BMW Ultimate Drive

I volunteered again for the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the BMW Ultimate Drive this past May. For every mile you drive, BMW will donate $1 to the Susan B. Komen For the Cure foundation. I also helped out by filling up the gas tanks of the BMWs in the mornings. I went to 6 dealerships: Crevier in Santa Ana, Sterling in Newport Beach, South Bay in Torrance, McKenna in Norwalk, Pacific in Glendale, and Century West BMW in Universal City/North Hollywood.


M3

I got to drive the M3, which is my favorite BMW. It's universally recognized as one of the best cars in the world. This car is tremendous fun to drive. I love the excitement you feel when you're in this car. From the moment you start up its 414 hp V-8 engine, you feel this car's awesome power. The engine sound alone is more beautiful to listen to than a Stradivarious violin. It has a deep throaty exhaust note. This car accelerates to 0-60 in the low 4 second range. The redline is an astonishing 8400 rpm.

When driving the M3, I could really feel that this car could out-accelerate just about anything on the road. This car is the king of the road. The other BMW's are great, but this thing is head and shoulders above the rest.


135

The 135 is my second favorite BMW. It's really exciting to drive. It's a pocket rocket. The 3 series have kept growing ever since it came out in the 80's. The 135 is still bigger than the original 3 series. Since the 135 is smaller and lighter than the 335, I felt that this car was noticeably faster and more agile than my last year's favorite, the 335. When stomping on the the throttle, you feel a rush of power.

Back on May 22, when there was a freak storm in the L.A. area, some guy spun out on the 55 freeway in the rain. He was also driving a 135 trying to chase me down and pass me. There was a heavy downpour at the time with thunder and lightning. I saw his 135 spin out behind me. Fortunately, there were no cars immediately next to him. He and the 135 were okay. Afterwards, he later blamed it on the 135's "summer tires". Ha!

The 135's interior isn't as luxurious as the 335's with it's wood paneling, but it has the same quality interior materials. I can't believe, however, that the 135s cost practically just as much as the 335s. Sometimes, they even cost more, depending on the options you get.

The 335 and the 135 both share the same 300 hp V-6 engine. But, with its instant power and acceleration and catlike reflexes, I think this car is even more fun to drive than the 335.


128 convertible

The 128 has fewer horses, but that may not be such a bad thing with gas prices as high as it is these days. Plus, with about 240 hp, it's still plenty fast. I was the fastest thing on the road, even passing 135s, until I got smoked by a 650.


335

A great car! I love the twin turbo on this thing. This may be the next car I get if I get a BMW. It has a little bit more space in the rear for passengers and frankly, looks better than the 135.


550

This luxurious muscle car has 360 hp under its V-8 hood. Even though it shares the same engine as the 650i coupe and convertible, the 550 sedan seemed to be tuned to be more aggressive than the 6 series. This is like a more practical version of the M5.


650

This car is sweet and sexy looking and has the power to back up its aggressive looks. Too bad it's a little bit too big and heavy for me, even though it's a coupe.


760

12 cylinder luxury and power. This is for the executive that wants to travel in style and also very quickly. Too bad it's such a gas guzzler. I guess with the heated seats that massage your back as you drive, your worries will melt away.


Alpina B7

This car rocks with 500 supercharged horses. Even though it has so much horsepower, it's still very quiet and luxurious. Floor it and you get visceral acceleration. It takes off like a quiet rocket. It costs too much to fill up though. I spent about $78.00 on it when it only had a quarter tank left. Premium fuel was $4.59 at the time. If it was on empty and gas prices keep going up, it will cost triple digits to fill it up.


Z4 si

Fast and fun. I love small sports cars. They're really agile. You feel like you can drive circles around the other big boats on the road out there.


This year was even better than last year's Ultimate Drive. I got to drive the awesome M3 and the Alpina B7. They seemed to have gotten a more powerful fleet all around this year. I can't wait until next year. Maybe they'll have the X6 to drive.

Cyclists' Worst Fear

This is every bicyclists' worst nightmare come true. A car plows right into a bunch of bicyclists that were in a race in Mexico. 1 cyclist died and 10 were wounded. Juan Campos, 28-year-old driver, was apparently drunk and fell asleep when he crashed into the racers.

Please be careful on the road, especially near bikers!

Monrovia Canyon

Here are some shots of us at Monrovia Canyon again. I think it's very pretty there. There are a lot of trees, so it makes for nice hiking. I like hiking in the shade and not in the burning sun.

The Wizard of Bras

We're off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Bras.

Sorry, but I thought that was a funny sign. This is a store in Monrovia, California. I wonder who shops there.

Church Picnic

After church, kid's bible study, and kid's worship service, we had our church picnic. We had some Korean BBQ and lots of other food. We also had some games for the kids. It was fun but a lot of work as well.

Dinner at Tony's House

Tony Koo and his wife, Soo Jin, invited us for dinner on Saturday, May 24. (I know I'm way behind on my blogging.) I apologize again to my wonderful avid fans.

James, Hye Jin, John, Joseph, Ji Yeon, Grace, Jenny, MiJu, Sarah, and I were there. We had a good time, and there was lots of good food to eat. Soo Jin is a good cook.

We also had our teacher's meeting there.

More Charlie Pictures

Here are some more pictures of Charlie. It's hard to get good shots of him, because he doesn't want to sit still. He's a playful little puppy.

Charlie

We have a new addition to our family, Charlie. My sister got my parents a baby Cocker Spaniel a couple of weeks ago. He's a total cutie. My parents are having a heck of a time potty training him though. Other than that, he's such a good boy.

Turtles

There are a bunch of turtles in the garden next to the Athenaeum.

I took this on my way to the Bike To Work Week festivities. Maybe with gas prices increasing like crazy, more people will start riding their bikes. I already noticed there are a lot of slower drivers on the freeways. Hopefully, there will be more respect for cyclists as people become more aware of the importance of bikes.

Dinner With Friends

I'm sorry for not updating my blog in a long time. I've been busy with work and had a lot of stuff to catch up on. Thanks to my fans for remaining loyal.

Here's a picture of James and Hyejin "Grace" who came by our place for dinner. We had sashimi, salad, fried calamari, and Sarah's Famous Strawberry Smoothies.

April Office Party 2008

We had another great office party at Casey's Irish Bar & Grill. There were tons of great food, drinks, and friends to talk with. I had a fun night with coworkers drinking sodas.


I got pictures of Jeff, Kyle (shy all of a sudden), Burt, Hadi, Doug, Verlan, Brian, Nicole, Jessica, and Holland.

Bike Ride at the Beach with My Wife

Sarah and I went biking at the beach over the weekend. I was impressed with the fact that we biked 18 miles considering she hasn't biked in about 20 years. We went up and down the coast of Santa Monica, Venice, and Will Rogers State Beach. We had a nice strawberry smoothie to quench our thirst. Next time we'll go even farther and faster. Sarah wanted a comfort bike so I got her one, a Schwinn Sierra GS. She wants a basket on it. She thinks my bikes are too uncomfortable for her.

I want about ten more bikes in the future. I'll need to get a house with a big garage. I want to get a road racing bike, a dual suspension cross country bike, a downhill DH mountain bike, a tandem bike, a recumbent, a fixed gear track bike, a BMX trick bike, a folding bike, another mountain bike, and another high end time trial bike.

Hopefully, I can get a motorcycle too.

Moto X

I took a short clip of these insane Moto X motorcycle ramp jumpers. They jump about 80 feet across the ramp and get close to 30 feet high. They're freakin' nuts and super talented.

I was running out of space on my memory card. I took too many pictures and videos earlier that day. I took a bunch of videos of the Le Mans race and some videos of a couple of superstreet bikers doing tricks on their bikes. I tried to delete some videos to take videos of these Moto X guys getting incredible air.

I went over to the 2nd floor where I can get better videos of these guys, but I ran out of batteries. What a bummer.

Power Slide

These guys have excellent car control. They have to get their car tires to lose grip by a number of different drift inducing techniques, including power oversteering, and then have to control their cars driving sideways through the turns.

Drifting in Action

Drifting is awesome. I took some videos of the American Le Mans Series race. Those cars are fast and very loud, but the videos I took of them weren't quite as exciting as watching these drifters do their thing.

Drifters

Drifters and their whips.

Shark Lagoon at the Aquarium of the Pacific

Shark!