I can't believe some of you still come back to this URL, even after so much time has passed with an unupdated front page. At the peak of Bjunkyard when it was getting over 100k monthly unique visitors - things got pretty hectic. I think the best times i had building the site was when we had a small tight community and everybody knew each other.
Time really flew by hasn't it? Most of you were in High School or College back then - so i would imagine you're either working or being a bum in this bad economy. Some of you may have gotten married with kids! As for me, life had it's roller coaster moments. Let me share what i've been up to briefly.
Back in 2002, i stopped working for Excite.com and went back to school to get my B.A. I moved from Northern California to Los Angeles and was attending CSU Long Beach while working part time at Banana Republic. Things were going great - i had my best friend living 15 minutes from me, was having a blast on weekends spending all my money @ clubs and life in general was good.
I was at that age when you want to experiment and party hard. I think i was going out like 3 nights a week, Thrs - Sat, and Sunday to recuperate. K-clubbin (Korean Night Clubs) became a ritual. The most interesting moments was during fights that happened inside and outside of these clubs. Generally it always happens during closing time when everybody is drunk. For some odd reason, the fights always happened to include my group. And what do we fight about? Sheer stupidity.
"Ey, why you mad dogging foo?"
"What? STFU bitch ass and get movin"
"I know u didn't just say that to my face"
*BAM*. Yeah.. guys getting a little hard on trying to act tough is generally the idea. But that's what happens when you mix 21 year olds full of Crown Royal and Testosterone. The girls at the clubs generally don't help either. They wear little mini skirts and play hard to get. This causes the Blue Balls syndrome and each male party at the club become annoyed and infuriated with rage that must get released. What better way to get it out of your system than knock out the guy next to you? The even funnier part is that generally (9 out of 10 times) cops won't even show up, or show up too late.
Fights start and end in a matter of minutes. When you go clubbing as much as i have, with the same crowds - you make friends. Friends who also have friends. And when the little jackass tries to start shit with you .. they are not just dealing with you - but the other 20 guys behind you. If the bouncers intervene with pepper spray - then we call them out. "6th and Normandie! 6th and Normandie!" We all get in our cars and go.. but they never show up.. so we just eat some pho and go home.
I have some pics of my clubbing adventures somewhere.. i'll share if i find them.
In the beginning of 2004 i graduated and got my B.A. and started working for a small car parts distributor "Motor Impact". The company specialized on aftermarket parts for Korean cars. Here's a picture of the Hyundai Tiburon i helped build:
This was around the time i stopped going out - the whole club scene started getting really old. It was always the same $hit and just wasn't fun. Instead, i started hanging out with my new co-workers. I got Pae a job at a small Motorcycle transmission manufacturer that shared our office space, so we would all hang out together after work. These were truly some great moments of my life. Sharing the stories that happened @ Motor Impact would take up a few pages of writing so i'll save that for another day.
Around the same time i also met the love of my life that would eventually break my heart.
In the Summer of 2006 I ended up quitting my job and moved back to Northern California to be closer to her. I took a 1 year vacation from work and just enjoyed life and spending time with her. There was a LOT of drama in between though. Oh.. the gool ol' dramas. In this case, bad ol' dramas. It almost felt like i was part of one of those cheesy Korean dramas. Despite all of it, life was still good with it's ups and downs. In 2007 i started working again, and got a job @ News Corp. working under the MySpace division.
In 2008 my gf decided to move to Boston. Around the same time, i was offered a promotion, but the position was in NYC. That was some timing.. hitting 2 birds with 1 stone. I could make more money and be closer to my gf. I took the offer, and moved. It was quite the experience living in a big city. It was more amazing trying to adjust to the commute. Foot traffic in NY, is just as bad as car traffic in Cali.. all thanks to the tourists that like to stop every 10 feet for no reason.
My gf and I broke up in late 2008 not long after i moved here. That's when the depression kicked in. I already mentioned in my past article but those were some dark times for me. We were together for about 4 years, so it wasn't easy for me. They say it takes 1 month for every year you were together to get over it.. but it took a lot longer for me. Eventually when the shock is absorbed, you just have to pick yourself up and move on - what is the point in moping around feeling sorry for yourself? The lesson i learned from all of this is, never live your life for the sake of someone else. Meaning, don't adjust your lifestyle to accommodate your gf or bf. I can't believe i moved twice following this girl around.
In mid 2009 I began to reorganize my life, bury myself in work and exercise. I tried to think about my priorities and how i can enjoy life again.
2010. Happy new year! I'm almost 30 now.. and i've learned so much in the past decade. You know when you think you know everything during your teens (that's a lot of you's)? Your parents tell you "Just wait until your my age".. and you brush off that comment thinking it's ridiculous. Now that i'm a little older and a little wiser, those words from my parents make much more sense now than it did 10 years ago.
One of the projects i was thinking of in 2009 was Bjunkyard - and how i missed running it. I wasn't sure exactly how i wanted to revive it, but something had to be done. So merging it with my blog seemed to be the most logical and laziest way of doing it... so here we are.
I'm still a work-a-holic and exercise excessively @ home. I'm also an avid WoW player that's currently raid leading ICC (we can discuss WoW on another blog entry). I love mangas and anime (One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Dragon Ball Z, Hajime No Ippo). I'm a movie critic (thank you piratebay). My plans for 2010 include trying to move back to West Coast, being more adventurous, visiting S. Korea, and enjoying life!
Things still left to be done for Bjunkyard:
- Forum clean up - include sub sections
- Time Machine is going to be a surprise. Some of you may have an idea of what it's going to be
- Gallery.. ooh this is a tough one. Not sure how to fix it.
think i first discovered bjunkyard around 2000. never heard much about your life story, too busy rating photos on your site. =) actually interesting and not so different from mine. (i also think tiburons rule.) good to see the site's back up.
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