confucius #76

iPhone to Take Off

2008-04-29T22:04:00.000-07:00

Baghdad Disneyland

2008-04-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

2008-03-14T15:47:00.001-07:00

crunch base

2008-02-26T23:59:00.001-08:00

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Rocking Cube

2008-02-11T17:48:00.001-08:00

check out this rocking chair...

Michael's salary

2008-01-11T10:45:00.001-08:00

LA Marathon XX

2005-03-06T23:30:00.000-08:00

After one month of official training, I decided to do the LA Marathon. I don' t know exactly where the desire came from and if you asked me two months ago, I would have told you that I was not in the least bit interested in running a marathon ever in my life, let alone so soon. I guess after the half marathon, I started thinking "why not the whole marathon?". And once I started thinking that, it became a matter of proving to myself that I had what it took.

My rough goal was to finish anywhere between 5 hours and 5 1/2 hours. I originally intended to do a run/walk split for the whole marathon, but then at the start gate I met this guy from the army who was running the race with a 45 lb backpack to honor his 45 friends who died in Afganistan. As soon as he told me that, I shook his hand and decided on the spot that I was going to run the whole thing.

Right out of the gate, I realized that this is probably one of the biggest annual events in the city of LA. As you cross the start line, confetti is showering down on you, people are screaming, it's literally like a parade. As you make your way through the first 10 miles, you see people from the neighborhoods standing outside cheering you on. Kids are on the street giving you high fives. There is so much spirit from the community, you feel like you're getting a hero's welcome.

For the first 20 miles, I felt really good. I actually had the ridiculous thought that I could do this thing in 4 hours (I did the first 20 miles in about 3 hr 10 min). Only one month of training for my first marathon and I'm doing it in 4 hours! It was at mile 20 that I realized that it was going to be more challenging than I thought. The mile markers became further and further apart until at mile 23 I hit a wall. It was like my body and mind just gave up! All I could think about was stopping and getting something to eat (incidentally, the last 4 miles run right through Koreatown on Olympic where you can smell the kalbi and bulgolgi as you are running). Finally after about 15 minutes of deflated walking, I decided to jog every other minute. As I made the turn onto Flower and noticed the finish line within sight, I just wanted to get it over with so badly. What was nice about the last stretch was that there were thousands of people lining the street and cheering for that entire half mile. When I finally crossed the finish line, I just felt so relieved to be done, I almost didn't have any energy to celebrate. Official time was 4:43:03. Not bad for my first marathon.

More Running Notes

2005-03-02T23:05:00.000-08:00

I've decided to try the LA Marathon this Sunday. Pretty scary. I feel excited about it though. Part of me feels like I will do well and be pleasantly surprised. The other part of me realizes that I will be suffering big time. Anyway, I think it is possible to track my location during the race from this website:

http://www.doitsports.com/results/RUN-track.tcl?sub_event_id=381

I haven't really trained too much. People are saying you have to train for 8 months in advance. Eh, I don't really have the patience to do all that. I'm basically just going off of that half-marathon I did and two or three other long runs (no more than 18 miles) that I've done between then and now. We'll see if I survive.

One good thing that has come from all this running is that I've found a really awesome run over in West LA:

- Start at Gretna Green and San Vicente Blvd in Brentwood (I heard that O.J. used to live right around there)
- Run west on San Vicente until you hit Ocean. 3 miles.
- Left on Ocean. Run until you hit Santa Monica pier. 1.5 miles.
- Once you hit the pier, turn around and go back.

Basically, it's a round trip of 9 miles. It's nice because you can run on the grassy median of San Vicente and then you get the view of the beach from Ocean. If you want to do an 18 mile run, just do this twice. Or if you want to just do a 6 mile run, just do the San Vicente to Ocean leg and turn back.

My Singing Valentine

2005-02-13T14:15:00.000-08:00

Since I've moved to LA, it's become an annual tradition to spend Valentine's weekend at Yuu Yuu karaoke club on Sawtelle. Last year, we had such a blast that we invited three unknown girls into our room and the guys all serenaded them with "Sweet Child O' Mine". This year was no disappointment either. A few highlights:

1) Jamie doing Britney Spears' "Lucky". Yeah, I admit it, I have once listened to (and probably sang in the car to) Britney Spears in my life. I might even have that song memorized.

2) John Law doing the Footloose dance. The picture will be posted as soon as I figure out how to download it from my digital camera (yes, I finally got a digital camera -- why do you think I started blogging in the first place?)

3) The perennial Coldplay songs. Somehow we always end up singing "Yellow" and "In My Place" together en masse. In fact, I think I started liking Coldplay only after trying to sing Yellow last year (by the way, how is yellow supposed to be a color for a love song? isn't that the color of jaundice?) Anyway, this year, after we're all melodramatic from singing "In My Place", I make the ill-timed comment "Hey, I guess I'm not the only one who finds myself 'In My Place' alone on Valentine's Day!" A forced chuckle and awkward silence follows.

4) "All or Nothing". A few months ago, during another karaoke fest, I started busting out in this song by O-Town (yet another teenybopper act). Not sure what came over me, but I literally started crawling on the floor at the feet of some random girl I had just met as I cried out the lyrics to the song... "Is this how it ends with a simple telephone call, you leave me here with nothing at all!" Anyway, this time I found out it was Esther Lee's birthday so I decided to make a go at that whole act again just to put her on the spot and humiliate her. The look of disgust on her face was priceless... and yes, I have been known to easily shame myself at times.

5) The Macarena. No one does that song to sing it. It's really just an excuse to get up and dance the macarena.

2005-02-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

A fun pic from the 2nd annual Valentine's weekend karaoke night. What's with the weird guestures and random pointing?

Notes from a Half Marathon

2005-02-06T22:12:00.000-08:00

Well, I ran my first half marathon ever this morning - the Pacific Shoreline Half Marathon along Huntington Beach. Gotta say it was a great experience, albeit quite painful and slightly grueling at times. Granted, I can't quite boast that I've done a whole marathon yet (not even sure that's something I plan on doing), but hey, 13.1 miles isn't a typical jog in the park.

Here's a look at my mental journal of the race:

Mile 1 (7:00 am) -- Feeling good, just taking it easy, not pushing too hard. Since I don't run too often, I thought I would do the run-walk method and just try to finish sometime before the Superbowl. But at some point last night, I was talked into running the whole thing (perhaps it was when my roommate, Chris, mockingly joked about girls cheering me on as "James, the sexy run-walker").

Mile 4 -- Finished 5k at about a 9 minute pace. Still just taking it easy. This whole time I've been running with Jin and Chris Lee. Jin suggests that a 9 minute pace might be too much for her to maintain for the whole race. Secretly, my chauvanistic side is thinking "hmm... I wonder if this means that I'm actually going to beat her." Yes, I admit it, one of my goals today was to not let my female running partner beat me.

Mile 4.5 -- Damn, I have that Damien Rice song, "Blower's Daughter", stuck in my head. Why do I get the feeling this is gonna stay with me for the next several miles?

Mile 5 -- Chris Lee takes off and says goodbye to us. I turn to Jin and tell her that I'm going to try to gradually run faster over the next 2 miles. This is essentially my way of saying "I'm taking off. See you at the finish line."

Mile 5.1 -- We hit a turnaround and immediately run into a headwind and an uphill slope. So much for the idea of gaining speed.

Mile 6 -- I bust out the power gel. You'd think that these things are fun to eat (cool packaging, designed for athletes, etc.), but they are disgusting. Substances with a gel-like consistency somehow weren't meant to go inside your body.

Mile 8 -- I've broken away from Jin and started pushing myself faster. I'm now mentally visualizing the guy from Chariots of Fire who says "When I run, I feel God's pleasure". My head cocks back and I start flapping my arms to try to imitate that image from the movie. Somehow I tell myself that this is working, even though I look like a fool and I'm running with my eyes closed. Thirty seconds later, I revert back to huffing and puffing with a grimace on my face.

Mile 9 -- I feel okay. I've been intentionally trying to keep a faster pace. This is good. I'm passing people. Then I turn to my left and realize that Jin has been right there with me this whole time.

Mile 11 -- Only 2 miles to go! This is when I tell myself to start hauling ass. Just gun it from here, finish in a flourish and make yourself proud.

Mile 12 -- Okay, I actually slowed down over the last mile. Well then, NOW is the time to start hauling ass. C'mon James! Push!

Mile 12.5 -- I see the finish line. Yes.

Mile 12.6 -- Why does it seem like the finish line just got farther away?

Mile 12.625 -- Jesus, help me.

Mile 12.7 -- Mind over body. I think my mind is actually coming around now and starting to win the battle. I punch it and just try to run as hard as I can at this point (which is barely above a leisurely jog).

Mile 13.1 -- Crossed the finish line. Finally! I finished and did it under 2 hrs. What a feeling. Official time -- 1:53:56.

In the end, I felt great. It was not as bad as I thought it would be and it felt good to have finished in under 2 hrs. Granted, afterwards, my muscles immediately started tightening up in ways I never could have imagined. AND my knees could no longer bend. AND I was pretty much on the verge of exhaustion. But the feeling of finishing a 13 mile race pretty much took my mind off of any of the physical suffering. Next step: the triathalon!

Souvenir from Whistler

2005-01-28T15:51:00.001-08:00

Four straight days of boarding over the MLK long weekend... Had an awesome time with Charlie, Calvin, Eddie and Hanah. But on the last day, I tried a little too much and face planted on one of those curvy boxes. Aside from the initial fear of having a concussion or eye damage (neither of which happened), it felt kind of cool to have a nice shiner as a memento of my trip.

2005-01-28T15:51:00.000-08:00

First time I've ever gotten stitches (4 above the eye)