attn: jonathan

hey jonathan. i wanted to show you that i'm getting into wide-angle photography. i love how you can change the perspective & get funky shots. last week i got the sigma 10-20/3.5. in the past my philosophy was that i wasn't going to get any dx lenses (because i thought fx bodies would be affordable in ~5 years). but then i realized that i'll probably never get an fx body, & an fx wide-angle-zoom costs a small fortune.

i saw an article in nikonrumors.com which convinced me that dx is here to stay. in the past people argued that 35mm film would be replaced by medium format film. but people appreciated the smaller size & cost of 35mm, which obviously kept it alive. & the quality was good enough. i think the same thing will happen w/dx. it's smaller/lighter/cheaper than fx & the quality is good enough.

i always respected the golfers who used old/cheap equipment, but played really well. as opposed to the guys who had the best equipment but got no game, "all show and no go". i envision myself growing into an old man w/old & outdated photo equipment, but still getting decent shots.

day in the city

we went into the city yesterday. went to adorama photo shop to rent a lens (nikon 85/1.4); ate lunch at union square; took the subway to central park (sheep's meadow); ate a second lunch at the shake shack in madison square park. gideon loved riding the subway. he kept referring to the train as one of the characters from thomas train. and he cried when we had to leave the subway station.

church staff retreat

we recently had our church staff retreat (sunday night to monday afternoon). about 20 of us went. we do this twice a year. it's exciting to be part of a rapidly growing church; & it's exciting to witness all the challenges & changes. on the way home some of us got dinner at the rutgers grease trucks. it was my first time there. i got the fat darrell, which maxim magazine rated as the #1 sandwich in america. it includes chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks & french fries.

chilling w/master k

last weekend i visited my old muay thai school to support the grand opening of their new location & to watch some amateur fights. master k (well-respected muay thai fighter & trainer) was there to coach some of his fighters. master k gave gideon some free pointers on the heavy bag.

it's in his blood

lately my dad has been yelling at me to get rid of my motorcycle. he said that he doesn't want gideon climbing the bike, and he doesn't want gideon to ride when he gets older. i assured my dad that gideon doesn't climb the bike.

this morning after our morning jog, gideon got out of his jogging stroller and started climbing my bike. i'm pretty sure that when he gets older, he'll be riding with or without my permission. he already loves cars.

korean bible?

so our church will soon encourage all our members to start using the new-er version of the korean bible. apparently the language in the new-er version is less archaic & easier to understand. the new-er version also comes w/a new hymnal. which means we all need to re-learn the numbering system for our favorite hymns. when i ask people if the new-er version is a more-accurate translation based on better scholarship, i don't get a clear answer.

someone (trusted-source) recently told me that this whole thing is about money. apparently the copyrights on the old-er version expired, and they stopped printing it in korea. so whoever owns the copyrights on the new-er version is going to make a lot of money. this person also said that the new-er version still uses archaic language.

so the hymnal in the new-er version does not come w/the english verses yet; but it will be available in the future. which means many people will buy the new bible now; then they will buy it again when the english-version of the hymns are included.

one of my seminary professors (murray j. harris) was part of the translation team for the niv bible. he said that all the scholars/translators were against the red-letter edition of the niv. it was just a way for the bible-publishing companies to make more money. because masses of people felt like they needed to buy the red-letter edition. & it misled people into thinking that the words in red-letter were more-inspired & more-important than the rest of the bible.

"it's all about the benjamins"

gideon's new haircut

it was actually suhee who wanted me to give him a mohawk.