Daily Archive for December 25th, 2006

Merry Christmas

Yes, it’s still Christmas, so I can make up for not saying anything for the past 22 hours.

So… MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE… who reads this…

I hope that instead of getting physical gifts, you got the intangible; the kind of gifts that stay with you for much longer than the 5th generation iPod (yes… one month is what I’ve been told) or that Fererro Rocher pyramid (at least with the pyramid of chocolate, you get a box you can put stuff in). And even if you got these gifts, it’s probable that within those clear plastic cases contains not only the ability to carry a bazillion songs or the ability to weight five pounds more but also love from your family and friends.

I know I’ve been shown this love, time and time again. I just hope that I can strive to be just as… actually… MORE loving to all of you. With that, I’m so happy Baby Jesus was born today. Thank goodness… actually… this time… “Thank GOD” that I can enjoy the freedom that comes from having this Love.

Thank you ALL. Even the people-who-forgot-what-my-name-is-but-I-know-their’s-and-also-their-xanga. I thank you for your love.

The New Year’s approaching. I know I’ve got my goals… goals to reach until then, and goals to make goals when the time comes.

Chicago Trip, Number “I don’t keep track anymore”

I’m losing track of how many times I’ve been up to this great city. I finally found out just how windy this town gets while I was driving near Northwestern, when the car shook while at a red light. I was quite surprised.

Once again, much food was consumed, just like the last time I was in the city. Regardless of how expensive a deep-dish pizza can get at Gino’s East ($20… wow! At least it fed me for two meals… and I only had half of it…) or how amazing the wings at Buffalo Joe’s were (best wings… ever… at reducing the numbers of your life… taste-wise, also) or how interestingly familiar Pho was (even though I’ve never had it before) or how attractively packaged and priced the 짜장면 and the 탕수육 was (oh, how I miss Korean food… even though I have it all the time…), they were all great experiences that I will once again only dream about until the next time I go back to Chicago.

But alas, it wasn’t at all just about the food. I had a nice bonding time with a great friend of mine, John Kim. I was so thankful that him and his family took me in for a couple of days as I used Evanston as home base for a couple of days. Visited yet another library… not a bad library, but I’m still amazed at the Schaumburg one… And a very nice Sunday service at his home church, University Bible Fellowship.

Oh right, and the shopping. I did get to visit Woodfield once, but I got to visit Westfield AKA “Old Orchard” twice with John for Christmas shopping. It was a nice atmosphere, since it was a mall without innards; instead, it opted for a nice open-air environment with nice Christmas decorations all about. It did drizzle a bit the first time we went, but man, it was still very nice. Oh… and Woodfield gets just a bit smaller every time I visit.

Let’s see… I met up with Sharon, Jason, and Dave (my future roommate for a semester) for a movie at the theater in Woodfield. “A Night at the Museum” was a fun little movie… definitely a family slash Christmas-y movie. I definitely fell asleep for about a quarter of it though, seeing how, for some reason the entire time I was up in Chicago, I was dead tired…

I did meet up with Chuek at the Panera at Old Orchard. This kid… narrowly missing the 4.0… I felt so bad for him… and to see Shang with how little work he put into his semester pull off the four-oh… (No, Shang… I know you tried hard, you just play it off like you didn’t try, to seem cool… I know it’s all about your clever ploy to get the ladies) Yeah, but it’s so nice to see Chuek away from school… doing… school-ish things. That kid needs to rest a bit. I think I should send him to an uninhabited island, with NO books and NO internet. I hope he gets to rest up a bit before yet another semester.

Oh, and can’t forget the karaoke. This is definitely up there with consuming alcohol for some strange reason on the “vice-o-meter”. The way I pictured the atmosphere of the 노래방 is one of smoke-filled drunkenness. While it was definitely smokey to a certain degree… it was just all about having fun and trying to hit the high notes with passion. Oh the random pop songs of the 90’s… the disney favorites… the K-Pop hits… Yikes. Let’s list off some artists and songs… (Started off with Semi-Charmed Life… Deli Spice was somewhere in there… I had to sing Kim Jong Gook, as well as HOT… Sharon’s rendition of Britney Spears was well done… John pulled background singing duty for like 80% of the songs, which was hilarious… Definitely ended the night with “Bye Bye Bye”) All in all, I definitely found this to be an experience worth remembering. Definitely expensive… but too much fun. If only I could buy one…

Then I realized… it’s pretty much like DDR or Guitar Hero. It’s just another music game that I must conquer. It’s time to brush up… on my singing? Maybe later…

Another weekend, another set of lessons to chew on. Yummy.

I’m so sorry if I didn’t get to visit you. I didn’t really announce I was going up anyway. I might go up before UIUC’s break is over… just give me a place to live, and I’ll gladly take you out for a meal, wherever I haven’t been to. I’ll even share my life experiences with you, for all it’s worth. Double Yummy!

Awwww Yeah, #3!

I’ve finally made it to #3 on google for the search string “josh kim”. I hoped to be #1 sooner, but… as you see… this site really isn’t a website just yet.

Currently, I’m writing and reading like insane, trying to play catch up with everything. I think at the end of this week, I’ll really be set with yet ANOTHER revision of this site. Creating content seems much more exciting to me now than designing for some strange reason… it might be because there are just too many things going on in the world to just sit on and consume by myself. Rather, I’ve decided to be more… sharing of all things that I run into online.

So… on this snowless Christmas day, I make yet another goal to “finish”… er… create a new version of Josh Kim dot Org by New Year’s. Yeah, it’s not as awesome as reintroducing the site on “07.07.07″, but whatever… at least… this way… I’ll be more on top of things.

Freak… I wanted to post my screen shot of the 5 TextMate windows running around, but I just realized that I don’t have a set way of uploading pictures online. Freak… [opens another TextMate window, entitled "New Functionality for JK.org"].

Oh, right. And Merry Christmas. It really really doesn’t feel like Christmas, but just another day. But it’s important that it’s yet another day… to be able to keep running this race. Thank you, God, for family and friends.