No time...

for a real update today, but here are some recent photo albums from the past few weeks:

Google Holiday Party pictures here:

Thanks to Ah Young for coming from L.A...

SF Car Show pictures here:

If I ever become this guy, could someone please kick my ass? Thanks. Have a great week everyone.

Blogger On The Go!

In addendum to my previous post, you can also shoot and click with your camera phone and send directly to your blog. I'll try to take some interesting pictures and send them here periodically. One might ask, don't you have to live an interesting life to take interesting pictures? Therein lies the challenge...

A quick shot of my workspace; fun times...

AudioBlogger

Did you know that you can have "audio blog posts" on Blogger? A short sample clip I made below:

On a side note, not only do they eat our food, but they're also using one of their prdoucts (which looks suscpiciously similar to Local) to prank Google! It sucks being #2, doesn't it?

Disclaimer: All views expressed here are my own, and not that of my employer's.

New toy

So I've been talking about getting a mountain bike for a long time (since I moved into my apartment), but never got around to it. This weekend, I decided that it was time. I ended up picking up a Specialized Enduro Comp 130 (click "USA" if page asks)..

It's amazing how much bike technology has progessed since I was 14 years old and thought my Trek 800 Mountain Trail was the best thing since sliced bread. Things like hydraulic disc brakes and dual air suspension were unheard of back then.

I took it out on 10 mile rides on Saturday and Sunday. Overall, the bike rides well pretty much everywhere. On the road, it's civilized and on the trail, it plows through anything I can pedal through. The dual Fox suspension is good going both up and downhill (with front fork lock-out for uphill climbs).

I plan on riding into work whenever it's safe and dry (may be limited with winter now here). We'll see how that works out.

My sister sent me a painting she did for me a few months ago from Boston:

I decided the best place to hang it was above my headboard:


It's Sunday night, which means that tomorrow is Monday, which means that the grind must again begin. Have a great week.

Back from New York

Got back from New York last night. Overall, a good trip. Got a change of scenery, but it felt good to come back.

The good:

• Successfully accomplished what I went to do, project-wise.
  
• Saw old friends and met new ones.
  
• Got to spend some time with my parents.
  
• Experienced the circus that is Times Square for seven days straight (not necessarily good, but a good experience I guess) and also visited other parts of the city that I haven't been to in a long time.
  

The bad:

• It rained most of the time I was there.
  
• Not really bad, but unexpected; running into two of my ex-girlfriend's best friends at a bar.
• Feeling like I was in the Matrix every morning while walking from my hotel to the office; everyone looked so pissed off and inanimate.
  
• It rained most of the time I was there.
  

The following was sent to me by my father while I was in New York:
- - -
From: David Kim
To: Tae Kim
Subject: re may be your future partner

good morning tae!

her name: __________
e-mail: __________
tel(w): __________
cell: __________

she work in manhatton as fashion desiner in high brand company. she has a very excellant family back ground.

so if you can match w/her, your mom and dad will be happy.

but mosy important thing is you.. anyway take care of her vey nice.. also at very good restarrant. good luck my son.
- - -

If you've ever met my father, you know that he's a pretty funny guy, but this was next-level; "Good luck my son"?

A few pictures:

A blurry shot of Google NYC, 20th floor of 1440 Broadway.

Mistake #1: Neglecting the car's nav system.
Mistake #2: Letting my mother drive.

A rainy Times Square.

Welcome to the Matrix.

The entrance to my hotel, the Paramount.

View from my friend's apartment in NJ.

On a completely unrelated note, I had to steal this from Joyce's blog. No, this is not a joke; it's the real-deal-holyfield. Where was this site two and a half years ago?

And finally, I'd like to add that this sucks.

I am now

officially a citizen of the United States of America (as of 09/22/2005). I think I'll go run for president. Alright, I know that I can't technically become president because I'm not a "natural-born citizen." Chill out, I was only kidding. But hey, it's comforting to know that our country is currently in good hands otherwise:


I'll be working in New York city between the dates of October 7-16. The office and my hotel are in Times Square, so if you're going to be in the vicinity, let me know and we can do lunch/dinner/whatever.

For the next two weeks or so, sleep will unfortunately be overrated.

My mind has

been totally consumed by work lately; when I'm in the shower, I'm thinking about what has to be done for one launch, and while driving home, I'm going through a laundry list of outstanding issues for another. Relief should come in the form of the second week of October, when I plan to take a much needed vacation. For now, weekends are really good.

On a side note, hide your gym bags; they appear to be all the rage in the world of thievery these days (referencing one of my previous posts). My friend Kristina also got her gym bag stolen from her car. Has there been some sort of fitness revolution amongst all car thieves of the world? What the hell is going on?

If beauty could be portrayed through techno-marvel sandwiched between some clear-coat plastic and a thin metal plate, this would be it:

A random picture I took tonight while driving down El Camino Real. I still can't get over it. Northern California is beautiful. OK, maybe this scene looked cooler in person...

Have a great week everyone.

Bathroom etiquette

I went into the bathroom today at work and was pleased to find it empty (you'll know why in a bit). I proceeded to do my business when someone I know vaguely, but have absolutely no close working or personal relationship with starts using the urinal right next to me. I could feel him looking at me so I quickly glanced at him. He then greeted me with a "hey man." I responded with a quick "what's up." Much to my chagrin, he took me up on my rhetorical inquiry and initiated an in-depth conversation with me about his trite weekend, as if we were having beers and watching a Red Sox game at a bar off of University Ave. But no; we were in the bathroom, standing a foot away from each other taking a piss. Not the most appropriate or comfortable of places to be sharing details about your mountain biking excursion to Tahoe last Saturday. As I filled in my side of the conversation with a few "uh huh"s and "really?"s, I finished and proceeded to the sink, where he quickly joined me to resume the world's longest conversation ever. Hey, at least he washed his hands, which is more than I can say for about 30% of the general population (you sick bastards).

While I appreciated this guy's efforts to be friendly and kill the pest of a bug we know as Monday morning, I'll be using the stalls from now on.

For the effect...

Katrina...

Just one area of the devastation (toggle between the "Satellite" and "Katrina" buttons to see before and after). It's unbelievable how much of Louisiana is under water.

Sometimes it's easy to neglect the pain and suffering felt by those who are far away and continue to focus only on what is around us; things we can see. While I'm not sure how I feel about the whole race issue that has become intertwined with this already unfortunate situation, I do know that it is an issue. I credit Kanye, not necessarily for calling Bush out, but for stirring the pot.

Finally got...

a new phone



to replace my old one:


The most useful feature on the LG is that it has Bluetooth, which allows you to wirelessly connect it to various devices (ie. headsets, car speaker, etc). I got it with this, which I use in my car.

I was trying to find out whether the Ralph Lauren car show was going to come to San Francisco. It looks like it was only featured at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. I'm pretty disapointed I missed it, but I ordered the book (not nearly the same). Did anyone in Boston get to see this exhibit and if so, do you have any pictures?

Been one hell of a week. This weekend will be some much needed R&R time...

In retrospect...

things seemed much simpler back then; all you had to do was color within the lines and you were straight.

Been in a funk lately. I think it's mostly attributed to work. Although I just got back from Boston not too long ago, I feel the need to get away again for a bit. Don't get me wrong; I love the Bay Area. But I just need more of a break from routine.


I went to Alcatraz for a team offsite yesterday. Overall, a pretty cool experience and another thing to check off on my "things I've done in SF" list. Pictures here.

Anyone with a Gmail account who wants to try Google Talk(beta), click here. Add me if you want: tae dot kim at gmail dot com (formatted to ward off spammers).

Back from Boston

Prepare yourselves for what may quite possibly be the longest update in 'ele:mental' history...

My trip to Boston spanned six days. The primary purpose of my trip was to witness and be a part of the marriage of my older sister, Heidi. It was definitely an experience and to be honest, seeing how much work went into it makes me want to just run away with my (future) wife and get married under a tree or something. Either that, or just let the wedding planner do everything. At any rate, it was a beautiful wedding and everything turned out great. Congratulations to my sister and my now brother-in-law, James.


Birds-eye view of the bride.


Cake-cutting/feeding.


The bride with her parents.


Heidi and James.


L>R: Sam, best man Rob, Heidi, James, me, Mo.


The bride dancing with her father (sorry, blurry).


My cousins and I.


The newlyweds' car after a half-assed job of last minute decorating...

While in Boston, I was reminded of a few things:

• The weather sucks there. It was muggy and stuffy all day and night, with an occasional thunderstorm.
  
  
• People in Boston can't drive. The two most common characteristics of a Boston driver (a.k.a "Masshole"):
  
  
  
  • Swerving in and out of lanes (while often cutting people off) in an attempt to get three car lengths ahead to decrease total travel time by approximately 7 seconds.
    
    
  • When seeing a car ahead of you in the adjacent lane signaling to merge into your lane, don't slow down to make room for them, but rather speed up so that they have an iceberg's chance in hell of actually getting into the lane; then after passing them, merge into their lane triumphantly.
    

I also got a chance to see some old faces from Boston. I will eventually get all of you to move out to California, so just surrender now. It's only a matter of time...


Dim sum in Chinatown, Boston.


Bar on Comm. Ave. (KK, me, CIndy).


Pouring rain on Newbury St. Did I mention that it never rains in NorCal during the summer?


JetBlue should pay me for advertising; scenic mountain ranges.

I also got to see my pug, Joo-reum. He still loves to sniff flowers and then snort in delight.


JooReum often likes to chill out on on the patio.


Sticking out his tongue.


Looking deceptively innocent...

Finally, I brought back a souvenir from Boston. Here's a hint: it's loud, somewhat tenacious, and will often get you intoxicated on any given night out. If you're curious as to what "it" is, come out with us on Friday night.

To the person

who smashed through the passenger-side window of my car on Townsend St. in SF last night, I want to lay out a few things for you:

You must have mistaken my gym bag for something really expensive. Sorry to have misled you, but it was really just a gym bag. I wasn't trying to be crafty and hide my life savings in cash in there or anything like that. With that said, I truly hope you enjoy my unwashed gym clothes, sweaty weight lifting gloves, and dirty towel.

I also had one of my favorite track jackets in there. Although it will be missed, I hope that you're a narrow-minded American who hates Canada and all things related, since the jacket had a prominent Canadian flag on it. (No, I'm not pro-Canada, but it was a good conversation starter at parties. What can I say..)

You also got a pair of my jeans. I just washed them, so I hope they fit well. You can pick up where I left off in the process of trying to break them in. Sitting on the sidewalk and running from cops are a few things that you can do to expedite the process.

Congratulations on snagging my iPod Shuffle, though. That's probably the only thing you could pawn off for some real cash. Either that, or you could listen to the same 13 tracks from my "Gym" playlist until the battery runs out, since your sorry thieving ass probably doesn't own a computer that you could hook it up to. At any rate, I'm sure that if you "shuffle" the songs, they won't seem too repetitive. I hope you like the song "Eye of the Tiger."

Oh, and thanks for not stealing anything else of real worth in my car, like the navigation system, the radar detector, my sunglasses, digital camera, or the wad of cash in my glove-box. I know that some of your buddies find pleasure in breaking into cars to steal random and insignificant things like $3 quickie-mart sunglasses, burned CDs, and pennies from the ashtray, so who knows. Maybe you just really love going to the gym. Either way, I appreciate it.

It was also really cool of you to try to minimize the dispersion of glass shards in my car. I noticed that although glass was pretty much everywhere, you really made a conscious effort to keep the driver's seat clear of it so that if I had to drive to the police station at 4:30AM to file a report, injury to my ass, back, and neck would be kept to a minimum.

I think that's it...

Oh, and fuck you.

Heat

Yea, funny 'cause it's true.



It hit 101 degrees in south bay this weekend. :(

Bring on another week!

"EOW"

Yes, that stands for "end of week." One of many corporate acronyms, ie. "I'll have those internationalization spec sheets to you by EOW." Ever feel like this at work?:

My friend thinks that this guy's frustration stems from the fact that he's probably programming and getting syntax errors left and right; add to that, his inability to type with more than two fingers and you get one disgruntled engineer. I think he's just out of his freaking mind. You decide.

Anyways, Dashboard Widgets; I've come to love them. On OS X Tiger and even on XP. Some of them essentially do nothing and just look cool, while others have become indispensable. Give them a shot; they're cross-platform compatible.


Screenshot. 

Another thing I've come to appreciate: urbandictionary.com. Not only is it useful for looking up slang terms, but its also funny as hell. For example, I looked up the term "milkshake" because I've always wondered what the context of it's use was in that annoying-ass song by Kelis. Someone submitted the following:
. . .
Milkshake, (noun)

1. whipped iced dairy drink usually coming as chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry.
2. a girls body

1. Wow that milkshake from McDonald's was good.
2. (Kelis' song 'Milkshake')

"My whipped ice dairy drink brings the attention of many males to my place of residence and/or employment, and they declare that it's quality far surpasses that of yours. Absolutely, it far surpasses yours. I could convey to you the recipe, but I would have to demand monetary compensation."
. . .

If you know the song, you'll find the last paragraph to be a funny, articulate version of the chorus.

Ah, where would we be without the internet?

Contemplation

I was too tired (make that lazy) to cook last weekend, so I drove down Castro St. and hit up KFC on El Camino (healthy, I know). I parked my car and as I approached the door, there were two bums sitting on the curb. One of them looked at me and gave me a head nod. As I walked by, I asked him how he was doing. He replied by saying "you're doin' better than I am." It kind of caught me off guard, but I just continued walking. As I was ordering my meal, I thought about what the guy outside had said to me. It made me think. How easy was it for me to stroll in here, order food, pay for it, and leave? How hard would it be for the guy outside to do the same? Why was that the case?

As I was walking out, one of the guys was quick to start explaining to me that him and his buddy were just trying to get a BBQ chicken sandwich (I found it funny that he didn't just say that him and his buddy were trying to get some food. Instead he laid it out for me; this man wanted a BBQ chicken sandwich. No more, no less). I gave them a few dollars and went on my way.

That day, I was reminded of how lucky I am. If you're reading this, odds are, you're lucky too. Think about it.

Random: This has been going around. Pretty funny. Check out our version.)

Comcast sucks.

Here's why:

I've had to schedule four appointments for a tech to come replace my cable modem, because they flaked the first three times with no call or notice.

The fourth appointment was "scheduled," but when I called the day before to confirm, it didn't exist. Good thing I called.

Everytime I call 1-800-COMCAST, I find myself having to explain my problem to three different people before actually getting help. To some of the execs at Comcast, you may want to implement a little something called CRM. You probably covered it in one of the MBA classes you slept through.

After finally getting my fourth appointment scheduled, I noticed that my HD channels were also cutting in and out. I called again, hoping to have both problems addressed at the same time when the tech came. No such luck. They told me that they'd have to schedule yet another appointment for that, as it seems the techs are not cross-product trained. I asked if they could assign a "multi-talented" tech to this job. Should be interesting. Maybe he'll flake too!

And on a completely random note,

has anyone tried this drink? Good stuff. Picked some up at HanKook market last weekend. It has little chewy pieces of Aloe in it. Give it a shot.

Monday down...

Have you seen this?

Well, check this out. A very cool ad by VW. (.mov, 5.6MB)

Whew. Monday down, four more to go. I finally bought my ticket to go to Boston; I'll be flying out on 8/10 and returning on 8/16 (any volunteers for airport duty? Bueller?). My sister is getting married(!), which is the primary reason for my visit, but it'll be nice to see my family, friends, and dog while I'm there too.

My cable modem mysteriously died on me over the weekend (damn you, Comcast), so I've been gratuitously leaching a neighbor's unencrypted wireless signal for the past three days. Network SSID="NETGEAR"; you're a fool for leaving your network completely open and vulnerable, but I absolutely love you for it.
Mine is scheduled for repair tomorrow.

A little E46 love, courtesy of Junghyun.

X3 loaner

I took my 3 in for a regularly scheduled maintenance visit on Thursday. The dealer was really booked and asked if I could leave the car overnight, so I agreed under the condition that I get a loaner car until they finished. They obliged and gave me with an '04 X3 with the 2.5L engine, steptronic transmission, the Premium package, and 5,100 miles on it. Since I'm a car nut, here's a short review on the car:

Initial impressions:
When I first saw the X3 in an ad, I wasn't impressed. Any car that has that much plastic molding on it can't really be all that stylish. But like many of the newer BMWs, it does look better in person. And there's a factory kit you can put on it to replace the plastic molding with body colored molding, which makes a huge difference. The interior is ergonomically functional, but lacked the panache of other BMWs. However, I really liked the oversized moon-roof, which opened all the way back towards the rear seats.

The ride:
I was impressed with the ride. I drove one of these way back in high school, and it definitely drove like an SUV; lots of body lean and sway. The X3 handled like a car, despite the extra weight and higher ground clearance. The suspension glided smoothly over all road imperfections, and I even tested the Hill Descent Control option, which worked as intended.

Overall impressions:
This is a fun little SAV (Sports-Activity vehicle, as BMW calls it) with partial off-roading capabilities and most of the creature comforts you would need and expect in the X3's price range ($30,000-36,000). I would probably spring for the 3.0 liter engine with this car, as the 2.5 liter seems better mated with lighter BMWs such as the 3 series. After all is said and done, this would be a nice second car to have for weekend excursions up to Lake Tahoe.

Started brushing up

on my XML and Python knowledge this weekend, which has largely been unused since college. Maybe I'll post some mindless samples here as I go.

I was comparing some world maps this week and came upon some interesting distinctions between two methods of projecting a spherical map on a 2-dimensional plane; Mercator Projection and Cylindrical Equidistant projection.

Mercator projection uses the latitude and longitude coordinates (φ and λ, respectively) of a point/location to determine the x and y coordinates on the map using the following equation:

Cylindrical Equidistant projection is more simple, with linear functions (lat == y, lon == x).

Like most map projection methods, Mercator projection suffers the fate of stretching or distortion of land-mass far from the equator (ultimately, geographic accuracy diminishes as you get closer to the poles). As a result, Russia looks ginormous.

On a completely unrelated note, I saw Batman Begins last weekend. Great movie. Go watch it in IMAX at Metreon (SF) if you can. One thing I noticed; while the new Batmobile is pretty badass, what's up with the styling? Aesthetically, it goes against Batman's persona: sleek and stealth. A quick contrast and comparison between the new Batmobile and the original:

New:
- Looks like a desert storm tank
- Can bash through concrete walls
- Despite it's un-stealth frame, it has a "stealth mode"
- Like the original, it has a jet-turbine engine

Original:
- Powered by a jet-turbine engine
- Can't bash through concrete walls
- Is the perfect extension to Batman himself

Verdict: Bring back the old Batmobile.

I think I need a vacation. Location suggestions welcome. Maybe Venezia again, but this time for more than three days. Tokyo sounds nice right now too.

(w00t: fully indexed).

Got pulled over...

again last night, near Cupertino while trying to get onto 85-N (second time since getting my car). Not knowing which de-facto law I had broken this time, I calmly got my driver's license, ownership title, and insurance papers ready for the cop. He told me that I waited too long to turn right at a red light and followed me to the highway, "just in case." Translation: he wanted to make sure that the car wasn't stolen. The interesting thing about California is that new car owners can go months without plates because the CA DMV is so efficient like that. So I've been driving without any plates for about a month now and have been pulled over twice, on both occasions being rudely interrogated on the ownership of the car. No, he didn't write me a citation and yes, he was just doing his job, but damnit, cops irritate me.


Plateless, but not lawless.

To every cop aimlessly wandering the streets of Mountain View (or any other town where three patrol cars per two city blocks is completely unnecessary), just because you bear the ridiculous combination of a badge and nothing to do, I request that you stop making everyone's commute that much more unenjoyable. You were that pimple-faced tough guy in middle school who barely graduated to high school, where you ridiculed the geeks, only to again graduate (barely) and found yourself too stupid to get into college and too prideful to go anywhere else. Wow, you made it to the Police Academy whereupon graduating, you could continue to give people shit for no good reason and maintain legality. Congratulations. Thank you for "serving and protecting," all the while exercising the concept of probable cause analogously to your dog taking a piss on your living room carpet.

I saw...

some preliminary pictures of the new 3 Series coupe and contrary to my opinion of the 2005 3 sedan, it's beautiful. Kind of makes me wish I waited, but I still love the E46 coupe design.

... Pretty.

... Back looks like a Kia.

I think the coupe above is actually a mock-up of the new, up-and-coming M3 (or M4?). BMW may change their naming scheme so that all coupes are even numbers (i.e, the current 2 and 6 series) and all sedans are odd numbers (i.e, the current 3, 5, and 7 series). You're right; who cares.

Either way, if BMW can improve upon their current in-line 6 cylinder engine (one of the smoothest engines I've ever driven), the new 4 coupe should be a winner.

I think my love for cars and fascination with engines stems largely from my father. He's always been interested in cars and when I was 16 years old, he purchased a beat up 1973 Corvette, had its huge 450 HP big-block engine completely rebuilt and the entire car fully restored. It looked something like this, but white. Being the little 16 year old punk that I was, I snuck out with the car one night in the rain, crashed it, and single-handedly crushed my father's mid-life crisis dream. My hope is to one day be able buy my father a new C5 Corvette as a replacement.

My dream job? To design some of the bodywork for a leading European auto manufacturer. But in the meantime, you can check out PA:Tech, a mock-up of my soon-to-be company. ;)

I'll confess...

I watched "The Classic" (a sappy Korean drama flick) last night. My friend Young picked it up for me in SF this past weekend. Overall, it was alright, but nothing to write home about. I give it a 3/5 (2 points deducted for excessively cheesy scenes and the lack of an attractive female cast). If you want to see a good Korean movie, go watch "Tae Guk Ki."

I've been trying hard lately to understand women's obsession with handbags/purses. It's a *purse*, yet you'll pay an excess of $1,000 for it? I have a few friends who own numerous such accessories and it boggles my mind. Am I missing something? Here's what can you get for $1,000:

- Eight very good dinners for two at Forbes Steak house
- 1/3 payment on a 42" plasma television
- A nice, mid-model swiss engineered and assembled watch
- Countless Double-Double's (with a strawberry milkshake) at In-n-Out

The list goes on. Can someone explain this to me before I, for whatever reason, start dating a woman who will ultimately despise me for not understanding her love of the handbag? Well, I probably don't have too much to worry about, since my ideal woman would just carry her possessions in a tacky fanny pack bearing the logo of the Silicon Valley hi-tech company she worked for on it (just kidding, kind of...).

Been too busy

to post regularly here, but I guess I'll just run through a few updates:

I finally bought and installed OS X Tiger on my 17" iMac last week (soon to be installed on my 15" Al.PowerBook). In a nutshell, the upgrade was a subtle one. No significant changes to the UI and the only noticeable features at this point are Widgets, Spotlight, and Automator. A few screenshots for the 2% of people who actually care:





I'm learning to embrace the bad luck that's been plaguing my life lately. Yet another unfortunate event: I came home from the city tonight at around 7pm. I started settling in when I realized that one of my watches was missing from the top of my dresser. I distinctly remembered looking at it and deciding not to wear it before I left my apartment on Saturday afternoon. I spend the night in the city at a friend's, come back on Sunday night and it's gone. Since $1,500 Raymond Weil watches don't just grow legs and walk away, it leads me to believe that maintenance or management may have been in here, since the door was locked securely when I got back. I turned my apartment upside down looking for it, but I'm starting to realize that I should just count my losses and move on. Upon speaking to my mother (from whom the watch was a gift), she provided me with some much needed perspective on the situation in the form of a gentle reminder that there are many other things in life that weigh much heavier on the heart, and that I should just let it go. Of course, she's right, but I loved that watch. :(

Stuff happens, life goes on, and Monday morning is just around the corner. Have a great week, everyone.