Ok, so first off, I want to thank everybody for the birthday wishes. I'm one of those strange people who like to try to hide my birthdate, but some of you still manage to wish me happy birthday. I actually think I got the most wishes this year (thanks in part to my workplace - I tried once to remove my birthdate from the company calendar, but failed). Thank you much!

I can now rent a car without paying jacked up prices! Yay! The next age milestone I have to look forward to is 59 1/2, when I can start putting pulling (what an embarassing typo) out what remains of my Roth IRA without paying taxes (ooooh). Yay, life.

Now, onto a more serious topic. One of my friends (*COUGH JENNIFER COUGH*) recently went to England for Thanksgiving break. While at Stonehenge, guess who she ran into?

RACHEL MCADAMS. RACHEL. FRIGGIN. MCADAMS.

And you know what infuriates me?! She didn't even TRY to hook me up with her!

How hard would it have been to be like, "Oh, Rachel, I love your work! Can I get a picture with you? Great, thanks! By the way, I know this AWESOME guy - you'd make the cutest couple! Can I pass him your contact information? You should totally marry him."

HOW HARD?! HOW HARD, DO I ASK?????

P.S. I thought Jennifer was pulling my leg until she provided picture proof - dag it!

Just got back from Big Sur - the final drive down was a whopping 12 hours (forgot everybody was driving back this weekend) - I hit traffic in every conceivable place... trying to leave Big Sur, all alone the 101, then all around LA, then around SD as well.

Anyways, I think I'll be largely disappointed with the photos I took once I load them all on my computer - I was mostly active midday (which means the sun was way too bright and washed out any good photos). (I may also break my own rule of doing some post-production work in Photoshop with these photos)

Anyways, this one is from the drive up Friday night:

More to come as I get a chance to sift through them.

Update: I ended up pruning the whole collection down to 24 tonight and I've posted them up at http://roykim.net/photos/big-sur/

They turned out pretty decent, actually!

I succeeded in helping to cook a Thanksgiving dinner! It wasn't as hard as I imagined - just really time consuming. I now feel confident I can fly solo next year and do the whole meal myself ;)

Some pictures from tonight: (full album)

The turkey came out really well - was not overcooked, and had great flavor!

I helped make this cheesecake last night - which turned out really great. I'm gonna get a copy of that recipe for myself!

Enjoying the company in the kitchen while cooking

Coworker Guerric (on left), who owns the awesome cheesecake recipe, and did a ton of cooking (I just helped out)

Dinner is served!

Mmm, deserts.

Chairs were in great demand; we ended up with quite an assortment.

This is the solution we came up with when trying to make more space.

Post-meal happiness

. . .

Now I'm getting ready for my 3-day road trip up to Carmel-By-The-Sea and Big Sur tomorrow. I've figured out the most important thing: the soundtrack. I'm leaning heavily towards Red Hot Chili Peppers (very chill, cruising music).

I'll see you guys on Sunday night, and I hope all of you had a fantastic Thanksgiving!

And on a more serious note, my heart goes out to the families of those affected by the Mumbai attacks ... such senseless violence...

One of the things I miss about North Carolina are the cool fall rains. There's nothing better to fall asleep to than the pitter patter of the rainfall.

It does not rain in San Diego. Ever. But, as luck would have it, it is raining very steadily tonight - it's just like the rainfalls at home!

To go to bed, hearing the melodic drumming of the raindrops on the streets below ... so awesome.

so here's a fun game to play at the beach. you take a group of your friends, and you line them up, with their backs towards you.

the game is, you throw the football at them, and they have to all jump and turn around and try to catch the football.

now, your goal is to aim for their nads - the moment they turn around, you want to nail them. their goal, much like those guys who defend against soccer free kicks, is to defend their crown jewels.

i had a lot of fun playing this game when i was back in nc - you can tell by how much i'm grinning:

by the way, doesn't that picture make me look somewhat athletic? like i know what i'm doing?? doesn't it??? this could be the most normal picture of me ever taken.

A few nights ago, I was getting really frustrated with my camera.

"Gosh, how the heck do I set a custom white balance?" (the language wasn't so PG-13)

While playing around with the AEB settings on the Rebel, I realized there *was* a custom white balance feature. D'oh.

For those of you who haven't yet figured this out yet, go to "Menu", and go to the Camera 2 options - select "Custom WB", and then select a picture to serve as a baseline. Done.

The difference?

Of course, I do like the orange effect in certain photos - it does seem more "natural" to night-time city photography (everything sure seems orange to me). But sometimes you want to rip the warmness out (as it was when I was photographing that abandoned building).

There you go, something useful.

+ Monday, November 24, 2008
Went on an interview for WF at 4:30pm I think it went fairly well -met two women who talked about the company -they talked about how they need help with their database as well as fundraising since the company is a non-profit organization. They also talked about how they could use someone that knows financial analysis and Access -I thought about it and I think I'll teach myself over winter break this kind of stuff to make myself more appealing than competitors. I also realized I need to buy a new suit because mine doesn't fit me nicely. Attended office hrs for bus fore at 7:30. CB meeting at 9pm. Did my laundry and was incredibly lazy. So excited to finally go home tomorrow -however, I have an exam (bus fore.) that I have to study for.

+ Tuesday, November 25, 2008 (Bus fore. Exam #2)
It is 3:18am as I type this I made two posts of my past two weeks talking about the broad stuff that I did -no big story or much emphasis. My life is a bit too busy to elaborate too much so I just write what's happening -besides nothing majorly fascinating is happening -just a lot of work and stuff to do before finals. I'm headed home tonight -6pm bus -back home by 11pm or 12am. I still have three projects to worry about over the break. I'm just excited to go home and get some sleep.

*edit* 4am on Wed:Ended up not having a ride due to my school's inadequacy in providing more rides or drivers. My roommate's mother drove me to the bus station. I was very happy because I did make it to my bus at 6pm and then I arrived to the city by 9:45pm. I spent time in my brother's apartment where I fold his clothes and organized his room to make things much neater. I also was very happy when meh friend JY called me and she told me we could share a ride -but obviously help the kid who's driving us pay gas money LOL. A lot of plans for later today. Feeling ambitious -I hope I feel this way throughout the day. Going to bed now ;)

+ Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Have two appointments 11pm for eye exam and 1pm for podiatrist. Mom wants me to go to a comedian show w/ her. She also made a list of things she wanted me to help her with so I believe I'll get most of it done on this day. Also, I plan to finish my Personal Selling paper and go to mall to obtain and fill out all applications for winter seasonal employment and buying a new suit possibly -as well as finishing filling out applying for Internships up to the current point. Finally, I plan to clean my room as well as donate clothes and get rid of more junk (as I always do). I also plan to order a rubik's cube, and juggle balls lol (some of my goals I've always wanted to figure out).

+ Thursday, November 27, 2008 (Happy Thanksgiving "Gobble -Turkey" Day!)
Going out to the city to eat with my family and relatives -not sure I'm assuming on both sides. Not sure if I have time to work on any homework assignments -I'll read and get some typing done for my 15+ page for Communication and Conflict in Interpersonal Relationships.

+ Friday, November 28, 2008
Finish my assignments for my mkt and comm class as well as work diligently and complete most of my Investment projects. Some 34 year old man Wal*mart person died from being stomped to death as doors opened for black friday. That's sad.

+ Saturday, November 29, 2008
Make sure I sufficiently completed all my assignments and applications. Typically a day to relax -> watch a movie -or simply sleep. Well a lot of things I had planned didn't happen - no big surprise. I didn't eat turkey -instead I had a Chinese thanksgiving Dinner at a restaurant :9 it was good though. I also didn't get a haircut yet -my hair is getting kinda ridiculous -I was thinking about a haircut after school is over if I don't get one today or tomorrow. I also haven't really finished anything I really wanted to finish -so I'm workin on that now at 5:47am. I also didn't go shopping like wtf :'(

+ Sunday, November 30, 2008
Head back to school :'( but hopefully I'll have successfully accomplished most of the things I've set out to do. Next week is devoted towards some interview(s?) and reading or studying material for preparation for heading into finals.

+ Monday, November 17, 2008 (Worked: 8:30-10, 3:30-4:30)
R's 21st bday. KL (boss) bday -he turned 30.

+ Tuesday, November 18, 2008 (Worked: 9-11, 3:30-5:00)
KX (boss) bday. Attended seminar about living in new york and renting apartments at 6 and another session about design and photography with bobdonmanley

+ Wednesday, November 19, 2008 (Worked 9-10, 2-4:30)
Celebrated bosses bdays (KL & KX). Attended session about marketing and comm. interns at 4:30 -met this girl named Steph P. -she works at P&G. I was so intrigued. I love P&G -she later contacted HR to ask for me. Me & Corey L. always miss our scheduled pasta night -apparently the electricity went out lol :'(

+ Thursday, November 20, 2008 (Worked 8:30-11, 3:15-4:30)
Attended review session for Bus. fore. M went home to interview for Travelers.

+ Friday, November 21, 2008 - Sunday, November 23, 2008
Not quite sure what happened on the weekend. Saturday posed an issue since I had a major headache and I ended up not doing much at all. Nothing much except finished CB group paper -I did 4.20 pages double spaced while everyone seemed to do 2.