What is it about "doing many things" that is so attractive? People ask me all the time how I find time to do "so many" things. They think it's amazing that I am able to handle all those things that I do. Well, first of all why do you think I'm doing "so many" things? Of course, "many" is a relative term, but I'm not even trying to talk numbers or even analyze the alledged ability one posseses in order to handle "many" things. Frankly, I don't think I have the ability to handle "many" things. I'm pretty bad at multi-tasking cuz my brain can't even think about two different subject matters at once let alone concentrate on them. The only reason why one would ever consider me as somebody who does "many things" is because I do more than just work full-time. Well, perhaps I should try to give you an insight in to a little bit of how I live my life.

First of all, I don't "find" time to do the things I do. I just do them. Maybe I "make" time... or something... I just do the things I do because they make me happy. Not just in a simple way, but in the it-provides-meaning-to-my-existence-and-answers-the-question-of-life kinda of way. Simply put, I love every single thing I spend time on. I don't like wasting time on things I don't find happiness in. Eversince I've graduated from college I never had to spend time on something I didn't find joy in (Well, except taking some of those stupid business classes). I believe I was very lucky. So from this I can only conclude that if one is involved in things that provide one with the same feelings as the things I'm involved in, that person doesn't feel "busy" or feel as if he/she is doing "many things". I'm sure time management has something to do with it, but I really don't consider myself as being a great time manager. I may be ok at it, but by no means a seasoned time management guru.

Secondly, I don't think doing "many things" is necessarily a good thing. The problem is that when I find something that makes me happy I simply refuse to let it get out of my life. When it no longer makes me happy, I simply let it go. Yes, it's easier said than done, but it's the truth nonetheless. Through the years the number of things that truly brings happiness into my life has certainly fluctuated, but it seems to have settled down to a handful of things. There may have been various reasons such as finding myself enjoying some things much more than the others, not being able to afford the cost associated with some, etc.. The point is that, contrary to what some may believe, I don't want to do "so many things". Cuz I believe that the moment you actually feel that you're doing "so many things" you've already started to sacrifice quality... I don't want that to happen.

Pittsburgh is having another import show, if you're intereted in that kinda stuff... As much as I'd be interested, I sure as hell don't want to pay money for that kinda thing. I'd rather be saving up and speding money on a turbo boost guage... If my car ever gets out of the state it's in now that is... Well, the good news is that the dealer thinks the issue may be the ECU rather than the coils themselves... So I'll be going in again next weekend to get new program flashed to the ECU... This better be my last visit...

I've crossed the line... The line of being 25... The ripe age of being in the mid 20s... onto the late 20s... What has changed? Hmm.... let's seeee... Well, they have a different dropdown option for people in the 26-30 age group, so I guess I'll be using that from now on until I turn 31. :P Other than that, it's just another day, another dollar~ Thanks to cubbie for the wonderful home baked cake! Oh, and it looks like Bora prepared a b-day surprise for me as well.... ANOTHER FRIGGIN MIL!!!! ARRRRRGHHHH!!!

UPDATE: When I say I've crossed the line of being 25, I mean I'm 26.... *DUH* !!!! :P

Came across this article which is about the Hong Jung Wook guy whom many have a love/hate relationship with because of the book he wrote and the way the media tried to hail him as the ultimate Harvard graduate to come out of Corea. The article depicted some interesting things that Hong Jung Wook had said and I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on some of them.

I realize that trying to get to know somebody though the mass media is like having all the network tv channels except ABC; you don't get "The inside stuff". But if I were to judge soley based on the impressions I got through the eyes of the journalist, I'd say I like him better now as a business man than I did when he had written his autobiography. I'm a strong advocate of bringing newer ideas, and younger executives into the Corean business world. I believe that the Corean business market is vastly underutilized mostly due to the beureaucracy and the top-down structure that predominates the Corean corporate world. So I believe having a young exec like him armed with a group of older advisors bids very well for the future of my homeland. I don't care much about his personal life, so all those rumors about how he was a womanizer while he was in Beijing, etc... doesn't bother me at all. I'm not the type of person who cares if people live by their words. Feel free to give me good advice even if you don't live by it yourself. If I think it's a good attitude to live life by, I'll take it. No questions asked. Ok, so going back to the article...

Being a perfectionist myself, I liked the fact that he gave off the vibe of a perfectionist yet showed signs of vulnerability which, I think, neutralized him of his somewhat colder perfectionst attitude and made him sound more "human". (Of course people will argue that it's all a facade, etc... but as I said I don't care if he really doesn't live by his words. I think it's a good attitude to have for myself, so I'll keep on thinking about it in a positive way) I have to also agree with him on his belief that "Studying is the easiest". However, he should've rephrased the statement so as to provide the big picture. In other words, if I'm understanding that statement correctly I think it should've been translated as such.

Trying to digest things that are being taught to you explicitly under the supervision of teaching assistants and professors in order to score high on exams is not as hard as trying to invent something new that could potentially have a huge impact in the world all by yourself.

Void of "distractions", I also concur with the above statement. Notice neither one of us is asserting that studying is "easy". It's just easi-er than the other activities that are part of the same category ( a category usually comprised of activities that the maker of the statement considers to be alternatives to studying. ). Actually, I tend to add to that statement by saying that "Studying is so much fun" to which most people react with utter disgust. Of course there's a condition that goes along with that statement. "Studying is so much fun, if you have found the right subject for yourself" ( Don't' forget that the subject can be anything ranging from singing to dancing to history to math. ). This is the very reason that made me workaholic upon graduation and made me even want to take classes while working full-time; it was just so much fun! However, this ties into the next part that struck me while I was reading the article. He said that he didn't want to sacrifice family for work. This is something that has yet to hit home for me. Given the reality of the society in which I am part of, I firmly believe that I need at least these two main things in order to stay happy.

1. Somebody I love.
2. Some activitiy I love, and this activity has to pay the bills and leave me with some change.

As for our dear Hong Jung Wook, as much as I believe he has the potential to become one of the key players of the Corean economy, I also believe he must be extremely careful in the ways he approaches the society that is still predominantly run by the old heads with their outdated ways of running things. Without a doubt, he's not going to be able to avoid political agendas in order to truly make a difference, either. All in all, if he's gonna be at the fore front of starting up the new economy in Corea he certainly has my suppport! Good luck!

Hot damn, Bad Boys II was bad!! Bad as in good, that is.. Wicked! Ill! Sick! ^^ Some might lose their appetite after watching it, but I totally loved it. :) That makes 2 movies I've seen this year that I think are totally worth the money. That's pretty good!

Unfortunately, the awesome movie couldn't make up for the bad news of the weekend, though... Guess what? My MIL is back on... I'm betting that it's the coils again... That makes this the 3rd time it has happened... Grrrr... If this keeps happening I'm going to have to bid VW bye bye... My cousin has had many problems with her MB E320 while her Lexus RX300, which she for had much longer, has had no problems whatsoever.... Stuart who has the 328ci averages about 4 visits to the dealer PER YEAR... *SIGH* So this could even be my last German Car... Somebody was calling this phenomenon a "German Roulette"... If you're lucky you get one of the reliable batch, if not you get one of the unreliable batch. *SIGH*

On a brighter note, I'm planning a trip to Japan this winter. My main purpose would be to go crate digging, but I would like to checkout the scene and sound of Japan's underground Hip Hop and Trip Hop as well. Anybody know of good spots and would like to share? :)

I got an invitation to the BMW Ultimate Driving Exprience in the mail.... Not exactly sure why I got invited, but I'm going nonetheless! :) I'm signed up for Sunday 1:30PM 9/7/2003 at Mellon Arena. Dave signed up as well. I'll get to see our hot shot Senior Complexity Tamer burn some rubber. ;) He also pointed me to some really nice clips of his college roommate's company website. His roommate used to race, but now he has stopped racing and is concentrating on building track tuned cars at Stasis Engineering which he owns. Check those clips out, they're pretty cool!