Crap. I forgot to update my log yesterday. Anyway aside from waking up like at 6:30am to drive my parents to BWI airport, then driving straight to work, and then getting some KFC for dinner, only to get a surprise call from Rich Cho wanting to hang out...it was a pretty tiring day. I didn't get home until past midnight and I was dead tired. In fact I was so tired I think that when I woke up this morning it was only 9:30, but it felt like it was around 11 or 12 in the afternoon. I felt really rested up and ready for tonight's party all night.

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

Went to church early this morning with my parents. After service we all went out to eat at a Chinese buffet. Picture of me and with the family. After that we went shopping at Leesburg Outlet and basically shopped til we dropped. Now we are at home resting up.

Today I woke up kind of late again and had breakfast. Shortly after that my family wanted to go out to eat. We went to a soon-doo-boo place which was pretty good. Debby and I shared since both of us had already just eaten breakfast. After that we went to a Han-yak-bang (Chinese herbalist). The lady that consulted with me was even less thorough than the last herbalist I saw. She didn't even look into my mouth to see the problem. And it's little wonder that these herbalists get such a bad rep. But of course she didn't forget to prescribe the $400 medicine that I have to drink twice a day for a month. I'm pretty sure it won't work, unless a miracle happens. Brian and Eugene left us to go play at PC-bang. Meanwhile the rest of us went grocery shopping. I hate grocery shopping, and usually when I go, I'm in and out.

Now I'm back at my brother's home changing my car oil (picture of my car)...waiting for all the oil to drain out. It's about time for me to go back and fill it back up.

Hope everyone had a great Post Christmas. Last night my brother and I were up late at night playing Brian's XBox. I still don't like console games because of screen size limitations. In the afternoon when we got up we went to IHOP for some lunch. I didn't realize IHOP omelettes are HUGE. After that we spent a little bit of time at Brian's work place playing some Warcraft III. Then we went to Vienna where Debby had prepared us spaghetti dinner. Then we went to Georgetown to walk around and do a little bit of window shopping and just checking the place out. Stopped by this french cafe/bakery where we just warmed up for a while.

Merry Christmas everyone. I'm in VA staying at my brother's place. I left around 3pm today from Philly and at first it was raining and then it switched over to snow just as I was leaving. When I finally got down to VA it had turned back to rain.

Just chilling out right now.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone. I must say a few things did strike me as out of the ordinary. Last night I had a dream about (without going into all the details because you know how dreams are just weird and hard to explain) being at a friends place with a bunch of other folks. I was looking at her aquarium because she had just gotten fish and she was kind of new to the whole thing. She was only supposed to have a couple of fish but the more I looked the more fish seemed to appear, all different kinds too, and then I looked carefully at the bottom and she had a ton of fry (baby fish). I was so jealous because she was new to this whole thing and you would have though she was a pro. So anyway I hear some commotion and I look outside and there is this huge cloud of fire and lightening. It looked almost beautiful if it weren't so frightening. As it rolled over the city, some of the high rises caught fire. It had kind of a dooms-day feel to it. Some kind of omen.

I woke up early this morning and on my way to work I almost ran over a squirrel...well I didn't have to swerve or anything but I did have to slow down. Then when I looked up into the sky, the sun showed brightly but there was some kind of haze or something in the air that refracted a faint circled rainbow around the sun. Does this all mean anything on Christmas Eve or just conincidence?

Oh BTW...I was watching TV late last night on Discovery channel about when the true birth of Christ happened...and even where. I had no idea these were still debated issues. I just took them for fact, but they aren't at all.

And another thing...I came into work and my fish is dead! If you remember a few days ago I got two fish and two fish bowls as a gift from a gift exchange. We put a fish in each bowl and I gave one of them to my co-worker (we share the cube)...and I was stupid enough to name both of them Don and Don (since my co-worker's name is also Donald). Well I walked into work today and my fish is dead.

And yet more bad news. Today I can't access my ureach email anymore at work. They blocked it. Coincidence...I don't think so.

I think those bastards at UPS purposely screwed up my address info so that they wouldn't have to deliver this HUGE package during the Christmas rush. I woke up late because I wanted to wait for the UPS guy to deliver my computer. In the past they usually come around noon time. 2pm rolls around and still no package...and still I think I'll wait a little longer. Going to work would just be stupid if 5 minutes after I leave the UPS guy comes. 4pm rolls around and by now I've given up on the idea of going to work. I called UPS and they said the UPS guys are working overtime trying to meet the Christmas rush. 9pm roles around and I've given up hope that the guy will come at all. I looked online at the tracking info and this is what was printed "APARTMENT NUMBER NEEDED, NOT DELIVERED"...but interestingly Wal-Mart's address info has everything correct. I am NOT happy. Now I have to go pick up the thing myself. I've never liked UPS. I guess it's like those necessary evils. Those stupid people at UPS.

On Saturday night I felt really tired from the wedding, and took a short nap a little bit before bed time...which is a big mistake because I couldn't fall back asleep, so I stayed up til around 3am to try and prepare for Sunday's service. I got up early and got to church pretty early as well. It was like any other Sunday. After service I stayed at church to work on other stuff. I eventually went over to PC Bang to meet up with my friends. We all played for a few hours and then went over to Ed's with some KFC. Last night after everyone left I dropped Doug off. We wound up talking about dreams we've had. So late night when I finally fell asleep, I had a nightmare. I mean this has got to be the freakest dream I've had in a while. Basically I was dreaming (or maybe this actually happened) I looked outside my bedroom window through the little slivers of openings between the slats of the blinds. There was this very unusually powerfully bright light coming from outside. I looked at it and it looked like this really small European compact car (like half the length of my car) moving in kind of an eerie way. It looked kind of like what you'd expect like if you were looking at God or something. So bright you couldn't look directly into it kind-of-a-thing. And then the craft kind of stopped and I shrunk back into my bed, but I began to freeze up in fear, and then I could hardly move. I made it into bed, but something felt really weird and all of a sudden I had kind of this outter body experiences. Kind of felt like I was absolutely still, stiff as a rock, but everything around me felt like it was moving...like I was being transported. I felt all kinds of fear and even pain (I guess that would be me being "analyzed" or "inspected" by something). I was so scared. Then I was "transported" back to my bed. I was still paralyzed in fear that when I actually woke up I could hardly move...and for a moment I thought it had actually happened. When I woke up I was so freaked out I didn't want to go back to bed. It was around 7am, but 7am is early for me...so I went back to bed anyway. I guess in the end, sleep is more powerful than fear...ha ha ha. That was such a freaky dream even though I didn't see any aliens or anything.

Yesterday I was supposed to be at a wedding rehearsal at 5pm. I couldn't find the place at all. Turns out the directions are kind of lousy. The biggest problem I was having was at this one intersection where the road goes straight but the route number changes if you go straight. In order to stay on the same route you have to make this confusing turn onto a parallel street. I think the federal gov't should pass a law making it illegal to change route numbers when it makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE TO. Not to mention everyone on the phone kept telling me to go STRAIGHT down the road. ARGH. *gritting my teeth* because I spent one hour yesterday trying to find the place.

I finally met up with everyone at the dinner since I knew where the restaurant was. I felt like such a bum, coming only to eat the food...he he he. I even got a gift too! Anyway I spent all night (til 3am) trying to compile some songs onto a CD for the wedding reception. Laura asked me to since we kind of like the same type of music, but as it turns out...the DJ didn't play a single song of mine in favor of mostly all 80's music. Argh...so I wasted all that time for nothing.

So anyway I woke up early this morning and went to the wedding. I helped out in the wedding as an usher. It was a relatively small wedding at a country club...but it was nice. Lunch was Lobster tail and Filet Mignon. The reception was fun...nothing spectacular, but it wasn't boring either. I saw this one girl that looked kind of cute. She was sitting 2 seats away from me at the same table. I had somewhat of an eye on her...that is up until I saw her dance!!! I kept thinking this girl's got no rhythme. The whole time she danced like she was strumming an electric guitar. I kind of surprised myself at how important it is for a girl to be able to groove. Oh...and a girl that can sing can melt my heart away.

This morning I woke up kind of early. My mom called me this morning to make sure I was out of bed too. I had kind of a scary dream. I don't know why but I was working on this Hummer (the gigantic SUV)...and again I don't know why but I thought I'd take it out for a spin. So here I am joyriding the monster and all of a sudden police cars surround me. They drew their guns and rifles which scared the crap out of me. I get out slowly and peacefully. Then the next thing I remember was thinking this has got to be a dream, but it felt so real, and I also remember thinking I'm going to be in jail, and convicted of grand theft-auto...and I have to report my crime to my employer and I'm going to get fired from my job. It felt like such a nightmare. I screamed out this can't be true and then I woke up in kind of a panic.

And then this morning as I'm driving to work, I pass by this Ferrari.

Holy freaking smokes. Can you believe I got my phone bill today and it seemed higher than usual. Even though I hardly ever place calls from my home phone, the bill usually comes out to about $25. So when I got my bill this month for close to $50 I looked to see if there was a mistake. The additional charges where from the hospital when I ALMOST DIED (I like saying that. I feel like I cheated death, and now I can stare death in the eyes and laugh...muh ha ha ha). Okay I won't push my luck. Anyway you'd figure that if you're in the hospital, the least they can do is cover your local calls (since I wasn't able to place long distance phone calls). Or at least give stinkin better rate. Man...$25 for a few local calls...that's highway robbery!!!

A bunch of us younger folks from work had lunch together and a gift exchange. I was the last person to be able to pick out a present. It was played differently than I'm used to though. You could either pick up a wrapped gift or steal someone else's unwrapped gift. Since I was last I got to pick any present I wanted. I decided to pick up the two fish w/fishbowls and fish flakes...and then it started...everyone started to steal everyone else's gift...until finally it ended and the person without a gift picked up the last gift on the table. It was a lot of fun and since there were two fish and two fishbowls...I gave one to my cubemate whos name is also Don.

Yesterday after work I went to Boscov's at Moorestown Mall and finally found a gift. It's a total rip off for what they are selling but it's a pretty cool idea that I think people would like. The thing is basically a bunch of shot sized plastic containers that you fill with water and freeze. Then you pop the top off and you basically have a shot glass with ice lining the inside. So you don't need ice because it's already there :)

Last night I had a dream of a neat gag gift. Basically it's a hammer entitled "Lockheed Martin Problem Solver"...because our networks are so freaking slow and frustrating sometimes you feel like you want to take a sledge hammer to your computer.

My mom called this morning to wake me up. It's kind of cute that my mom cares so much because yesterday she called me like a million time to make sure I was awake...but she didn't know I was in an early morning dentist appointment. She said she's going to call me every morning from now on. I have a feeling that's going to get very annoying after awhile...or it might just work.

Watched Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers last night at midnight. The movie didn't end until shortly after 3am. I went home and straight to bed because this morning at 9:20 I had a dentist appointment. They cleaned my teeth and pointed out one tooth that might need a crown. They said I could get the metal or composite crown. I think I'd rather get the metal one because then I'd have that cool metal teeth look, but also it'd remind myself to take better care of my teeth. The fillings I have in that teeth currently are made from composite material and is white...so the fillings are not noticable at all. All contributing to me forgetting that I have to take special care of that tooth to begin with. I have to go back in January to get fillings done. Unfortunately insurance will only cover a certain [small] percentage of it.

My mom called me a few times this morning as well. I think she just called incessantly more or less to make sure I'd get out of bed. She was so happy when I called her back to say that I had gotten up early to go to an appointment.

On my way back to work I stopped by Subways and picked up a Dijon Horseradish Melt sandwich. I also passed by a pond that had geese standing on the icy surface. I just thought that was so weird.

Today my mom called me in the morning and kind of admonished me for not getting into work earlier. She thinks I have some kind of condition that makes me feel all tired and fatigued, but I know it's just because I'm lazy. I'm really trying to work on that though. These days I've made more of an effort to write reminders on my palm, so that I don't forget about things later.

I got into work around 11:30 in the morning. Today they had yesterdays left-over in the break room. Also later that day they had Chinese left-overs from a managers meeting.

Tonight at midnight I get to watch Lord of the Rings II with a friend. I'm not really excited about it or anything, since Frodo, the main character, bugs the heck out of me. He looks soooooooo STUPID, and it just really bugs me.

Since there was so much food left over from the department luncheon, I brought home some ham, chicken wings, and pasta salad. Time flew by because staying until 8pm wasn't so hard today.

Here is a picture of the girl that receieved my gift. As you can tell, she is thrilled to have gotten it...he he he.

On Saturday night I went to a friends place for a Christmas dinner. The food was really good and lots of people came. Between 15 to 20 of us altogether. After that we played some games like Mafia, Ming-Mang-Mong, and Taboo.

Sunday was just like any other. After first service a bunch of us went to Oasis for all you can eat Sushi buffet. After that me and Ted went to PC Bang and played for a few hours. Ted's overwhelming confidence couldn't help him out that day...ha ha ha.

This morning I had a heck of a time getting out of bed even though I went to be rather early the night before. I was so tired I even decided to skip my doctors appointment. I tried thinking while I was in bed if there was any good reason to see him...and I couldn't think of one so I stayed in bed. I was feeling so lazy in fact I didn't even go to the store to buy food for the department Christmas luncheon. I should have though because the food there wasn't all that.

Really the network admins at Lockheed Martin are COMPLETE IDIOTS!!! Seriously...the are so freaking stupid!!! Without warning anyone they rebooted a server, which means my work for the last half hour was wasted!!! ARGH!!!!!! And it's not just that...ever since they implemented the new Windows upgrade...the network has crawled to a halt. Anyone at my company will tell you that our network sucks.

Anyway getting back to what I was going to say before everything was erased...yesterday after work I went to the Phileo Christmas Party. We had dinner and a short time of praise. After that we had the Pollyanna gift exchange. When it was my turn I picked up my gift which I could tell was a book...and well everyone knows how much I HATE reading...so I had the option of exchanging my unopened gift for someone's already opened gift. I went after a much needed and sought after scarf (since the room we were in was COLD). The girl I took it from already had her own purple scarf so I really had no qualms about taking the new gray one...he he he. I had to challenge her for it though. And as part of the challenge we had to sing "scat" (whatever that means) to the beat of Louis Armstrong. I had to go first and I started off with "doo-bi-doo-bi-doo...I'm the SCATMAN....doo-bi-doo-bi-doo" and everyone laughed hysterically because I sounded like such a retard. Fearing the same response, the girl simply chickened out and gave me the scarf.

Toward the end, this girl picked up my gift, she decided to keep it since I also included with the clock a big package of Irish Spring soap (to make it heavy). She looked at the clock and didn't know what to think, because she doesn't know me. Then as she began to show her present to everyone, people began to laugh hysterically because my picture was in the background. Although no one was jumping up and down to challenge her for the gift...everyone was eager to see the present which I had made.

After the Phileo Christmas Party, our small group had our own little get-together at a friend's place. We had our own little Secret Santa gift exchange. I got a sweater, and I also gave out a battery operated toothbrush. It was interesting to see the disparity between the gifts the guys got vs. the what the girls got. The girls got all the sentimental type stuff like picture frames, teddy bears (that was actually from Sun...ha ha ha), scented soaps and candles, while the guys got all the practical, utilitarian stuff like cigarette lighters and mints (for BY...ha ha ha), a table-top foosball game, etc.

After that I met up with a few other people at Music Town. They had pretty much finished eating, and we were all about to go up and sing in the noh-reh-bang for a little while, but then Scott came up and told us all to get out...apparently there was a fight, or what was about to be a fight. There was already a lot of asians there because one of the local Asian professional organization that sponsors events had a Karaoke night there. We all walked out of the building and people were screaming at each other and everything. I was so confused and had no idea what was going on. I think it actually turned out to be a Vietnamese vs. Korean race thing. Anyway we saw these two groups clash and it was mayhem. This one Korean girl screaming at the top of her lungs because I think her Vietnamese friend was getting the @#%@ kicked out of him. Later she drove her car through the crowd knocking some people down, but not really hurting them. Police arrived on the scene way too late...by the time they came...everyone had left. It seriously looked like something you'd see straight out of a Korean drama, except without the knives. I was kind of scared because this Korean guy (stomping furiously like the Incredible Hulk) haphazardly pushed over Sun Moon like a rag doll simply because he was in the way...and Sun Moon is kind of a big guy. Poor Sun...caught in the crossfire...but all he suffered was a wet butt since it had just rained. I think that was the most vicious fight I've ever seen.

Why did the rooster cross the road? Give up? Because it wanted to prove it was not a chicken...ha ha ha...waka waka waka. Seriously though this morning I woke up kind of late again. My mom called me in the morning even to see if I was awake. On my way to work I saw a white rooster walking in the middle of the road!!! What a crazy rooster!!! I slowed down and honked my horn to try and shoo it off the road. I'm thinking that sucker is already toast by now. I get on my way back I'll see it as road kill or something...ha ha ha. I should have jumped out and caught the bird...that's exactly what I need for a pet instead of my stupid guinea pig. A bird that'll wake me up at the crack of dawn...maybe then I'll come to work on time. I wonder if there is any such thing as nocturnal roosters?

Tonight is the Phileo Christmas Dinner Party. I have my presents for tonights gift exchange. I wonder if anyone will want my present. It's basically a customized clock with my face on the background. I guess it's more of a gag gift.

Today woke up late again. Got into work at 12:30pm. Had a meeting at 1:00pm which lasted an hour or so, then another meeting at 3:30pm which lasted until 6:00pm. During the meeting my mom tried calling me several times. She freaked out and even called my brother to have him call me and my friends to make sure I wasn't in the hospital again or something. My mom left several messages on my work voicemail, cell phone, and home phone.

I left work an hour earlier so I could go home and watch FRIENDS and SCRUBS. After that I had to return a DVD, and also picked up another one.

Finally got a picture of the day I went skiing at Big Boulder on Dec. 7th.

From L to R: Dave, Tae, Clara, me, Pil, Eunice.

Yesterday I only worked half a day so I could look at a loft in Philly with Sam. I liked what I saw but worried that it might be inconvenient to live there. After that I went to K-Mart and did some Christmas shopping. Had to look for some gifts for this Friday's Phileo Christmas Party. Stopped by KFC to pick up some chicken for dinner.

Oh I forgot to mention that this morning I actually got up pretty early. Got into work at 10:30 after a nice breakfast.

I was going to wake up nice and early this morning and go to work because staying at work yesterday was too difficult. Today I ended up getting to work at 12:45pm after stopping by the Post Office and Subways.

Yesterday I had my car inspected. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to do...and best of all I didn't have to pay for anything. It was basically assembly-line style inspection. It was pretty quick too...I think less than 30 mins.

I ended up leaving work yesterday early and went to Best Buy. The store was packed for a Monday night. I guess the holiday shopping rush really is ON. I exchanged a DVD and bought some CD paper sleeves and color printer ink. When I got home I had to burn some CDs and work on a friend's website and the church's website as well. Didn't get to bed until 2am or so.

I got up late again this morning. Strolled into work a little before noon. And since then I still can't log into my work account. I've been waiting for almost 2.5 hours for this stupid thing to work. Today I need to get my car inspected as well. I think I'm going to leave soon to have that done. I can't wait to get home.

Weekend Updated
Friday: Feeling a bit lazy and leave work a little earlier using up a little bit of personal time. I go home to pack a few things to stay the night at Tae's. I go to church and we meet in small groups. My small group got a cake for those of us who had b-days in November. It was pretty good too. After fellowship a few of us head over to Chinatown for a late night dinner. After eating I pick up Eunice and we head over to Tae's house. I didn't find out until later, but I scared Eunice because I was driving too fast...but it was getting late, and who doesn't speed on the highway anyway! I get to sleep downstairs in Tae's basement (which is also where his computer is). So instead of sleeping I play Counter-Strike for a few hours until about 4:30am.

Saturday: I get up at 8am. Tae's car isn't working so we had to jump it. It was really freaking cold that morning too. We finally hit the road, making a stop to the bank to withdraw some money. McDonald's is right next door, so we pick up some breakfast from the drive-thru. Clara forgot her sun-glasses so we had to go back to the house to get her glasses. Pil and David (following in the other car) are growing very impatient. We finally arrive at Tae's vacation home in the Poconos. The rest of his family are there. We get dressed up and head off to Big Boulder. Only the right side of the "HILL" is open. This place sucked so bad. Snow and everything was great, but the HILL is seriously for beginners. The only black diamond slope that was open "Upper Sitzmark" was the first run I made. It was such a joke. Anyway it was nice to just ski again after like 3 years or so. David was having so much fun skiing on his butt. ;) We headed out around 3pm. Got back to the vacation house and had lunch. The guys had a pleasant conversation...but I don't think the girls felt quite the same way...he he he. We head back home. I drop Eunice off at her place and I go back home. I had to return 2 DVD's and picked up another one at Hollywood Videos. I'm all for Christian-themed movies...but "Left Behind 2" is just corny.

Sunday: I wake up to the alarm, but foolishly decide to get one more minute or so of sleep. I wake up again at 9:15...right about the time I should have left for church. I speed off to church and get there just in time to set up for the song slides. Spend most of my time in the office trying to burn Mission Conference CDs. Around 3:30 I head off to PC Bang where I meet Ted. Initially I do well, but later on I begin to suck. Around 6:15, Ted and I head off to Buca di Beppo which is famous for their ENORMOUS serving sizes. The conversation was great, but again the girls might beg to differ. After dinner we decide to go to �뷡�� (Korean Karaoke). Meanwhile Ted is playing CS at PC bang by himself just next door. He has become a CS addict. Drop Connie off at home. It's the last time I'll see her for a few months. She'll be leaving for Korea on Wednesday.

And that is the weekend update.

For some reason this work week felt kind of short. I can't believe it's Friday already. Dang this is great. Anyway, although I don't remember the details now, I seem to have recurrent dreams of me flying or floating. Last night I had a dream of me jumping into the air really high, and then kind of just floating down like a feather. Do you remember when Super Mario Brothers came out for the Nintendo? You could hit the bricks above you and break them, or hit the boxes with a question mark "?" and something would appear like a feather. When you picked up the feather, you could jump up in the air...and float down like a feather. My dream was kind of like that. A lot of my dreams are like that. I wonder what that means if it means anything at all.

I got up pretty late again this morning and when I was in the shower I thought of something funny. When I was a small little boy, I remember I was in Korea with my brother Brian. It was just the two of us at my grandma's. Our cousin who was a teenager at that time was also there, and I was supposed to take a shower, but I didn't want to. I think my excuse at that time was that I didn't know what all the bottles in the tub were for (all I was used to was a bar of soap and shampoo). I guess to make it fun, they said, they would tell me how to take a shower. So they told me what to do and what bottles to use and stuff. When I got out of the bathroom, I saw my brother and my older cousin laughing at me and when I asked them why, they said because they tricked me into using conditioner first, and then the shampoo. That was the first time I've ever used conditioner, much less heard of it. Thinking back on that still makes me laugh.

Here are some pictures of today's snow storm.
Just outside my front door
A look at my car under snow
A look from my back door
From my car on my way to work
Must have been an accident here

Today I bought a really cheap $200 computer from walmart.com. It was such an impulse buy, but I did do some research on the computer before buying it. Basically I'm curious to see what this Window's alternative will be like. It's a Microtel SYSMAR401. I should get it before Christmas, but we'll see. It doesn't come with a monitor, nor a modem, nor floppy disk drive. But who needs a floppy disk drive. No one ever uses those anymore. Also I don't need the modem since I have the network card which'll hook up to the cable modem. I can't wait to get this. I want to see how far I can manage without being constrained to Microsoft. Anyway if it doesn't work out so well I can always install Windows on it.

My goodness, Boy is it snowing out there. It's coming down good too. Last night before I went to bed, I peeked out and there was nothing which dashed my hopes a little bit, but when I woke up this morning it was a white winter wonder land. Boy this is great. I love it. I might actually go skiing this weekend.

This morning though I had a tough time getting out of bed. Got to work around noon. On my way to work I saw cars slipping and sliding which made me feel very uncomfortable. I'm not worried about losing control of my car...I just worry about those around me crashing into me. As I came into work, half the parking lot was empty (of full depending on which way you see it)...so I decided to spin out. Turned my steering wheel and pulled up on my emergency brakes and only managed to do a 180. It was fun. I can't wait until after work when the lot will be empty (and hopefully it won't all be plowed).

Today I woke up pretty early since I had a 9am meeting at the main plant. I actually got there on time, and I even got a decent parking spot too. Meeting was less than interesting though. Good thing I have Bejeweled to keep me occupied. After that meeting I had another short meeting over the stuff that I'm working on now. I made a copy of my work and my manager looked over it. Looks like I'm off on the right foot.

I drove back to my office and shortly after that I went to a System Engineering Lunch-Time Seminar (SELTS) about surface warfare. It was pretty interesting stuff. Wish I could tell you more but they actually discussed secret stuff, which I'm not at liberty to divulge. Well actually most of the secret information was like on this table with a font size of about 0.5. I couldn't really read any of it. he he he. Anyway most of the secret information are uninteresting numbers. The nice thing about the SELTS, is the free pizza. Gotta bring your own drink though.

Yesterday night I spent most of my time burning sermon CDs and watching The Sum of all Fears. The movie was alright action wise, but the effects and plot were really cheesy. I really like my new DVD/stereo system. It's really cool.

This morning I woke up around 9:30am. Got to work around 10:30. I just read an article on USA Today that Burger King has entered into another price war with McDonalds. Read the article. BK is slated to sale 99 cent whoppers!!!! HOW COOL IS THAT!!! I can cut my food budget like in half now. ha ha ha. Well this won't begin probably until next year.

Anyway yesterday on my way up from Northern Virginia I actually saw some snow flakes falling. The first time seeing snow this year. But it was only a few flakes and ended just as fast as it had started.

Yesterday after work I also stopped by Boscov's to pick up some LED christmas lights. I picked up a set of 35 white LED lights for my brother's christmas tree, and I bought a set of 75 red LED lights for myself, even though I don't have a tree. I thought it'd be cool to string them up in the apartment or something. The are supposed to use up only a fraction of the energy and lights are virtually indescructible, but as I found out this morning...the wiring is another issue I think, because with the lights still in the box I plugged it in and it worked. I took the lights out of their plastic holder and plugged them in again, and this time it didn't work!!! Not sure what to do now. The white and blue LED christmas lights have only 35 lights because white and blue LED's are more expensive than red, green or yellow LEDs. The other colored LED's have 75 lights all for the same price.

After that I went to Hollywood Video store and picked up two DVD's. I picked The Sum of all Fears, and Shiri. Shiri is a Korean movie, and when I picked it up it had a picture of this HOT ASIAN woman with a pistol on the cover. I thought...oh this has got to be good. When I got home I realized it was a movie I had already seen a few years back. It was actually a very popular movie in Korea, topping off even Titanic at the Korean box office. Can you believe those bastard marketing people slapped on a picture of an attractive girl that wasn't even in the movie...just to get suckers like me to pick up the movie!!! I feel so used...so had...so duped. Argh. Well anyway I was able to watch the movie with subtitles and this time through I understood the movie at least...he he he.

Sorry for not posting the last 2 days. I went to my brother's place in Northern Virginia, and they don't really have an internet connection so I didn't really have the opportunity to post.

On friday I picked my parents at BWI airport and headed to my brother's place. When we got there I gave my mom her birthday gift and she really liked it. It was a heart-shaped silver trinket box with little diamonds bordering the edges, giving it a spectacular shimmer, but what made it even better was the engraved inscription on the metal cover.

"Mom, You're always in my heart. Love, Donald".

I think my mom really liked it. Read Nov. 26th entry if you missed the story.

Saturday was my birthday but the whole time I felt so tired. I got out of bed at about 10 or 11 in the morning. Ate a belgium waffle and cereal for breakfast. Then we went out to eat lunch (needless to say, I wasn't so hungry since I had just eaten breakfast). We went to a chinese herbalist (well he was actually Korean) and he did some tests on me. I'm pretty convinced now, that chinese medicine isn't what it's cracked up to be. Basically their philosophy centers around YIN and YANG (good and bad). So really all they can tell is if you're off balance, and if that's the case they prescribe you some herbal medicine. The thing is, that this stuff was already pre-packaged. I thought the dude was supposed to go through his wall-sized collection of tiny drawers looking for the right ingredients (almost like making a potion or something), and crush the ingredients together, not some pre-packaged stuff you can buy somewhere. So I wasn't so impressed, and I don't think my parents were either since we were scheduled to pick up the stuff the next day, but never did. He called and left a message on my answering machine and called my mom several times. I think he really wanted to make the sale.

Funny Story 1: While I was waiting there in that office (the herbalist wanted to examine my mom's energy too), my dad wanted to look at the scars on my face. I have some red spots on my face due to passing out and falling on my face. My dad carefully looked at my face and slowly went to touch the area where I had stitches. Just before he touched me, a jolt of static electricity jumped from his finger to my face and shocked me. The arc of static electricity broke the silence of the office too. Everyone started to laugh histerically. My mom came back and my dad explained what had happened and in Korean, saying the shock had even produced a little bit of light. So my dad trying to care for me, ends up hurting me. he he he.

We go home for a little bit to prepare for Thanksgiving Dinner. Debby and I stay at home while my brother and parents go shopping. They finally come back and judging from their body language I can tell the bought me something. They gave me a pair of $20 sneakers and said that was my b-day gift. I wouldn't find out until after dinner that they had gotten me a stereo system that plays CDs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs and DVDs. My dad's friend also come over for dinner. We try to be as hospitable as we can since he just recently lost his wife to cancer, and since then has totally changed. We try and feed him, since he doesn't eat so much these days.

Funny Story 2: My dad's friend steps outside for a cigarette. My brother worries Dr. Paik might lock himself out of the house, and tells us a story about his brother-in-law. During the summer a while back, his brother-in-law (who was at that time staying at my brother's place) went outside to the back deck to stretch out and get a breath of air. He closes the door behind him and then realizes the door is locked. He runs around to the front to check if the door is open, but that too is locked. Here's the funny part, with nothing left to do, he runs over to the neighbors apartment wearing only his boxers to call my brother at work to let him back into the house. And the even funnier part was that day my brother was in a 3 hour meeting, so he had to wait outside the apartment for 3 hours in only his boxers. We all laugh hysterically when my brother said this, which made my mom who was drinking water to swallow down the wrong way and she literally almost "laughed to death". My mom was okay though.

Sunday was kind of uneventful. We went to church. My parents went out with Dr. Paik for lunch, while we did some shopping at Target. Picked up my parents and went to do some shopping at the outlet stores. I picked up some socks. While we were there we bumped into this girl. Debby tried to introduce me to her. She was a nice girl but there just wasn't any chemistry and a bit shy. Well it was kind of funny because she was there with her boyfriend. I guess she forgot about me and found another guy. Well I can't say I didn't have my chance.