Feeling moody, which for some reason always seems to put my creativity on a slow burn, like the glow of charcoal glowing from within. Anyway, "Tears" is the title of this self-portrait.

    

Just a really quick note, but I was just offered a Project Manager position at Apple. For those of you who know me, I don't wanna hear any questions along the lines of "What took you so long?" :-P

My new corporate life begins, ummm, 4 days ago. Yeah, I'm so bad about keeping my blog up to date.

 

Check out this music video from Korean singer Eru.

This video brought a smile to my face because I was Eru's private tutor when he was in middle school in Korea (Eru, of course, is not his real name but I'll use that since that's what he goes by these days). I trekked to his house 3 nights a week for a year and a half to help him with his school work. Every time I see him on TV or a video, it's both shocking and heart-warming. Shocking because he's changed so much since he was 13-14 years old, but heart-warming because I remember all the time we spent together doing school work. Occasionally, he'd show me a song he had written.

The video is also funny because Eru's father makes a cameo appearance as a security guard. His father (Tae Jin Ah), of course, is a famous entertainer himself, and the look that Eru gives is just hilarious. I remember one time I got to their house on a Saturday morning, expecting to get started on the school work immediately as usual. But Eru's father instead invited me to eat breakfast with him. I wasn't very hungry, but I didn't want to be rude and especially it being Korean culture, I had to stuff myself with a big bowl of rice and stew. The rest of the morning, I was trying not to fall into a carb coma  while tutoring. :-P

The third thing that brought a smile to my face is that Kim Ja Oh also has a cameo in the video. She plays Eru's mother, when Eru takes his klutsy girlfriend to introduce her to the family. I used to tutor Kim Ja Oh's son, too! She looks positively scary in the video, but in reality, she is a very happy and funny person.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the video! The lyrics are really great, too - when I have more time, I'll post a translation. :-)

P.S. Random thought. Life seems to be a series of random occurrences, but when that randomness acquires meaning, we call that fate or destiny. I don't know why I know you or why you know me, but it makes you treasure the fact that we all somehow met and got to know each other in this crazy world.

I was going through my stuff (a vain attempt to get more organized) and ran across this charcoal-and-pencil drawing that I did when I was taking a fundamental drawing class via UC Extension a couple of years ago. We were working on abstract drawing and so I took some charcoal to paper in the dark of night, and this was the result.

I like it because it seemed to capture my mood at the time, which was, well, moody. Moody like the an overcast night just before the rain, maybe.

The drawing is untitled.

So I came flew back last Sunday from my week in Seoul. If you find yourself there, be sure to check these places out.


Seoul's changed a lot since the last time I was there. I wish I was still back there - the week went by too fast. The city's changed a lot,  yet it hasn't. There's a lot that I could write about, but I've already written, like, five cliches in a row. I'll just simply say that it was good to be back. Blah blah.

Check out the photo album I just put up, if you're curious about my little Seoulsome journey.