Susie Suh

No, she is not my girlfriend, but Susie Suh is a great Korean American singer and songwriter. I fell in love with her music after hearing a sample of her on a track called "Finger Paint" by Zion I. I did a search and found out Susie Suh was the voice on that track. I ended up on her myspace listening to her debut solo tracks.

I looked for her debut CD in stores, but couldn't find it. Thank goodness for the Internet because a few days ago, I received her CD in the mail after ordering it through Amazon. I thoroughly enjoy each song because they are filled with such raw emotion and are reflections of her personal experiences in life. No fluff here. I hope she comes up to Vancouver one day and play. Check out her site at either www.myspace.com/susiesuh or www.susiesuh.com.


"Although Suh has lived in the United States her entire life, both of her parents are immigrants who moved to southern California from Korea in the '60s. Suh's involvement with music began when she was only eight and joined a Korean children's choir, whose repertoire ranged from traditional Korean songs to American pop. At 13, Suh left Los Angeles for New Hampshire, where she attended a boarding school and did her share of songwriting during her adolescent years; Suh was around 17 when she recorded a six-song EP, pressed 1,000 copies onto CDs, and managed to sell about 700 of them to her schoolmates. After reaching adulthood, Suh attended Brown University in Rhode Island (where she obtained a degree in English), but spent as much time as she could visiting New York City and performing in Lower Manhattan clubs. A career in music is not something that Suh's ambitious parents encouraged — in fact, they tried to talk her out of it and encouraged her to go into a more stable, less volatile line of work. Music, they asserted, should be nothing more than a hobby for Suh. But her parents' lack of support didn't discourage the L.A. native; if anything, it inspired her to persevere and work even harder at having a career in music. "Your Battlefield," one of Suh's songs, was inspired by her career-related disagreements with her parents.

In 2003, Suh signed with Epic/Sony; she ended up working with Glen Ballard, a well-known producer/songwriter/arranger whose lost list of credIt's ranges from No Doubt to Paula Abdul to Alanis Morissette — it was Ballard who produced Morissette's 1995 blockbuster, Jagged Little Pill. At first, Ballard only agreed to produce a few songs for Suh, but he was so impressed with her work that he ended up producing her entire debut album (a self-titled CD that Epic released in April 2005)." (Source: Alex Henderson from alwaysontherun.net, 2006)

Peace.

Nintendo Wii

I got my Nintendo Wii today! I called different stores at work this afternoon, and lucked out on Toys R Us. They had 35 just shipped to the store, and I only had 2 hours left of work. I asked if they took reservations, but the guy said no. Then, he paused and said, "I tell you what, I'll set one aside for you." I was like whoa, awesome. He took down my name and right after work I headed to Toys.

When I arrived, all 33 were sold and he had 2 left. One of them was for me. I was really happy, like a kid in a candy store. Although, I maintained the "A-Train" coolness.

I setup the machine at home and everything has worked great so far. I've been playing and using it for 3 or 4 hours this evening. There is a sports game package included with the console including tennis, bowling, baseball, golf, and boxing. They are incredibly fun. You have total range and control, and it really feels as though you're actually in the game. I can also hook it up to my wireless connection for Internet. I'm looking forward to all the good games coming out soon. My first game will likely be, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Peace.

Mail Room

People have been inquiring what the mail room looks like. This is where I spend my days, Monday to Friday. I'll give you a brief tour. There's a mail sorting station, filing cabinet, desk, phone, computer, printer, paper shredder, storage units, mail cart, dolly, lots of paper, some packages, mail, scale, and more packages. That's pretty much it. Actually, I'm quite proud to have created the mailing system at the university. It'll definitely expand in the near future. Right now, it's a one man show.

Burj Dubai

When I was in Grade 4 (9 years old), my dream job was to become an architect. I held onto that dream until about Grade 7 when I started thinking about becoming a doctor. But of course my reality is that I'm a Mail Room Clerk for a university which is okay with me.

Ever since then, I've always had a deep fascination with buildings. The place to see some of the best architecture in the world is in the City of Chicago. I went there to visit my cousins after I finished my degree and fell in love with the city.

This evening, I was chillin' with my dad as he read a newspaper and I watched TV. He calls TV, "tedih-bee." He loves to show me things in the Korean newspaper. Even though he loves being a Canadian, he still has pride in his native land, Korea. He showed me an article about the construction of the world's tallest building called the "Burj Dubai." Besides the fact that it's going to be the world's tallest building, he was proud to say that Samsung Corporation, a South Korean company, won the bid to construct the building at a deal worth $850 million.

Here are some facts.

• "Burj Dubai" in the United Arab Emirates will be the world's tallest building when completed in November 2008.
  
• The building will stand approximately 2,640 feet (800 metres) high and have 160 floors.
  
• The lead architect is Adrian Smith of the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.
  
• The design of Burj Dubai is ostensibly derived from the patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture. (Source: wikipedia.org)
  

Visit the official website at Burj Dubai.



As of October 23rd 2006, the Burj Dubai was at 81 stories and 931 feet (283 meters) tall.


Peace.