WorthMoreThanRubies

romantic

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:24:28 -0700

i can think of so many things to do.

too bad they are just thoughts.

predictable.

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 23:31:44 -0700

distant.

yea...

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 22:45:27 -0700

pathetic.

6

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:58:47 -0700

is it a big deal?

burnt. now, i have awoken. kari-shma: Flames travel along a...

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:09:33 -0700

burnt.

now, i have awoken.

kari-shma:

Flames travel along a forest floor as the parched grass and trees burn near a suburb of Voronezh on Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel) | via: Big Picture: Russian Wildfires

simon koko. “there goes the downpour…there’s...

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 01:43:00 -0700

simon koko.

“there goes the downpour…there’s really no way to reach me. are [you] already gone?

so this is your maverick,

so this is VIENNA” -the fray.

black-and-white:

Rain walk (by sifat - e - mohammad)

black-and-white: MODELS.com » The Reminder I got to find...

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:00:00 -0700

black-and-white:

MODELS.com » The Reminder

I got to find my place, I wanna hear my sound.

Don’t care about all the pain in front of me,

Because I am trying to be Happy, yea! :)

quote-book: via: Lightscameraclick so it’s dawned upon...

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:12:28 -0700

quote-book:

via: Lightscameraclick

so it’s dawned upon me, it’s THAT time. time to make the most out of the time that is left, time to prepare to say goodbye, time to move on…THANK YOU though!

ewwww

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:14:00 -0700

old blog posts are quite distraught….

yea, i can definitely say that was sooo last year.

2010= no more eww. more of eeeeek!

i am done done done. 1 more quarter to go and imma jet!

get ready for gbye!

(apparently, i was good at that last year. hahah)

Day 41/365: Merry Christmas, Flickrites! (via { karen }) food...

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:56:00 -0800

Day 41/365: Merry Christmas, Flickrites! (via { karen })

food is love.

i made food, i made love.

i gave you the food, i gave you the love.

:) finals/christmas care food/love packages!

quote-book: (via kari-shma) farrrr from unhappy! :) it’s...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:05:10 -0800

quote-book:

(via kari-shma)

farrrr from unhappy! :)

it’s all fun! wheee. and nothing special so far.

gyhc! yeayuh.

black-and-white: (via lovemidori) i don’t think...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:12:10 -0800

black-and-white:

(via lovemidori)

i don’t think i’ve ever had a case of the flu this bad…to the point of being bed-ridden.

Thank GOD for the people in my life. their love for me has been felt, appreciated, and truly treasured. :)

If image really is everything, why would Andre Agassi admit in...

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:31:00 -0700

If image really is everything, why would Andre Agassi admit in his new book that he used crystal meth? Not once but dozens of times? And why would he admit he lied about it to the Association of Tennis Professionals?

Why would a son admit how much he feared his Iranian father — feared him and hated him since the age of 7? And why — why! — would a man admit he wore perhaps the world’s only Mohawk toupee?

Why? Because this isn’t just any book.

This is Agassi’s mea culpa — “Open” (from Knopf, written with Pulitzer Prize winner J.R. Moehringer) — and from the beginning, he and Moehringer set out to write the most revealing, literate and toes-stompingly honest sports autobiography in history. From the parts I’ve been allowed to read, they might have done it.

“I just tell people, this book is honest,” says Agassi, who worked with Moehringer for a full year, meeting nearly daily at the Las Vegas house Agassi once lived in with Brooke Shields. “It lives up to the title. It’s my life, for better or worse. Get ready, buckle up, and keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times.”

“Open” is the story of a flawed man who sees everybody’s imperfections, but none more than his own. It’s the tale of a man who knows how low he sunk if only because of the grand view he has now.

Agassi’s early life was not his, never his, not from the beginning, not from the time his Olympic boxer father built a backyard prison especially for him, a tennis court he was figuratively chained to day after day, while his father’s homemade ball machine — the dragon, Agassi called it — ceaselessly spit out balls faster, harder, forever.

Agassi bucked against tennis like a horse with a two-sizes-too-small bit. But he could not escape it. And so his life became a kind of lie, from his shoelace groundstrokes to his Mohawk, a hairpiece that once came apart in the shower before the French Open. The day was saved by bobby pins.

Your own life is hard enough. Living somebody else’s life for them weighs on a man like a stone backpack. By 1997 — even after winning an Olympic gold medal in 1996 — Agassi was down, depressed and stuck playing a game he didn’t love. He was physically wrecked (wrist) and emotionally spent. He was with the wrong woman — Shields — and knew it.

He’d sunk to No. 141 in the world. He recalls that he was sitting at home when his assistant, Slim, introduced him to one of the most addictive substances known to man:

Slim says, You want to get high with me?

On what?

Gack.

What the hell’s gack?

Crystal meth.

Why do they call it gack?

Because that’s the sound you make when you’re high. Make you feel like Superman, dude.

As if they’re coming out of someone else’s mouth, I hear these words: You know what? F*** it. Yeah. Let’s get high.

Agassi pulled himself out of the French Open that year and hardly practiced for Wimbledon. That fall, it got worse. The ATP informed him at the end of 1997 that he’d flunked a drug test. He would likely be looking at a three-month suspension. He would probably lose all his endorsements and most of his fans.

What to do? Keep lying.

Agassi admits he wrote a letter to the ATP saying Slim accidentally “spiked” his drink, that it was not his fault. The ATP dropped the flunked test, with no discipline for Agassi. He admits in the book he felt “ashamed.”

It was the lowest point in a life that would suddenly begin to soar. You can condemn Agassi all you want for the crystal meth — and he’d deserve it — but remember, Agassi dropped the habit soon after. Then, in 1998, he made the biggest one-year jump into the Top 10 in the history of the ATP Rankings, going from his year-end 122 to No. 6. He’d win five of his eight major titles after finding the bottom.

They call Agassi the greatest returner in history. They aren’t kidding.

We all know what became of the showy, glitzy kid with all that fake hair and real talent. He shaved his hair off. He started being real. He learned to love tennis, and tennis learned to love him. The kid who never got past the ninth grade in school wound up funding and running the prestigious Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas. The man who couldn’t find the right woman finally married the one everybody wanted — tennis goddess Steffi Graf. And the son who hated his father learned to love him and his own two kids.

Why is Agassi so scorchingly honest in these excerpts? Maybe because he once lived enough lies for five men. Or maybe because, as an educator, he’s heard the truth can set him free.

But hopefully, by the time you close “Open,” you’ll know that this book is about more than the wrong turns he took. It’s about how that broken road led him straight to the good man he is now.

via espn.com

»>WOW. i read the above and was moved. but was it a false sense of awe and hope? Agassi’s “coming open and clean” story would have been SO glorious and SO amazing IF only the ending was God-glorifying. How AWESOME would his book and “testimony” be IF he was truly saved by THE TRUTH, THE WAY, THE LIFE= JESUS CHRIST.

If only that broken road led him straight to Christ, then he would be the most legitimate “good” man, athlete, celebrity, and role model ever!

now, my expression is like agassi’s. my heart goes out not just for him, but for THE MANY who are unbelieving.

it’s time to plead and beg for mercy.

kari-shma: pancakes. (via Renata Damasio) [breakfast with the...

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:48:00 -0700

kari-shma:

pancakes. (via Renata Damasio)

[breakfast with the sis.]

talk about unrest. i kept on waking up every hour last night.

somehow in my unrest during my sleep, i had a dream that today’s breakfast would be a good time for my sister and me to fellowship AND that something INTENSE would also happen, like out of the blue….

i woke up with anxiety. i felt like something important was going to happen.

and IT did.

glad as i am, my anxiety was foolish because it did not concern my sister. In fact, THANK GOD!

but now as i sit here, to process the food in my stomach and to process in my mind and heart what went on earlier, i can’t help but turn to God’s Word to console my weary heart.

Psalm 90:4-12 (New Living Translation)

⁴ For you, a thousand years are as a passing day,
as brief as a few night hours.
⁵ You sweep people away like dreams that disappear.
They are like grass that springs up in the morning.
⁶ In the morning it blooms and flourishes,
but by evening it is dry and withered.
⁷ We wither beneath your anger;
we are overwhelmed by your fury.
⁸ You spread out our sins before you—
our secret sins—and you see them all.
⁹ We live our lives beneath your wrath,
ending our years with a groan.

¹⁰ Seventy years are given to us!
Some even live to eighty.
But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble;
soon they disappear, and we fly away.
¹¹ Who can comprehend the power of your anger?
Your wrath is as awesome as the fear you deserve.
¹² Teach us to realize the brevity of life,
so that we may grow in wisdom.

»sometimes i want to hit rewind and restart and live life differently.

it was great and it is great to know you.

but on days like this, the past becomes the present.

but on days like this, sometimes i forget to forget you.

but i know what i have to do.

BYE.

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:42:04 -0700

i shall not…err…don’t give a hoot.

starting NOW.

new-old yiruma music!! omgee i wish this was in english...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:19:56 -0700

new-old yiruma music!!

omgee i wish this was in english too.

loving it.

river flows in you. vocal by ruvin.

new yiruma music!! = “my heart sent to you” 2:37 to...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:18:00 -0700

new yiruma music!! = “my heart sent to you”

2:37 to end is pretty ethereal. my fave part.

black-and-white: sliceoflife: Cloud Formations am i...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:33:01 -0700

black-and-white:

sliceoflife:

Cloud Formations

am i clouded?

Father, I stand in awe of your infinite knowledge and wisdom. I am filled with questions. But you are filled with answers. There are no mysteries for you. There are no facts you do not know, no problems you cannot solve, no events you cannot explain, no hypocrisy through which you do not see.

Oh grant me to see and feel that your all knowing mind, together with your power and grace, makes you utterly trustworthy. Your counsel takes EVERYTHING into account, including the PAST and the FUTURE. Your good plan will never be altered owing to unforeseen events.

I CAN COUNT ON YOU.

Grant me your wisdom in the measure I can bear.

In Jesus’ name, AMEN.

playing with my heart...

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:17:00 -0700

wednesday, oct 7th, 2009 8:45am.

She rushes out the apartment, slams the door shut behind her as she jets for the elevator. She takes the elevator down with much anticipation because she has a 9 am discussion class in LaKretz. She takes the elevator down to the lobby level and right when the elevator door opens, she bee-lines straight towards the apartment garage to the very familiar spot where she parks her faithful and trusty mountain bike. But lo and behold! What an unfamiliar and startling sight! The turquoise, white-flowered, mountain bike was nowhere to be found!

She stops dead in her tracks to try and recollect the memory of when she last used the bike. And she dumbfoundedly moved toward the repulsively empty spot and to her dismay she found the remnants of an all-too-familiar bike lock that can no longer be used. What a whirlwind of emotions! In that moment, just like the bike lock, her heart was cut and broken into pieces. But since time was fleeting, all she could do was painstakingly walk briskly away because she was now late to class. The full reality of having no other fast mode of transportation other than the basic mode of walking, made her even more anxious about the time and less concerned about the death of her lock and the loss of her faithful friend.

One week passed by. It took one week for this girl to be at peace with the death of her friend. It took one week for this girl to relay the dreadful news to her parents. It took one week to forget and put her faithful friend to rest while she got a better and newer friend!

Though it has been one week…this girl spontaneously and idly lingered back to that familiar spot hoping to find her old faithful friend resting comfortably and safely. of course, her expectations were low because she thought and chuckled to herself, “who would be dumb enough to park a stolen bike in the very same spot?!”

BUT, lo and behold! there it was. once lost but now found? could it be? could the bike parked in that familiar spot be a figment of her imagination?! after much scrutiny…. FREAK, that bike is mine! different seat, different handle bars, and different lock. BUT what the heck!! how dare HE OR SHE park my old bike in the same spot?! HOW could they taunt me?!! as if parting with my old bike was easy! it was just as hard to see what was once mine, which was taken without my knowledge or approval, is now out of my grasp!! oh the thoughts of revenge! should i stake out this thief?!

ahhh…what to do..?!! several hours have passed. and i am at the point where i am sick and tired and over it all. i already emotionally parted with my bike last week and i already got a new one… should i re-open a closed chapter? should i un-plaster an old wound?

just S T O P playing with my heart. (double entendre.)

but in everything, seriously, PRAISE the LORD. i am literally LOL-ing. hhahahah.

Downtown Minneapolis from I-35W (via CarbonSilver...

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:13:00 -0700

Downtown Minneapolis from I-35W (via CarbonSilver (gbenz))

“In a fallen world there is a powerful pressure to constrict your life to the shape and size of your life.

There is a compelling tendency to forget who you are and what you are made for.

There is a tendency to be short-sighted, myopic, and easily distracted.

There is a tendency to settle for less when you have been created for more.

There is something expansive, glorious, and eternal that is meant to give direction to everything you do.

And when you lose sight of it, you have effectively denied your own humanity…”

-Paul Tripp, “A Quest for More.”

»note to self: don’t be a FOOL, don’t lose sight of the prize, press on’, FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT against worldliness!!!

WorthMoreThanRubies

romantic

predictable.

yea...

6

burnt. now, i have awoken. kari-shma: Flames travel along a...

simon koko. “there goes the downpour…there’s...

black-and-white: MODELS.com » The Reminder I got to find...

quote-book: via: Lightscameraclick so it’s dawned upon...

ewwww

Day 41/365: Merry Christmas, Flickrites! (via { karen }) food...

quote-book: (via kari-shma) farrrr from unhappy! :) it’s...

black-and-white: (via lovemidori) i don’t think...

If image really is everything, why would Andre Agassi admit in...

kari-shma: pancakes. (via Renata Damasio) [breakfast with the...

Psalm 90:4-12 (New Living Translation)

© adrifil i shall not…err…don’t give a...

new-old yiruma music!! omgee i wish this was in english...

new yiruma music!! = “my heart sent to you” 2:37 to...

black-and-white: sliceoflife: Cloud Formations am i...

playing with my heart...

Downtown Minneapolis from I-35W (via CarbonSilver...