Becoming Santa Claus

Las Vegas. Much has changed since the last time I was here in 2000. Just 5 years and there seemed to be some noticeable differences. Nevada has been the No.1 state for population increases for many years whereas Arizona is No.2. In all, since 2000, Nevada has grown 20.8 percent, compared with Arizona's 15.8 percent (Arizona's population is now nearing 6 million people). That doesn't include the 37 million tourists cramming the Las Vegas strip every year, plus all the red-hot real-estate developments around which had made many people rich. Traffic was bad and the drivers reminded me of Malaysians. There are many shopping malls on the Strip and who needs another Chanel, Gucci or Tiffany's just a block away?

One of the most influential people who transformed the Las Vegas strip today is Steve Wynn. Who is he? Not like Donald Trump who is very famous, Steve Wynn is a low key real estate developer. He is the owner of the hotels Treasure Island, Mirage, Bellagio and the newest one Wynn. The Wynn hotel has a Ferrari and Maserati (lower end) showroom in front whereas the Bellagio was featured in the movie Ocean's 11 and it is my favorite hotel because of its beautiful posh interiors and its delightful waterworks show. The water danced to the Christmas music every 15 minutes and the performance of Handel's Messiah (the one with the famous Hallelujah, hallelujah) was spectacular with the waters shooting off to the sky with thunderous symphony.

One of the famous Las Vegas attractions is the food. There are many world class restaurants here with 5 star or 5 diamond ratings. Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Lagasse are a few world class chefs who operates their restaurants here and it cost around $75 to $3-digits for a 3 course meal. So did some research on the top buffets in Las Vegas and decided to have dinner at The Buffet at Bellagio which some voted as the #1. Whereas 5 years ago I went for the cheap buffets, this time I am going for the higher end... probably as taste buds grew older, they get more picky. For $45 (after tax and tips), I stuffed myself with all the king crab legs, kobe beef, foie gras, sushi, lamb ribs with mint apple jelly, wonderful desserts and other exotic dishes. According to the buffet statistics, it took 88 chefs to prepare all the food. On Christmas day, we went for the #2, the champagne brunch at the Carnival World buffet at the Rio hotel where it cost $30 (after tax and tips). This buffet had a lot of food choices compared to the Bellagio but the food doesn't sound as posh. Nevertheless was able to sip champagne with a plate full of crab legs which I never had the luxury of doing before in my life at this time of day. I do love all chocolates with hazelnuts (Ferrero Rocher, Baci's) and had been searching futilely for hazelnut icecream for a long time and they had hazelnut gelato. Yummy!

After awhile, all the crab legs and prawns doesn't taste too good anymore. They used to be my favorites and I feel like vomiting every time I think about them now. This is so sad - gluttony. It is kinda ironic that I am paying so much to eat and put myself closer to my grave. Having cholesterol on the higher side doesn't help either. The good thing is we had to walk a lot from one end to another and that burned a lot of our calories. Haha... I think I can become Santa Claus next Christmas with my growing belly. Some food for thought: With all the hotels combining all the excess food, I think it is possible to solve world hunger, but why poverty still exists? Perhaps the rich keeps on getting richer while the poor keeps on getting poorer.

Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men

First of all, to those who reads my blog... MERRY CHRISTMAS! Yeah, Christmas is sometimes a bit depressing for me. Why? Since I'm getting more Americanized or perhaps Westernized, I always don't know what to buy when Christmas approaches. This is true especially fwhen it comes to my wife and her family and this adds a lil bit more pressure. I do buy things for my wife throughout the year and what is so special about the Christmas gift? And my wife's family who is now my family is very fruitful and had multiplied tremendously... so I have to think of what presents to get for each and everyone of them. Not sure whether they like this or that... why can't they be chinese and I can just give them an angpow without thinking too much?

There are many efforts in the US now to take out the religiousness of Christmas and to make it a secular holiday. There were reports that some major stores are replacing the greeting "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" and even renaming the "Christmas tree" as the "Holiday tree". Talking about Christmas trees, my wife likes decorating for Christmas and I seem to think it is a waste of time, effort and money to buy a tree and other decorations since we don't have our own place yet. Ahhh... my inner Scrooge is manifesting now. These are some of the cultural clashes that we have. To add to my Christmas misery, malls are so packed with shoppers and most of the time, it is hard to find parking. And yes, I think that Christmas is now being too "commercialized". Haha... my wife hates this word when I mentioned it. :)

But Christmas isn't always that bad. I like the Christmas parties, Christmas songs and Christmas movies. For some people in America, Christmas season doesn't start until their Christmas movie "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is shown on tv. This cartoon classic was first shown in 1965 and it has been showing every year since. I have not really seen it before but I read that it has religious undertones in it which really perked my interest to watch it this year. It was funny and the jokes radiate even though it is now 40 years later. It was a movie which nearly didn't make it to the tv screen because television executives hated it from the start. It was criticized as being too religious—Linus quotes straight from the King James Bible (Luke 2:8-14). It was criticized for featuring contemporary jazz, an offbeat choice for a cartoon. It was criticized for not having a laugh track. It was criticized for using the voices of real children. So many criticisms but yet eventually it ignored all these negativity and became an unforgettable classic. How true this is in real life and this can teach us a valuable lesson to endure all criticisms to excel in what we believe in.

Anyway, I'm taking a vacation tomorrow to Las Vegas for the Christmas weekend. Hahaha... how ironic, celebrating Christmas in Sin City. So to end this blog, just wanna wish you again "have yourself a merry little Christmas", world peace (ala Miss Congeniality) and also be good to your neighbors. Here is one of the best scenes in A Charlie Brown Christmas...
Charlie Brown: [shouting in desperation] Isn't there anyone out there who can tell me what Christmas is all about?
Linus Van Pelt: Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you. Lights, please. [a spotlight shines on Linus] "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you this day is born in the City of Bethlehem, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men'". That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie brown.

I Can Only Imagine...

I have been counting down to the joint Mercy Me and Steven Curtis Chapman Christmas concert at the Glendale Arena where the Phoenix Coyote NHL ice hockey team normally plays. Finally Dec 11 arrived, we went there early to avoid the traffic and also look at the booths. There were the usual merchandise booths as well as the Christian radio stations giving away freebies. The concert started with a friendly banter between Bart Millard (lead singer of Mercy Me) and Steven Curtis Chapman. Most of the time, Bart teased Steven about his age and the Arizona weather - no white Christmas. Steven doesn't look too old, probably in his 40's and he is the most honored Christian singer with more than 40 #1 hits in Christian radio plus Grammys, Doves (Christian music awards) and other accolades. Then they played a short medley of hit songs that won't be sung in this concert like Word Of God Speak, Homesick (one of my faves), Dive, Livin' Out Loud. Awww... was kinda disappointed but it made sense that the 3 hour concert will not have time for all the hit songs and this is called a Christmas concert... and it should have Christmas songs! Bart joked that some of Steven's slow hit songs were during his parents time and then took over the first half of the show while Steven sang at the latter half. Then the techno fireplace and falling snow outside the window came on the LCD screens to give Arizonans a feel of what a white Christmas is and the show began...

There were a few touching moments in the concert. Steven sang a song called All I Really Want about kids who don't want the latest toy but a hope for a family. Towards the end of the song, a group of Phoenix adopted/foster children came onto the stage to sing the chorus and that was very tears inducing. Steven is a champion for adoption and he formed an organization called Shaohannah's Hope (named after his adopted daughter) to provide help to those who plan to adopt. He himself had adopted 3 girls from China and his message of giving hope to unfortunate children this Christmas spurred me and my wife to do something. Even though me and my wife are planning to have kids of our own, we are now considering adoption. We are taking the first steps towards foster care and adoption by applying for a license in Arizona. Adoption is expensive, it would cost $15k for a baby girl from China and about $10k for local American babies. Adopting Arizona's kids would be free and they will be slightly older. So now, we are dreaming of probably 3 kids of our own and 3 adopted ones. I can only imagine... that could be a lasting legacy I could leave in this world.

One of my favorite songs was Mercy Me's I Can Only Imagine. Whereas John Lennon imagined about no heaven and no religion, Mercy Me imagined about being in heaven and meeting Jesus. This song was inspired by Bart's dad who died of cancer when he was in his teens. He then wrote this song about loved ones who had passed away and why they would choose heaven instead of earth. Towards the end of the concert, he sang a new song, Joseph's Lullaby (and cleverly splicing it with I Can Only Imagine), about the love of Joseph for his son, Jesus, who is not his own flesh and blood. Seeing Jesus' tiny head and cradling his tiny body, wondering about the future of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords as Jesus lay soundly asleep, Joseph imagined what will it be like in heaven, "Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel? Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still? Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall? Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all? I can only imagine..."

Home

“Another aeroplane
Another sunny place
I’m lucky I know
But I wanna go home
Mmmm, I’ve got to go home

And I’m surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel alone
Oh, let me go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I’ve had my run
Baby, I’m done
I gotta go home
Let me go home
It will be all right
I’ll be home tonight
I’m coming back home” – excerpts from the song Home by Michael Buble

My music taste has been more adult contemporary these days. I do prefer the old fashioned mature skewing music from the likes of Michael Buble and Norah Jones instead of the manufactured pop sounds of today's younger artistes. Imagine my surprise when I saw Michael Buble's tv concert for the PBS tv channel last Sunday. (PBS is a public broadcasting channel supported by donations from the public and they air nice programs occasionally like concerts, theater, etc). Though some might argue that probably his career was due to his svengali David Foster (who also has Josh Groban under his wings as well as help produced hits for Celine Dion, Chicago, etc)... I do think that he is talented and has a good voice. During one of the donation breaks, a PBS broadcaster mentioned that he was discovered when David Foster attended a wedding in Canada and was impressed by this wedding singer. Haha... not just Adam Sandler's a good wedding singer. So David Foster gave him a contract and the rest they say is history. Sometimes we might just need one shot, one big break to succeed but unfortunately most of the time I am not that lucky. Arggghh, now I got my wife hooked on him and she thinks that he is cute.

Actually, I've been thinking about home. It has been more than a year since I've went back to Malaysia. Always wondering how my family is doing even though I do call back occasionally. As I might be there next February or March, I'm really looking forward to it and I do wonder has anything changed. Before that, I do hope to complete all my house stuffs before I can leave with peace of mind. Recently, I've discovered a South-east Asian restaurant called Oasian (which has Malaysian food) in Mesa, about 15 minutes drive from Chandler (where I am staying). It is owned by an Ipoh-born cook and now it has become my temporary fix when I miss Malaysian food. When I was in Folsom California, I had to drive 3 hours to San Jose to get Malaysian food and now I don't have to do that anymore now. Pictured here is roti canai and it cost $2.50. Kinda expensive for some cheap floor and dough.

I'm slowly trying everything from the menu. Here is the nasi lemak and it cost $7.50. I think it is ok and I find it not really special because it seems kinda simple to make. Hahaha, I remember last year I was bunking in with a good friend Mak and our nasi lemak was a disaster. Tried to blend all the chili to make the nasi lemak hot gravy but it was too spicy and in the end, I think we threw it all away. The ikan bilis on this nasi lemak is not bad though.

However my favorite is this curry mee. It is not too expensive at $6 and the bowl is huge. It has all the ingredients you can find in a Malaysian curry mee including the green beans, yellow mee, tofu, fish balls. However it is better because it has several big shrimps and it is very filling because of its big portion. Now my mouth is watering thinking about it as I write. This weekend I will try the prawn mee (or in Penang called the hokkien mee) and later on, the ipoh bean sprout chicken, kow low yook (tall man meat) rice, duck rice, fried noodles, etc. Perhaps home is not too far away after all.

A Gradual Change of Perspectives

I have realized that as I became older, I have not just become wiser but also more cynical, negative and passionless. I remembered the first few years as a working adult, friends would ask me, "How's life?" and my reply was always, "Life sucks". And life was indeed like that. Was it because of the circumstances around me which really suck or was it because of my internal perspective of life?

I finally decide to gradually change my perspective. This blog started with the title "The Mundane Life". My perspective was that life is boring and uninteresting. But when I looked around me and some of the things I wrote, there seems to be an abundance which I had not appreciated. The simple joys, the nitty bitty details and the people whom I love are just a small portion of it. I've realized that my perspective actually personifies my character. So I've decided to change the title of this blog to "The Abundant Life" to view life with positive lenses. Since Jesus said in John 10:10, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly". Hence I should start living my life like that.

Talking about lenses, there is a powerful NASA telescope called the Hubble which takes wonderful pictures of our galaxy. Many of the pictures can be found at www.hubblesite.org (at least some of the hard earned tax dollars are put to good use here). I became interested in astronomy after attending a Chris Tomlin/Matt Redman concert whereby my interest was piqued by the message from Louie Giglio, the founder of the Passion movement. He talked about the vastness of our universe and the awesomeness of our God. One of the more exotic galaxies shown was the Whirlpool Galaxy (or scientically called M51 or NGC 5194) which is 31 million light years away from our planet.

At the core of this Whirlpool Galaxy is this X structure. I find it pretty amazing when this picture is compared to the picture of the Cross above. Just like the lyrics of the song Indescribable:

"Indescribable, Uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name, You are amazing God. All powerful, Untameable, Awestruck we fall to our knees and we humbly proclaim, You are amazing God."