To us already a birth place is no longer our home. The place we were brought up is not either. Our history, rushing to us through fields and hills is our home. -Won Ko -

Does anybody else relate to that statement? I certainly do. Whenver somebody asks me where I'm from I pause for a moment before I say "Well, so here's how it goes..." and start explaining... I don't think it's because I don't want to be labelled as having come from just one place, but because I can't... I've talked with Korean people who'd lived all their lives in Korea, and I've talked with Korean people who'd lived all their lives outside of Korea... and naturally I've talked to those who belong to the inbetween group... AKA F.O.Bs... None of them seem to relate to my way of thinking... Who knows... Perhaps I could call it "Identity Crisis Phase II"... -.-;;

The SARS sitution is getting more and more creepy... All sorts of freaky methods are being employed to make it even scarier... -.-;; Should I still keep up my plan to visit China to see my friends and family? *SIGH* Fortunately, my parents are actually in Korea right now and so are my friends... But I'm mostly worried about my dad who has to fly back and forth for business... Dad, please stay safe...

On a lighter note, American Pie 3 is coming out. Matrix 2 and Xmen 2 are due and identity looks pretty good... I have to mention the guilty pleasure, too.. 2 Fast 2 Furious.. heh heh... DAMN... Summer blockbuster indeed... Can't wait for some mind-numbing no-thinking-involved movie watching!! :) Oh, speaking of mind-numbing... Check this out. Interesting piece, I must say. :)

So today was my appointment at the dealership. Before I left I called them to see if they'd replace my coils regardless of whether they had failed or not. They said 'no', Their argument was that VW has yet to meet the demand of coil parts to allow for a nationwide replacement of all coilpacks regardless of failure. So, I was kiinda bumbed out, but I went in nonethelss thinking I might as well head over there and checkout the Mazda 6 in the meanwhile.

When I got there I put the car in for service and test drove the Mazda 6. To make the long story short: I liked the interior, the exterior, the suspension, the handling (very very nice). I didn't like the seats, the lack of power (I drove the I4), the exhaust, lack of torque at low end. Overall I still prefer my 1.8T. But I digress... EEEEeeeenyway... Then I get my name called from the service dept, so I head over. They acknowledged that I've been getting misfires and that 1 of the coilpacks had issues. (I guess it hadn't totally failed since my car didn't violently shake and was still drivable), but they replaced ALL 4 coils ANYWAYS. Now, isn't that a beautiful dealership story. ^0^

Man... Now my car feels smooooth as it did before. No more surging, the power in first gear is back, and it has put a big smile back on my face... DAMN! :) For that, how about some Initial D Drift Battle! :D

So I'm taking vitamins!! Yay! -.-; That sounds kinda sad, for some reason... Oh, well... Ah! Another good news! Well, not really good, but it does clear the issue up. So a fellow vortexer helped me out by VAG-COMing my dear Bora. Although the MIL had turned itself off by then the engine fault log clearly tells me that I have been getting several misfires.... Yup! It's the coilpack, alright... Damn you VW... -.-+. Then after I was done with the lil check up I noticed that one of my caliper had rust on it... East coast roads with all that salt over the winter... grrr... Looks like I'm gonna have to clean that up and paint my calipers.

Oh yeah, Grace I hope you're feeling better! Remember! All this is happening simply to let you leap forward even further when you do! ^0^ Also, a be-lated goodbye to the hero of many... You will most definitely be missed.

So I put my new tires on, and oh my god what a difference it has made to the overall driving experience.... A big thumbs up. I'm sure the 17" wheel is helping in the side wall department, but the tire itself is truly amazing... These babies just stick to the pavement and has minimum road noise. I can only imagine how the all-out 100% performance tires would feel. I'm wondering if I cold sell my OEM tire/wheel for cheap and get myself some decent winter tires instead... Anybody want 15" avus on michellin tires? Steve? ^^ Just lemme know. ;)

Well, with the good news aside, my MIL (Malfunction Indictor Light) is still on, and I'm gonna drop into the dealership next Wednesday to get it checked up... I bet it's the coilpack.... grrrr... Well, that shouldn't be a big deal to fix... Hmm... You know it's not only my car that needs some fixing... I do, too... heh heh... My eye site is going... Seriously... I was always a bit on the near-sighted side, but it's gotten worse in the past several days... I blame it on my lack of healthy diet... All I eat is chicken breast, so I'm gonna get me some vitamins soon to supplement my bachelor ass. :D Some double dosage of Vitamin A action should do some good! Speaking of a healthy diet, perhaps I could use this technique to cut down on the costs a bit? ^^

Oh, yeah before I leave the topic of cars here's a cool lil commercial for the Honda's Euro-spec Accord Wagon (aka Acura TSX here in NA) and apparently it was done live. The author of the original installation that this ad obviously "borrowed" from isn't thrilled, tho...

I think my eye sight is getting worse by the day.... I was always leaning towards the side of being a bit near-sighted, but it's getting to be pretty bad. :( On top of that the malfunction indicator light has come up on my dear Bora at 7912 miles... Grr... Perhaps it's finally my time to get the coil pack changed? Well, I dunno if all those things somehow brought forth the depressive genes in me, but I don't seem to have any energy right now... I know it may seem like what I'm about to say is totally unrelated, but it's the first thing that just popped into my head, so I'm just gonna write about it. :P Well, so it's is nothing but this one story of a son and his dad I had read about few years back... I believe it went something like this:

The son called his father at work and his father was supposedly very busy... The son asked him if he could talk to him for just 5 minutes. His dad told him that he's too busy to talk and his son acknowledge him by telling him that he understood and hung up... Well, the son was discovered by his unsuspecting dad when he returned home from work later that night... hung from the ceiling... stone cold... He had left a note saying how he felt that nobody loved him. His mom had passed away earlier and his dad was never somebody who expressed much emotions, so he felt that he had no reason to live..

Before you tell me that the boy was immature and stupid to have taken his own life, think about the difference his dad could have made if he had spent just 5 minutes listening to his son on the phone earlier that day... You may think it might have made no difference... But, you'd never know, right? There's no point in arguing whether the kid was immature or not. It's not the question of whom to blame for the death of the son, either. It's about taking all the preventative measures beforehand. If you're the type of person who like to tell your kid to "grow up" all the time.... well... it'll only come with time... and you doing so doesn't really help much... Eversince I had read that story I don't think I've ever told anybody off if he/she asks me if he/she could talk to me for just one minute even if I were really busy. Unless you're disarming a time bomb, I can't think of any reason why you can't spare 5 minutes with somebody who has worked up the nerve to ask for your time despite knowing that you're busy. As I always say... I think "busy" is a relative term... It is directly related to priorities... If a loved one ever asks you to spare 5 minutes, what you do is you instantly put that person as priority #1... even if it's only for 5 minuets...

Couple days ago I went out driving to relieve some stress and to practice rev matching. After some driving I came back home and parked in the garage. I then noticed that I had reached the 7777 miles on my odometer, so I took a quick snap in memory of my dear Bora's 7777 miles mark. Dang, approaching 10,000... Still thinking of what the 10,000 miles present for it should be... Carbonio CAI? E-code headlights with new bulbs? Front and rear rubber mats? Neuspeed rear sway bar? Tinted windows?? A Forge 007 DV and N/75 "J" Valve combo in anticipation of future chipping? ^^

Oh, yeah... On MondayI was on my way to my international political econ lecture and being the idiot that I am, I took the station square route to go downtown from work. *DUH* I was soon stuck in the good ol' traffic jam caused by the closure of Fort Pitt tunnel that has been going on for almost 2 weeks now. grrrr... Then I saw what seemed to me like an Isuzu Rodeo... with a "POWERED by Honda" decal. Wow, either that dude somehow magically did an engine swap or he thinks all Chinese characters read ISUZU. -.-;; It was funny enough to help me through the traiffic jam. ^^

My Spring 2003 edition of cars that I would I love to get my hands on (ones that are still within reasonable financial reach)

• 2 Seater / Roadster: Mazda RX-8 ( ok, it's not a 2 seater nor is it a roadster, but I want this on this list!! )
• SUV: Infinity FX-45 ( Price tag on this one is rather steep, tho )
• Sports Sedan: Subaru WRX STi
• Hatchback: Peugeot 206 RC
• Coupe: Infinity GS35
• Car I think is pretty cool and wouldn't mind riding on the passenger seat, but would never get: VW Beetle Convertible.

Man... I guess it's the nice weather that's putting me back into the whole car mood... ^^. Oh yeah, who the hell subscribed me to Elle Girl ??? Car And Driver, which is a magazine that I do subscribe to, shares the same parent publisher... I hope this doesn't mean I'm not getting my C & D this month! But, I mean, if you're gonna make a mistake and send me a random female fashion magazine, why not make it at least Elle??? Why does it have to be Elle Girl??? Gee... Looks like I'm going to get intimate with Avril Lavigne in this issue... -.-;;