Grizzlypuff's Yum Yum Journal

so i was cruising through some of my favorite sites and this came up:
http://us.bape.com/

this is both exciting and scary to me. Excited because I can now finally buy Bape stuff online and not have to drive6 hours to LA to get it! Scared because I might spend a butt-load of money. Birthday's coming up though, so that might be the perfect excuse...

I've started digging about Bape. First Digg is on the Grand Opening of Bapeland in Zozotown. yay me :)

Cali weather has gotten really warm, it feels like summer's already here. yesterday I went for my usual run, it was my second attempt at 7 miles. the first time I failed due to a miscalculation. this time I failed again, but because of the heat. i've never gone running under the scorching sun, in fact, I think I've only gone running when it's been cool, like in the 40's or 50's. wind never really had an effect on my running, but the sun really killed me. I was tightening up after 2 miles and sweating like crazy. I was on my 4th mile when I decided to cut my run short at 5 miles... and I barely made it. so the 7 mile mark still eludes me and I will need to make up for it at some point... may is coming up fast. Thankfully, the weather is supposed to get cooler again with chances of rain too. if it heats up again, I'll be in trouble.

side note: sunday was also the first time I stopped mid-run to go pee. thank goodness there were toilets along Shoreline!

On Saturday I drove down to LA to visit Shave and Karen and their little baby, Trenton. it was so good to see them again! we hung out at their new place in UCLA's housing complex. the place is really nice and quiet with lots of amenities for families and children. after hanging out we had dinner at a fru-fru burger joint called, "the counter". the main gimmick of this place was that you could "build-your-own" burger and it was almost scary how all of had about the same tastes. while I was there, I also got to hang out in Koreatown and did a little shopping on Melrose. My "mission" was to hit up the Bape store and get my hands on some Bape gear. I've been a little obsessed with this brand ever since I've discovered Teriyaki Boyz and the whole Bape "Mania" thing. While I was in Japan, I also went to the Harajuku store but didn't actually buy anything because they had nothing my size and very little selection left. But at the LA store they actually had more stuff to choose. I left there with a couple new t-shirts, which I will wear the crap out of because they were sooooo expensive. but I can see how people can get addicted to this brand. the way they make everything "exclusive" is freakin' genius. so, it was good times, good eats in LA... I drove back home the same night and didn't get home till about 3am! the drive back was way harder than the way down... I actually had to stop at a rest stop and took a 1hr nap! who knew... people actually rest at rest stops!

so it was quite a busy weekend for me, I also watched the Lakers game (first time i've watched an entire basketball game in a looong time), hung out at dad's place, and ate dinner with the Gochman's... so I feel good that I was able to cram so much stuff into just 2 days... *flex*

I see a lot of marathon runners wearing these... arm warmers, or arm socks, seem to be all the rage... it seems like a good idea, but what about just good old-fashioned long-sleeve shirts??? I guess with these there's nothing around the shoulder/arm pits so you *do* stay cooler and more ventilated. I just like 'em cause they look cool. If I ever get good at running, I will definitely need to get some.

after my run today, my left calf muscle started cramping. not a serious cramp where it's all knotted up and you fall to the ground writhing in pain, but it's painful enough that I know it's there and can't put much weight on it. not sure what caused it... maybe i've been training too hard with too little recovery time? maybe I was trying to run too fast? maybe since I ran later in the day, my body did not adjust? in any case, I have 3 days of rest coming up (2 if I decide to go to Kung fu tomorrow), so hopefully my leg will be back to normal by then. so far the weather has been good enough to allow me to stick to my training schedule. I bought a new pair of running tights and a running hoodie that I tried out for the first time today. wearing tights makes me feel a little self-conscious about myself, I look sort of dorky. plus my legs are not on the muscular side and my bum is not budonkadonk by any means. but I got them partly because I need something to keep my legs warm, but more because whenever I set myself to doing something, I always feel the need to invest in the proper gear for the job. that's why I got new shoes, a hoodie with a pocket for the ipod, and the tights that keep me warm. I could have made do with the stuff I have; I've got plenty of shorts and t-shirts that would serve me adequately. i guess its all psychological... I just *must* have the gear specifically for this purpose.

so most of you must have heard of this thing called twitter, it's becoming quite a big thing these days. i've been able to avoid signing up for an account, but lately I've been considering taking the plunge. it's just one more thing to keep me busy on the computer... another thing on top of the email, facebook, blogging, etc... I don't know how others do it. the guys at work seem to have an endless capacity for all of these crazy things on the web. I just can't. I need to keep to the bare minimum. I upgrade computers every, what, 10 years? the last gadget I bought was an ipod, and before that I didn't even have a gadget. i've had my cell phone for, i don't know, forever? my DVD player is from the 90's. my sound system is like 20 years old. I just don't do new stuff... but look at what industry I'm in!!! it's kind of mind-blowing. anyways, getting back to twitter... i still don't know if i'd do it, but if they start doing it as part of work, i might have to. for personal stuff, I mean c'mon, my friends don't even follow my blog! would they follow me on twitter? it feels like i'm trying to convince myself not to do it. and maybe that's the right choice.

hope my leg is better by morning...

This is the big gaping hole that's across the street from my place... the hole was dug because they were going to construct a huge office building, but I've been told that they have halting everything because they ran out of money and didn't have any prospective tenants. In the past few days, the storms have filled in the crater with a significant amount of water... creating a lake of sorts out of the abandoned construction site. It's actually pretty cool looking to me and I thought, wow, they should just fill the whole thing with water and really make a lake out of it... it'd be so much better than a building! put in some grass and trees, and "bam" we'd have an oasis... I wonder if anyone else thinks that's a good idea?

On the running front, things are going well and I've been able to keep to my schedule so far. With all the bad weather, I've had to utilize the treadmill at my mom's place. I'm sort of lucky that she has one, she bought it a long time ago and used it maybe twice (par for any piece of home exercise equipment, I suppose)... with all the rain, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to train as much as I had planned, so I'm fortunate that momz had bought the treadmill when she did. although the treadmill isn't the same as running outdoors, it does have it's perks. I can see exactly how much I'm running and for how long. It's easy to keep to a pace too. The thing I like most is that I can check my pulse while running. I just put my hands on the handle and a pulse reading is displayed within seconds. When I used it the first time about a week ago, I was surprised that my pulse was way up at 191 about midway through my run. I was even more surprised when today my pulse was already down to 138 midway through the run and 101 at the end of my run. Today's run also felt alot easier, I think my body is starting to become used to going for about 40-50mins. I even sped up for the last quarter mile, going at 7mph (hey, that's fast for me)! So I'm pleased with my progress. we'll see how the next week goes, there's more rain in the forecast...

after finishing my first ever 5k a couple weeks ago, I am inspired to take on a bigger challenge... namely, the ING Bay to Breakers 12k in May. I have never run anything more than a 5k in my life, I'm pretty much just a 3-mile runner. After the kaiser 5k, though, I really think I have a shot to finish a 12k, even though it is more than double my max distance at 7.5 miles. But I am determined to do it, the 5k was so much fun and it was a thrill running amongst so many people. I don't have much of a training regimen in mind, I just ordered my first pair of "serious" running shoes from zappos, the Asics Gel Cumulus 10. So getting the right gear is my first step. I also need to acquire some suitable warm clothing too, but my hoodie and sweats will have to suffice until then. As soon as my shoes arrive, I will start running during my lunch hour, maybe a couple times a week, and then maybe weekends. I'll start with a 4-mile run, from the office to AT&T park and back (and I've already mapped up a 5-mile variation route after I'm comfortable with that). It's exciting just thinking about it! The only other thing I have trained for in my life is wushu, when I competed at Cal in 2004 and 2006. that was lots of fun, and I enjoyed that experience... one of the greatest experiences in my life. although I am not competing, per se, in the Bay to Breakers, I feel a similar kind of anticipation and anxiousness. I can't wait until I start running up and down the embarcadero and getting in shape for the run! I'm going to try to journal my training progress here too, should be interesting to look back on afterwards. its sort of coincidence too that I happen to me reading Murakami's new book, "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running"... bonus motivation material!

here's the route:


here's my shoes:
http://zapp.me/7402325

Finished my first 5K ever.
http://results.active.com/pages/oneResult.jsp?pID=49565699&rsID=74903&orgID=218713

creative use of youtube features to create a pseudo video game! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPQ1XrllZmA&annotation_id=annotation_282986&feature=iv

and just to make this update somewhat legit, I am sick with a sore throat and cough. sucks.

k'bye.

I just started using G-mail for work email... at first I was kinda like... hmmm, I don't like google. but after using it a little, it's alright I guess... I like how they organize emails by conversation. that's pretty useful. Today I just discovered the coolest emoticon on Gmail... POOP!

thanksgiving holiday is officially over. I took Mon-Weds off work to extend the weekend to a cool 7 days. But things have been super busy since last weekend. First up was Junie's birthday party. We had the party at Studio Grow and we all had lots of fun. As a Korean tradition, the birthday baby chooses from several items in front of her to determine what her future will have. We placed a stethoscope, a badminton shuttle, money, string, and a pen. These items represented, a career as a doctor, talent in sports, financial prosperity, long life, and talent in the arts or academics. Guess what Junie selected??? .... she chose the pen. And for the second item, (you get a backup) she chose the stethoscope! So we ma have doctor in the house coming soon... better start building up that college fund ;) After her birthday party (she had two; one on the weekend and one on her real birthday)... we rolled right into Thanksgiving. We had lots of turkey and some yummy cornbread dressing. As always with the thanksgiving dinners in my family, we had to mix it up with chinese dishes as well. Just once I wish we had just a plain traditional style thanksgiving dinner! After the dinners and the family-bonding time, the wife and baby and I packed it up and headed to Yosemite for a couple nights. My first time back there since I was a kid, Yosemite was pretty empty for this time of year. The weather was nice, not too cold and we were lucky enough to see a little snow up near Glacier Point. With the baby, we couldn't do any strenuous hiking, so we basically stuck to sightseeing by car and trails that were accessible with a stroller. But it was still fun and nice and relaxing. Junie did very well for a one-year-old in the car... she didn't complain too much and only had one mild fit on the way back. We had a couple of children song CDs, the Wiggles and Yo Gabba Gabba, that we played over and over about 30 times... eek! But it helped to keep her content while in the car. The studio we stayed in was also nice and we cooked all our own meals. For dinner we had Shabu Shabu (twice)... man, I ate *so* much fatty beef... ughhhhh... it was good, but I think I gained about 10 pounds. So to burn off the fat, I played Badminton tonight for the first time in about 2 weeks. I was a little rusty, but it's not like I was that good to begin with! But it felt good to be back on the courts. Tomorrow I have Kung Fu... I know I will feel the pain then. *gulp*!

Hope everyone had a great turkey day!

hello out there! it's been a while since I've updated my blog, (how many times have I said that?)... but I didn't realize that I had so many loyal followers out there... blogs are great, aren't they? they keep people and friends in touch... that's the power of the internet! anyways, life in grizzly-ville is about the same... there was some drama though, about a few weeks back... there still is some of the drama and it will take some time for things to fully heal and get back to normal. winter is upon us and that means cold weather and rain... I'm busting out the sweaters and big jackets. I don't like rain very much, but I kinda like the crisp, brisk air of the winter... just today, I was exercising outdoors and working up a sweat in a hoodie and sweatpants. that felt great. The other thing I like about winter, and this is no surprise, is thanksgiving and christmas. I love turkey and getting together with the family... I made turkey last year, maybe I will do it again... it's fun! this thanksgiving is also my daughter's birthday... so there's an added bonus in there. My daughter's almost 1 year old... man how time flies! she's grown to be quite the little, adorable monster. In other things, I'm still doing my martial arts... I've been going to a shaolin kung fu class for the past year or so... it's been great. they are now teaching us a broadsword form. I'm also playing badminton these days... I've been crazy about it although I only get to play about once or twice a week. today, Im also going to watch a local tournament in San Jose State. that should be fun to watch... one day i think i will play in one! Last thing, what an election huh? i don't know much about politics but, I'm glad that Obama won. and about prop 8... well, it's not over yet...


anyways, gotta go, smell ya later!

Know any kids that have too much energy? Check this out...



And don't forget, the DVD comes out in stores soon too...

*HAD* to share this link with everyone...
http://www.youtube.com/experiencewii

Tila Tequila, undoubtedly the most popular personality on MySpace.com has a new book coming out and is available for pre-order! wow! wow! and WOW!... that is craziness... from the web to video games, music, movies, and now books... this girl's living the Internet Dream!

wait for the best part, about 30 secs into it.

thanks to M&M, I am playing a lot of badminton these days... it's a fun and addictive sport. I played about 4 hours today and about 5 hours yesterday. I also saw my first real badminton tournament and an exciting final match in men's doubles.

today I had lots of help from a veteran player, JWoo. He's a cool guy... pointed out all the things I need to work on (which is a lot). the first thing is serving. My serves suck for some reason, he thinks it's because I am too anxious and focusing too much on the player. I *should* be focusing on the target and the net. My serve form is also not correct. I've been serving from above the waist when it needs to be below... and my dropping arm can not be moving (which I did a lot of). The second thing is my reflexes. He says I am WAY to slow. about a full step delay in reaction time. he said that even some old foggie was only about half a step slow, but I am even slower than he is... yay me :( so I really need to work on that. after I hit the shuttle, I am always stuck where I am, I don't ready myself for the next move. Then, after the shuttle is hit to me, I always wait to long to move... therefore not giving myself enough time to use the proper footwork to get to the shuttle. The third thing is the clearing shots. I don't hit them deep or high enough... although I made some improvement I think on that one by the time I left. But my arm is totally sore now. I can barely even type. The muscles in my shoulder and forearm are particularly painful. My grip is weak too. It's weird that my middle finger is sore too... what's up with that?

badminton is great fun, I am glad I am getting to play more while the wife and kid are away. I really want to get better at it so that I can play with more people. right now I feel like the guy no one wants to pick on for his team... the scrub that sits and watches from the bench. I played with several groups of people and there were these 2 girls that played very well. they would totally kick my butt had I not had a decent partner that had my back. I feel like such a loser... they would smash me, drop shots in front of me, work me all over the court... it was a sorry sight. woe is me.

will be playing some more while I am still single. Angie gets back in June so there's a little over a week more of bachelorhood. gimme a hollah if you want to play!

played some poker this weekend, on flatvurm's suggestion... it had been quite a while since I last played, I almost forgot what it even felt like. The first night, I went to the local card house, Oaks... i've never had much luck there and that night was no exception. maybe because I always play at the cheapest table, 1-2 limit. but anyways, I wasn't looking to make big bucks, I just wanted to play. The entire night was just sort of fruitless... I think the best hand I ever got was A-T offsuit and throw in a few small pocket pairs. I think I won a whole one pot that night and I left pretty steamed, even though it wasn't much.

I tried to get some pay back the next day, I decided to drive up to Cache Creek casino. It was first time there, and I got to say this place is pretty trippy. First off on the drive up, you pass through what seems like miles and miles of farm land, then all of a sudden, boom! you're at this giant casino. CC is a pretty nice place, and I wouldn't mind going back up there although the drive is somewhat of a drag. The poker room is waaays better than the Oaks, or any of the local places, I imagine. It really felt like a Nevada-style casino resort. My session there was somewhat better than the day before, I has some playable hands and won a pot or two I think. But was always getting burned by the river... there were a few players at the table who chased just about every hand that I decided to play. maybe because I had the words "fish" printed on my head or something... even though I knew I had been "bamboozled", I still paid them off... I guess that's my own stupid fault... you could say I was still steaming from last night. Anyways, here's how my last hand went, pretty indicative of how things went all day: I'm down to my last 5 dollars playing from the BB. I wake up to pocket jacks and go all in with about 5 callers (sweet!). the flop comes K Q J and I'm like HOT! I hit my set and good to go, right? The turn comes, T, and now I'm like, oh f*ck. Now I am screwed... there's at least one player with a 9 or A... looks like I'm a goner... my last hope is to pair the board and river someone with a full house... the dealer burns... and wait, there's a Q showing right underneath the burn card staring me straight in the eye... what the F*CK! The Q was a "boxed" card... the machine had flipped it face-up by accident, so the card that would have made my full house and won me the pot instead gets mucked and the next card, a 7, wins the hand for the guy holding an A for an Ace-high straight. Talk about terrible terrible bad luck!

Anyways, I think I need to layoff poker for a while... the gambling gods aren't with me, it would seem.

work has been super busy.... My new role as a team lead has got my head spinning and stressesd out at times.... In some ways I like it, and other times I wonder is it even worth it.... But enough of work, let's get to a post!

Angie and Junie are away in Korea for a month so I am all alone, livingthe single life here, so to speak. Don't worry though... I'm no playah... No booty calls here... No sir! I'm simply maxin' and relaxin'... Going to a ball game here, playing (my new favorite sport) badminton there... Etc etc... When you know the family is coming back in a month it not that bad... 3 months might be different. I wanted to plan something more interesting while the opportunity is here, but if it happens it happens otherwise no big deal. I guess the only "crazy" thing I've done while they have gone is to move a matress out into the living room where I can watch tv at night until I fall asleep... Which is weird because ppl keep telling me I should catch up on sleep... But I just want to be able to stay late and sleep in mornings! That's just how I roll!

The 3 of us were in Hawaii a couple weeks ago... Junie's first time on a plane. We were in Kauai, a pretty chill island. We spent time exploring the scenery and hanging out on the beach... Your normal vacation type stuff... With junie with us, it's hard to do anything too crazy. But we had fun. Junie especially liked the hotel room... Just playing on the bed where it's nice and cool was more her thing I guess! She liked playing in the water too! Now she's off in Korea... For being only 5 months old, she's already flown to Hawaii, LA, and Korea. My jet setting little girl!

I miss my junie and angie... I wonder how she looks and I miss being able to snuggle her and kiss her chubby cheeks! Its strange sleeping alone sometimes and the house feels empty. My family misses junie too... Which is kinda weird, I didn't think my family would be so into babies and all that. But since having junie I think ivengrown closer to my family... What a trip, huh?

Did anyone hear about the earthquakes in Sichuan? I have a friend who's hometown is in Sichuan and I should find out about her situation... I heard it was quite serious. China seems like suchba fragile country sometimes, nothing there seems built to last. People suffer when disasters strike, it's so sad.

That's all I got time for folks... Smell you later!

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