spennykim

[spennykim]

Where is Spencer?

Hiya! Sorry if you haven't heard from me. I'm posting about my move to Seattle 1 year ago - it's fashionably late! 

Exactly one year ago - August 12 2016, I moved from Ann Arbor to Seattle. Months prior, I accepted a job offer to work for Microsoft* as a software engineer. Moving to the west coast to work as a software engineer - it's what most cs majors do, right? I soon realized how difficult moving actually is. 

You see, I didn't understand the homesickness felt by people who leave their hometown or country to attend school in Ann Arbor. Several people from my high school went to umich, and there never was a time where I felt like I didn't have friends. Now I understand why people yearn for community when they come to campus and don't know anyone. God calls us to take care of foreigners, and it makes sense why - being a foreigner is hard!**

In case you were wondering what I do for work, I work on Office for Mac, meaning I play around with apple devices! 

After church hopping* for a month I joined a church called New Life - initially because I wanted to serve in their college ministry. (It was bit friendlier than other churches as well.) It's the English ministry of a huge Korean church, but I don’t interact with anyone from the Korean ministry. It's slightly smaller than HMCC, but ages are more spread. HMCC feels like a huge church in comparison because there are hundreds of people in the 19-27 age range, while there are perhaps 50 people postgrad-30 years old. It's mostly but not all Korean, and it's also in the suburbs. I initially chose this church because I wanted to be a part of their college ministry. 

*This would not be complete without a selfie!

**I left my beloved community in Ann Arbor, my family and friends, my missions team, my church, my college lifestyle, and more. The transition from student life into working life is a beast in itself, and so is the transition from home to a new place. Had I started working in Ann Arbor where I had my friends, or had I moved to Seattle while still being a student / established in the flow of working, the transition would've been much easier. But there is fruit! God still cares for me, and during the difficult time of adjusting to Seattle and professional life I held to abiding in God, praying and knowing God more through his Word. 

***I didn't want to spend a long time finding a church because when I was in California in summer 2015 I did not commit to a church. 

Thanks! There’s hopefully more to come soon! Here’s coffee and a hike view:

-Spencer/Spenny

[spennykim]

On missing a SEA->DTW flight

A month ago I booked a flight to Ann Arbor. Today I missed the flight. 

What happened? 

I took a shower, started packing too late, missed my bus/train to the airport. Uber took much longer than expected, SEA-TAC security check took 40 minutes, my bags were inspected. Before leaving Seattle I was filled with indecisiveness on when to leave, on what to bring. 

Am I okay?

That’s a good question. The past 1.5 months of transitioning into Seattle/full-time work/software engineering/church hopping has been the most difficult experience of my life and still is. My life is very much a mess - I can’t even do simple things like update people on my life or let people know I’m visiting AA. 

How am I responding?

God’s perfect plans are beyond understanding, but I can say with confidence that he meant for this to happen. UW starts school today; if I am called to invest in college students / college ministries certainly I ought to be present. I desperately long to see people in AA, for prayers and encouragement, but perhaps I’m called to something greater right now. 

Jesus’ grace is sufficient for me. Therefore I will rejoice despite my misfortune and weakness. 

It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death - Philippians 1:20

Anything else?

I know I should grow in sharing my life with people. I want to start videochat/calling/messaging you! (help me out pls)

Prayer requests: patience (things are slow/frustrating here) and maturity (communicate with people as a way to grow in love). I told almost no one I was coming, sorry!

I’m actually visiting Ann Arbor October 19-25; hope to see you!

[spennykim]

Woes of Facebook

We all know Facebook logs tons of personal data. On mobile devices, the Facebook app will keep track of what websites you view. If you use Facebook's in-app browser to see these websites, you can't view your own browsing history! This means Facebook is logging the websites you view and won't even let you see these websites! Seriously, what the heck...

This isn't a problem on Android as you can disable the in-app browser and use something nicer like Chrome to view your webpages.

Apple also has this obsession with Safari and thinking everyone must use Safari (sort of like Facebook and its in-app browser).

Is there any solution? Aside from not using Facebook, perhaps rooting/jailbreaking might lead to something.

[spennykim]

New Year, New Blog

I've come to realize I need to learn what's effective and what isn't for communicating my thoughts. Perhaps blogging is a good start.

Goals of this blog

convey my thoughts in a way people can understand them

learn Markdown

possibly make some new friends!

There is more to come...

[spennykim]

Hello World!

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