Confessions of a Korean-American Man in New York City

Someone explain it to me like I'm a 4th grader

2008-11-10T17:04:00.000-08:00

Long time I know but it's been a busy year with many ups and downs, but hopefully I'll be able to write out some thoughts. With that said, I'm in London right now. Over a couple of beers with a friend who resides here and works in finance, we chatted about the worst financial catastrophe since the great depression. At the micro level, I've lost 30% of my 401(k) just in Ocotber alone. Ugh! Anyway, I asked my friend to explain to me why the remaining banks are going to distribute bonuses! For what! So the government is bailing out these banks by providing funding, and in turn they're refusing to do actually what the bailout funds were intended to do and that was to stimulate lending. And on top of that, they're giving out bonuses! Wait a minute! Doesn't that mean money is essentially being transfered to the rich bankers from the government? And the banks response for providing bonuses is that they will lose talent. What! To what? There is no need to worry about losing talent because there are no more wall street jobs. Where are they going to go? 7-11? Now I'm not sure if this is true but I hear the Lehman folks who were absorbed by Barclays are promised to get the same bonsues from the previous year - which was a bonanza last year - to ensure they remain with the company. Doh! The people who are getting bonuses are the same people who got us into this turmoil? And also were rewarded years earlier for such bets. So they got paid big time in previous years and they're getting bailed out and getting a bonus again. Someone explain this to me like I'm a 4th grader.

Anthony Kim is the winner

2008-05-04T14:59:00.001-07:00

That's pretty awesome that Anthony Kim won a PGA tour event as a 22yo. That's real impressive.

Encountering Time's 100 Most Influential People

2008-05-04T13:40:00.001-07:00

Time magazine's annual 100 most influential people list was released this weekend and I quickly scanned the list. It's funny how along the way I've encountered closely or remotely some of these folks.

Elizabeth Gilbert - She wrote the book "Eat Pray Love" - an autobiographical journey after her divorce. I had lunch with her about a year ago before she exploded in popularity. She was incredibly humble and enlightening who emitted a positive light. She made me realize that after a traumatic event like divorce, you can find love again and live life even better.

Mehmet Oz - He's the new Dr. Phil or the current doctor on the Oprah Winfrey show. He's a world famous heart surgeon and the author of many consumer health books. A couple years ago, I was a keynote speaker at a conference and he was the other keynote speaker. At the time, I did not know who he was until someone at work told me that he's a famous doc on the Oprah Winfrey show.

Larry Brilliant - The good doctor heads up Google.org, the philanthropy arm of some search engine. Without revealing much, I've had some direct interactions related to some initiatives.

Chris Rock - This would be in the remote category as in I just saw him perform at MSG this past Thursday night. He's still got it. Usually a comic's best stuff is from his earlier years but the man is still going strong. He didn't have to dip into the archives to keep the laughs going. I was impressed by how contemporary his stuff was which means he's a comic genius. His delivery was classic.

Hopefully I'll get on the list in the next decade.

An unbelievable and masterful weekend

2008-04-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

The night before I was to travel to Augusta, GA for the Masters, Darko said to me he did not envy me; he'd rather stay home and watch it. To my surprise, it ended up being one of the most memorable weekends that I'll remember for a very long time. So what happened? This is an abridged and edited version to protect the innocent.

I would call this the ultimate guys weekend, minus playing golf. I arrived in Augusta late Thursday morning and I didn't know what to expect of the weekend; I only knew of the agenda. I was told that there would be car service at any time during the whole weekend, but I didn't realize that I'd be zipping through Augusta in Land Rovers. We headed over to the house that was rented out - located in Jones Creek. It's very common to rent out houses and not stay in hotels during Masters week. Next door to our house was the Ernie Els compound. I call it that because he and his posse rented out 8 homes in the cul-de-sac by us. There were flags and pictures of him on the front lawn of his house. After all my guests had arrived at the house, we headed out to Augusta National for the first round. My initial thoughts of Augusta National is that it's pure green carpet and MUCH harder than what you see on TV. I saw so many guys struggle with the basic 2-3 foot comebacker. The greens are super slick, but that's not the only thing that makes it hard. There's no flat area - the place is so hilly and undulating - and it's a real long course. There really is no rough because they cut the grass short, but if there was US Open type rough, this course would be impossible and the scores would be in the 80s for sure. When you walk in, you feel that it's a special place. The fairways are beautiful and the long skinny trees that extend along the fairways are perfectly aligned. Part of me hated watching the golf because I wanted to run out there and tee off because the course was so inviting. Augusta National is a very large venue that happens to be located in a sleepy town. When you think about it, the Masters is their one week business plan that pays for the rest of the year. There were Escalads and vans everywhere, moving guests and people from one place to another. There were parties at night and most of them occurred on Friday evening. I even heard that they fly in strippers for the weekend because this place is a bit remote.

On Thursday I walked the course just to take it all in. We spent a couple of hours at the 16th hole, the famous par 3 where Tiger chipped a ball that took a v turn and rolled down to the cup. If you ever go, it has one of the best sight lines on the course. The other two places that you must go to are Amen corner and the 18th hole on a Sunday. We left late Thursday and headed back to the house to wash up and have dinner. A private chef was flown in to cook us meals for the 4 days we were there, and she was very good. At night, we went out to the patio and smoked cigars and drank some very fine wine. The conversation was wildly entertaining with a lot of guy talk.

Friday is when the fun really began. We started off leisurly and walked the course, but found ourselves situated in Amen Corner for most of the day. So another nice and fun day of watching the best golfers in the world. At night, we actually gave our chef the night off and told her we were heading out to someone's house for dinner. Little did I know that I would be bumping into Trevor Immelman - the leader going into the weekend and the ultimate Master's champion.

The next day was very cool because we toured the clubhouse and bumped into more golfers (and their pretty wives). Tiger's wife was there with child, rooting on for her hubby. I actually saw her on the course later that day following Tiger with an entourage of women. At the clubhouse, we drank Azaleas - the famed drink that only members and guests have access to - on the upstairs patio in the clubhouse. A member - there are only 300 - invited us to tour Butler Cabin and have cocktails. This was very special because no one is allowed into Butler Cabin. It was great because we learned about the history of Augusta, its traditions and some funny stories. What's Butler Cabin? It's most known for the ceremonial awarding of the Green Jacket to the Master's champ. Interestingly, the ceremony actually occurs in the basement. While we're having drinks and learning about the great tradition of Augusta, we were able to relax and watch the tournament on TV.

On Sunday, we thoroughly enjoyed the entire day, even though we were mightily hungover. You could feel the tension and excitement at Augusta. Would Tiger roar back to win? Could Immelman and the other golfers in front of Tiger maintain a gap. In the end, Immelman deserved to win because he made more shots than the rest of the field. The crowds were pulling for Tiger and hoping that the field in front of him would come back to make it an exciting finish. Everytime a score was posted, you would either hear groans or cheers. When someone bogeyed or double bogeyed, the crowds just moaned loudly. When Tiger got a birdie, the crowd rejoiced. We sat down at Amen Corner for most of the day, where we witnessed Ames hole out with his approach shot for an eagle and the long 70-foot putt by Tiger on 11. For 45mins, we took a nap along the 15th fairway because we were so hungover and tired. We woke up because a herd of people almost trampled us because a ball had landed a few feet away from us. We returned to Amen corner to watch a few more groups pass through. Afterwards, we walked to the 18th hole and found our seats, which were situated in row 4 among the throngs of chairs - probably 50+ deep. We watched the 2nd half of groups come to the 18th until Trevor made the final putt of the tournament to take home the coveted green jacket. In the end, it was one of the most enjoyable experiences. There are other things I had to leave out because of certain reasons, but they made the weekend even more eventful. If only I could share.

If you ever have an opportunity to go to the Masters, just do it.

Leona Lewis is a babe

2008-04-27T19:01:00.001-07:00

Elite Korean Schools, Forging Ivy League Skills

2008-04-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

Interesting article in today's New York Times about Korean prep schools getting kids into Ivy League schools. Currently the #1 emailed article from NYtimes.com.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/world/asia/27seoul.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Please don't stop the music

2008-04-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

I'm listening to Rihanna and I luv her music. It gets me into such a groove that I want to go out dancing. So I was going to write about the Masters but I need to edit what I'm going to write because there's a lot I can't share. More to come on that.

Last night I went to dinner at Spice Market - not on my list of favorites. Actually, I don't like it much except for the cocktails. I came slightly early and ordered a goose martini - extra dirty. Oh, as a side note, Tiger's favorite cocktail is Goose Cranberry. By the time my party had arrived, I had completely consumed my martini. We got seated upstairs. If you have a chance, head downstairs because it's a little more private. The decor is kinda cool but the food's not that fabulous. I was with 5 ladies and to provide some guidance, I recommended the tasting menu which was probably our best bet. I don't remember all the dishes but I do remember it was 5 dishes with 10 flavors. We had a nice reisling paired to the tasting menu. Afterwards, I walked home with a friend and she said I was drunk. Damn. I hate it when I'm to obvious. I gotta stop because it's killing me.

Does it get any better than this

2008-04-13T20:32:00.001-07:00

I'm exhausted from one of the best weekends. I want to write but I'm way to tired. I'll write more tomorrow. So what was so great about it? Well, I was hangin' with Trevor Immelman on Friday. Who dat? The guy who won the Masters today! Well done Trevor, well done!

The biggest choke job since Phil at the US Open

2008-04-08T19:18:00.000-07:00

I am ashamed to say that I did one of the greatest choke jobs of all time. It doesn't get much worse than this kids. I had a 3 shot lead - usually an insurmountable lead for Darko to overcome - heading into the 3rd and final day for the crown of "3 Day Champ." I started out by birdieing the first hole and took a commanding 5 shot lead with Darko's bogey on the same hole. Then the Golf gods began to humble me as I lost my 5 stroke lead with the next 7 holes - 3 shots coming off a disasterous triple bogey on a simple par 3 because I couldn't get it out of the beach. We were all tied up heading into the final 9 holes. I managed a 2 shot lead by the 16th hole and felt very comfortable down the stretch. Then came the fateful 18th and FINAL hole of the 3 day tourney. I heard my caddie say to me, keep it left because it's a disaster on the right. I took an overly aggressive line to the left because I was fading it all day. I pulled my drive hard left and hit a palm tree and ended up 20 yards in front of the tee. For my second shot, I had a difficult angle going diagonally across the fairway and over a bunker to set up for the approach shot which was over water. My caddie said you gotta take that line over the bunker so get all of it. I mishit my second shot in attempting to exert as much strength to get over the bunker. That shot hit ANOTHER tree because I pulled my ball again. UGH!!! What a disaster. I never hit a palm tree on any hole all week and on the final hole of the tourney, I managed to hit 2 palm trees and lost by one shot in the end. This was a Phil Mickelson from the US Open a couple years ago. This was worse than how Memphis lost last night. We both had it in the bag but we both lost it and now I'm the 3 day chump. I had to hear Darko reminde me that he's the 3 day champ all the way back to NYC from Jamaica. That's the pain I have to endure until the next tourney. Shoot me now!

Ahhhh the Masters

2008-04-08T19:13:00.000-07:00

I'm heading out to the Masters Golf tournament on Thurs AM. If you don't know what it is, it's the first major golf tournament of the year and it's always played on hallowed ground: Augusta National. So the party I'm with is there for 4 days. We rented out some estate and have a private chef and conceriege for the entire weekend. Talk about a decadent weekend. Even better than just attending the Masters, a member of Augusta National invited a few of us for a private tour and drinks. Should be fun seeing Tiger, Retief and the gang again. I wonder if they'll remember me from Tavistock?

Why lie to myself

2008-04-08T18:57:00.000-07:00

After vacation, I was thinking that I need to get off the drink. So I'm IMing with a friend yesterday and I told her that I'm going to stop drinking or at least try to slow it down. Why lie or fool myself. Last night I was out at Buddakan for dinner. Soon as I arrived, I went to the bar and my first drink wasn't a lime soda, but their "Classic" whisky drink. Damn. I'm either weak or I'm simply in denial. Ugh! I hate this about myself.

Well, dinner was pretty good. I like the original Buddakan in Philly and I've recently warmed up to the Baddakan in NYC. The inside decor is pretty cool with the long shared table. It was hoppin' for a Monday night. Our party was fairly large, so we asked the waiter to order everything for us. We started off immediately with the edamame dumplings which is their special - a definite must eat. We ate other yummy appetizers: Hoisin Glazed Pork Belly (yum!) and Taro Puff lollipops. Before we even got to the main entrees, I was almost full from the Boneless Spare Ribs and Chili Rock Shrimp. I was trying to pace myself. I love Asian food because of all the sampling you can eat. The main entree was the Szechuan Ribeye, Charred Filet of Beef, Glazed Alaskan Black Cod and the hard to eat Crispy Dungeness Crab. I finished off dinner with the Crying Chocolate and Chocolate peanut butter bombe with a glass of Macallan 18. I went home very satisfied but exhausted. Yesterday was so tiring at work and to finish it off with a full meal just put me straight to bed. I barely woke up this morning.

Forget the pipe dream

2008-04-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

Ok. I spent significant time with dollar, his wife and child. I was not prepared to watch a kid 24/7. Being a parent is hard work. It was like hot potato or pass the baton (baby). You can't let a 9month old out of your sight. It was just exhausting watching them. I'm definitely not ready for kids..... that pipe dream crumbled after spending time with dollar and his child.

Blackjack

2008-04-04T16:03:00.001-07:00

Hopefully we'll get to the local casino in town so we can roll the dice. I've been itching for another Vegas run. Ever since the hosts in Vegas got my name, I've received a few calls the last few weeks asking if I want to come back for this and that. So one night last week, I decided to call and they said any weekend, come on down and we'll set you up with room and tickets.

Anyway, I'm thinking of blackjack because I saw the movie "21" last weekend. I don't really play it much anymore but watching it just made me want to go to Vegas. It's true about Vegas: you can be anyone you want to be. It's also a place where you can do a lot more than you'd risk in NYC. I'm sure someone from Peoria said that about NYC once. Ahhhhh Vegas. There's gambling, golf and girls. Oh yeah, and the food is pretty good there as well.

Ivy of the stars

2008-04-04T15:37:00.000-07:00

I was in LA recently and decided to go to the Ivy for dinner. It wasn't my choice of restaurants but a friend who reads US Weekly like it's the Bible wanted to go. It's an old school restaurant on N. Robertson in LA that a lot of celebs eat at. We arrived by car service because we wanted to drink and not drive. I was with two white girls who just happen to be attractive: both were tall and skinny. Soon as we got out of the car, there were immediate stares from the patio dining area. I'm guessing people thought I rented these girls out or I was some son of an Asian conglomerate executive. Ahhhhhh LA! So you'd think that it would be posh inside, but when you walk in it's like Aunt Millie's home. It's very homey with a lot of AARP folks dining - many with stretched out botox faces. Sorry folks, no celebs when I was dining there. The food was good and I went for the king: the lobster. That was fulfilling for the night. After 2 bottles of wine and a 3 hr dinner, we retired back to my hotel for a nightcap. ;)

Island breezes

2008-04-04T15:22:00.001-07:00

What is it about island breezes and the clear blue waters of the Caribbean? I'm staring out into the waters, watching the waves come onto shore and I also hear the sound of the wind hitting the palm trees. You would think I would be mindless and numb, but it gives me pause to think about a lot of things; just not at a NY pace. I think about how old I am and where I've been, what I've done, who I've been with and where I want to go. Do you have the same thoughts? Someone once said to me that when they come to work, they wish they were the person cleaning up the cafeteria because it requires no thinking. It's because work can be so laborious that they want to just for a day, come in and not have to think and just do what's required of them.

When you walk around here, the word "man" (pronounced mon)is said after each phrase: Yah man, no man, thank you man. I've been drinking so much red stripe and rum punch that one of the guests at the house said to me at dinner, "__ you drink a lot." Yeah, I know. I have a problem and it's something I've been trying to fix since I was 14. Can you blame me? They say kids who begin drinking before 21 have a significant chance of becoming alcoholics. I'm living proof. Apparently the rum punch has been good for my game because I gained 2 more strokes on Darko today. I shot a miserable 93 and he a 95: that's a 3 stroke lead going into the final day. If I lose tomorrow, I should just leave my clubs down here and take up a new sport.

Gooooooooooooal

2008-04-03T19:12:00.000-07:00

http://view.break.com/481101 - Watch more free videos

Yah Man

2008-04-03T18:31:00.001-07:00

That's the traditional response you hear from the Jamaicans, "yah man." We played 18 holes on the Robert Trent Jones designed course at Half Moon Bay, and played horribly. The reason why I'm sunburned is because I spent so much time in the beach (AKA bunkers). The sand is soft but I needed to shovel my way out because my sand technique has gotten so poor. My caddie kept saying to me, "yah man", all day. He was a good caddie because he was funny and he also made me attempt shots that were counterintuitive. There were several times where I had the option to punch out or lay up, and he'd say just go over the trees, or hit through the trees or just flop it over the sand. Playing this way was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, my tendency to find the sand traps lead me to a 98 on the score card. I haven't see that high of a number in ages. The course here is challenging because there are a lot of well placed traps and the winds make you take 2 clubs extra on certain shots. The winds are stronger here because it's a very open course with winds coming off the Caribbean. Darko was happy to break 100 with a score of 99.

Afterwards, we chilled at the pool and I just sat in the shallow area drinking rum punch and red stripe beer. I've been downing them like they're going out of style in Jamaica. After lunch, we headed out towards the airport to hop on some wave runners. The area was pretty limited but we were able to hit some good speed as we zipped back and forth along the shore line.

Man I'm tired. Tomorrow it's a repeat.

Planet B-boy Korea

2008-04-03T18:25:00.001-07:00

Half Moon Bay Villa

2008-04-02T18:08:00.001-07:00

Jammin'

2008-04-02T17:03:00.001-07:00

Jammin' in Jamaica

2008-04-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

Ooh, yeah! All right!
We're jammin':
I wanna jam it wid you.
We're jammin', jammin',
And I hope you like jammin', too.

Ain't no rules, ain't no vow, we can do it anyhow:
I'n'I will see you through,
'Cos everyday we pay the price with a little sacrifice,
Jammin' till the jam is through.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh here I am down at Half Moon Bay in Jamaica. I knew I was in the right place as I laid still on the beach chair staring up at the clear blue sky, and only hearing the wind blown palm trees making sounds. Darko did it again by renting an entire villa for the rest of the week. This thing reminds me of a Hamptons home but in a Jamaican way. We have a private maid, a butler and a cook 24/7. This is kinda ridiculous. And they also will do your laundry every day. I am truly jammin' in Jamaica.

The airport in Montego Bay was much nicer than Rio and better than expected -- relatively clean. I've been all over the Caribbean and they got it right here. Soon as stepped into the arrival lobby, there was the very nice Half Moon Bay office and they were ready with hand towels and cold bottled drinks before we were escorted to the Half Moon Bay compound. I say compound because it's 400 acres of self contained amenities. We travel by golf carts from one place to another: commissary, beaches, restaurants, shopping, etc. It's a little municipality. However, it doesn't really give me the full Jamaican cultural experience except for the meals cooked by our local chef. This place makes you want to not think and smoke a joint. They told us that the butler also acts as a concierge so he should be able to make reservations and provide for you in almost any way. Can he get us some good weed? Ha!

So we relaxed by the pool and ran along the beach. There's more peeps coming tomorrow so things should liven up more. The next 3 days are on the golf course. Who will be the 3 day champ or chump?

Tavistock Cup

2008-04-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

Last week I went to the Tavistock Cup. What's that?! It's an exclusive golf tournament for members of Isleworth CC and Lake Nona CC -- the clubs where Tiger and Ernie Els belongs. It's a 2 day event between the two country clubs and represented by professionals that belong to those clubs. It's a rather neat and very well organized event. Neat because it's a private event and it's for pride. So Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Chris DiMarco, Annika Sorenstan, Paula Creamer and others compete for pride and for charity. There's really no ropes so I ended up walking with Tiger on the fairway, and stood next to him for most of the round. That's crazy because if you've ever gone to a professional golf tournament, you have no shot of getting near Tiger unless you're standing along the pathway from one hole to another. The whole day I was in hand shaking distance to Tiger! Unbelievable just from that standpoint. The other cool thing was that half the people there were members of the CC so the professionals knew a good number of the attendees so there was actual chit chatting here and there with the attendees. You'd never see that at a regular tournament. The other (that's me) were invited guests of the members or sponsors.

Along the way, I found myself standing next to Chris Tucker - Jackie Chan's partner in the Rush Hour series. Chris was a cool guy and a gentlemen. We chatted for about 10 mins or two holes as we followed Tiger. He's a huge Tiger fan. He was just like anybody else in the crowd, walking with him and trying to situate himself in the right place around the greens. What did we talk about? Just guy talk. "Do you think he's going to make this?" "OH yeah, this is home course. Tiger makes all these putts." By the 18th hole, I saw Ricky Running Watters - ex 49er and Eagle running back. He was decked out in a silk Asian robe - he's a member of Isleworth and lives in the community.

It was a fun event and you had to wear either red or blue to support the country club: Lake Nona or Isleworth. The event is first class, yet relaxed. I was probably the ONLY Korean person there. I can count the number of Asians on one hand who were present. I bring this up because no one recognized Chris Tucker because his movie is not the demographic of the majority in attendance. Btw, I wore blue because I was a guest of someone who is friends with Retief, who belongs to Lake Nona. The players were so chill when you met them. They joked around and were nice to everyone. I would say this event was much more enjoyable than a regular golf tournament because the players are very accessible and talkative, and there are less people in attendance. To be able to walk with Tiger on the fairway is simply amazing.

This is one evil baby

2008-04-01T22:21:00.001-07:00

Park Avenue Spring

2008-04-01T22:11:00.000-07:00

Last night I had to run uptown to the East Side for a dinner at Park Avenue Spring. First of all, I had never heard of the place nor had any of my friends, but it was a work dinner. Upon arriving I realized it was appropriate for exactly that, a work dinner. However, there were numerous senior citizens in the room for a dinner with other friends. So my understanding is that they change the last part of the restaurant's name based on the season. It turned to "spring" just a week ago. The food was pretty good. I started off with the usual cocktail: goose martini, extra dirty. I ordered the sashimi which was okay. For the main entree I ordered the Sirloin because the waitress told me that it's considered the best steak in NYC not from a steak house. Those are some strong fighting words, especially for a guy who is a true carnivore. Of course I ordered it medium rare and I would rate it as an 8 out of 10. Pretty good, but not fantastic. I finished off the evening with the chocolate cube and some grappa since I'm into drinks that taste like gasoline. hahahahaha

Sometimes I wonder what if

2008-04-01T22:06:00.001-07:00

Here's what's crept in my mind lately. What if I hadn't left Philly? I envision a nice life in a townhouse or single family home with 2 cars and perhaps a kid in the cradle.

[Insert screeching noise disrupting this fantasy]

To me this is a fantasy. For many in NY, they would perhaps abhor this simple life but to me it's a fantasy because I can't attain it - at least not in the near future. I wonder what life would've been like back in the burbs of Philly. Would it be like how I live today? No way. So I wonder why I'm still in NY and when I'll leave. I've been here officially 8 years. I had intended to leave only after 2 years, but for some reason I remained.

Need to breakaway

2008-04-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

This is how I'm feeling right now....
I'll make a wish, Take a chance, Make a change, And breakaway

I've been weighed down so much lately and I hate it. I can't stand this feeling because my mind can't focus on what I need to get done. Ugh! So glad I'm heading to Jamaica tomorrow for a 5 day trip to Half Moon Bay. If a private chef, private pool and golf doesn't refresh and renew me, then I need help.

Here's my problem in metaphor. I like tabasco but I know that I'm physically weak to it. However, I still douse my chicken with tabasco and enjoy it. The next morning I regret it and the pain can vary - know what I mean? My friends tell me that I gotta stop taking the tabasco because the outcome is to predictable and that I should use a boring condiment like ketchup; it's safer and won't hurt you in the end. I am a pseudo masochist. I'm to blame, not just for consuming the tabasco but also ordering food that would expect tabasco. Ugh! I hate this.

On snap! You gotta watch this!

2008-04-01T15:30:00.001-07:00

This is so harsh and humiliating. The best part of this video is the mascot consoling him.

No more scotch for me

2008-03-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

What a long, hard, but fun week. Around 7:03pm I got a call from Darko asking where I was and I replied that "I'm at home chillin." I had totally forgotten that I had scheduled a dinner with Darko and a female friend at Porcao, the Brazilian steak house on Park Ave. Oh damn! I put on some clothes and scrambled for a cab to get across town. What Darko didn't know was that I had eaten a late lunch in Ktown with several other friends and I was still full and not ready to indulge in Brazilian gluttony. Porcao had about 16 different meats ready to go and I barely had any stomach capacity. I was able to consume some of the food but certainly not able to fully enjoy the carnivore's delight.

Rewind back to 4:30am and you'll see why I was so disjointed and absent minded. That's when I had fallen asleep in my bed. The evening had started out quietly by arriving at a scotch bar that a friend had rented out for the entire evening. It was his big three oh birthday and he rented out the entire restaurant. I don't drink scotch but he's a big scotch drinker so we weren't drinking anything less than Blue. We experimented with many other brands that I had never heard of but it all tasted like gasoline to me. By 2am he made an announcement that we still had to drink $2,000 more in scotch because we hadn't reached his cover, so we proceeded to order $100 scotch. Every time I took a sip, I would announce that I had drank about $20 in that one sip. So fast forward to 3:30am and all I remember was dancing with someone at a lounge down on Houston. At that point, I was not in great shape and let's say my judgment wasn't so sharp. The only thing I do remember was dancing with some hottie and by the way we were dancing, the only reason it wasn't called sex was because we had clothes on. I would provide more details but I can't remember half of it and what I do remember are "doh" moments. I did see my dance partner today at the late lunch and when we saw each other, we just gave each other the smile - y'know, the it was a fun night but let's not talk about it and only acknowledge that we were drunk and let's not share with anyone what actually happened.

So Darko, if you're reading this, you now know why I was so out of it at dinner.

Please don't stop the music

2008-03-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

My new favorite song from Rihanna. This song gets me naturally grooving.

I am legend

2008-03-26T20:37:00.001-07:00

I got an email today from Darko and it said, "you are legend." I didn't get it until he sent his next email. Darko's in Las Vegas (again) and he was sending me emails from his blackberry. He's staying at the Wynn and said that when he approached the craps tables, he heard the words "welcome back Mr. _____." Damn! If you recall from an earlier post, he was using my name with my players card and unbelievably, they remembered him. Oh goodness.

Sex in the City

2008-03-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight I was eating at BLT Market. It's worthy of going to and eating the split duck. I started off with the beet salad with goat cheese which was simple but perfect for an appetizer. They served us the best tasting pigs in a blanket dish -- trust me, it was that good. I finished off with the Hazlenut dessert which finished me off with the little round donut (looked like a donut hole). I liked the semi-rustic look, which reminded me of Blue Hill. It's located in the Ritz Carlton on 60th St and 6th Ave. After dinner, I headed into the Ritz Carlton spa b/c I'm a spa whore and it's pretty good there.

I was sitting by the window and I turned to my left. Who do I see but a beautiful Kim Cattrall. Funny thing was that I saw her on a Sex and the City episode on Monday night. She looks great live! The person I was with said, she looks fabulous.

This was one of the best American Idol performances

2008-03-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

Brave rendition of Billy Jean - Michael Jackson's greatest song

The Original

Should women settle for Mr. Not So Right?

2008-03-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

This article has been circulating around email circles. The case for settling for Mr. Good Enough is an interesting read. If a guy wrote this with a similar mindset, then he'd suggest finding a mate that can cook, clean, be a secretary and have sex as prescribed.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/single-marry

Russell Peters is brilliant

2008-03-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

Asians

Somebody's going to get a beating

The Phoenix in the house

2008-03-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

On Monday, I ate at Nobu Next Door in Tribeca. That place is a treat and never gets old. It was a late minute thing to eat down in Tribeca and luckily we got in. Sitting in the corner by the windows up front was none other than the Phoenix of Xmen: Famke Jansen. You would think she'd eat in Nobu and not Next Door. I guess it was a last minute thing for her to. It's the second time I've seen her in the last year. The other time was down in the Meatpacking district by Vento.

Orlando: Capital of franchises

2008-03-23T20:08:00.000-07:00

I'm finally in my hotel room in Orlando on Easter Sunday. I was in Orlando 2 weeks ago for work and both times the hotels have sucked. Right now I'm sitting in bed with a zebra print on the blanket to go with the safari theme of the hotel, watching ESPN on a 19" cathoray tube TV . Orlando is to tacky with the different Disney themed hotels and resorts. The girl at the registration desk had safari attire. I had to roll my eyes when she took my credit card. What am I doing in this hotel?! I should be here with little kids taking them to Disney World.

Orlando is the capital of franchises. I was driving down International Drive and every single franchise restaurant you can think of was available to me. Twice in Orlando in 2 weeks and I hit the Pizzeria Uno twice, ordering the Uno. This diet is going to kill me. I gotta get back on the workout bandwagon and start eating healthy.

Excuse me gents .... but can I offer you a drink

2008-03-23T12:08:00.000-07:00

The other night I was hosting a NCAA viewing party and there were about 100+ people flowing in and out of the lounge we rented at the sports bar. There was a morning DJ that tried crashing the party but I didn't want any part of him because the last thing I needed was some talking head chatting up how he crashed a party. Luckily he never got in, however, later in the evening I saw 4 black gentlemen crash our little party. I walked up to them and said that it was a private party, but to be nice I offered them drinks. The tall gent to my left asked me what my name was and what the party was for. I explained quickly. He then introduced himself and his posse. "I'm John Starks." I responded, "the basketball player?!" And of course it was him and his posse. I'm guessing the other tall guy was probably an ex-Knick but his name didn't resonate with me. So John and I chatted it up for 5 mins before the people at the party converged on us and the Knick fans began their idol worship of Starks, reminding him of one of the most famous dunks in playoff history against the Chicago Bulls. After 10mins, John and his Posse came over and thanked me for the drinks and said they may come back.

This is funny - Thriller by Filipino prisoners

2008-03-22T23:25:00.000-07:00

We gotta playa in front of me!

2008-03-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Valbella, one of my fav places in the meatpacking district. Not necessarily my favorite Italian place; that's reserved for Il Mulino. Shocking right? Everyone says Babbo, but I say Il Mulino b/c it's a bit old school. It's been a loooooong time since I blogged and a lot has happened since I typed over a month ago. Hmmmm, let me think? I met Anderson Cooper - he's gay. I met Soulja Boy and his entourage of dancers and his very large bodyguard. It's been a crazy 2008 but busy nonetheless. The economy totally sucks and yet I decided to gamble away money in Vegas. Those who know me know that I luv the dice. Blacjack? Boring. Three card poker? Even more boring. There is nothing more exciting than watching the dice jump around the green felt and hoping to avoid the 7. Which leads me to last weekend.

Darko and I were hanging out in Vegas for the sake of having some fun. I was skiing midweek in Vermont - I can hear all the west coasters say that east coast skiing sucks. I hear ya but the snow dump made it pretty good. I did a John Candy and drove 5 hours from Vermont to NYC. I picked up my stuff and hopped on the 6:30 JetBlue to Las Vegas on a Thursday night. Darko had a room at the Mandalay Bay for the weekend. I've been to so many casinos and hotels - 14 at last count - that I'm now repeating hotels. This is my 3rd time in Mandalay. The only good thing about Mandalay Bay is that they have some great boxing matches and they have some great restaurants like Aureole and China Grill.

As I walked off the plane, I was on my cell talking to a friend explaining to them that I could close my eyes and tell them exactly which direction and next steps I could take to get through the airport. One of my favorite books is "Bringing down the house" which has been turned into a movie, called "21." It's coming out at the end of the month. I don't count cards and I don't play BJ much more, but the book is awesome. Not the best writer per se, but a great story nonetheless.

Back to jetBlue. When I get off, I could close my eyes and take a right out of the gate and head towards the escalators. I walk about 100 yards to the rail/tram - walk towards the front because you'll end up in the front when you get off to beat the crowd. Soon as I get off the tram I take the escalator down and pick up my clubs at baggage claim.

The next couple of days, we played some golf. I know you probably want to know about Spearmint Rhino and other things we could do at night, but I'd rather not say.

So I gave my players cards - I have a card for ALL the casinos - to Darko b/c he likes to play big stakes. He plays $1,000 hands or $1k on the craps tables. The key to player's cards is playing with a lot of money and for a while. When you play $1k at a time, you're going to get the attention of a few people at the casino. I don't like playing with Darko b/c I don't play $1k a roll and I don't enjoy it when he craps out b/c he gets in a foul mood, like when someone betrays him. For a couple days, I had no idea how much he had gambled with my good name on the players card. Out of curiosity, we both went up to the players club and I simply asked how I was rated. The old gentlemen looked at me incredulously, as if I was looking for a free meal or something. He took my card and inputted my card digits. His eyelids raised like he was staring at a hooker and then said, "I've got a serious player in front of me. Do you have a host?" I looked at Darko thinking, Damn sucka! I responded sheepishly, "No." The gentlemen asked me if I wanted a host to be brought over. I said, not really and that I just wanted to know how I was doing. I did ask if the host could get us into some of the clubs without having to deal with the doormen.

$30M and what?

2008-02-10T16:49:00.001-08:00

I had brunch today with Darko at the W Hotel in Union Square. He brought up the old notion that money doens't buy happiness. There's someone we both know who runs his own hedge fund and got paid $30 million (after taxes) this year. The gent is apparently miserable with life and Darko reminded me that money really doesn't buy happiness, or at least $30 million sure doesn't. I do remember this guy sleeping over our apt a few years back when he was just starting out because he was in transition.

Getting older and therefore softer

2008-02-10T16:34:00.000-08:00

I had a facial this past Monday at the Great Jones Spa and I'm glad I did. I write this while I watch Brett Favre's Wrangler commercial; men should be running around playing football in their jeans on a farm. Well, real men can also have facials. It's been a stressful time at work and as I get older, I recognize that I need to take care of myself better. I rather not think about what I looks like when getting a facial. All I know is that there were nice smells during the process as the facialist applied various substances to my face.

Some bad dudes out there

2008-02-10T16:03:00.000-08:00

A female friend of mine told me a crazy story on Friday. A couple years ago she was dating some guy that lived in San Francisco. They dated for about 4 months and she decided to end the relationship for whatever reason. A year later, she started to receive emails from the fella who wanted to re-engage in a relationship with her but she kept resisting. Nonetheless, these emails kept coming periodically. It was this past Friday that she received a shocking email from the guy that said he could no longer continue communicting with her because he's married. DAMN! The guy's married and just had a kid in November, and he was emailing my friend up until this past month. Furthermore, it was obvious that the reason for the final email was because his wife must've found the email correpsondances because she was cc'd on the last email. Now that's f'd up!

Underneath my umbrella

2008-02-07T20:35:00.000-08:00

It's been raining in NY this week. I guess it's better than the snow dump in the midwest. January seems like a blur and as you can tell by my lack of blogging, I was preoccupied. I need to get back on the workout bandwagon.

It's been stressful at work but today I realized life ain't that bad when a coworker of mine left work in a hurry b/c a young friend of hers died of cancer today. Damn. Why does it take the tragedy of others for me to recognize life is grand. I'll go to sleep tonight but I'll awake knowing I have another chance and a reason to push forward.

This can't be for real?

2008-02-04T21:13:00.000-08:00

For the Cowboys fans, this is hilarious

2008-02-03T21:23:00.001-08:00

Chris Berman can be real nasty

2008-02-03T21:19:00.000-08:00

Talk about a massive ego and not a nice guy.

Lazy Sunday

2008-02-02T16:15:00.001-08:00

Writer's strike source was solid

2008-02-02T16:03:00.000-08:00

I said it early this morning and it looks like I beat the AP and national news outlets. The writer's strike will soon be over.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22968561/

Writer's strike to end soon

2008-02-02T07:18:00.000-08:00

My inside sources say it should end pretty soon, if not by the end of this weekend. If it doesn't finish by Sunday, it'll probably be weeks end.

The NBA in LA LA Land

2008-01-14T12:16:00.000-08:00

I'm out here in sunny and warm LA. I've been here since Friday evening where I went directly to an In and Out right after I got off the plane. It's been a full and eventful weekend, but I'm now in work mode with our annual offsite ready to go. I'm at the Ritz Carlton and I noticed that very large men were roaming the lobby. It became apparent to me that it was the Phoenix Suns as Steve Nash walked by me late this AM. I saw the other players walking to the bus with clothes in those netted gym/laundry bags.

It's been a basketball type of weekend during what should be a football weekend with the playoffs going on. Last night I met up with the Konman to catch up on old times. With the writer's strike going on, there's not much to do except go on commercial auditions which is not effected by the strike. He asked if I wanted to go watch a celebrity basketball game, so I assumed it was some fundraiser. We drove up to a high school and had to check in. Luckily, we were guests of one of the celeb players b/c the Konman is good friends with him. I then learned that it wasn't a celebrity basketball game per se; it was a celebrity/entertainment basketball league that's played in private. We walk in and it was like walking into a high school game. Konman noticed the wife of one of the players and we situated ourselves next to her and I introduced myself to the entourage. Sitting next to me was Sam Cassell of the Clippers who dropped by to watch the game. What's very interesting is that it's sponsored by the NBA and the players actually wore official NBA apparel: Suns, Bucks, Bulls, etc. As I watched the games, I noticed a handful of familiar faces. No on real famous was there; it was a lot of character actors and studio folks playing. Konman would point out someone and tell me who that person was and I would say, "oh yeah." Konman was at the games last week and told me that Will Ferrell walked in on the games to watch after his soccer game. There's an astroturf field outside and I guess there's also a soccer league as well b/c Will came in with some shin guards. Konman described him as a very large man.

It was actually entertaining to watch the games. I would have to say that my old Chelsea Piers league had more talent and better basketball skills, but they play equally as hard in the NBAE (NBA Entertainment League). While there, we met Michael Clark Duncan. He is one large dude and kinda rumbles down court and takes up a lot of space in the paint. However, he's not the most agile guy down low. He was nice to us and when I said "nice game," he responded with "Thanks" and slapped his hand against my chest. That hurt.

The previous night, I saw MCD at the Clippers game. We had VIP seats -- purple seats -- at the Staples Center. MCD had center court seats with his girl. I guess Jack Nicholson goes to Lakers games, and MCD goes to root for the Clips. The Clippers played the Dallas Mavericks and played them well. They lead the whole game until Jerry Stackhouse's 3 point buzzer beater. What a way to lose a game.

New Year´s in Rio de Janeiro

2008-01-01T15:57:00.000-08:00

Celebrating New Year´s in Rio is one of those "have to do" things in life. There we were with 2 million others in one of the most festive moments of life: Revellion 2008 in Rio. All auto traffic was halted between Leblon and Copacabana at 6pm which meant we had to walk 3+ miles to the beaches of Copacabana in slippers. A custom here at Rio during New Year`s is to wear all white in which we did. We walked 3 miles in flip flops, which isn`t that pleasant at all. We arrived at Copacabana and there were a ton of people walking the streets and the beach. After getting dinner, we headed to the beach near the concert stage and found a nice spot to situate ourselves for 90 mins. We ended up buying 3 blankets to sit down on as we waited for the grand finale of fireworks. During our wait, a very drunken Brazilian gent came over asking if he could take our picture. After a 2nd attempt by him, we gave in after assessing he was harmless. He was actually a lot of fun because his tent was camped out next to us and he was piss drunk, which was very entertainig for us. About 15mins prior to midnight, we got up and just stood with the masses -- many in all white -- for the countdown. At the stroke of midnight, the fireworks went up and Rio went swinging for the fences. They blew their wad in the first 5 minutes as the whole night sky just blew up and was illuminated. The next 15 mins was more controlled chaos of fireworks, but the first 5 was one of the greatest spectacles I`ve ever seen. At the conclusion, we begain our exit from Copacabana. There were people dancing everywhere with the music blaring from the megaspeakers along the beach. It was one of the most festive moments I have ever witnessed in my life. It`s one of those things I hope you can experience once in your life. People from all walks of (Brazilian) life were just singing and dancing in the streets. It was just fun watching it. It really was one of the greatest large scale parties that I have ever experienced.

Pictures from Rio de Janeiro

2007-12-30T12:52:00.001-08:00

Girl from Ipanema

2007-12-30T12:51:00.001-08:00

You're in room 1701?!

2007-12-30T11:57:00.001-08:00

It's hot down here in Rio de Janeiro, which will be the sight of the largest New Year's party in the world with 2 million of my closest friends partying on Copacabana beach. We came down yesterday after a redeye from Miami. We almost didn't make it. The weather in NYC was surprisingly warm at 47 degrees with sunshine on Friday. I was packed and ready to go hoping there would be no delays, but that's wishful thinking in the NY metro area. It's the most trafficked air space in the world with 3 major airports running at full speed, which means invariable delays. I was optimistic nonetheless. I called my traveling companion to meet me on the east side of Manhattan so we could hop on a cab to JFK. She underestimated the holiday crowds and traffic in Times Square. That's when I got the call from my frantic friend who told me she had moved 3 blocks in 7 minutes. Ouch. I told her not to worry because we had scheduled some buffer time to get to JFK. Thankfully, she got through the midtown traffic and we got to JFK with an hour to spare. But the adventures did not stop there. We found the electronic kiosks and got rejected because the kiosks will not distribute tickets within 60 mins of departure; we were at the kiosks 59 mins prior to departure. One freakin minute! So we proceeded to the counter which was running slow, but after a 15 min wait, we got our tixs and headed to Gate 4 where we found out that our plane was running late. Damn. Then 15 mins later, it was further delayed. We had only a 90min layover in Miami, and we had eaten up 75 minutes of it. While on the plane, I was wondering how far we would have to run to get to the next gate. Thankfully, we arrived at gate 43 and walked across the terminal to gate 44 for our flight to Rio. When we had arrived, they had already boarded half the plane. We made our flight and made it to Rio. I barely slept on the 8hr flight, even with 2 glasses of red wine.

I'm blogging on day 2 of our trip and it's been pretty relaxing, even with the head cold I brought with me from New York. I'm lounging in front of the window with a view of the beach, which is dotted with sunbathers. Does it get any more relaxing than hearing the ocean waves and a front row view of the ocean? When we arrived at the Marina All Suites hotel, our room wasn't ready at 10am. I found it odd because we were told prior to arriving that this was a new room and that we would be the first guests. Btw, Darko met us at the airport so we're now a party of 3. I couldn't understand why we would have to wait till 2pm if we were the first guests ever in the new Crystal suite? Was the paint waiting to dry? Actually, pretty much yes. Hard to believe, but the room was under construction up until we arrived. That's how new this room was. Darko went all out and got us the top floor room, which means we essentially own the floor. The room is definitely better than the Hotel Byblos in St. Tropez. So the reason we came to this hotel was because during Darko's research, he had found out that the Marina All Suites is where Gisele and other supermodels come to stay, but they usually stay in the Diamante suite which is right below us. When you walk into the lobby, it's pretty unassuming and hard to believe supermodels come to this hotel when in Rio, but the rooms are very nice. I'm starting to believe in boutique hotels.

Fast forward to last night, and I'm at the 2nd floor hotel bar ordering us drinks. I asked the bartender if we could just bill the drinks to our room. He asked me what room and I responded with "1701." He looked up and said, "did you say 1701?" I said "yes." He then tells the waiters standing next to me in Portuguese that I'm in 1701. They turn to me and say "congratulations, you're the first in that room." In this awkward exchanged, I could only say thank you. They then asked me how the room was and I said, it's very nice. And they replied, "of course of course." I get the drinks and tell Darko the story. He then suggests we have an open suite party for the hotel staff on our last day. Ha!

Our hotel is situated on the beach in Leblon, which is next to Ipanema, which is next to Copacabana. It's a beautiful view from my bedroom, and relaxing hearing the ocean waves with the window open. I don't know if it gets any better than this. Well, it could if there were a spa downstairs because I'm a spa whore. lol

I can't believe I'm watching ....

2007-12-25T13:53:00.000-08:00

Wondergirls with my Dad. Here I am with my dad watching KBS World on the tele and there's a music break that comes on in between programs. It's "Tell Me" by the Wondergirls. I looked over to my dad in the middle of the video and he's expressionless; typical of Korean dads. I may have to do a facebook superpoke to make sure he's awake. lol

2007 was one heckuva year

2007-12-25T13:03:00.000-08:00

For my many friends who've stayed in tune with me through this blog and to those unknown to me but faithfully read this blog, thanks for keeping in touch. I hope my writing, though not the most eloquent, kept you entertained. I'm not writing for a Pulitzer, but to create a window into the "goings on" so we can keep in touch.

As I look back at 2007, it was one heckuva year. A lot of great stuff happened and I'm appreciate of it. It was a year of transition where I purged the old and accepted my blemishes. Someone asked me this past weekend, are you different now? I responded with an absolute "yes." I am significantly different, and it's because I'm beaten but still standing. I've also accepted the fact that I'm getting older faster and that my views are becoming finite. This is good because I'm compelled to be more diligent. I feel less pressure today than I was in my twenties. Perhaps it's because I'm actually more comfortable with my skin and who I am. I guess that's what happens when you accept the fact that I'm on the other side of the perfection spectrum.

So here are some highlights off the top of my head. I'm sure there are other things that would be considered highlights, but here's what I remember right now.

Got on NBC's Today Show
Front cover of a magazine
Played the 2 best golf course I've ever played: Whistling Straits and Kapalua in Hawai'i
Celebrated my niece's first birthday
Red carpet treatment at Les Caves Du Roy in St. Tropez
Sitting next to Elton John at lunch in Hotel Byblos
Seeing Beyonce 2x in one year
Floor tickets to the Knick's game, though I would've preferred the Lakers or Sixers
Meeting Michael Lewis, Laurie David, John Hodgman, Elizabeth Gilbert, Tom Perkins
2 Job Promotions
Surfing in Hawai'i and watching Ed and Joyce get married there
Conerts and seeing: Justin Timberlake 2x, The Police 2x
Vegas....... and you know how that story ends. It never changes.
Finally, seeing my dad walk without a cane. That IS the greatest highlight of 2007.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T12:49:00.000-08:00

Don't forget the reason for the season and don't take Christ out of Christmas. I do get annoyed by the political correctness that sanitizes us even more every year. I'm not trying to be a curmudgeon. Let's call this time of year for what it really is: Christmas. Sure it's the holidays but we get time off because it's Christmas eve and Christmas. The definition of "holiday" according to wordnet.princeton.edu is "leisure time away from the work devoted to rest or pleasure." This is certainly a time to get away and take rest, but it's really a celebration of the birth of Christ. So what does that mean? I'll leave you with what's printed at the top of today's New York Times, which is in both the print and online edition: "Today is Christmas! Remember the neediest!"

Merry Christmas!!!

Last week of dinners and parties

2007-12-18T20:45:00.000-08:00

It's been tough to keep in shape with all these dinners and holiday parties. Tonight I went to Craft Steak which was better than expected. I had heard mixed reviews but it ended up being pretty good, however, Cut out in Beverly Hills was better. I ate the Wagyu NY strip steak from Australia which was a ridiculous $18/oz. I had a lot of ounces at medium rare. I ate so much that I couldn't eat desert, so I ended up ordering hot chocolate. It's got a real cool decor and I would consider using it for more business dinners.

I'm so burned out from work that I find myself dazing at the computer, waiting for the next meeting.

Batman looks real good

2007-12-17T19:44:00.000-08:00

This is how the Joker should've looked like in the first place.

Can't wait for Rio

2007-12-12T19:18:00.001-08:00

Only 7 more working days before I go on a 2 week hiatus. I can't wait because I need a mental break like no other, though I'll probably end up working out everyday in preparation for Rio de Janeiro. That's right people, I'm heading south for the warmer climate of South America. Rio for New Year's..... does it get any better?! I hear the people (women) are beautiful down there and it's generally a fun culture. However, Rio isn't safe. As long as we stick to the beaches and not venture inland, we should be okay. I'm hoping for some sun, fun and beautiful ladies.

Holiday parade of dinners

2007-12-12T19:11:00.000-08:00

It's busy at work and not just because of the daytime stuff. Every night is a night of mingling and thanking clients for their business. It's a lot of dinners and an occasional show, like last week at Wintuk, the Cirque Du Soleil show playing at the Wamu Theatre at MSG. If you go, don't expect the typical pizazz of a Cirque Du Soleil show that you've come to enjoy. Expect a family fun show that has some nice acrobatics, jugglers and flexible gymnasts. I prefer "O" which is still by far the best show in the franchise.

Luckily, I've been working out to offset the drinking and heavy eating. I'm barely making a dent but I know it could be worse if I didn't work out. I could be getting fatter. Hopefully I'm getting leaner as my trainer hopes.

Who's got talent?

2007-12-12T19:06:00.001-08:00

Not me but I did meet executives from the William Morris Agency. Y'know, the famed talent agency that manages hollywood celebs, singers, etc. I had to meet them for business but not for my personal business. I did joke with colleagues that I would pass on my headshots to them but instead they took my business card. One of the execs showed up with an assistant. However, in the end they weren't as pretentious as I thought. They were nice people who were very inquisitive about my history, which I found odd and uncomfortable. We finally got down to business and hopefully we'll do some business with them. I'm sure we will in some capacity.

Oh Adriana

2007-12-02T20:58:00.000-08:00

The super bowl of lingerie is being shown on CBS this Tuesday at 10pm EST. No this is not an endorsement of the Victoria's Secret Fashion show. When I was in LA a few weeks back for work, I was supposed to go but because of a particular reason, I was unable to attend. However, there was Korean male representation as Darko attended for our demographic. Someone had to do it and he sacrificed work by flying out to LA for the show. In addition to attending the "fashion" show, he also got to attend the after party, where he (literally) bumped into Heidi Klum and other super models. When I came home last Monday from work, I turned on the TV to decompress. On the tube was a funny episode of "How I met your mother," where NPH is attending the after party of the VS show. NPH is surrounded by Heidi Klum and other super models and can't act normal. His "game" has left him. That's kinda how I imagined Darko without me there. Sucka!

A weekend with mom

2007-12-02T20:40:00.000-08:00

My mom was in town all weekend to hang with me. Well, not really but we did hang out all weekend together. She was in NY for her grandchild's birthday party. So I rented a BMW mini to get around town and run errands. I rented it because it's a cute car and compact, making it easy to get around Manhattan. What I failed to do (and always fail to do) was check the weather. I had no idea that it was supposed to snow/sleet on Sunday AM. Damn! BMWs are notorious for it's lack of handling in the snow because of it's rear wheel drive. Add crazy taxi drivers into the mix and it's not a good formula for driving around a BMW. I managed to survive as my mother continually urged me to drive slow everywhere. My mother is retired and it's both good and bad. She's relaxing (in theory), but it also means she has a lot of time. Which is the reason why I looked at condos all afternoon on Saturday. She set up a bunch of appointments to occupy our afternoon. Sounds great but I'm not in the market for a condo. I like my little (and humble) living arrangement in Chelsea. I'm renting and hope to continue renting. For the real estate agent that showed us all the different condos, I felt kinda bad because I know I'm not buying anything anytime soon. She kept putting a little pressure on me to buy, and I resisted with "I have to think about it." It was kind of fun looking at condos without the pressure of buying. The cheapest place I looked at was a $750,000 1BR (560 sq ft). The avg asking price for the 1BRs were about $950. When we looked at 2BRs, the asking price hovered around $1.5M. I'm so glad I'm not in the market. I like my rental even more.

I'm getting so F&^%in old

2007-12-02T20:00:00.000-08:00

I was at my niece's birthday party on the east side. My sister organized a large gathering of kids and adults at an east side eatery. It was good seeing other family members and their kids. As I was greeting and chatting with all the kids, reality hit me that I'm in my thirties, not married and still running around. WTF?! Part of me wishes I didn't live in NY and was like many of my peers: settled down in the burbs with kids. Then gain, would I have had all the fun I had this past year? Amazingly, I was the only adult without child. Talk about being the black sheep of the family. OK, that's an exaggeration because I do have a day job and pay the bills. Sadly, my family has no idea of what I do at work nor what my life is like. All my cuzs care about is if I'm dating and when I'll get settled so I can retire to the burbs just like them. Not sure if my family is funny that way or if it's normal. They don't care about occupation. They're more concerned with family and kids. When I was looking around at the long dinner table, all I saw were families galore. There were 3 different generations and it was fun to see. I thought it was pretty cool. It was fun hangin' with the kids and getting some laughs out of them. What's scary is how fast they grow.

I sometimes wonder why I'm still running around. I certainly have a lot of fun but I wonder sometimes when the gears will shift. It could actually shift higher with a greater concentration on work and I see hints of it. It was enjoyable to be with little kids today. It was even more enjoyable to hang with my little niece.

First snowfall today in New York

2007-12-02T19:33:00.000-08:00

Guiatarist

2007-11-28T19:57:00.000-08:00

The evenings leading into Thanksgiving, I went out to the Meatpacking district b/c that's where I always hang out now a days. We went from One Little West for a happy hour and then shot over to STK. If you remember the Red Hot Chili Peppers, you'll remember Dave Navarro. I think he became more famous for marrying Carmen Elektra. Well, there he was hanging out at STK.

White women

2007-11-28T19:54:00.001-08:00

Yes, the thought of dating them have come across my mind recently. It's driven by the fact of recent heavy flirting with ...... and also because someone wants to introduce her (white) friend to me. Must be the new cologne I'm wearing. That was a joke people.

I had lunch with a Japanese friend and she likes to remind me that Korean girls are to high maintenance and that I should consider non-Koreans all the time.

New trainer

2007-11-28T19:51:00.000-08:00

I'm using Darko's trainer and he's kicking my ass. I think trainer's purposely try to get you to throw up to make you think they're effective. I don't know but what I do know I've felt nauseous multiple times. I'm feeling great but the effects aren't showing. I think the visuals will occur in 2 months. I realized after getting a trainer that I was never really pushing myself. I'm officially a believer of having a trainer.

New York Times article on adoptees from Korea

2007-11-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

A coworker of mine is leaving for Russia tomorrow to begin the process of adopting a child. I applaud her efforts for going as far as Siberia to bring home a child, away from institutional care and into a caring home. Coincidentally, the NYTimes.com ran an opinion piece today by Hollee McGinnis about South Korea's large number of orphans and how it's become the largest pool of international adoptees.

"South Korea has the longest running international adoption program and has sent the most children overseas for adoption than any other country in the world to date – 150,944 children between 1953 and 2006 according to official statistics from the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare. Of this total, 104,319 were adopted by American citizens constituting approximately one out of every ten Korean-Americans."

It was my coworker who actually brought to my attention that South Korea carried the status of having the most international adoptees. The last time I went to Korean -- many moons ago -- I actually visited an orphanage. I played songs, ate with the kids and played with them. I remember how sad I was leaving them because the group of people I was with brought some joy to their lives that day. I wish all kids didn't have to grow up in an institution, but rather a loving home.

Naked pictures of me on the Internet

2007-11-15T19:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the last day of my Santa Monica trip. Someone I met on Monday evening asked if I wanted to try out a massage on Venice beach. During our conversation at Cut, I said how much I luv spas and massages. This person then suggested that I sneak away from the meetings and go to his favorite massage place. He said it was on a rooftop and it was on Venice beach with the faint sounds of the ocean. So of course being a spa whore, I rearranged my schedule so I could sneak away for an hour massage in the morning.

I got picked up in the AM from the hotel and we took a 10 min drive to Venice beach. The place is a short building that's situated on the walk along Venice beach. Apparently it's where Charlie Chaplin lived... I honestly don't know if he was telling me the truth.

I quickly realized this was own and operated by the Chinese, and the first thing that popped up in my head was happy endings. However, it was a legit building and didn't seem shady. We were quickly ushered onto the rooftop of the building where a middle aged Chinese woman stood. So I paused wondering where the dressing room was and it became quite apparent that I had to strip down on the OPEN rooftop for all of Venice beach to watch. Well, really for the voyeurs of the adjacent apartment buildings. There were no curtains -- no nothing. I couldn't quite back out because I was pot committed (a poker reference). So I stripped for all the world to see and laid down face down. I'm sure there are now naked pictures of me on the Internet.

So how was the massage? Strong and deep. She beat the crap out of me and really got into my muscles. It ended up being a great massage. She did work my ass a lot and it went from tense -- probably from the tension of undressing in public -- to jello. I have to say that once she took the tension out of my hips and ass, my body felt so much better. Some of the techniques were a bit amusing like when she got up on the table and straddled me and pressed her entire weight against some small back muscle. I'm not a big dude but she put all her effort and weight into it.
I felt like butter afterwards. I rushed back to the hotel, showered and ran to the next meeting. Ahhhh, what a trip!

Internet Jukebox

2007-11-15T19:40:00.000-08:00

Go to songza.com for an instant jukebox. It indexes the Internet for songs and pulls those songs to play from the source site. Neat idea. It does seem that many of the tunes are pulled from YouTube.

2007-11-13T14:11:00.000-08:00

I feel like singing that famous song from Otis Redding and downing a few Coronas.

Sitting in the morning sun
I'll be sitting when the evening comes
Watching the ships roll in
And I watch 'em roll away again

Sitting on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
I'm just sitting on the dock of the bay
Wasting time

I arrived in LA mid-yesterday and headed over to the hotel. I diverged this time and didn't stay at a Starwoods hotel. The boutique hotel I'm staying at is on Ocean Ave, not to far from the 3rd Street Promenade. I've got an Ocean view and the room is awesome. The bathroom is fairly large and feels very sterile. I do like the L'Occitane toiletries. The bed is awesome and there were no reports of bed bugs -- I found a web site that tracks bed bug troubles at hotels.

After working a bit, I got ready for my first meeting and then work dinner. We ended up at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel (in Beverly Hills) to eat at Cut, the new steakhouse by Wolfgang Puck. Remember the Beverly Wilshire? It's the central location of the movie Pretty Women with Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. I think it was also in Bevery Hills Cop where Eddie Murphy stayed. Anyway, we drove up to the front of the Wilshire and it appeared there was no valet. We turned the corner and the valet/drive was in the middle of the block, splitting the building. Ahhhhhh. So we pulled up next to the Maseratis and Mercedes, valeted the car and went into the restaurant. The music was interesting upon entering: it was from Gloria Estefan. Doh! There was a reason. She was eating at Cut and I guess they changed the music for her. Then it changed to Pink Floyd music which isn't the typical dining music, but it did keep things stimulated. I ordered the Kobe like filet, which was a cross of the US Prime and Kobe style. The menu was pretty extravagant, unlike the typical steakhouse menus I'm used to in New York. I started off dinner with an extra dirty martini which was mixed very well. I hate badly mixed martinis. The waiter noted that we were sitting in the booth that Jeffrey Katzenberg uses; apparently he's a weekly visitor to Cut. Sitting two tables from us was the owner himself, Wolfgang Puck. The waiter offered his apologies for the wait service, but I felt that it was perfectly fine. He noted that Jean-Luc Naret, the Michelin Guide guy was sitting a few tables over and everyone was a bit tense to make sure they served him well. Y'know, the dining guide that gives out up to 3 stars. I felt that the service was perfectly fine and I said to our waiter, don't worry. When I looked over, it was like 6-7 waiters over at Jean-Luc's table. He did have a party of 8, and their service was non-stop. I guess Wolfgang is looking for the 3 stars, if not a single star. So I asked the waiter, who else dines at Cut and he said Tom Cruise is always there and Jessica Alba is a frequent eater of Cut. Alba is what got me perked up, not Tom Cruise. So we ended dinner late and I was on fumes because I was up from 4am to get on the flight to LAX. Which reminds me, Virgin America has some kinks to work out. It could be a good airline, but it's got kinks.

Post-fight thoughts

2007-11-13T13:51:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention that Pauley Walnuts of the Sopranos was also at the fight. Bada bing! I don't know his real name but I doubt he can play any other character after his stint on the Sopranos. So who was I rooting for? Sugar Shane of course. 1) A buddy of mine in LA used to manage him before a falling out and 2) He is married to a Korean woman and he wears the Korean flag on his shorts. MSG is probably not the best place to root for Sugar Shane because it was filled with 90% Cotto fans. Why? He's the Puerto Rican hero and there were Puerto Rico flags waving everywhere. I still stood up and shouted "lets go Sugar!"

Oh yeah, it was funny bumping into "The Bus" in the men's restroom before the fight: Jerome Bettis.

What a fight!

2007-11-11T19:30:00.000-08:00

Last night was guys night out. It started out with an early dinner at Del Frisco's for some steaks. I had a bone in filet which was outstanding. If you ever drop by, get the lemon cake which is not on the menu. Afterwards, we headed to MSG in a stretch limo. We arrived to early and was forced to watch the undercards. MSG was over half empty for the secondary fights. I've been to another boxing bout and it's a scary crowd. Lots of unsavory characters. I thought sitting in the 700 level of Giant's stadium wearing an Eagles jersey was scary. The people who attend boxing matches are scarier and they will kick your ass, and not just try to intimidate you. Most of the time we just drank beers and watched the entrance of ladies and boxing celebs. We were fortunate to be sitting by the VIP entrance. We saw Rampage Jackson of the UFC -- the guy who kicked Chuck Liddell's ass in the first round. There were a parade of other boxers: Felix 'Tito' Trinidad Jr., Winky Wright (who beat Sugar Shane 2x), and Roy Jones Jr. They all walked through the crowds which was rather interesting. These guys love soaking in the adoration of the crowds. You would never see that with any other athlete: walking around along the aisles. They all stopped and posed for pictures with many of the fans. There was also a lot of fur wearing, which I guess is typical for boxing matches. Oh yeah, Shaq showed up during the 2nd round of the main event and you could see him from a mile away. He sat in the 6th or 7th row. I hate to be the person sitting behind him.

So the fight was awesome. Cotto definitely won out but Sugar Shane put up a great fight. He definitely won the 2nd half of it but Cotto landed more quality punches and kept countering every time Sugar Shane charged. The 10th round was by far the most exciting and a round that Sugar Shane won. Everyone stood up on their feets as Sugar just pressed Cotto. I found myself swinging punches while watching the 10th round.

It was one helluva night. Tomorrow I'm heading to Santa Monica, CA for some week long meetings. They all start at 4pm and end with dinners for 3 consecutive evenings.

I'm actually looking forward to getting out of NY and chillin' in La La land.

Caliente

2007-11-06T19:35:00.000-08:00

Damon

2007-11-06T19:18:00.001-08:00

I bumped into Damon Wayans. Funny how I saw his brother months back in Vegas and on jetBlue. He was meeting for business with a colleague of mine. He wasn't supposed to show up to the meeting but he came unexpectedly.

How to spend a billion

2007-11-06T18:55:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of meeting Tom Perkins for lunch. I spent over 2 hours with him and he was quite kind and soft spoken. He was featured on 60 Minutes this past Sunday and I expected him to overwhelm me with his ego, as he confessed as such on 60 Minutes. I was quite nervous meeting him but it ended up being 2 hours of great learning, insight and some laughs. He didn't display any ego and was quite gracious.

So who is Tom Perkins? He is the godfather of venture capitalism. Yeah, he essentially invented it. He is the Perkins of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers. The man is probably worth a billion or two. He's 75yo and seems content on enjoying his yacht -- which is the largest privately owned yacht in the world -- and spending his money.

It started out slow in conversation. I noticed that I asked many more questions than he would ask me. There were some awkward moments of silence but towards the 2nd hour, he opened up more with some fascinating stories and strong opinions. And he is not short on opinions. If Tom Perkins was a gambler, he would've won the World Series of Poker several times over and robbed the casinos because most things he has touched in the business world has turned to gold. He quickly became rich off a start up that he created and sold, while still being employed full time at HP. He then turned a $250k investment in Genentech into one of the darlings of Wall Street today. Btw, Genentech is one of his proudest investments.

I learned a lot from Tom today. Thanks for lunch. Maybe someday I'll finally come up with an "idea" that your firm will invest in.

Where is it?

2007-11-05T20:38:00.001-08:00

I got a txt message to meet up with a female friend of mine for drinks. I had just eaten dinner and that's when I got the txt. I was up for a drink because it was late in the week and I needed to let off some steam. When I got off the subway, I called to let her know I was within a few blocks away. She was inside the wine bar and she sounded underwater. I didn't understand what she was saying so I proceeded to the area where she had first told me to go. The wine bar was somewhere in the middle of the block on the north side. I paced back and forth because it seemed like there were only restaurants. I noticed a bar without a sign and decided that had to be the place based on the fact that every other establishment on the block was a restaurant. When I walked in, it was pretty dark and I tried focusing my eyes on finding my friend. As I was looking around the dark bar area, I noticed that people were making out. Wait, it was actually men. That's when it became very apparent that I had not walked into a wine bar but a gay bar. I calmly smiled at the bartender and quickly did a U-turn. I called my friend and asked her where the wine bar was and she said it was at the end of the block, and not in the middle. Ohhhhhhhhhh!

Law and Order

2007-11-05T20:33:00.000-08:00

I walked out of my apt the other day and the film trucks had taken over my entire street. As I walked along the sidewalk next to the trailers, I was trying to figure out what was filming. Towards the end of the street, I finally recognized someone: Jesse Martin. Y'know, the guy on Law and Order who plays detective Ed Green. I wish I saw Alana De La Garza, from the same show.

Thumping Thor

2007-11-05T20:19:00.000-08:00

Saturday night I went out for some dinner at Thor and then to JJ's birthday party at the Gallery Bar. We tried heading to Stanton Social for dinner down on the Lower East Side but we ended up going to Thor at the Hotel on Rivington. I have no idea why anybody would locate a hotel in that area. The food wasn't bad. Sitting next to us was Malik Rose of the Knicks, and his coed entourage. Malik actually bumped into the lady who was sitting with us and apologized like a gentlemen. I've actually followed his career since his days at Drexel in Philly. He went on to win a NBA championship at San Antonio.

The music at Thor was great with a mix of some old school tunes. We scooted on over to the Gallery Bar and the music there was equally as good, with some great 80s songs: Sheila E, Depeche Mode, etc. JJ was soaked up and it was tight inside, where you had to body surf to get to the bar. There was a good number of Asians at the Gallery Bar and there was some dancing, but it was hard to if you tried. Happy Birthday JJ. Hope you had a lot of fun.

Korea's "Best Mom"Chosen as Face Of New Currency

2007-11-05T06:03:00.000-08:00

Oh the controversy begins. Shin Saimdang will now grace the new Korean currency (won) and Women's groups say her selection bolsters the idea that mothers should stay at home and devote their lives to their children's education.

Go to the New York Times or Reuters.

Tell me this isn't catchy?

2007-11-01T20:18:00.001-07:00

Oh Hyori

2007-11-01T20:02:00.001-07:00

Halloweener

2007-10-31T20:25:00.000-07:00

So I didn't go out tonight for the Halloween festivities. If you've never been in NY on Halloween, it's crazy. There are people yelling outside my window like it's a Saturday night. I live in Chelsea which makes it worse because the parade goes down 6th Avenue. Oh yeah, there's this massive parade of over the top costumes. If you want to see the wildest, most daring and risque outfits (2nd to Gay Pride parade), stand on 6th Ave on Halloween. The sidewalks are packed and they won't let you cross 6th Ave. If you want to cross the avenue and get to your building, the cops will card you to verify. Just to cross the damn avenue!

I'm so not into Halloween as you can tell. It is amusing walking my block because it's a steady stream of freaks. I remember last year's Halloween. We ate at the Blue Water Grill and then proceeded to get hammered at the Park Bar. I got destroyed actually. I got escorted by two ladies back to my apt who were concerned I'd end up falling asleep in some random alley of New York. I did make it home that night, but I chucked it out twice during the 2 avenue block walk back. In fact, I have not come close to getting that hammered in the past year. Why do we treat our bodies like that?

Lots of pictures of naked women

2007-10-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

"Who gets more tail: rock stars or athletes?" That's what a friend asked me while we were at an art gallery featuring Andy Summers photographs from his "I'll Be Watching You: Inside The Police, 1980-83" exhibit. Andy is the guitarist for The Police, who happens to be in town this week for a couple of shows at MSG. I did get to see them rock back in early August at MSG.

While walking around, I noticed that there were a lot of pictures of naked women. Interestingly, many of these pictures were taken in hotel rooms, and I'm assuming these were young ladies from the groupies that followed The Police back in the day. I did get to meet Andy when the camera wasn't following him around -- there was a camera following him all around the gallery. He pointed to one picture of a naked girl sprawled out with a guitar next to her, and he paused and then said "I wonder where she is today." He apparently liked this one nameless girl. Did these naked girls ever sign a waiver to release naked pixs of them? I'm guessing that these guys like all other rockers slept with a lot of random women on tour and the girl in the picture was another nameless girl who bedded a rocker.

It was an interesting crowd and I stayed longer than expected because I was hoping for a Sting appearance which never materialized. It was a mix of some models, some rockers and lots of styling people. I came dressed in work attire. Oh yeah, I saw the has been chef, Rocko Dispirito. Remember him, the guy who had a reality show called "The Restaurant."

I was so tired all day (and hungover) because I was out till midnight drinking. I ran up a $1,500 tab at the bar upstairs in Gansevoort last night and I'm not to thrilled about that. We ordered 2 jumbo bottles of champagne, sushi galore and sliders. Champagne always gets the party going, but why did I let the lady order. That was dangerous when I told her to put everything on my tab. The Gansevoort was hopping on a Monday night. I thought it'd be more pleasant but it was still pretty busy.

Offsiting

2007-10-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

Last week I was in Chicago for a work offsite. It was a lot of meetings but I managed to return home before the rains delayed the airlines at O'Hare on Friday. I decided to skip out on the Friday AM sessions and catch an earlier flight. The night before, we had a scavenger hunt through Chicago with $50 at our disposal. We had a referee follow us to make sure we completed each task accordingly and did not use additional funds beyond the $50 given.

For 3 hours, we traversed Michigan Ave and other parts of downtown Chicago. We went from Lake Michigan to the Water Tower; posed for pictures at various spots; ate a burger at the Billy Goat Tavern; and finally arrived with 2 mins to spare at Gino's East. Along the way, I was not amused by the fact that we had to stop by a Walgreens and purchase makeup to apply on the men. For half the night, I scurried through Chicago with lipstick and makeup. I'm not a pretty woman and that's a fact. We were about 1 mile away from our final destination and we had 10 mins to get there. Someone waved down a stretch limo and somehow negotiated with the driver to take our whole team one mile for $27. We arrived in style at Gino's East.

Gino's East was pretty good but I'm not used to the deep dish pizza. It's a bit soupy and messy.

All grown up

2007-10-23T19:50:00.001-07:00

You've probably have seen this but it's always good fun to look at.

Gianna Jun (Jun Ji Hyun)

Lee Young Ae

Kim Hee Sun

Kim Tae Hee

Lee Bo Young

Jang Nara

Han Ji Min

Han Hyo Ju

Han Ga In

Ku Hye Sun

Su Ae

Song Hye Kyo

Son Yeh Jin

Moon Geun Young

Lee Yun Hee

On the road again

2007-10-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

It was great not having to travel for work the last 3 months. In fact, it was glorious not having to travel except for vacations. I'm back on the road as I blog from Amtrak en route to Philly to visit the 'rents. Tomorrow I'll hop on a plane to Chicago for an offsite. Oddly, I have two consecutive offsites for two different groups. The first one is this week till Friday and another one happens on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Of course there's the evening festivities and I found out that our team bonding event will be a scavenger hunt across Chicago. Good thing I brought sneaks to traverse Michigan Ave. Next week's offsite includes karaoke with a live band. Sounds exciting but I'm not to thrilled. I prefer a little hip hop and my guess is that the band will be limited in song and genre.

What I can't get, you gain

2007-10-22T21:55:00.001-07:00

Alright kids, it's almost 1am and I can't sleep. My inability to sleep means I blog and therefore your gain. So what to talk about? I'm finished packing for a quick trip to Philly then to Chicago and back for Esto's ghoulish Halloween party this weekend at her phat pad on the upper east side. Esto IM'd me earlier tonight asking if I was going to make it out to her shindig, and she tried enticing me with the fact that her party will be populated with ladies. Esto should know that it really doesn't matter if the ratio is 100:1, I'm showing up b/c Esto's gotta phat pad and she's a great hostess. If I recall, Esto has hot white girlfriends. Anyway, she did ask me to bring guys b/c of the overweighted ratio of women to men, but why should I dilute the party with dudes. Just kidding Esto. I'll ask around if anyone wants to come. Btw, I'm not dressing up b/c I don't do Halloween. But if I were to dress up, I'd arrive dressed as Judge Ito or Shortround from Indiana Jones.

I'm heading to Chicago this week for an offsite. I like Chicago and the deep dish pizza. It's a great town but I wouldn't live there b/c I'm a coastal kinda of guy. Living off of Lake Michigan is not considered coastal, at least not in my book. Ahhhh the offsite. A time to hear guest lecturers and evenings of food, fun, and drinks. Hopefully more of the latter which will make the evening festivities more fun and the food that much tastier. Offsites are about bonding and take a break from the mundane so we can sharpen the saw. And upon returning, we yell "charggggggggggge!"

Go get Grand Theft Auto 4 when it comes out b/c a girl I know was the model for the soon to be cover. She's licking a lollipop and according to her, the artist "enhanced" her.

This sucks. I can't sleep. I'm in the dark blogging. I don't want to turn on the TV because that'll be more stimulation to the brain which may exacerbate my temporary insomnia.

Last week I drank way to much. I was out 3 straight nights, which means alcohol was consumed in large quantities. I dropped by the upstairs at Son Cubano for a work shindig. I like that place a lot b/c the vibe downstairs is great, especially when they have live music. Upstairs is pretty cool with a great room to have a private party.

I've definitely cooled off at work. I don't work as hard as I did a month ago. I'm still working long hours but the intensity isn't there and my mind is starting to wander about other things and stuff outside of work. This is all a good thing. Not to long ago I was waking up early in the morning stressed out.

What sucks is that I can't even triage correctly my sleep issue right now. There's nothing racing through my mind and there are no heavy thoughts. Trust me on this, there are no significant thoughts in my head other than redecorating my apt. I may go retro like Darko or Jason's apt. If I buy Molten Brown soap, that will bring me that much closer to looking like Jason's apt. He's got the nice fixtures and the very white bathroom. Oh congrats on the new baby.

Wait, I know what may be keeping me up tonight. I'm so glad the city of NY allows street maintenance and construction to occur during the night when no one is doing anything but trying to sleep. Arrrghhhhh! There's this loud hissing sound outside like they're releasing air from the sewers. Well, it's really like the sound of that thing dentists put in your mouth to clean out the garbage in your mouth. Maybe it is that constant noise that's keeping me up.

So this weekend, I disposed of Darko on the golf course. We went to the New York Country Club which should be called the Korean Country Club b/c 90% of the golfers are Korean. Even the white starter said to me, "is this a Korean holiday today?" We were able to sneak on earlier without the help of the clueless, but very well endowed (and Korean) register girl in the pro shop. I don't meet to many ditzy Korean girls but I met one this past weekend. I smoked Darko, but I will say that he had rentals so beating him by almost 18 strokes isn't a fair assessment of his game. With clubs, it would been closer by 9 strokes.

OK, I'm going to try to sleep. Let's see how it goes.

Breakdancing in Korean

2007-10-21T17:38:00.001-07:00

Why you shouldn't vote for Hillary

2007-10-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

I don't care to much for politics but I will make one statement which doesn't indicate my political leanings. Don't vote for Hillary. This will sound like a dumb reason but here's what it comes down to: if Hillary is voted president, then this country will have been ruled by only two families for the last 2 decades. That's a generation of divisiveness. There are Clinton haters and Bush haters. They are the two most divisive families in recent political history. Sometimes we need a change, and not voting for a Bush or a Clinton isn't necessarily radical. Just a relief and a new beginning. I'd take Gore over Hillary.

Feels like a lazy sunday - it's still brilliant

2007-10-21T08:10:00.001-07:00

Apologize - another Timbaland classic

2007-10-20T21:01:00.001-07:00

Chad Vader

2007-10-20T20:44:00.000-07:00

This has nothing to do with me nor living in NY but this video is hilarious.

How to golf in Colonial Williamsburg

2007-10-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the annual guy golfing get together in colonial Williamsburg, VA. Last year we were in Myrtle Beach. I had never been to Williamsburg but it reminded me of the fact that I can't live in the south. I know it's only Virginia but when half the cars down there are pick up trucks and you see a sticker that says "stop illegal immigrants," you know it's Bush country. That is not an indication of my political siding but an observation that the folks below DC aren't to warm to my kind.

This is the annual golf weekend with fellas I had met during my college days, though we didn't all go to the same college. Everyone is married but me and a few of the guys have kids already. Man we're getting old. I look forward to this weekend and as usual, it was a lot of fun. There's not much to do in Williamsburg after the sun goes down, but poker and laughs kept us entertained. The golfing was a lot of fun and I think I've got the golf itch again. I played fairly well and ended up with the overall low score after 4 rounds of golf. The one shot that I'll remember for the rest of my life will be the 18th hole which was the 72nd hole of the weekend at Royal New Kent. It was the final hole of the weekend and I was about 152 yards out from an island green. I selected my iron and said to my playing partner, "sometimes you just gotta go for it (at the pin)." I was playing a 10 yard fade - a balls flight which goes left to right - all day. I aimed left 10 yards of the pin, which was tucked to the right by the water. Soon as I made contact with the ball, I knew I had hit it pure but was it going to fade 10 yards? I lost sight of the ball as it descended towards the island green. Up above the hole was the clubhouse with about 10 guys having beers and watching play on the final hole. The next thing I hear is a roar from the beer gallery. The ball landed 6" from the hole with no spin. Just a dead drop on the island green. As I walked on the green, I heard someone from the peanut gallery say "wave your hat" and "pick it up." That was a nice way to end a great weekend with the fellas.

Timbaland's Apologize

2007-10-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

This is my latest fav song of the moment.

Brangelina: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

2007-10-14T17:24:00.000-07:00

It's nice to know that Brad, Angeline and Maddox are living in the big apple. It's also nice to know that they like the Korean off-Broadway "Jump." There appearance recently has increased ticket sales of the show.

Wonder Girls (원더걸스)

2007-10-14T17:20:00.000-07:00

I know I'm late on this but these girls are pretty catchy. I'm a fan of Sun Mi.

Drape is the new fashion: 12th Pusan Film Festival

2007-10-07T16:37:00.001-07:00