In addition to my 1988 Mustang GT and 2002 Camaro Z28, this will be the third car on my driveway: a 1996 Mystic Cobra.

What makes it so special?  It's one of 1,999 Cobras built by Ford in 1996 that wore BASF's Mystic paint.  The pic above enhances the radical Mystic effect, but in person, the color change is darker and much more subtle (unlike the bright and showy DuPont Mystichrome applied on the Cobra for the 2004 model year).  The Mystic paint literally changes from emerald green to violet blue, magenta, burgundy, amber, and a dark brown.  I'll take this Cobra over any regular production or exotic car in the world, because, in addition to its subtle Mystic paint, it also has a 305 horsepower V8 and the greatest exhaust note ever heard.

Gotta get that CPA license and move to Southern California first.  Geez...!

I want to move to San Diego.  Or, in general, Southern California.  I can't stand South Jersey.  Where are the hills, mountains, deserts, and palm trees?  Why do we have snow and ice every freakin' winter?  That stuff just kills my cars, because of all the road salt and sand that'll be laying around.  And where are all the warm-hearted azn girls?  I don't feel like taking the bus to New York City just to feel cozy.   

Yeah, I really want to move to San Diego.  Temperatures in the 70's and 80's with low humidity all year round.  No snow and ice.  No winter.  Long stretches of roads to drive through.  Hills, deserts, mountains, and palm trees.  Yeah, they're all there.  And what about the females?  As you know, there are a mad number of azn girls there.  I'm betting that some of them will have big hearts, wonderful personalities, and beautiful smiles.  Hey, that's all that matters, right? 

Alright.  Now, I just have to pass the CPA exam and get my CPA license.  No point in moving if I can't double my salary. 

Go Go Yubari, you're my favorite school girl.

I'm a loser.  There's no doubt about it.  I went to SLP Day on Saturday, October 11, and saw all the modified camaros at the car show.  Sure, I got a lot of ideas on how to soup up my car, but I felt inadequate at the same time.  How the fuck could I keep my camaro bone-stock for two years?  I've broken my promises on getting it redynoed, modded, and drag raced.  Why?  I've had a credit card debt that's taking me forever to pay off.  By the end of this month, I'll have a balance of $2,900.  I should be able to pay around $800 a month to reduce that balance to eventually nothing.  So, I'll give myself between 3 to 4 months to pay everything off.  And then the fun starts.  I'll double my monthly car payments and have around $300 a month leftover for car mods.  Sounds good, huh?  Here's my list of track prep, weight-savings, and suspension mods that I came up with in Excel several months ago and updated just recently.

http://home.att.net/~damon_z/Parts.xls

I'm going to constantly refine that list by adding and deleting mods through careful research to make sure that I have the most effective and streetable mods that I can use on the dragstrip.  I'll concentrate on those mods first and get my car drag raced after each set of mods are installed to see how that particular set of mods enhanced or hurted my car's performance.  My ultimate goal is to get my car into the low 11s on street tires without the use of a power adder or a heads/cam package.  Is that possible?  Hey, I've seen a bone-stock LS1 with an automatic transmission do 12.9s.  Hopefully, one day, the vehicle detail sheet on my sidebar will be replaced with a modifications list, respectable rear wheel horsepower and torque figures from a dyno-run, and an awesome quarter-mile time.  Then, I'll call myself a winner.

Sunday, September 28, 2003.  Korean Folklore Festival. Flushing Meadows Corona Park, NY.  Was Lee Hyori really coming? 

Let me make the long story short.  I took the Greyhound bus to NYC.  Took the subway to Shea Stadium and got there at around 10:20 AM.  It was cloudy and raining.  Was the festival cancelled?  I hope not, because I didn't take the bus to the city for nothing.  I walked a mile from the subway stop with my umbrella open, following two groups of Koreans until I finally got to the festival site.  There were tents on both sides of me.  Korean people selling stuff.  I just looked from left to right trying to find somebody cute.  Not yet.  Then, I saw the field.  Got the Korean newspaper from a man.  On the cover, I saw the pictures of Lee Hyori.  Yes.  She really was coming!  Freakin' mud.  It was everywhere.  And I was wearing my new, white shoes.  But who cares, right?  I just had to see Lee Hyori.  I walked towards the seats holding my umbrella and looking down at where I was walking to avoid stepping into the really muddy areas.  But it was pointless.  The ground the seats were on was all mud.  I looked at the stage.  A bunch of old Korean females dancing.  A drum was beating in the background.  People were slowly walking onto the field from both sides.  I saw two white girls and asked them when the concert was starting.  They didn't know.  They were from Massachusetts and were interested in the culture and Boa.  I left them to find a good seat.  As I sat, I looked around for cute girls.  Saw a couple.  Then more.  And more.  And much more.  Why were the best-looking ones teenagers?  They were dolls.  Perfect complexion.  Great skin.  Beautiful eyes.  I must have stood out like a sore thumb with my dark, Filipino skin.  Opening speeches came up and I felt bored, but wasn't too bored to check out the pretty Korean girls all around me.  Hard to see though, because everybody had their umbrellas open.  Around 1:20 PM, the rain stopped.  Around 1:40 PM, the k-pop stars arrived.  Lee Hyori was the female MC throughout the day, but I wasn't satisfied with that.  She was wearing a black, elegant dress.  Pretty tasteful.  She later changed into a pink, casual dress.  Was she going to perform 10 Minutes with her hot dancers?  I certainly hope so.  I didn't know most of the other k-pop stars, but the girls went crazy over the guy singers.  Throughout several k-pop performances that lasted for 3 hours, I got annoyed of all the Korean girls around me screaming and shouting for all of the guy singers.  My ears were hurting.  They were playing musical chairs, walking around me, and standing on chairs in front of me, blocking my view of anything that was on stage.   I took pictures with my digital camera whenever I had the chance, but I didn't think the pictures looked that great.  The concert was nearly over and my hope of seeing Lee Hyori performing was fading. 

Then, it happened.  I heard the first few beats of 10 Minutes.  My heart skipped a beat.  Is she really performing?  The music stopped.  Bad timing?  Then, she came out.  Dressed differently in a pink outfit showing her midrif.  Her pink tights down to her knees.  And her dancers with her.  Showing more skin than what they showed in their performances in Korea.  They were wearing either short shorts or short skirts.  Shapely bodies.  Nice asses.  Great legs.  Now, this is eye candy.  The girls that were screaming when the guys were singing stepped down from their chairs.  Insecurity?  Probably.  I smiled.  The dancers and Hyori gathered around each other and struck a pose.  Then, the music started again.  And they danced.  Hyori didn't sing.  She lip-synced.  But only to dance with her dancers.  Their movements were fluid and, thanks to their sexy outfits and fantastic bodies, they were spectacular.  I shook my head once, smiled to myself, and looked around to see how everybody else was taking it.  To my back right, I noticed a young Korean girl looking at me, probably curious of my obvious enthusiasm.  She was thinking, "This guy is here only for her."

I loved every minute of it.  But I really couldn't see Hyori and her dancers that well with all the people in front of me, so I was forced to look up to my left at the big screen showing Hyori dancing.  I also stood up on my toes just to try to get a better view of the stage.  I couldn't stand it!  I was there to clearly see them dance in person and their performance was nearly over so I nearly stumbled getting up on an empty chair in front of me to take several pictures.  And then I stopped.  Just to peacefully take in the dying moments of their breathtaking performance... 

After that, I was inspired.  I felt obessed.  I didn't care about anything or anyone else but Lee Hyori.  Boa performed next and people cheered her on more than they did for Hyori.  I wasn't impressed.  I didn't care.  Boa's nothing compared to Hyori.  At least, in terms of looks.  When the concert ended at around 4:15 PM, I walked around the park, took the subway back to Manhattan, and then went to Chinatown where I met up with my cousin to eat at a really good Chinese restaurant.  Afterwards, we went to Korea Town to look for Hyori's album.  Found it.  And I bought it with a poster. The guy that I bought it from kneeled towards my ear, held my shoulder, and said in Korean, "Listening to her music is like taking Viagra."  The girls in the store laughed.  I said goodbye to my cousin and went home.

At the mall, I'm going to get Fadz to make me a t-shirt out of the poster.  I'm going to get the poster framed.  And I'm going to buy another copy of Hyori's album so that I can cut out and frame each of her sleeve pictures. Maybe I'll put them on my desk at work so that when I do taxes in the spring, I won't go crazy.  I'll have Lee Hyori to keep me sane.

She's changed my life.  Raised my standards.  And here's how.  Every girl out there that's either fat, thin, pretty, average, or ugly, no matter who they are, they will always give their boyfriends problems.  Now, here's my logic: if that's the case, then why would I waste my time with a girl that doesn't look anything like Lee Hyori?  I'd rather have problems with a girl that looked like Hyori than with a girl that wasn't so hot.  If I can't get a girl that doesn't look as good as her, then I'd rather stay single.  And How do I get a girl as pretty as her? you ask?  I need my CPA license.  I need a 6-figure salary.  I need a body.  And a better face.  If I can't get a girl like her, then I probably don't deserve her.  It would mean that I wasn't successful enough with myself to get a girl like her.  But I'm gonna try.  And there's always mail-order.  It's probably the best way to go about getting a really hot Korean girl, because I wouldn't have to waste my time dating her only to not have her in the end.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not superficial.  And I do have a heart.  It's just that, now, I'm a whole lot smarter.