Introspection + Contemplation + Ideals

There was song and dance. Tears and laughter. Three beautiful maids and three noble musketeers with questionable mustachios. A sword duel with a one eyed man. A Ph.D student turned (cinderella fashion) into a limo driver for the night. An Apple addict turned country singer. Love was in the air: a budding romance between the flower girl and the ring boy.










There was enough excitement to fill a Bollywood movie or Korean drama, and enough happiness for the groom to be still smiling late into the night.

And the next day the couple left for Cuba to live happily ever after...
for a week.

What an ordeal weddings are. Seriously, whoever invented the modern day wedding and its affiliated practices should be... told something.

The weeks before the wedding and even now... weeks after the wedding, there is work, work, work... just for the sake of two people living together and creating a home.

Before the wedding, we found ourselves simultaneously:
1) Planning a big party
2) Planning to move into an apartment
3) Planning for a trip to Cuba
4) Preparing ourselves mentally, spiritually to live together.

You can imagine that each of these four events are quite the events themselves and could be a big deal on its own. Yet it was done. None of which could have been possible without the help and support of friends and family.

Thank you and I hope it was fun. It sure was fun for us.

And of course getting married is not a destination to arrive at, but a starting point for a greater journey. So now we start our homemaking: the cleaning, the rearranging, the snoring, not having cookies and having cookies, and assembling of Ikea furniture.



One question though... where in the world does Ikea come up with furniture names like INGOLF, HOPEN, FORSBY?

Just when you thought you knew all my noodle eating ways! Just when you thought that I eat only one brand of instant noodles! You judge me too soon, as I am a cultured man of diversity.

There is another...

The Chapagetti: black bean paste instant noodles.

Nothing else satisfies the longing for succulent sauce & noodles. Wine and cheese are indeed the apotheosis of food and drink, but these instant noodles are il primo.

Some cultural lessons from wikipedia:

"Jajangmyeon is originally a Chinese dish, but the version familiar to Koreans is usually only found in Chinese restaurants in Korea or those serving Korean customers. This dish is also available in other countries where there is a large Korean population. In other words, Jajangmyeon is Korean cuisine in the way that pizza is American, rather than Italian, cuisine."

Yum!

And for those expecting a dose of MSG as in the first MSG goodness post, you will not be disappointed.

I have a secret obsession to admit.
I'm in love with... shoes. In grade 4, after throwing many fits and tantrums, I was the proud wearer of these Nike Air Max. With their late 80s sizzling hot colors, nothing screamed "spoiled brat" more than these. Yet, they allowed me to freely gallivant during recess and roam many rolling hills during the summer of 1990. I made sure I got them many sizes larger so that I could grow in to them, with the only problem being that they fell off my feet very easily.

Shoes. If you think about it, you rely on them every day to provide comfort and style, assurance and confidence. They give you the bounce in your step. You depend on them to be durable, to stand the test of time and resist the elements. And they can give a young boy the little bit of self esteem he lacks.

You can't rush a shoe purchase. Oh no. Shoes can be the biggest pain when they are not comfortable or if they chew holes in your socks. If picked right, they can be a source of comfort. You can gaze at them when standing, when bored, when shy. Oh, that ever so familiar sight!

I'm not a collector of shoes; that is, I don't have a room full of them. I prefer a monogamous relationship as much as possible with the few shoes I have. As they get worn in and age, they become so personal, so part of you. A loyalty is built up as they become that faithful travel buddy. I'm always saddened when a good pair of shoes wears down quickly. Luckily I know a good local shoe repairman that can extend the life of my shoes.

Nowadays, dress shoes are my thing. There is something enjoyable about taking the time to polish them. And lately, I'm thinking of getting brown dress shoes. But I hear that you have to match them with a brown leather belt and brown watch band and brown hair and they don't go all too well with black pants. So complicated! I was kidding about the brown hair.

I was thinking of some analogy and life application to shoes, but there are too many, so I will just reminisce... and resist the urge to wear sizzling hot colors again. All I will say is that in the walk of life, you need some good shoes to take you places.

A couple of weeks ago, I ate lunch at Quiznos Sub's. The server smiled and eagerly asked if I wanted white or whole wheat bread. I chose whole wheat bread. The smile was warm and genuine. Then a random train of thought went by... leading me to remember this:

Once long ago, I worked at a movie theater. At the concession booth, I toiled away at serving popcorn "layered" with margarine (layered refers to half filling the bag with popcorn, applying margarine and then filling the rest with popcorn and adding more margarine), "up-selling" extra large pop (double the size for 50 cents more), nachos with jalapeño, cheese and salsa, and extra expensive hot dogs to movie goers.

The fun times were when we goofed around and ate the day's left over hot dogs dipped in the day's left over nacho cheese sauce (otherwise they throw it all away!). When it wasn't busy, we tried to look busy and needlessly cleaned things. I also remember when the manager yelling at us for not popping popcorn during the pre-movie rush. He wanted the buttery smell in the air.

Anyways, there was one time when I was serving and the manager came up to me afterwards. He said, "a customer approached me just now and said that they had the best customer service experience ever because of you." I smiled, thinking "wha? who?". After the flabbergastation wore off, I felt quite smug and accomplished. I mean who gets such a satisfied experience out of being served popcorn layered with Becel and Coke!?

And this was the meager satisfaction I could get out of a minimum wage paying job. Those were fun times.

In my business travels, I am called Sir a lot - from flight attendants, taxi drivers, hotel and restaurant workers, airport employees (minus the custom guards who I always call Sir or Ma'am).

"Hello Sir", "Thank you Sir", "Take care Sir".

While this may be just common courtesy and may not mean much, I feel being called Sir is undeserving for me. Sure, I am playing the part of the businessman and they the servers. Sure, it's a sign of respect, but I feel undeserving of that respect, because I've done nothing to earn it. I mean just because I'm dressed up and able to pay (with company money) for these services... does that makes me entitled to be called Sir? I don't think so.

Some people may like being called Sir, but me... being called Sir by others, especially older people is weird. In Korean culture, it's important and common to show respect to those that are older then you. And certainly, I try to call people Sir when I can.

Just the other day, as I was being dropped off at home by a taxi driver, I was going to say "Thank you, good night Sir".
But then he said "Thank you Sir" first.
So I just left it at "Thank you, good night", thinking "darn it, he got to it first..." I thought it would be forced and awkward when two people are calling each other Sir.

So I've resorted to blogging about instant noodles.

I must admit, there is nothing that soothes this Korean's belly like the one and only high sodium, high MSG, nutritionally deficient Shin Ramen.

I know its not healthy, but it tastes so good! So, I try to limit to eating this to once per month.

An ancient art: I learned to cook instant noodles at a young age. In fact, it was the very first thing I learned to cook.

And over the years, I have perfected this delicate process of cooking instant noodles (In reality, I merely put extra bits of this and that).

Ingredients:
1 Shin Ramen, rice, 1 egg, Kimchi, rice cake

- Boil water (not too much water otherwise it becomes too watery)
- Add vegetable packet + rice cakes
- Boil 1 minute
- Add noodles and 80% soup base (discard rest of soup base)
- Boil 1 minute
- Add egg and immediately stir, to prevent the egg from being cooked in a clump (personal preference)
- Enable Kimchi fusion: liberally add Kimchi soup and cabbage

- Eat noodles
- Once noodles are almost done, add rice, continue to eat

YUM!

And you've now got enough sodium and calories to last you a couple of days.

Be warned that this man is set on his ways, very set on his ways... when it comes his ramen. Be wary if you dare cross paths with me and try to cook me noodles...

There is something about these noodles. Strangely, right after eating, my vocal chords are warmed up and I'm ready to sing!

Taylor 310ce - Crisp, black binding flanks the satin-finish sapele back and sides and glossy Sitka spruce top, and then continues up the fretboard. The 300 Series is truly the performer’s workhorse, combining technology and craftsmanship with understated style.

This is Taylor - the love of my life... as moderate materialism will allow. She is my curvaceous Taylor that sings beautifully.

Someone once said... the instrument has to be greater than the musician. It has to be far greater so that the musician can always aspire to get better and use the instrument to its fullest.

Perhaps this is just an excuse to spend $

I was at worship practice today and one of her strings broke.... what a harrowing ordeal it turned out to be. You see, she is young, naive and thinks very highly of herself. Thinks she is the most beautiful guitar in the world. And very picky and fickle she is - high maintenance you can say.

As I was winding up the new string, lo and behold, the string BREAKS!
So I try again with another new string and the same shocking result, the string breaks.
...she is trying to tell me something...
I realized that I accidentally put the wrong gauge string on the guitar.
Finding the correct gauge string, I proceed to wind up ... then SNAP!
...she is just getting back at me...

The unthinkable... I broke 4 guitar string today. And the worst part is, I have the horrible sound of the string snapping still in my head.

Being a new guitar, I guess one of the metal edges may be sharp and causing the strings to break.


I think she is mad at me... But I'm not sure

Is that bad??