What’s new?
I’ve moved back to CA after accepting a job at Namco. It has been a great job for me even though the commute is an hour one way. As the Interactive Designer I get to be a lot more creative than my previous job. The job is very similar to when I worked at Konami except that it is full-time

I’m still slowly working on design stuff. I have a lot of sketches ready, but haven’t had much time to work on much more than that. I did find time to put together a Christmas design that I’ll upload soon.

Earlier this year I started working on a new site design, but again I’ve been to busy to finish…

Hopefully next year will be more productive

Click the image below to view the jQuery version, and click the link above to view the Flash version

My mom and aunt got to visit Korea for a couple weeks before the wedding. I played tour guide helping them get around. Yunjoo had to work for most of the time, but had some chances to hang out with us too Yunjoo and her friend went with us to Everland which was decorated up for Halloween. And then Yunjoo and her mom went with us to the zoo. It was a lot of fun spending time together with them all

Everland pictures

Zoo picturese

Yunjoo and I were married on September 4th, but we still had the big ceremony at the wedding hall that she liked. It went very well, though getting everything ready beforehand was fairly stressful.

The day of the wedding, Yunjoo and I left the house early with our wedding things, wedding clothes, change of clothes, and honeymoon luggage. It was a very tight fit in her car, and we needed room for the helper lady who would assist Yunjoo with getting ready before and during the wedding.  We went to the hair salon place and got our hair done, makeup applied, and changed into our wedding clothes. We then got back out in the car, and Yunjoo had to sit in the back seat because her beautiful bell-style dress was too puffy to sit up front. Thankfully the wedding hall was close by so we didn’t have to drive far.

At the wedding hall, Yunjoo sat in the bridal room where people would come and greet her and have their picture with her. My mom and mother in-law were getting their hair and makeup done too, while I helped bring up stuff from the car. Yunjoo’s friends set up pictures and decorations on a table, and set up two very large pictures of us from our pre-wedding photo-shoot. After the mom’s got ready and changed into their hanbok (traditional Korean clothing), I joined them to greet visitors in the main entrance area. Unfortunately, I forgot many people’s names, so I had to just say “Yunjoo’s friend” or “Yunjoo’s relative” I wish I could remember names better…

Finally, the time came to start the ceremony. The mom’s entered first, lit candles, and bowed to each other and then the audience. Then I entered, and waited for Yunjoo. The flower girls entered, and then Yunjoo did. She looked very beautiful and I seem to get easily emotional, so I had to hold back the tears. We said our vows, put on the rings, and then our mom’s gave us some nice messages. My mom got really emotional and cried, which got the audience and me all in tears too. Yunjoo’s mom spoke and was emotional too, but spoke so fast it got everyone smiling. Both of their messages were very nice and beautiful We then cut the wedding cake and fed each other. In Korea, it’s normal for the bride and groom to just cut the cake and leave it without feeding each other. I thought this was weird, and so Yunjoo said let’s feed each other like they do in the US (but without the crazy smear across the face feeding that some do). After that, two of Yunjoo’s friends sang a song for us which was also very beautiful. Then we were all given a balloon, the ceiling opened, and everyone cheered for us and we let our balloons float out into the sky. It was supposed to rain that day, but thankfully it didn’t rain until after the ceremony

We then took pictures with family and friends, and then Yunjoo and I changed into traditional outfits and took pictures with our moms. The rest of the people went to eat at the big buffet. We greeted everyone and thanked them for coming, and had about 10-15 minutes to eat before we had to go. We only had the wedding hall for 2 hours, so we were rushing around to get everything finished in time.

Yunjoo’s brother let me drive his Lamborghini Gallardo to the airport. I practiced with him once before driving it, and had a little trouble getting used to the accelerator. I’ve never driven a real sports car like that, and didn’t realize the engine revs so high and loud… I also forgot where the reverse button was, so when we made a u-turn after leaving the wedding hall, Yunjoo and I got stuck while I scrambled to find the button. We got many cars honking at us, and my brother in-law waited for us (with my mom and aunt) in Yunjoo’s car up ahead. I finally found the button, and the rest of the drive was fine. Oh, I did forget it rained some, and how the decorative ribbons were on the car, Yunjoo would have to roll down the window, hold down one of the ribbons with her hand and then I could activate the windshield wipers. It was fun to drive.

Yunjoo uploaded some pictures on our wedding blog. We should be getting a video of the event later which will make the above description make more sense. I’ll get that added to another post later.

I’m a bit late on this, but well, here are Yunjoo and my wedding pictures we had taken a few weeks ago. It’s traditional in Korea (and some other countries) to have pictures taken before the wedding. I don’t know how it was many years ago, but nowadays it’s typical for the bride to have 2-3 wedding dresses and the groom to have 2-3 tuxedos to wear during the photo shoot. The main reason for this is to have a big photo album and some various sized pictures at the ceremony.

One of the problems we ran into was the cost of renting the dresses. In Korea, they tend to run about $1000 per hour rental which is pretty crazy since you can buy a very nice brand new dress in the US for less than that price. Yunjoo knew this too, so we found a couple of dresses on ebay that were unused. Although one of the sellers never sent the dress, and after some time, I was able to get the money back and use it towards a dress from a real dress company. Yunjoo wanted a party-type dress instead of a third dress which helped save money too. Renting the studio/photographer/photo album/printed photos/dresses/my tux all seemed a bit elaborate to me, but I’ve come to learn there are many differences between Korean and American wedding cultures. Another thing (that we’re not doing) is the gift-giving to parents and relatives. This can range from gold watches, expensive jewelry, large amounts of money, etc. Actually, I did get my mother in-law a new washer since she didn’t have one. Yunjoo told me some parents/relatives will disapprove of the wedding if their gift isn’t expensive enough… Also, the groom is normally expected to provide a house and the bride is supposed to provide all of the furniture and appliances. The whole wedding thing makes a lot of newly weds go broke, or else they don’t get married because they can’t afford it. Many have to borrow from their parents.

Anyway, the pictures are uploaded to our wedding site that Yunjoo mainly handles.

It’s been pretty busy here in Korea during the short time I’ve been here already. Last Saturday we had our wedding photo shoot, and we had a pretty interesting story and learning experience; apparently, if you use medium-brown Just For Men Haircolor to get rid of the gray hairs (I have some already…) at 11:30pm the night before you have wedding pictures, and you use all of the formula and wait the required 5 minutes before rinsing out the dye and shampooing, you will realize you should have used the dye formula much faster because your hair is now entirely black. Also, if you decide to fix this issue at midnight the night before wedding photos when it is pouring rain outside, you will realize it will take at least an hour before you find a 7-11 that carries hair dye color other than black since all other stores that normally carry hair dye are closed. Lastly, if the only other hair dye color found at said 7-11 is Women’s Apricot Orange, you will realize that it will only take 10 minutes of letting the formula set instead of the normal 30 minutes will turn your black hair back to natural brown color with a very slight orange tint. You will also realize your relationship with your spouse has become stronger and better than before

The time with Yunjoo has been great so far, and I’m trying not to think about the time we will be apart while waiting for her Green Card. But we’ve already been apart for 7 months, so we will be able to endure this next time apart as well.

Regarding design stuff, I have a lot of sketches/ideas that I want to illustrate, and hopefully will be able to get something made soon

In Korea (and some other Asian countries I’ve heard), the bride and groom take wedding pictures a month or two before the real wedding. That way they can have a big photo album at the ceremony for anyone to check out as well as blown up pictures of the couple. The pictures are all very high-quality studio photos, and should look good, but I think I like natural/spontaneous pictures better Yunjoo likes them both, and it will be my first time in a photo studio for these kinds of pictures. It should be fun.

I have a lot of new designs/illustrations I want to make/finish, but I’ve been pretty busy with wedding stuff and helping my parents with stuff so I haven’t been able to get to working on any of them. If I’m unable to work while in Korea, I’ll be trying to do a lot of design work while Yunjoo is at work.

I’ve helped my parents a lot lately. My dad had his stem cell transplant a couple of weeks ago to help him fight off his myeloma. He’s been recovering slowly, but faster than average. He had to stay in the hospital for 2 and a half weeks. At first they thought it would take 3 weeks, but he was able to leave a little sooner. Although now my parents have to stay in an apartment that is nearby the hospital since our house is too far away. He has to be careful for another 2-4 weeks until the doctors say he’s recovered enough to go back home. His toughest time was in the hospital when the nausea was very very intense. It’s tough to force yourself to eat and move around to get energy when you feel very nauseous, dizzy, tired, and nothing sounds good to eat… I visited them last night and dad’s been gaining his appetite back and eating better each day. He still has to watch what he eats a lot while he’s recovering. Oh yeah, and today is their anniversary, so Happy Anniversary to them!

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The fifth in the Classic Comic Series of statues has been released. This time it’s another Uncle Scrooge statue called Laundry Day, which is based off the cover of Uncle Scrooge comic #5. I still haven’t picked up the previous Scrooge statue, Cash Register Concerto, or the fourth release (Comic Book Companions). I’d like to pick up both Scrooge statues to add to the other Donald and Uncle Scrooge statues I have, but need to save up some funds first for the wedding and house in the future. But maybe I can use some money I earn from selling things on eBay?

5번재 옛날 만화책 시리즈의 동상이 나왔다. Uncle Scrooge 동상인데 Laundry Day라고 부른다. 지난 Uncle Scrooge 동상과 4번재 옛날 만화책 시리즈 동상도 아직 안 샀다. Uncle Scrooge 동상 둘다 사고 싶은데 먼저 결혼 돈과 앞으로 집 돈을 벌어야한다. 그런데 어떤 물건을 eBay로 팔면 그 받을 돈으로 동상을 살수있지?