Justice Brothers Racing Museum

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The Justice Brother Racing Museum has a bunch of vintage race cars, classics, and antiques. They also have this strange moon mobile with an astronaut standing by it.

I got my Canon camera back so I can take more pictures again. Yaay!

Rose Parade Pictures

Photobucket Album

Rose Parade 1/1/09

Photobucket Album

Happy New Year (Or At Least Try to Have One)

Happy New Year everyone! I know it's tough for many of you, including me, because of the financial crisis we're having. Hopefully, we'll survive this year so that we can enjoy the good times to come after this recession. Let's hope the analysts are wrong and the recession does not last a long time.

Well, this past xmas and New Year's, we had dinner at Sarah's parent's house and at my parents house. I had to bike to burn off all those holiday dinner calories. I've been riding almost every Saturday morning with YN Cycling. We've bike around the San Fernando Valley starting in Encino, Rose Bowl to Tujunga, and Whittier Narrows to Azusa.

Oh yeah, the reason I haven't been posting up pictures is that my camera broke. I have a Canon Powershot S400 and I've been having memory card error messages. I sent it to Canon to get it repaired. Hopefully, I can get my camera back soon. I hope all the pictures I've taken haven't been erased either.

I took a bunch of pictures when I biked to the Rose Parade. I was waiting for the parade to come through the streets of Colorado Boulevard, but they were moving so slowly that I biked on the parade route. There were other people walking on the streets too. I tried to find a good spot to see the parade. With a bike, I don't have to worry about finding a parking spot and I could easily move around to get a good spot. Biking on Colorado Boulevard was fun. It was like I was part of the parade, because everyone was lined up already and it was a festive atmosphere.

Sarah and I hiked Sturtevant Falls in Arcadia too. Last time, we went with my sister, Sae Woon, Grace, Sae Jin, Ben, and their dog, Destiny. Unfortunately, we took a different path and didn't get to see the falls.

I also was invited to test drive a Mercedes SL63 AMG. However, the dealer gave me the 2008 SL55 AMG instead. But, it was an awesome car. It was the most powerful and most expensive car I've driven so far. It costs nearly $140,000 and has 508 hp. Sweet. They usually don't let any chump off the street drive an AMG. Fortunately, I had the invitation when I signed up for an AMG event. The salesman wanted to sell me the car. I offered him less than $100,000. Needless to say, there was no deal to be made. I still wished I drove the even more powerful SL63. What would be totally awesome would be to drive the SL63 Black series.

I also drove the Lexus IS-F. That car is a serious competitor to the BMW M3. I love the blue light instrument panel too.

We've been having a very warm and dry January here in L.A. so far. It's been in the upper 80's lately.

Also, there was another earthquake last week. It was only a 4.5, but it's scary, because I was home alone. This was only a couple of months or less after the last 5.0 earthquake. I'm very scared about the "Big One" happening.

We went to the New Year's Eve service at church. Not exactly the way I wanted to celebrate.

This past Sunday, the Sunday School teachers went to Tahoe Galbi and had All-You-Can-Eat BBQ. That was really good. I didn't eat that well since New Year's Day when I had All-You-Can-Eat BBQ at my parents' house. I've been burning thousands of calories, but I've been thousands of calories more so I haven't really been losing any weight.

Sorry, for this messy post. I've just been trying to remember what I've done these past few weeks. It's easier to write a more coherent post if I write down what happened immediately after it happens, but I've gotten lazy. Plus, my camera is dead. Hopefully, it will rise from the dead soon and I can start taking more pictures like crazy again. I should buy a new camera, but the economy has wiped out my savings, mutual funds, and stocks. Grrr!

Xmas Carolers

The BSBC Kids worked hard to bake thousands of cookies to pass out to people for the Sunday services. They also sang angelic xmas carols.

You can click on the picture to see other pictures on my photobucket site.

YN Cycling Palos Verdes Ride

Click on the picture to see the entire photo and to see other pictures on my photobucket pile.

YN Cycling

Sorry my blog hasn't seen too much action lately. I've been either too busy, lazy, or have been leading a boring life. Perhaps it's been a combination of all three of those things.

I've been way too behind in my blogging (among other things) to remember what to blog about, but I do want to update my YN Cycling rides.

The YN Cycling Team has been riding every Saturday in December after about a 2 month hiatus since our big ride to San Diego. We've done some rides from the Rose Bowl to beyond Duarte, rode from Malibu to almost Camarillo/Port Hueneme, rode in Palos Verdes, and rode from the Rose Bowl to Tujunga.

It's been really chilly in the morning. I put on my long sleeve jersey and cycling pants, but it's still cold. When I wake up before dawn, it's been in the 30s. However, just after a few minutes I start sweating from cycling. I've also been running to church too. My legs are getting stronger too. I've been getting to church faster and my legs don't hurt as much after the half-marathon distance run to church.

All the rides have been fabulous and very scenic. I made my personal best in terms of distance was the ride to Malibu. I rode 141 miles that day. My second longest ride was 120 miles. I made myself ride a lot more as training/punishment after the Montrose Pro ride. In that ride I was disappointed in myself for not keeping up with pro and amateur racers. Now I believe, I'm in better shape and am more experienced enough to keep up with them.

I ride to all the bike rides to get in a lot more extra miles. Malibu is a huge area that is about 20 miles long along the Pacific Coast Highway. From Malibu we rode past Port Hueneme almost to Oxnard. Then, we started heading inland to Camarillo and rode along the strawberry fields.

We always have pretty good lunches afterward. I totally pigged out after the ride to Tujunga. We had a big uphill climb that wore all of us out. I had a extreme huevos rancheros lunch that was probably 2000 calories or so. But, I felt I was entitled to pig out since I burned so many calories. According to bicycling.com's calorie counter, I burned over 8000 calories riding at race pace for 8.5 hours.

I still need to keep my eating under control. I think I gain weight since I get so hungry from exercising. Hopefully, it's muscle instead of fat that I'm gaining.

If I keep my overeating at bay and cycle more, I should be unstoppable. I need more self-discipline though.

My Birthday December 18

This year, I had a computer virus on my birthday so that basically sucked. I spent all day trying to get rid of it. Then, I had to reinstall windows and reformat the hard drive. That still didn't work, because I needed unpartitioned space on my hard drive. I had to get Hyukky to help me fix it.

Well, at least I did get a birthday cake from my Sunday School Co-Teacher, Jun. We also celebrated Soo Jin's (Christina) birthday as well, which was on December 15.

Turkey Day Weekend Recap

On Thanksgiving Day, we went to church for the Thanksgiving Day service. We led the church kids to memorize a couple bible verses and Jenny Teacher, DDS, led them in a couple of praise songs in front of the main chapel service. I think the kids liked it, but one kid asked, "Aren't the adults tired of watching us up on stage so often?" I thought that was hilarious. We had a Thanksgiving Day lunch at church.

Then, we went to my sister's house and we had Thanksgiving Day dinner there. The food was delicious. Ben, Saejin, Saewoon, and my mom were also present.

Learning from previous Black Fridays, I did not go anywhere near the mall or Fry's Electronics on Friday. It's just too crowded, and they only have a very limited amount of the advertised deals. Plus, there were some people that got killed during Black Friday fights and stampedes. Now, it's dangerous shopping on that day. We need a new laptop and desktop computer, so we're hoping on getting in on some better deals as Christmas approaches. I'm betting that there will be bigger and better deals since the economy is getting so bad.

On Saturday, we went hiking in Arcadia with Christine, Saewoon, Grace, Saejin, Ben, and their dog, Destiny. I've never seen it so crowded there before. People were fighting for parking spaces like they were in a shopping mall on Black Friday. We hiked for 3 hours or so, but we didn't get to see the waterfall this time. I think we'll go again next time. It was still a beautiful hike on a beautiful day in a long time, after the rain the previous weekend, and the wildfires 2 weeks ago.

Sarah and I bought an all in one printer at Office Depot and then bought another one in Garden Grove.

On Sunday, I gave my Sunday School kids an exam on Exodus. I told them that I would test them, and I meant it. I think I am going to give them tests more often since they seem to be quiet when they're taking tests. We're giving out tickets for prizes as an incentive for good behavior now as well.

Man, the stock market went down a lot today. It was the 4th steepest point loss in Dow Jones' history. This was after news that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007. I knew we were in a recession since last year. Didn't we all? The economy has been bad for a while now. I guess now it is official.

Audi Driving Experience

This year's Audi Driving Experience was much better than last year's. Instead of just one measly lap around the race track, we were able to drive about 3.75 laps around the Auto Club Speedway track with the new 2009 Audi A4's. Also, we were able to drive around an autocross track in the parking lot with the A4's along with their direct competitors: the BMW 328xi, Lexus IS250 AWD, and Mercedes C300 4Matic AWD. Last year, we just drove the Audi line-up around the autocross track. It was kinda chaotic because you have to quickly get in and get out of the cars so that everyone can get a turn driving the cars within the short time allotted. This year seemed better organized.

They split the group into 2 different autocross tracks while another group got to drive around the Speedway Track where some NASCAR races are held.

One track went clockwise while another clock went counter-clockwise. I liked the counter-clockwise course better. It seemed better laid out. I had no problem on that one and was able to drift around the first big turn.

The clockwise track was a different story. This course seemed to be laid out entirely wrong. The turns were just not proportioned properly for great drifts. I love stomping on the gas pedal and really making the cars scream out in pain. Unfortunately, when I was driving the BMW, I mashed the throttle trying to drift around the last turn but the car understeered horribly into the cones. I got a scolding by one of the instructors. Hopefully, I'll be invited back next year.

All the cars were All Wheel Drive (AWD) so that we can compare the Audi Quattro system to the competition. The Mercedes C300 4Matic was last place in my book because of the soft suspension. The car seemed to fishtail around corners. The Lexus IS 250 AWD was 3rd. They should have had the IS 350, but they said that would make it much more expensive. So, we got the underpowered IS 250 which was sluggish getting to the first major turn. In 2nd place was the BMW 328xi. It was excellent handling (except for the part when it understeered into the cones), but the Audi A4 Quattro performed the best. Their new Audi Drive Select System is awesome. You can select between comfort, auto, and dynamic. It can also automatically sense changes to your driving and accommodate the input accordingly. You can also manually change individual settings like accelerator response, shift points for the automatic transmission, amount of power steering assistance, steering ratio, the electronically adjustable shock absorbers, and a number of other chassis settings just like in a race car. There is a ton of technology packed into this car. The new 2009 model looks elegant on the outside, and I still think that Audi's have the best looking interiors out of all the other manufacturers.

The Audi A4's handled pretty well along the Speedway track. I love the way it handled. If only I could have driven the RS4 or the R8. That would have been awesome.

After driving the awesome new A4's around the track, we were able to sign up to drive a different car from Audi's line-up. I was able to drive the TT and the A3.

I had an absolute blast drifting around the turns in the TT. That little sports car is a ton of fun to drive. The track was just perfect for testing out the handling capabilities of the car. About 4 cars followed closely behind the instructor in a paceline. The TT was just so nimble I was able to flick it around turns and mash the throttle for some drifting action. The A3 was pretty good too for a station wagon. I'm sorry I think it likes to be called a sport wagon, especially since it was Audi's S-line, which is their sporty line.

This was definitely a fun event to go to especially for car maniacs such as myself. Last year, I was able to drive the S5. The new 2009 A4 looks like it was modeled after the A5/S5 except with 4 doors. I can't wait for next year.

Pasadena Marathon

There were no actual fires in Pasadena during this latest batch of L.A. wildfires, but the Marathon was canceled due to very poor air quality. The afternoon before the race, you could see smoke across the entire sky of L.A. I went to the Marathon Expo the day before and nobody said anything about canceling. The air quality got worse as the day progressed. There were so many fires going on at the same time: Montecito, Santa Barabara, Yorba Linda, Brea, Corona, Diamond Bar, Placerita, Sylmar. It seemed that L.A. was in a warzone with all the smoke in the air.

I still biked to the marathon bike tour by 6:00 a.m. When I got there I saw people on bikes, but there weren't that many people. When I asked when the race was starting, someone told me it was canceled due to the smoke. I think it's going to be rescheduled to another date. I had some time, so I biked to church by 7:00 a.m. and then biked back home in the late afternoon. There was so much nasty smoke in the air, it felt like I smoked a pack of cigarettes after my bike ride.

I feel bad for the thousands of people who lost their homes in the fires. This a tough time with the economy falling apart and now the fires burning L.A. County. Most of the homes that burned down are located near the mountains. Now I know never to buy a home in the hills...if we can ever afford to buy a home in L.A. Homes in L.A. are still ridiculously expensive despite all the foreclosures.

2008-2009 Sunday School Classes

The Sunday School Faculty: James JDSN, John, Ji Yeon, Pearl, Hye Jin "Grace Bae", Soo Jin, Tony "PonJin", Jun, Eun Jung, Sarah, Kate, HeeJin "Irene", Grace Lee, Michelle "MJ" "Moon Jung", Jenny, Sharon, David.






5th Grade Class: Teachers: David, Jun, Michelle.





6th Grade Class: Teachers: Eun Jung, Kate.






1st Grade Class: Teacher: Jenny.





1st Grade Class: Teachers: Grace Lee and Grace "Hye Jin" Bae.





4th Grade Class: Teacher: John Moon.





3rd Grade Class: Teachers: Tony "Pon Jin" and Soo Jin Koo.





3rd Grade Class: Teachers: Sharon Park, Pearl.






2nd Grade Class: Teachers: Sarah, Ji Yeon, Whoony (Not Pictured).

Also not pictured: Joseph Teacher (4th Grade).



Here are the pictures of this year's classes. Everyone looks really great! Thanks to Jay for taking the professional pictures. Click on the pictures to view a larger image.

4th Wedding Anniversary

Today is our fourth wedding anniversary. I can't believe it. The years go by so fast. It's like a dream. On one hand, time went by so quickly. On the other hand, it's hard for me to imagine my life without Sarah. I can hardly remember what life was like before I married Sarah. My single years are like a distant memory now. Well, I've always had a bad memory. I'm always thinking about the future and not the past. This blog helps me to remember the things I've done in my life.

Since Sarah works until late at night on many weekdays, including today, we went out yesterday when she was not scheduled to work. We went out to one of our favorite local Japanese restaurants. After that we ran some errands at Target and Bed Bath & Beyond. Whenever we go shopping, it feels like we've been shopping all day long.

It's my blog's 4th Anniversary as well. I wanted to make a new template for the 4th Anniversary, but Sarah said my template was fine. That's cool with me, because I just don't have time to tinker with different layouts and stuff. I kind of get obsessive with stuff, and that would take a long time. It feels like my life is getting busier and busier all the time. It's hard to get all the stuff I want to do and get done accomplished. I'm always running behind. Such is life.

Holy Eve

Everyone had a blast at the Holy Eve celebration on Friday, October 31. We had a rousing worship and praise time. Then, we had delicious snacks. Finally, we had a night of fun relay games.

Most of the pictures are of children praying since it was a lot easier to take pictures of them when they're sitting still. The pictures of the games turned out to be too blurry due to shutter lag and speedy kids.

Celebrating Holy Eve at church with our friends was so much better than going out and trick-or-treating. It was a lot safer and wholesome than wandering out at night in dangerous neighborhoods.

You can see the Sunday School blog at:

www.bsbckids.blogspot.com

or click the link below:

BBQ Fellowship Dinner

We had a bbq fellowship dinner for the teachers at BSBC church at Eun Jung and John's house. Everyone seemed to be really hungry especially since the Korean BBQ Calbee (Kalbi, Galbi, however you choose to spell it) was so good. In fact, I was so busy eating, I forgot to take pictures earlier in the day.

After everyone was stuffed from eating the delicious triple berry cheese cake, we played some games. As the fellowship director, Pastor James appointed me as the Game Master. We had fun playing a few games such as Smackers, Tell me, tell me lies, and Never Ever Have I.

There were a lot of people who attended. Those who attended were James, Sarah, Ji Yeon, Miju, Irene, Jenny, Michelle, Jun, Erwin, Fenny, Tony, Soojin, Whoony, Grace, Laura Kim and her husband, Richard, Olga, Mikey, Jonah, and Tyler.

In the morning I ran to church again. My legs and feet were hurting, especially my left foot. I was running on the concrete sidewalk for almost 13 miles. I think the slants in the sidewalks whenever there were driveways, were affecting the way my foot landed. My foot was landing a little bit at an angle. After thousands of those footsteps, my foot really began to hurt. Plus, I only slept an hour the night before. I was so tired, I couldn't think straight. When it was my turn to do QT quiet time sharing, all the wonderful things I planned to say turned into crap. I couldn't remember a thing, and everything I said sounded dumb.

Honda Ya Japanese Restaurant

On Saturday, Sarah and I had dinner with Andy and Ayako. I haven't seen them since their wedding back in March. These days it's hard to meet up with friends since our schedules are so busy. We met at Honda Ya in Tustin. The food was good, but Japanese restaurants usually don't give enough food for me. I could eat those $6 sushi rolls in one bite. Afterward, we ate at Yogurtland. I liked the fact that you could make your own cup of frozen yogurt from the big variety of flavors they have. It's cheaper than Pink Berry's, but Sarah likes Pink Berry's better than Yogurt Land. Then, we went to a pumpkin patch and saw some farm animals. We went grocery shopping at the new Korean H Market and bought some food. Earlier that day we bought a lot of stuff, ran some errands, and bought an ottoman at a furniture store.