directory: here you can find links to older stuff in addition to the current stuff. self-explanatory.

words: my journal entries. the crux of this page, a "thoughts page." not well-written, not well thought-out, and not that interesting. let's be a bit more positive. if you know me, you might enjoy my entries, bc they're more personal that way, you might know the people i talk about, and you get to see another side of me. if you don't know me, i'm not sure what you'll find here to interest you, but maybe something will surprise/anger/resonate with/entertain (unlikely)/comfort you. but anyone who decides to read these entries needs must labor through my confounding prose. sorry. had i more time, i would try to make my entries more engaging and less sloppy for my readers, but even if i tried there'd be no guarantee.

quickies: random shorter thoughts, bits of articles, songs, books, occasional responses to friends' thoughts pages.

mulan flower club: there's a story behind this one. if you've seen Disney's movie, Mulan, then you know that the main character, Mulan, was a "late-bloomer." i think the theme quote from the movie was something to the effect of, when the last bud to bloom finally blossoms, it's beautiful, referring to Mulan, who feels like she's somehow behind or lost in the game of life. anyway, leaving the safe world of college after four years there, some of my friends and i felt very directionless and um, very jobless too. we could have used a little more perspective on life (i still can use that), but honestly, it was a bad feeling, and hard not to compare yourself to the rest of the bright-eyed, fully-resume-ed graduates charging down the "road to success," and feel like a failure and waste of an excellent education.

anyhow, so my friends des, sonyong, and i took a trip to see the grand canyon during our last spring break, and i think when we were at des's home (or else in Sedona), we watched Mulan. and we started to call ourselves the late-bloomers. thus started the "mulan flower club," which wasn't a club at all. just an inside joke, really, that made us feel a little less alone in not knowing what the next step was. anyhow, so i think the mulan people were des, sonyong, me, eunice, and mary. sonyong cracked me up bc she mournfully said she did NOT want to be in this club, didn't want to be a late-bloomer! ha ha�

anyhow, so i devoted a portion of my page in honor of the mulan flower club. meant to house encouraging things. mostly reminders of God's faithfulness, love, and grace. however, i haven't done much with this part of my page so far, and it's sort of heavy on the theology. but hopefully i'll put more things up this year.

jack: AKA the infamous jack.html. don't ask me about the origins of this page, there is some heated debate on the subject of authorship/creatorship. it is currently maintained by danny chai, who holds autonomous power over whether or not you are labeled a person who nearly never updates. it's basically a collection of links to thought pages maintained by people in danny's circle of friends and acquaintances and in-betweens (i think). i know roughly 65% of the people who currently have active thoughts pages listed on jack.html, and read them when they're updated. in addition are meta jack links, some other useful links of common interest (e.g. news), and at the bottom, a link to a great page of bookmarks (e.g. internet shopping, movie scripts).

this page exists primarily as a way to keep in touch with friends i don't get to see/talk with as often as i'd like. my original thoughts page was born sometime in the spring of 1999, during my last year of college. henry hsu patiently taught me practically all 15 commands i know in html/unix, let me pretty much carbon copy the style of his page, and offered a solution for a new page when my college account expired.

i became possessed with the idea of having a thoughts page from exposure to danny chai, dave hong, and henry hsu's original thoughts pages (who in turn give credit for the concept to clara kim's page). basically, i thought it was a great way to communicate day-to-day thoughts and doings between friends once college ended and everyone dispersed, a la, one's in japan, one's in israel, one's on the east coast, one's on the west coast, etc.

i've done my best to get some my close gal-friends to also put up online journals, but to little avail. sigh. but maybe one day. one problem, of course, is that to pour out your heart the way you'd like to when you journal, can be a little unwise when putting it up on the world wide web. but to me, the benefits are worth the trouble of watching what you say, and i will journal separately when i need to. plus, there is no pressure to put up an entry every day, not even every month, actually.

there are simply thoughts that i want to share, sometimes to no particular audience, other times specifically for my friends, and for which phone and email aren't as good mediums. and there are people i'd like to stay in touch with, but we wouldn't regularly write or call. also, it's a challenge to keep up with what's happening in my friends' lives, and vice versa when you're long-distance. i like to think my page makes it a little easier.

anyway, thanks for visiting! i hope you find something of interest here, and if there's something you'd like to say, please feel free to email me at: mail@darkim.com. enjoy!