This past weekend two very similar things happened: one in the sports world and the other in the music industry. Sereena Williams, the defending U.S. Open Champion, after getting upset at a linesman's foot fault call started yelling and cursing at the lines judge saying something to the tune of "I'll take * this * ball *and shove * it down * your *throat***. Granted she was frustrated after losing the first set and the foot fault call was inaccurate, but she did herself no favors by "losing it" and yelling up a storm at this judge in front of live TV.
Kayne West, incidentally, also did some major damage. When Taylor Swift came up to give her thank you speech for winning the best female video at the MTV Music Awards, West stole the spotlight by taking over microphone and proclaiming that Beyonce had the best video. He was greeted with boos for his lack of courtesy and total selfishness.
Monday morning after the dust had settled both Sereena and Kayne publicly apologized for their behaviors via their blogs. But I wonder, is this merely an act of their publicist or do they really feel remorseful for their childish behaviors? I'm sure that any publicist would say that it will be detrimental to their careers unless they publicly apologized and that it could cost them potentially millions of dollars lost by losing fan loyalty. I wonder if it's money or personal conviction that prompted them to apologize. Only God will know.
Makes me also think about when I say sorry. Do i say sorry because I really mean it or because it's expected of me, to make peace, to save face or because I think it's the right thing to do? Is there still sincerity in our sorries?
60 minutes is an investigative television show that has been running on CBS for over 40 years. I've heard it's been called the "old folks show," but a show that has been on that consistently must have some merits behind it. I don't remember when I started watching it (it was probably sometime after college), but this is one of my favorite shows. This show has a whole variety of features that cover world issues, politics, musicians, ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, serious things, fun things. I never get bored of watching it.
Most recently, I just watched a facinating segment on Alice Waters, the famous owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA, also known to be the mother of the "slow food" movement. She is focused on getting people to eat organic, fresh food from your local farmers and shun the fast food industry.
Even if you're not a foodie like I am, I think this is worth watching.
Often when we're traveling, Richard and I both love to take photos. sometimes we forget to take photos of ourselves and after we come home, I think, drats we didn't take any photos of us in that specific location. And often when we are out on a specific beautiful background, I can usually frame a good picture, but when I ask someone to take a picture for us, the picture always seem to come out crummy.
On our most recent trip...
We asked a lady if she could take a picture of us and this is what we got:
So I asked her if she could please try again and we got:
Still a bit blurry. So after she leaves, I ask this guy who has a ton of photo equipment and thought surely he will know how to take a good photo:
which was better but usually, when I take a photo and there are a lot of people in the background, I'll try to wait or position so that the main subjects are covering the background people...
Then when we went out to eat at a fancy restaurant, the waitress was sweet enough to offer to take a photo of us. Now most of you know, I HATE using flash! so I tell her that she has to be VERY still when she clicks the shutter: but we get this:
Okay, too much pressure and too hard for people to do especially when they are use to using flash so I turn the flash on and ask her again, and this is what we get:
Better, but nothing that I want to frame and put up in our home.
The next day, I took this wonderful shot of Richard. I think this is my favorite shot of the trip:
I wish I could be there next to him, but with no tripod, the best we can do is take a picture of ourselves with richard holding the camera and taking a decent closeup.
*sigh* maybe for our anniversary, I can hire a professional photographer to take some pics of us.
I hate that in today's time, to be PC, you shouldn't say "Merry Christmas" but "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings." I mean it is what it is...the birth of Jesus Christ!
Thanks Linus for proclaiming what Christmas is all about...
Taken from signsonsandiego.com--my heart and prayers go out to him.
Man who lost family thanks community, says he doesn't blame pilot
By Angelica Martinez and Sharon A. Heilbrunn UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER 5:57 p.m. December 9, 2008
SAN DIEGO – A grieving father and husband who lost his wife, two young daughters and mother-in-law when a Marine fighter jet crashed into their home on Monday thanked everyone who has supported him and said he does not blame the pilot of the disabled plane.
“Nobody expected such a horrible thing to happen, especially right here, you know, our house,” Don Yoon said at a Tuesday news conference in front of his decimated home in University City. “I believe my wife and two babies and mother-in-law are in heaven with God, and I know God is taking care of them.”
Yoon walked unsteadily to the foot of the rubble with the help of his pastor, the Rev. Daniel Shin, and sobbed into a tissue during his first visit to the home since the tragedy. He was flanked by his brother, sister and about 10 other supporters, who then prayed in a circle in what used to be his front yard.
Speaking slowly, pausing between thoughts, Yoon asked the public to pray for the jet's pilot, who ejected safely in a canyon about two blocks from where the plane crashed, first on the street and then into Yoon's house.
“I don't blame him, I don't have any hard feelings. I know he did everything he could,” Yoon said, pausing briefly because of noise from a fighter jet that flew over the neighborhood, about two miles from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
“Right now, I don't know how I feel,” he said.
Yoon said he knows other people have suffered through “terrible things,” and asked for guidance in how to deal with his loss.
His wife, Youngmi, 36, died, as did Yoon's mother-in-law, Seokim Kim, 60. He said she was visiting from South Korea to help care for his daughters, Grace, 15 months, and Rachel, born Oct. 17, who also were killed.
“Please tell me how to do it. I don't know what to do,” he said. “My wife, it was God's blessing that I met her four years ago and we got married. She's just such a lovely wife and mother who always loves me and the babies.”
Chocking back tears, Yoon said, “I just miss her so much. ... I cannot believe that they are not here right now.”
Yoon said his mother-in-law was devoted to the family.
“She loved our kids and didn't complain at all,” he said. “My father-in-law is coming tomorrow and I don't know what to tell him. I don't know if he'll ever forgive me.”
Yoon answered a few questions from reporters and reiterated his thanks for everyone's support before he walked away.
His brother, Kevin Yoon, said Tuesday in a separate interview that he heard Monday about the plane crash and tried to make it to the house.
He couldn't get through the barricades, but he met a neighbor who showed him pictures she took after the F/A-18D fighter jet crashed and exploded around noon.
“I saw my sister-in-law's car parked in front of the house,” Kevin Yoon said Tuesday. “I thought, 'My brother's family is inside.' ”
An otherwise ordinary day was now a nightmare. Don Yoon rushed to the site from work, but also couldn't gain entrance to the demolished house. He spent the rest of the afternoon with his brother at a nearby police station, watching the news unfold on television with disbelief.
“My brother was crying,” Kevin Yoon said. “He couldn't believe the scene.”
Don Yoon heard about authorities finding his wife's body, his mother-in-law's body and Rachel's body. He wanted to go to his home and search for Grace, whose body wasn't found until Tuesday afternoon.
“My brother loved his children,” Kevin Yoon said. “He loved going home after work to play with them.”
Grace was known to shout words such as “Mom” and “milk,” he added.
Don Yoon emigrated from South Korea in 1989 and eventually became a U.S. citizen. He met his future wife in Korea, and the couple married four years ago – about the same time Mi migrated to the United States, said the Rev. Shin and another pastor at their congregation, Korean United Methodist Church of San Diego, located in Clairemont.
Mi, a registered nurse in her homeland, took up the same profession in San Diego and worked at a hospice-care facility. Her husband managed the family's AJ Wholesale Mart in San Ysidro.
Yoon and Mi moved into the house on Cather Avenue several weeks ago, happy to have more space for their growing family after living in an apartment. Kim joined them in the summer to help her pregnant daughter.
“(Kim) was going to go back to Korea next week,” Kevin Yoon said. “She already had her plane ticket.”
Every Saturday, Kevin Yoon's family gathered for dinner with Yoon and Mi. They shared recipes and pictures. They were planning their next joint vacation.
“We talked about life,” Kevin Yoon said. “We talked about taking care of our children, our growing children.”
Pastors at Korean United Methodist Church have scheduled a prayer service for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Funeral plans have not been set.
