Kevin Kwak’s Blog

On Yahoo’s frontpage under the Featured tab, an article featured a smart looking Asian kid with a rubik’s cube in his hand. The caption was personally thought-provoking, “Tyson Mao is hoping to regain his title as blindfolded Rubik’s Cube world champion.”) I can’t even get near completion with a cheap $1 cube rolling somewhere in the car. Every time I got my hands on the cube, I tossed it back after an effortless attempt.

So the guy on the Yahoo’s photo is Tyson Mao and he can finish the cube in less than two minutes. Smart Cal Tech grad.

But if the Yahoo article written by Belinda Goldsmith is entirely true (they wouldn’t lie to us, would they?), I found hope. The rubik’s cube is not only for geniuses and nerds. You can find a great amount of sites teaching you the strategies to solving the puzzle. Thank goodness for online video broadcasting.

The Yahoo Time Capsule is impressive in all aspects; the use of Adobe Flash is outstanding and the concept in which was founded by Jonathan Harris is worth reading.
I took a minute and submitted a text version in the Now category. I am now part of the online history, I “have helped create a digital legacy of our times, a mosaic of revealing snapshots that will be sealed and entrusted to Smithsonian Folkways Recordings based in Washington D.C., officially taking its place in history.” Be right back, let me add one more to the Yahoo Time Capsule before the deadline (12 minutes 24 seconds as of this writing and counting down).

Submitted 2nd contribution in the Faith category.

A buddy asked long time ago why I write blogs. I gave him a smile but didn’t reply to his question.
When web logging was introduced, the web community flourished with thousands of new bloggers. The concept was brilliant so entrepreneurs established an improved technology and social networking was born. Now millions of people began to blog online with many purpose.

I began blogging with two purpose in mind: let my readers (friends and family and visitors) to know a little bit of what my interests and I wanted a diary. As cheesy as it may sound, diaries are actually fun and can be a rewarding activity.

Two, five, ten years from now, I would love to return back to the blogs I’ve typed in the past and try to recapture the particular time in which the blog entry was written. I like to ponder why I even wrote such story and blog publicly online, and even reminisce of the time and events. It would interesting to read on stuff about what and how I felt, experienced, thought, and liked during that time, an online diary.

Let me give you a good example. November 2004, I wrote a blog entry titled, “Kevin Is Most Thankful For…” The blog was written two years ago from now and after reading the entry, I can clearly recapture the event that took place just prior to the blog. We were having a potluck Thanksgiving dinner at Sarang college ministry and one of the sister had a clever idea to collect a thanksgiving note from everyone. She then kindly asked me to post it up on the ministry’s website and after doing so, I went over to my site’s blog and wrote that particular blog.

Another note I want to mention are the changes in me after reading the blog. I was very excited about God and both blog entries on November 2004 was about religion. It seems that I haven’t written a single blog about my faith quite recently and it is something I really missed these days.

It is just one of those things, whether I am 15 years old or 30 years old today, I wouldn’t pass up on the Final Fantasy (FF) series.

I still remember the time I watched my buddies playing FF in SNES — it was junior high when I visited Robin’s house. Robin and Sam were playing FF III (VI in Japanese). I didn’t understand why there were hooked on what appeared to be a cycle of repetitive fights with silly monsters. And a few weeks later, another school mate was playing the same darn game. Just by staring at others playing the game, it was difficult to grasp the concept and to enjoy the gameplay, you just had to get into the game and experience it yourself which I did.

This week, I dropped by the local Circuit City to pick up the recently released FFXII which is being sold for $37.99 instead of the $49.99 price tag other retailers were selling for Good deal.

After finishing watching the opening and playing through the first hour into the story, the storyline is impressive and well thought out. RPGers alike respect and become loyal Square-Enix fan because the FF producers really do their best to create a top-notch role-playing game, always striving to innovate the overall gameplay to exceed fan’s expectation of the FF series.

Final Fantasy XII Storyline
It was an age when magic was commonplace and airships plied the skies, crowding out the heavens. Our tale begins in Dalmasca, one small kingdom in the world of Ivalice.
A young orphan named Vaan dreams of escaping his life on the streets, piloting an airship of his own, free to go where he will. Against the backdrop of the war engulfing Dalmasca, Vaan meets Princess Ashe, the sole surviving heir to the Dalmascan throne who had been given up for missing. They are joined by Vaan’s friend Penelo, the sky pirate Balthier, and his partner Fran. And with them is Basch, a captain in the Dalmascan army who turned traitor and slew his king. Grand adventure and unforeseen encounters set the stage of Ivalice for the telling of this epic tale.

I completed the game and to my surprise, was able to sell the game on eBay for $38  excluding shipping and handling. Got my money’s worth.

Has it already been over a month since my last blog entry? Well, many things happened over the weeks but I don’t want to bore you by writing about the past.

I decided to update Kwak.org from the ground up this coming November. The blog and the gallery page will remain the same but everything else will get a whole new look. Come back at around mid-November for the surprise.
update: It seems like the update will be postponed until January 5, 2007. The layout plan is complete and so is the new logo. The new changes are not only a design revision, the purpose of the website will be changed.

Due to an important matter, I’m planning on a week(s) long hiatus from blogging, posting and managing website, media use, and daily checkup on e-mails. Will be online only to do research.

Would you get disappointed if you find out you’ve invested many hours and capital into something you were going accomplish but couldn’t in the end? Who wouldn’t. But the level of one’s disappointment really depends.