending me here to Germany! His will be done.

CLICK HERE for pics

AMAZING, BUT TRUE

2005-10-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

Three garbage cans at the end of my bike. . . unbelievable.

Oh, and enjoy this . . . . the world's ugliest dog. . . BTW, don't throw up. . . because suppossedly it's real. Scroll down at your own discretion. . .

http://sacunion.com/pages/california/articles/5209

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More Pics From Germany

2005-10-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from Germany of me here in Germany

Below, I managed to put on one of the most honkin loads on my bike to date. I had my heavy laptop in there, and attached two laundry baskets to the end. I'm so stoked with how tight my bike is. It was making creaking noises as I was riding back home so that was kind of creepy but it was okay.

I bike home at night, in the dark, and it can be kind of creepy because I hear these strange noises from the forested area to my right. One time, I was tired of being freaked out, so when I heard the rustling, I got my bike light to look at where the noise was coming from. And I didn't see anything, but I did here a scurrying away, and a snort like a pig. Then I was lik, OH MY GOSH, it's a FREAK"n WARTHOG. And I thought of Pumba, and I was like "Hakuna matata" THE END. And I remembered how Pumba relates to a NOHtorious individual. and I laughed inside, and started snorting like a pig myself and biked myself in the pitch dark a happy little piggy.

I've mastered biking without any hands on the handle bar. That's fun, because you feel so free as you cruise along with your hands in your pocket, and I think people look at me and think, MNan that guy is tight because he can bike without his hands on the handle bar. Right now, I'm listening to weezer's Pinkerton as I type this. and that's why this may seem disheveled, but I don't care, because I'm feeling good today, adn I'm very happy God's favor has been so abundant to me here at home.

You guys are awesome, and I hope you are seeing God's hooking you up wherever all my people's are at. If you wnat to come and visit, let me know and we can figure something out.

Why am I feeling so happy? Because I cooked my own very first brown rice at home, with soem spam in it, with some green pees, and it tastes good. Though spam isn't so good fo ryou, so I won't be using it much anymore. Things ar efalling into place back at home. Going to jam with a co-worker tomorrow morning, and got invited to join a band or something. Some kind of soul band. But yeah, more on that later. Ramblings go on and on. I think I probably do the best talking when I shut my brain off and just let it flow, you know? Yeah, that's awesome.

Peace in the middle East,
Smooches
jefferson

DEDICATED TO NGUYENWARE.COM, GHKIM.COM, MYSPACE.COM/YESANDAMEN, & JOE, JAMES, & DOO

2005-10-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

Today you shall see my place in it's "currently under construction" phase. The main thing that needs to be finished at this point is the kitchen. Everything else, is pretty much it, as is. I feel as though I will have to make my place the party hub as was James & Tim's place. Or their new place now, if they moved in together already, don't know.

Or like Hun's place with Halo parties. . . or Danny Kwak's and Bill Chi's. I thank all of yous for opening your places to fun while I was in the states. I shant forget your generosity as I pass on the love to others here in Germany.

The bedrooms:

The bathrooms:

The kitchen:

The dining room

The living room

I used to have all the sound equipment in the biggest bedroom, but after late night music making, my upstairs neighbors complained so I moved it over to the "guest" bedroom. That's why it's all packed in, but it's tight, because now I can be loud, and not worry about waking my upstairs neighbors too much. . . especially with my 18" subwoofer. . ..booyah.

Awesome.

Kisses,

Jefferson

Pics from Germany

2005-10-04T09:22:00.000-07:00

My blog at http://blog.jeffersonkim.com was acting all funky due to a malicious script that was somehow installed. . .those jerks. . . so I'm posting some pics I've taken so far through my digital camera on my phone.

I've been blessed to have a Christian community right away. I went over to the Sunday morning, protestant, contemporary service and asked right away ways that I can serve. I got plugged into working their sound board and I also heard about their youth group they needed help in as well.

There's usually a high need for volunteers in military bases. With high turnover rates of about three years, volunteers are always needed.

I went to their youth group and got plugged in there as well and last weekend I went on a training retreat somewhere in Germany. . . not really sure. But we stayed at a hostel, a huge one, and we stayed on the 11th floor. Below are some pics of it in the morning. Fog down in the valley, and lush trees everywhere.

The above picture is just a random pic I took today of some dude who was writing a really really tiny bike. I thought it was amusing enough to take a pic of.

The pic below are some of the youth group volunteers. The chaplains here on base contract out their youth groups to a group called Malachi. Their parent organization is Cadence International. The woman on the right is a missionary and ministers to middle schoolers in a nearby base. The guy on the left is a volunteer at Ramstein's youth group, called "Destiny" and the woman in the middle plays lots of Ultima Online and volunteers in the middle school group to the south of Ramstein. But we're all part of the same Kaiserslautern Military Community which houses about 50,000 military personnel, not including their families. . .or maybe that includes them too.

A pic of the side streets near where I stayed in hotel with. Pics of the place I moved into will be up soon. Below is a pic of a chess set with huge chess pieces. I thought that was the coolest thing there.

The following pics are of a castle we visited last weekend while on the training retreat. I've been thinking about getting a full plate of armour while I'm here. Just cause.

I've also officially started work here, and it seems fine so far. We do basic level, data entry jobs, and right now, with the 1-9PM shift, I have a lot of free time to write and read blogs! Soon, I'll on night shift, 6PM - 6AM, where I'll be learnign German, listening to sermons, and watching tons of DVDs! Here I come Lost, Six Feet Under, Etc.

I'd show you some pictures of the military base and the flightline, which are really tight. I have some good pics. But with all the terrorism going on, I don't want to give any of them all a leg up. Plus, I might get in trouble.

BTW, if you could recommend some good series or preachers to listen/read, I'd be much obliged it. I'll be having TONS of free time over the next two or three months.

Much love,

Kisses

Jefferson