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Archive for October, 2008

october 29, 2008

many of you, in fact, most of you have not seen nor will ever see a movie called ‘fireproof‘.  if you plan on watching it and don’t want me to ruin the ending that is as obvious as my awesomness, you should probably not read this entry.  for those that will never watch it, fireproof is a christian movie that is cheesier than the philly cheese steak i had for lunch today, and as previously stated more obvious than my awesomeness.  it follows a divorce ridden couple and ends happily ever after.  the movie would have been a whole lot better if somebody died at the end; much like a korean drama.  at the end of the movie when the wife finally realizes that the husband is a good person, she should’ve gotten a phone call saying he died in a fire… or when the couple finally got back together, the husband’s father who orchestrated the whole reunification should have died.  somebody should’ve died to make the movie dramatic and sad.  instead, everybody lived and it was a bit too jolly at the end.

to illustrate how awesome something unfortunate and sad can make a story that much better, i’ve included a couple korean music videos.

october 29, 2008

in the final year of college i lived with a bunch of guys at a place that came to be known as the ‘white house’.  it was an awesome place, with awesome people, and we by far threw the most awesome parties.  as barney from himym would put it, our parties were legend… wait for it… dary (although i’ve realized he doesn’t say this anymore in the new season, sad).  although there are many stories that could be shared… and many that cannot be shared… i’d like to share the story of how we ended up with multiple holes in our walls:

story 1: when you throw parties in college, and when they are rumored to be awesome… you eventually find that more people come to your party than your house/hosts can really handle.  during one of our parties, there was a series of events that left our house empty of the party hosts.  unfortunately, the ann arbor police happened to come during this time to break up the awesome party and issue an unawesome noise violation ticket.  since none of the party hosts were home at the time, one of our other housemates that had nothing to do with the party had to take the ticket under his name (the hosts paid for the ticket of course).  he was understandable angry at the situation, and decided to take his frustration out on our hallway wall by punching it.  it made a big hole.

story 2: one of my best friends found his younger sister partying away at our party one day, and got into a big argument with her.  after the party was over, we were talking to him to help him calm down (he wasn’t mad at us btw considering our parties were, did i mention, awesome?).  for some odd and unexplainable reason, he decided it would be a great way to vent by punching the wall.  he made a big gaping hole in james’ room.  apparently, another friend witnessed this guy punching the wall, came in and asked, ‘are we punching holes in the wall?’  he then proceeded to punch the wall and make the hole bigger.  

story 3: another housemate, after a series of events (which i foresaw and warned) was sad and angry.  just when i felt like he had calmed down and the world seemed at peace, he too punched the wall in the hallway.  i’m not sure if it was really necessary, but then again, none of the punches were necessary.  after adding his mark to the wall with a big hole, he proceeded to his room and went to sleep…

as angry as these lets-punch-the-wall people were at the time, i can’t help but be humored when i replay the events in my head.  think about it… who punches walls and makes holes in them?  who does that?  who would do such a stupid thing?  seriously… 

because it may be hard for you to imagine these events in your head, himym enacted it for us (embedding is now allowed for this clip, but do follow the link).   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_PIixlTHfQ

there is one more story by the way, story 4: towards the end of the year i realized that we would soon have to patch all these holes up.  i found it amazing that all of these guys completely missed the stud when punching the wall.  had they hit even part of the stud, the holes probably wouldn’t have been as large as they were.  when i told james about this, he told me, “i don’t know?  why don’t you try punching the wall?”.  ok… to be fair, i’ll include a disclaimer that i blame everything on james, even when it’s clearly not his fault… in fact, he probably didn’t even say this.  anyway, as you can imagine i tried giving the wall a punch.  and voila!! housemates 4, wall 1.

sorry aaron, sorry paul… but these archived videos were too good to pass up.  just a normal day in the white house that james happened to capture on video (this was the year before my final year):

october 29, 2008

THE university of michigan was ranked 18 (#1 in u.s. public university) in the world university rankings 2008 by times higher education (uk).  i’ve heard of them before but didn’t think much of them.  now that they’ve ranked us highly they’re a legit and important source, haha.  as a side note, two korean universities (three in top 200) made top 100 with seoul national coming in at 50, and kaist at 95.

news feed from umich:

http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=6771

complete rankings:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/hybrid.asp?typeCode=243&pubCode=1

october 27, 2008

because i was unemployed at the beginning of the year, i took an aggressive approach in completing the education requirement of the CFP.  i didn’t get any breaks between classes until last month, when due to a funky scheduling of classes i was given a month break.  today was the first day of my last class before taking the CFP exam in march of next year.  while going through introductions at the beginning of class, i found it pretty amazing to reflect on what has changed since my very first class.  i feel like it was only yesterday when i introduced myself as someone that was looking to get into the industry, and starting my first class to earn a CFP.  today i was able to introduce myself as an employee at a well known sf firm taking the last class before my CFP exam.  yay.  the teacher and my firm share some clients, so having already met it felt cool to be one of the kids to know the teacher, hehe.  

also in the class were friends i’ve made from previous classes, group projects, study groups, etc.  the few of us that started the program at just around the same time or are ending the program at the same time (class of march ’09 CFP) were able to give the newer students advice on classes, teachers, and so on which was rewarding in itself.  more than anything, i’m very proud of the small network i created, and that i was able to keep in touch with teachers as well as classmates.  

moving away from being happy about myself… a friend from church hinted at the idea of a ski/snowboard trip in late febuary next year.  being a big skier, and having never been to the big mountains of utah, i jumped on the bandwagon and told him i’d love to go.  i started recruiting other people to go with me… only to realize… i have the CFP exam in march, DUH.  not only will the exam be a big strain on time, it’s going to be a big strain on money too since the firm only reimburses me after i pass.  it looks like i’ll be skipping the ski trip this year.  sad.

october 23, 2008

now if you remember… a couple months ago i had a blog about how i love wheel of fortune, aka america’s game.  my exact words were “…i feel that the show’s popularity despite not rewarding its contestants with extravagant $1 million dollar prizes is a testament to the show’s awesomeness.”  well all that went flying out the door, ironically just after i posted this entry where they decided to stick a $1 million wedge in the wheel.  i was already upset that they took this drastic measure to go against my blog (how dare they…), but what upset me more was when i realized the million dollar prize is actually impossible.  

1. you have to land on this itty bitty tiny little wedge, surrounded by ‘bankrupt’ wedges (the actual wedge on the board is 1/3 of the size of normal wedges)

2. you have to win that round to keep it.

3. you cannot land on any ‘bankrupt’ wedges for the rest of the show.

4. you have to win the game to get to the bonus round.

5. you have to spin the bonus wheel and land on ANOTHER $1 million wedge.

6. you have to solve the bonus round.

this time a contestant shows me i am wrong about wheel of fortune once again.  but to my defense, i’m pretty sure pat sajak felt that the $1 million prize was a hoax and an impossible prize as he said, “how did this happen?  do you know everything that had to happen for that to happen?” at the end of the show.  the win was especially surprising because she landed on the million dollar wedge on the very first spin of the game, meaning there was quite a long road to travel.  for your viewing pleasure.

october 22, 2008

due to recent pains in my chest i made an appointment to see a doctor today.  i usually try to ride out any type of pain or illness since i feel like my body does a fairly good job of fixing itself.  but i didn’t want to take any risks with this one because 1. i’m getting old, 2. my family doesn’t exactly have the best history with chest pains, and 3. i have insurance now.  it was a pretty sweet deal since i got to get out of work early, eat lunch at home and get myself fixed.  

i got assigned to dr. bella nudel at brown and toland, and i should’ve figured it out when i walked into the office and found the entire place to be a crap hole.  All in all, after a few tests from a russian doctor with limited english, she suggested i eat healthier, drink less alcohol, and exercise/stretch more.  i’m no doctor, but i’m pretty sure that suggestion can benefit everybody in this world.  she maybe right and i might have just been a big baby about a little pain in my chest (which she had no good explanation for btw)… but if i die in the near future that resulted from these chest pains… yeah.  thanks for nothing dr. nudel, and congrats on being my first 1-star recipient on yelp (i’d also like my $15 copay returned as your services were rendered WORTHLESS).

october 19, 2008

i can understand, nobody wants to read more about my golf sundays.  but today was different.  chris doug and i drove down to sharpe park gc in pacifica, ca.  pretty much everything seemed normal.  it was cold.  chris beat me.  it was frustrating to lose, but fun to play.  what made the golfing unique were the animals we saw.  one was a hawk that tried to eat chris.  i’ve never seen a hawk fly so close to somebody before, and i’m pretty sure chris squealed when it became apparent that it was flying right towards his face.  before i could whip out my camera, the korean ahjushi that joined our 3-some decided it would be a great idea to chase it away.  i was very upset… why would you chase away a freaking awesome hawk?!  WHY?!! 

moving on… at the very next hole, i thought i saw a dog running into our fairway only to realize it was no dog… it was a fox!  a wild fox… i’ve seen deer, rabbit, turkey, cats and dogs, lizards and exotic birds, but never a fox.  as silly as it seems, it was really fun to see these wild animals flying/running around the course.  hopefully i’ll run into my little friend again.  but not in the near future, cuz it was just way too cold in this part of the penninsula.  

(video credit goes to chris)

(the entire playing field was a ‘fairway’)

(we also saw a cat this day)

(the fog)

october 18, 2008

saturday morning started out with a run around town as put forth by my own goal for the year.  although my run distance and time was rather pathetic (i blame the beverages from the day before), it always feel good to start a day with some exercise and fresh air.  being the camera person i am, i wanted to capture some of the views i get running through the city.  it was a HUGE inconvenience, and i shall never carry my camera next time i go running.  i did however, get some good shots.

(pretty little marina district)

(a sign of a steep hill in sf is if it has stairs.  no matter where i run, i’ll always face a hill in sf.  at first these hills were the death of me, but i’m beginning to embrace them.  they give the running course some character, and challenge.  i think it also gives a boost to the workout.)

(a big hill has its rewards)

(muni tracks)

next came the red bull soap box race at dolores hill where amateurs race down a huge hill competing for speed and creativity.   i knew from the hundreds of adds around town that this event would be a big deal, but i would’ve never imagined it to be THIS big.

the weather was sunny and hot, the location was chaotic but awesome, the contestants were creative and fun, the crowd was drunk/high but very into the race… i don’t know what else to say, the event was awesome and i must give big props to red bull for being a genius marketing machine (i still think red bull = bachas, except red bull marketing >>>>> bachas marketing) .  the website says over 100,000 people went through the race site where we all saw the red bull logo in just about any direction.  what made the event awesome was that it was really a win-win situation for both red bull and fellow sf-ans who got to enjoy a sweet show.  and to think that i almost skipped the event to watch the michigan vs. penn state game… not cool.

(last time i saw this big of a crowd must’ve been a michigan football game)

(again… lots of people)

(a place to sit… some shade… smart)

(more track, more crowd, more red bull logos)

(probably my favorite car… the hamster wheel!)

(my second place finisher, the barry bond baseball)

(my third place finisher, the frying pan with egg and bacon)

(the track where 35 or 38 cars flew down)

(red bull girls were handing out free red bull as some might have expected.  i didn’t get any, bummer)

since will lives super close to the park, we headed over to his place after the race was over.  i was hungry and will suggested an awesome sandwich place near his apt called ike’s place.  ’wow, good sandwich’.  i would go as far to say that this is the best sandwich i’ve had in sf, and there are a lot of good sandwich places in sf.  it had the ingredients for success: it was fresh, not too greasy, not too big or small, not too salty or sweet, and it was delicious.   it’s nearly impossible to get 4.5/5 stars on yelp with anything over 100 reviews from the mere fact that different people have different tastes.  i’ve seen just a handful of places that have achieved this feat, and ike’s place is one of them.  it has 4.5 stars with over 400 reviews, and now i can see why.  it’s because the staff is friendly, and their sandwiches are freaking awesome.

the night concluded with irwin’s house warming party with many michigan alums.  it reminded me a lot of the parties in ann arbor during my undergrad years because 1. it was irwin’s party and 2. i think i was one of the youngest there.  but the differences was clear… the apt was clean, it had a great view of the bay bridge, milwaukee lights were replaced with heinekens, and patrons replaced popov… but the people stayed the same in their awesome ways and it was a lot of fun to hang out with these guys again.

october 17, 2008

i’m sure you’ve been asked a scenario where you had to choose one meal you’d eat for the rest of your life, given this would be the only type forever and ever and ever.  i love curry, and i’m pretty sure i can eat curry everyday for weeks and weeks (i probably can’t eat it for the rest of my life, though… i.e., i ate ramyun everyday for weeks in middle school, whereafter i couldn’t eat it again for 2 years; i ate a lot of california rolls when my parents first opened a sushi restaurant, whereafter i couldn’t eat another california rolls for a year; in college i ate katsu for a few weeks straight working at sushi.come because it was the only thing they would feed me, whereafter merely looking at one made me want to puke).  anyway… i knew today would be a good day when, on the bus to work in the morning i saw a sign for a japanese curry house out of the corner of my eyes not too far from work!!  i was so excited for the discovery of muracci’s japanese curry & grill that i ate it for lunch with chris a few hours later.  it was absolutely delicious.  they also had these mini rolls, that were probably the best pastry/bread roll i’ve had in sf.  

i rendezvoused again with chris right after work for some friday evening twilight golf at lincoln park gc.  when daylight is as limited as it was today, the game of golf becomes more or less of ‘how many holes can we finish’ as much as who can play the best game.  actually, maybe it’s more like 90% completion of the course and 5% score.  the other 5% is probably left to, ‘can i actually find my ball in the dark?’ and ‘i can’t see anything, i might die’.  regardless, it was fun times and i believe it would get me ready for the real thing on sunday.

(beautiful location with golden gate bridge backdrop; terrible course management)

(speed golf = cardio + golf)

(due to the unexpectedness of play, i had to go in my work clothes.  it was surprisingly comfortable!)

after golf is always food, even after twilight golf.  doug suggested a fried chicken place call hard knox cafe.  the chicken was delicious, but i think the highlight of the meals were the corn muffins.  these muffins were so soft, and warm, and buttery… yum!  

(mmm… )

(the original 3 piece chicken; a bit ‘cleaner’ than the traditional southern style chicken, but delicious still)

(fried chicken is no meal without beer)

october 16, 2008

the weekend got off to an early start this week with the university of michigan alumni association’s monthly happy hour held at thirsty bear.  just a brief story of how i came about going to this event… i started receiving emails about the association recently and decided to check out the board meeting on tuesday since it was being held a block down from my work.  the meeting was smaller than i expected, but it actually turned out to be an advantage because i got to know the individuals a bit better than i normally would have in a bigger group.  the meeting reminded me of korean student association meetings back in college (with the exception that the alumni meeting had free pizza and wine, which was awesome btw), and it made me want to get more involved with this group.  i along with another new comer volunteered to help out with the food bank volunteer event later in the year.  i thought the happy hour would be a great opportunity to meet more people and get to know the ones i’ve met better so that it won’t be so awkward at the next event.  i met a lot of new fellow alumni and had a great time talking to them.

switching gears, after happy hour i went to watch a documentry called ‘call + response’ with my small group.  the documentry (click on poster to view a video on cnn) was about human trafficing for slavery and sex, and it was actually fairly disturbing to learn about how human beings are still being used (i think the documentry said more than ever) for slavery all over the world.  it was especially disturbing to see kids being exploited and abused.  i’m sure i’ll learn more about in the coming weeks, and i look forward to finding out ways i can help.

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