me. life. world.
august 28, 2008
i finally got to experience lands end after reading all the hype on yelp, and it did not diasappoint. we didn’t go through the whole trail (something i look forward to doing!) but got a good view of the golden gate bridge and the surrounding waters during sunset. if you haven’t been been there, go.
(aimee’s favorite.. the birds)
(the nuna and i)
(living on the edge… what a daredevil i am)
(it was def not the safest place)
august 27, 2008
community service is awesome. it makes me feel all good an tingly inside knowing i helped somebody, even if it made a dent of a different. my firm had a volunteer outing last night where we helped the san francisco food bank pack and organize food for the non-profit organizations that prepare the food for the poor (got all that?). i’ve volunteered at soup kitchens multiple times, but never actually worked behind the scenes so it was pretty cool. to tell you the truth, i didn’t even know what a food bank was, but i guess i should’ve just inferred from the name of the place. we got a tour of the warehouse and got to learn how everything works. as you can imagine, food banks basically package and distribute food that is needed by soup kitchens and the like in order for them to prepare meals.
the first half consisted of packing tomatoes into boxes, and removing bad ones that supposedly gets donated to a pig farm. the second half consisted of sorting cans into proper categories. after a couple hours of labor, the firm sponsored beer and pizza at a restaurant nearby in potrero hill.
(volunteers hard at work)
(working hard to look good)
(i helped pack)
(second project)
(still working hard)
(beautiful night in the city)
(some drinks before pizza at lingba lounge)
(goat hill pizza, delicious)
aug 26, 2008
we celebrated will’s birthday with dinner on tuesday night at a restaurant called 2223. the food was just ok, but it was nice to see everybody midweek and take will out for a nice dinner on his special day. the real surprise came in at the end when i saw the bill and realized they charged an extra “corkage fee” of $3 per PERSON for bringing in our own cake. when i was negotiating with the manager to get this fee taken off, she said if we ordered dessert from the restaurant, it would have been about $3 per person. so basically, they tried to charge us for dessert that we didn’t order or get. i was able to discount the fee, but failed in getting it off our tab completely. it didn’t help that will lived 2 blocks down, and we could’ve easily walked down to his place if we knew we’d have to pay an extra meal for it. note to self: ask before bringing in your own cake to a restaurant. at least the cake was delicious.
(aimee and phil)
(2223)
(good old sf beer)
(salada)
(food)
(more food)
(doesn’t it look delicious?!)
(all was good at the end as will enjoyed the celebration, more celebrating to come this weekend!)
august 22-24
i thought it was appropriate to sacrifice one weekend of golf to go to grx’s summer retreat. i had a lot of fun as i got to meet a lot of new people, get to know the ones i partly knew better, and listen to some good messages from the pastor. i wish i had taken my camera because the site was beautiful and warm… the retreat was held at occidental, ca, just a short ways west of santa rosa. it’s the most north i have gone in the west coast, and i was amazed at what an hour north can mean for the difference in weather. hopefully the next time i go that north, i can visit some wineries, i WAS in sonoma county afterall…
it seems like only yesterday… well not really, but i do remember telling myself in 2004 that i would be at beijing for the 2008 olympics. that didn’t happen. it’s been a tiring couple of weeks (although i suppose i really shouldn’t be complaining compared to what these olympians have been doing for years) trying to stay up as late as i can to watch the olympics, and trying to block myself out from tv and internet as almost all the events were tape delayed in the west coast. now that the olympics are over, it’s a bit disheartening as beijing truly put on an awesome show. i feel like the olympics is a unique event in that the purpose isn’t to make a profit, but an opportunity for the host country to display their culture, power, and awesomeness to the world. i can’t imagine the tickets and endorsements summing up to the supposed $40 billion china spent, which makes for a great value for the spectators! can you imagine the NFL or the NBA subsidizing their ticket prices to the point where they’re losing millions, if not billions of dollars?
(which reminds me…
where are you now protesters for tibet? just as i thought, a hype that people got drawn into without even knowing the real history or situation or understanding the culture or eastern philosophy/traditions. thanks for ruining my olympic torch experience you bozos).
anyway, i feel bad for london as they’re put in a tough position to follow up such an amazing performance. if the london bus act with david beckham and leona lewis was any indication of what london has to offer in 2012, we might be in for quite a disappointment as it was the most boring part of the entire closing ceremony. not to say that london is a boring country or doesn’t have much to offer, it would be tough for any country to follow up an act that beijing put up this year. here are some pictures i wish i could’ve taken in person…
good job bejing. good luck london.
august 16, 2008
our attempt at trying out new golf courses landed us at franklin canyon golf course in hercules, ca. it was indeed an excellent choice as hercules, ca had great weather (with the exception of very strong gusts of wind here and there) and the course was very fun to play. in the end, i lost (again) by one (again… -_____-), but did manage a personal overall best at +28, personal 9 hole best at +9, and my first ever birdie on the 18th hole. i’ve never broken so many records in my life, i almost felt like michael phelps… so i can’t really complain about the loss. i also saw several groups of wild turkey roaming around the course, another first time for me.
(steps leading to hole 2′s tee box)
(hole 2 tee box, look at all them trees)
(the yellow grass covered hills made for a very interesting scenery)
(a very beautiful course overall, beautiful day as well)
(the turkeys invade)
(thankfully, chris had amazing focus to keep these delicious birds out of his mind)
(i own you 18th hole)
august 15, 2008
youngeun suggested burma superstar for dinner, but because we had a lot of people and didn’t want to wait eternityx2 for a table, we decided to give the other burmese restaurant down the street, b star bar a try. as someone that has yet to try burma superstar, i can’t really compare the two. what i can say is that my dish, the thai salmon green curry pot pie was delicious~
according to yelp reviewers, it’s a great place to go for brunch. talking about yelp, i’ve been informed of a special group called the yelp elite squad. there are several requirements to become an elite, but i hear as an elite, you get invited to special events that have free/discounted food and drinks. and i like free things… therefore, i shall do what i can to join this club 
so you will likely start seeing links that go to the yelp reviews instead of the actual homepage, not that this will help my chances of joining the club, but just as an attempt of integrating my blog with yelp.
(the equipment i used to demolish the following dishes)
(yummy kabocha croquette appetizer!)
(my thai salmon green curry pot pie… i understand, the picture doesn’t depict the dish very well, but i was rather distracted by my hunger at the time)
we headed over to will’s new home after dinner and then walked around his neighborhood for some classic bar hopping!
(lime in the coconut)
(these rubber cubes had water in them that you can freeze. the enclosed cubes didn’t dilute the drinks either, how clever!)
(favorite bar of the night, the monk’s kettle)
(aimee and her wall)
(meat and bread… but no cheese)
(ridiculous restaurant signage… ridiculously awesome that is)
august 10, 2008
dim sum supposedly means “touch the heart” and it’s easy to see why; it’s awesome. dim sum is a collection of not only good food, but easy-to-eat food! i am a lazy eater; i don’t like to chew a lot. chewing tires me out, and hurts my jaw… don’t get me wrong, i love beef… i just prefer tender beef. i’ll chew gum, but only for a couple minutes (korean gum loses flavor after the first 10 seconds anyway). noodles, dumplings, and rice are all obvious examples of food that require minimal chewing… all awesome in my eyes (and jaw) and a big part of the dim sum menu. lezlee knew a good dim sum place for brunch, so chris and i joined her for “touch the heart” goodness last sunday.
(ton kiang dim sum!)
(there were a lot of people… but the wait wasn’t too bad)
(geary st., outer richmond, sf)
(one of the cleanest dim sum restaurants i’ve been to!)
(yum!)
(aimee couldn’t make it, so we packed some samples for her to go)
august 8, 2008
when i first tried pinkberry, i was expecting frozen yogurt… so when the first bite didn’t meet my expectations, i was surprised… and surprised in a bad way. but for some odd reason (some have suggested crack), i got used to the taste very quickly and soon afterwards got to like these delicious little frozen desserts. i finally tried red mango for the first time today. it was indeed very yummy, more creamy and rich, less tart than pinkberry. to me, it basically tasted like a mix of frozen yogurt and pinkberry… and therefore somewhat less healthy, but also something closer to what i was expecting when i first tried yogurt.
(yummy, red mango @ downtown palo alto, ca)
august 1-4, 2008
i took a couple days off of work and visited james and friends in new york last weekend. it’s always good times hanging out with friends, but what made this trip particularly interesting was the number and variety of friendsi got to see. it’s amazing how the people you know in ny grow exponentially every year as more and more people move out there for jobs and grad school.
one of the friends i got to see was dave oh, whom i realized i haven’t seen in almost 10 years! i didn’t even know that was possible, oh how old i felt… until! only to meet up with one of my fob friends from high school in michigan boo-hyun whom i also haven’t seen in almost 10 years! in fact, i ran into another friend whom i haven’t seen since freshmen year in high school in korea! of course the whole trip wasn’t just meeting up with friends i haven’t seen in ages. i also saw familiar faces.
(dave oh, james park, me)
(the nyse, wasn’t my first time, but it;s always nice to see the place that you read about all day at work)
(the actual entrance, i think…)
(maria bartiromo! i love this woman)
(george washington)
(busy street that is wall st.)
july 19-20, 2008
aaron had to take care of some business down in LA, and since i needed to pick a few items up from home… we took a quick road trip down to LA. i barely got to see anybody, in fact, i didn’t even get to see my mom as she was out of the country and my dad was busy fishing/golfing with his buddies. but it was still nice to go home for a night to grab a few things and meet a few friends.
(this radar saved us a few times)
(road trips wouldn’t be complete without seeing some bikers. we were in the middle or nowhere… these bikers must travel a long ways…)
(common site along mid-cali)
(not sure which lake this was… but it sure looked nice)
(random houses)
(we arrive!)
(aaaand… now we leave…)
(beautiful sunset/clouds)
(crossing the bay bridge into the city)
july 26, 2008
aimee had been practicing quite a bit for a dance performance that was set last weekend in san francisco at the artaud theatre. she was worried that the show might get boring… and warned of the middle show that had one man dancing alone for 30 mins. her warning got me reminiscing of a ‘hot i met your mother’ episode…
but!!! i am glad to say the show was NOT in fact like the previous clip… but rather awesome. i must say the overall performance was a bit scary, the music, lighting, and make-up all gave a very tense mood. i wanted to take many more pictures, but it was a rather artsy crowd where cameras were frowned upon. i was still able to sneak some pictures during the performance.
(haha, go-getters market)
(i know… i take random pictures. coffee bar!)
(the venue of the performance)
(theme/title of the night; the traditionalists)
(it was an artsy venue)
(sunflower… and random old man)
on to the pictures from the performance:
aimee’s group
i couldn’t take any pictures of the indian guy dancing alone because it was too quiet… the pictures would have been fairly interesting considering his costume was very unique. too bad…
on to the haitian group:
(the group was very colorful as these pictures show)
(they had this crazy snake dance, twas awesome)
there was a post-show reception party where they provided different ethnic food and wine.
(he is single ladies~ and gentlemen~)
(the han’s; can you sense chris’ enthusiasm?)
(aimee’s big eyes attributed to the scariness of the whole show)
(julie aimee and aaron)
(aimee and me me me)
(aimee and jung-ah, the mak-neh performer)
july 27, 2008
lastly… to keep in line with the recent british open, we headed over to monarch bay gc which has a links style layout much like the golf courses in europe. aaron came back to beat me… again. it looks like he’ll have the last laugh for at least a month or two. i’m sure he’ll smile everytime he thinks of my defeat while traveling in europe. combined with this win and my gratitude to him for driving me to LA and back safely, aaron and i went to sushi hana and feasted in japanese buffet on me. the menu has noticeably been dumbed down a bit (no more fried oysters or double hamachi rolls), but it was still good times 
(me winning, me smiling)
(monarch bay gc)
August 6, 2008
a couple weeks ago, aaron, will and i went to the golf range to hit some balls. upon getting there, aaron realized he forgot to bring his golf gloves… at which point i asked him, ‘how can you golf without a glove? how can you hunt without a weapon?’ aaron looked at me like i was some crazy fob that didn’t know what i was talking about. i tried to explain to him that it was a commercial, but gave up halfway seeing as how i was confusing him more. so aaron, this is for you.
