My life is but a boring story for sure. But I thought I’d include a quick bio anyway (which includes all major Nintendo related purchases as well).

1977
· I was born in Michigan the same day my oldest brother was having his birthday party. Needless to say his party was a bit ruined and has since also had to share his birthdays with me… since it’s the same day…

1978
· Our family moved to Palos Verdes in Southern California before I turned 1. I don’t remember much about Michigan or anything before the age of four really.

1982-1983
· It’s discovered that I’m a bit “slower” than other children and am sent to a private school and to a child psychiatrist of some sort. Turns out I had some form of partial dyslexia(?!) which I would quickly outgrow, but was now a year behind all my peers in school.

1984
· I return to “normal” school and have to make new friends all over again… which sucked…

1985
· I get the original Nintendo Entertainment System and then proceed to grow into a very obese child (I was really thin before.. can you believe it?).

1988
· Elijah (my oldest brother) gets his driver’s license and a huge, clunky white Buick.

1989
· Graduate from Vista Grande Elementary School and move on to Ridgecrest Intermediate School.

1990
· I get my first GameBoy.
· Elijah goes off to Cal and leaves the clunky white Buick to sit for a year before Enoch gets his license.

1991
· Ridgecrest is closed, PV High and Miraleste High become converted into intermediate schools, and Rolling Hills High School becomes Palos Verdes Peninsula High School. I get sent to PV and have to make new friends AGAIN because most of my friends get sent to Miraleste.
· Enoch drives me to L.A. Tronics a month before he actually gets his license so that I can buy a Super Nintendo with money I secretly withdrew from my savings account and money accumulated from recycling my family (and our neighbor’s) soda containers and glass bottles.

1992
· My family begins going to Bread of Life church in Torrance because me and my middle brother are unhappy with Chinese Evangelical Free Church in Monterey Park (them kids were mean).
· I also graduate from PVI to PVP.

1993
· I get my driver’s license and yee old Buick Century to terrorize PV/Torrance in (Enoch goes off to UCLA).

1994
· I become Christian.

1996
· I graduate from PVP and go off to UCLA.
· I make my first webpage on Geocities (since it was all the rage back then)
· I wait in agony for 10 months for the N64 to be released

1997
· I purchase Macromedia Freehand 7 and begin teaching myself the ins and outs of vector design
· I procure an old copy of Photoshop 4 and begin teaching myself about bitmaps and image manipulation
· I apply for the graphic design program at UCLA and get reject.
· I become further jaded when my design professor tells me he would have padded my portfolio score and recommendation had he known which portfolio was mine.
· Become even further jaded when a fellow student in one of my design classes gets into the program even though all his pieces got lower grades than mine in the same class because the professor liked him.
· I decide to pursue communications as it’s UCLA’s closest thing to marketing/advertising.
· I get hired at the Villager arcade.

1998
· I become accepted into the communications major with a GPA of 3.8 (which eventually drops to 3.5 before I graduate).
· I become the student supervisor at the Villager arcade.
· I’m given an old Geo to drive around, which despite the sneers, I still loved.
· I purchase FrontPage and begin teaching myself HTML (since FrontPage never worked correctly).
· I purchase a GameBoy color and a copy of Pokémon Blue.

1999
· The Villager arcade moves into Sproul and student staff becomes disbanded since, in theory, the Sproul staff can monitor the machines.Later, all arcade machines become heavily vandalized.
· I purchase an arcade machine from X-Cape and convert it into a PCS2 compatible machine running games such as Street Fighter Alpha 2, Puzzle Fighter, Pocket Fighter, X-man vs Street Fighter and Marvel Super Heroes.
· The Geo breaks down and I get a used Honda Accord.
· I start working at the Daily Bruin as a graphics illustrator where I am forced to learn Adobe Illustrator
· I quit from the Villager as a technician.
· I begin an internship at XactImage, an Internet provider/design company in West Los Angeles.
· I procure a version of Flash and begin teaching myself how to use flash.

· I purchase a Japanese GameBoy advance four months before the American version is released and have no games to play since I can’t read Japanese.

2000
· I graduate from UCLA and decide to pursue art school.
· My brother Enoch gets married.
· I purchase the domain jsmind.com and launch my own website and begin drawing j’s mind comics.
· I am awarded best graphics illustrator at the Daily Bruin for the 1999-2000 school year.

2001
· I learn some history of type-setting as well as how to draw the human body in a drawing class.
· after 8 weeks of art school, i get fed up and jaded with students and the uselessness of it all (one of my professors told me I was wasting my time since I already had a BA).
· I return to XactImage and begin learning to code in ColdFusion.
· 9/11 hits and an already sucky economy takes a further dive dragging XactImage down with it.
· I wake up early and line up at the Best Buy in Westwood to get my black GameCube, 3 extra controllers, Luigi’s Mansion and Super Monkey Ball.

2002
· After literally months without pay, I secure a job at i7 Interactive, an advertising company in Torrance
· I quit XactImage (who to this day still owes me about $3,000).
· My nephew, Evan, is born.
· I purchase my CR-V.

2003
· After 9 months, I quit my job with i7 opting to freelance.
· Lived off of unemployment for a short while.
· Moved back to PV.
· Joined L.A. Fitness and going to the gym regularly.
· Received a black GameBoy SP as a gift.

2004
· After freelancing and bouncing from gig to gig, I began working at CBRE in March.
· Moved out from PV into a bedroom apt.
· Moved out of apartment into house with Joe (a friend) and his co-worker.
· Purchased a Nintendo DS.

2005
· let’s see what happens…

I’ve been a Christian for most of my life and I’m not ashamed of my God or religion. This is my page dedicated to God and my church. He’s probably wondering why he only has one page–or not because He already knows everything… Oh, you were wondering… hmmm… ask Him.

Life wasn’t always as good as it is now. I had many struggles growing up and it’s taken me a long time to come to where I am in life. Of all the influences that have ever passed through my life, Bread has been the one to impact me the most. It was here that I truly learned what it meant to actually know God.

While I had attended church ever since before I could remember, I wasn’t a Christian until mid High School. It was then that for the first time, I experienced brokenness from God and not from my own selfish desires. There’s something about being emotionally trampled on that opens a guys eyes. In high school, I got this when I realized that I had been going to church for over 15 years, but did not really experience God in my life.

I think that having my own selfishness thrown back in my face is what really opened my eyes to what was important in this life. I was able to see clearly what was eternal and what was not. Those things which I do for the Kingdom and for God and not myself is what is eternal. This webpage? It’s fleeting, but hey, no one’s perfect.

I am not saint and I don’t pretend to be. I’ll never be a saint. In fact anyone that knows me knows I am about as far from perfect as a circle is from a square, but without the support I have gained at Bread, I’d probably be even more screwed up. At any rate, I have no idea if that was encouraging or even the least bit coherent, but at any rate, that’s my speal on Bread.

In high school, throughout college and into my mid-twenties, I attended the Torrance Bread of Life Church. During college I did also explore a number of different fellowships and churches, but ended up back at Bread of Life for whatever reasons. If you’re looking for life answers, I encourage you to seek them in Jesus Christ and God.

Of course a physical church is a good place to help you on your search, but no single church will be prefect or flawless. There’s a need to strike a balance at church between one that can feed you (spiritually, mentally, and socially) and one where you can serve at be committed to serving despite hard times and times that may seem unjust. No one is perfect and we all make mistakes, but ignoring a mistake or error will not make it go away. Similarly, making mountains out of molehills does no one any good. Sometimes people feel neglected at a church and sometimes people are not willing to commit or take a chance to open themselves to others or new experiences. Since after college and going through a couple of jobs, things around me changes as did I. While technically I’m still attending Bread these days (though not as regularly), I do occasionally visit other churches some of my friends have moved on to. It’s hard to stay committed to something you feel isn’t right for you anymore, and it’s something I’m still working out–but I’ve always recognized that leaving a church due to it having “too many” problems is not a good reason. If something has problems, God would want you to help make these trouble-areas get better. If however the conflict is something that cannot be solved and is just a weak area for the church, at least try to remedy the situation before seeking a new church to meet your needs. I guess that’s where I am right now. Trying to find resolution to something that is within me and more or less, irrelevant to those around me.

Until I figure all that out, I do think that people need to remember that while the focus of a church is God, people make up the church and every church is different. While it’s be nice if all churches were doctrinally on the same page, it’s the individuals that give a place personality. Don’t hate God or “the church” for what one church experience has been like. Too many become bitter at God for human wrongs. Move on, forgive (or forget though forgiving is more ideal), and realize there’s someplace better for you.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on
your own understandings, in all of your ways acknowledge Him
and He will make your paths straight.”
~Proverbs 3:5,6
Well, enough of that now. I need to remember to update this page somewhat regularly, but I hope that wasn’t too painful; if you actually read through the whole thing, I’d like to say I’m impressed. So, until we meet in person or in heaven, peace. †In Him,
~ Jacob