What do these guys have in common?

• 서태지
• Danny (1tym)
• 이재원 (H.O.T.)
• 유승준
• Tim

I think there might be one or two I’m missing…

So I haven’t been exactly writing every day this year like I thought I would. Oh well, some of the things I wrote about in 2007 were kind of a stretch in terms of writeable stuff. I’ll try to write more relevant things this year while maintaining the spirit of comprehensive recording what goes on with me.

I got back from Las Vegas today. Man, what a trip. Lots of drinking, some CES, some tourist activities. We got to Las Vegas Friday evening (my buddies got there a few hours afterwards, grr…). I picked up some alcohol from a liquor store. Though we did go to Tao (and got in, VIP-style, for free), we didn’t stay there long and ended up getting trashed in our room instead. The next day, I went to CES. What a huge, huuuuuuuuuuge thing CES is! I only stayed in the South Hall (where Nokia had a couple of booths) but even just that hall (which is one of three halls that CES was sprawled across) was huge. It was cool seeing Twango (what is now known as Share on Ovi) being demoed at the sprawling Nokia booth… and seeing people respond favorably to the service. That night, we did some touristy stuff, walked around hotels and drank in the aura that is Las Vegas. After rushing through a buffet at the Bellagio, we saw Cirque du Soleil: O. Tickets cost 170 bucks per person but, wow, what a show. I loved how seamless the transition between the stage being a hard surface and a freaking pool is; the O show is something that would be nigh impossible to see outside of Las Vegas. We hit the casino afterwards, each of us losing anywhere from 60 to 240 bucks, playing slots, poker, blackjack and roulette.

All in all, it was a great trip. I’m beyond exhausted right now and am likely to pass out soon.

It’s snowing… AGAIN. Kathy and I went out to buy some eggs for my mom. Not knowing that it was snowing, I pulled my Tiburon out of the garage. Wanting to avoid the long ass lines at Wal-Mart, we headed over to Walgreens, thinking they sold eggs. On the way up to its parking lot, I slipped and slid. What a mess. (And it turns out that Walgreens does NOT sell eggs)

Kathy, Jason and I went to Stevens Pass yesterday. It’s been near two years since I’ve gone boarding. I’m glad boarding isn’t something that needs relearning; it’s like riding a bike or swimming (*ahem* Giri.. . There were so many people up at Stevens yesterday that it took us forever to actually start riding. We arrived there at 11 but we only started boarding around 1. We had to park at a lot a few miles down from the slopes and wait over half an hour to get on a shuttle. Then we had to get in lines for the Advantage Card (for me), a daily pass (for my sister), and rental (for my sister). We were boarding from 1 to 6:30 but only did several runs; there were just too many people waiting for the lifts.

Here’s the worst part: When we were ready to leave, we found that there weren’t enough shuttles for everyone in the party to ride. They were only taking drivers to the lots. Our driver, Jason, missed the first shuttle and — through no fault of his — took a while to get to the lot and come back to pick us up. Kathy and I were waiting in the cold for a good hour.

On a brighter note, Stevens Pass has this new system in place that should expedite future visits. Instead of getting a sticker that you attach to your zipper and that has to get checked every time you get on a lift, they give out RFID cards. You just place it in your chest pocket, walk through a stall, and you’re verified. No more fumbling to show your pass. What’s even cooler is that, if you tie your RFID card to a credit card, you don’t have to wait in line to purchase a pass for the day. You can just go straight to a lift; your card gets charged automatically. Tying your credit card to the RFID card also gives you another 3 dollar discount (you get 14/7 [weekday/weekend] dollar discounts for signing up for an Advantage Card).

***

I’m all of 27 right now, going on 28… and I STILL have drama in my life. It involves two girls and two guys in a graph with who-likes-who-mostly-unidirectional arrows. *sigh*

I’ve been listening to this Korean song, non-stop, for the past few days. Here is the music video for it. The translation isn’t quite right, though it mostly gets the meaning.

Oops, totally almost missed my first post of the year! I’m about to dye my hair black (got a bunch of white hair poking through), I’ll perhaps write more in a little bit.

Yeah, I know, totally lame post. Bite me.

What a crazy year. 2008. Went through a lot this year.

• Learned what it means to work for a big corporation, good and bad. Jumping from a startup to a huge corporation like Nokia was quite a jarring experience.
• Started and ended a relationship. I went through some things with this girl that I wouldn’t wish on anyone else. It was quite the learning experience.
• Went to Korea. Saw both the shiny Korea that you read about in those tour guides and its seedier underbelly.
• Met new friends and got especially close with one of them. It’s too bad one of those relationships is going sour (already!).
• Started talking to Angel again. It’s been nearly three years since we broke up yet (or maybe because of) it’s still really comfortable hanging out with her.
• One of my best friends got married. It’s been a few months since the wedding yet it’s still weird referring to Katie as “Giri’s wife.” Jeannie also got married too.
• Went traveling a lot. Florida, LA, Vancouver BC, Portland, San Francisco, Las Vegas… Most of the trips were work related. Got to see Meg Ryan, Lisa Ling, and Cameron Diaz pretty up close on one of my trips to LA.
• Started being a “manager.” It’s a much different set of responsibilities managing people. Too bad I’m still contributing individually a little too much. Hopefully things will change next year.

I’ll probably write some more about 2008 later. Just wanted to get this post in before we flip to 2009.

I decided to start up a blog again. Last year (2007), I had a new year’s resolution of writing a post a day, every day, for the entire year… and I actually did it. I turned off my blog sometime earlier this year (had to do with an ex-girlfriend’s unreasonable jealousy). The other day, I was looking through some of my old posts and realized I missed writing. It was mostly nonsensical, diary-esque posts that I wrote but I had written just about everything I did that year (though the posts were a bit sad in that I literally did nothing of significance that year).

I decided to create this new blog instead of using my old Xanga one for a couple of reasons. One, I’m going to have to “grow up” one of these days, create my own site on my own server, and host my own blog; WordPress seems like a good blog to install. Second, I’m probably going to keep this blog private for a while; I don’t necessarily want everyone on my Xanga’s subscription list to see my posts. One of these days, I know, my ego’s going to get the best of me and I’m going to want people reading my blog. I’ll deal with that when that urge comes up.

For now, though, I think I’ll start another pledge to write every day in 2009. The year will probably be interesting, I see a lot of changes coming my way.

So, there you go. My first post.