Archive for February, 2009

v-day

february 14, 2009

ah~ valentine’s day- the fabricated holiday that gives us, men, no choice but to buy gifts for our lady friends. the media makes sure we’re provided with plenty of potential gifts… lucky us. but unlike the american valentine’s day, the korean version is if anything, a bit more fun. we took this american tradition one step farther (or in this case 11 steps farther, albeit i’ve only seen white day and black day observed).

a briefly summary or the korean valentine’s day from wikipedia:

“In South Korea, women give chocolate to men on February 14, and men give non-chocolate candy to women on March 14. On April 14 (Black Day), those who did not receive anything on the 14th of Feb or March go to a Chinese restaurant to eat black noodles and “mourn” their single life. Koreans also celebrate Pepero Day on November 11, when young couples give each other Pepero cookies. The date ’11/11′ is intended to resemble the long shape of the cookie. The 14th of every month marks a love-related day in Korea, although most of them are obscure. From January to December: Candle Day, Valentine’s Day, White Day, Black Day, Rose Day, Kiss Day, Silver Day, Green Day, Music Day, Wine Day, Movie Day, and Hug Day.”

‘although most of them are obscure‘? OBSCURE?! i think this would be considered a personal opinion, and should be deleted from the wikipedia entry… as soon as i take the CFP exam, i shall find out a way how ^________^. besides, in my personal opinion it’s more like awesome.

i did a quick search to find exactly what happens on these special 14th day of the month in korea:

january 14th – diary day
couples are meant to give each other a diary or year planner books. a ”diary” in korea is not a personal journal, it refers to a small portable calender/notebook.

february 14th – valentine’s day
women give chocolate to men

march 14th – white day
men give candy to women

april 14th – black day
singles get together and eat jja jjang myun – a black bean noodle

may 14th – yellow day
aka curry day

————————————————————————————————————

i’ve actually never heard of the following traditions… but we’ll find out through the course of 2009.

june 14th – kiss day
i suppose this is rather self explanatory…

july 14th – silver day
couples supposedly exchange gifts made of silver.

august 14th – green day
couples supposedly dress in green; singles drink soju (which come in green bottles)

september 14th – music day
aka nrb day

october 14th – apple day/wine day
ok… which is it, sa-ga (meaning apple and apology) or wine day?

november 14th – movie day

december 14th – hug day

happy valentines day everybody

promotion indeed

february 6, 2009

as it turns out, i guess i was doing something right at work because i was promoted a few weeks ago. today marked the first week in my promoted position, and i must say it feels very good to be here. i read somewhere that successful people tend say they’ve been lucky, and the unsuccessful tend to blame bad luck. not to say that i’m successful or anything like that but i sure feel lucky right now, especially in these current economic conditions.

with the new position being in palo alto, it would be a lie to say waking up at 6am hasn’t been a struggle… especially with my cold lingering around, strongly refusing to go away (my snot looks like corn chowder btw). even on wednesdays when i work out of the sf office, i seem to find myself waking up at 6am, an hour before my alarm setting. what’s weird is today, i woke up at 5am, an hour before my 6am alarm setting. how do you explain that?! o____O that’s right, you can’t.

anyway… my original intention was to study on the 45 minute ride down the caltrain, but i’ve been sleeping for… say… 40 minutes for most of the time. not only am i not sleeping, i almost missed my stop once. my train down is the bullet train making limited stops; the train i’d have take back north would not be a bullet train stopping at every stop. it’s inevitable, it’s going to happen sooner or later. i’ve already warned my bosses here that i will call from moutain view (the next stop on the bullet caltrain) one day, and that i will be very late this day.

the quality of assignments and the trust bestowed by the managers and partners (ill-advised or not) has been overwhelmingly rewarding here. i also get an opportunity to look at each client more in depth because the office is smaller relative to the sf office, and that has given learning opportunities hard to come by in sf. i think it’s also fair to say that i get a little more attention when it comes to training because i’m the sole administrator here, as opposed to a team of administrators in sf.

the upcoming cfp exam is still my main priority… and as it nears (t-42 days, yikes!) i’m beginning to feel a sense of urgency and pure panic. with the rewards that come with passing, and the dismal and depressing penalties of failing… i really hope i pass… as obama used to say, ‘yes we (i) can’. he has since turned to other words like… “disaster“, “state of emergency“, “sobering“. hopefully i can stay away from such words for like… ever.

(all my bags are packed, i’m ready to go~! i also look, like i just got let go~! :0)

(from the busy streets of downtown sf to…)

(…the quiet palo alto office)

fail

january 31, 2009

what not to do:

on saturday, being determined to study despite my stupid cold, i made my way out to a nearby startbucks. my study only lasted about a hour because my nose was running uncontrollably, and i felt like i was bothering the crap out of everybody.

unwilling to let a silly cold stop me from my studies… i went back home and got ready to study at work since the office would be empty. i hopped on the bus only to realize i forgot my building card, got off the bus, walked back home. found the building card, hopped back on the bus, got to work… only to realize my card didn’t work on the elevators that day. called the building people, activated my card, got to work… only to realize i left my keys back home while picking up my building card. hopped back on the bus, went home, and just stayed there.

fail.

airborne discovered; fully loaded friday

january 30, 2009

today i discovered airborne- an amazing product that helps boost your immune system with an overload of vitamins. a few days ago when i felt the initial symptoms of a cold, i drank some chocolate milk in hopes that the it will somehow help. to my disappointment, it didn’t.

then today a friend introduced me to airborne, at which point i ran to walgreens and got myself a pair (buy one get one half off…).

(airborne!)

(hah! 1667% of vitamin c as a % of daily value. i’m most certain that my body was unable to absorb 90% of the vitamin c that i consumed through airborne… but it never hurts to try huh?)

(conveniently packed to take anywhere!)

(inconvenient tablets that have to be dissolved in water)

so did it work? i felt somewhat better friday, but not much better the next day. hopefully it’ll help more if i take it earlier next time.

the whole purpose of taking airborne was to get better quick in hopes of hitting the books again. a side purpose was to feel better for lezlee’s birthday party at la lola, a relatively new tapas restaurant in the city. it’s always fun to take part in birthday celebrations. i missed the big one in LA last week so i was happy to be part of this one in SF. it was also nice to see lezlee and friends whom i haven’t seen since 2008!

(la lola had some delicious sangria’s)

(this was one delicious cake)

for 2 차 , we headed over to the foggy part of town aka ‘daly city’ for some good old bowling. the first game was a bit frustrating as i couldn’t mark any frames, but the second game turned out to be my personal best at 222. how’d i get there? i dunno… but i probably got a performance boost from airborne, bud light, and the nickname ‘coolyoungsukit’.

(did i mix airborne in beer?! psh, that would just be stupid. these to-go powder pixies required no water. i drank the beer right after the pixies, so i might as well have mixed it in the beer though… )

(how i got to 5 strikes… nearly a flawless start!)

(how it ended…)

(the result; might i add… the split on the 10th frame was no easy cookie to pick up)

the nrb was our destination for 3 차. 2 hours were not enough to belt out all our favorite songs… but the nrb was packed and we couldn’t extend our stay. it was a very fun day all around and a welcomed break from all the studying.

(that’s right folks… now everybody can sing boa’s first american single ‘eat you up’ at nrb)

daniel lee