Chester's blog

My first kindle!

2011-11-29T13:28:00.001-08:00

Finally, I bought a kindle (touch) first time in my life.

It's awesome device to read a book

Here're some pix.

Touch response is a little bit slow but I can still stand on it.

Screen is bright white background without any backlight.

Korean font is supported as default which is nice.

We don't have any Korean book for now but web clipping and new feeding are possible through 3rd party applications (Calibre).

Weight feels like heavier than I thought but not that bad when I tried it on the bus during commuting.

I also purchased a case from Marware and it fits exactly right on Kindle touch model.

The device is secured by the case, now.

Web surfing is possible but not that great since it's just a e-book reader.

Collection management is nice and overall speed is slow.

Magic Mountain

2010-10-02T17:46:00.000-07:00

Finally, my family and I went to the magic mountain six flags which is 5 minutes away from my home. My company, Boston Scientific, held a private party by borrowing whole park on a friday evening till midnight.

The best thing about this park it that it provides kid's rides which I've never imagined before! Stella really enjoyed them!

Lake Elsinore, Kearny Mesa, Coronado & Alpine - the greater San Diego area

2010-09-07T20:28:00.000-07:00

I planned to spend this labor day weekend in a different way from before. Usually, I visited either famous areas or friends whenever had San Diego vacation but it was always repeated schedule which makes my wife and myself tired of traveling all the places. First of all, I made reservation on a resort hotel located isolated area of Coronado island. Nowadays, Coronado is not an island anymore since it's connected to mainland by its long and narrow beaches. I've found a nice family hotel named Loews in the middle of this long peninsula which seems like a perfect cast-away from the land which is still close to the downtown.

Loews coronado bay resort

But this vacation wasn't even easy from the beginning. Stella started being sick on Friday night and her temperature rapidly went up to 103 degree. I brought her to hospital on Saturday morning and relieved to hear the doctor's saying there's nothing wrong but she might be infected by flu virus from day care since she's been attending daycare from last month. It's very common every kids got flu or cold when one of them sick in a day care.

Stella is sick and tired.

Next challenge was traffic.
Just like last time, we're departing at the most busy Sarurday - the beginning of long weekend and about to go through the busiest freeway 5 toward San Diego.
I saw there's slow traffic around San Clemente and decided to detour using Ortega highway. The way was far to go to freeway 15 but there's a little reward at the end which is the beautiful Lake Elsinore.

Lake Elsinore

It's already evening when we arrived at San Diego since I've left Valencia late (2pm), detoured to Ortega highway and stopped by few places for break. We decided to have dinner in Kearny Mesa. First, we've checked out Mitsuwa japanese market but their food court already closed and I found the famous Chopstix two just opened up in the same mall.

Mitsuwa japanese market in Kearny Mesa

Stella recovered magically when we arrived at the hotel in Coronado island. She seems enjoying to stay in the hotel. She didn't even need to take any more ibuprofen to lower her fever and woke up with low temperature next morning.
The room wasn't that big but amenities were nice. The best part of the room is gorgeous view of both of the Pacific ocean and San Diego bay! Humidity was okay since it's in the middle of the sea, technically. Not too dry, not too humid.

Hotel room. The view was nice but I didn't take any picture during day time.

We had breakfast buffet which was so so in hotel and went to KUPCSD located near downtown for Sunday service. On the way back to hotel, my wife took a nice picture of San Diego bay when I've driven over the Coronado bridge.

Having breakfast buffet at hotel. Stella didn't have much appetite since she's still sleepy and hasn't fully recovered from cold, yet.

Hotel cafe for breakfast.

Gorgeous View of San Diego bay from the top of Coronado bridge

Patio on the other side of cafe. We can see the Coronado bridge over the sea.

Xin's family & Jaehyuk's couple visited hotel at Sunday night. We had dinner on a sushi bar at downtown Coronado and returned to hotel to have some drink. Xin's daughter, Isabella, and Stella got along with each other very well.

Stella & Isabella

On last day, we checked out from hotel and had nice Dim Sum lunch at Jasmin chinese restaurant in Convoy st. After lunch, we move to the east county of San Diego where Viejas casino/outlet and Cuyamaca state park are. There's little stream called Green Valley fall in Cuyamaca campground. The water was cold and clear which blows away all the tiredness of my family and we returned to Valencia at midnight.

Green Valley fall in Cuyamaca state park

Before leaving San Diego county, we've shopping pants and sandals on Viejas factory outlet. Stella likes to pick up items and to try them. She's definitely a girl. :)

Stella picked up a cap in Levi's store at Viejas factory outlet

Stella at Kim's aunt's home

2010-07-19T09:15:00.000-07:00

My family were invited to a party to celebrate graduating of Kimberly Stewart. Kim is an intern working in software test group of my company. The house was located in the middle of Altadena area surrounding nice but old community. Most of houses have well maintained large gardens including the one we've visited. Stella enjoyed the lawn and trees but the large black scared her. Actually, this dog was a bit young (9 months old) and wanted to follow Stella to play with but Stella kept crying when this dog followed.

Stella's trying to pick some orages

Vacation on Sycamore hot springs

2010-07-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

A rainy friday night at work

2009-12-13T21:28:00.000-08:00

Holiday potluck lunch @work

2009-12-11T18:13:00.001-08:00

We have potluck lunch at the end of a year to celebrate our effort and enjoy cross-culture of us.

I forgot to bring it in the morning and late on actual lunch since I needed to go back home and to pick up mine.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

2009-12-03T13:26:00.001-08:00

Berlin Phil visited Los Angeles and I couldn’t miss the rare chance to watch this legendary organization’s performance.

My wife and I decided to ask a babysitter to take care of Stella within 5-6 hours since Walt Disney concert hall in LA downtown takes 1+ hours to get by car from Valencia.

The traffic was terrible to downtown on 7:30pm of Tuesday but their music rewarded us enough.

It was outstanding and valuable experience to listen their music as live.

I want to go to their concert with Stella some day.

The holiday already began around concert hall and we’ve also enjoyed the mood after concert.

Stella was the only victim within this concert since we arrived babysitter’s home later than expected.

I’m sorry Stella and you’ll be there with me next time.

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Lunch at Andy's home

2009-12-03T13:13:00.001-08:00

My family went to Andy’s home one day to discuss about Stella’s birthday party.

It was great to have lunch together and I was late to return to work on that Monday. J

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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BSN People

2009-11-23T12:07:00.001-08:00

I just tested my new flash with borrowed lens.

Those are my coworkers at Boston Scientific, Neuromodulation Division

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Bike shopping

2009-11-14T15:11:00.001-08:00

Finally, Rachel agreed to buy a good bike. She wasn't bad with bianchi and decided to buy it after test drive.

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Watching movie

2009-11-04T22:32:00.001-08:00

When my wife just got pregnant, one of our friend recommended us to hang out regularly after having baby.
Lots of couples also complain that it is impossible to yield time to go movie theater.
Today we finally decide to go watch movie leaving Stella with baby sitter since Rachel has been tired of taking care of baby as full time mom and we need time to refresh our relationship.
'Couples retreat' was a good pick in terms of that but a lil bit hard for Rachel since its English verbal. It means very talkative movie.

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Halloween

2009-10-31T23:30:00.001-07:00

The first halloween custume I met today is at starbucks. Stupidly I deleted good picture and the remain is heavily shaken.

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At work

2009-10-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

These days, I am working with industrial designer at work. To improve the performance of collaboration, my boss ordered me to stay in his lab and I have moved all possible portable computers to there. Two different tablet PCs are target platforms and the black lenovo is my main machine for developing app. Don't buy lenovo. It keeps crashing, anyway.
The worst part of this lab is invisibility from cellphone network. Can you hear me now? No cellphone service is available in this center of the big building.

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Church babies

2009-10-28T16:44:00.001-07:00

We have couple of babies of church friends who are similar ages to Stella. One day, Rachel and I realized Stella didn't have much chance to get socialized. Now we try to let her to be along with more friends.
Here are Hajin, Minseo, June and Stella. How cute are they!!

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Dol-Jabi (friend's daughter's the first birthday)

2009-10-18T19:11:00.001-07:00

Today is Rachel's friend's daughter, Ashlyn's first birthday and my family joins the big party in a hotel located at Los Angeles Korea town. Stella's birthday is also coming in few months and we want to see how to do the "party" thing. (It's headache of Rachel, these days)
It is Korean tradition to let the baby pick up one of items which represents the future job of the baby. BTW, lots of parents only prepare items related to what they want their kids to do. For example, more and more parents prepare stethoscope with hoping their kid becomes a medical doctor. Ashlyn also picked up stethoscope and her parents were very happy about this.
Originally, Korean parents prepare money(wealth), noodle, threads(long life - health), book(knowlege - study), bow(strong - worrier or general), pen(government officer - the only official job in old time), etc. Interestingly, a medical doctor was not a good job at that time but those preferences are changing.
I may prepare a musical instrument since my wife is a classical musician.

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Food and people

2009-10-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

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Dinner at Paul Sung's home.

2009-10-17T17:25:00.001-07:00

My family were invited to a dinner by Paul. His house is beautifully located on a little hill at Glenoaks.
There were lots of ppl invited and Paul prepared nice Brazilian BBQ since he's from San Paulo.

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Palm Springs retreat - Hard way

2009-10-14T15:55:00.001-07:00

Jonghoon’s couple invites us a night retreat in Palm Springs, last night.

The problem was that it’s Sunday night.

I had to get work from 3 hours far on Monday morning but couldn’t resist to hang out a nice place for free!

We’ve enjoyed the short trip and the next morning was really tough as expected.

Here’re some memory of it…

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A night at the opera

2009-10-14T15:40:00.001-07:00

My wife’s taking a class from College of Canyons which is the only community college in town.

The professor of the class is also a famous composer and we’re invited a workshop of his opera on a Friday night.

This was quite interesting experience since all the audience participated about discussion after the performance as well as explanation about each scene by musical director before.

BTW, the hall was awesome as I didn’t much expect about it.

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Rachel's brother-in-law

2009-10-14T15:30:00.001-07:00

We’ve met Rachel’s brother-in-law again on LAX just before his leaving the States.

It’s also first time for me to try out the famous ramen of Asahi restaurant on Sawtelle.

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BSN Software group's team building event

2009-10-12T14:04:00.001-07:00

We started having regular base team building every quarter and it was second event last month.

Throwing Frisbee! Yes, that’s all.

We’ve thrown Frisbee all the afternoon and my team was the top of worst as score!

Here’s my team and whole software group’s pictures.

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Fountain show on the Grove shopping mall

2009-09-09T15:39:00.000-07:00

My family and I went to the Grove in LA to meet Joey's couple.
It was 9pm on Saturday night and lots of people already crowded around all over the place. Luckily, we could take a seat by the fountain and watched the nice fountain show by right next to it.
Here's a shot from there and you can check out who Joey's girl friend is!

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Labor day at Desert.

2009-09-09T14:05:00.001-07:00

It is the first blogging from cellphone.
My family went to church retreat within labor day holiday.
Palm Springs was really hot and we can't wait to swim in hot water pool of the resort. Stella was a little bit hard to travel in this weather but it was not bad overall.
We've also stayed in Cabazon outlet for half day and had dinner at Red Lobster on Ontario after that.
Rachel was satisfied and I was totally tired after all.

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Stella’s one hundred days old (Professional)

2009-08-08T23:54:00.001-07:00

Finally, I’ve received the professional photography of Stella’s a hundred days old from the studio. Followings are my selection of them.

Stella liked this accessories with the sitter. I’ve considered to buy one but it turned out a little bit expensive than my budget. Those flowers and lots of reds in the scene makes her emotion brighter and active. By the way, she looks a little bit fat with the wig and scarf.

We’ve prepared kinds of formal suits to take the family shot but the photographer wanted me untie. It makes more like casual look and feel of our first family photo.

This is one of the best smile of Stella among all pictures. She started with good feeling at the first day of studio experience but became tired after the first hour. After the bathtub scene, we’ve moved to different room which has various cushions. Soon, she started hating to lie down with her arms on a cushion and we couldn’t make her comfortable with it. More than half an hour struggling made everyone hard and we’ve given up for the day.

Two days later, we’ve gone to the studio again to finish up this studio photography. It was our third visit after the family picture and the first trial of Stella’s own portrait. The photographer has been changed again and she was the one who took our family picture.

She was also a mom having kids and knew exactly what a baby wants. That’s our luck to meet her since the work went through smoothly for the rest of the day.

At the last moment we’ve asked her to take our picture again since we wanted to have a casual shot of family and she nicely accepted it.

Jessica's Baby Shower speech

2009-07-12T01:41:00.000-07:00

I should have set the resolution higher but didn't know how to set it when I recorded this. All the pictures and video were taken by my cell phone.

Short trip to Avila Beach during Independence holiday

2009-07-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

My company gave all employee one week mandatory vacation with shutting down our whole facility within Independence Day. My wife and I have already spent monday thru wednesday to take baby's picture and agreed that we don't want to pass all holiday week without going anywhere else since we've canceled Vegas trip due to incredible heat of Los Angeles area. So, where can be the destination for a short two days trip? We've recalled Avila beach since there's nice seafood market and best mineral host spring resort called Sycamore. The old memory of the last year's anniversary trip reminds us the taste of crabs & oysters and there's no reason to deny this idea.

Olde Port Inn at Harford Pier which is rated one of top 10 seafood restaurant in Calif.

Stella's a hundred days old studio photographing

2009-07-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

In Korea, a good family always leave a record of photography for one hundred days old baby by a professional studio. Even though we've already taken professional pictures twice (once when we're still in hospital after delivery and the other when around Stella was two months old), Rachel wants to keep this Korean tradition, too.
So, we've made an arrangement with a photography studio especially for baby and went there couple of times to take pictures of Stella. They have nice accessories, good photographers as well as variety of packages. Taking infant to strange place is always challenging but Stella went through all of schedule really good. Luckily we met a good photographer who's also a mom of kids. She knows baby and is very experienced how to treat this little one.

Rachel's preparing Stella to take picture of her. Within each scene, we need to change her clothes and sooth her if she's not in good mood. Overall, she's really good girl during photographing.

The photographer's working really hard to take the best shot of any scene. She kept changing little detail or arranged accessories of a scene to make Stella more comfortable and let her make best smile on lens.

I took a picture of this photographer and my family to express my appreciation to her. Good job! Stella seems to like you. You did it!

I've asked her to take my family pictures with my camera as well. She nicely accepted it and took this wonderful picture for free! This would yet be the best picture of my family, currently.

Since we've picked this studio by Caster's recommendation, we knew his daughter Hajin takes one year old picture at the same time with us. They're doing their job in different room of this studio. I visited their scene after finishing up ours and took couple of pictures of them. Here are Caster, Hajin, Stella and Rachel from left to right.

Hajin was not in good mood that day and They needed to keep soothing her between scenes. Isn't she cute? She's like a little lady. Hopefully Hajin & Stella will be good friends.

Los Angeles Korea Town - Korean Sausage "Soon-dae"

2009-06-08T15:45:00.001-07:00

Life at new home, Montevista community

2009-06-02T11:39:00.000-07:00

One not-so-sunny day, in other words, a cloudy day, we finally decided to go our community swimming pool where I've always dreamed when it's sunny and hot. Rachel put Stella a suit of bikini even though she wouldn't get wet, yet. After nice and cool swimming time, I've also taken care of my little backyard "farm". Few days later, I've planted the first chili to cook Korean soy bean soup (Dwen-Jang) and it wasn't that hot yet. Couple of roses bloom and didn't want to miss pictures of them. You can see a tiny grasshopper on a red rose.

Meets Jintae at Larchmont village

2009-06-02T11:19:00.000-07:00

I almost missed this little cute street in Los Angeles.
Last time, I've found this street while I tried to find a yogurt place, I cleverly saved the location to my GPS for any future. But nobody knew the future came this soon.
When Jintae asked me where we'd meet, instantly I recalled this place where I've constantly thought about within last few days to be. Weather's been good and I like the silence rather than crowded Korea town but is so close to there. So, we can't resist taking picture, here.

San Diego trip with parents

2009-05-05T13:59:00.001-07:00

I wanted to show SDSU while their staying here.
So, we've had a day trip to San Diego on a sunny day.
They liked San Diego a lot!
The ocean's clear and clean, the weather's beautiful.

Grand Canyon & Las Vegas

2009-05-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

Rachel, Stella, My parents and I went to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon within my vacation. It was really long drive by myself since Rachel was busy on taking care of Stella and my father missed his international driver's license. First time ever with my whole family and Stella's grandparents but really good time will be in our memory.

Stella's a hundred days old party!

2009-05-05T13:23:00.000-07:00

Korean ppl have a tradition to have a party to celebrate a hundred days old baby. Old time, lots of babies died before 100 days old and it meant something if the baby's healthy at 100 days old. Rachel and I decided to invite friends for this while my parents still stayed here. We've prepared lots of food and cleaned up my home. There were about 40+ guests came to my home and it was busiest ever in my single home since I've lived in the US.

Rachel's Birthday

2009-03-06T10:42:00.001-08:00

To celebrate Rachel's birthday (the fifth of march), we had a nice dinner at the famous japanese restaurant, Yamashiro (means a mountain fortress), which is located at Hollywood. The nightscape of Los Angeles from the patio seat is awesome and the waiter serves us everything nicely. We had hot sake(japanese traditional liquor) and got good mood after a long time ago. Thanks, mother-in-law's taking care of Stella. Rachel likes to have raw oyster, sashimi, sushi as well as king crab when I liked steamed rice and miso soup. ;)

We picked up a small piece of cheese cake factory and celebrated my beautiful wife's birthday again with all my family at home, later.

One peaceful day on Castaic

2009-02-19T15:17:00.000-08:00

By just ten minutes drive to the north of Valencia, we can reach Lake Castaic which is biggest lake around here. This Lake consists of upper lake and lower lagoon. The lagoon side is small but it has more shores and picnic areas. It's also popular place to refresh ourselves whenever Rachel and I are tired of the small town life. We've usually gone there at late nights but decided to check it out during day time. It was worthy to be there just before the sunset since nobody is wondering but we could enjoy ourselves the peaceful time.

Baby Stella Arrived

2009-01-15T11:38:00.000-08:00

After long waiting, the little Stella has arrived on 12th of January, 2009 at 12:52pm as 7 lbs. She's really good at eating, sleeping and crying. I just assembled the swing which Gene gave me to start playing with my daughter. ^^

Snow in Valencia

2008-12-18T13:40:00.000-08:00

During the winter, there're couple of times chances that I could see snow on mountain top around Valencia. These are the scene within 2 miles of my commuting. Isn't it cool?

Sequoia National Park

2008-10-30T16:28:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Rachel & I went to Sequoia National Park which is about 3 hours north from my place. I didn't know the national park is that close to me but it's a gorgeous place to be. Rachel always wanted to go somewhere has nice trees and water stream. Sequoia is exactly a place which fulfills Rachel's needs.

Labor Day Holiday in San Diego

2008-09-02T16:28:00.000-07:00

Lake Casitas

2008-07-10T17:01:00.001-07:00

The day after Fourth of July, Joey, Rachel and I went to the Lake Casitas on Ojai, California. The lake is located at a little bit north of Ventura and about an hour driving distance from my home, Valencia. This lake has lots of interesting points. There's a big water park for kids and adults, huge camping grounds for overnight staying and various types of boats to enjoy the lake. The grass is also big and lots of trees make shade for midsummer day's napping. We really took a nap after the tough sailing with a small motor boat. The weather is as hot as Valencia, over there but it's relaxing to take a short day trip for certain weekend with friends and family.

Ducks' crossing street

2008-06-21T02:16:00.000-07:00

One fine day, Rachel and I were having lunch at home.
During lunch, Rachel yelled "Honey, look outside!" and I saw the amazing scene through the window. There were a band of ducks crossing the ten lanes big street! All the cars suddenly stopped and waited for all the ducks to finish crossing street. That has taken a while. It was interesting that the tallest guy lead all others like a military band.
Actually, there's a brand new shopping mall at the direction, they are heading. The new shopping mall has a cute little pond and the other side has a big artificial lake.
These days, people said that ducks are often going back and forth between two water places and it's my first time to see it by my eyes.
Valencia is getting interesting. ^^

Newport Beach

2008-05-31T18:08:00.001-07:00

Kevin, Gene, Sarah, Xin, Jessica, Rachel and I had a nice chance to stay at the house of Bob (Sarah's grandpa) located by Newport beach two nights. We enjoyed the free nights at the gorgeous home with nicest friends! Personally, I probably fell in love with Monopoly. Next time, I may have my own board with practice. :)
We played guitar hero but no one could beat up the serious Kev. Look at his face!
Instead, I enjoyed bodyboard for a long time, next day.
Newport beach is a nice and quiet beach. Fortunately, the Saturday wasn't that cold and I could stay in the water couple of hours. But, everyone else didn't get into the sea except Kevin. Xin found his hidden talent of frisbee right here.

I've missed Kevin's omelet since Big Bear cabin, last winter and finally, we could taste his delicious food again. Sarah cooked nice spaghetti with her grandma's recipe. I should try it later by myself.

Los Angeles downtown nightscape

2008-04-14T14:51:00.000-07:00

Xin & Gene's B-day party

2008-04-14T14:44:00.000-07:00

Winter bridgeport

2008-04-14T09:45:00.001-07:00

I see this view every morning and night from the patio of my apartment.

Day trip to northern San Diego

2008-04-07T09:50:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday, some of my church members (bridge group) and I had a day trip to Northern San Diego. We had BBQ lunch on the Harbor beach of Oceanside. The fine meats prepared by our photographer Ko entertained us more than enough.

Although the weather was still a little bit cold, I enjoyed the nice view and smell of the ocean. After my move to Valencia, I'm missing the beach more and more. The first impression of the Harbor beach was a cute and silent but it must be different mood in a busy day of summer holiday season. The only problem was the weather. This day stayed almost cloudy all the time except few moments of sunny time. We've been there about two hours and couldn't stand any more because of the coldness.

Before the sunset, we decided to move to Carlsbad to tour the famous flower field which was the main purpose of our trip. It is an attraction of the northern San Diego and there were lots of tourists from all over the place since it's the season flowers bloom.

The flower field tour was funnier more than I expected. Actually, it was proposed by the photographer Ko and I could get the reason while everyone's enjoyed over there. Even though we've had lots of BBQ meats (beefs, porks) and fruits at lunch time, the flower trip made us tired and some ladies started yelling for the food! So, the dinner which wasn't part of plan instantly set up. I decided to bring them one of nice restaurant of San Diego, the Beach house.

Everybody had fun time at beach house and we had less than an hour to move to the last schedule of our plan, the Ballet. This ballet watching was proposed by me since Milky always talked about how much she loves ballet and there hasn't been any chance to do watch it together.

San Francisco

2008-03-31T17:45:00.000-07:00

Pacific Coast Highway (CA-1)

2008-03-31T17:30:00.001-07:00

The Getty center and UCLA

2008-03-31T17:16:00.000-07:00

2008 Microsoft Products Launching Event in Los Angeles

2008-03-06T15:39:00.000-08:00

On twenty seventh of February, I've been in the launching event of Microsoft at Los Angeles Convention Center. It was a full day event and completely free to register. The best part of it was all free foods. :) My co-workers and I enjoyed their free breakfast, lunch and even lots of snacks as well as many free gifts from both of vendors booths and Microsoft booths. The impression of The Server 2008 wasn't that strong but Visual Studio .Net 2008 team suite looks nice. The guy explained about the team suite seems like an expert software developer. Unfortunately, there were too many people came this event and I couldn't get in any of training session. It would be nice to learn about the new products at there.

BTW, Los Angeles downtown was pretty nice. I enjoyed walking around clean and beautiful streets. It's weird that I've never been there since I've visited this city hundreds of times. Nokia theatre and Convention Center are beautiful. It's also my first experience to take express bus to go Los Angeles and that's not bad. I didn't need to drive and it took only an hour and half which is same with the Metro link train.

Hangsamo New Year Party at Big Bear Mountain

2008-01-18T22:23:00.000-08:00

The last day of trip on New York and New Jersey

2008-01-03T15:42:00.001-08:00

Washington DC & Richmond

2008-01-03T15:37:00.001-08:00

Christmas Eve in Manhattan

2008-01-03T15:32:00.001-08:00

New York Sunday

2008-01-03T15:27:00.001-08:00

The BSC Headquarters

2007-12-26T22:59:00.000-08:00

Boston tour

2007-12-26T22:50:00.000-08:00

New York Trip - The second day

2007-12-19T23:20:00.001-08:00

New York Trip - The first day

2007-12-19T08:06:00.000-08:00

Birthday with Milky

2007-12-19T07:47:00.000-08:00

Fifth of December is my birthday. Milky prepared a surprise event for me like picture. She made a nice seaweed soup as breakfast following Korean tradition and dressed up with delicious and romantic dinner just for me. How lovely this girl is! My wife is not just cute but also is a nice chef.

At same week, we went to San Diego to meet friends who always make me comfort. Thanks, guys! They waited for us until midnight to have a little party at Xin's apartment. We've drunked over night with watching Sideways and had Pho as the next day's brunch. It's a routine, we've developed, which ends up with coffee at Panera.

Solvang, a Denmark in California

2007-11-24T18:06:00.000-08:00

California has a little danish town called Solvang on north of Santa Barbara.
Milky felt like to be in Europe at here and we've enjoyed the air of it.
We may go there whenever she misses European street.
Thanks to Joey who drove long distance and took great pictures of us.

Santa Barbara beach

2007-11-24T16:39:00.000-08:00

Milky's first Thanksgiving in the States

2007-11-24T12:43:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving, Sarah invited me and Milky to her grandparents' home which is located in Newport Beach. It's really grateful that everyone's kindness made Milky comfortable in warmth at there. Korean people also have similar tradition to this which is called "Choo-Suk" or "Han-Ga-Wi". Since it's the most plentiful season in a year, Korean wisdom say "No more than that, no less than that but be just like Han-Ga-Wi". Most of Korean people go home on this biggest national holiday and all the highways experience the worst traffic through a year.

Milky luckily met a German man at this party. It was a nice chance to practice her rusty German speaking. Even though we're departed from our home country, here's another family of us.

Bridgeport apartments

2007-10-25T14:26:00.000-07:00

Here's the place I live.
This image's from microsoft virtual earth.

ABC(BSC) people

2007-10-19T09:33:00.001-07:00

Ventura Beach

2007-10-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

This Tuesday, Milky called me while I was still at my office and asked to go beach right after work. Surely, I agreed with that great idea and it was a nice little trip on the Tuesday evening. It took about 40 minutes to get Ventura beach from Valencia including the time to stop by a free farmer's store by the highway 126. Yeah, there're all farms along the road. We've enjoyed breeze and smell of the pacific ocean as well as the beautiful sunset over it. Unfortunately, the beach turned into dark too soon but we pleasely yielded the chance of exploring around there to the next time.

Life in Valencia

2007-10-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

It's already 3rd month after moving to Valencia. Although I regarded here as part of Los Angeles, it turned out here's totally different area from there in geographics and cultures. I always thought to take some pictures of here but lots of work to do after moving didn't allow me to spare time for it. Finally, I got a little break and took couple of pictures on last weekend.

My apartment has really good view from the patio side. Someone might think here's similar to some country of Europe when he/she saw the scene. That's a park surrounds this community which is called "Waterridge". It was half of the reason I and Eunha decided to move in here.

There's also nice walking trail on the other side of this apartments complex. I discovered this nice trail while I was going work with my bike. By the way, I'm commuting by bicycle since it's only 2.6 mi distance to work from home.

I wanted to find a nice place serving fine coffee-things and there's one named "Corner Cafe and Bakery". This cafe is located only four blocks away from my place. How nice!

There's a small and cute street in the downtown which is just three blocks from home. Don't imagine big and complex downtown like San Diego or Los Angeles. Here's small Valencia.

Every time my getting home, these days, I'm tired at all.

But there's big expectation since my wife prepares a nice dinner just for me. I can't wait for the delicious time! :)

And it's close to Halloween. Who's miss candies?

Kye meeting at Mission Bay

2007-09-19T10:26:00.001-07:00

It was the first meeting after my moving to Valencia and that's why I felt it as special. San Diego still came to me like my hometown. I should come back there sometime. Eunha drunk a little bit more than usual. She might feel same way with me? BTW, we have more and more babes who will be the next generation of our meeting. ^^

Open concert on Balboa park

2007-09-19T10:08:00.000-07:00

There's free organ performance on Balboa park at every Sunday afternoon. It's one another reason I love San Diego(Now, I miss there). Don't underestimate it because it's free. The civic organist is a top class musician and the event is supported by many of donators. After each concert, audiences can take a look at the Spreckels Organ. The inside of building is filled full of organ parts like pipes, horns, drums, .. et cetera. We've went there with Victor's couple who were the paster and missionary of my church.

It's interesting that the organ player gave a speech after every repertoire she played. She explained the story about each song or reason for picking one.

People who Milky met

2007-08-14T08:25:00.000-07:00

Milky and Chester came back to San Diego from the Hawaiian honeymoon. We met friends within few days (around two weeks?) and she had to return to Germany. During that time, she took pictures of people by her brand new camera phone. I can just upload them since I bought her a memory card recently and she's able to backup them up, now.

Celebrate Greg's finishing school - ver. 2

2007-08-02T16:08:00.000-07:00

Torrey Pines Beach

2007-08-01T14:43:00.000-07:00

Last sunday afternoon, I went to the Torrey Pines beach the hidden beach in between the beautiful La Jolla and Del Mar beaches .... was I thought about it, but it turns out I was wrong! There were whole bunch of people on this warm sunday afternoon of mid-summer and we couldn't find the space to step in. The weather's perfect. The water's perfect. And the beer's perfect!!

Outdoor wedding pictures

2007-05-23T16:52:00.002-07:00

Thanks the wonderful photographer who is my friend, Edwardo Lee. He owns a wedding studio in Japan and had lots of professional experience in photography. We spent whole day (5am-7pm) to take those pictures from Hairshop to outdoor. It was very hard but funny. Especially, Eunha enjoyed it. Here're some of those pix.

Honeymoon at Hawaii

2007-05-22T14:31:00.000-07:00

1. The day one (5/1)
In front of church by the Limousine. We're about to leave to the honeymoon. One of my friend rent me a Limo as a gift for our wedding. It was nice to get into the loooong car to go honeymoon! Thanks, Sungchul!

Waikiki beach view from the lobby of the hotel. I was waiting for check-in time. Unfortunately, we arrived here, too early to check in. So, there still remained about 3 hours to go. Tired of long flight and beautiful beach view.

The first dinner at Hawaii; Lobster and Oyster, etc.. Eunha especially likes Oyster. We've had lobster and oyster couple more times from Hawaii to San Diego, later.

After the first dinner at Honolulu, we decided to walk around the downtown. Lots of tourists were wondering the city blocks like us. Eunha found a woman passing who wore a cute baloon hat shaped goofy. She just asked the woman to borrow it for taking picture and the woman gave her this.

There's a cute and crowded shopping village on the block behind our hotel but we missed the chance to take a look at there.

2. The day two (5/2)
We had lunch with Mr Yang who's friend of my little sister. After that there's shopping time! Eunha tried lots of shirts and pents.

Raw Oyster in Sauce at a Japanese restaurant. It was our dinner on the night.

Finally, we went to the Waikiki beach although it was mid-night.

Our foot-prints on the sands.

3. The day three (5/3)
The third day, we've decided to go some nice beach and restaurant on the island. While we're blindly touring the coast, there appeared a nice bay named Hanauma.

The guy working for the park said there's a nice steak restaurant near by and we've found it. Our dinner of that night.

On the way back, I found a huge cruise docked on the harbor. It was really big.

4. The day four (5/4)
The fourth day was the last full day we can tour hawaii. Besides everything else, we couldn't miss Polynesian Cultural Center. On the way to get there, there was really cute small beach and we've enjoyed the beach a little.

Polynesian Cultural Center was full of fun but it should be prepared whole day from the morning. The this point, we've too late to see everything. We saw only few stuff.

5. The day five (5/4)
It was the last day of our honeymoon and Hawaii. We took a picture at Honolulu airport against the background as Hawaiian Airline.

And we've arrived at San Diego after long trip. It was long long trip..

My Wedding Day

2007-05-08T14:31:00.000-07:00

Urban life in so-cal

2007-04-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

Southern California is known for hot and nice weather, but here're also people's living style. Last weekend, I've explored areas from the downtown of San Diego to Los Angeles. Sometime, I'm looked different by the scene even if I saw my own pictures by myself.

Julian apple pie, Lake Cuyamaca

2007-04-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

Last sunday, some of our church members had a short trip to Julian after service. Paster couple, Minyoung and I got together on it. The way to Julian is a little tough. We passed Mountain Laguna and Lake Cuyamaca where are another beauties located in the middle of the way to Julian. We've climb up to the top of the Mountain and saw the great view of Anza Borrego desert. It was cloudy on that afternoon and we couldn't see the Salton Sea from there.

Julian is an old and cute town located in the middle of mountain area. The most famous thing of it is apple pie because the area is known for finest apples in the Land. As you guess, we didn't miss it!

On the way back, the last attraction chased us and we had no choice. The beautiful lake's named "Cuyamaca", which sounds like an american indian's tribe. The silent lake allowed couple of fishermen and wild ducks. We've taken pictures on the little pier.

St Patricks Day

2007-03-19T16:40:00.000-07:00

I went to the Balboa Park to enjoy the mood of Saint Patricks day although I'm not related with any Irish. :) Besides funny car parades and nice weather, we, our young church group members were happy to have Kimbap (seaweed roll) on the clean park. Here, flowers are blossom, too.

Xin's Wedding

2007-03-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Xin fianlly got married with Jessica. We've been waiting for their wedding within 2 years and this was the happiest day of them and us. I helped the couple to take outdoor pictures with wedding suites. Here're some of them.

The wedding ceremony was like a combination of wedding ceremony and reception. Xin says that there will be big wedding ceremony in China, later. There're friends, coworkers, church members and family members of this happy couple attended this wedding to celebrate them. I found sean in that wedding.

I sang the wedding song for him and you can call me an official wedding singer of San Diego, now. ^^

Congratulation Xin and Jessica! Be happy and may have lots of babies!

Tony Gwynn Stadium

2007-03-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

Since I started attending in San Diego States, there's no chance to get in the ball park, aka, Tony Gwynn stadium which is named after the legendary player and current head coach of Aztec baseball team before. Last weekend, Jaeman suggested me to take a look at its inside while we're walking after dinner. There's also brand-new swimming pool but I couldn't take a picture of it since we're the only non-swim-suite guys of there. ^^

Wild flowers of La Jolla cove

2007-03-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

It's back to spring time. I had a little chance to take flowers while I was waiting for Xin to take his wedding picture on La Jolla. These lovely small and weak flowers are beautiful. At the last moment of shooting, a bee flew into my scene and captured with flower accidentally in the picture.

Celebrate Greg's finishing school

2007-03-05T18:31:00.000-08:00

Finally, Greg passed the last masters examination to finish the program. Surely, we couldn't miss the nice chance to drink! Here's Karl Strauss brewery restaurant, right next to my work. This restaurant is located inside a nice japanese garden with beautiful pond. It's also famous with the best local beer of San Diego.

It's really long time to see these guys - Greg & Joey.

A saturday with friends

2007-01-27T21:52:00.000-08:00

We haven't met together couple of weeks, recently and decided to resume our meeting today. I met Xin's and Gene's couples at the famous chinese restaurant Shanghai City on Convoy street. Xin's ordering menu's gorgeous and we were happy with that. Mostly, Dimsum style food was set up since Xin knows how to order for us. I missed Eunha since she must like this experience of chinese but we should have another chance later.

Dr Chai is a recent married guy whose marriage ceremony was celebrated by my wedding song. ^^ He called me when I was still in a laundry store and we've met at a coffee shop of the Universtity town square on La Jolla.

Del Mar with Milky

2007-01-16T16:07:00.000-08:00

Eunha and I went to Del Mar beach on the day after Las Vegas trip. We've not been totally recovered from the long trip but it was a nice refreshing by the beatiful scene of the small community and the beach. We took lots of pictures and few of them only are good because of our poor condition. ^^
Here're some of them taken by Eunha. She has talent to take picture.

Later, I just captured a train running on the track by cove.

The Milky Girl from Germany..

2007-01-02T09:37:00.000-08:00

Let me introduce you my girl friend from Germany! She's like an angel dropped from the Heaven. I wouldn't let her get wings back. :)

When we got Sea World, there're couple of singing groups celebrated Holiday season. I said "This girl's from Germany" and they answered with singing "Stille Nacht~". Beautiful song and night made us comfortable and sweet.

Shopping is the most favorite thing of this cute lady but we didn't really purchased anything. Isn't she pretty? hihi~

Danny invited us to his place afterward. It was the first couple-look picture with sweater she sent me as the b-day gift. I like this purple sweater. Thanks, Eunha (which is her name ^^).

We hold a BBQ on Mission beach with couple of my friends. Beef was good, so was pork and kimchi. And Eunha was the best!

After BBQ we walked a little to digest and enjoy the break. Weather was perfect and we even took off our socks. Eunha was shiny among all.

All of us who joined BBQ went to the bar "Yard House" together and had fun time. Some of us ordered half-yard which still is big enough. I tried it too. Eunha educated guys German beers. Everyone loves it.

Very windy day, we arrived Pacific beach without knowing the weather. We reached pier but it was too cold and windy. So, we decided to take a break on a little coffee shop. A flower among flowers.

San Diego beach, downtown night and a wild rat

2006-12-18T00:51:00.000-08:00

Kye meeting

2006-12-17T01:18:00.000-08:00

The Kye is a Korean traditional private financial system. It's believed to have started at least from three nations age (AD 400-700) in Korean society. I don't try to explain the Kye system itself in here. I recently joined a Kye group which was formed by Korean alumnus of SDSU. We have monthly meeting on turn by turn way. Tonight was my turn to host it. Here're people who're Kye members and their families got together at my place.

Sunday night

2006-12-10T23:46:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I went to the Living Room Cafe on El Cajon blvd close to my apartment. Due to the final exam season of SDSU, lots of students filled almost all the tables on there and I could hardly find a table inside. Thus, there's no choice but to take a seat at patio although it's winter and cold. Night scene of coffee shop was silent and I couldn't stop me to want to take a picture on there. Two cups of tea on the table, outside.

When I got back to home and parked my car on my lot, I found few traffic on freeway I-8 down there, the valley by SDSU campus. Every light was beautiful and I wanted to keep it.

Before entering my front door, there's the last chance to take quiet pool of this apartment. The reflection of lamps chased me and I couldn't resist to them.

Happy Birthday from Work.

2006-12-07T15:06:00.000-08:00

My coworker, Dr Leslie Smart, made this wonderful cake for me!
It's very special birthday for me.
Thanks Leslie! Thanks Safe-Med guys!!

Birthday dinner

2006-12-03T23:16:00.000-08:00

December fifth is my birthday. Last weekend, I invited couple of friends to a little dinner for celebrating my upcoming birthday. I was totally drunken by mixed alcohol - beer, soju and margarita - and pressure of kevin. ^^ As you know, I am person to fall asleep right after being drunken.

Cheers altogether. I was okay at this time.

After that, I don't remember what happened. It seems like everyone enjoyed dancing when I was gone.

Xin & Jessica gave me a nice gift for both of b-day & x-mas.