long time no see and the world's safest car

so it's been a long time since i last posted.

a lot has happened since then. i went to new orleans for a bachelor party. went to wisconsin to play golf and hang out with the korean students before they all left for home. finished three final projects and one take-home exam, play back to back days of golf and drinking, and began packing to move out of my apartment.

unfortunately that didn't leave much time for posting blogs, but you haven't really missed out on a ton of stuff.

but this is a neat video on MB's take on the world's safest car... it's a lot of airbags but some pretty amazing tech if they get it to work. the seltbelt airbag is fascinating if not excessive.

photo of the day

good photographer
super hot photo
that'll be all for today

[via nejat talas]

would you like a green stairway, why yes i would!

this building has a great clean design. it's a box shell, but hides a grass stairway to a green roof. the back of the stairway is in the center of the photo above.


for some reason a beautiful curve like the one created by the bottom of the stairway that expands to meet the left wall is a nice juxtaposition to the strong angles of the box frame of the house. (that sounded nerdy than required... it's nice when curves and straight lines are mixed - there much better)


a awesome view from the staircase. the coolest thing is you can only access the roof from inside the house...


view from the roof.


view from inside, looking at the staircase.

[via contemporist, the architects are kwk promes]

are we all the same?

this is a pretty cool concept that this photographer came up with. from what i can tell i likes setting up for photos and loves photoshop. he takes photos from the same location, over and over again and compiles different people from different images to create a theme... i'm not sure if all the of the people in the image were taken at that location or if they were transplant from an entirely different location. but based on the lighting, i'm guessing they were... otherwise he's photoshop skills would be utterly insane.

cellphones

all in red

taking photos in times square

women

kids, kids, kids (i love this one... it's the same location as the top one)

[via v1 gallery]

i love simple things

so when i was in elementary school - i used to have an old braun travel alarm clock as my bedside clock. i don't remember how i got it, i definitely didn't buy it myself, but i remember it was very easy to use, just two simple dials in the back, one to adjust the time and another for the alarm. there was button on the top to set the alarm and that was it.

over the years, i lost the clock (probably between house moves we did as a family) but i remember trying to buy one a few years back, but couldn't find the one i wanted. i thought about getting it as a travel clock. but like most people i've switched to using my cellphone as an alarm clock, but there is something great about using a simple analog clock and leaving the cellphone on the other side of the table.

i'm not sure if i'll get one (maybe when i start working on the road a lot next year) in the meantime my cellphone seems to work alright, even if it seems i have to keep on living the digital lifestyle.

[reminded by valet]

best sushi deal in town

so M told me about this place that has good sushi (with an all you can eat option for $20) that was nearby. i scoffed at the idea since e-town doesn't have great sushi options (i don't think that chicago has great options as compared to bigger markets on the coasts (NYC, LA, SF, etc.) but this place was great... sure it's not going to be 5 star sushi, but it was fresh and very reasonably priced.

since it was lunchtime and went with the ramen (which is even harder to find than sushi, and it was good... not as great as the stuff in little tokyo in LA, but still - very good for what it was. it came with a side of california roll - nothing amazing but super fresh avocado which was nice.

all in it was 8 bucks which is good value. the decor looks more like a fish market than a restaurant which is probably why they don't have as much overhead. simple, white and clean. what's not to like? sure it's not fancy, but let's be fair, this is e-town anyway.

next time i'll have to go for dinner and get some real sushi.

Sea Ranch Fish Market
518 Dempster Street
Evanston, IL
847-492-8340

neoclassic: will it work?

so the whole neoclassic look is starting to surface... first it was olympus that came out with a concept that was pretty interesting - it was a mix of analog looks with digital guts and a nice fitted leather shell to round out the old school aesthetics. it looks like nikon has come out with a similar concept but this is aimed more downmarket (the olympus one had a classic rangefinder look which would have been in the 500+ range for sure. but my guess is that this one would be more mass market and in the 350+ range... since the guts of the camera would probably retail for around 250-300.

i definitely like the concept... the only probably with neoclassic design is that digital camera lifecycles are too short these days and cameras as an "investment" is no longer true. so getting a non-transferable nicely fitted leather case either built in or on top of the camera seem a bit of a waste.

but i guess we'll see... i am happy that cameras are coming out with some more innovative design.

korean fried chicken: reminds me of the good ole days

korean fried chicken always begins with the trifecta of condiments. jalapenos on the left, pickled radishes in the center and a salt/pepper blend on the right. normally you dip the chicken in the salt/pepper (since it's not seasoned) and you eat the radish and jalapenos afterwards. the radish is sweet and a bit sour and of course the jalapenos are spicy.


this is the chicken with a "salad" of shredded cabbage with a "thousand island dressing" which is actually a mix of ketchup and mayo.


you can't each chicken without beer. we had two kinds last night: OB and Hite.


we also had spicy rice cakes after the chicken (they actually ran out of chicken which is crazy for a chicken place, but it was tuesday night and i guess they weren't expecting that many people??)


this is a cold stirfried salad with conch, i had to look up what a conch was in english... it's a marine snail that lives inside those really pretty shells.


to finish off the meal we had yellow watermelon. yup yellow! never had it before, but it was amazingly sweet. they said they bought it at h-mart so i'm looking forward to picking up some soon.

Overall - it was a decent meal - i think we've had better fried chicken before, but still it was good to have some old school korean food.

Hourglass
3658 W. Lawrence Ave.
Chicago, IL 60686

spoonettes

as we all know there are some classic problems with appetizers... the largest of which is the small plate supply issue. it's always a pain to obtain a large number of plates for appetizers or you have to make the appetizers holdable without a plate. if you're attending a party or function and waiters come by with appetizers you're limited with options to things you can grab with your hands and not get messy and eat in a somewhat dignified manner right?

but not anymore - now with the new spoonettes, a spoon shaped filo dough, you can bake edible spoons to "plate" your appetizers... it will even hold liquid (or sauce) if plated just before serving without getting soggy.

it's not super cheap - 3.50 euros for twelve, but still if you're hosting a party for ten, it's not much to get a package and serve your appetizers with a little extra flare.

now if this doesn't seem like a pressing issue to you, that probably means more important things are on your mind - like the bank stress test results that came out today. but what's the fun in talking about that... spoon shaped filo dough is cutting-edge innovation.

working on the farm

every farmer starts his day off with a hardy breakfast... and in this case we mean start our day by eating breakfast at 1pm and and by hardy we mean enough fattening food to kill a cow.

above we have a waffle covered in butter and syrup, hash browns covered in grilled onions and cheese, two pieces of buttered toast, two sausage patties (which were off screen) and two or three scrambled eggs. all of this was provided by waffle house (it was my first time going there... not sure how many more times i'd go) i ate most of what you see on the screen, which did not feel good shortly after consumption. still it did feel manly.


panoramic view of part of the farm.... we shot roughly where the guy in the center of the image in standing. (click on any of these images for a large version)



panoramic view of the front of the farm from the road, super green grass and the weather was just beautiful.


tree in front of N's old house... which sat on a five acre plot... lots of grass which was nice... would make for a great place to have summer bbq's out back.


that's a day old calf - he had a twin brother who is with his mom. this one was still getting the hang of his legs so he was a little slower to run and join his mom. i was a bit to close to the fence when i was taking the photos and got a semi-aggressive visit from the mom who wanted to make sure i knew she was the boss. it was duly noted.


this is the tree that the MBA students cut down with an ax. the old fashion way. and if you were wondering... how many MBA students does it take to cut down an tree with an ax... the answer is four.

the one behind it was later also cut down. but with a chainsaw... which is also super cool but in a different and infinitely less tiring way.


what happens when you give a road flare to a bunch of exhausted guys drinking and eating chicken wings late at night? you get photos like these.

technical info:
ISO: 100
shutter: 5-8 seconds
aperture: f/4
stabilized on a car hood

overall it was a great trip, even if with the long drive and the bitch middle seat.

going to the farm

so today the roommates and i (along with two of our friends) drove seven hours to ohio to go to a farm. actually we didn't get to the farm today. we're going tmw, today we went and stayed at N's parents' place. we had a great dinner and played pool and video games in preparation for a big day of working on a farm. clearing trees and operating heavy machinery. should be a fun time.

i should mention that our friend S bought an ax so he could cut down a tree the old fashion way. that should be a riot.... then again he is canadian so maybe that will give him an edge.

more tomorrow.

jump rope

so everyone has things that they never learned to do and wished they had learned. jump rope is one of those things for. now to be fair to me, when i was a kid, i used to jump rope when the rope operation was done by two people at each end of the jump rope, like when we were in the school playground. i could even do the kind when they had two jump ropes... since all that was really needed was the ability to jump and a decent sense of timing.

but apparently i don't have enough brain power to time, jump and twirl a jump rope simultaneously. i've definitely tried from time to time over the last couple decades. and the general conclusion is that it is now entirely too shameful to continue to "practice" at a gym. so instead i'll just have to buy a jump rope and be humiliate by something little school girls can do, in the comfort of my own home.

M did give me some sound advice. she said that the light plastic ropes are harder to use because it's difficult to get a sense of timing with them. instead she suggested i use the harder plastic type we used back in elementary school since the extra weight helps build your sense of timing.

my idea was to buy a leather one because it had a bit more weight. but wasn't so cheezy as getting the plastic one.

the whole reason jump ropes came up were because i wanted to think of ways to stay in shape on the road as a consulatant. since jump rope is a great cardio exercise and a jump rope takes almost no space in your bag, it's a great option for working out... along with a heavy duty stretch band which i already use for trips.

but i've got to learn how to use a jump rope first, so we'll see how it goes. i'll report back later.

camera equipment is a drug addiction

sorry for the absence in posting, these days i seems just slightly behind on things, which is weird... but i'm back on the ball. i think it's cause i'm sleeping more than i probably normally do and the incremental hour of sleep comes at the cost of my blogging time. but we're back on track with plenty of content ready to go!

so there are a couple things in life that i love and at the same time consider to be a complete addiction. they are golf and camera equipment. while i've never had a lust of the newest golf gear (my friends back in LA definitely did, we'd go to the store to check out the newest and often biggest club and see if it was worth the markup) i've always been pretty happy with the hand me down clubs i've gotten from my dad. to be fair though, he did buy me a quality driver and a nice wedge.

but camera equipment gets me all crazy. like look that this new camera - the d5000... doesn't it look perfect for travelling around the world with a compact but powerful enough dSLR? so i can take amazing photos of all the cool things i'm going to see? and it's less than $800 new - that's a steal!

except this is just silly really - i have at least $5k worth of gear here not to mention what i have back in LA, but i never use it. my main dSLR is perfectly usable and should still be for probably another 12-18 months, before a real upgrade makes sense for personal use. but still i just use my $400 G7 and my refurbished $120 SD1000 more than i use my two dSLRs.

so while i drool over new gear, i always have to stop myself and stare at my bag of gear and remember that i need to use that more... or else i can't buy shiny new cameras. damnit.

devon street hole in the wall

tonight M and i went out to a little hole in the wall on devon street for some quality indian food. i got a tip for H that this was a good and cheap place to have a simple dinner. it definitely was both of those things.

i ordered the combo 3, which was chilli chicken and lamb kabob with rice and a small salad for $11. which was a great value considering i got a cup of soup and flat bread for free! so that was amazing.

the atmosphere definitely wasn't the best in the world, but it was one of those places where they worry about the quality of the food and not so much about how it looks. i'm not sure how they turn a profit with prices like that, but i'm not one to complain both good food at a great price.

M got the tikka chicken - not sure how much that was, but she seemed to enjoy it. i'll definitely need to ask H for more recommendations before school ends.


JK Kabab
6412 N Rockwell St
Chicago, IL 60645
(773) 761-6089

razor sharp knives are hot

so the first lesson you learn about using a kitchen knife is that a sharp knife is better than a dull knife. dull knives leading to slippage and the a lot more cuts and accidents. i've had my fair share of cuts over the years because the knives in my mother's kitchen are almost all dull (except the one decent knife i had professionally sharpened so i could have something decent to use).

but now that i have my shun chef's knife... i wanted to make sure i could keep it super super sharp. i got it over winter break (a christmas present to myself) along with a honing stick to help maintain its edge. but i didn't get a sharpening stone - since it would be a while before the knife would lose its edge enough that it'd need one.

fast forward 3.5 months and the the knife is still sharp, but not as sharp as it was when i first got it. so i got a 1000/6000 grit waterstone. it's made in japan and the 1000 grit side (think sandpaper but more like clay than a coarse grit like sand) is used to get it reasonably sharp and the 6000 side gives it a mirror like finish and super sharpness.

after soaking the stone in water for 10 minutes (that's why it's called a waterstone), it took less than 10 minutes to get the knife sharp enough to cut through a piece of paper with ease. i think i could get it a little sharper with some practice, but still i think once a month of sharpening will keep my knives sharp. and sharp knives are hot.

going back to college

i'm back in w-town for an alumni career panel for asian american heritage month. the panel was pretty large and had a diverse group of alums from class of 84 to 02 (that would be me). people were from all different backgrounds and overall it was a pretty interesting dialogue.

what's almost more important was that this was my first time back to the school since i graduated seven years ago.

i got in friday night and went out to dinner in n. adams... on the drive over the entire way i read all the signs and a flood of memories of school came back to me.

super stop and shop
friendly's
mt. greylock bowling
mass moca
dunkin donuts
mcdonalds

it was weird to be back i have to say... a lot has changed, new buildings everywhere and some old ones are gone. baxter hall - the student center i was in when i saw what happened on the morning of 9/11 is gone. is till remember exactly where i was when i realized what had happen. but now i'm near that place in the new student center (which is stunning) thinking about old times gone by. and coming here so far from home (be it LA, korea or chicago) still this place feels like home. i've missed not working about locking your door, not eating fast food (cause there is none), not buying anything because the five stores in the town all close at 5pm (makes e-town look like NYC btw).

but most of all i miss the stars. there are almost no lights in w-town at night. and if you go for a walk down to cole field - which i used to do all the time, you can see so many stars. the only place i remember having a more beautiful night sky was in patagonia - but it wasn't fair because it was the southern sky, so the newness of the stars and their position caught me off guard.

it may be a little too cold to go for a night walk out to cole field, but it's nice to know that some things never change.

in a barbie world, there are still real women

elle europe has released a new cover with a series of famous women with no makeup or photoshop in response to popular response that many of today's covers present an unrealistic image of women. sophia coppola and monica bellucci were two of the women brave enough to participate.

i 'm sure many of you have seen dove's commercial on beauty and how most firms photoshop the hell out of an image to create an idealized beauty that no one can reach. (this is also true for men - i remember andy roddick being very upset that his arms were photoshopped to look bigger than they are on the cover of men's health a few weeks ago.)

i'm glad that this is happening - i know that everyone loves idealized beauty and i have to admit that i've done more than my fair share of photoshopping my images for fashion work. but at the end of the day... few things are more beautiful than a woman's raw beauty.

what would you be if you were a car?

a long time ago - i think maybe in college - i was doing some team building exercise and everyone was asked to write down what each person would be if they were a car. the general consensus for what kind of car i would be was a vintage gray porsche, like the one below. at the time, i didn't really appreciate being associated with something old (i didn't think much of vintage things). i think now i look back and see their opinion as quite a complement.

i had completely forgotten about this memory until i stumbled across a post about vintage racing posters from porsche. they're super cool in their own right with great design and styling for poster. i feel like these days everything is geared towards overstimulation to grab your attention for the few milli-seconds. i love the retro colors and clean layout.

[via vintage porsche posters]

q 2.0 is complete

i received the completed books from the printer after returning from spring break. it took me a while to distribute them, but the majority of them all out now. i still have a few copies left for those who i may have forgotten in the first pass. i took a quick snap of the nine copies (less one i had already given out). if you have one - let me know what you think. i haven't even had time to look at it myself. i've been busy working on photography things and reading new quotes in order to start the next edition (version 3.0?), but my guess is that that one won't be for a long while.

if you'd like one - please ask, i love to give out the remaining copies.

going out for some korean food

.
side dishes

t
spicy pork tofu stew (what i had)

spicy fish soup (what v had)

bibimbap (rice with meat and vegs) (v's second dish)

my college friend, V, who now attends bschool with me was craving korean food pretty bad at the end of last quarter, so we decided to hit up some local k-food and catch up. even though we go school together - we don't get to see each other as much as we'd like.

funny thing is that our conversations always drift back to the same things we used to talk about 10 years ago. crazy to think that we started college almost 11 years ago...

on the plus side, i finally figured out exactly what V did for a living before coming to bschool - for some reason i was always very confused about it before so it's funny that i finally got it figure out six years later. my friends say i'm slow - apparently they are quite right.

it had been a long time since i had soon doo bu (the spicy tofu stew), the last time i had it was actually the same place - i came with N and we had a small feast - as usual.

overall it was great to catch up and have some korean food (although it did make me miss home).


Arirang

741 Civic Center Dr
Niles, IL 60714

(847) 966-7072‎

this is what happens to lost luggage??

so i came across this interesting website, where this guy buys permanently lost luggage from the airlines and then takes all the clothes out and photographs them. at first it seems almost like a public service he's doing... until you realize that none is looking for this stuff... it's all been written off as lost somewhere while i was coming back from my crazy weekend in miami and i'm moving on with my life.

probably the airlines had to pay the people for the stuff they had lost. so they're just happy that someone is taking the luggage off their hands and giving them a bit of cash.

and then i thought - i like this as a photographic endeavor... it's like cataloging butterflies or some other kind of animal. placing them out on a white surface and taking photos of everything in the same way in order to create these very ordered and structured images.

now i know that this might seem boring to most people, but the process of doing this seems like a bit of adventure to me (clearly it doesn't take much for me to get excited about something if taking photos of clothes in the exact same manner repeatedly gets me excited).

and finally the voyeurism of the whole process hit me. first it's just trying to understand who these people might have been and looking at what they brought on their trips.

but then you start asking yourself some funny questions... like why did this guy bring more pairs of underwear than socks... wouldn't you think that the number of underwear and socks should be the same? or maybe they were in another bag that didn't get lost.

and girl who brought this small black bag... what awesome trip was she on that she needed a slutty nurse outfit. maybe it was around halloween? or maybe it was just a normal wednesday for this person. her other clothes seem pretty normal - she even brought a raincoat hoodie. but she also brought a bikini - so hoping for sunny weather but prepared for rain? and most importantly where is the underwear... there doesn't seem to be any. maybe she goes commando - maybe the guy who took the photo thought it better to omit it from the image... who knows...

then i think about color patterns and outfits that these people probably wore like how the guy below has a good balance of colors in his bag, but the girl seems to be leaning towards the reds and yellows a bit more (maybe not surprisingly she had a red suitcase).

so clearly i have no life, but i think this is amusing and spent a good ten minutes wondering about these people's lives and another five minutes wondering what people would think if they saw the contents of my travel bag. still it was a great little distraction from my reading. i hope you enjoy it.

[via isthisyourlostluggage.com]

the closet of my dreams

so i'm not sure if it's a sad reality that i've thought a lot about what my perfect closet would look like. but if you've seen my closet, you'd already know that i'm really organized with my clothes. people have different reasons to be organized... they like to be tidy, they like to have structure to a large space, they are obsessive compulsive... or like in my case, they are extreme utilitarians.

i like my closet organized - simply because i like to be able to find a specific item in the least amount of time possible. i guess i should admit that - this isn't the only reason why i like my closet organized. i do enjoy - how clean it looks when things are all in order.

(for a long time - i actually removed clean clothes from the dry cleaners and put them back on my own hangers - they looked better without the plastic covers and the thin white hangers) - i think i realized after a while that this was a bit too much - although i am tempted from time to time to take ten minutes to do it.

anyway - i saw an article online about this guy's designs for a closet, and i have to say, it's awesome. i love the exposed layout and the lighting for the closet. the only closet that i've seen that was cooler than this one is in the korean movie, old boy. the closest is pretty much a black cube that splits into four smaller columns and each column is a mini closet. so you want into the opening cube to get your clothes and change and then walk out and close the cube back into it's original shape. sure it's not practical, but damn it - it's awesome.

sadly - i don't think i can get the old boy closet, but this closet may be possible. (they cheated a little because all the clothes are white, black or gray - so it looks so clean), but in reality, it wouldn't look as nice. then again most of my stuff is blue, gray and black, so i guess i don't have too much to say.

[via rimadesio]