Well, I was thinking that it was time to customize my own theme.  So I went online and used the wuhan theme as the base and customized my own graphics.  I’ve focused solely on writing technical blogs and hope to be able to begin writing some blogs that are more geared towards my martial arts background as well.  I feel I have a lot to offer the blogging community in that realm as I have quite a bit of experience studying the Korean martial arts.  Don’t worry, I will continue to blog about technology, especially Ruby on Rails development which Apriux seems to be focusing on lately.  Let me know your thoughts and critiques on this new theme.  The old one just didn’t seem all that eye-appealing like this one.

It’s been about a month since graduating with a Bachelors Degree in Information Systems from Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management and things have been going really well. Together with my partner, Jimmy Zimmerman, we’ve started a web consulting business called Apriux LLC. We have a site under construction at www.apriux.com. So far it’s been quite successful and are busy developing a handful of php and ruby applications. Our clients are great and in the next month or so you should begin seeing some of the sites go online.

Our current technologies have been CAKE PHP and Ruby on RAILS.  CAKE is a derivative of the popular RAILS framework and really speeds up the development of php projects.  Our preferred language is Ruby as the RAILS framework was designed specifically for Ruby.

We’re always looking for new projects and if anyone is needing, or knows of anyone needing, web development done, I hope you’ll bring them my way.  We’re also in the process of looking for skilled CAKE PHP and  Ruby on Rails developers to help us complete some of our projects.

Friday was the big day.  I’ve been looking forward to completing this last semester of school for quite a while.  I’ve been really wrapped up in my work that school had been placed on the backburner and thought of more of a nuisance than anything else.  Friday was the first day of finals and I ended up taking all 4 of my finals in the same day.  I started at 8:00 am and finished around 8:00 pm.  Crazy I know, but it sure feels good to be done.  I’ll be walking next Friday, graduating from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Systems.

As for a career, I’ve decided to partner up with Jimmy Zimmerman and form a web consulting firm called Apriux.  We’re specializing in Ruby and PHP development and take care of all of your online needs:  business consulting, marketing, ad words campaigns, SEO, as well as your typical design and development of online softwares.  I really enjoy web development and I believe Jimmy and I will be able to create a viable business.

As of now, we don’t have a physical location, though we are in the process of getting a business license.  I plan on keeping everyone posted on how things are going.  For now, I’m just excited to graduate finally.  We’ll stay in Provo over the summer, but eventually would like to move to the Salt Lake area.  The reason for the move will be to eventually open a martial arts school someone in the area.  If anyone has an idea of a good location, I’m open at this point. 

Alright, I’ve gotten multiple comments on my new, and blank Confucian blog.  I guess I should’ve posted my previous post after I had already created a post.  But go ahead and take a peek at my first blog post on the writings of Confucius.  Again, I’m taking a business ethics class so all of my posts (or most of them) will be centered around how a Confucian would reason and analyze an ethical dilemma.  I admit, I’m not an expert at Confucian thought so if anyone out there (KORY!) knows more about Confucius, by all means, comment away and steer me in the right direction.

This semester I’m taking a Business Ethics class. Part of the class deals with choosing piece of literature or theater that deals with ethics. I have always had a passion for Eastern thought and believed that this would be a perfect opportunity to learn and understand about the Chinese Classic, The Analects by Confucius. Together with a friend, Daniela Cisternas, we will be reading the Analects and posting frequent comments about our findings. I hope that some of you will visit this new blog and make comments as this will help us gain a better grade in the class. I also think it will have some extremely interesting content. The site is at confucius.corralesonline.com.

I’ve been tagged by Jimmy Zimmerman for the blog tag game. Apparently, it’s been going around the blogosphere lately. Here’s the 5 things you don’t yet know about me:

1. Entrepreneur at 15. When I started my freshman year in high school, I decided to build my own martial arts school business. My current instructor, Oliver Whitcomb lived 2 and a half hours away. I lived in Challis, Idaho at the time. With his permission, I opened a branch school, which I fully operated for four years. Throughout high school, I was able to maintain a positive cash flow. I taught immediately after school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Thursday I would drive 5 hours round trip to seek instruction from my instructor. Teaching martial arts is actually my first passion in life. I am currently a third degree black belt in Soo Bahk Do and a certified instructor under the US Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation.
2. Hollywood Moment. I actually got to know a real Hollywood actress. My martial arts instructor began dating this actress around 2000. When I would visit my mentor, his girlfriend would allow me to stay at her place in the guest room. She even attended my second degree black belt test and gave me a hug on the occasion. From the experience, I found out that most actors and actresses are very driven and hard-working people.
3. Outdoorsy. In the summer, there’s nothing I like better than to be in the mountains. Growing up in small town Idaho, I gained a love early on for the outdoors. I love to fish both with a pole and a fly rod. I’ve even learned to tie my own flies. Honestly, there’s no better sense of fulfillment than tying your own fly, catching a fish with the fly you tied, and cooking that fish over an open campfire. Though I’ve found quite a few good spots here in Utah to fish, nothing compares to some of the remote lakes I used to fish in Idaho. Besides fishing, I love to go backpacking. My first backpacking trip was when I was about 9. I remember taking the toilet paper and the snacks. I remember growing up, my dad and I would take 3 to 4 days and backpack into the heartland of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Those are probably some of my favorite memories.
4. World Traveler. During my life, I’ve visited 3 additional continents to North America. In 2000, I went with a group of martial artists to Korea to represent the Northern Rocky Mountain States in a countryside tour and demonstration of Soo Bahk Do. I spent two weeks there and absolutely loved it! I’m of Korean decent, so it was a rather emotional trip for me as well. Between 2003 and 2005, I served a volunteer mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brazil. I served in the most southern state called the Rio Grande do Sul. I loved the time and learned to speak fluent Portuguese and learned to love the culture and people down there. Finally, I was fortunate enough to find my sweet wife, Helena, in my astronomy class at BYU. She happens to be a Swiss citizen and her father still lives there. After we got married, he flew us out there to visit. I spent two wonderful weeks there getting to know Helena’s family and hiking some incredibly tall mountains. Her dad lives in St. Gallen, near the Santis Mountain range. Neither the Italian or Swiss Alps were close to where we were but the terrain there is absolutely beautiful!
5. Stargate Addict. Yup, maybe you haven’t even heard of Stargate but it’s a TV series that plays on the SCI-FI channel. It all started with a movie that was released back in the 90’s. I think it was such a big hit that they made a series out of it, but who knows. It’s been airing for 10 years now and I haven’t missed an episode. OK, there were two years where I didn’t watch it at all while I was in Brazil, but don’t you worry, when I came back, I made sure I had time to catch up. When Stargate is on, you’ll know where to find me.

So to keep this going, I tag Jeff Rosenbaugh. Oh, and btw, HAPPY NEW YEAR!