Recently a really good friend of mine gave me this amazing stereo system. His wife was complaining about it just taking up a lot of space. This is a Kenwood Amp (KA-501) and a Radio Receiver (KT-815). He even decided to give me the beautiful Kenwood case that was holding the equipment. My friend told me that the radio receiver was broken and that it was in need of repair. Well it turns out that it was the amp that needed repair and not the tuner. Thankfully I was able to clean out the amp and I replaced the fuses. I also prayed a lot! A LOT! lol I plugged it all up and it works! This really is a beautiful piece of equipment and I have read a lot of good reviews online about it. The system also had a matching turn table but my friend was wanting to keep it. I was a little disappointed but still very grateful he gave me the rest of the system. The system has a beautiful brushed aluminum front panel and it is very solid. My friend told me he bought this stereo system back in 1980 while he was stationed in Japan. He bought the system for $500, which was a lot of money back in 1980 (in fact it still is a lot of money :P). Anyways I am in search for some speakers because that is another thing he did not want to depart with. Which is really okay. I am looking for floor speakers that are a light brown because I want them to match the cabinet the system is in. The second thing I am looking for is a really nice antenna for my receiver. And lastly I am looking for an excellent CD player for it. I would like the CD player to have the same kind of brushed metal front panel but it is not necessary I guess. Any recommendations? Oh and I am a college student with a tight budget! 😛 lol Thanks everyone and I am looking forward to hearing all of your recommendations! I am really excited about this system!
Bringing Back the 80s
•March 10, 2010 • 4 CommentsGrab Ahold of His Mercy and Grace
•February 28, 2010 • Leave a CommentI am supposed to be finishing a very important paper right now for my English class but I have been really wanting to write this blog entry for about a week now. This event that I witnessed really broke my heart and it takes a lot of unfortunate events to tear up my eyes. But this situation really did make me teary eyed.
This story happened about a week ago and it still has stuck with me. I was checking my post office box here in my hometown and as I was walking into the downtown post office I witness a middle age man that was trembling as he was walking. His whole body was shaking noticeably even from afar. I had seen this man before and I had even spoken to him a while back. He is a homeless man and his name is Dennis Robinson. Dennis has suffered an addiction for a long time and he would often ask me for money so he could get his fix.
Well as I am leaving the post office I walk right by him as he is sitting down on the sidewalk. His whole body is trembling and his eyes are blood shot. Now I am not telling you this next part because I want you all to think highly of me. I do not deserve praise or admiration. But I felt as though God told me to grab him a bite to eat. So I drove to the nearest fast food chain and bought him some food and a cup of water. Well I drove back to the downtown post office and gave him the meal.
I am merely telling this part because this is where it began to hit me. Dennis with his hands shaken violently takes the bag and cup of water. I began to talk with him and pray for him. As I was doing so, Dennis took the lid off of the water and tried to drink the water. His hands were shaking so badly that he spilled probably a fourth of his water. This is where my heart began to break and I could see what a terrible withdrawal this man was going through.
Now if I could of left out the buying the food part of the story I would of, but then the key part that hit me would not have made sense. I have lately been thinking of what kind of addictions or idols do I have set up in my life. You know I had a friend of mine today say that a lot of Christians today are acting like their slaves to sin when they supposedly have Christ in their hearts. I think I suffer through this every once in awhile myself. If I may be frank and honest with you all for a moment. I have a problem with lust (both sexually and for things). I think this is a tough area for most men and I have to consecrate myself daily to avoid falling into temptation. We all have some kind of temptation that we struggle with, but we have to repent and turn away from that sin to the best of our abilities. Sometimes it is easier said than done, but if you have Christ as your Savior then we are free! The battle is already half fought. So in the spiritual sense we do not need to be like this homeless man and desire the things of this world to the point of destruction.
Now in closing. Please be praying for Dennis Robinson. We all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God and in God’s eyes sin is sin. So we really are no better than Dennis. The only difference is that we have recognized God’s mercy.
I pray God You will break off the chains that Dennis is bounded by and that You will send people in his path that will uplift him, minister to him and help give him another chance. But not only for Dennis but that You God will equipped us to reach those people that You have called us to reach. Thank you God for Your mercy and help me to realise more and more each day that I am free by Your blood.
它們在想什麼？
•February 13, 2010 • 1 CommentFor those that cannot read Chinese allow me to translate this for you, what were they thinking? This blog entry is about a recent movie that I found on Amazon and bought. Fortunately it was only eight dollars, but still I think I would of been better off using that eight dollars for a better movie! lol The movie is “Dating A Vampire” or “爱上尸新娘 “. Now some of you might be wondering, well why did you not check out some reviews before buying the movie? Well I checked probably a well known site for Hong Hong film lovers called lovehkfilm.com. I almost always refer to this website even though I often do not agree with some of the reviews. Even though I do not agree with a lot of the reviews, I still refer to them just because they have such a large database of Hong Kong movies. Well this movie I would definitely have to agree with them for being terrible.
The movie I felt like had some potential but as the movie drew closer to the end, it began to fall apart. Two college students decide to stay in one of their relatives apartment that is going to be torn down at the end of the month. Most of all the other residents have left and some even know about the “evil” that is going on in the apartment complex. Alex Fong and Sammy Leung pay no mind to the warning and decide to stay. Well as the story progresses Alex Fong falls in love with one of the vampires that is inhabiting the soon to be destroyed apartment complex.
The end of the movie began to get a little ridiculous and the special effects that were used when a vampire was killed was absolutely terrible. The original version of the Blob had better special effects. So I was somewhat pleased with the movie until about the last twenty minutes.
I am desperately trying to find a good scary Hong Kong movie. The only movie that I found that was good was “The Vampire Who Admires Me”. This movie was not at all scary but it was pretty funny. But I would like a scary one! Any recommendations?
Is It Too Late For Symbian?
•February 5, 2010 • 1 CommentI have been playing around with Mobile Phones a lot lately. But I have been playing around with Nokia phones for a lot longer. My first phone was a Nokia phone and I have had three Nokia phones since 2000. So Symbian is really special to me and I think it is a very solid mobile phone operating system. The only problem is the Apple iPhone OS as well as the Google Android mobile operating systems have really surpassed Nokia’s Symbian OS. For the last couple of years Symbian has been talking about releasing their code into the Open Source community. Well they have finally released all of the code as Open Source!
Now I feel as though this is really important for Nokia, but I feel as though it might be a little too late. But if anyone can revitalize the Symbian OS I think it would be the Open Source Community. I was actually a little worried about S60 because Nokia had released a new phone distro called Maemo. The Maemo OS seemed like it was a new attempt for Nokia to look at the mobile phone market and kick Symbian to the curb.
I guess we can only wait and see. But the real question I am wondering is what does this mean for my old Nokia N95?
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/02/symbian-operating-system-now-open-source-and-free/
Moo?! Oh It’s An Easter Egg! :
•January 31, 2010 • 1 Comment
Btw this wallpaper is from 海派甜心! Rainie is so cute! Even though she is covered up 😦
Oh P.S. If you know any other Easter Eggs in Ubuntu please leave a comment. I would be interested to see some more! Thanks everyone!
My Chinese Journal
•January 30, 2010 • Leave a CommentHi everyone! Well I think most of you all that are consistant readers here on my blog know that I am learning Mandarin Chinese! Well I have decided to start a personal little blog on Blogger that I will be writing in Chinese. I still have a long way to go but I will be trying to write something in it every day, a few sentences. So if you speak Chinese I would like to encourage you in helping me! 🙂 If you see some incorrect grammar or a misused word, please help correct me. I really want to learn. Thank you so much! The URL is http://branhowjournal.blogspot.com/
Acer Aspire Unboxing
•January 29, 2010 • 1 Comment
Well I am finally getting around to uploading this video. I am really enjoying my Acer Aspire. I am posting a link at the end of this post to Best Buy, which is where I bought mine. I sold my MSI Wind U100 *tear* so I could purchase this nettop box. It is running Ubuntu 9.10 beautifully and I have installed all the additional resources I needed. I did purchase another gig stick because I noticed playing back higher quality video was a little lagging even with the Ion chipset. But this little computer can support up to 4 gigabytes of RAM. I was highly impressed. Installing the RAM is almost as easy as installing it on a laptop. The hard drive space is also lacking (160 gigabytes) but I just attached a portable 250 gigabyte USB drive I had lying around. So anyways I hope you enjoy the unboxing! Thanks for watching.
Minicards Anyone?
•January 18, 2010 • 1 Comment
Well I have been looking for a place to get some business cards printed. Actually for what I want them for it would be more of a call card (name, mobile number, email and blog). I heard someone recommend moo.com. They said the print quality was excellent and they were professional looking cards. I am really wondering if anyone else has had any experience with them? I am very interested in purchasing some “minicards” from them. They seem pretty casual to just hand out to someone at a party or something. So if anyone has had any experience with them please leave a comment! Thanks
Hi, My Sweetheart! 海派甜心!
•January 15, 2010 • 3 Comments
Image from Wikipedia.org
Well this is the television show that I have been mentioning to write about! I stumbled across it as I was surfing youtube this past week. I had seen a advertisement on http://silentregrets.com but I did not check it out because I did not recognize the main characters! lol Show Luo and Rainie Yang are the two stars in this Taiwanese drama. I am not really a fan of their music but I really enjoyed Show Luo in Corner with Love (轉角*遇到愛) and Rainie Yang in Devil Beside You (惡魔在身邊) and a movie called Spider Lillies. I like some of their songs especially the opening theme song for Hi, My Sweetheart.
Show Luo plays a stereotypical nerd/geek/dork that is trying to get away from his overprotective da jie, but in order for him to do this he has to travel to Hangzhou. As he arrives at his new found college he eventually is introduced to Rainie Yang. Rainie is playing the college troublemaker that everyone despises. Well Show Luo and Rainie Yang fall in love and if you ask me it is the weirdest relationship I have ever seen. It is probably weirder than a 5 foot man dating a Scandinavian woman. lol But even though their relationship is extremely weird, it is rather cute and entertaining. Unfortunately as the show progresses Rainie ends up “breaking up” with Show. Show then declares that he will never be fooled by love again and changes everything about him. Three years after they both have graduated from college they meet again. Well I do not want to ruin the plot of the show so I am going to end it there for the description.
There are several reasons that I became attracted to this show. First off as I said I have enjoyed some shows that Show Luo and Rainie Yang have done in the past. I also really enjoy the animated way that the show is filmed and written. Hi, My Sweetheart is the closest thing to an anime but with actual people. The storyline is a little bit far fetched but this drama has really captivated my attention. I probably should of been focusing on my school work this week but I have been blowing it off because of this show. I normally try not to watch a lot of television, but this show is really engaging. So anyways I hope you check it out and enjoy! Until next time!
P.S. The show is still in progress but I think I can safely rate this show a 4 out of 5 stars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi_My_Sweetheart
http://himysweetheart.comic-ritz.com.tw/
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/www77rainie/12051762
Personal Blog Entry 01
•January 10, 2010 • 1 Comment
I am sorry I cannot go too much into detail, but you who know me know what I have been doing the past two summers. I have been blessed to serve in certain areas of the world. But I am at a stand still right now. I feel as though two doors are opening and I need to figure out which door He wants me to go through. I have been praying for guidance and then about a day later I had an interesting dream. I am going to share this dream with everyone.
Okay I might need to clarify some things so please just bear with me. The dream started out like this. I was at Northwood Temple Academy (my old high school) in a classroom that I never had class in. It was one of the elementary classrooms. Except this time there were tables lined up in the classroom and a bunch of people were in the classroom. On the tables were articles of clothing, I believe they were going to be donated somewhere. Anyways a friend of mine from Asia (Brandy) she is a woman that was responsible for helping me with a missions trip I did in the past. I see her and we begin talking about a missions conference. I cannot remember the conversation word for word but I do instinctively remember the discussion about a missions conference. Anyways after I finish talking with my friend I go to a white board on one of the walls. This room had four huge whiteboards on all four walls of the room. I begin drawing mountains with a blue marker on all of the boards. After I finished drawing them on the last board I woke up.
So I have been praying about what to do this summer. I have an opportunity to travel to Hong Kong or Beijing. That is why I have been asking for guidance. I believe this dream may be one of many confirmations.
branhow.com 