Life

So I was volunteering at Royal Family Kids Camp as a camp counselor for a week, and I've made it out alive. To bring everyone up to speed, it's a camp for neglected and abused children. From the training sessions, I was seriously preparing for the worse, but I actually ended up with pretty well behaved kids. I had two boys, both of them were ten years old. We shared a cabin with two other boys and two other counselors. Our group got along really well together. Compared to other kids camps geared towards troubled kids that I've done in Canada, this one was way easier.

My kids were pretty easy going. None of them decided to go running off, so I didn't have to chance any of them down. Lights out was at 9pm, and they were sound asleep by 9:30pm which was shocking. It helped that the older folks like the camp director shared a wall with our cabin. We told the kids that they'd be in a lot of trouble if they woke up the director. My kids also took showers every day which was great, because that's something I religiously enforce. In years past, I had kids who refused to shower even if they smelled horrible. My cabin was also always on time to events which is great, because that's how I operate. Hands down, I had the best cabin.

On the other hand, the girls at the camp were pretty crazy. There were a couple alpha females who were constantly fighting over popularity, who was prettier, or something. I personally witnessed a couple shouting matches between those campers. Based on that, I conclude that boys are way easier to deal with, women are complicated, lol.

I have to say, the nurses at the camp were a God-send. We had a number of kids come to camp with unresolved health care needs, and the nurse's station was fully stocked with everything they needed. One of my kids had a severe cough which wasn't treated properly, another had an infection due to improper hydration. We took them to the nurses every day for treatment, and by the end of it, they were patched up pretty good.

Each day consisted of the following (roughly):

• Wake up @ 7am, shower
• Breakfast
• Morning chapel
• Crafts
• Lunch
• Swimming
• Archery
• Rest Time
• Wood working
• Recreation Time
• Dinner
• Night time service w/ Camp Fire
• Prepare for bed at 8pm
• Lights out at 9pm

Wednesday was one of the highlights because they did a big birthday party for all the kids because some kids never have a proper birthday party. We had a pretty good BBQ lunch, with plenty of bacon. Dinner time they had cake and balloons for everyone. There was a bottleneck during the cake serving portion, so I stepped up and went into kitchen stadium mode and got everyone served in under 10 mins. That operations management course I took finally pays off. When the kids got back to their cabin, they had a bunch of birthday loot waiting for them. I have to say, it was some pretty good stuff they got Walkmans, CDs, DVDs, etc.

Thursday we took all the boys fishing at a lake near the Santa Cruz mountains. This one kid had an amazing time, he was this super shy kid who came to camp super sleepy because his parents never went to bed at reasonable times. The first time I met him at woodworking, he was falling asleep. We're out at this lake for about two hours, and no ones getting any fish, and I'm constantly dealing with kids and their tangled fishing lines. Ten minutes before we leave, the shy kid gets this little fish and reels it in. He was the happiest kid in the world. That was definitely a highlight of the week.

I did like how each cabin was assigned a dedicated photographer for some of the days. They took photos of the kids and assembled a photo album for each of them. Counselors then wrote notes of encouragement for the kids. I thought this was pretty special, and a great idea. Unfortunately personal cameras were banned as a precaution to protect the kids, so I have no photos of the camp to post on Flickr

I think the most surreal moment was on the last day, when we put all the kids on a bus to send them home. All the counselors and staff had all their equipment and we were leaving the camp, walking across a bridge, and our job was finished. For some reason it reminded me of the end of the movie, Black Hawk Down, where the tired soldiers had to exit their battle zone by foot after fighting for days.

After I came back, people asked what I missed most while at camp. I have to say I missed having an adult conversation that lasted for more than 2 minutes. When you're hanging around kids 24/7, it's pretty hard to have a serious conversation. Second question I get asked the most was, what was the hardest thing about camp. I have to say needing to be 'on' all the time because you have to be there for the kids even if you're tired or don't feel like it. There's not really alone time, and I'm definitely someone who cherishes 'me' time after being around people for a long time.

In either case, mission accomplished. I'm happy that I did this, and I proved to myself that I'm not getting to old or busy for this kind of thing. It reminded myself, this is why we fight for things we fight for.

Thanks for everyone's prayers and words of encouragement.

This year, I've been striving to try to restore things in my life that I used to do before I moved to California. One of those things I used to do was volunteer for kids camp in the summer. Well, this year, my church had a dire need for male camp counselors for their summer kids camp, Royal Family Kids Camp, which is geared towards foster kids. I answered the call, and now I find myself packing and getting ready to go to camp for a week, starting this Sunday, and coming back on Friday.

I'm pretty surprised by the ratios that they have at this camp. I'm used to watching five kids from the ages of 7-12 year old while at camp. At this camp, you only have to watch two kids, and you have an assistant with your cabin. It's mostly due to the fact that these kids are abused and neglected children which can be a handful.

I've been checking out the camp facility's activities, and they're going to have

• Swimming
• Rock climbing walls
• Fishing
• Hiking
• Archery
• Zip Line
• Mole Hole Slide
• etc

I'm personally looking forward to rock climbing and archery the most.

I've been joking that this is technically my first overseas missions trip. It's not your run of the mill third world country that tends to dominate missions trip destinations. I guess I could make it sound like one though. The people of California have been devastated by a financial tsunami in 2008, leaving many counties with double digit unemployment. The people have been suffering from a tyrannical socialist dictator who is bent on destroying the country.

This week, pray for me that I have extra extra patience with the kids. I have already prepared a reward for myself at the end of the finish line. I promised myself, since I'll be eating kiddie food for an entire week, when I come back from camp, I'll treat myself to a nice grown-up dinner, where there's no screaming kids around.

See you all in a week. I'm not going to have much computer access. Sorry, there also won't be any photos from camp due to security concerns for the children.

This is my summer mission.

So the latest news with me is that I joined my church's hockey league, and I'm helping teach and organize the league. Its been at least three years since I've last played. I used to do floor hockey at my home church in Victoria as well for a couple years.

The current league plays on a tennis court which one of the families of the church privately owns. We practice twice a week, and we play a game every Saturday. We're one week away from the team captains drafting their teams. I've been busy training noobies in the fundamentals of hockey. I'd like to give a special thanks to Doug and Adam from North Douglas Church, who taught me everything about floor hockey.

Two weeks ago, I picked up all my hockey gear. I've got shin guards, knee pads, elbow pads, and a nice light composite hockey stick. I'm really digging this hockey stick though, it's pretty stiff and responsive. The light weight of the stick allows me to get off shots quicker. I'm also hoping it lasts longer than a wooden stick.


The position I seem to do well right now is the offensive defencemen role. My defense has been described as "squirrly" and "clean". We'll see where the team captain puts me on the team though.

As one of the organizers of the league, I'm putting together an official order of service. Every game will start with the following:

• All players assemble at the center for prayer.
• Singing of the Canadian National Anthem.
• Singing of the American National Anthem.
• League Commissioner will declare the beginning of hostilities. Game begins.

They've put up an American flag on the hockey court, so I'm countering by bringing in a Canadian flag today. It's also cool that there's another Canadian playing in the league as well.

In either case, I'm off to a hockey scrimmage to represent the good folks of Canada.

I'm a tad late, but better late than never I guess. I just finished putting together a collection of 100 photos from 2009 that highlights the year for me. I noticed an inordinate number of food photos in the collection; I think my friends are right, I've become a foodie.

Please enjoy the pictures and the accompanied music (hit play on both widgets).

After more than two years without a car, I finally pulled the trigger last October and bought a car. It took me a while to finally build up enough credit and cash for a decent down payment. When I first started my research, I was looking at entry level cars such as a used Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla, but I wasn't too comfortable with the high mileages these cars had in my price range.

By August 2009, my circumstances changed a bit and I rationalized moving up from entry level cars to a little better. I generally dislike buying something, and having to upgrade it a year or two later. I planned to keep my car for at least five years, so that changed the equation a bit. With that time frame, hybrid vehicles started making sense because the gas you save from them will payoff the premium you pay up front for them. Hybrids are also a lot cheaper in California than in Victoria, so it seemed like a really good price as well. The geek in me also enjoys all the technology that they pack into hybrids; I have a much easier time understanding electronics in a car than its mechanical parts.

I had narrowed down my choices to a Mazda 3, Chevy Camaro, Honda Civic Hybrid, Toyota Camry Hybrid, and Nissan Altima Hybrid. The Camaro was the first to get dropped off my list because an American muscle car just doesn't suit me, it's way too flashy and I don't like coupes. I will admit it's a sweet ride though. The Mazda 3 was the next to get dropped from the list because at this point, I had my heart settled on a hybrid. If I wasn't after a hybrid, the Mazda 3 would be a worthy contender because the price was very reasonable, it came with a ton of features by default, and it's fuel efficiency was quite good.

You'll probably notice that the Toyota Prius is missing from the shortlist. I find the shape of the Prius quite ugly, and I really don't like the social connotations around owning a Prius. If you want an explanation, see this South Park clip entitled, "Smug Alert." Ideally, I wanted a hybrid car that looked like a normal car, and had a little power to it (might be a contradiction). In hindsight, it was also a good idea that I didn't go with Toyota since they're having quite a number of very severe problems with their breaks/accelerators which has caused the Camry and Prius to be recalled.

This was the shootout:

Car	Gas Engine + Electric Engine	Fuel Economy (city/hwy)	0-60mph	Hybrid Tax Credit	Dealer Incentives
Honda Civic Hybrid	110HP + 20HP = 130HP	40/45mpg	13.5s	$0	$0
Toyota Camry Hybrid	147HP + 40HP = 187HP	33/34mpg	8.2s	$0	$0
Nissan Altima Hybrid	158HP + 40HP = 198HP	35/33mpg	7.6s	$2350	$4500

The clear winner in the shootout was the Nissan Altima Hybrid due to the performance, tax incentives, and dealer incentives. It was cheaper for me to buy a new one than a used one. In addition, for the 2009 tax year, the stimulus package allowed me to deduct sales tax and registration fees for new vehicle purchases.

I went down to the dealership to do a test drive of the vehicle, and it was a pretty cool experience because it was the first time I had driven a hybrid. If you're driving steady, below 40mph (~64km/h), you can run purely on electric power. The car is practically silent when it's on electric. The car also had a continuous variable transmission (CVT) drive which meant you could accelerate the vehicle without feeling any shifts in the gears because there are no discrete gears. The car also had regenerative breaks which converts the car's kinetic energy to electric energy (to recharge the batteries) when you tap on the breaks. The car's range is also fairly impressive, I can drive 560miles (~900km) before having to fill up on gas. I fill up on gas once every 2.5 weeks.

There were a couple of cons about the Nissan Altima Hybrid though. First, the trunk is extremely small because part of the space is taken up by its battery pack. The other major disadvantage was that the car's options were very expensive because you had to buy them in bundles. Fortunately for me, I was more than happy with the base model, but if someone wanted to have GPS and leather seats, it got quite expensive.

The timing of my car purchase worked out really well. It was during their year end clearance sale, and they were trying to get rid of all of their 2009 models. Thankfully, the last Altima Hybrid on the lot was exactly the model and colour that I wanted. Next was the price, I had six Nissan dealerships competing against each other, and I managed to get the car at well below invoice price. I did all my negotiations via email, so by the time I walked into the dealership, it was a very easy and straight forward process since we had already agreed on a price. Nissan was also able to access my Canadian credit history from Nissan Canada, so that made the car loan possible.

Overall, it was a pretty good learning experience. I've discovered I'm a pretty good negotiator. Since my car purchase, I've helped negotiate car deals for two other friends.

Attached below is the picture of my car. I've dubbed it the Blackbird because it's a really stealthy car. Under 40mph, it doesn't make a lot of noise, and I can easily sneak up on unsuspecting pedestrians.


There's a funny story with this car during my road test for a California driver's license:

Instructor: Sir, please start your car.
Chan: Yeah, it's already started.
Instructor: No, I mean I want you to start the ignition of your car.
Chan: Yeah, the car's on, it's a hybrid. It's silent when we're idle.
Instructor: ?!?
Instructor: Oh wow, what does this button do?

For the rest of the ride he was just asking questions about the car instead of actually paying attention to the road test. Consequently, I only had three demerits .

Last funny story about the car. When I wrote my mom that I had purchased a new car, her response was, "remember to keep your car clean, son. Girls like clean cars." I'll have to keep that in mind.

Overall, I'm quite pleased. This is quite a step up from my last car which was a standard hungry grad student beater car. My last car was a Chevy with a ridiculous V6 engine which ate gas, it got 18/26mpg.

I've been thinking a lot about 2010, and the challenges, surprises, and joys that the this new year shall bring. But before I go over 2010, it's important to look back at 2009. If I had to summarize 2009 in a couple of words, I would probably choose uncertainty and defense. I recall at the beginning of that year, no one knew precisely how bad the recession was going to be; the chance of another great depression was still on the table. I know plenty of good people who were severely impacted by job loss and financial chaos.

At work there was another round of layoffs which added to the uncertainty. Job loss in my case would be fairly catastrophic since the work visa I'm on doesn't allow me to stay in the country if that were to happen; furthermore, my green card application was completely frozen because my company did a large layoff.

The strategic position I took in 2009 was defense. Hold the line and defend what you had. I completely stopped even looking at my investments in the stock market as there was a ton of damage; at the same time I didn't bother selling anything because I wasn't going to participate in panic selling. Instead I was just stockpiling cash so that I could live and fight another day when things started turning around.

2009 indeed presented a lot of challenges and there were plenty of tests of character. There were plenty of situations where doing the right thing carried a high cost with it. The quote that kept coming to mind was, "the right thing to do and the easy thing to do is rarely the same thing."

After much deliberation, the theme for 2010 will be empire building. Much of the first two years living in California, I really didn't know how long I would last out here. For those who've seen my apartment, you'll know that it looks like I could just pack up and leave on a whim. A finance guy doing paper work for me said it best when he said, "you're like a ghost, it's as if you don't exist." This year I am dropping some anchors in California because I've come too far to withdraw now. This is the year where hopefully a lot of long term investments start paying off. This is the year where I hopefully catch up to peers.

One of the more recent developments is that I purchased a car after saving for one quite some time (been car-less for a long time). You ask why? Canadian credit history counts for nothing in the US, so my credit score is fairly crappy in the US. This meant a significant down payment was required. In either case, added mobility and independence is going to save a lot of time. (Blog post later about the car).

Another cornerstone of empire building is obviously finances. This year I hope to aggressively increase my credit score in the US as I treat that as a badge of honour. I did take out a car loan as a way to build up that credit score (which is something I thought I never would do, since I'm no fan of debt). I hope to greatly reduce the car loan debt this year as well since the interest rate is high, but I will leave a little around for credit score purposes. The other goal for this year is to get rid of my secured credit card and get a real credit card.

Investment wise I am planning on re-entering the stock market. The goal for this year is to properly diversify my holdings and reduce my risk exposure. I'm not as young and reckless as I once was anymore, so no more crazy speculative stocks. I have important things to save for.

On the work front, I also have high expectations for 2010. I continue loving my work, and I hope I continue to grow momentum this year.

I hope to increase my cooking abilities this year as well. I do have a number of folks calling me Chef Chan these days. I do intend to upgrade some of my kitchen equipment. The majority of my equipment is entry level gear from IKEA. The first thing I wanted to upgrade was my knives; one of my good friends bought be a set of German knives for Christmas. Second item is a really good cutting board. Third on the list are rectangular plank dishes for serving (they look really cool). I've noticed from my cooking photos that I've been doing a lot of meat dishes, so I think it's time to diversify into seafood. At my church in San Jose, I have started joining a monthly cooking small group.

In terms of church, I have been sitting on the side lines for a while now, taking a break and just sitting in services, rejuvenating and just enjoying church. I've been keeping a fairly low profile, and most people don't know that they have a sound technician in their midst (they're always in high demand). Things will change this year, it's time to switch back to active service in the ministry.

Of course 2010 will have its share of challenges and roadblocks. Of course some of my best laid plans that I wish to pursue are futile unless certain conditions that I deem impossible, changes. With that said, one of my friends gave me this great quote. "When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God." With that in mind, I'll keep the hope alive.

Here's to 2010. Faster. Better. Stronger.

Friends, family, countrymen! I shall be migrating North for the winter, in time for Christmas. I fly out of Silicon Valley on December 18th, and I'll be staying in Victoria for an extended period again this year. Drop me a line if anyone wants to meet up while I'm making my annual appearance. Reservations are first come first serve .

See you all then.