On a nice Sunday afternoon...

Taking a walk on a nice Sunday afternoon isn't the same... without a frozen yogurt!

Not sure if you noticed, but this is when Pastor Young came to visit us one Sunday...

Reflections...

Reflections... where the whole world turns upside down...


This world is but a mere reflection, a shadow of what's to come, what's promised to us. Just as a moment passes by in an instant, in a blink of an eye, so will this life pass by us in an instant.




A moment, where time stands still...


Although I have no regrets in this short life, I think that's what makes this life all the more beautiful, because it is so short. Every moment counts!

Reno Trip

We don't travel often.
My job certainly gave me a lot more opportunities to travel and see the world, but we don't do leisurely travel. I suppose it is just not in our DNA.

In any case, we found a time and an opportunity for a quick trip up to Reno. Although snowboarding was my primary reason, it was also just to get away from the daily routines and smell the fresh air.

We ended up spending a lot of time walking around Reno, and eating a lot. At first we wanted to save money and do grocery shopping and eat at our place, but once we found good deals in many different Reno hotels, we just had to go for the steaks and other dinner specials! And this trip we learned that every third Saturday of the month, they have a River Walk, where with a cheap fee, you can walk around the downtown shops and taste different wines that various participating stores has to offer. The whole town seemed very lively, with a lot of folks walking around with a wine glass in their hands.

We did end up snowboarding on our second day of Reno trip, but the snow was slush and to me, that's one of the worst conditions, next to snow being icy. But then again, it could've been worse.

Homewood was good, but very crowded. Other than the slush snow, everything was very excellent. I wish I had taken the camera up with me, for Homewood is known for a great view, from the top of the mountain, but I hadn't boarded in ages, so we decided to stay safe and keep the camera in the car.
Then we drove around Lake Tahoe for a bit, taking pictures. It was an awesome day, and so sunny that it was a bit difficult to control the aperture. Something I am still learning.

I've tried to capture the calmness of the lake; when I gaze into the lake and the snow covered mountains on the other side, I feel like I can forget about all my troubles back at home, and just enjoy the peace of God, through His mighty creations.
Not that I had any trouble back at home...

Good bye...

Ever since I changed my Sunday Bible study class to the Korean-speaking group, I've had learn to say good-byes, a lot more frequently, then I would like to.
There was a couple of kids who left US to go back to Korea, just as I started the new class. And then one by one, more had to go back to Korea, as their parents had finished what they came to do, and it was time for the family to return home.


This time around, it was time for Sharon to return home, and so we gathered to say farewell. Not sure if I will get to see her again sometime soon, but we all can only hope.


I hate saying good-bye, because it always leaves us hanging. We are still surrounded by the memories they have left behind; whereas they are now surrounded with new surroundings, new friends, new challenges and changes, but the only change we get is the feeling that we have lost something...

Valentines

This year's valentines (I know, it was more than a month ago... but I've been away from the blogging world for too long, and decided to start updating it again!!!) was special because this is our first valentine together as a married couple. Sure we've had a few valentines together, and yes, it was different when we were together simply as a couple, but now we are talking about married couple.

Well, given the whole economy and all, we've decided to stay frugal; not to mention how we splurged ourselves over the Christmas and Michelle's birthday, and I still wanted to do something special for her, so I decided to make something special for her on Valentine night.

Seriously, when we go out for Valentines, it's at least ~80 dollars per person, and of course I am not just going to sit there and watch her eat. I can certainly spare more than that on someone I love. A whole world would be not enough to give, if it were really up to me. But we just thought that it didn't make sense for us. At least not now. So she graciously accepted the offer.

And so this is what I created:

Baby potato, beef tenderloin with custom sauce, fresh salad with custom balsamic vinegar dressing, and goat-cheese spread bread.

Though it was crazy trying to make everything right and come out at the same time, but in the end, she was a happy camper. Oh, and I had to make enough for four; we decided to enjoy the "Family" valentines with my sister and Josh.

Our first married Valentines was a very much family-oriented one. We loved it!

Boston - Business Trip

It is raining here in Boston. Well, technically, it is Waltham.
Consider Waltham sort of like San Jose to the Bay Area, where there are lots of high tech companies and sort.
This is already my... I can't exactly recall, but I've been here now at least 5 times or so, and though most of my Waltham trip has been for internal reasons, such as training, I did come out here once on a business trip.

I miss my D80. Not that I had any chance to take real pictures, since I am either stuck in the office, restaurant, or hotel room for the most of the day, but just the fact that I do not have my camera makes me feel like a Christian without a bible, soldier without swords/guns, a camera-man without the camera... But I do not have a camera and there is really not much I can do at the moment.
It doesn't help that there is a beautiful forest behind the conference room I am located in, snow-covered from the last storm a few days ago, melting from the gentle rain...

Like anything in life, business trips can be good and bad.
The good:

• Rack up airline travel mileages (if you care)
  
• Accumulate credit card reward points (if it applies)
• Hotel honors/rewards membership (depending on the hotel)
• Travel to new places that I would not go otherwise
  
• Experience new culture/food/people
  

The bad:

• You really need to travel a LOT to rack up enough points for free ticket (unless you fly SW)
• Unless you use these hotels frequently, these rewards are not as useful
• Some trips can keep you away from home for extended period of time (unless you want to?)
  
• Some trips can force you to go where you know you do not want to go (Fresno anyone?)
  

OK, so any other feedbacks? What are your thoughts?

Nikon Strikes Back

This is what happens when Nikon Strikes Back, and Canon loses the camera war... a mass slaughter!!! (in case you missed it, you were supposed to click on the link... )

Enjoy, while I am still trying to update & upload my pictures from our weekend trip...

SDL: Idiom Acquisition

So I've been working for Idiom a little over 3 years now. It's been an exciting journey, where I am first introduced to a semi-career change, coming from an engineer, to now a customer-facing consultant/project manager. I must say I have learned a lot in the past three years. Sure, I have not learned much of a new technology, but I have been grilled and trained in people-skills, how to work and manage people and projects. Stressful, yes, but valuable learning lessons.

Idiom is still a private company, so we always wondered where we would be a few years down the road. Well, that change is now upon us. SDL, a large European-based company has officially acquired Idiom as of Monday, February 11th, 2008.

What does it mean for me? I am not sure. Yet.

In the globalization market, SDL and Idiom are the two major competitors, and now that the two major competitors have become one entity, this will have major impact on the customers, for sure. We can only hope that the change will be for the better, both for the customers, as well as for the employees.

But what does this all mean for me? I do not know yet. Hopefully before the end of this week, or this month, there will be more updates. In the meantime, I need to find out the full details on my stock options, as well as the stock exchange price now that I am part of a public company.

Otherwise, it's business as usual. I am still on the bus, though, we will see for how long. Already some 15+ people have gotten off the bus, and that's a substantial number of people given our size.

Company Outing at the Butler and the Chef

We have the company get-together at SF, named The Butler and the Chef. Though the weather wasn't quite the ideal, at least we found a pretty good parking spot directly in front of the restaurant. I guess not that many people go out to eat in a rainy day.

The restaurant was actually located in the SOMA, South Park area, which is really close to where I used to work, right out of college. I actually used to go out to a couple of restaurants in the South Park area for lunch breaks and stuff. Good old days.

Friday, February 1st

My college friend Mike, and his wife, came over to our place, to hang out and eat dinner with us. I hadn't seen him in ages and it was certainly nice to re-connect. He's the friend who works at Samsung. He used to work in the Samsung wireless technology, but recently transferred to the Samsung venture group. Initially, I had some interest in getting into the wireless technology, and just the whole "technology"-side of Samsung, but given where things are now, I don't think this will be an opportunity for me, at least, not anytime soon.

Would you work at Samsung if you had a chance?