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Profile: Name: Donald Park DOB: Nov. 30th Systems Engineer Lockheed Martin Moorestown, NJ Websites:
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Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Less than 6 hours until the New Year and I'm still at work. My car is one of three in the lot right now. Wow...I'm such a hard dedicated worker. Well not really but I try :) I just wish I had some really cool plans. I think I'll just end up going to New Year's service at church, even though I dread having to pray through the count-down. I think one of my New Year's resolution will be to plan out next year's new year's party. I used to enjoy New Year's when I was smaller, but the last several years New Year's Day has been such a let down. So much anticipation of excitement...and NOTHING. 2 years ago, my New Year's celebration wasn't too bad. I remember we met at Fuji, and we were so shocked to see like half the church come to where we were afterward. Anyway I should get back to work. I hope the New Year brings in much happiness for myself and everyone...except those damn terrorists. Anyway... Hmmm...this will probably be my last post of the year 2003. Good bye 2003.
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Yesterday I left San Antonio. This is one of the few times I wish I had stayed longer. Usually after a week I�m ready to go, but spending Christmas with my parents this year was especially sweet. In the morning my parents would come into my room just to see me. They would pat me on the head or rub my back. I know it sound silly but for once I think I understood why a dog likes to be petted. It also felt so comfortable and secure. So anyway I was a little sad leaving home...and even more apprehensive flying home amid hyped up security threats. I want to go to NYC for New Years, but the whole Orange alert has me a bit scared to go into the city. I�m still not sure what I�m going to do. After I arrived in Philly, my roommate and Nancy picked me up. We went to the Mexican Post for some dinner. After that we went back home and stayed up for a while. I left for work kind of early, and wasn�t feeling so great, but after lunch I felt like a new man. Anyway I miss home...and Mom & Dad, if you are reading this, I love you�and thank you for making my visit home so nice. I definitely want to visit again soon. It shouldn�t be too long before I visit again I think...probably toward the end of March.
Sunday, December 28, 2003
This morning we went to church at Harvest Fellowship Community Church. I liked the service. Felt refreshing to worship in a new environment. After service I stuck around and talked to some of the A/V guys in the back trying to learn how they do things. I found out that they guy who produced WorshipBuilder goes to this church. After service we ate lunch at Red Lobster...and then the surprise. We drove to the movie theaters. My mom had two free tickets for the theaters...so we watched Lord of the Rings - Return of the King. I can't believe my parents watched a 3.5 hour movie and my dad didn't even fall asleep. My mom dozed off a few times but only in the beginning. The movie was just okay considering the long ending. They should have just cut it short, and what was with the whole wife scene at the end? For a second I thought I was watching another movie!!! I'm leaving for New Jersey tomorrow afternoon. I think I'll be sad leaving this nice place.
Saturday, December 27, 2003
Today we went out to do a little bit of shopping. My mom wanted to look at some furniture, so we went to a interior decorating store. After that we went to Office Depot where we pick up a color printer for my dad. We ended up getting the Canon i470D which was about $50 after a $50 rebate. Anyway the strangest thing happened while we were eating. This older lady that was passing by leaned over and told my mom "I just had to say this, but you look so pretty". My mom brushed it off like she's heard it a million times. That's about all we did today...exciting huh?
Friday, December 26, 2003
The day after Christmas and I took my time getting up in the morning. Had some cereal for breakfast and then left to do some shopping. My dad wants to install some cameras in and around the house...and so we went around to some stores looks for web/security cameras. Also I did a little bit of research on broadband for my parents since they'll need that if they want to monitor the cameras from the internet. Saw these really cool looking cameras called Observers made by Veo...but they are expensive. A couple of days ago we went to the BX on base and I ended up buying a little USB drive/digital camera called Key007 made by Philips.
Thursday, December 25, 2003
Merry Christmas everyone. It's been a while since I last updated. Since my last post I flew down to San Antonio to spend Christmas with my parents. I finally got to see the new house and all I can say is WOW!!! It used to be a model house before my parents bought it...so it still looks really nice. The garage used to be the old office for the development so the floor has carpeting, the walls are lined with shelves, overhead track lighting, etc. I haven't been able to update my weblog either because my parent's computer was pretty jacked up with the Blaster worm. Couldn't exactly install the patch to fix the problem very easily. Finally got the thing cleaned up today. My parents are also about to close on the old house, but the buyers are causing some problems. Can you believe this...they asked a contractor to go in and start ripping out the old wallpaper. We could really care less what they decide the paint the walls and stuff, but do you do that stuff BEFORE YOU OWN THE HOUSE? They haven't signed anything or paid a cent. My goodness these people have no common sense. Because of their thoughtlessness my parents are kind of peeved and determined not to make the process any easier on them. Ha ha ha!!! Today we had our Christmas lunch with a bunch of my parents friends. Here is a picture
Monday, December 22, 2003
Stayed at work late today. Got in around 10:00am and didn't leave until around 9pm. I didn't finish what I wanted before taking vacation. I'll just finish it up after I get back. Found a pictures of Tek-goo in Korea. Looks just like him too I think.
What an interesting weekend. Friday after work I went to church for our Christmas gift exchange/dinner. Well I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a dinner or not. If it was, it was LAME. Anyway the gift giving didn't seem to be quite as exciting as last year. I wish I would have thought of a more creative idea than just giving a "nice" present. I gave away my last Galileo Thermometer, because I couldn't think of anything else to get instead, otherwise I would have just kept it for myself. In hind-sight I should have "regifted" my Dilbert Calendar and kept the thermometer. Look at me talk so greedily. How sad is that. Well anyway I saw this neat desktop water fountain thing-a-ma-bob, and I took it away from Stella (I kind of felt really bad about that, but fully knowing I wouldn't be the person to end up with it). Sure enough the girl right beside me takes it away from me. I end up with a set of scented candles instead. The girl then gets the gift taken away from her by Joori in a challenge. The challenge was whoever scored the highest on DDR (the dancing game which was on someone's computer). The girl ends up with a case of Mountain Dew. I felt bad for her, and so I traded my candles for her Mountain Dew. Later I found out this white dude at our church was the cheapskate and wrapped the Mountain Dew. I couldn't help but feel a little peeved at this guy, not so much because I ended up with a 12-pack of Mountain Dew, but because someone else would have really been jaded by getting such a stupid gift. The poor girl wouldn't even have been able to trade her gift with someone else if she tried. Anyway Chae ended up with my gift. She was also challenged for it against another guy. The challenge? It was to take to strands of hair from your head and tie it on end; the person to do it the quickest won. Needless the say, Chae being the girl with long hair, had no problems. I think next year (if I'm still here to provide input) the gifts should be "addressed" to someone like a Secret Santa, but with the option of the recipient to exchange it for another. That way I think people are less likely to be a freeloader, and also the gifts should match up nicely between guys and girls. Also that night Stella gave me a Christmas card with a very generous gift certificate to Dmitri's Restaurant. It's supposed to be a nice place. I feel so bad receiving such a nice gift, but she insisted I accept it for helping her out all the time with her computer problems. Shoot, if customers were always this generous in the computer trouble shooting field I would have become a computer repair technician or something :) That in addition to the also generous gift cards that one of my project co-leaders for other restaurants. Saturday I woke up late, went to work for a short while and came back home to which Yujin had brought his little brother and his dog from MD. The dog is a bit annoying when it barks but it's kind of cute. I stayed home to finish the sermon slides. Then on Sunday I woke up and went to church. Everything went pretty smoothly. After church I dropped off get-well care packages for two friends. I drove way out to Scott and Debbie's place. Scott's mom made me lunch. CK was sweet enough to give me birthday gifts. I left to go to work, but then Tae called and said they were going to AC. I made a change of plans and went to AC instead. Played some craps which I lost my money on, then roulette and blackjack where I got my money back and then some. On our way out we were hoping to change our meager $10 into $1000 on the slot machines, but that never happened. Got back home expecting to see Marty, Yujin's dog to be bouncing off the walls and barking, but everything was quiet. I asked Tim and Paul where the dog was, and they gave me the run around but something to the effect that the dog died. I thought they were kidding because Paul had kind of a smirk on his face, but sure enough Yujin confirmed it too. The dog had gotten out the door when Paul came in. He tried chasing the dog around the neighborhood, but Marty got hit by a car. I felt really bad for Yujin's little brother who now lost his animal friend. I asked him sarcastically if he wanted to take Roberto (my guinea pig) and he sounded pretty excited. I'm not sure if I'm ready to give up Roberto, but if it's to make a certain young boy happier this Christmas than I can live without that stupid, lazy, annoying, smelly, whiney, but cute guinea pig ;) So that's this weekend in a nutshell.
Friday, December 19, 2003
Again last night I slept like a baby. Didn't get to bed until 1 or 2 in the morning but I slept well until 10:30. Yesterday, I was at work all day from 6AM til 7PM. I was able to leave earlier than I had expected. Maybe this isn't so funny now but at the time the whole room erupted in laughter. One of the Navy operators was in front of the computer console with headphone and microphone attached. I'm not exactly sure why they need the headsets but they talk through the headsets which is also connected to the PA system in the room, so everyone in the room can hear them talking. One operator says "I have some great news"...and paused for a second while everyone gives their attention to him. As everyone is eagerly waiting to hear the good news, he says..."I just save a bunch of money on my car insurance". Everyone just died laughing. I guess what made it seem so funny was the setting he did it in. You expect to hear something like "Target 80012 acquired, initiate engagement...missiles away", certainly not an advertisement on car insurance. Then after the Demo dry-run was over we had a post wrap-up meeting. We've been having a lot of stability problems with the radar element...and at the meeting they basically got themselves ripped open another asshole. I wasn't getting yelled at, so what do I care? But just being their was painful. That was my first time there, but apparently they have these meeting ever day though.
Thursday, December 18, 2003
For a birthday present, my roommate got me a book. If you know me at all, you��ll know that I HATE reading books. Magazines and articles I don��t mind reading, but I just don��t have the patience to read through a book. Unless it��s something I��m really interested to read, then chances are that I won��t read it. Now here��s the dilemma. Should I at all feel bad if I don��t read the book? The book is entitled ��If I��m so wonderful, then why am I still single��. Probably gotten more as a gag than for personal enrichment. I wouldn��t mind reading it but realistically I probably won��t. Should I feel bad if I don��t read it? Several years back when I was in high school, one of my best friends got me a science fiction novel for my birthday. I never read that book either. I don��t even remember the title of the book, but I remember the cover had a picture of a knight on a horse.
All day yesterday I felt like a zombie. Working at 4am is just way too stinking early for me...especially if you have to work more than a 4 hour shift. I got home and I didn't feel like cooking dinner but lately I haven't really been pulling my weight when it came to cooking dinner. But I cooked some curry...which came out pretty good. I stopped by Han-ah-reum to pick up some supplies to make some kim-bap for work today but alas I was just too tired to make any. I crashed around 10:30pm or so and I haven't slept better in a long time. I feel so refreshed right now. aaaahhhhhh.... So yesterday around 8:00AM I became the gopher...as in going for some Burger King. I took everyone's order and money. I even made $8 on the trip + free food ;) Well actually the lady screwed up on the order and left one Crossan'wich out and so me and some other dude split one in half. This morning I decided to just pick up a bunch of sausage biscuits at McDonald's. Picked up 10 of them. People like me now...he he he :) Yesterday I received a gift from one of my co-workers. Actually two gifts from my co-workers. One gave me a card and a small bag filled with M&M's. We joked around that our project manager was a drug dealer, because of the type of miniature zip-lock bags she used. Then another one of my co-workers gave me a jar filled with chocolates. I wish I would have thought of something nice like that for my co-workers. Last year I bought a bunch of candy canes and stuff and left them on people's desks.
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Last night, Yujin cooked dinner for all of us. Shao's brother, and Nancy were also there for dinner. After dinner we went to Franklin Mills Mall to watch the movie "The Last Samurai" with Allen and Laura. The plot really sucked and so did the ending, but the action was really good. I wouldn't call it a must-see movie, but it's definitely worth the $4 we paid for the movie, which also included a free small bag of popcorn. Got home around midnight, and didn't get to bed until around 1am. Then had to wake up 3 hours later to go to work at 4am. I got to work and my co-worker told me I really didn't have to be at work until 8am...which kind of made me upset because the guy who made my schedule didn't tell me that...even after I asked him to clarify. Well...I guess I'm not complaining because at least I can pick up overtime. But I'm BUTT TIRED!!!
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Yesterday after work I went to the mall to do a little bit of Christmas shopping. I got two Galileo type thermometers...and they were only $10. On my way out of the mall I thought I heard something drop but as I looked back I didn't see anything. I got to my car and realized my car key was gone. I ran back to the location I thought I had dropped something and sure enough my key was there. That was a close call. Walking home would not have been fun. For dinner I grabbed some Chinese food at the mall. I was so shocked that the container was small, basically the size of a 6" hogie sandwich. Not only was the container small but the stupid guy proceeded to put the food on the "lid" portion of the container which obviously doesn't hold as much food as the bottom portion. I felt so ripped off and because of that I vow NEVER to eat there again. The BBQ chicked did taste pretty good though. Today during lunch a dozen of us engineers had our own little Christmas party/gift-exchange. I brought one of the Galileo thermometers for my present. We had pizza for lunch and after that we exchanged our gifts. I ended up with a Dilbert calendar...one of three Dilbert calendars. Seriously some people just have no creativity or thought in their gifts. My cubemate had bought a lava-lamp CD-tower. Probably the most expensive gift there. That gift and mine were the most sought after gifts.
Monday, December 15, 2003
Man...I really REALLY want to get these new fish appropriately called GloFish. For any of you that know anything about fish, you'll have noticed that freshwater fish generally aren't as big and pretty as saltwater fish...that's why saltwater tanks are soooo much more expensive to mention so much more difficult to maintain. Anyway these new fish are genetically engineered to glow red. I can't wait to get them. I read an article saying the fish were supposed to start selling in January, but since there is such a huge demand for these fish, especially since it's the holiday season, they are going to sell them earlier. I called a few pet stores in the area and none of them have them yet. This one store I called is owned by some Koreans that also go to my church. She had no idea what kind of fish I was talking about...which is kind of surprising. How can they not have heard of these new fish???
This morning I woke up at 11:30am...I guess that was because I was up until 3 or 4 in the morning. Shao brought his brother back with him, and he'll be staying with us for the next couple of nights. Found out this morning that one of my friend's store is closed because of damage to his store. The man living in the apartment above committed suicide and left the water running, which overflowed and leaked into the his store. It's sad that in a season where people are supposed to be joyful and merry, there are those who can't and don't feel that way.
Sunday, December 14, 2003
Last night I went to watch ELF. It was a funny Christmas feel-good movie, but it wasn't as funny as I thought it would be. After watching the movie with Edwin and Charles, we went to Silver Diner to some late eats. After that I went home and spent a long time preparing the slides for songs and announcments. Didn't go to bed until around 3am...but this morning I woke up late and rushed out the door. It was snowing outside and I lost control of my car on the way to church. I am so lucky, I didn't crash though. I was kind of going too fast though. I think I might have freaked out the minivan behind me since I started to drift as I was going around a bend. I'm supposed to get to church 30 minutes before service starts but I made it just as service started. After service a bunch of us went to Olive Garden for lunch. It was a good old time. After lunch some of us went to PC Zone and played Counter Strike for an hour. Ed, Injoong, and myself played while Sujin sat and watched. She said she enjoyed watching. I was kind of surprised she didn't mind it. After that I came home with Injoong and just chilled out. Doing laundry and stuff now.
Saturday, December 13, 2003
Oh NUTS!!! I'm at work right now and I'm looking at next week's work schedule. This is INSANE. I have to work on Wednesday from 4AM-4PM. Then on Thursday from 6AM-8PM!!! I guess the reason why is because we have two big events scheduled next week and since our team got smaller (two of our teammates left to another project) we have to work even harder. Well this definitely means I get to take advantage of OVERTIME. WOO HOOOOO, I get paid time and a half. Well chances are that I won't have to work continuously the whole time...but we'll see. Last night after fellowship Clara, Tae, Toni, and Joori went out to SoHo to hang out. Well technically I guilted them into hanging out with me since they missed my birthday. We had some ton-katsu, some kind of korean spaghetti, and a bottle of black.
Thursday, December 11, 2003
So yesterday I had to work from 8 to midnight. It had rained all day and when I left work it was still drizzling and foggy. Usually at night I like to turn on my neon lights, and I've never had a problem here in NJ or PA until last night. I passed a cop and as I passed him, I saw him turn around and follow me. I thought OMG...what a dickhead this guy is if he's going to pull me over for having neon light on a dark foggy night. So before he pulls up and tails me, I turned them off. He follows me for a couple of minutes until I finally pull into my parking lot and he just keeps going straight. I narrowly missed another encounter with the cops. I slept downstair last night because I didn't want to keep my roommate up because of my coughing. The last couple of night he slept downstairs. I was expecting that I would wake up to the commotion as they left the apartment for work, but I didn't hear them leave and got up late. Today the Navy performed a test in Hawaii with the USS Lake Erie (one of our Aegis ships) called FM-6. A test missile is sent up into space and our Aegis ship is supposed to shoot it down. Today's test was a success; however FM-5 was a failure. FM-4 was a success, and you can see a clip of it on Lockheed Martin's website, or look here. 56K (1.51 MB) | High Speed (8.29 MB). You'll need Windows Media Player to view it. In the video you'll see the actual computer consoles that I work on. Looks pretty cool huh? Lockheed can't steal all the credit though since the missile that's used to shoot down the test missiles is a Raytheon product...the SM-3. Anyway the video feed was patched through to our work place and we were able to watch the event live. It was actually pretty neat to watch the whole thing.
Tuesday, December 9, 2003
What's funny is that on Sunday when I went to tour the USS Mahan. I asked one of the guys if we could see the Command Information Center (CIC). That's like the heart of the ship where all the decision making is done. I was told that since all of the Operational Specialists were on duty touring the ship, no one was able to go in, however later he gave me a private tour of CIC, since he was an OS and was taking a break. I had asked him what AEGIS baseline ship was the DDG-72. He said he wasn't sure but it was the latest ship to be outfitted with the newest baseline. He said, "Baseline 8 maybe?" I chuckled inside because there is no baseline 8. The latest baseline in development is baseline 7. So I thought maybe it was baseline 6...but when I got inside CIC, I realized it wasn't even that. It was a baseline 5 ship. I could tell simply by looking at the computer consoles. They looked really old, like antique equipment. It's funny because it's the newest thing for him, but since I work on the development side, we are working on newer models all the time. I work on one of the newest baselines, and the computer consoles have nice touch-panel screens, and LCD monitors, etc. At our testing sites, we also have the old equipment as well, but I never see them turned on, so I kind of thought it was really old surplus equipment.
Monday, December 8, 2003
Friday I left work early because I was feeling sick...but I was stupid enough to go to Friday night fellowship. Originally I had asked someone else to take care of stuff at church but he told me he had other plans. On the way there I almost got stuck on the street. My tires really suck in the snow. I'll have to drive extremely carefully this winter. Saturday I stayed in all day basically except for when I went outside to dig my car out of the snow. My cough has really developed into a serious cough. Sunday went to church and got some cough medicine too. I don't think Robitussin works that well. I think any benefit of cough suppression is strictly psychological. After church I went to Penns Landing and got to tour DDG-72, the USS Mahan. Last night and the night before I had a very hard time falling asleep because I was coughing so much. After this cold I'm going to have abs of steel, because they burn with pain. Oh I also called in sick today as well so I slept in until like 1pm. I think it helped because I'm not coughing like crazy like yesterday or even overnight.
Friday, December 5, 2003
Man steals Salvation Army pot, is promptly hit by car, arrested
TUCSON (AP) �X Call it a case of bad karma.
What a long night. I went to bed before midnight. Woke up during the night a few times. Each time wishing it was morning already. For some reason it just felt like I had slept an eternity (that's usually a good thing, but I guess not when you are sick). Last night we had a web meeting at our apartment. Met two new people that wanted to join the multimedia committee. We'll see how long they stick around. Yujin ordered Chinese food but didn't order enough. The desserts that Mark and Sujin brought were awesome!!! Mark brought this cream-filled puffs. They were good. Sujin brought this smooshed cake. She hit the brakes too hard which sent the cake flying. This morning woke up to a winter wonderland. The snow was coming down hard. I think it's supposed to turn to rain though. Made it to work very slowly.
Thursday, December 4, 2003
Last night I was starting to lose my voice. This morning I lost it completely, I also coughed up the biggest wad of solidified snot...it was pretty disgusting...but intriguing, so I played around with it, running it through my fingers and stuff. he he he. Yum yum. Also I wonder how many people think I'm pissed or something because I don't say Hi back or respond to their questions audibly. I resorted to communicating my thoughts on pen and paper. I need to stop by the drug store to pick up some nasal decongestant. My cough has gotten worse too. My nose feels so raw from blowing it too much. Now I understand those clay-mation commercials where the nose runs all over the face away from the tissue. I think I'll also pick up a box of those lotion infused tissues. I need them. Last night was interesting. When I went home I parked next to a newer looking Ford Mustang. The guy asked me for a jump. I felt good...but not because I was able to help out a fellow human being, but because I didn't buy that piece of crap car. Ha ha ha.
Wednesday, December 3, 2003
I got a bad case of the sniffles. Also been hacking up lots of colorful mucus. Been sneezing like crazy too. Unfortunately I think I'm developing a little bit of a cough. I took all my Centrum, Vit. C, B, and Zinc. I hope I don't feel like this for too long. My thoat has been sore as well due to my chronic condition. Just called to schedule a doctors appointment, but it's on the 23rd. Not sure if I should see the doc to get more drugs or go home for Christmas. I'll have to see how much cheaper airline tickets are. I spent the whole time this morning trying to troubleshoot this one problem. One of the displays would not come up for some reason and I thought I would be able to fix it, but I couldn't find anything wrong. I'm inclined to think it's a hardware issue...but my associates don't agree with me. Oh well. Also found out I have a pretty exciting year ahead of me. In January, I get to go on the USS Pickney (DDG91). Obviously not yet commissioned. March, ALL OF APRIL, and May I'll be out on that ship as well. Can you believe they want me to ride the ship for a FULL MONTH!!! And since it'll be docking at foreign ports, I won't be allowed off. We'll see how crazy I go being on a ship full of other men. ha ha ha. Maybe I'll become like one of those horny sailors. This weekend is the Army/Navy game here in Philly. So the US Navy has sent 2 Aegis ships to Philly. The USS Hue City (CG-66) and the USS Mahan (DDG-72) are the most formidable ships on the open seas...well aside from the 100 other AEGIS ships that the Navy has in it's fleet. They'll be on display on Saturday which I plan to attend.
Tuesday, December 2, 2003
So last night I worked late...until 1am. Still got a boat load of work to do. This morning I woke up to a weird dream. My brother, father, and myself were doing something. I opened up a drawer that had a bunch of miscellaneous stuff but also had a zippo lighter. I closed it up briskly so my father wouldn't wonder what the zippo was for...but my brother had already gotten a hold of it and started to play around with it. As he lit it, he bursted into flames. Just kidding. He tried to act cool trying all the different tricks to opening a zippo. I grabbed it from him and showed him. As he watched he tried mimicing the same finger movements with his fingers, but his hands were right between my legs. I say to him "get off me Homo!" but he refuses. So I stick my foot between his legs and then we were locked into a stalemate. I told him he'd better let go otherwise my troops were going to crush him...and then all of a sudden I was a commander of my very own troops, and he was in control of the indians. Although he represented the indians...they were driving cars. Funny huh? My roommate got me a book for my birthday gift entitled "If I'm so wonderful, why am I still single?" by Susan Page. He said he never read the book. But it's the same author that wrote "If we're so in love, why aren't we happy?" ha ha ha. Even though he bought me the book there's little doubt in my mind the book is really for him...just like for his birthday when I bought him a rubik's cube, it was really so I could play around with it.
Monday, December 1, 2003
Today I'm still in VA. I'll need to drive back up shortly to NJ. Yesterday was a pretty uneventful day. I'm getting to spend a lot of quality time with the baby though. Even tried holding Joshua a few times.
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