Me & Scooby Doo

Or Scrappy Doo in this case.

Ponjin "Tony" Koo & Soojin Noh's Wedding

On Saturday, October 27, 2007, Sarah and I attended Tony Koo's wedding. He's a fellow Sunday School teacher. He teaches 3rd grade, and we teach 2nd grade. He gets to have the kids after I screw them up. (Just kidding.)

Midnight Ridazz

On Friday Night, after work, I biked with Critical Mass Los Angeles. I'm not sure if we reached "critical mass", but it was still fun and interesting anyway. I think there were almost 50 riders or so. We met in Koreatown and biked to Hollywood. I met some cool people who love to ride. I made friends with a guy named Leslie.

People join in Critical Mass rides for various reasons. Now there are Critical Mass rides all over the world. I ride because I love bikes and riding with other people.

We didn't cause too much traffic. We just took up one lane.

Later on, we joined up with the Midnight Ridazz for the Halloween Ride. That was a blast! I estimate that there were 500 riders that night. A lot of them were dressed up in goofy or scary outfits. It was a huge party on wheels as we biked around Downtown L.A. and the surrounding vicinity. There were so many of us, that we took up the entire road many times. Even though the group has an alternative or underground vibe, there are tons of people there that just love to bike. All they did really was bike through town. No laws were broken, except going through stop lights to keep all the riders together. Several times, cops stopped traffic for us to let us go through.

A couple of guys dressed as bananas did have a fake banana split fight. Overall, everyone was on their best behavior. A few guys did eat it on the road though. They'll have some road rash, but it didn't look to bad. We got honked at a lot from drivers, some to show their support and others to show their impatience. There were a lot of people dressed up in great outfits, but I didn't get a shot of everyone. First of all, my camera sucks at night. Second of all, my photography skills suck. Lastly, I didn't know these people so I didn't want to go around taking pictures of all these strangers.

I want to go on more rides, but I'm afraid they ride at way past my bedtime. I'm supertired the next morning. Plus, I have to get to work early in the morning on weekdays. I'll just try to go when I can.

Stupid Drivers!

Yesterday, I was biking home when this stupid driver made a left turn right in front of me. I squeezed my brakes, but I still hit him. Not that hard though. I stumbled onto the ground, but the driver just took off instead of stopping to see if I was okay. Now, I wish I hit his white Acura TL hard enough to damage it. I can't believe he didn't have the decency to even check if I wasn't hurt or not. What an animal! He looked like a Chicano in his mid to late 30's. He shouldn't have even made a left turn in front of me.

Drivers should be more careful when making left turns and should be especially careful around cyclists. It seems that drivers don't accurately measure the speed I'm approaching them at. Either that or they drive carelessly. I've got to come up with a way to make myself more visible. Maybe I should bike in the middle of the road. If I do that, then I get honked at by other stupid drivers.

There was another time when a stupid young bratty girl just made a left turn without slowing down. I hit her minivan and fell off my bike. My legs were bleeding, but she didn't care. She and the stupid gangbanger-type teens in her minivan actually blamed me for speeding up! They made all sorts of excuses. I should have called the cops, but I didn't because I didn't want to wait around for them to show up. I had places to go to that day.

Another time, an evil driver tried to intimidate me by not stopping before he made a right hand turn into my lane. He sees me coming, yet he keeps creeping up. I yelled at him for being a jerk, and he tried to run me over. If I didn't move to the next lane, he seriously could have hit me. He just kept speeding up towards me aiming to hit me. That guy was a serious criminal. I wish I got his license plate.

Why are drivers so damn impatient with cyclists. They honk at me instead of giving me enough space. They don't know how to share the road like they're supposed to. They don't think that bikes should be on the road. And when they pass me, they don't give me enough space and just pass me by a couple inches driving 60 miles an hour sometimes. I should take up the whole lane if I don't feel it's safe for them to pass me. Sometimes, the lane is narrow or the right side of the lane has debris in it.

Also, why do drivers cut in line on the freeways?! People don't cut in line in other places. I pre-merge on to the lane I'm supposed to be in to get on the freeway. The lane is backed up for a mile or so. I'm stuck in stop and go traffic for about 20 minutes. I see all these other sneaky cars just cut in line at the last second when I've been waiting for 20 minutes or so. There should be a law against that. It's unsafe and it's line-cutting. One of the worst places is on the 110 North to the 5 North connector. The 110 Freeway to Pasadena is one of the worst designed freeways ever. I guess because it's really old. The off-ramps and on-ramps are like 20 feet long. I can't believe there aren't more accidents there than there already are. Drivers have to merge on to the freeway with less than 40 feet to reach freeway speeds of 60 miles an hour.

On a lighter note, I remember a joke George Carlin made about other drivers. He said that whenever you see a slower driver than you, you yell out, "He's an idiot!" Whenever you see a driver that's faster than you, you yell out, "What a maniac!"

Great Man

Another simple cheesy comic I created based on the drawings of a comic generator. I need more practice in order to get better.

Britney and Paris

Trying to come up with a funny comic is much harder when there are limited choices in the online comic generators. I just decided to poke fun at Britney and Paris because they're such easy targets.

I wish I could draw so I could make up my own comics.

Oh yeah, I accidentally left out the last "s" in "Starbucks".

First Attempts at Online Comic Strips

I originally wanted to make a comic ranting about things that happen in my life. Unfortunately, these cookie cutter comics just don't let me do that with their limited drawings. Hopefully, I can find a cool program that let's me draw and make my own cartoons. I don't want to have to draw them by hand. I'm not good at drawing. I guess I can do stick figures.

Take a Picture of Superman Game

Okay, Superman Returns is yesterday's news, but this game is a great "quick-break" game. Try to take a great shot of Superman for the front page of The Daily Planet newspaper. I finished the game with a score of 88. Try to beat me. It's not too hard.

What If I Was an M&M?

I've always wondered what it would be like if I was an M&M. Well, ever since I saw this on Portia's Blog.

You can be an M&M too if you ever had the desire.

Mikey the Champ

Mikey is pretty good for a 5 year old kid. He got a bronze medal in the boxing training game. He kicked my butt.

Sarah Wii Boxing

Here's a clip of Sarah on the Nintendo Wii. I can't believe she beat me on the punching bag training game. I wonder who looks sillier?

Got No Skillz

Here's a clip of me trying to hit the punching bag on the Nintendo Wii. I don't know how to play. I'm just trying to move my arms back and forth as fast as possible. Obviously, that doesn't work. Next time, I'll learn how to play before I make a fool of myself.

Hula Hoop Champ

Mikey doing the hula hoop. He did it much longer than this 4 second video. Trust me. It's just hard to catch the best shot sometimes.

Healthy Neighborhood Fair

I took Mikey to the Healthy Neighborhood Fair on Saturday. I wanted to take him to Toys 'R Us and to a car show also, but there just wasn't enough time since I had so many other things to take care of too. There are just too many choices. Too many things to do and see and not enough time to experience everything. I was also thinking about going on a couple of different bike rides too. Also, the Miramar Air Show was in town. Oh well. There's always next time. Hopefully.

I still had fun with my nephew Mikey. He seemed to have fun at the fair too. We had tasty sandwiches and healthy Asian Chicken Salads among other things.

Mikey was pretty good at hula hooping, but every time I tried to videotape him, he didn't do it too long. Isn't that always the case?

There were a lot of different things for kids to see and do. They dealt mostly with nutrition and sports.

Pasadena Art Night

On Friday night, Sarah and I went to Art Night in Pasadena. A bus shuttled us around the different art institutes and museums in town. We stopped by the Pasadena Playhouse, saw some art exhibits at Pasadena City College, enjoyed body percussion at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music, listened to cool jazz at the Pasadena Jazz Institute, and heard some fantastic classical music at the Pasadena Symphony.

We got to experience a lot of art, music and culture there.

The body percussion was kinda fun and crazy using our bodies as percussion instruments.

I really enjoyed the aural pleasures of the symphony. Having so many performers in an orchestra really magnifies the sound quality.

Ride to the Beach

My coworker, Hadi, and I biked to Venice and Santa Monica Beach after work last night. It was a fun ride. Biking along the beach is the greatest when you're on a road bike. The ocean air is great and it feels so fast passing by so many people and other bikers.

Hadi also bikes to work sometimes like me. He did a good job of keeping up with me on his dual suspension mountain bike. All that hard work at the gym helped him out.

I got some good training in. I biked a total of over 60 miles for the day.

We're planning on riding even more next time along the coast.

I've Been Attacked!

I got assaulted today when I was riding my bike. I was going north on Alameda in Little Tokyo Downtown L.A. A car passed by me dangerously close on the right hand lane. Cars are supposed to give plenty of room to safely pass cyclists. When he stopped at the intersection to make a right turn on 4th Street, I passed him on the left and yelled at him to watch out. I continued biking north on Alameda, when all of a sudden the passenger threw some small object at my head. Fortunately, I wasn't injured. The driver drove slowly and the passenger shouted, "I'm going to kill you, @#$%er! I'm gonna shoot you! @#$%er!" They kept yelling and shouting obscenities at me for a couple blocks. At the intersection of 2nd and Alameda, I pulled out my cell phone and told them I'm calling the police. They took off. After about an hour after calling 911, a couple officers came and took my statement. I waited at the corner of 2nd and Alameda. I saw 5 police cars go by until finally the 6th car came and stopped to help me.

I told them it was 2 young Hispanic guys in their early 20's in a light baby blue Ford Fiesta or Festiva. It looked like it was made in the 1980's. The license plate was either 3TVW239 or 3TXW239. They both had shaved or nearly shaved heads.

I hope the cops get them.

Wolfpack

Last night, I went to ride with the Wolfpack. I would estimate that there were almost 40 riders. We met around 10:00 p.m. and started riding out at 10:30 p.m. These guys are fast! I was able to keep up with them, but I was getting tired and started struggling. I was okay on the flats and fast on the downhills, but weak on the uphills. A lot of these guys were on fixies and track bikes too. The pace was pretty fast. We went through Hollywood and Downtown. We stopped a few times for drinks and snacks. It was fun going through Hollywood. People were cheering us on.

There was a Korean girl who was on a fixie and I was pretty impressed. They're in such good condition and had incredible stamina.

During the ride, I rode into a big pothole and got a flat. The guys were pretty nice and they all stopped for me. A few of the guys helped me fix my flat tire.

On the last stretch, we turned on to Sunset Blvd., from Downtown L.A. That's when they dropped me and I got schooled. Well, I did learn a lot. I need to train much more and work on my conditioning, especially sustaining high speeds on inclines.

I want to ride with them again. Too bad it's so late for me. We got back around 1:30 a.m. I finally went to bed around 3:00 a.m. I still got to work close to 6:00 a.m. Boy, I'm tired. It's so much fun, I want to ride on more Midnight Ridazz rides, but I'm killing myself.

BMW Palm Springs to Las Vegas Rally

On Saturday, I helped transport BMWs from Palm Springs to Las Vegas. This was for the BMW Ultimate Drive in connection with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation. I got up and left at 5:00 a.m. and got to Palm Springs before 7:00 a.m. Just getting there was over 100 miles. I wanted to drive the 335i convertible so I was the first one there. When I went to choose my car, some other woman had her name on the list for that car. Dang it! Oh well. I got to drive the Z4 coupe si. The Z4 has a higher top speed anyway. After breakfast, we left for Vegas around 8:00 a.m. We made a stop at around the 80 mile mark and had some snacks. We made another stop at a rest stop at around the 160 mile mark. A few of us had to get gas in Baker. I might have been able to make it all the way to Vegas if I drove slowly and conserved gas, but who wants to do that. I'm glad I got gas, because I was able to drive the way I wanted to. I broke my personal best record again in the Z4, because it doesn't have a speed limiter/governor. That was a lot of fun! I saw a few cops waiting to catch someone at the side of the freeway, but I was able to spot them first and slow down before they saw me.

We got to Vegas but we didn't get to stay. We headed back on the big bus. It was really comfortable. We saw "The Wedding Singer", "A Cinderella Story", and "Titanic" along the way. I tried to get some sleep, but the caffeine from all the Mountain Dew prevented me from falling asleep. I finally got home around 8:30 p.m. I traveled nearly 800 miles just to end up back at home.