welcome to phil's blog and thanks for visiting! i started this blog since the fall of 2003, just as the idea of web logging started to catch on, and through the years, this blog has witnessed a number of life changing events, from my first real experiences at both life and death, to my internship in south korea where i met my wife, and a big decision to move out west from the east coast to southern california. i hope you'll continue reading as i attempt to balance my engineering career against my passions for photography, music, and art. feel free to explore and comment on anything that might catch your eye!

with the right combination of food and friends, taking repeated shots of this 40 proof rice vodka can be quite a treat. but before you go off downing shots of this stuff, there are a few things about the etiquette of drinking soju and it goes something like this:

• Soju is usually drunk in group gatherings while eating, unmixed and portioned into individual shot glasses.
• It is against traditional custom in Korea to fill one's own glass. Instead, it must be filled by someone else at the table. This promotes a spirit of thoughtfulness and camaraderie.
• To pour a drink, hold the bottle in the right hand with the left hand touching the right forearm or elbow; this peculiar arm position originated from the practice of holding back the sleeve of the hanbok so that it wouldn't touch the table or the food. When receiving a drink, rest the glass in the left palm and hold it with the right hand, perhaps bowing the head slightly to show additional respect.
• Koreans say "one shot", a challenge to down your glass in one gulp.
• A glass should not be refilled unless completely empty and should be promptly refilled once empty; it is considered rude to not fill others' glass when empty
  
  

sarah, peter, minae and i all went down to the la jolla coast to watch the fireworks. the great thing about san diego on the fourth is that there are so many places that host huge firework displays that at any given spot you can see two or three of them going on at the same time. i was quite impressed by the la jolla shores' display, but off in the distance we could see the del mar county fair's version, and it looked like they outdone us. nevertheless, the evening was fun, and snapping photos of them was a blast! (har har, pun intended!)

it's pretty simple, really... stick out your tongue in front of a camera and a photo of you with your tongue sticking out will eventually wind up on the internets(TM). kudos to a slightly inebriated solis for snapping this picture.

so i had a chance to listen to coldplay's new single viva la vida in the car after sarah pointed it out and couldn't help but notice that immediately sounded familiar to alizee's 2003 hit j'en en marre. alizee is a french pop artist who became famous from her single moi lolita back in 2000. hit the links to listen to both songs. i mean c'mon wtf?! i normally wouldn't say anything, like with the case of linkin park's shadow of the day sounding pretty much like a wannabe version of u2's with or without you, but this is just too much... who knows, mebbe they had some arrangement, and at some point will re-release it as one song.

meet mike, my boss homie. wanna know more about him? click here. he's having his first kid soon and seemed to have a done a thorough job of researching the theory of being the perfect parent, so if you ever need advice or a spreadsheet on the economics of all x number of diaper options there, you know where to turn!