celebrating my dad's 70th birthday

my dad will be turning 70 in march. we celebrated his birthday last week w/a trip to orlando. my parents, me, my brother, my sister, & our respective families. it was the first time we all took a vacation together. my parents were really happy to see the whole family come together like that. my mom already started talking about how we will celebrate her 70th birthday in a few years.

the first pic is of shamu, the killer whale at sea world. the next two pics are from the holy land experience theme park. the passion play was really good, very high quality.

too much snow

it's been snowing way too much here in nj. seems like i've been shoveling the driveway every-other day. living in california has made me soft.

80s keyboard music

human by the killers. i am being totally haunted by this song. i can't get it out of my mind. it reminds me of the cheesy 80s keyboard music that i grew up with. we used to call it "new wave" & "techno pop". perhaps keyboard-based pop music is making a comeback? coldplay is somewhat keyboard-based too.

children learning mma (mixed martial arts)

many people think that it's wrong to teach children mma (mixed martial arts). i pasted an article below which shows how a boy saved a friend & her dog from a pitbull, using his mma training/knowledge. i think it's interesting that most adults don't mind if children learn martial arts. but then they think it's wrong if the the martial arts is realistic (as in mma, brazilian jiu-jitsu & muay thai). i want gideon to learn realistic martial arts, because pretty soon he's going to be my bodyguard.

Mon Jan 05, 2009 9:57 am EST
Pit bull taps out from a nine-year-old's rear naked choke
By Maggie Hendricks
A Bakersfield, Calif. boy saved a friend and her dog after a pitbull tried to attack them. Did he do it by calmly coaxing the dog with a sweet voice, and then singing to it? Nope. He did it using a choke he learned in a jiu-jitsu class, which he held for 20 minutes until the police showed up.
Isn't it better that he was in this class instead of sitting on a couch, playing video games and eating Twinkies? The next time I hear MMA described with the words "human cockfighting," I will find this wonderful young man, who talks about the ordeal here, and have him choke out the idiot who said it.

gideon in nyc

on jan 1 we took gideon into the city. (street parking is free & easy to find on holidays). we took him to see the tree at rockefeller center & the fao schwartz toy store. he got to play the giant piano there.

winter retreat season is over

i recently got back from three retreats (florida, pilgrim college in the poconos, & pilgrim youth in upstate new york). each retreat was special & unique. God is good.