Secret Asian Man

And the next destination is...

2010-07-07T00:09:00.002+09:00

So after committing to Tokyo a few months ago, I decided to go ahead and change my mind at the last second and go in a completely different direction.

How different? Well, still in Asia but a bit further than originally expected.

I will now be moving to Hochiminh City (formerly Saigon), Vietnam in September of 2010 after over 6 years of residence in Seoul. A hard decision but one that will more than likely prove to be the best choice I could have made.

There is much to write about and much to be done before the final move so I hope to update about the situation a little more indepth with my next post which I promise won't be 3 months from now.

A few things I have to cover:
- Reflecting on my time in Korea
- How the Vietnam decision was made
- How this alters my journey for the next few years

I will finally be getting my life back from my soon-to-be-former employers which will allow me more time to write and reflect so I hope to find my pre-2010 form in the coming months.

More to come soon...

Korean Train Card

2010-04-16T13:01:00.005+09:00

Riding the trains in Seoul is a generally pleasant experience in my opinion. For many years I swore by the train system here and used it to basically get me anywhere I was going. I think I went a solid 3 years without ever taking a bus. However, since my move 6 months ago, I've found that I am always taking buses and rarely hop on the train anymore. I guess I'm a bit nostalgic about the whole thing.

Unlike some of the stories you may hear from people who ride the train in Seoul, I can only think of one bad experience while riding them and it involved an old drunk guy at 9am. Outside of that I can count a few weird experiences and perhaps a few interesting ones but most of the time being on a train here meant I was in for a pretty mundane experience.

One of the interesting/flat out funny things I ran into on the train, and the center of this post, is a little card that I found a guy hanging up in the corners of posters one fine Tuesday morning while I on my way to work. I've actually had this card for probably about a year so I guess posting about it now goes hand in hand with my general level of procrastination when it comes to this blog.

In any case, here are pictures of both sides of the card:

For those who lack Korean abilities, allow me to translate the important portions of this card. First, the big letters in the middle read "Marry a North Korean (Woman)." Some of the other important parts read "We guarantee they'll have strong home values and attractive features." They also repeat a phrase at the bottom left "남남복녀" which is an old belief (I'm not sure how prevalant it is today) that the best marriages happen between a South Korean male and a North Korean woman. Finally, we end with the fact that you have the option of picking woman between their 20s and 60s.

Now this isn't too strange to me to be honest. I've seen these kinds of advertisements before and not just for North Korean woman but also for Vietnamese woman and Cambodian woman. What made me pick up this card and keep it in my wallet for the last year is the back side of the card which looks like this:

Basically the top just reads "Believe in Jesus our savior!" and the line underneath it reads "..and you and your family will secure salvation." I won't get into translating the block text as its just a quote from the bible but here is the funny part. Look at the phone numbers from both sides of the card. It's the same phone number!

So basically, you can call this one number and either get yourself a hot, spankin' new North Korean wife or get some Christian consultation. Maybe you can do both at the same time? I'm working up the courage to call this number and see what its all about but I don't think I could contain myself from laughing as soon as they picked up. What could their company greeting be?

"Hello, you've reached Jesus's North Korean Wife placement service. Red or repent department?"

Make up your own.

The Beginning of the End - Seoul Version

2010-03-15T12:52:00.004+09:00

No, I haven't completely forsaken my blog though I'm sure one might think so since there hasn't been a new post in almost 4 months. What can I say? I'm good at pretending I'm busy.

So let's see, what's happened since the end of November?

My trip home for all of December was copacetic as usual. Since I had a full month this time and not 2 weeks like usual I didn't have my normal whirlwind of activities that always resulted in my going back feeling more tired than when I left. This time I spent the first full week recovering from jet lag and relaxing while watching the dark circles under my eyes slowly dissipate. Some things stayed the same as usual (hanging out with family, getting trashed with friends) and some things were new and different (having the lady visit for 2 weeks from Korea, meeting old classmates from grammar school) but overall, it was a nice, relaxing visit. Spending Christmas time at home for the first time since 2004 was also pretty nice because I forgot how nice a real Christmas tree in your home can look when its not 1 1/2 feet tall and covered with dust. I'm thinking I might actually try to squeeze down there again for this Christmas so I'll see how it goes.

Other than that, its been mostly getting back into work and acclimating myself to my new role. I've been promoted to manager (과장) and so I must now take on the added responsibility that that title brings. Granted, this is a seniority-based promotion (meaning my hard work means diddly squat) and though I disagree with the methods in place for performance based reviews and work merit, that is a long series of posts reserved for another day. In the meantime I'll bask in the fact that I've managed to work here for so long without killing anyone.

A few weeks ago I got a small break from work and went to Tokyo for 5 days as is my habit for birthdays lately. I ended up hanging out with Doug and showing my friend Carl around before he went back state-side. Needless to say my liver was pretty spent upon my return. Gotta love Tokyo.

Finally, I have decided the next step I'm going to take after Korea, along with my significant other. After living out the rest of 2010 here in Seoul I will be moving back to Tokyo for an as-yet undetermined amount of time (probably a year). I decided a long while ago that 2010 would be my last year here in Seoul and though I will miss the country, people and friends I have here, I've decided that 6 1/2 years is quite long enough. There is too much of a draw for me to return to Tokyo and would like to spend some more time there before the willingness to live in another country besides my own leaves me. I will post more on this as things move along. In the meantime, I plan on enjoying my last full round of 4 seasons here in Seoul.

At least my blog title can still stay "Secret Asian Man".

Chicago Trip Part IV

2009-11-25T10:05:00.003+09:00

Almost a solid 3 months since my last post. 2009 hasn't been a great year for my blog so I guess I'll need to see if I can step it up moving into 2010.

The first new thing that happened so far since my last post is that I've moved fully into my new apartment. It was kind of sad to leave my Hongdae apartment of 3 years but at the same time I felt I needed something bigger. And I got it. The new place is roughly 3 1/2 times the size of my old apartment and comes with a full roof that only I use. The other good news is that it didn't cost much more than the old place and is actually closer to work. All in all I think it was a good move. I'll post pictures of the place once I get a new camera so I'm assuming you understand that it won't happen anytime soon.

Other than settling into the new digs, I've just been getting accustomed to my new area and working at the company as usual. The new area offers a wider spectrum of foreign restaurants and is situated more in the central of Seoul so I now have equidistant access to every part of the city. One of the negatives is that I drink more than I probably should in my new surroundings but I attribute that mostly to being able to see friends I normally haven't been able to meet so often.

Work has been keeping me busy as usual. Along with the normal bevy of reports, presentations, trainings and whatnot, I've been focusing on raising sales for the year end budget to pad my numbers. I'm also looking at a promotion in March and will officially be a manager. Besides all that's going on, the winds of change are starting to blow again and 2010 is looking to be a year of big changes for me careerwise. More on this as it develops.

This brings us finally to the title of the post-- my latest upcoming trip to Chicago. After what will prove to be a trying 10 days of work, work and more work, I will be flying back home for the longest vacation I've had since 2006 when I first started this blog. I'll be back from December 4th until January 1st and I'm looking forward to spending time with the family and friends. Considering I'll have a full month this time, I expect to also be able to get some much needed relaxation time in as well. I'm thinking I'll use this blog as a mini-schedule keeper for me in a future blog post so I can keep track of my plans.

Pics and vids to follow.

Moving and Other Updates

2009-08-27T09:51:00.002+09:00

So I'm down to averaging less than a post per month in 2009.

I'm not going to continue to make excuses for my lack of posting because its getting too monotonous though I will say that once a few things are off my plate, I hope to get back to more regular posting. In retrospect, I think that one of the main reasons I've been posting so infrequently this year is due to a lack of any sort of focus for the blog itself. I've been debating turning this into something that has more of a focus on some aspect of Korea (and Asia in general) that I am interested in so we'll see what's on the horizon for that. I'm thinking something a little less covered in the general Korean blogosphere and I'm definitely staying away from the general social critiques and news bits because the market is flooded with that already. I'm always up for ideas.

As far as updates go, the first big news is that I'm moving out of my one-room in Hongdae after 3 years into much bigger digs in Noksapyeong. The moving date is Sept 10th and I've got a lot of prep to do and loose ends to tie up. It's kind of sad moving out of Hongdae since I've been living there for so long and it is, without a doubt, a very fun and interesting place to live but I guess its time to move on. I'll post pics of the new place after I get settled.

Other than that, I've confirmed my trip home for the entire month of December. While I'm thinking I might spend about a total of a week of that time stopping by friends in Tokyo and LA, even with that time cut out this will be the longest I've been home since I left for Seoul again back in 2005. It's also going to be the first Christmas I've had at home since 2004 so meeting family and friends should be pleasant. Only 3 months left till that goes down.

Work is work and always will be I guess. I've actually got a mid year review in about an hour or so where I get to listen to my boss tell me about my perceived strengths and weaknesses while I do the same for her and the company. Overall it should be fun and I'm pretty sure I'm in good graces due to my really, really good sales numbers thus far this year. I guess we'll see what happens.

As I said, I hope to get back to posting more often after I finish moving so to all three people who still routinely follow my blog: I ask for just a little more patience. Thanks.

Wow, really?

2009-07-10T13:35:00.003+09:00

I turn my back for what felt like a moment and it's already been a month and a half since my last post? Jeez, talk about slacking.

Okay, so I'll keep this update short and try to get back to my recapping of the first half of '09 over the weekend. Since I no longer have a camera I'm a little short of pics but I'll try to snatch some off of facebook to make up for it.

On the work front I've been in contract negotiations and renegotiations for the last month or so and I'm trying to gauge whether or not its in my best interests to stay at my company. Talks have been somewhat fruitful but there still remains much to be discussed and the clock is slowly ticking on the last 4 months of my contract. Hopefully we can come to an solution within the next month so I can at least start mapping out the next few years of my life. Will I be here in Korea 2010? Will I be back in the US? Will I be somewhere completely new? The next few months should help me find my answer. Stay tuned for updates.

Outside of that, I've been getting out a lot with friends lately as is my tradition in the summer months. I've attended a few birthday parties, a few random gatherings and will soon be going to my annual round of farewell parties as some of my teacher friends begin their inevitable treks home. I haven't done as much travelling as I would have liked but hopefully the end of this month (Jeju-do?) and next month (Japan?) will remedy that. I also hope to get a few more Han River gatherings and barbecues in as well. I hope to be posting pictures soon.

So until the weekend, that's my update.

Fuck You, Freddy Krueger

2009-05-26T15:23:00.002+09:00

This is a break in my 6 month recap quest and for a very good reason.

Background:

I was engaged in deep conversation with Liam over a beer as has been frequently happening lately and we were discussing some of the finer questions in life such as:

"If you could murder 3 people and get away with it, who would they be?"
"If you could be friends with 5 fictional characters, who would they be?"
etc.

So while talking about these oh deepest of questions, we went off on some random tangent and somehow got on the topic of Freddy Krueger.

Freddy Krueger used to scare the shit out of me when I was a kid. I don't exactly remember why but the cheese grater face and sharp knives probably had something to do with it. I hadn't spend a single iota of time in the past 15 years thinking about him until yesterday and now that I've given him some proper thought at my adult age, I've decided that Freddy Krueger is a dick.

Who the fuck attacks people after they go to sleep? That's a real bitch move. I come home from a long day at work, spend a few short moments entertaining myself, and as soon as I go to sleep, BAM!, some fuck with scissor fingers and a Dennis the Menace adult size sweater pops out and kills me. I can't even get a little REM sleep? Really? You, my friend, are a dick. Grow some balls and try to kill me when I'm awake or better yet, when I'm on my way to work. At least then you helped me out a little.

Conclusion:

Fuck you, Freddy Kreuger.

Christmas '08 Recap

2009-05-24T10:45:00.012+09:00

Christmas is traditionally when people gather together with family and/or friends to eat, drink and be merry.

When you are an expat it's pretty much the same except your friends take the spot of your family and a lot more emphasis is put on the "drink" aspect.

Such was my 2008 Christmas.

Me and some friends managed to don our gay apparel and do some caroling around the major areas of Seoul and made about 60,000 Won in 20 minutes to donate to the Salvation Army. The reason for only doing it for about 20 minutes was because we kept getting kicked out of locations by angry security guards with no penises. After that, we went out and celebrated.

At the tree in Samsung Station

Close up of at the tree in Samsung Station

In the subway, waiting for the train

Awesome and Creepy. The bro-chain me, dude-wife and Glen are making is the best.

Now, while this didn't happen on Christmas Day (I explained my actual Christmas in a previous post), when I think of "Christmas 2008" these are the memories that pop in my head.

Lallygaggin'

2009-05-19T10:28:00.005+09:00

That's essentially what I've been doing so far in 2009 in regards to my blog.

I'm not going to lie, there have been times where I have considered scrapping this internet ego-stroke altogether and given the frequency of my posts lately I'm sure some of you probably thought I've done just that.

Well, I haven't. Not yet anyways.

In an attempt to catch up to where I should be, I'm going to put up a series of posts about the last six months or so and probably glaze over things I may have posted about already. These may or may not contain pictures but I will add them when necessary.

I will be starting out with a new breakdown of Christmas 2008 and work my way forward until I get to present day May including my most recent trip to Japan. Hopefully I can get dude wife to post his Chicago pics by late this week.

Expect quick succession people!

So in the meantime, enjoy this video of me jumping into the pool at Club Ageha in Tokyo.

An Example of Problem Solving at a Korean Company

2009-04-22T16:30:00.004+09:00

Technically its an American company that I work at but when 99% of the workforce are Koreans, I guess its pretty safe to say they are adopting the "when in Rome.." line of cultural relativism pretty well.

(I hate that line by the way)

In any case, here is a recent, personal example of how sometimes problems get "resolved" within a Korean company. Not to perpetuate any blanket stereotypes but when statistical evidence shows your country has the longest work hours of any industrialized country in the world while only barely hanging in the middle half of productivity, you've got some efficiency issues.

So, we've recently started a campaign called "Happy Wednesday" (yeah, I know) here at the ol' company. Essentially it's an attempt at culling some of the extremely obnoxious hours that some of us work here by telling us that no matter what, we have to go home on Wednesdays by 5pm. The first week it came into action we were actually told that the lights were going to be turned out on us by 5:30.

Yeah, so let me process this through my limited mental facilities.

Instead of attacking the REAL issues as to why we have so much work to begin with, we are just being told that no matter what, we have to go home at 5pm. We have to tell our clients this (Leave at 5pm?!?! Inconceivable!) and also magically make our work disappear for the day. If for some reason we get past all of the managers telling us to shoo and end up working past 5pm anyways, we need to get a special form endorsed by three separate managing entities. I don't know about you but to me this seems pretty shitheaded.

Let's discuss the realities of this campaign.

1) It was obviously cooked up by HR, a group who is routinely involved in making decisions about things they have no idea about.
2) It really does nothing but push the work load from one day to another essentially making people now have to work later during the other days of the week or on the weekend.
3) It addresses the real issues behind the obnoxious workload by....ignoring them.
4) Is something I suspect was created so they could put up a bunch of dumb yellow posters with smiley faces all over the office with the words "Happy ____" on them.
5) Is obviously completely fucking stupid.

Too add to this, not 2 days after the first week of this goes by I hear this conversation:

Manager type: "Hey, how is everything going?"
Grunt type: "Oh hey, pretty well. Just trying to finish this up and get out of here on time today."
Manager type: "On time? It isn't Happy Wednesday you know."

Yeah.

First post of 2009 in March

2009-03-06T14:26:00.007+09:00

Yeah, I'm a douchebag.

Now that we got that out of our system, let's move on.

So lots of stuff has been happening since the last time I updated back around Christmas. I don't have a lot of time to get into too much detail so here is an abbreviated list:

*Christmas Eve was kind of balls to the walls with drinking so I spent most of Christmas Day nursing a hangover and eventually watched the new "The Day the Earth Stood Still". One of the most horrible movies I've ever seen. You have brought shame on us part-asian-but-still-look-white guys with that one, Keanu.

*New Years in Busan was great fun. Though some 14 of us ended up freezing our asses off at the heater-less hotel room the first night after coming in at 7am from the clubs, the second night in the uber-pimp new hotel room more than made up for it. I love sashimi.

*New team and new opportunities at work. I now head up "Global Services" which gives me a great chance to make some new sales. I've been doing just that with about fifty grand worth of new sales so far since January. New ideas currently brewing for work, will post more after I've implemented them.

*First basketball game of the new year and bam! re-dislocated my left pinky finger. Fuck you ball. It is currently shaped like a pig tail and actually set me back about 2 months for lifting since I couldn't grip anything. Of course I used that as an excuse to stop going to the gym altogether and have managed to gain back a little of my former belly. Nothing like a little extra padding for the cold months. I'll get back into it after my trip home.

*Trip to Japan for my birthday with Micah. Managed to meet up my bro and thanks to Doug's hospitality had a nice place to sleep and shower every night. The big night out was Saturday when we did the all you can eat/drink boat ride, all you can drink karaoke and Club Ageha, the biggest club in Asia. Doug has a video of me jumping into the roof pool so bug him for the links after he posts it. Of course my brother in his infinite wisdom decided to go out, waste all of his battery power trying to call us at 8 in the morning and then make me, Doug and Micah come to him while calling my Mom and asking her to call me. Douche nozzle. Despite his best efforts, we finally managed to meet up and lo and behold, he has 11,000 yen in his pocket. For those of you who don't know, 11,000 yen is nowhere near enough money to have a good night out in Tokyo so of course big bro had to spot him. All in all a great time. Thanks to all for coming out and extra special thanks to ol' felkface Doug for letting us crash.

*My B-day/Micah's going away party. I wanted to have another party in Seoul for my birthday and since dude wife was leaving we decided to mash the two together. We made it a "silver suit" party since Korea is the only place that still sells these abortions from the 80s. Here is the result of that:

Uber-pimp, I know. From left: Dude wife, Glen, Drew, Shaun, Me, Kevin and Dave.

It's sad to see another friend of mine leave Korea but I've been there and done that so many times now its become routine. The party was probably the best one we've had when you include all of the efforts for the look so we sent ol' Micah back with style. Cheers to us.

* Next week: Back to Chicago!

I'll post more once I get back. Until then, look at this:

Merry Christmas 2008

2008-12-24T13:56:00.003+09:00

Merry Christmas everyone. Have a safe and happy holidays as we await the coming 2009 year.

I hope you are looking forward to it as much as I am.

So I've been busy

2008-12-11T15:44:00.003+09:00

I know I have a lot of photos and stories I am still behind on so I hope to get one or two of those out of the way this coming weekend when work dies down. I still haven't posted on my trip down to Muido and that happened like 3 months ago now. Jeez. I'll get on it soon, I promise.

So anyways, 2008 is almost over and I still can't believe how fast it went by. I guess my routine lately hasn't given me too much time to sit back and reflect on all that happened this year but I'm looking forward to two 4-day weekends coming up around Christmas so hopefully there will be some time then. I was planning on going home for Christmas but a combination of a horrible exchange rate and dickweed clients has made me put off my trip home yet again. This time I'm thinking I won't get home until April-ish.

Why April? Well, allow me to elucidate my fiendish plan for the first 1/3rd of 2009.

First, starting in January I will be attending Korean language courses in the evening during the weekdays. Since I haven't officially studied any Korean in over 2 years, I thought it was about time to finally get some sort of certification and actually improve my language abilities in ways besides bullshitting with co-workers and arguing with old guys. The program runs until the end of March and I'm hoping that it will at least bolster what I already know. We'll see I guess.

Second, my work schedule will remain the same for the most part with the exception of adding a couple clients and dropping a couple more. I probably won't see too much of a workload increase but I have been wrong before. 2009 is going to be all about managing time for work since I'll have to leave at 5:30 sharp every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday to get to classes on time and won't be able to work any of that wonderful, unpaid overtime on those days. I guess it just means I'll be making it up on the weekends behind my trusty little laptop. Yay.

On top of work and classes, I've also realized that if I want to continue exercising like I have been I'll have to switch from evenings to morning at the gym. This means I have to drag my tired ass out of bed at 6am sharp if I want to go at all. Considering the fact I have rarely gotten up before 7:30am this past 2 years, I guess I need to start working on that now. Damn.

Add to these three activities my ability to get sidetracked by things like reading, fooling around on the internet and occasionally throwing everything up in the air with a big "fuck it" and going out with friends, I'm in for a much busier lifestyle for the first three-four months of 2009.

Did I say I've been busy? Shit, I guess I'm just getting started.

Halloween 2008 - The Monarch

2008-11-04T13:49:00.004+09:00

I present to you my 2008 Halloween costume. I dare you to find me a better The Monarch, I dare you. If you don't know the Venture Brothers yet, you best to educate yourself.

I have made it my vow to win every Halloween costume contest in Seoul from now on. I'm sure I could have won this year if I could have made it to the judging in time. That leaves a whole year to plot...

More pics to follow.

No Chorus

2008-10-29T15:34:00.003+09:00

I haven't been able to add many pictures lately since I've lost my camera but I plan on posting a whole montage of the last few months on Sunday. It will be composed of pics from friends' facebook postings and will show what I've been up to since late-summer.

The pic events included will be:

1) Trip to Muido from Chuseok
2) Dave's Wedding
3) This coming Halloween party
4) Random spots around Seoul where cool pictures were taken

I guess that about sums it up so be on the look out come Sunday.

*Note: From now on, whenever I can't think of a good title for a blog posting, I'm going to call it one of my favorite rap tracks from back in the day. That should open the door to literally thousands of title choices so I'm not stuck thinking about them anymore. If you can correctly guess what it is, I'll buy you a drink.

I'm regretting this already

2008-10-10T00:01:00.004+09:00

I rarely check my gmail account. Mainly due to the fact that I have an msn, yahoo, aol and work email account, I've probably checked it 3 times in the past 4 years. So today, out of sheer morbid curiousity, I logged in to see what I had going on in there. Now since the only thing I run out of my gmail account is this blog (jappy.chan@gmail.com, clever I know) the only mails I found in it are related to it.

So lets see...

I've missed 3 job offers from random headhunters in the past 7 months who happened to stumble upon my blog and find out a)I'm a young American living in Korea and b) I work at a professional job. Some of the offers weren't that bad but honestly, based on the above credentials, is that really enough to want to offer me a job? Really? If so, I like the chances I have once I do decide to once again test the job market. Fingers big and crossed.

I received a mail from some place called VerveEarth which apparently wants to start a site where you can look up blogs by geographical location. This is a cool idea I guess but there are several, far more well maintained, useful blogs in this country and I wouldn't want to take up space. I'll keep it in mind in case this blog evolves sometime in the future. (Hint: not likely)

Finally, I found the gem and the very reason for the title of this entry. This email was so good I have to copy and paste it verbatim:

I came across ur blog w/ a goggle search for "gay Korea." Are u indeed a gay Russian in Korea? Sometime searches are weird.... and the content is even weirder ;)... I taught in Daejeon last year, looking for a good ticket Seoul this year--any tips?...

--Kevin

Okay, take your moment to laugh.

Finished?

Okay.

Now, I obviously had a few new things to ponder in my brain trove after this doozy of an email.

First, why google search "gay Korea"? Besides the obvious reasons, I'm just thinking there are special sites that already cater to that. I mean, when I'm in the mood for porn believe me when I say I've already got a bunch of sites lined up to go to when I click that browser. So why google search? Moving on.

Second, how the hell did he come up with a gay Russian living in Korea from my blog? Okay, living in Korea is easy, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned dealing with my client in Russia a couple times, but gay? Besides all the times it's popped up in this entry, how many times have I written the word "gay" on this blog? It must have been to describe some sort of gathering I attended but didn't enjoy or I was talking about Glen.

Finally, how creepy was that winking eye emoticon? I mean really, even if I were gay, you'd have to make a much better attempt at being flirtatious than that Kevin. Seriously. And this is coming from the guy who's best pick up line is "So, I've got 10 gigs of Looney Tunes on my computer at home, care to partake"?

Ouch

2008-10-08T17:16:00.002+09:00

For those of you not in Korea who don't know, while the US economy (the global economy for that matter) is in shambles at the moment, the exchange rate here has been taking quite a hit. In the past 4 days alone the exchange rate for the dollar has increased by over 200 won.

A personal account:

Back in 2007 I sent money home to my account in the US. The exchange rate was 948 Won to the Dollar. The exchange rate today closed at 1,395 Won to the Dollar. That means sending home 1,000,000 Won last year got me about $1,055. If I sent that same amount home today I would get me $717.

Like I said, ouch.

Awesome

2008-10-08T16:47:00.004+09:00

I love it at about 11 seconds in when he chases after the police. One would think at least one of them would have thought to deliver a swift kick to his generously exposed crotch area. Oh well.

Something tells me this will be Doug in like 15 years after he runs out of other outrageous stuff to do over in Japan.

10,000 won to the first foreign dude to this somewhere in Korea...

More fun with Babelfish

2008-09-23T11:21:00.003+09:00

This time, instead of getting a few laughs at the expense of friends, I decided to make a little quiz of sorts. Below are 10 lines quoted directly from famous (and some not so famous) movies that have been translated from English into Korean and then back into English through Babelfish. Some of them are pretty easy, some of them aren't. Let's see who can guess the correct quote and the movie it came from.

(Bonus points if you can tell me the actor/actress who said it.)

Let the game begin.

1. "Frankly, is valuable, does not give an imprecation"
2. "He will can refuse I to him and provided"
3. "I go against and until former times i ascend, is having i will always become and the shaft and"
4. "Me convey the welfare in the small friend"
5. "You stand about the wall and to be you say! where I say and your this i listen closely with! where"
6. "Is the first time rule of the combatant club and - you do not speak about the combatant club"
7. "In order calling who you? The ghost the person whom destroys"
8. "The trick which is most serious was understanding the world where demoniac he which comes to pull until now does not exist"
9. "The boy is a quality where the penis and the young girl are furnishing"
10. "You killed prepare the fact that dies my father."

Mandatory Gift Giving

2008-09-11T10:18:00.002+09:00

The one thing that has continually pissed me off while working my office job here in Korea (besides the fact that probably less than 30% of the males in my company wash their hands after they use the facilities) is the stupid mandatory gift giving that goes on so often.

Essentially we have a group of about 30 people who constitute my larger team. If its someone's birthday we all have to pool money to pick up the person a gift which varies in price depending on the level of the person. What happens is we get one of the interns or new people to the group to handle collection of the funds which, once again, is set based on the person's position. So in the end, I end up plunking out about 40-70,000 won per month ($40-$70) on this kind of stuff. In the end I'm spending close to a grand a year on this mandatory "show of gratitude" and it gets on my nerves.

I think the reason it pisses me off so much is because its mandatory. I also have the snot-nosed little interns chasing me around and nickel and diming me to death whenever its time to ante up. It probably wouldn't bother me so much if it wasn't just a huge charade.

Damn cockgobblers.

My Official 2008-2009 NBA Predictions

2008-09-05T15:06:00.003+09:00

Even though the NFL season just started and I joined a fantasy football league just a week ago, I still can't help but think about the upcoming NBA season (which starts in less than a month) and what's going to go down this year. I've never done a breakdown like this on paper (or in this case, on blog) but bear with me as I try to give my analysis on the coming season.

Eastern Conference

It was cool to see an Eastern Conference team win it all again last year (even if it was Boston) but this season it looks like the east will be even tougher. The 76ers are on the rise after adding Elton Brand (and Donyell Marshall) and keeping all of their crew from last year's playoff team. The Cavs ended up getting Mo Williams which is a great move for them and there was a lot of other player swapping between some of the mid-level teams during the offseason. Here is how I see the breakdown:

Atlantic Division

1st) Boston Celtics (so they lost Posey, but they did add Darius Miles which could be good)
2nd) Philadelphia 76ers (as I said, this team is going to kick some ass next year)
3rd) Toronto Raptors (nice add in Jermaine O'Neal, too bad they aren't in another division)
4th) New Jersey Nets (got rid of Jefferson, that is gonna cost them)
5th) New York Knicks (new coach and........yeah)

Central Division

1st) Cleveland Cavaliers (Lebron plus MoWill is going to be formidable, just hope they add that big man)
2nd) Detroit Pistons (I think this is the season age catches up with them, they will probably make some trades before the deadline)
3rd) Milwaukee Bucks ( added Jefferson from New Jersey so hopefully Villenueva steps the game up and Michael Redd isn't injured all the time)
4th) Chicago Bulls (even this might be pushing it but I really think Derrick Rose is going to be an all star in a few years)
5th) Indiana Pacers (I hate Reggie Miller and his stupid face)

Southeast Division

1st) Orlando Magic (Dwight Howard is a beast, there is nobody stopping this man underneath)
2nd) Washington Wizards (this is based on the fact that Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison all stay healthy, if they perform they might even take 1st)
3rd) Miami Heat (this team is potentially dangerous, Dwayne Wade is my favorite player in the NBA right now and when he is on, he is ALL day. If Beasley adds right away, and I'm sure he will, and Marion starts playing like he did in Phoenix, they will surprise people)
4th) Atlanta Hawks (I like their team and all but they got lucky most teams in this division were screwed because of injuries last year. Go Al Harford)
5th) Charlotee Bobcats (fuck an Emeka)

Western Conference

This conference is down right nuts. 50 win teams aren't even a guarantee to the playoffs and despite some of the talent moving east, its still rough to say they are anywhere close to being even yet. Some of the really good teams got even better (Houston, Portland) and some teams just switched their whole damn roster around (Clippers, Warriors). This is the conference to watch for some bad-ass, old school type games.

Southeast Division

1st) New Orleans Hornets (my favorite team last year added Posey but lost Pargo, I might be being biased here but Paul for MVP this year)
2nd) Houston Rockets (they added Artest-- if Luis Scola plays like he did in the Olympics and McGrady and Ming don't sit out 95 games, shit could hit the fan)
3rd) San Antonio Spurs (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009?....no I don't think so)
4th) Dallas Mavericks (Save Dirk and Josh Howard, burn the rest of em)
5th) Memphis Grizzlies (Marc Gasol is a beast and I think they also have the rights to Ricky Rubio in '10 (?) so maybe in like 4 years they'll be somewhere)

Northwest Division

1st) Utah Jazz (this is based purely on the skill of Deron Williams)
2nd) Portland Trail Blazers (I really, really wanted to put them first because I think Greg Oden is gonna be really good and they got a lot of other young talented bastards)
3rd) Denver Nuggets (they lost Camby in the STUPIDEST way possible but I have a new found love for Carmelo Anthony after watching him almost bitch slap Oberto in the Olympics final)
4th) Minnesota Timberwolves (the funny thing is, i wouldn't put them any higher than this even if they still had Kevin Garnett)
5th) Oklahoma City Thunder (yeah, ummm...who's on this team again? oh yeah Kevin Durant...whatever)

Pacific Division

1st) Los Angeles Lakers (Kobe is unstoppable when he's motivated and with a healthy Bynum, Gasol and Odom, this team is probably headed to the finals again)
2nd) Phoenix Suns (I would love to see them play San Antonio in the playoffs again)
3rd) Los Angeles Clippers (Call me crazy but I really think this team is going to be good this year even though like 90% of their players weren't on the team last season)
4th) Golden State Warriors (I love this team's energy but I don't see Corey Maggette making up for the loss of Baron Davis in their offense)
5th) Sacramento Kings (Sorry Kevin Martin but I do hope I land you in fantasy basketball again this season...)

So there we have it. My prediction on the NBA season. This of course will change during mid-season if there are any major roster shake-ups (there will be) but as they stand now, this is how I see things going down.

I'll post my play-off predictions after the all-star game.

Debate away.

Comic Strip

2008-08-31T14:17:00.003+09:00

http://www.stripgenerator.com/

Head over and make your own comic strip.

Here's one I did:

http://lyferipsmics.stripgenerator.com/2008/08/31/glen-teacha-1.html

Mountain Mike

2008-08-27T13:48:00.008+09:00

This past weekend, me and some of the boys decided to head down to Surisan Mountain (수리산) and do some some hiking/climbing. The weather was great and it made for some pretty decent exercise as we trudged our way up to the summit. It took about an hour and twenty minutes for us to traverse the entire thing and we managed to take a few good photos. The outing reminded me why I need to hurry my ass up and buy a new camera because I missed out on some quality shots.

I'll even post the ones that Micah took of Glen's freakishly huge toe once I get ahold of them but for now, you can enjoy these:

Some big pieces of mountain fungus we took pictures of. I named them (from the left) Micah, Greg and Phil.

Us at the top about to pose on the rocky precipice.

Some random old couple that apparently lugged a whole camping set up to the foot of the mountain. The other guys thought it was weird for some reason. I thought it was cute.

This is easily one of my favorite photos of all time. As one friend put it, I look like Godzilla getting ready to ravage the city.

I'll post more photos as I get them.

Sportage

2008-08-25T17:09:00.002+09:00

The 2008 Beijing Olympics are over. I'm planning on being over in London for the 2012 Olympics to take advantage of some of my friend's hospitality and hopefully Chicago wins the 2016 bid so I can return the favor then. In any case, the Olympics are a pretty huge event apparently.

I barely paid attention.

It's not that I disliked watching the events or anything, its just there were several other things I saw as more deserving of my time besides watching TV. While I'm sure I'd feel differently if I was physically at the arenas watching the events, since I was mostly just meandering around Seoul the entire time, I didn't really take too much notice. The things I did manage to hear about were: some man-fish hybrid named Phelps won a bunch of gold medals, some little Korean girl was able to clean and jerk a small comet's worth of weight, the Korean national team took gold in baseball, and the U.S. team finally got the gold in basketball again.

Now, the only event in the entire Olympics that I paid attention to and went out of my way to watch was basketball. When put against this backdrop, it's pretty plain to see why I don't really pay attention to the Olympics as a whole -- because basketball is the best sport on the planet.

Let me do a quick sport breakdown for everyone.

Basketball: The only sport I love to play, watch, talk about, etc. No other sport even comes close to it in my mind.

American Football: I'll watch the SuperBowl, pay attention to the stats of the guys on my fantasy league team, and occasionally go out to watch a game with the guys over a couple of beers but that's about it. Honestly, most football games are just plain boring for me to watch.

Baseball: Call me if the White Sox win, if not, I'm fine checking the final scores on mlb.com once a week.

Football (Soccer for you Yanks): Cool to watch occasionally but the low scoring dulls my attention span.

Golf: I'll play it once in a while but watching it is going to be my torture if I end up going to hell, I know it.

Swimming: Okay, swim really fast and you win. Ummm...no.

Running: See above; switch "swim" with "run".

Weightlifting: Sort of cool but I usually only watch on the small percent chance that someone's intestines are going to get ejected from their anus as they stress too hard.

Fencing: Okay, this is actually cool to watch but matches are too short and there isn't any blood.

I'll have to continue updating this later on as I think of more sports.

俳句

2008-08-17T15:04:00.003+09:00

Haikus are incredibly awesome. Anyone who doesn't think that is a useless piece of human existence.

My throat really hurts
Probably from smoking fags
British "fags", dick face

Why does Glen suck so?
Maybe his job should stop him
from raping himself

Micah has a man
He is made of wood and stuff
He fits in condoms

Marc bobs and weaves
He can dodge your attacks well
Like Don Flamenco

Doug wa inu
Update your blog some more guy
Old School: "Ooki na"

Handball is so gay
Why do they bounce once only?
Olympics my ass

Ralph has no lips
That was not too clever so
I will move on now

Ryan likes Sea Men
He rides a big man boat then
Ha I said Sea Men

Korea Dokdo
Takeshima in Japan
Its just a few rocks

Dave can't get erect
Liliputians even laugh
at his stupid face

Sandals are George's
attempts at fashion statements
give it up my man

Chris and Majin Buu
are both big, pink and cuddly
and they smell like farts

Dwarves call Joel their friend
because he is half their height
when he stands on chairs

Damn white underwear
No matter how much i wipe
They never stay white

Haiku kicks ass. I gotta do this again sometime.

Having fun on Babelfish

2008-08-13T16:25:00.016+09:00

Babelfish is this little translation program that they have connected to Yahoo! Korea. Anyone who has used an online translation program knows that it doesn't work that well when translating anything beyond very simple sentences. So as I was sitting around today wondering what would be fun to do, I decided to screw around on Babelfish and test out it's translation and translation of translations functionability. Here are the results:

Okay, so far so good. Now let's translate it into Korean...

Okay, well that Korean isn't too bad. Now, let's see what happens when I re-translate that into English...

Well, it's not completely unintelligible. Let's see what happens if we make it a bit more complicated...

The first sentence went through pretty well but that second sentence got mangled. Now let's translate it back...

Wow, that's pretty messed up. "Me him there is his baby boy and thinks the thing". Does that accurately describe your feelings for Obama, George?

Okay, I don't know how the hell "Silicone" got in there but alright. Now let's see the translation of the translation...

Okay so "the boy and him under kissing the thing"? That sounds pretty sexual to me. Never figured Micah for a pederast though. Let's move on...

That Korean is so mangled it hurts my brain to read it. Should be fun to see the re-translation...

How the hell does a canyon rise? I will agree that "attempting the fact that comfort starts that oneself" though. That makes more sense than anything ever.

That was fun, now wasn't it? You guys can go to Babelfish on your own time and make your own if you want. Here's the Korean web address:

http://kr.babelfish.yahoo.com/

I might have to do this again. Stay tuned...

The Amazing Travel"l"ing Mixer Party

2008-08-03T21:09:00.017+09:00

Phil, Micah and myself were sitting around having a night cap last Sunday after gorging ourselves at Hooter's thinking about stuff we could do for the remaining portion of this summer. The idea for the traveling mixer party just sort of came together after only about 20 minutes of talking and we quickly expanded upon it.

The idea was that we meet up and travel around to each other's houses and each person would have a different liquor base with which to mix drinks. And hats. Everyone had to wear a funky hat that we would switch with someone everytime we went to the next place. We also got a signbook to write things in at each person's apartment. It was a simple idea that worked really well and everyone in attendance seemed to have a blast.

Basically the plan came together as we made a facebook event and spent the week hammering out particulars. It turned out that we would start at 4pm on Saturday at Phil's house for Rum based drinks, move onto Glen's place for Gin base, then onto Dave's new place for Vodka base. After we did that, we ran over to Gangnam and grabbed some food after which we went over to George's pad for Whiskey base. George's was probably the most dangerous since he set up this cool little shot game which was similiar to "Quarters". Glen had to drink a ton shots. After George's we went all the way across the city to my place for Tequila base where I made Long Island Ice Teas with the spoils of war I had collected at each house. Finally we went out clubbing.

It was a great night and I hope we can put something big like this together again sometime before the summer ends. Maybe a camping/rafting trip.

If you would like to read some of the quotes from the signbook, head over to George's Musings over Makkoli blog where he has some of the choicest quotes up.

So without further ado, the pictures:

This was the first group photo at Phil's place. From the left we have: Glen, George, Brooks, Gowoon, Me, Dave, Micah, Claire, Shandi, Yena, Lucas, and Phil

This is at the second spot, Glen's house.

The third group photo at Dave's new pad.

The 4th spot was at George's house but we needed to first take a picture of the hats we wore at the chicken spot.

The official George's house photo. Some of us were pretty tipsy by this point.

Only some of us made it to my place for the 6th group photo but it was fun nonetheless.

Here we are making asses of ourselves at Club Cargo after my place.

I was sad because I was too hot to dance anymore. Poor me.

Micah fell down and went "boom".

I was angry at what I saw in Carl's collar.

Brooks was excited. He also later pulled his pants up to damn near his armpits and tried to woo an unwilling Korean girl into doing his rendition of the Steve Urkel dance. It was priceless.

One of the final pictures at about 4am. Our energy is amazing.

"America, Fuck Yeah!"

"Rape, hammer, whistle."

"What? You want summadis?"

Books I Be Readin

2008-07-29T16:06:00.005+09:00

I've recently realized that since I began my current job back in late 2006 that I haven't been doing much real reading (besides comic books) at all. This is rather strange to me since I've always enjoyed reading and up until that point, I would usually be carrying around a book or three about various topics of interest. So, in an attempt to return to that favorite of habits, I went out recently and bought a few books. Here are the two I am reading now:

Kind of old, I know. I actually went through this book somewhat half-assedly about a year and a half ago but am now trying to give it a more thorough reading. I'll post my comments about it when I am finished.

Also, as I can never seem to read just one book at once, here is the other one I am currently reading:

This seems to be a rather well written book and offers up some pretty good ideas against globalization. I can't comment too much as I am only through the first chapter or so, but so far it seems like it will be a most interesting read indeed.

What are you guys reading lately?

(porno doesnt count)

Aaron's Farewell Party

2008-07-25T15:41:00.003+09:00

Aaron is finally leaving Korea tomorrow and his going away party is tonight. Yet another of the somewhat old guard is leaving and will be replaced by more fresh-faced newbies. English teachers here are like the fabled Hydra, chop off one head and more grow in its place. Maybe more like a planaria since they are less dramatic.

In any case, I'll miss his bleak outlook on anything that has to do with Korea and the fact that he's the only person I've met here who doesn't look at me strangely when I eat french fries with mustard. Flat-footed dancing in the gay clubs won't be the same without ya, big guy. Have fun back in Chicago and make sure to keep dose muddy shoes outta da fruchroom!

Now and Laters

2008-07-22T22:43:00.005+09:00

Long taxi rides have become somewhat routine for me since I took my current job. Mostly because I end up having to travel to my client's offices when doing meetings or presentations but also because a good chunk of my friends actually live on the other side of Seoul from me. These taxi rides can last anywhere from 25-50 minutes and that is quite a bit of time to think (or sleep, depending on my state).

So during today's ride I got to thinking: How does one live for the moment while still maintaining forward motions for the future? We all know that proverb "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift" but one can't really go about life reveling completely in the moment or tomorrow goes from being a mystery to being a VH1 Special. Though in contrast, if one completely focuses on goals for the future, life becomes pretty bland and scripted. I guess in certain respects, my life for the past 2 years or so has been trying to find some sort of balance between these two ideas. While I haven't been able to find that optimal balance point yet (or even an optimal balance range), the constant search for it is I guess what keeps my life interesting sometimes.

What about you? Have you found your balance point? Any pointers?

Venture Brothers is the cat's pajamas

2008-07-22T12:38:00.003+09:00

Normally I don't watch a lot of TV because I think it kills time that could otherwise be spent more productively (like drinking or acting loutish). However, I do have somewhat of a fascination for cartoons and Japanese anime as most people who know me can attest. It has been, however, quite a few years since a new American cartoon has been able to capture my attention as well as the Venture Brothers has.

For those of you who don't know the show, its actually created by a former writer for The Tick animated cartoon which was also a show I really enjoyed back in the day. It's a very good blend of comedy, parody and failure and I thoroughly recommend the show to anyone who likes a good laugh.

I've been watching the 3rd season lately and it consistently cracks me up with random pop culture refrences and puns. For instance, in the latest episode, my favorite character, The Monarch breaks into his newly acquired arch-enemy's home base but is really upset with the fact that his new arch-enemy is a complete douche. The new guy is actually part dewgong and calls himself "Dr. Dewgong" and he sits in a wheelchair. As The Monarch breaks in he says "Ah man, you're all fleshy colored and...jeez how much thalidomide did your mother take?". It was perfect and I have never heard thalidomide used as a joke in a cartoon before. I almost spit milk on my computer screen.

In any case, you guys need to check it out sometime. I've got every episode for anyone interested.

For a Venture Brothers breakdown:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_brothers

For those of you who didn't know what thalidomide is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide

28 Days(or so) Later

2008-07-08T15:29:00.002+09:00

It's been over a month since I've done anything on here and a combination of my own want to post something and some of my friends bitching at me has brought me back.

So what's been up this past month, Mike?

Well, lots of things actually. Some of which I cannot talk about at this moment since I've got to keep them on the low-low and other things I don't want to talk about because they are just damn right embarrassing.

I guess I'll start with the boring, and therefore neutral, aspects of my life this past month. Work has been pretty much the same as usual. As all of us who work are aware of, it becomes rather routine and dull sometimes and this last week or so just happened to be one of those times. I'm hoping things pick up soon and awaken my interest in this job again. That's not to say that I don't enjoy certain aspects of my job, because I do, but sometimes my brain stops functioning in automaton mode and I wonder what I'm doing here. Then I look in my wallet. Oh yeah, that's right.

Outside of work I've been going out a bit more (too much?) on the weekends lately and carousing with my friends. Perhaps its the summer bug but I can't keep myself in my apartment to save my life these days despite the fact that I have a veritable treasure trove of video games the average nerd would fellate donkeys for. This of course means I'm spending more money but I figure summer only lasts another 2 months so what the hell. I don't have any crystal clear plans on travelling anywhere special the next month or so but I'm hoping to hit the beach sometime soon and work on my tan. Sitting in the office all day has unfortunately reduced my skin color to Powder-like levels.

On the video game tip, I just beat MGS4 and it is possibly the most detailed game I have ever played. The visuals, set-up, action, almost everything was perfectly executed. Everything except the goddamn story line. Also, GTA4 has been making the rounds on my system whenever I feel like living vicariously through a murdering rapist who never pays the consequences.

Finally, for the embarrassing stuff. Well, I lost (had stolen) my I-Pod, Digital Camera, bookbag that I've had since high school, gym bag, new Jero CD, 5 comic books and 2 pairs of new glasses all in the span of 2 weeks. Could have been alcohol related. Just maybe.

Japan again

2008-06-02T09:55:00.003+09:00

Alright so I've been busy lately and haven't been able to update that much. It would be easy to say that I've actually been busy accomplishing something but that would a boldfaced lie.

In any case, I'll be loading up my pictures from the last few months pretty soon and try to get in a lengthy entry to catch the blog up with everything that has happened in the last month or so. However, since I'm actually heading out to Japan this Wednesday evening and won't be back until Sunday morning, it looks like that might have to wait till next week sometime the earliest though.

Pictures will be plentiful.

Vacation is over

2008-05-07T18:14:00.000+09:00

I’m currently sitting in the office and waiting for work. I’ve got a lot of stuff I could be doing but because I don’t have this one crucial document, I can’t do any of it. Also, due to the 5 hour time difference between Korea and Russia, my counterpart who will be sending me the document is currently on lunch. Ah, how I hate this kind of downtime.

At least I get to drop a hot, steamy blog post.

So yes, I am officially done with my 5 day weekend. It was probably the longest vacation I’ll get for quite a while but I do have a few 3 and 4 day weekends in the near future to tide me over. As for what I did over the vacation, I guess I could sum it up in a nutshell like this: lay about, hit the gym, drink, sing karaoke, go to George’s wedding, video games. The cool thing is I actually have another 3 day weekend coming up this week. So hopefully I can get out and play some basketball like I’ve been wanting to for the past 2 weeks.

I’ll have a 4 day weekend in June to go visit my Grandmother, though it does kind of suck that I won’t get the chance to see the bro-ham since he will be out on the sea more than likely sending me emails that greatly exaggerate his peril.

Other than this, I really don’t have anything major planned in the next month but you never know…

Now back to waiting for that document…

The first of May

2008-05-01T19:02:00.003+09:00

Ah, the first full day of my vacation. For the next 5 days I'll be doing whatever the hell I want and completely loving it. I'll probably drop some random posts about my adventures to make up for the recent lack of attention I've been paying here so be forewarned.

So to start off on the right foot before I step out into the remaining sunlight to grab dinner with a friend and probably a couple of drinks, I'll drop some quick info about 2 events that I've just recently become privy of.

First, as we all know and love the "Evil Dead" movies and Bruce Campbell, I think it is really cool that they will actually be doing a musical version here in Korea on May 18th. I've seen some posters (which I promise to purloin and post pics of) and it looks like it should be pretty good. I'm going to start a rally call for all interested persons and make sure to make a night of it.

Second, as if the above wasn't enough to make a great weekend evening, on May 17th, one of my favorite artists will be performing in Seoul. I'm not exactly sure if it is completely open to the public yet because I found it on some site at 3:30am while I was drunk and not in the mood to read long paragraps in Korean, but I plan on researching the details and hopefully getting some tickets. Now, who pray tell, is this artist I am so enraptured to see? Why, Stevie Wonder of course. He went from being a closet favorite of mine (I didn't want to actually ENJOY music that my parents liked) to an artist whose songs I regularly sing in karaoke and I really hope I can get some tickets. Here's to hoping.

Anyways, that is the update for today. Now play amongst yourselves or something.

5-day weekend ideas?

2008-04-29T11:43:00.001+09:00

So I have a 5-day weekend coming up here soon from May 1st until May 5th.

Originally I wanted to do a sneak visit out to Japan to surprise some people (surprise!) but because I realized I had to go to George’s wedding on that Sunday, I decided against it. Now that puts me in somewhat of a pickle, my dear readers, as now I have all this time off and nothing to do with it.

To compound my problems, I am one of the only people I know with this particular vacation and I have nobody to pal around with for that Wednesday night, Thursday and most of Friday. So I have really no solid plan on what to do.

What would be awesome is if people could give me some ideas on what to do. Especially during those first few weekdays I have off. My ideas are as follows, but you could always add some more:

1) Go around snapping pics of random parts of Seoul for the afternoon.
2) Take a train going anywhere (no Rush references, please)
3) Sit at home and gain valuable video game training.
4) Try to find a bar in the morning that is playing the NBA playoffs and catch up on some b-ball watching.
5) Catch some rays up on the roof while reading (the weather should be in the high 70s to early 80s)

I plan on hitting the gym in the morning everyday before I get into any of these activities mind you, but any ideas you could add would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance peeples.

{Insert clever blog title}

2008-04-24T13:47:00.010+09:00

Okay, so I’ve been busy at work and couldn’t update for the past blah, blah, blah. You’ve heard it all before so let’s skip the pleasantries and jump right into the meaty bits.

Work has been pretty great lately. Crazy time hours have dissipated for the most part (until mid-May anyways) and I’ve been spending more time hanging out with the peeps from work. I’m in a pretty good place career-wise and I like the current direction my company is going in. All in all, I guess I can say everything is copasetic (I love that word) as far as my career goes.

I’ve also got a 6 day vacation coming up in the beginning of May which should be relaxing. I was originally planning a visit to Japan but George had to have his wedding over that weekend so I guess I’m putting that off until the Grandmama goes out there sometime next month or June. My current plan is to go shooting around Seoul to take pictures of interesting stuff and hitting the gym with the fury in the afternoons while relaxing or screwing around with friends in the evening. In other words, it’s the recipe for the perfect vacation.

In other news, I went out to Pyongchang with everyone from work for our annual client service workshop on April 3rd and 4th. I also ended up being one of the people in charge of preparation so I got to spend a lot of time setting stuff up and making sure the entertainment was…entertaining. Essentially it was a long bus ride followed by some games followed by drinking, eating and more drinking, then a long bus ride back home. This is one of the reasons I love workshops here because when it comes down to it, it’s essentially going out someplace new to fuck around and get shitty mcgiggle-faced (shouts Chris).

Other than this stuff, nothing much has been going on. I’ve been rocking the video games only occasionally since the weather has gotten nice and it’s a waste to sit inside when I could be out enjoying spring. I haven’t been going to the gym as regularly as I would like but I’m still getting there 4 times or so a week and tearing into myself. I expect really good results by mid-June nonetheless.

This spring and summer look like they are going to kick some serious ass and I hope everyone else is looking at it with as much expectation and enthusiasm as me.

So what, dear readers, are your spring and summer plans?

The prep squad (including me) all wore the same white sweaters. We are here posing with the big bosses.

Me co-hosting the "Family Feud" game I made for part of the company entertainment. It ended up being quite different than the game I had originally envisioned, but it was really fun nonetheless.

Me doing one of my performances during the later part of the entertainment portion.

Putting some last minute preparation into the Family Feud game.

Our entire client service staff. I'm all the way on the right in like the 4th row.

Amusement - Life's sole purpose?

2008-04-01T10:40:00.006+09:00

Amusement is a very integral part of my daily routine, as it should be for anyone. I must constantly find ways to get a laugh in here or there in order to maintain a flow from one situation to the next. I guess the cliché “It’s the little things that count” has more merit than I originally allocated to it. Then again, I guess as you get older, that becomes true for all of the cliché statements we scoffed at as teenagers.

In any case, here are a few things that have been keeping me amused. I must admit they are rather childish in content, but what the hell, give ‘em a lookie:

Ah yes, doo doo jokes never gets old.

Speaking of Garfield, here is a site I like to visit for some giggles here and there:

http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/

This is something else I must watch at least three times daily. I don't know why, but it's maddening.

http://www.howmanyfiveyearoldscouldyoutakeinafight.com/

And in case you were curious as to how many five-year olds you could take in a fight, this site finally gives us that most important of answers.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/black_guy_asks_nation_for_change

While The Onion is usually hit or miss, they occasionally slap one right out of the park. This is one of those.

And if you are into deep throating (no, not that kind ya sick, sick bastid), peep this video. Wait for it... Wait for it...

These are just a few things keeping me amused lately. I invite you all to let me know some of the things that are keeping you moving through the days.

The Doug cameth

2008-03-27T16:56:00.010+09:00

Despite my work schedule, I’m still managing to get a post out (finally) after only 2 weeks or so. Aren’t I great?

Since it’s been a while since my last major blog, I have quite a few pictures to post. But before I get into those, I guess I should do a little update on the microcosm that is my life.

First, since my new promotion, there has been a large increase in my workload but I expected that from the get go. What I didn’t expect was the necessity of more effective time management skills. I know, I know, that’s essentially what an increased workload requires if one would like to maintain his/her free time but I didn’t know I’d be tossed right into the fray without any time to adapt.

But adapting I am.

For instance, this past Tuesday I had a veritable assload of work to take care of but still wanted to maintain my streak for hitting the gym everyday. Knowing this, I took care of certain things within a time frame which allowed me a 2 hour window to leave the company and come back. After working out and burning some accumulated stress, I got back to the office at around midnight ready for the evening onslaught.

So yay to adaptation; one of the key tools used in the daily struggle of the cubicle jockey.

In other news, the well-spoken beam of truth that is Doug came to visit me in Seoul. As is often the case in our meetings, we cut a drunken swath through the surrounding areas and left no brain cell unscathed on our way to the longest weekend binge I’ve been on in years. It was great seeing a Japan-familiar face against the background of my current city of residence and I’d like to think Doug had just as much (if not more) fun than I did. I look forward to our next meeting and hope he gets Japan ready for me. *wink wink*

Finally, after months of not following a workout plan, I’ve embarked on my 12-week beach body workout schedule. As an added incentive to follow it through (rather than go back to meandering around the gym and randomly doing sets of stuff), I will post a before (Circa March 23rd) and an after (June 15th) picture in one of my June blogs.

Make sure you guys hold me to it.

So onto the pictures:

Doug as he arrives in Gimpo.

Our group for my promotion party/Doug's arrival. Clockwise from left: Beehaam, Doug, Micah, Heejung, Glen, Dave, Jayce, Me.

Me and Darg.

Jayce gave me this candle for my birthday "cake". Yes, my face looked just like that as he explained it to me.

Me, Dave and Jayce celebrate.

Okay, so Micah had the perfect angle for this drunken shot, which is perfect in and of itself but knowing me, I had to take it and make it into this:

Yeah, I'm a ass.

At least, I'm a funny ass though.

Help out a fellow human in need

2008-03-06T14:03:00.004+09:00

I'm a little late plugging this due to my work schedule the past 2 days, but here is a story you need to read.

http://www.billkapoun.com/

http://metropolitician.blogs.com/scribblings_of_the_metrop/2008/03/nows-your-chanc.html

http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/03/05/donations-for-severely-injured-english-teacher/

Basically its the story of a 26-year old English teacher here in Korea who sustained 3rd degree burns over most of his body when his apartment burned down a few days ago. Unfortunately, due to his lack of insurance here, his bills are astronomical and his parents aren't in the financial position to accomodate all of them.

The really wonderful (and honestly a bit surprising) thing is that the foreign community in Korea has pulled together quite a bit of money. However, it still pales in comparison to the cost of the many operations he will have to endure. Therefore, I ask anyone who can pull together some money to donate what they can to help his chances of making it through. I've already donated an amount close to a few nights out on the town and I don't think that's a large sacrifice to make in order to help someone who really needs it.

This issue hits home with me because this could have happened to me or any of my friends here just as easily as it happened to Bill.

There are ways to donate money whether you live in Korea or the States, just find the links on the site I posted above.

Thanks for your time and donations.

-Mike

My Bertday and other updates

2008-03-02T10:52:00.013+09:00

Time to update and show a few pics from my birthday party which was held at my house (mostly) this year.

Turning 27 has its ups and downs I guess. So while it does bring you only 3 years away from the big 3-0 and only 13 years before you have to start regularly having a doctor stick his finger up your ass, it also starts bringing a sense of accomplishment in life. By accomplishment, I mean a good reason to get rid of a few of those brain cells that happen to be lying around collecting dust.

I decided this year's party would have tacos-- which I painstakingly created myself. It turned out to be a fairly successful idea as I only had a small fistful of ground beef at the end of the night when I started with close to 5 pounds. I also made sure to stock up on the good ingredients and have the drinks and PS3 ready to rock. I was determined to have a successful party.

Part of the fresh ingredients I lined up for folks. Avocados were close to 6 bucks apiece!

So after setting everything up, people started to arrive adding yet another display of my uber sense of timing (luck?.)

The guys parked themselves in front of the PS3 while the girls were watching "House" on my computer.

Even a few co-workers showed up to take part in the festivities.

After everyone had satisfied their taco cravings and screwed around on the PS3, the drinking games started.

My new mascot, KIWI!!!, as he enjoys a nice stiff one.

We ended the night at a luxury Karaoke room where we sang, drank and danced for 2 hours into the early morning.

Overall, it was a great night and everyone had a great time. Just ask Gyu-Hong.
Now, if making a really cool birthday party wasn't enough, I went on this week to receive some more great news. Namely, yours truly has gotten a promotion. Yep, ol' Mike is moving up the corporate ladder into the realm of middle management and Dilbert comic strips. Of course this brings more responsibility, more hours, and more stress, it also brings more money and of course, more money. So it all evens out in the end. Let's see how this turns out.

Finally a video which was filmed at my house: KIWI ATTACK!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiYh-bXX9iI

enjoy

The last few months or so in pictures

2008-02-10T15:20:00.000+09:00

Since I haven't been putting up any pictures lately, I figured it was time to finally dump a bunch of them for your viewing pleasure.

Me and the other two idiots who are getting married this year (Dave and Jayce).

Jun, Glyn and Me on Glyn's last night at Nielsen and in Korea.

My birthday present from me, to me. Thanks, Me. I always knew I liked you for some reason.

Resistance: Fall of Man on my new TV. Orgasmic, isn't it?

Beehaam and Heejung get silly at the bar.

Only 2 more songs on Hard mode to go then it's Hello expert level.

View of Seoul from the top of the Gangnam Financial Center.

Me and Heejung after her wedding. Isn't she cute?

Me and Joel after his wedding. I know he ain't cute.

Joel and Heejung trying their best not to laugh and look serious.

They both wanted to laugh here.

Back view.

This is what they normally look like, in their normal positioning.

View of Namdaemun from my office window after the first snowfall of they year.

The domino carrot I designed for our domino team.

All together I think we set up something like 40,000 dominos and then watched them all fall down. I think it took like 7 minutes to watch.

Setting up the dominos took about 4 hours altogether.

Me and Greg at Bricks in Itaewon.

Micah mixing up soju smoothies at my house.

And this is the result of those soju smoothies.

After Lunch Reading Material

2008-02-04T11:20:00.000+09:00

So I was in the bathroom at work taking care of my morning ritual of expelling the demons from the previous day(s). During the course of this most vital of daily habits, I was pondering the great questions that any man does while straddling his porcelain throne.

“What will I eat for lunch?”
“Would a turtle look funny in a basketball uniform?”
“What ever happened to Fred Savage?”
“Is Winnie from Wonder Years still hot and if so isn’t it about time she did a spread somewhere?”

These and other important questions reverberated about in my skull as I made my first push into boweltastic bliss. As I looked down to admire my work, I was startled to see that my ass also seemed to want to participate.

Low and behold, a perfect question mark.

After the initial glee at seeing that my ass had finally decided to join me on my daily quest to ask the questions that keep us all up at night, I realized I must have missed the entire question. Had I paid better attention these last few bowel movements, I might have gained insight into the deep inner anal cavity thoughts my ass has been pondering over the past 27 years. Did I just miss the chance to actually converse with my own ass? I was rather saddened by the prospect of never having this opportunity again as I flushed the toilet.

Then I thought, “Maybe my ass speaks Spanish and it was an upside-down question mark and the rest of the question will appear in bowel movements further down the line.”

Now I REALLY need to learn Spanish.

More on this as it develops.

Peter Pan's ass is busy

2008-01-21T11:46:00.000+09:00

Work has kicked it up a notch this last couple of weeks and I was averaging about 50-60 hours per week for the last month. It really wasn’t too bad because as long as I get time to get off to the gym and get home for a good night’s sleep it doesn’t bother me.

This past week was a different story though.

Altogether I ended up posting close to 80 hours, which included to 17 ½ hour shifts in a row and coming in on Sunday. As you can imagine, I’ve been pretty damn tired. Let’s just hope this was a random occurrence and I get back to my normal 50-60 hour weeks soon.

I honestly never thought I would look forward to a 50-60 hour work week and think, “You know, this isn’t that bad.” Oh, how the times have changed.

Other than that, I used my one day off this week to attend the wedding of my friends, Joel and HeeJung. They did an old style Korean wedding which was really nice and at the end I got to be one of the people who carried HeeJung around in her carriage after she officially tied the knot. After that we all got to sit down and enjoy a pretty good lunch which of course gave me the opportunity to burn some stress by hitting the soju bottle for a bit.

It’s weird to think of all of my friends who are getting married this year. Joel and Heejung are obviously the first, but come March my friend Jayce gets married, in May its George and in October its Dave’s turn. I feel like Chris O’Donnell in “The Bachelor” (title?) where all of the guys are running like wild steeds and the crew slowly gets picked off with lassos by the girls they eventually marry. It’s even funnier to think that none of these guys even had girlfriends a year ago. Oh, how the times are changing.

I also have my 27th birthday coming up in about a month. As I get closer and closer to passing over the threshold from the desirable 20s and turn into the guy who says he’s 29 until he’s 35, I’ve realized that I have in fact become a much wiser person. And of course with all of the wisdom these years have imparted on me, I’ve decided to ignore all of it and burn some cash and get myself an HDTV entertainment system to keep my PS3 company. Honestly, who cares about wisdom when you can hunt dinosaurs with guns in sweet, sweet HDTV greatness? Oh, how many things haven't changed.

“I won’t grow up….”

Nappy Nude Deers

2008-01-08T10:32:00.000+09:00

Alright, the first post of 2008. That means that this blog has been operating in 3 separate years already. Boy, time sure does fly.

I guess the most appropriate way to begin this post is to talk about my New Years’ resolutions but since I don’t have any this year, this would become a really short and rather unfulfilling entry. So instead of that, I’ll begin with my normal update at work and follow that up with my plans for the coming year.

Work has been pretty interesting as of late. We completely switched around the organizational chart and moved our desks. This sort of thing happens at the end of every calendar year here at my company and from what I hear, a lot of other companies as well. Since I was quite the newbie last time this happened, I really didn’t pick up on the ramifications of what these changes mean. Essentially, wherever you end up is where you will stay (in most cases) until the end of the year. This means you better hope you end up with a cool group of people or it could get pretty miserable sometimes. I lucked out and ended up with half of the people from my old group and the other half is composed of people I already knew and liked.

We also have a new Assistant Managing Director who will now take over the entire side of my wing of the company and also have the dubious honor of being one of two (me being the other, obviously) non-Koreans in the entire building. While he is about 15 years or so older than me, we do have quite a bit in common. He is from Michigan, so that makes him a mid-westerner as well. He has also lived in Japan but for a much longer time than I did (10 years), has a Japanese wife and speaks Japanese better than I do. I’m really looking forward to see what is going to happen in the company in the coming year and I so far it looks like change will be good. Here’s to hoping.

As for my plans for the coming year, I have a few interesting plans.

First, I was planning on going to Japan for about 5 days in February but since there are no tickets available (it’s a Korean holiday so everyone and their mother has the same days off), those plans got shot. I will now instead hook up a Mexican siesta party at my house that weekend complete with homemade tacos and hopefully a sombrero or two. Hopefully I can work something out around that time to get Doug out here and show him around Korea as well.

I don’t see too much going on after that (other than a wicked 27th B-day party I plan on cooking up) until about May or June when I plan on setting up some sort of beach travel and hopefully sometime around then is when I will visit Japan to see my Grandmother and family. I will also probably hook up with Ryan at some point as well since he will be living in Japan at that point as well.

In July or August I’m assuming there will be another beach bash in Japan with all the old friends so I will definitely be out there for that. I also plan on finally getting out and spending some vacation time in a country that isn’t Japan or Korea for the first time ever and I hope to hit Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand this year.

All in all, I know 2008 is going to be a great year for me and I hope it’s the same for everyone else too.

When it rains

2007-12-28T14:41:00.000+09:00

This is probably a lot more somber than my usual posts so those of you who come here for my low brow humor should probably just skip this one. Don't worry though, the low brow stuff will be back in the not so distant future, I promise.

As there is no more reason to not post entries on my blog regarding the recent tragedies in my family, I guess I should just go ahead and get them out of my system.

First, this past Tuesday, my grandmother passed away at the age of 81 with what I can only imagine as the majority of her loved ones surrounding her hospital bed. As bad as this situation was, it was not an unexpected one and I’m just glad that she had the time she did to see everyone. I was fortunate enough to be able to meet her twice during my recent trip back home and though part of mind knew it could be the last time on this earth I could see her, the optimist that always guides my actions refused to let me treat our meetings as such.

When I finally did get to talk to her on the phone for the last time, my mind was poised to try to say everything I needed to say to her in a few short sentences since I knew she couldn’t respond to me. After fighting off the urge to say the trivial “How are you doing?” at the beginning of the conversation, I couldn’t realign my thoughts. My mind started flooding with thoughts and emotions and I was for a brief moment completely silent as I realized that nothing I will ever say after this moment would ever touch my grandmother’s ears. After doing my best to sound stable and saying the few things I needed to say, I hung up and found myself back in my silent company bathroom, with a loud horn playing in my mind. I will miss you, Grandma.

R.I.P. Grandma

A few days before this happened, an unexpected tragedy happened: our family dog, Colt, died. Since he was only about 5 years old, this was really a surprise and when my mother recounted the events, I was sad she had to go through the night-long ordeal without me or my brother there. Colt was a great dog, as anyone who knew him could attest, and it’s a real shame he had to go the way he did. I will miss you too, Colt.

R.I.P. Colt

Now it would be completely inappropriate to follow this sort of entry up with a story about how my Christmas went, wouldn’t it? Well, if I had a happy, merry, whatever Christmas then I’d probably agree with that but since I didn’t, I’ll sum it all up here with as much humbuggery as possible.

I got pretty sick from some sort of flu bug which I have now recovered from on Sunday, or Christmas Eve-eve. The bug lasted just long enough to keep me pretty much incapacitated in my apartment by myself until the day after Christmas. So the only real celebrating I got to do was watch the occasional 30 minutes of Scrubs and hoist my huge bottle of orange juice to my lips before I fell back asleep.

So all in all a pretty good couple of weeks.

When it rains, huh?

Office Party and Random Updates

2007-12-14T11:09:00.000+09:00

Well it’s that time of the year again.

In my company, we don’t have what would be considered a Christmas party at the end of the year but we have something called “Nielsen Day” which normally occurs around December 15th. It’s sort of like a Christmas party in the sense our entire company gets together for a string of activities including eating and drinking but it doesn’t carry a Christmas theme. You might be thinking, “Well, why would they celebrate Christmas in Korea?” and to that I say “Contraire mon frere, about 1/3rd of the population of Korea is composed of Christians”. So it is possible, like in America, to find Christmas trees and decorations pretty much everywhere and because of that it is easier to get into the Christmas spirit here than say, Japan. Unlike America, however, you will not find houses that look like they are single-handedly using a trillion watts of electricity per second to power abhorring, mechanical Santa/Reindeer/Jesus and the Techno Colored Dreamcoat scenes that can be seen from space. I think that is a good thing.

In any case, today should be fun if not at least somewhat amusing.

After we finish at about 10pm tonight, I head face first into my weekend. I am starting to get my new year’s resolutions in order by slowly introducing them into my daily life now. For instance, I am now spending 2 hours every Saturday and Sunday studying Japanese and Korean. I plan to have that up to 4 hours every Saturday and Sunday and at least 30 minutes every weekday. I will pass the level 2 proficiency test (one lower than the top) in Korean before the end of 2008. I’ve also been hitting the gym with a bit more fervor lately since I plan on getting to the gym 5-6 times weekly next year. But enough with my new year’s resolutions because they merit their own post in the not-so-distant future.

Now on to a list of random things that have been going on in my life:

Work can be mind-numbingly long sometimes but it is challenging and interesting so I don’t notice it as much. There are also a few changes happening here that I look forward to seeing the results of and so far it’s looking pretty good.

Outside of work, I am now an accomplished, Hard-level Guitar Hero player. I’ll probably never be able to “Through the Fire and Flames” by Dragonforce on Expert level, but honestly that isn’t on my list of goals.

I haven’t been to a karaoke room in about 2 months. I believe that is the longest period in which I haven’t gone in about 6 years. I will probably go tonight though because I’ve been practicing on my Gnarles Barkley “Crazy” in the shower and I’m getting pretty good (I think).

Finally, I’ve painted a face on the now rock-hard orange that has been sitting on my desk for 8 months or so and I now refer to him as “Executive Orange”. I also insist that people who have been at the company for a shorter period than him do the same. Don’t worry though, if it starts talking to me, I’ll get help. Okay, if it starts talking to me AND I LISTEN TO WHAT IT SAYS, I’ll get help. Probably.

As you can see, life is rather copasetic for me at the moment. I hope it’s going just as well for everyone else too.

Home Trip '07

2007-12-02T15:50:00.000+09:00

As promised, here is the post from my trip home.

This year I got tickets to go home from Nov. 7th until the 18th. Not really a lot of time considering I would be spending a total of about 2 days of that time on an airplane but since my work schedule was sort of hectic, I figured it was the best I was going to be able to do. So I snatched up the tickets, made the necessary preparations, and flew out on a Wednesday afternoon.

After arriving in Chicago, my Mom met me at the airport and we drove home discussing what exactly I was going to do now that I was home. After arriving home and greeting everyone and almost going into a stroke after seeing how much weight my Stepfather had lost, I settled into my brother's room as it was the only vacant room at the time. Then I decided to call Ralph who I knew had the next day off of work.

Once Ralph arrived it was like old times hadn't skipped a beat. We immediately headed over the the closest bar and proceeded to catch up on the last year. After more than a few drinks, we headed back to my house where we passed out thus ending my first day home.

I spent the next couple of days hanging out in the morning with my Mom and Grandmother and doing random shopping, talking and eating. I decided to knock out the remains of my jet lag before the weekend hit because I knew I was going to have a big night out on the town with my friends so I pretty much just laid around and caught up on sleep.

On Friday I picked up Ralph and drove into the city to meet the rest of the people I would spend the evening with. We met up with Marc and though we had reservations at a Brazilian restaurant for dinner we ended up cancelling because we had arrived to early and just decided to go to Hooter's. After catching up over a few drinks and some food, we met up with Mike, Erin and Danny and headed out to the Apartment (a bar club near Fullerton and Halsted) where we started to get our party on.

Ralph, Me and Marc at Hooter's

The night continued on rather well and after getting thoroughly tipsy and partied out, we snatched taxis back to Mike and Erin's house where the night would end. After waking up and engaging in a bit more tomfoolery, Marc and I went to my house and slept the remaining part of Saturday away as I had an early Thanksgiving dinner in my honor the next day.

Danny, Me, Erin, Michelle, Marc and Mike at the Apartment

Sunday went down without a hitch and thanks to all of the hardwork from my Mom, Grandmother and Stepfather, we had a wonderful feast complete with all of my favorite dishes and family members who I hadn't seen in about a year. After eating half of my weight in turkey and various other dishes, I sat around and caught up with everyone and watched the Bears game which they surprisingly won despite the fact that I was in Chicago.

Soon after everyone left, Ralph, Marc and myself carried ourselves to the local watering hole and got down on some darts and pool while enjoying our libations. What happened after that will go down into the halls of pure, unadultered idiocy and I will refrain from describing it here due to the questionable legality of it but I will say that its something the three of us will not soon forget. "GAHHHH!!!"

This was the spread at my early Thanksgiving dinner. *drool*

Marc, Me and Ralph before we got STUPID

After making poor Marc take the train to go to work after 2 hours of sleep, I recovered for the rest of the day. The following days saw me meeting up random friends, family members and old coworkers in my feeble attempt to meet any and all people who actually still remember me. Before I knew it, it was the weekend again and I was left with only 2 days before I had to get back on the plane bound for Seoul.

On Friday night, I met up with Chris to hang out for a while and bullshit about what has been going on with each other. After catching up a bit and meeting up with Marc, we went out to meet Ralph and other Mark at Buffalo Wild Wings to hang out for awhile more. The night ended at Ralph's house with copious amounts of alcohol consumed while playing Guitar Hero and making loud asses of ourselves much to the discontent of Ralph's poor mother. Mark was also pretty pissed after the discovery of all the marker tattoos that blanketed his face and body when he decided to unwisely pass out. All and all, it was a good evening.

Mark, Ralph, Me and Brandon at Buffalo Wild Wings

Mark's sentiment is understandable after you look at the artwork we endowed his face with

The next morning when Ralph had to rush out to work, I had to say my goodbyes to everyone because I would be leaving early the next morning to jump on the plane. It kind of sucked that the vacation was ending so quickly but I'm sure we have all grown accustomed to it as this would be my 4th time returning for a brief period before leaving again. At least I got to spend a lot of time with my homies. I'm sure they would gladly give up the sleep they missed again for the chance to see me. Ha.

My last day at home allowed me to spend some quality time with the family and my Mom hooked up my favorite dinners all in one day so I made sure that I had them before I left. I got to hang out and talk with everyone on a one-on-one basis and it all reminded me that it would be another year before I could see them again. I also got to finish a bottle of wine with my Mom as we discussed the near future plans for ourselves. Overall, my last night there was probably one of my best.

In the morning before I left, my Father came out to see me one last time before I left and we got to sit and have some coffee before I had to get on my way. My Mom, Stepdad and Grandmother were all nice enough to see me off at the airport, which they have done every year I've been back home to visit. Eventually I'm going to have to stop making them have to watch my back disappear slowly in the distance as I head back to my foreign residence. Not too much longer now guys, I promise.

Anyways, this has been my long and drawn out description of my trip home. Overall, it was a short, yet sweet, trip home this year. I can't believe it will be another full year before I get to see everyone again but if history is an indicator, I will be writing another "I'm going home soon" entry into this blog before I know it. Here's to hoping.

My sister and father at my early Thanksgiving dinner

Colt, my brother's dog

Me and Marc at the Apartment

Me and Chris in his basement

Me and Ralph at the Apartment

Ralph eyes his breakfast while Marc looks on with clear disgust

Me and my dad outside of my house

Ralph somehow made this impossible shot into the dartboard keyhole

Me and Uncle Jerry

Me and Chuckaluffagus

Picture from the expressway heading into Chicago

The wall in Chris's basement that outlines all of my trips abroad in random messages from over the past few years

And so shall it be

2007-11-29T13:00:00.000+09:00

Okay, I will seriously get to posting about my trip home, complete with pictures, this weekend. I will also continue to play the “I was busy with work” card to justify my laziness because honestly, it’s the only card I have.

I will also follow that up with another post, once again complete with pictures, of Matt’s recent trip to Seoul.

What I will follow up with beyond that is actually the subject of this post.

Not to get into any further detail about the trip home because as I stated earlier, that will receive its own post, but while I was there I stumbled upon a portable external hard drive that I used to use to store things from my laptop back in ’03. I also found my old picture CDs from my trip to Japan. After bringing all that back with me and loading all the pictures, videos and whatnot onto my current desktop at home, I started to take the all too cliché trip down memory lane.

I have a juxtaposition of the last six years of my life in picture format to pore over and sort this weekend and I have to admit I’m kind of psyched about it.

Instead of just dumping all of that content into one, gigamegamongous post that would surely take weeks to create, I’ve decided that in the coming month (read: months) I will create several posts chronicling my journey over the past six years. I’ll start from the beginning, my trip to Japan, and post random pictures and try to dreg my mind for the remaining bits of memories that are still present.

As Matt said while he was here, that year in Japan changed a lot of people’s lives. After thinking about it, I would have to proudly include myself in that group. Who knows what my life would be like currently if I hadn’t taken that turn in the road. I guess the coming posts will help me remember myself as I was and also allow me to reflect on how things have changed.

I’m looking forward to it.

(Of course the recent home trip post comes first though…)

Ruminations

2007-11-16T10:22:00.000+09:00

I was originally going to save my next blog entry for after my triumphant return to Korea but decided to drop a quick update before I left anyways. I will save details for my next post upon returning to Korea, but here is a quick summary:

This has been my 4th return to America since I started living abroad. One could say that all of my friends and family have become relatively acclimated to my yearly trips home and these trips seem to have become holidays in their own right. Not to say my ego isn't large enough to believe (falsely) that I should have my own holiday, but it seems my friends and family only come together while I am visiting. That was also the case this year.

I had a couple of large family gatherings complete with incredible home cooked meals and also a few liquor-soaked evenings out with my good friends. I met a few good people I haven't seen in years and I got a rush of various, vivid emotions while going through all of my old boxes that contain bits of my past. I have a lot of stories, a lot of pictures (I'll post them next time) and a lot of memories to remind me of my latest trip back home. Coming back here reminds me why I miss it but it also reminds me why I have to leave again...

There are still things I need to accomplish and a couple of things I haven't given up on yet.

Let's see where this next year takes me.

Until next time Chicago, when your earth bares my travel weary feet yet again.

Sweet Home Chicago Revisited

2007-11-07T10:35:00.001+09:00

The last time I wrote about visiting home was when I first started this blog over a year ago.

A lot has changed since then but due to the brevity of this post, I will write about that in another entry.

Even though this trip home will only be about half as long as my last visit, I plan on making up for that by making sure everything I do has a purpose, is well thought out, and is meticulously executed. Either that or I’ll just do what I always do and wing it. No matter what happens though, I know I’ll have fun.

Lots of activities are planned and for the sake of me having a way to remember them, I shall list them here:

- Hang out with the Moms and Pops
- Visit Grandma in the hospital
- Have an early Thanksgiving dinner with the family and catch up with all of them
- Go to a Brazilian restaurant with my best friends and probably end the night laying around in a vat of our combined bile
- Hang around with sis
- Screw up my brothers room and mess with his stuff so he knows how I’ve felt for the last decade
- Go clothes/gift shopping
- Get my suits refitted (I’ve lost over 20 pounds since I bought them)
- Eat all of my favorite foods
- Make sure I’m running at least a few days a week because of the above reason
- Visit with my old boss and co-workers
- Try to meet as many friends as possible
- Play with the dogs
- See if Buddy Guy’s Legends is still around, and if so, go there
- A veritable cornucopia of other things

So that is my rough list of things to do. All of a sudden 12 days doesn’t seem like much anymore but I’ll do my best to get it all done and make sure I need a vacation from this vacation.

Until then, it’s all about the excitement of traveling back to my hometown.

I’ll see you soon Chicago. Hope you’ve missed me as much as I’ve missed you.

Now I got a plane to catch...

8 Minutes till lunch

2007-10-23T11:52:00.001+09:00

A lot of the things I do at my job consist of little mini-projects that take a lot of time to complete on their own. Some of them involve simple database manipulation and number crunching which can be completed rather quickly if I focus like a laser beam with the I-Pod on blast.

There are, however, very, very few things at my job that I can complete in the 8 minutes before lunch which comes inevitably at noon. Therefore, instead of starting something, not being able to finish it, then coming back and wondering where I left off, I always screw around for the last few minutes with whatever is currently capturing my limited attention span.

Examples of this include checking the latest news blogs, bothering my co-workers with pointless babble, flashing my laser pointer around the office, seeing how the 6 month old orange behind my computer is progressing, etc. and of course, updating this blog.

Today I decided to update the blog since I didn't want to get up and bother people and the orange behind my computer has been giving me the evil eye since I got in this morning.

You guys got lucky.

I'm back again

2007-10-18T14:03:00.001+09:00

Okay, so I lied.

I wasn’t back later in the week like I promised and now it’s been a whole month since my last post. I guess I should blame it on work, which has definitely been one of the reasons for my prolonged absence, but I can also blame part of it on sheer laziness. Most of you who know me well know that I am renowned for my ability to procrastinate, so this shouldn’t surprise you. Anyways, I’m back.

So lots of stuff has been going on since my last post.

I went on Chuseok break (I will not attempt to try to explain it since all of you have Wikipedia at your fingertips) which was the longest break I’ve managed to get since I started working here. I got off from Friday to Wednesday and managed to relax, have some fun, and get some things done around the apartment. All and all it was a great time but like all vacations, it ended way too quickly and before I knew it I was back to staring blankly at my work computer screen.

As you can imagine, after getting back from a 5-day vacation it took me a little while to readjust to the work atmosphere and I sort of dragged ass through the first week back. After that, work sort of went into overdrive and hasn’t let up since. I’ve got plenty of presentations, translations, and whiny clients to keep me busy for the rest of the year and 12 hour+ work days have become the norm. This outlook might sound depressing at first, but there is a light at the end (in the middle?) of the tunnel: I’m going home to visit soon.

Yep, after spending yet another year outside of my home country, I am finally getting back for a visit again. I bought my plane tickets and will be flying into Chicago in the afternoon on November 7th. It will be good to finally get back home for awhile and see all my family and friends. The unfortunate thing is that I only get about 11 days or so before I have to come back to Korea but I guess I’ll have to enjoy it while it lasts. Of course only visiting for 11 days means I have to plan this vacation with a bit of foresight so as not to waste a second, but just like I stated in the opening paragraph, my procrastination is legendary. I guess I’ll need some help planning what to do when I get back from some of my friends and family who read this blog. *hint*

In any case, I’ll try to drop another blog entry or two before I get out of here to go back home. Thanks to all my patient readers for being so….patient. I promise to update more soon.

On a final note, this post marks about a year since I created this blog. I actually didn’t think I was going to carry it on past the first couple of months.

Here’s to you, blog. Happy Birthday.

A few pics

2007-09-17T22:16:00.001+09:00

Just adding a few quick pictures. I will be dropping a post later on in the week. Enjoy.

This is my team at work. This was our team dinner about 3 weeks ago.

This is at the top of Suri mountain. It's about an hour and a half south from my house and it took us about an hour and a half to get to the top.

Me at the top after I climbed out onto this rock.

We always have to carry a beer with us to the top of the mountain to drink on the way down. It makes the decent that much more fun.

Cancer keep your damn dirty hands off my loved ones

2007-09-09T12:19:00.001+09:00

This is my grandmother. She is currently undergoing lung cancer treatment which ultimately leads to a lack of hair. I'm so happy to see how well she is taking it. I only hope that I can take life's hardships as well when I have to face them. I love you Grandma, I can't wait to see you when I get home.

Why I love living in Korea, Part 2 & Updates

2007-09-04T15:25:00.001+09:00

First, updates.

Work is the same as always. I haven’t had an insurmountable amount of work but just enough to keep me on my toes and make sure I’m not leaving at some ridiculous hour every night. I have a new client who I won’t name yet but let’s say they are by far the hugest client I have ever been given. I see some long nights in the office on the horizon because of them but I guess it’s a good opportunity to show what I can do. I’ll keep people updated about my progress with them because something tells me my performance with this account will hold bearing over a lot of my career here for awhile.

Gym progress is also going well. I’ve started mixing my days and routines up a lot more so I’m about ready to take my workouts to the next level. I’ve also noticed quite a bit of physical change but I’m going to wait for people to see it for themselves when I get back in December.

Other than that, things are pretty much the same though I’ve picked up a few new hobbies and started a few old ones up again. I’ve started writing again which I haven’t done in quite a few years. Me and Jayce are planning on attending an open mic night sometime in the near future to give a brief live set which should be interesting. I’m also picking up painting, which is much more relaxing than I ever imagined. Other than that things, life is pretty much the same.

Oh, and I am also hereby declaring war on any and all things mosquito. I am going to kill you all you little bastards.

Now on to my “Why I love living in Korea” post.

1) There is ready to be consumed food EVERYWHERE at any hour of any day.

Seriously, anywhere you walk there are restaurants, little food pubs, food stands, etc. Plus it is cheap, dirt cheap. You would have to literally have your mouth removed to starve in Korea.

2) You can buy beer at a convenience store and drink it in front of said convenience store.

Yes, and they also set up chairs and tables for you to sit at no less. This is the common way for people to get together and drink when they are on a budget. The other cool thing about this is there is no such thing as public intoxication. I mean you would have to go stone cold Nicolas Cage from “Leaving Las Vegas” before the cops would even bat an eye in your direction. Not that I’ve ever taken part in anything like that mind you.

3) JimJilBang.

For 10,000 won (about 11 dollars) you can sit in a variety of hot bath tubs, swim in the cold bath pool, bake in a wide range of saunas, drink beers in the ice room, watch movies, eat, etc. all night and even sleep there. This is all in one building. I swear this is the idea of the century.

I’ll leave my list at that for now to give myself time to think about more things to add and people who are interested in asking questions about the stuff I’ve listed. There will be further lists in the future.

Last but not least, a happy belated birthday goes to my Father who just turned 49 again. Love you Dad.

Why I love living in Korea, Part 1

2007-08-28T10:50:00.002+09:00

Korean eye doctors kick ass.

I can find no other way to accurately explain how I currently feel about Korean doctors in general and Korean eye doctors in particular. But before I get into my love for doctors in Korea, let me explain what brings me to this conclusion.

This past Friday I had a 회식(hoeshik) or company dinner gathering. These are gatherings that happen intermittently in Korean companies and usually involve dinner, lots of drinks, karaoke, and lots of drinks. The cool thing at my company is that they rarely happen (at some companies they happen very often and are completely mandatory), but when they do, they are very fun. Also, since I haven’t been drinking at all lately, it was a good chance to get out and grab a few cold ones with my team who, due to their work load, have been unable to converse with me in any detail lately about anything unrelated to work.

So after work Friday we went to a little meat restaurant called Mani. Our entire team is comprised of 10 people of varying ages, backgrounds and temperaments but we all came together for one purpose that night, to have fun. Since my immediate team member, lets call her Tee for intensive purposes, hasn’t been able to do anything but work lately, she was hell bent on drinking soju and lots of it. Of course being the only guy there at the time because my bosses hadn’t arrived yet, I had to match the girls in shots of soju and before I knew it, 4 bottles were gone in 25 minutes. Then the bosses arrived and the mandatory group drinking began. 헉.

So after a polishing off a few more bottles I started to realize that since I haven’t been drinking at all lately and following a pretty healthy lifestyle, my tolerance had fallen substantially and I was starting to get pretty damn tipsy. After we finished there, we went to karaoke where the bosses had to (of course) order a huge bottle of whiskey. 헉2

Now during this whole debacle, I had been trying to escape to Itaewon to Joel’s goodbye party because I wanted to see him off before he left that Sunday. As much as I tried, the bosses were like “Ah sure, go ahead, right after this shot” which was usually followed by “Oh, and this shot here too”. By the time I finally got to leave, I was so drunk that I could barely walk straight. I looked at my clock and it was a quarter till 11pm. I figured that since I had eaten, I would be able to go home real quick and catch a quick nap before I would go and meet Joel and everyone by like 12:30 or so. It sounded so good in my mind at the moment. Drunken-Plan-Action-Man, Away!

I arrived at my door around 11:10 or so and dug around in my pockets for my house key. Then a revelation struck me as my memories faded back to the karaoke room.
*clouds*
*my friend Jay asking to borrow my bottle opener*
*bottle opener attached to house key ring*
*my hand giving Jay my bottle opener/house key*
*clouds*
When I finally realized where my damn keys were, I sat down on the stairs right in front of my door to figure out what to do. Then I took a nap. A long one. With my damn contacts in my eyes still…

So I awoke with a start at about 3:30am, eyes burning like Richard Pryor running down the street. It took me awhile to gather my thoughts but I realized I was sober again and laying on the stairs in front of my door. I hurried down to meet Joel before he went in and managed to stay out for a bit longer before crashing out at a friend’s house. The next day, my eyes looked like someone colored them with red magic marker and they burned horribly. So I pretty much stayed in Saturday and Sunday nursing my poor eyes.

Finally on Monday I could stand it no longer and made the mad dash to the eye doctor down the street from work. I waited for 5 minutes and the doctor sat me down, looked at me and said “Ah, sleeping in your contacts, eh?” as he proceeded to put drops in my eyes. 30 seconds later, my eyes were white and didn’t hurt at all. I was back in the office in 25 minutes. The cost for all of this? For two doctor visits, three examinations, and prescription, 8000 won or about 8 dollars. EIGHT DOLLARS. Plus the entire time I spent there was a grand total of about 9 minutes. As I walked back to the office, I started thinking, how much would this have cost me in both time and money, back in the States? I shudder to think about it.

I sit here and type this with white, pain-free eyes and profess my love for Korean eye doctors. You guys kick some serious ass.

Oh, and this reminds me of my 5 dollar wisdom tooth removal I had about a year ago. So you Korean dentists out there, you kick ass too.

Tokyo Beach Bash 2007

2007-08-19T12:41:00.003+09:00

No matter how long I've been away, it's always nice to get back and enjoy Japan even if for only a little while. This time I was going out to meet Doug, Matt and a few others from the old Chiba crew to celebrate Matt's birthday and the 5 year anniversary of the beach party we started back in 2002. It had been about a year or so since I met Matt and almost 5 years since I've seen Doug so I was determined to kick it old school and have a blast.

Unfortunately, since everyone lives in seperate areas of Japan now, I wouldn't be able to meet Doug or Matt until Saturday. I still managed to meet up my old friends Kaise and Myi in Tokyo for awhile to get food, drinks and spend a few hours in karaoke (where I was able to drink alcohol!!!!!). I also met Kaise's co-worker SoYoon who speaks the same 3 languages I do. It was fun, albiet sometimes confusing, to go back and forth in Korean, English and Japanese.

The thing that kind of sucked was that since Kaise had to work, I was just wandering around with Myi for 5 hours or so before we could meet them up. I managed to check out some stores and eat some gyuu-don before we met though, so it wasn't a total waste.

After meeting, we went to a Mexican-style bar in the Ebisu area. The Mexican waiters in there spoke fantastic Japanese and were really quick to serve us our drinks. I also had a lot of fun trying to figure out how exactly somebody ripped the toilet seat off the men's bathroom. After a few Long Islands, a few shots of Tequila, a margarita or two, and a couple beers, we all went (staggered) to karaoke. It was great being able to find a songs they didnt have in Korea, so of the 3 hours we did karaoke, I was probably singing 5 out of every 7 songs. Needless to say, my throat hurt at the end of the night when we finally went home.

Kaise and SoYoon at karaoke

The Mexican bar we went to for tequila shots, which would also prove to be the place of Kaise's undoing

Kaise, Myi, and SoYoon

Myi, SoYoon, and Me

After finally getting to Kaise's and crashing at about 4am. I found myself waking up in the middle of the night a couple of times to blow my nose and cough up mucus. Yeah, I know, it HAD to happen on my vacation and on the day I've been most looking forward to in the recent 3 months. Yes, I had caught the flu. Son. Of. A. Bitch.

I ended up waking up late because I wanted to sweat as much of the flu out of me as possible. After showering and saying bye to Kaise, I set out for the train. Now, I've been used to Korea's subway map for awhile and though it can be somewhat difficult at times to get around, it is very rarely confusing. Japan's train line, on the other hand, is possibly the most confusing attempt at mass commuter transit in the history of the world. Doug said it best when he described it as " a bunch of fucked up spider webs super imposed upon each other". After finally getting out to the beach and meeting up Doug and Matt, we started getting the party ready.

Since we were the only 3 there at the time, we had to lug all of the stuff Matt brought in his truck for the party down to the beach by ourselves. It took us about 45 minutes and by the end of it, me and Doug were sweating bullets. We freshened up and started setting everything up when people started to arrive. We set up the canopy and barbecue (despite the oyaji's complaints) before we started making the jungle juice.

For those of you who know what jungle juice is, you may skip this paragraph. For those that don't continue reading. In lament's terms, jungle juice is God's gift to summer, beach-going drinkers. Its vodka, gin, rum, Malibu and whatever other clear liquors (this is how I do it, I know there are other recipes) mixed with an array of fruit juices and chopped up tropical fruit all mixed in a giant cooler with ice. Lots of liquor, none of the taste, all of the satisfaction. I have perfected my recipe for Jungle Juice over the years and this time, as usual, it did not disappoint.

After getting kicked off of the beach and moving further into the park, we continued our antics at a few outside camping tables. We would spend the rest of the evening there hanging out, talking, dancing, etc. until about 11pm.

This was the liquor stash that Matt brought, bless his soul

The first of about 10 batches of Jungle Juice we would make

Doug making his favorite face

Just when people started getting there

Yes, we should be careful with stingrays because not only do they have very mischevious faces and seek to do us pain, but they also apparently have two gigantic testicles

More jungle juice being made at the 2nd location in the park

These were some great people. I especially like the little Japanese girl on the right because she was absolutely hilarious.

As it got darker, more people started to show up out of the woodwork

This girl was drunk and loved Doug's "Gay Musik!!!!"

Birthday boy Matt. No that is not the visual effect of standing next to two extremely short Japanese girls, Matt actually is 400 feet tall.

Me and Doug near the end of the party

Now I wish I could say I ended everything on a great note but that unfortunately wasn't the case. Since I had to be at the airport at 6am on Sunday to fly out (there were no other tickets) and the flu that I had been attempting to ignore all day finally started to take over, I decided not to go out clubbing with everyone until 4am like originally planned and just took a taxi to the airport at around 12:30 so I could get some sleep. It really sucked not being able to hang out with everyone more since I was having a blast but I figured what the hell, I'll be back in February for a week or so anyways.

That was how Tokyo Beach Bash 2007 went down. Not exactly as planned, but easily one of the best days of the year anyway. It was really great seeing familiar faces and partying like it was the Chiba days again. I invited everyone out to visit me in Korea sometime but I have the feeling that only a select few of them will take me up on my offer. Let's see who those select few will be.

Thanks everyone, I had a great time. Let's make sure we do it again in February or sooner!

Brothers

2007-07-29T18:55:00.001+09:00

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with the blog lately but I've been busy entertaining my brother on his second trip out to Korea. I will make up for the recent lack of entries by making this post long and picture-filled.

Saturday July 14th. Ryan arrives at Incheon Airport one hour earlier than expected but luckily, I also arrived an hour early. We have big plans to have my friend Jayce pick us up at the airport and drive straight out to Boryung for the Mud Festival. Since I have taken Monday and Tuesday off from work, we are ready to party hardy in Boryung. Of course, this all has to start with Ryan getting out of the gate at the airport and walking the wrong way...

So after 3 hours of driving (the last hour spent trying to get the last damn 10 kilometers) we arrived at where we would be staying the night. Rhett, Dave, Claire and Micah are already there and Rhett being the friendly guy he is, has already started drinking with the group of Korean college students in the room next to us. We dumped our stuff in the room and started introducing Ryan to everyone.

After getting to meet everyone and having a few drinks and eats, we decided to head down to the beach. Oh wait, we can't head down to the beach yet, Ryan decided to buy a bottle of Absolut Vodka from the convenience store. So we finished our Soju and ate some tuna concoction of Jayce's and took a stroll down to the beach. Now on the walk down to the beach (10 minutes), we decide to kill the bottle of vodka before we go swimming. So me, Ryan and Micah take turns make shooters in our mouth until the bottle is empty. Good for me and Micah, not so good for Ryan...

Ryan had been cozying up to one of the Korean college girls we met back at our place and they were awkwardly walking and talking with each other like cute little 19 year old idiots do when they first meet. So we get to the beach (this is after the 5 minute vodka chugging contest mind you) and Ryan decides to lay off on the beach with his new lady friend, away from everyone else. You might be thinking, "Ooooh, that's getting hot", and you know, I was thinking the same thing. Until he started throwing up all over the place as the girl went from gaze-thoughtfully-into-your-eyes mode to get-the-hell-out-of-my-way-this-douche-is-throwing-up-everywhere mode. It. Was. Awesome. So we did what any good friend or brother would do in a situation like that, and carried him (literally, feet were dragging) all the way back to the room and threw him in bed. That was after getting a few gratuitous photos though ^^

So after ending my evening by swimming around in the water drunk and wrestling with Rhett and Micah, I finally went back and fell asleep. The next morning, we all woke up and Ryan was having a wonderful time with a hangover that was making him throw up all sorts of neon yellow liquids. I still don't know what it was that made it yellow like that, but it was fun to watch as I stood over him with a bottle of water. After that, Ryan, Jayce and myself found another hotel for the evening. The place we stayed at was mosquito infested and by the end of it, the 3 of us were sporting over 500 mosquito bites between us. After spending a day at the mud fest and getting muddy, we took the 3 hour drive back home on that Monday afternoon.

Ryan at the sushi buffet. We ate a lot of damn sushi that night.

Ryan at the beach in Boryung. We got a bit more muddy after this picture was taken.

Unfortunately, Dave messed his back up pretty badly at the mud fest and was unable to join us for anymore activities during Ryan's stay. Ryan gave his shouts out though with this marker tattoo on his hand. It literally says "Hawk beak-nose forever".

Ryan was quick to devour shrimp heads

Ryan on the balcony at Joel's house. It has a pretty decent view after you hike up the steep ass hill...

This was taken in Insadong, one of the "traditional" areas in Seoul city. It rained too hard that day for us to get any really good pictures or gifts, but it was fun.

Dave hurt his back so we visited him in the hospital to cheer him up and have Ryan punch him in the stomach...

Ryan's first karaoke experience. He really needs to learn some new songs.

After arriving home, we showered, ate, and went out to meet more people. It pretty much continued like that for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, I had to go to work all through the rest of the week and the full week after that. So needless to say, I'm pretty damn worn out from having to get up every morning, go to work for the full 10 hours, then come home and show him around the rest of the night. It was worth it though.

Ryan in Woodstock, our favorite little bar in Gangnam. Pictured behind him are Joel and Hee-Jung

Ryan in front of the temple right across from my workplace. It's too bad the guys with the spears weren't there at the time because they look cool and you can mess with them and they aren't allowed to do anything back.

Our last Friday out together. We went all around Hongdae with a group of about 14 of my friends. Ryan had a blast as you can tell.

Saturday night out with Jayce. We all ate some delicious sashimi and took this brother picture.

Ryan and the little cutie he spent most of the night talking to.

Brothers in arms at 5am in the morning at Tinpan 2.

Overall, it was a great experience for both Ryan and myself. We spent a lot of money, acted pretty stupid, and probably pissed off a lot of people, but damn was it fun. I'm glad that I got spend this time with my brother before he went off to the navy to become a man. This way I can say I spent some of the last few weeks of his childhood with him. It was sad to see him off at the airport but I know I'll see him again soon and hopefully then he won't be so damn pigeon chested :P.

In any case, I'm glad you had fun little bro. I had tons of fun too. Like I told you at the airport; "Make me proud, make Mom proud, make everyone proud, but most of all make yourself proud." Love you bro. Good luck and keep in touch!

It goes one foot in front the next...

2007-07-06T13:47:00.000+09:00

Progress is progress, regardless of how slow it is.

Work has been good at keeping me occupied and I’m happy to say that I am making some real progress here. I’m going to be getting a promotion within the next few months and my presentations have been going better than ever (even though I’m averaging about 3 per week now). I’m learning new aspects of the business and the bosses seem eager to give me more training so they can utilize my abilities more (read: give me ass loads of work). One of the coolest things for me has been the level of responsibility that has been placed on me. In the beginning I spent so much time giving dry-runs of presentations and having my data checked over by my bosses. Now they pretty much leave me alone and let me do my thang and it feels pretty good. So overall, work has been really great for me.

Another thing I have been focusing on is my gym time. I’ve been going pretty steadily for the last 5 months (as my loss of 20 pounds can attest) but I haven’t really made a goal list or check sheet to keep track of my progress. Starting next week I’m going to be taking a pen and pad to mark down what I do and my new schedule at the gym should help me focus more on parts of the body that need the most attention. My goal is to be able to confidently say that my 26 year old self (and especially soon-to-be 27 year old self) could easily kick my 20 year old self’s ass. I’m up to benching sets of 90 kilograms (198 pounds for you Americans) and I hope to be breaking the 100 kilo (220 pounds) mark before the summer is over. It’s great to have goals, right?

Though most of all, I’m focusing on the relationships with my friends. Some of my friends have really stepped up to help me through the hard times I’ve had and made me realize how I should be handling them. I have realized that no matter what, I’m never alone in this wonderful place I now call home. Thanks a lot guys.

Overall, I am remaining optimistic about everything. I have gained a clear idea of what I need to do NOW to better myself. Up until this point, I feel that I let the flame for life I used to have diminish itself by focusing on what I thought I had to do for the future. I’ve realized that the future is now. I’m going to keep pushing for what I believe is right and I’m sure it’s going work out one way or the other.

Just. Gotta. Stay. On. That. Bike.

Congratulations to the bro-hammy

2007-06-13T10:50:00.001+09:00

My little brother did it.

My brother has just recently become the second of my mother’s sons to graduate from high school. I still remember walking with him to grammar school back when I was a little jerk and he was an even smaller jerk. Despite the fact that we only attended the same grammar school, I’ve followed his education closely since then even though I have been quiet about it.

Well, maybe not so quiet now that I think about it.

I remember trying to tutor him in certain subjects and losing patience with him at times. I never have been a patient teacher; I guess I get that from our father. It’s also kind of sad that I haven’t been there to watch him go through high school and help him with the stuff big brothers are supposed to help little brothers with. When I think about that now though, it’s pretty apparent he didn’t need my help to become what he is.

It has been fun watching him grow into his own man and follow a different road from me. I’m eager to see where his choices take him.

Congratulations, bro. You done made me proud.

Note: You have exactly one month before you get here, Ryan, so give me a few ideas for what you want to do. I got the beach and wakeboarding planned for us but is there anything you want to do? You have to holler at me soon so I can get stuff in order.
Taelim will be showing you around a bit on days when I have to work so make sure you treat your big sis right, aiight? Let’s do this thing right.

Stuff I have that is awesome, Part 1

2007-05-28T10:58:00.001+09:00

There is no greater way of feeling accomplishment than by showing it off to everyone. Not as a means to make anyone jealous (wink wink) but just to feel "Hey, I have this thing that is cool and I'm awesome for it." So this is part one of the stuff I have that is awesome which will be dedicated to my cellphone.

More than likely this will be a two-part or so series since I don't have that much stuff that is really awesome. Part two will probably be about my PS3 and then I'll have to revert to pictures of my manga collection and finally, the hat rack I built this weekend. Anyways, here are a few pictures of my phone. It's a Samsung something or other and it set me back as much as my PS3 system did, but it is pretty awesome:

As you can see from the helpful note bubbles I attached, this phone does it all.

This is how it looks opened up. It is really skinny and has a lot of functions that you can't see without actually using the phone.

Here is one of the more attractive features (probably why I bought the damn thing). I get access to like 20 channels for $9 per month. It's really useful when I'm on the train or bus and don't have any comic books to read.

This has been part one of things I have that are awesome. Look forward to more in the future.

Also, without looking back through the post, do you remember how many times I used the word "awesome"? If you do, good job, you win absolutely nothing.

Japan and back in 36 hours

2007-05-22T13:45:00.001+09:00

I set out this past Saturday morning to meet my Grandmother and family in Japan for the weekend and even though the trip was only for a little over one day, I’m really glad I did it.

I set out at about 7am from my apartment and made it to my Aunt’s front door step about 6 hours later. After saying hello to everyone I hadn’t seen in awhile and introducing myself to my aunt Setsuko and her husband I sat down and began the rest of the day. I spent most of the time eating delicious food and drinking Asahi while catching up with everyone. So many people showed up that we had to make separate food tables in the different rooms of the house.

My uncle Yoshio was his usual jolly self and it was good to see that aunt Yoshiko hasn’t changed a bit in 4 years. Actually, the only people who seemed to change at all since I last met them were my cousins Kouta (who is my cousin Kyle’s Japanese twin) and Miki. All and all, everyone seemed to be in good health and spirits.

Speaking of spirits, I got to enjoy some really good Nihonshu that my aunt Toshiko’s husband brought over in a big jar. Top that off with the beer and sochu and I was having a good night. Of course my Grandmother was over my shoulder every other glass to remind me to “Have fun, but don’t get too drunk”. I guess I listened. (sorta)

After everyone left, I got to soak in the hot tub before I went to sleep.

In the morning, I ate breakfast and headed off to the local mall with my uncle Yoshio and cousin Kouta to look at some games and comic books. I grabbed a couple comic books and then we ate at a restaurant where I had an ice-cold Yebisu (my favorite beer in the world) straight from the tap. It was heavenly. After I got back, I had to pack and leave after taking a quick nap. After I said goodbye to everyone, I got on the plane and took my 7 hour trip back to my apartment, where I promptly showered and went to sleep.

Overall, despite the time limitation, it was really fun and I can’t wait to get out to Japan again.

Also, since pictures speak louder than any words could, here are a few choice snapshots of the trip.

Enjoy.

This was everyone who was at the house that day with the exception of my cousin Makoto, who was taking the picture.

This was the spread that was there as I arrived. Trust me when I say this was just the beginning...

From left to right: My cousin Makoto, cousin Miki, aunt Yoshiko, uncle Yoshio, and aunt Setsuko

This was some sort of supersonic underwater tour boat. I actually have no idea if it can go underwater or not, but it sure looks like it can.

The view from the mall deck. It was a beautiful day, but the one thing you can't see in this picture are all of the jellyfish that were in the water. Awesome.

This was the Nihonshu we drank. It was really good.

This is my Grandmother with my cousin Kouta. I told you, Kyle's Japanese twin brother.

This was a random manga I happened to see at the mall. I wonder what it's about?

Finally, some funny English for you.

Spring has sprunged

2007-05-10T16:09:00.000+09:00

I know "sprunged" isnt a word but it damn well should be...

It’s been awhile since I last posted and I was figuring it would be good to drop a little blurb before the weekend since I plan on posting another picture/video update then.

Spring is officially here in Korea. The change of the seasons and weather in Seoul are remarkably like that of Chicago with a few differences.

First, it gets much colder in Chicago than Seoul during the winter. I’ve never had to wear my “winter” jacket in Seoul more than 4 or 5 times per year and people thought I was crazy when I was walking around in shorts and a t-shirt in April. All I can say is, “That’s how it’s done in Chicago”.

Second, springtime in Korea brings the “yellow sand” phenomena which is pretty much sand from the Gobi Desert in China being swept up and spread through the air of Seoul in waves that hit every spring. It causes plenty of health issues for people with lung problems and those with allergies every year so it always helps to have a face mask for those particularly nasty days. I’ve also adopted the routine of washing my eyes out with saline when I get into my apartment and keeping my humidifier on at work all the time. Color me a hypochondriac.

Other than that, like I said, pretty much the same.

I have been enjoying the nice weather and have been taking longer lunches than usual so I can stroll around the little gardens with my co-workers. It’s also really nice to be able to wear my sandals again. The unfortunate thing is that spring only lasts like 3 weeks before it starts getting hot. That is why I plan on enjoying this weather while it lasts.

Things on the work front are pretty much the same. I work, do some presentations, yada yada yada. I will be up for a promotion pretty soon and though I don’t really want it, the extra income will be nice. Other than that, work is fine.

I will be traveling to Japan next weekend to meet up with my grandmother and the rest of my family who I haven’t seen in almost 4 years. It should be interesting to see how far my Japanese skills have fallen off while actually in the country. Here’s to 36 hours of Japanese practice and lots of delicious food. I should have some cool pictures to share when I get back.

So this is my “little blurb” entry.

I will get to posting pictures and videos this weekend sometime so be on the lookout for that.

It's been kinda drab around here lately...

2007-04-23T20:53:00.000+09:00

I haven't been posting pictures or videos at all lately and I'm assuming that my glowing posts about work aren't keeping people as interested as I've led myself to believe. As such, I've decided to post a few things that I've been keeping to myself and hopefully a few of the remaining people who actually read this blog still will get a laugh or two out of them.

This picture dates back to when the Bears were marching through the playoffs. I dressed up my friend Gina in this outfit. Da Bears~

Okay, so the way this sign is pronounced is "Don King" but it has absolutely nothing to do with the Don King. Why? In Korean "Don" actually means "pork". So in this case, it's actually the Pork King, a place where we can get Korean BBQ.

This is the only picture I managed to take on my birthday since I forgot to charge the damn batteries. Here from the left we have: Jayce, Greg's Wife's Sister, Greg, Greg's Wife, and Joe. They're great fun.

This was a random Japanese couple I met at a bar in Itaewon. They were hilarious.

This was in a country bar in Itaewon. The only one of its kind that actually has a damn square-dancing floor. Needless to say, I hate the place. They do, however, have cheap jello shots. I also get to watch fools dance around while they are drunk.

This is what happens to people when they fall asleep around us. Poor Gina, and her own boyfriend Aaron is the only one placing the cigarette in her ear. Boo Hoo.

This is Rhett in all his glory. Rhett was my "boss" at my old English teaching job. Besides doing stuff like this whenever he feels the urge, he also engages in far more interesting activities that, because of their nature, will never see the light of day on this blog.

This is Micah in his drunken daze. I like to call him Clay Fakin'. I bet some of you who are well versed in the uselessness that is pop culture know why.

And finally (at least for tonight), I will end this picture update with a video that everyone everywhere must see. I haven't laughed as hard as I did when I first watched this in years. Enjoy.

http://funnyordie.com/v1/view_video.php?viewkey=3efbc24c7d2583be6925

Otaku-licious

2007-04-09T10:08:00.000+09:00

I’ve noticed something interesting about myself lately and I wanted to comment on it.

Now, I’ve been reading comic books (most especially Japanese manga) for as long as I can remember and I’ve never really considered myself to be a manga “otaku”. However, I am starting to question now whether or not I am.

I never used to purchase comic books, rather I would just sit in a library or store and look over them when I had the time or was just bored. They were also something to do while sitting over at Chris’s house and engaging in not-so-legal activities. I always liked comic books/manga and really felt jealous sometimes of people’s abilities to create whole new worlds and characters out of thin air and put them on paper. Ah, yes. That’s the ability I envy the most, the ability to draw comic books.

In the last few years however, I’ve gone from the occasional indulger to the avid collector/reader. I have purchased something along the lines of about 200 manga comics or tankobon in the past 2 years. That is well over $1000 in comic books alone. Since I started my new job 5 months ago, I have purchased about 40 or so tankobon and it seems I am buying at least 2 per week.

I love reading them when I am traveling on the train or bus or sometimes when I just get the urge to lay down and read something. Besides being decent Japanese reading practice, I like how completely immersed in the storylines I become when I crack them open. It really helps me get away from the stress and worrying of the real world even if only for the 10 minute train ride.

I don’t know if this makes me an “otaku” or not but I guess if it does I really don’t mind the moniker at all. I used to think of “otaku” as scraggily haired white kids who wear anime shirts and spout off the random 3 words they know in Japanese at the most inappropriate times. I actually still do carry that stereotype now that I think about it. Maybe I’m a new type of otaku, a more suave type of comic book nerd….

Probably not though…

At least my hair isn’t scraggily.

Here is a list of the current manga I am reading. If there are other “suave otaku” out there who feel like sharing their list with me, it would be appreciated. Recommendations are great too.

“Samurai Deeper Kyo”
“Naruto”
“Bleach”
“D Gray Man”
“Full Metal Alchemist”
“Death Note”

The beginning of my social withdrawl...

2007-04-09T10:04:00.000+09:00

The PS3 is finally here. I ended up having to pay about $120 in taxes to get it out of the post office but after dropping what I did on it already, it didn’t seem like much. They even asked if I wanted them to deliver it to my house so I didn’t have to carry it.

“No thanks. I’ll just carry it home.”

It consumed almost all of my Saturday and a few hours of my Sunday. The new Tony Hawk is pretty damn good and I’m also liking NBA 2K7. Madden 07 has its usual luster and the Marvel Ultimate Alliance has the makings of a great multi-player. I’m not that happy with the Sonic game because it’s just too damn uncontrollable and the new Genji is very fluid. That was my game breakdown. I look forward to getting a few blu-ray disc movies and seeing how good they are.

Other than the PS3, I went to the movies with the girl and her brother. We saw “300” and I was pretty impressed with it. It wasn’t “Sin City” but it did a similar job in making gore beautiful. I also now have a goal for my workouts because the Spartans in that movie were just impossibly ripped. I’m going to have to find those workouts somewhere. Anyone know where to look?

The knife's edge

2007-04-03T12:09:00.000+09:00

Before I get into my usual updates about nothing, I must start with a little rant about my recent work experience. (I know I usually do this anyways but this rant is special, I promise)

So, work starts out as any normal Wednesday does, working on some random project while taking intermittent trips to the water fountain for more tea. I then find out at around 3:00pm that I will have a presentation the coming Friday for Walt Disney. Now, I have not heard about this, I have seen not hide nor hair of the report and I don’t even know the content of the project or the NAME of it. The fake apologetic tones coming from the person who relayed this information to me made me even angrier.

“I’m so sorry for the late request, but please understand us.”

“No, I won’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you. I don’t want to come within a trillion miles of the bridge that leads in the direction to coming close to understanding you. Just gimme the damn report and let me at this thing.”

“Okay, we will give it to you as soon as we finish it.”

“When will that be?”

“Umm, I’ll get right back to you.”

I’m sure you can see where this is leading at this point. To make things short, I ended up not getting the report until 4:30pm on Thursday and the presentation was at 9:30am that following day. I had to turn the report into a good report into a presentation and memorize the content. The kicker here is despite the time I spent on the presentation, at 9:27am that Friday morning (read: 3 minutes before the presentation) that they wouldn’t be using my version, but rather one that they had cooked up that morning. I was ready to draw blood.

The one saving grace of this whole debacle was the fact that I already knew the content of the report, possibly better than the report did. It was covering current business opportunities in the English second language system here, something I was apart of for 15 months. This was probably the fact that saved my ass and the asses of the team I helped.

The presentation went very well and I secured a longer term contract with them because of it. As a result I will now be handling everything that comes from them regarding this issue. It felt good to nail something so important with the amount of time I had to prepare for it, but I’m still pissed about the whole thing in general.

An interesting addend to this comes from while I was going to the presentation that Friday morning. First I get up and leave extra early, as is my habit for presentations, so I could have about a 30-40 minute window in case something happens.

Something did happen.

As I was riding the train, an elderly drunken fellow gets on the train in classic red-faced, stumble mode. Unfortunately he wasn’t of the quite drunk-type and obviously had a few words he wanted to say to me. He basically called me “a dirty American bastard” in translation to which I quickly responded with a sharp glare and a “야…말 조심해라 아저씨..” or “Watch your damn mouth old man” which quickly ended the confrontation as he got a little surprised and had obviously arrived at his stop and got off.

After that, the train got packed. I mean PACKED. I eventually got pushed off 3 stops before my stop because of the physics of people pushing into the train and people getting pushed off on the other end. El Nino, Korean train style. So I ended up waiting about 40 minutes for a taxi and arrived a few minutes before the presentation started.

Anyways, that’s my rant. Long as hell, I know, but it feels good to get it all out there.

As far as other things, the PS3 should be here in a day or two so I’m pretty excited. Unfortunately I might not get to play it right away since I have another presentation this week I have been preparing for. I can’t wait until the weekend though so I can officially tear into this thing and see firsthand the potential addictive properties.

I will update more later as it is time to eat lunch.

Weather or not...

2007-03-28T16:17:00.001+09:00

I should be working on my multitude of projects at the moment but I don’t care, I felt like putting together a quick blog piece.

Even growing up in Chicago, a place famous for its quick climate changes, I have to admit today’s weather in Seoul is pretty interesting. So far I have witnessed: cloudy skies, a brief sunny sky, thunder, lightning, hail, rain and a bit of snow. All in one day no less. It piqued my curiosity as to how all of that could have happened in such a short period of time so I started searching the internet. Then I realized,

“Hey, you’re at work, you shouldn’t be searching the internet for random bits of useless information”.

After getting off the internet and starting to work again, I realized I was still thinking about my weather conundrum. So I decided to write this blog entry. Now I’m thinking,

“Hey, you’re at work, you shouldn’t be….”

Damn it >.<

PS3 me

2007-03-21T21:06:00.001+09:00

Yep, I should be getting my brand-spankin’ new Playstation 3 in the mail within the next two weeks or so. If it wasn’t for work keeping me busy lately, I’d probably be even more excited than I am. The total expenses including the system, games, cords, random accessories and shipping should be about $1200 in total. While that might sound kind of steep to most (it really isn’t), I’m pretty sure it will pay for itself within a few months or so. Once I get my hands on it, I’ll post some pictures of it for people to drool over.

Now that writing about one of the more exciting things going on for me is over (yes, I know, whatever), I can elaborate on more of the details of my mundane life…

Work has been pretty hectic lately. Not so much in the sense of staying late, but rather the amount of stuff I do while I am there. I am usually juggling 3 or 4 projects at once along with a series of other smaller side things all while trying to learn another side of our business. The programs I’m using are pretty interesting and the level of expectation from me is getting pretty high. I guess I’m pretty happy I finally have a job that challenges me somewhat.

I also set a date for my brother’s trip out to visit me. He should be here for about 3 weeks or so from mid-July or so and I’m looking forward to him coming out here again. Though it might be the last time I get to see him for 3-5 years, I’m really proud of him finally taking some initiative to change his own life’s direction and join the Navy. While I’m not sure where he will be stationed, it would be pretty cool if he could get out to Korea once in a while. Either way, I’m sure we will enjoy the 3 short weeks he is here. Prepare yourself bro.

Other than all of this, I really don’t have anything else going on lately. I hope to post some pictures and videos on here soon for people to enjoy. Perhaps I will over the weekend when I have more time.

Off to the gym with me…

I'm a boring person/official adult

2007-03-05T13:22:00.000+09:00

It’s funny how less often I am making blog entries lately.

It’s not because I am too lazy or too busy (I am a bit of both), but mostly because I have almost nothing interesting to update on. As most people have pointed out to me, “All you do is talk about work”, and I must agree. Unfortunately, the path I have chosen for myself career-wise leaves me with little options as far as doing other things. I know, I know, I have the weekends and after work time, right? Well, I have no excuse on the weekend tip, but as far as after work is over, I mostly just eat dinner and go to the gym. Rinse, Repeat.

I’m looking into how I can change my rather mundane life into something more fun while still keeping the responsibility part intact and it is proving to be difficult. I hope to start doing more on the weekends than just meet friends and carouse around town. I want to turn this blog into a bit more than just work updates and boorish musings and start posting more often on cultural issues and other more interesting topics. I guess we’ll see what time permits…

As far as recent happenings, I had a pretty decent birthday party and got to hang out with most of people I wanted to. We started off at a Brazilian restaurant/buffet then went to drink at a bar in Itaewon. I got a really nice wallet from Jayce and Dave gave me a ham sandwich without the bread, so it was mostly just ham. I guess things have been rough for him lately. Other than the b-day, nothing really exciting has happened. It’s been mostly work, going to the gym, and downloading anime. I did go over to the girlfriend’s house and have dinner with the parents which is always fun. I got to eat a delicious meal and then stayed the night. My girlfriend’s parents are two of the nicest people on the planet, I really have to say.

Oh, and I bought a computer desk and chair. Excitement.
So I guess this is my crappy update. I’m looking at going to an art exhibit with the girl this weekend so maybe I can take a few pictures and have something more interesting to post.

Look for Korean and Japanese posts within this coming week (hopefully).

Juxtaposition

2007-02-22T11:21:00.000+09:00

So here we are again.

Work has been particularly interesting lately, albeit rather busy. Last week I got to present two projects to a client, one of which I had 3 days to work on. Essentially that meant I had 3 days to turn a report into a good report into a presentation into a concise and effective presentation and finally memorize all of the key points. The entire thing lasted about 3 hours or so and it went extremely well. The second in command of my company was there to watch me as well.

I recently found out that my job title and position will be changing effective this March, due mostly to the results of my presentations. I will now be handling RMS (Retail Management Services) business as well as my original CRS (Customized Research Services) duties. This means that I will be doing more of the presentations to big clients and also get a chance to get my hands on more of the raw data for projects. Up until this point, I’ve been mostly handling the ass end of reports and final presentations. This switch means I will be able to gain a more holistic approach to what we do here. More responsibility and more work. Same pay. Ha.

I also participated in the recent inter-company basketball game. Since I’ve been getting back into shape and running lately, my basketball legs are also returning to me. It was pretty evident that I still have some rust spots to work out but this recent game was my best outing at the company yet. My CRS team beat the RMS team 107-68. We pretty much pulled away after the first quarter and built close to a 50 point lead in the fourth. I don’t know how many points I scored (between 20 or 30) but I cleaned up on the boards (42) as usual. And yes, I do keep track of my rebound total. It’s all I have to be proud of. I look forward to next week’s game.

Enough about work though.

This coming Saturday marks the 26th anniversary of my entrance into this world. I guess it is rather unfair to most people to say that I feel like I’m getting old but, whatever, I’m getting old. While I am eager to start what I am sure will be a more successful quarter century, I can’t help but feel a bit nostalgic and sad when I look back at my more carefree, responsibility-less days. I guess you can really tell you’re getting on in years when you start using the word “nostalgic”. In any case, happy birthday to me.

Things are really starting to move forward on the travel plans for the next year.

In April I will be going to Japan to see a few old friends. I am kind of mad at myself for going so long without seeing them but at least it’s good to see that they still remember me. I look forward to meeting you guys.

After that, my bro-ham will be coming out here in June for a little while and I’m excited to see him. Fresh from graduating from high school and he already has traveled more than I did at his age. I look forward to showing him around Seoul some more. Also in June (?), I will be going out to Japan again to attend a Jungle Juice beach party, something along the lines of what I did during my year there. I’ve heard they’ve had one every year since we introduced it back in 2002 so I’m looking forward to being there for the 5 year anniversary. Watch out kids, the Jungle Juice King is back.

In July (hopefully), Marc and Ralph will be making it out here so I can show them around Korea. It’s going to be hard to synchronize everything, and the price of the trip is a pretty steep but I’m confident that they will get here and have a good time.

And of course, in September I will be going home for a couple of weeks to see the family and friends.

So as you can see, I’ve got a lot to look forward to the next couple of months. Maybe 26 will be the best year yet.

Here’s to hoping…

"Who has efficient nipples?"

2007-02-10T11:43:00.000+09:00

“I DO!!”

This is my line of the week, courtesy of “Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law”, one of the DVDs my Mom sent me. I can’t believe how much I love cartoons.

First I guess I’ll start with the Super Bowl and the all-too-unfortunate ass whipping handed to my hometown team. Even more unfortunate was the way I found out about the result. The friends and I had a pact going that we would refrain from the internet all of Monday because we were taping the Super Bowl (it started at 7:50am Monday for us here in Korea) and we were going to meet at night and watch the game. I figured I would be fine since my company is 99% Korean and nobody (or so I thought) cares about American football. Everything was fine until 3pm when I walked into the bathroom. As I looked up, there was one of my friends with this sad look on his face as he said “I’m sorry about your team, Mike”. ARGH!! I was waiting TWO WEEKS for this day and you had to ruin it!!! If he wasn’t so sad about ruining it for me, I would have ripped off his scrotum and fed it to him. We still got together and watched the game, but it just wasn’t the same. Oh well, there’s always next year.

Now onto work developments:

Work has definitely been picking up for me lately as the bags under my computer worn eyes can attest. Not that I am complaining. The work is pretty interesting and I am left alone to my own devices for the most part. I also get a fair amount of freedom when it comes to changes in projects that I am working on and people actually listen to my opinions when I give them. All in all I’d have to say that work has been rather copacetic if not just a little tiring.

I haven’t been able to do much blogging lately due to time restrictions and I don’t see that changing too much in the foreseeable future. Besides work I am also engaged in Korean language study (and Japanese when I get the time) as well as deciding on MBA programs and when I will take the GMAT test. Mix that in with meeting the girlfriend when I can, going to the gym, and occasionally meeting the boys from my old job for a drink or two and we have a recipe for the quintessential 26 hour day. I guess as long as I’m occupied it’s all good.

I was able to use what little free time this week to meet up with Joel and Anthony near Joel’s house for a burger and some beers. I was able to buy one of Anthony’s books entitled “A really good book (about Korea)” which is the culmination of 3 years in Korea and a lot of hard work. It’s a perfect bathroom book due to each page being a story from some point in his life in Korea. It’s rather unfortunate that despite all of the efforts put into it he won’t be able to profit at all from it due to publishing. Oh well, I’m sure he didn’t do it for the money. I recommend to anyone who would like a quick guide to some of the strangeness/wonderfulness of Korea to pick this book up. I especially like the story where some girl described him as “Harry Potter’s friend” Ron. I want to meet her and pat her on the back.

Now that the cable guy is gone and I can watch television, it adds one more entertainment element to my apartment that it was sorely lacking. Even though chances are I won’t get a lot of time to watch it, it’s still nice to have. Plus I have 2 cartoon channels. Yay.

That is this week’s update. I promise to start writing more in Korean and Japanese once the pressure at work lets up.

Updelayted

2007-02-04T12:41:00.001+09:00

I've been pretty busy lately so I haven't been able to post in awhile. I wish I could say that I've been busy because of purely productive matters, but I'd be lying.

I've been doing a lot of spending for the apartment lately. I just got my brand new desktop (i'm using it right now) and I'm on the market for a desk and a couple of new suits. Next month I will make the final (major) addition to my apartment, a new fridge. So as you can see, I have to buy a lot of things. The apartment should be pretty pimped out by the time I finish at which point I will post pictures of it.

Work has been going rather slowly lately with brief moments of pure insanity. I have another presentation coming up in a couple of weeks. The topic is contraception. Yep, I will have to present to the German board about their product and how well it stops conception in the eyes of Korean consumers. So I get to use such terms as "external ejaculation" and "vaginal insertion" in a business atmosphere and still be considered professional. I guess that all depends on if I laugh afterwards or not. So here's to professional contraception. We'll stop that baby....with a suit on.

The Super Bowl party will be going down tomorrow at my friend Dave's house. This means I have to stay off of the internet from the moment I get into work tomorrow until the moment I leave. A momentous task considering how much time I spend on the internet. It will be kinda cool to be able to sit around and drink beer, eat subs (or whatever the hell we get) and watch the game with the boys.

Go Bears!

I will be updating again later on this week. Now that I have a computer at home, I should be able to do a little bit more with this blog so look for that in the future.

Shouldn't you be shuffling?

2007-01-22T11:37:00.000+09:00

The last time I was able to write something like this, I wasn’t able to write. Well, probably not much more than my name or so since I was 4 years old and cared for football as much as I did about the national debt or Billy Idol. Anyways, this has been a long time coming.

So here we are 21+ years later and I can finally see the Chicago Bears in the Super Bowl.

While most people who know me would describe me as much more of a basketball fan than any other sport, I’m sure those same people would know that I pay attention to Chicago sports just as avidly. Granted, I don’t know much about most of the other teams, and probably don’t understand the finer details of the game itself, but to hell with you if you think I care about that when it comes down to rooting for Chicago sports.

Besides the games I got to watch while I was in Chicago this year, I’ve had to watch most of the other ones on nfl.com’s Sports Center which involves looking at little football heads move up a green block of field. I didn’t even get to catch them winning the NFC championship even though I really should have. It seems I’m cursed to be thousands of miles away from my hometown every time a team starts doing well. The Bears got to the playoffs almost every year I was abroad, the Bulls have had a few playoff seasons, the Cubs almost made the World Series and the White Sox actually won the World Series. Now the Bears are going to the Super Bowl and where am I? Seoul, South Korea of course. Thousands of miles away from most people who even know what American style football is. Well, at least I have a plan this time.

The Super Bowl will start at 8:00am on Monday, February 5th Seoul time. That is one hour before work starts for me. I am not even sure if there are any places that will be showing the game at that time. However, do you think I’m going to be watching football heads move around on my work computer at my desk that day?

Hell no I won’t be.

I will find a place to watch this game and take a damn half-morning off so I can watch the hell out of this Super Bowl. So to all of my Chi-town homies who will be watching this game and partying like I know you should be, remember to raise a glass for me because I will be right there watching it with you.

DA BEARS BABY!

언어 배운 방법이란?

2007-01-19T15:05:00.000+09:00

자는 요즘 한국어과 일본어를 열심히 공부하고 있습니다. 한자가지 배우고 있습니다. 과연 어렵습니다. 그리고 제 일본어블로그에 쓴대로에 일본한자랑 한국한자는 좀 다라서 한자 2동류를 공부할 것 같습니다. 죽겠어요. ㅜㅜ

왜 이렇게 공부하냐구요? 왜냐하면, 회사에서 지금 할일이 없어서 회사에 사용한 단어를 공부하면 좋을 것 같테니까요. 다음에 그냥 있으면 발사시키지도 모릅니다.
어쨌든 제 목적이 이 109개 단어를 다음주 금요일가지 다 기억하는 것 입니다. 자신에게 약속했습니다.

이 109개 단어는 쉽지 않아서 여러분에게 단어 공부의 좋은 방법 이 뭔지 묻기로 했습니다. 도워 주세요!

부탁들이겠습니다.

国國

2007-01-17T11:29:00.000+09:00

最近、僕が思っているんですが、何で日本語の漢字と韓国と中国の漢字が違いますか？色々な場合がありますが、例えば“くに”は日本の漢字で書けば“国”なんだけど韓国と中国の場合は“國”とまた複雑な場合は“かんれん”は日本の字で“関連”で韓国と中国は“關聯”です。その三つ目の言語で大体同じ意味なんで漢字だけが違いますか？

最初から韓国の漢字が習いやすいと思ったがやっぱりそんなにやすくないんで困りました。僕がいくら日本の漢字を知っても（実は今の漢字能力は多分昔より何百倍ぐらい下）韓国の字を習うのは時間がけっこうかかりそうですね。で、何で違うかっていつも思っているがいい説明をまったく見つけられません。昔、日本にいる間に誰かいい説明してくれたがそれを忘れて苦しんでいます。何か歴史的な理由があれば、説明してくれよ！多分人によって色々な理由を聞きそうから興奮しています。

Membership Trainin'

2007-01-15T12:46:00.000+09:00

You haven’t really experienced what it is to work at a Korean company until you have been on a company outing or MT (membership training). So after having been employed here at AC Nielsen Korea for two months, I can happily say that I have experienced my first MT.

It started out on Friday morning at 8:00am. I was going on only a few hours of sleep since I went out to chill with the Wonderland boys the night before and had to stay up and pack everything I would need. After consuming a Starbucks Double Shot and making my way groggily towards work, I saw the 2 buses we would be riding for most of the day. They were huge tour buses and were parked right out in front of the company building. After helping load some things and taking a moment to check my e-mail, we departed from the company at about 9:00am.

Most of us were pretty tired so from nine until about eleven thirty we all slept until the bus came to a halt at a stop over station. I roused myself so I could use the bathroom and have another coffee. After having lunch at a pretty cool fish restaurant, we started off again towards our next destination: the boat.

Me on the boat

The boat ride lasted about 2 hours or so and was very scenic. Even though it was incredibly cold on the roof of the boat, we all braved it for awhile so we could get some good photos. The wind was cold but clean and the scenery was really beautiful.

The boat we rode on from an elevated angle

View from the top of the boat

Would hate to fall off of that

After getting off the boat and back on the buses, we traveled for a couple more hours until we were at a cave. Everyone (except the upper managers) went through a 40 minute cave walk where I found out I am a mild claustrophobic. Some parts of the cave were really nice too look at but for the most part it was climbing wet, rusty stairs and steering clear of bumping your head on a protruding rock. The coolest thing about this excursion was the fact that I got to use the word “spelunking” about 10 times in context.

Inside the cave

After heading out of the cave, we hopped back on the buses and made our way to the final destination: the resort. The resort itself was pretty nice looking and you could tell that it was huge. After getting settled into our rooms, I met up with our team so we could put the finishing touches on the performance we would be doing that evening. We worked on it for about 40 minutes then made our way down to the main dining hall and dined on some delicious bulgogi with tons of side dishes. The main event we were all waiting for happened right after dinner.

Part of the resort we stayed at

The party room was set up really nicely. There were about 10 really large tables set up for people to sit down at and a little stage set up complete with karaoke machine. We started by introducing ourselves to everyone (there were about 100+ people involved in this after all) and as soon as we were finished, we had to drink a boilermaker in one drink. For those of you that don’t know, a boilermaker is a glass of beer with a shot of whiskey dropped in it. Most of us had to drink super-boilermakers (half beer/half whiskey) and there were quite a few red-faced girls by the end of it. We ended up spending about 4+ hours in the party room and did all sorts of fun stuff including: team games/ karaoke singing/ newcomers performances (we got 2nd place)/ and random drinking games. We polished it all off with a visit to the largest karaoke room I’ve ever seen and spent about two hours there singing. I got to sing Stevie Wonder’s “Lately” and Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” all to rousing cheers which were probably more for me having the balls to sing in front of the company rather than my singing abilities. It was fun.

The party room

Me introducing our team

Finally, we all grabbed a night cap in a room the company rented for solely that purpose. After hanging out for awhile there, I finally got to bed. The next morning I woke up, ate and hopped on the bus back home. It was a great trip and I got to take lots of good pictures and videos. I hope the next MT (sometime in summer I think) is at least as good as this one was but I think it’s going to be hard to top.

Here’s to MTs.

The view from my room in the morning

A Few Changes

2007-01-10T15:32:00.000+09:00

English

Happy humpday begins this week with an announcement.

I have decided to make a few changes around here. I’m fairly sure this will turn my blog into more of a communication tool rather than the one-sided juxtaposition of thought it has been thus far. The things that will be changing:

1) I will now begin posting in English, Korean, and Japanese. Maybe one post will be in all 3 languages, others 2, some only one. It all depends on my time and level of patience. The posts themselves will not be exact translations.
2) I will open the blog so ANYONE will be able to post/comment/bitch. Inappropriate posts will be deleted promptly.

Remember anyone (that means you) can post now. Post whatever you want but keep it in context. This is my attempt to improve my waning language skills in both Korean and Japanese while maintaining a healthy blog for family and friends too. Needless to say, frequency of posts will probably drop, but length and quality should improve as such. Also, please feel free to correct my Japanese or Korean (I would appreciate it actually) since both are waning as previously mentioned.

On to the next order of business: my week.

A few, interesting things went down the last week. First, the boys who went to Cambodia and Thailand came back. It seems like they did exactly what I thought they would do; spend too much money, drink too much liquor, and have too much fun. I’m glad they had fun. All of them can choke a fat one for not remembering to bring me anything back, but that just means my trip to Japan will be a lot cheaper so I guess it works out.

Next I must stop to mourn the loss of my Bear’s sweater, my latest karaoke victim. Like all the greats, you were too young and too beautiful to last. I miss you Bear’s sweater.

Finally, I will be traveling this Friday with the entire company to a resort somewhere in the wilderness of Korea. We will then get on a boat and probably drink and carouse until sometime in the early morning. It seems like it will be fun so rest assured I will be taking pictures.

(Side note: Seems I didn’t lose my Bear’s sweater, George had it. Yay for my sweater!)

Korean (한국어)

안녕하세요~

제 불로그에 와주셔서 갑사합니다.

이 불로그에 영어, 일본어, 다음에 한국어로 쓰는것을 정했스니까 이것는 적성의 한국말포스트. 재미있게 읽으면 좋겠습니다.

제 이름은 마이클 페건입니다. 시카고에서 왔지고 지금 서울의 서교동 (홍대가)에 살고 있습니다. 제가 한국에 왔던 동류가 4까지 있습니다. 적성이 관광객, 학생, 영어 선생, 이제는 AC 닐슨 코리아의 신입원입니다. 다 추가하면 2년 4월 돼었습니다. 한국에 오기 전에 일본에 1년쯤 살었는데 일본어도 할 수 있습니다.
제 좋아한것은 너무 많아서 간다하게 말하면움직이고 있는 것을 보는것을 좋아합니다. 싫어한것도 많아지만 그런것을 처음부터 마하면 안 돼겠다.

왜 한국어로 불로그을 만들고 있나요? 역시 한국에 살고 있는 외국인(한국인이 않은 사람) 은 한국어 공부해야 탠니까 이 불로그는 그 공부의 한부분입니다. 다음에 월요일부터 금요일까지 회사에 있는동안에 한국어로 말하는 연습이 많이 있지만 한국어로 쓰는 연습이 전혀 없습니다. 이 불로그을 자주 엎대트를 하면 제 한국어는 차츰 잘 할 수있으겁니다.

현재에 이 불로그을 일주일간에 1회 정도 엎대트를 하겠습니다.

잘 하겠스니까 부탁드립니다.

Japanese (日本語)

皆さんへ

初めまして ! この私のブログまで来てくれて本当にありがとうございました。

私をよく知らない人にちょっと自己紹介しようと思っています。私の名前はマイケルフェガン（マイクでいいです）と申します。シカゴから来て、今はソウルで住んでいます。好きなことはけっこうあるので、まぁ簡単に言うと動いているものを見るのは好きです。嫌いなこともけっこうありますが、初めからそういうことを教えないほうがいいですね。趣味も信じられないほどあります。一番好きなことは多分言語の勉強と遊ぶことです。

今まで皆さんが一つの質問があると当てれば、こうです：

“何でソウルに住んでいるアメリカ人が日本語でブログを作るのは必要ありますか？”

“必要ない”だと言われたらだめなんですから、簡単に説明しましょう。５年前ぐらいに千葉大学へ留学しに行って１年間の間に日本語など日本の経済的なことなど勉強しましたが、アメリカに帰った時から日本語で話せる機会があまりなかったんです。ですから、今までの見た通りに日本語の能力がだんだん下手になっています。４年ぶり日本語を使っていない間はしょうがないだと言われても今からはもうそういうわけは全然だめだと思っています。

それに、うちのおばあさんは日本人です。私は四分の一日本人だっていうことです。まじで。

現在にこのブログは一週間で一回ぐらいアプデートします。頑張るつもりので、今からよろしくお願いしますね～＾＾

Whew~ That was tough.

Look forward to more in the future.

Not this quickly..

2007-01-02T11:50:00.000+09:00

Of course I get to work today and read reality’s first attempt to knock me off my opti-horse, the execution of Saddam Hussein. Well, to be more specific, the videos that are circulating everywhere that detail the entire episode.

First, I will say that I believe Saddam to have been a rather shitty human. He was a person who had no right being in a position of power that had any sway over the happiness of millions of people and he did some pretty horrible things while he was in power. I do not believe, however, that he was the worst person to be in such a position of power through history, or even the last few decades. This is not an attempt to protect character, rather, an attempt to state the truth.

The whole media farce that was his trial did nothing to convince most people in the country he absolutely needed to die. He was on trial for killing 148 people back in 1982 (back when he was the U.S.’s good buddy and deterrent for Iran) in an event that separated his deeds from what the context of his trial should have been. He did much worse things than kill 148 Kurds, so why was this what he was convicted with? Fucking theatre ploys. Also, having fought so hard to establish international law for the last 50 or so years, even through the Hague debacle, we reduced the punishment of an international war criminal to this? This whole thing should have be executed (no pun intended) much better than it was and I’m sure it will have repercussions eventually. Honestly, I don’t believe in the death penalty at all, even in Saddam’s case, because punishing violence with violence doesn’t accomplish anything except proving we’re all animals anyways.

Everyone knew as soon as the execution was announced that the videos on you tube and other media sources would be popping up as soon as it happened. It was destined to leak before it even happened. The only thing I can think of when I hear about it (and I haven’t nor will I watch it) is shame on the fucking idiots who are passing this about like it was a video of a cat juggling socks. As compelling as it could be to watch another human being die, please refrain from soiling your eyes with this.

Still optimistic, I promise. ^^

Grabbing 2007 by the teats

2007-01-02T11:48:00.000+09:00

2007 is here.

I have the feeling that I have been waiting my whole life for this year to come. I don’t know why nor could I explain what I will be attempting to accomplish during the next 52 weeks but I am convinced it will be great. I hope to be able to carry this attitude well into 2008 and beyond. Stay away from me reality and don’t you dare touch my optimism with your sobering hands.

Now that that’s out of the way, here is my post-New Year’s post.

It’s funny how expectations can change so much in just a few moments. At 10:57pm, just over an hour before 2007, I seemed content to sit in my apartment and play video games with a bottle of wine to myself. Granted, it wasn’t anywhere near the big party atmosphere I have grown accustomed to over the years, but it had a quiet, almost nurturing vibe about it. Needless to say, I was enjoying myself. Then in walks my friend Dan, who I haven’t seen in a long while and proceeds to invite me out for the evening. I got dressed and embarked on what would be my last evening in the year 2006. Getting into details concerning the night isn’t nearly as important as describing how I felt when I got home.

I was empty.

Completely and utterly empty of all of the bullshit that happened in 2006. It was revitalizing despite all of the alcohol and second-hand smoke I imbibed and all of the weight of a full night without sleep on my shoulders. I could have been accosted by a group of super ninjas with snake nunchucks and convinced them they didn’t want a piece. So, needless to say, I had a damn good New Year’s. I hope everyone had a great New Year’s and looks forward to 2007 with as much expectation as I do.

Last post of the year (probably)

2006-12-27T16:41:00.000+09:00

Well, I hope everyone had a good Christmas.

I’m sure most of you didn’t get any snow, but what the hell, I’m sure in about 50 years or so there won’t be any so enjoy whatever you do get when you get it. I didn’t get any snow either but at least I got to make some wonderful Christmas tacos with the girlfriend. I capped my Christmas night off with a little drinking session involving myself, Jayce and Nate which ended at my house drinking soju and playing NBA Live. I realized when I woke up on Monday morning that this would be my first year ever without some sort of Christmas break. It’s pretty crazy to have to sit back and reflect on your life in terms of Christmas vacations. Maybe lame is a better word. At least I got Monday off.

Now we turn to New Year’s, the last and first holiday of the year. I don’t think I’ve had a sober one in a long time, but this year seems like that might finally happen. I actually have a half-day on Friday and Monday off, so this will be the longest weekend I will get until I take my vacation in September. More than likely I will spend it in my house lounging around. My ambition knows no boundaries.

I’ve noticed a few things floating around out there in cyberspace recently and felt the need to comment about some of them.

First, the last Harry Potter finally has been named and the title is: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows”. I kind of wish she would have named it something more funny but whatever. Guess the title “Harry Potter Does Hogwarts” would give the religious nuts one more reason to try to ban the book. Personally I would have named it “Harry Potter and the Haha There Is No Seventh Book” and it would have consisted of only page containing a photo copy of my ass. I will be reading it when it comes out though, just like everyone else on the planet.

There seems to be a lot of movies that are somehow connected to childhood memories coming out. The new Rocky movie, the Transformers movie, the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, the new Fantastic Four movie (with Silver Surfer and Galactus!), and probably a few others I haven’t heard about. More than likely, I will see all of them at some point just for the nostalgic value. Two movies I would like to see happen would be the Dragon Ball movie (you saw Matrix 3, they could do it) and a Superman movie that has Doomsday in it.

Yes, I am a complete nerd.

Well, guess that’s it for this week’s post so I will leave you with a few pictures to peruse. Enjoy.

Christmas tacos!!

The Christmas Tree in Sichong, near my house

Dave assumes his battle position. By that I mean passes-out-and-gets-screwed-with position.

A totally irrelevant picture, Kon from Bleach. (俺と一緒に連れて行きやがれ!) Kon rules.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-22T11:26:00.000+09:00

Here it is, my Christmas post, enjoy.

This is my second Christmas in a row spent in the great country that is South Korea and I’m sure people are curious as to how Christmas is celebrated here.

Honestly, if you were to walk around downtown areas of Seoul, you probably wouldn’t notice too much of a difference from what it’s like back home. There are tons of Christmas trees and decorations everywhere and some of the big company buildings have gigantic neon signs hoisted on them. It looks almost identical to what Christmas looks like in Japan. There are, however, a few notable differences since about a third of the Korean population is Christian and will actually be attending church during the holidays and there are no “Christmas cakes” here. As for the media aspect of Christmas here, you won’t find too many Christmas movies on T.V. but you will definitely see lots of images that capture the aesthetics of the season. If you want a peek at what Christmas looks like in Japan, visit my friend Doug’s site since he has taken the time to lay it out a bit on his blog, something I lack the energy (and time) to do. Anyways, it’s as easy to feel the holiday mood here as it is back home.

Me and the Charlie Brown Tree

Now for my thoughts on Christmas.

I remember back when I was a child and all I cared about was gifts. Yes, I was a spoiled little brat (probably still am in some ways) and I only understood the meaning of Christmas as “must hoard toys”. As I got older, I started to take Christmas gatherings for granted and mostly looked forward to it because it meant I was on break from school. Back then my grandfather used to sit down next to the Christmas tree and pass out presents to me and all of my family while wearing a Santa hat. It’s times when I think about that memory that I miss him the most (that and when I reminisce over the finger scar he “bestowed” upon me). Even though I was mostly dragged into the commercialism of the holiday and brief break from school it provided, there was always a lingering voice in the back of my head that constantly reminded me that these holiday seasons are important. How important I wouldn’t figure out until much later and in actuality, I am still trying to grasp at it in many ways.

I have now spent something like 4 Christmases away from home. That’s enough for anyone to understand why my feelings towards Christmas have changed the last few years. While I’ve kept the core ideals behind the holiday in my heart, the actual practice of celebrating it has changed quite a bit. Most of the Christmases spent abroad have involved me carousing with friends and generally being caught up in the party aspect of the holiday while quietly missing my family and friends. While I treasure the memories of those Christmases spent with new friends and faces immensely, there was always something that reminded me that I wasn’t home. Perhaps it was that lingering voice again.

I guess the point of this was to let people, those who have the opportunity to spend the holiday season at home with friends and family, know that they should feel blessed for that one reason alone, because believe me, I would trade almost anything to be in your shoes.

So for all of my friends and family reading this, I want you to know that I miss you all very much and I wish you all a very safe and happy holiday season.

From da hart, from da hart.

Michael

Snow In Korea

2006-12-20T16:24:00.001+09:00

What the hell, let’s make humpdays my official post day.

I may or may not post something on other days but feel free to check/comment whenever time allows you to.

So, today was big presentation part 2 (2 ½ if you want to count the last one I second-chaired for) and it was the most important one I have done thus far. This time it was for ING Life, an insurance company and the pressure was on. Not only was the Managing Director from the company there (all the way from wherever the hell he’s from, I think Belgium) but so was my big boss, the big boss of the Korean branch, and all of the other board members. I was expecting to do about a 25 minute presentation on their ethics management implementation but two minutes before it started I was told it had to be cut down to 10 minutes. Imagine my excitement. Now I had to cut down a report that had already been cut down and leave only the meatiest of the meat all with two minutes of prep time. I don’t think I did as well as the first presentation but everyone seemed satisfied, especially my big boss, who was the person I wanted to impress anyways. All in all, it was stressful as hell but I made out in the end. I guess that’s the important part.

Damn I need a drink.

As for updates, nothing of great importance has happened this past week except I have finally put up my Christmas tree (all 2 ½ feet of it) with the help of my girlfriend. I plan on posting pictures before the end of this week so check back in for those on Friday when I hope to have my official Christmas post.

Oh yeah, and it snowed here on Saturday. Some of the biggest, most fluffy flakes I have ever seen. Me and the boys had some fun chucking snowballs at each other. I even made a miniature snowbaby on the hood of some guy’s car. I hope nobody snow-aborted it. I was pretty drunk, but nowhere near as drunk as George who went outside the bar and started chucking snowballs at random people even with his sandals on. Then, some guy who we were thinking about beating up because he kept staring at us ended up being one of the coolest guys I have met in awhile. He ended up being able to speak some Japanese, so I got to have the drunken Japanese conversation I’ve been looking for. Yay for me. So all in all, not such an eventful week, but fun nonetheless.

Keep checking for my Christmas update.

Thank Gonzo It's Friday

2006-12-15T10:39:00.000+09:00

I love Fridays.

All other days of the week should slit their wrists because they will never measure up to the greatness that is Friday. Well, Saturday is cool too I guess.

So, another week at work ends which means the usual bevy of questions. What will I do? Who will I meet? Where will I go? What should I eat?

Figuring these questions out is only some of the fun Fridays bring.

On the technology front, I plan on getting my new cell phone this weekend which should be pretty kickass. It’s going to cost about 800 dollars but since I am signing an 18-month contract with them, I can spread it out over that time so it will cost me about 40 or so a month. It’s a pretty awesome phone. It has a turnable screen so I can watch TV on it, a pretty good digital camera (the coolest thing is the photo option), an MP3 player, a blender, and I can even use it as a phone. Pretty cool, huh? Okay, I was lying about the blender part. I should also be picking up my computer soon which will add a whole new dimension of fun to the house. Finally, I have about 60 hours now logged on my Final Fantasy 12 game and I recently realized that I am only about ¾ of the way through it. For all of you that care: all characters are currently at level 43 and I just beat the Tyrant dragon boss. For all of you that don’t care: Final Fantasy is still cooler than you, crumb.

On the work front, I have yet another presentation next week, this time for the Board of ING Life. The key words for this project are speed and conciseness. I only have about 20 minutes to give a review of their Ethics Management system that we have been researching for over a year. Apparently most people here don’t like high-end presentations because there is too much pressure. I can see why. We have 20 minutes to show them why it justifies contracting another year long project with us. Essentially, the presenter can fuck up a year’s worth of work for many people in a third of an hour. I love the pressure, I live for it. I like watching my colleague’s worried eyes as we walk into the room, its pure hilarity. I guess it’s the job of the young, gung-ho new-hire to not grasp the gravity of the situation at hand but I think it’s just that reason that I do well in these things.

On a side note, I sat in on a presentation I helped design this week for the Japanese ophthalmology company, Santen. They had the Japanese CEO and CFO there who I quickly introduced to myself in Japanese. Even though it has become a bit rusty, I can still get around pretty well and the 2 guys loved me for it. I found out the CEO actually lives like a 5 minute walk from where I used to dorm in Inage. Small world. Anyway, this made the atmosphere of the presentation a little more friendly which helped my friend give a great presentation. I hope to go out drinking with the Japanese guys soon. It’s been too long since I’ve drank with a Japanese businessman. It’s kind of like drinking with your cool uncle back home, only shorter.

Ah yes, it’s almost Christmas. It’s funny how my almost complete lack of Christian values and way of life don’t stop me from enjoying this holiday. I’m not saying that I only enjoy the commercial end, I mean actually still do get the “Christmas Spirit” around this time. Well, I’m not going to blow my load on this post as far as Christmas is concerned, I’ll save a whole new post for that next week.

Finally, I’ll end with a few pictures of my workplace. Enjoy.

This is right when you get off on the elevator on the 9th floor

My throne of power. See the upside-down water bottle? That's my humidifier.

The view from the bathroom window.

View from the water jug.

Some funny English for you. Okay, the advertisement was actually for an English school trying to point out that the sentence was funny English but still, funny nonetheless.

Out of Shape and Pet Peevitry

2006-12-13T10:41:00.000+09:00

Another humpday is upon us, which means another post for the blog.

First, I’d like to start with our company basketball game.

Yesterday the AC Nielsen Korea team played our HSBC client team. I guess it’s kind of a heated rivalry since everyone at the office was telling me we had to beat them no matter what. I was told that the series is a pretty even split but that the HSBC team was decidedly more athletic than us. My synopsis is this: they were all height and we were all speed.

Standing at about an even 6 feet tall, I am probably the tallest player on our team. The shortest guy on their team seemed to be at least 2 inches taller than me while the tallest was probably 4 or 5 inches taller than me. The game was split into 4 15 minute quarters and was standard full court. I was almost dead. I can’t believe how out of shape I have become. I used to be able to run full court games for hours and hours on end with no visible signs of fatigue. By the end of the second quarter I was pretty winded but we also had a 30-4 lead. I scored the first 9 points for our team but pretty much played defense the rest of the time. We ended up coasting to a 65-50 win but if the game would have went another quarter, we probably would have lost since they gained a lot of momentum near the end. I’m not sure how many points I had but I had almost 30 rebounds. It was fun and I’m glad we won. We made plans to play again next month so I’m looking forward to that now.

My recent experiences playing basketball have made me realize something: I’m getting old and out of shape. This is not something a 25 year old should be saying and it disgusts me. Therefore, I have decided to start a basketball training regiment like I used to do in college. I need to cut out smoking and drinking (except for maybe on occasional Fridays or Saturdays) and I need to start training like I used to. I will not let up until I am back to my old form and dominating these games we play completely. I estimate if I start my training next week, I will be back to about 60 or 70% in about 3 or 4 months. At that time I will post pictures showing my progress. Hell, I’ll even set a date for it, April 1st. Let’s see what I can do, shall we?

Next, after working in an office again for almost a month, I’ve realized all my old office pet peeves are still there. I sometimes feel like an asshole because I think like this, but other times I think, fuck them, they should stop being assholes. Whatever, here is a short, non-exclusive list of my office pet peeves:

1) People who take the elevator to the 2nd or 3rd floor. Goddamn your lazy ass, take the fucking stairs, it’s not like it’s going to kill you. If you do not suffer from some sort of physical malady, you shouldn’t be taking the elevator to the 2nd or 3rd floor.

2) People who don’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom. I do not want to shake your hand after you have just finished holding your penis or wiping your ass. Wash your damn hands.

3) Ass-kissers. Look, I understand we all need to get ahead in life. You should do that by showing your abilities, not overly complimenting someone in power so they will like you. Close your honey-dripping shit-covered mouth.

4) People who huddle around the water jug like cattle. If you want to socialize while pretending to do work, you might want to do it in a less cliché place. Also, please stop pretending like you weren’t having a conversation when people walk into the room, chances are they don’t care what you are saying anyways.

For the purposes of keeping this post short, I will stop here. Maybe I’ll add more on a later post but for now, I’m done. Just making this list is making me angry.

That’s my post for this humpday. I hope you all have a pleasant one.

Oh yeah, and here is my business card format. If you can't see it too well, sorry, I'll give you one when I see you. Whoever you are.

Engrish or English?

2006-12-11T14:19:00.000+09:00

Ahh, English. The native language of people hailing from America, Canada, Australia, England, and a score of other countries. It is also, for some freaky reason, the international language of choice by most of the world. It has become so important to be able to communicate in English in some countries that complete losers fresh out of college can get a job teaching it in some countries (even losers with HUGE noses and long, shitty blonde hair). Ha.

I also have “beautifying English” as one of my main objectives at my current job. While I have a lot of trouble turning sometimes horrible English into “beautiful” English, it also allows me to come across such gems as “cummarize”, which was a friend of mine’s attempt at typing “summarize”.

(Note: The word “cummarize” is hereby mine and mine alone. Nobody without written consent of me shall ever be able to use this word. It’s MINE MINE MINE!!! HAHAHA)

Back to the point.

I was wondering the other day about English and it’s applications. If there are more “broken” speakers of English in the world than native speakers, why is native English still so important? I know the textbook answer to this, however, I truly wonder why sometimes.

I have been laughing for years at sites like funny.engrish and others like it. I participated in a scavenger hunt where one of the objectives was to take pictures of “funny” English around town. I had to explain to a friend why the shirt we seen online that said “War is Homo” in pink letters was not appropriate. There are thousands of things you can find on the internet dedicated to “funny” English. I have been told by colleagues that they have an easier time understanding “broken” English than native English. It's almost uncanny that we as native speakers can hold so much sway over the more populated "broken" speakers.

So my question is this: When will native English stop being important in places where there aren’t natives? When will “funny” English be the standard of all standards when it comes to English. Will there be a time when all native speakers have to go to language schools to learn “broken” English? Does it matter?

I hope this elicits some comments because I am really interested in reading about people have to say about this.

Really I’m not. The only two reasons I made this blog post was to a) post something since I haven’t since last week and b) call out my dibs on the word “cummarize”. I apologize for the inconvenience of reading this post. You can disregard it. I never really thought most of the thoughts above. I just needed something to disguise my true purpose.

Sorry.

Haha… Cummarize.

Oh...and on a side note. Props to good ol' Doug for still having these OLD school pictures from our time in Chiba. See ya in a few months fucker.

This is me as a Japanese school girl. I think I looked more like Janis Joplin, but whatever, the elements are all there.

No, we're not drunk in this picture. Yes, we am.

The Japanese in this sign is absolutely priceless. If you can't read Japanese, here's a translation: Learn to read Japanese.

This is an ancient tradition in Japan where someone sits in the drunk chair and Doug shoves a broom in their face.

Humpday

2006-12-06T14:35:00.000+09:00

I don't even know when the word "humpday" fell into my vocabulary as a way to describe Wednesday. I actually don't even like using it, i just do. Kinda like public bathrooms or other people's toothbrushes when you sleep over. Whatever, today is humpday.

As usual, I mostly only have work-related stuff to share since I'm still getting settled in my neighborhood and don't go out much lately. Once I get fully settled in though, I'm sure I'll be back to my old antics. Bet you can't wait.

Either way, here it goes.

I just finished a presentation today for the board of Buy The Way, a convenience store here in Korea. I put some effort into it, but I didn't really try as hard as I could of (the story of my life). Basically, it was me, my 2 co-workers who had actually been working on the project for its entirety (about 6 months), 4 investors from Hong Kong, the president and CEO of Buy The Way and 3 random Korean-Hong Kongers. I was probably the youngest person in the room by a couple decades and I had an hour long presentation (which turned into 2 hours with all the questions) to do on a company I barely know using notes from research I hadn't done.

I smelt disaster.

My sense of smell must have been off though since everyone gave me great feedback and applause. The president knew that I hadn't actually worked on the research since he had been in on it since the beginning and apparently I surprised him with my knowledge of the subject matter. I must say it was kinda humbling being in front of all of these people who are the big swinging dicks in their companies and have all of their eyes focusing directly on me and what I'm saying. On the other hand though, I felt the power. HA. I don't know what else to call it. It was a great experience to say the least and now my company will hopefully keep giving me high-profile clients to present to. The challenge, the uncertainty, I fucking love it.

It also seems that I will be getting my business cards today. One side English and the other side Hindi. Just kidding, Korean. Once I get my hands on them I will post a picture or something. I'm sure it's pretty easy to see how elated I am currently, but whatever, I'm feeling pretty damn good at recent developments.

On the home front, nothing has changed except the size of the ass-print on my quasi-couch from sitting and incessantly playing Final Fantasy 12. That and watching Venture Brothers. My home life pretty much consists of those two things and sleeping. I also shower occasionally. I will be calling the cable/internet/phone guy this weekend and hopefully get everything I need in those departments installed. I also need the curtain-hanger guy to come over and hand some curtains for me eventually. I hate not being able to walk around my house naked without people looking at me. Sometimes I do anyways for their enjoyment.

So to sum up this post: presentation, name card, elation, ass-print, quasi-couch, naked.

Yep, that'll do it.

Oh yeah, and felk. I love that word.

A real taste

2006-12-01T10:13:00.000+09:00

Week two is almost officially in the books and what a week it has been. While the beginning of the week started off in Week one fashion, it ended completely differently.

As you all know, Week one was a bust, all I did was sit around on my ass and search internet sites. By the end of yesterday though, it was starting to look like a whole different monster. I have been attending mandatory training sessions for the last week and they can be pure hell. It's not so much the sitting in the same chair for hours on end as it is attempting to learn the materials when it is taught completely in Korean. I will be the first to admit that my Korean is not that good (despite attempts by my co-workers to convince me otherwise) and I cannot pretend that I understand more than about 20 percent of what they are talking about during these sessions. I mean, they are discussing quantitative analysis studies and how they relate to consumer behavior in a language I have been studying for about a year and a half at speeds that even my co-workers say is too fast. On top of it, I have homework for the sessions almost everyday. Then they wonder why I can't complete it.

"It would take me at least 3 weeks to complete this since it is completely in Korean."

"Umm...okay..can you turn it in tomorrow?"

"No, because by my math, tomorrow would be 1 day, not 3 weeks."

"Oh, okay, don't worry about it."

(shrugs shoulders, goes back to looking at nba.com)

Not that I don't want to learn the material, it's just I insisted on having the necessary materials in English. So, I finally get the materials in English yesterday covering all of the models and discussion materials and then I am asked to take the test today.

"Umm..just got the materials yesterday..."

"Oh..so you can take the test?"

"No, because I haven't had time to cover all of the material."

"But it's in English."

"Yes, but unfortunately, I am yet incapable of reading 100 pages a minute."

"Oh, okay, you can take it next time."

Obviously, there are some communication barriers that need to be overcome by management and most of the staff here since I was told last night by my boss that I shouldn't even be going to these sessions. So after sitting at a computer screen for 5 mind-numbing hours in a row having a lady talk into my ear about how to manipulate a program I will never use, I get this information from my boss. Needless to say, it has been a bit frustrating but as always, I will get through it.

The projects I am working on, on the other hand, are very fun. I am covering a project for Johnson & Johnson while simultaneously preparing for a presentation for Buy The Way, a convienience store chain. I have a lot of groundwork to cover and a shitload of notes to memorize, but it is very challenging and fun. I am interested to see what this job turns into. I am sure I will be regretting that statement in the near future too...

In other news, last night was the official "welcome the new guys" party. About 25 or us went out for Sam Gyup Sal (kinda like thick-ass bacon, yummy) and lots of Soju. They wanted to see if I was a strong drinker...they found out the hard way. Now half the company knows not to lay their livers on the table when it comes to drinking with me.

"Wow, you're a strong drinker!"

"Wow, you're not, drink."

I shall conclude this week's rant with more pictures. Enjoy.

My new bed. Yes, the blanket is green. But it is so much more comfortable than whatever rag you will be curling up in tonight.

This is my official work badge. The Korean above my name, when literally translated, means: "is much cooler than you, dick". Actually it's my name.

This picture was just precious. I can't even remember how long ago this was taken. Thanks Marc! Sorry Ralph :(

To be fair, you can see me all painted up at my friend George's site. www.gromeiser.blogspot.com
Enjoy

Thanks for the land, suckers

2006-11-24T09:54:00.000+09:00

I'm back with a recap of my first week of work here at AC Nielsen Korea but before that, I need to layout what's going on here so I have a backdrop.

I started at around one of the busiest times of the year for companies here, the dreaded fiscal year-end. This essentially means that my company and probably a vast majority of publicly traded companies here must close out their budgets and start making the new budget for the following fiscal year. This also means that there is almost nothing for the new guy(me) to do. So I really didn't get to do much work this past week but I think I have an idea of what is waiting for me around the bend. I've spent some time talking with Glyn, the only other foreign worker here from England, and he has given me some of his projects to look over. I can tell you now that I will eventually be in for some LONG evenings here. Whatever, better than sitting at my desk with my thumbs competing for ass-time.

The people here are pretty cool. I'm already a member of the company basketball team (we don't play competitively, just for fun) and I had my first outing with them this past Tuesday. We will be meeting twice a month for a few hours of good ol' ball-playing. Some of them are pretty good and Tuesday helped show me how out of shape I have become (not that I didn't dominate the boards as always). Oh well, add another thing to the list of shit to do while here (Note to self: self, stop being so damn lazy and get active again). After the games, we went out and drank some soju and I bullshitted with some of my co-workers. Good times.

In other news, my apartment is still pretty much the same as I left it this past weekend. I will, however, be out shopping for stuff this weekend. I have included some pictures of how it looks now but don't get accustomed to them, it will be changing soon (and i'll be posting more pictures).

Finally, I would like to wish a happy turkey day to everyone reading this. Since I was broke my turkey day dinner consisted of ramen noodles and rice. Yummy. I miss all of the food at home and getting to see all of my family around one dinner table. I don't, however, miss all of the bullshit images perpetuated around Thanksgiving. You know, all of the posters of happy turkeys seemingly blissful of the gruesome death that awaits them and cutesy images of pilgrims and indians gathering around the table like the Brady family. I'm all for family gatherings and good food, but let's at least get the facts about the holiday correct. Speaking of which:

(You can skip the italicized parts if you want, it's just a history lesson.)

When the Pilgrims came to New England they were coming not to vacant land but to territory inhabited by tribes of Indians. The story goes that the Pilgrims, who were Christians of the Puritan sect, were fleeing religious persecution in Europe. They had fled England and went to Holland, and from there sailed aboard the Mayflower, where they landed at Plymouth Rock in what is now Massachusetts.

Religious persecution or not, they immediately turned to their religion to rationalize their persecution of others. They appealed to the Bible, Psalms 2:8: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." To justify their use of force to take the land, they cited Romans 13:2: "Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation."

The Puritans lived in uneasy truce with the Pequot Indians, who occupied what is now southern Connecticut and Rhode Island. But they wanted them out of the way; they wanted their land. And they seemed to want to establish their rule firmly over Connecticut settlers in that area.

In 1636 an armed expedition left Boston to attack the Narragansett Indians on Block Island. The English landed and killed some Indians, but the rest hid in the thick forests of the island and the English went from one deserted village to the next, destroying crops. Then they sailed back to the mainland and raided Pequot villages along the coast, destroying crops again.

The English went on setting fire to wigwams of the village. They burned village after village to the ground. As one of the leading theologians of his day, Dr. Cotton Mather put it: "It was supposed that no less than 600 Pequot souls were brought down to hell that day." And Cotton Mather, clutching his bible, spurred the English to slaughter more Indians in the name of Christianity.

Three hundred thousand Indians were murdered in New England over the next few years. It is important to note: The ordinary Englishmen did not want this war and often, very often, refused to fight. Some European intellectuals like Roger Williams spoke out against it. And some erstwhile colonists joined the Indians and even took up arms against the invaders from England. It was the Puritan elite who wanted the war, a war for land, for gold, for power. And, in the end, the Indian population of 10 million that was in North America when Columbus came was reduced to less than one million.

The way the different Indian peoples lived -- communally, consensually, making decisions through tribal councils, each tribe having different sexual/marriage relationships, where many different sexualities were practiced as the norm -- contrasted dramatically with the Puritan's Christian fundamentalist values. For the Puritans, men decided everything, whereas in the Iroquois federation of what is now New York state women chose the men who represented the clans at village and tribal councils; it was the women who were responsible for deciding on whether or not to go to war. The Christian idea of male dominance and female subordination was conspicuously absent in Iroquois society.

There were many other cultural differences: The Iroquois did not use harsh punishment on children. They did not insist on early weaning or early toilet training, but gradually allowed the child to learn to care for themselves. And, they did not believe in ownership of land; they utilized the land, lived on it. The idea of ownership was ridiculous, absurd. The European Christians, on the other hand, in the spirit of the emerging capitalism, wanted to own and control everything -- even children and other human beings. The pastor of the Pilgrim colony, John Robinson, thus advised his parishioners: "And surely there is in all children a stubbornness, and stoutness of mind arising from natural pride, which must, in the first place, be broken and beaten down; that so the foundation of their education being laid in humility and tractableness, other virtues may, in their time, be built thereon." That idea sunk in.

One colonist said that the plague that had destroyed the Patuxet people -- a combination of slavery, murder by the colonists and disease -- was "the Wonderful Preparation of the Lord Jesus Christ by His Providence for His People's Abode in the Western World." The Pilgrims robbed Wampanoag graves for the food that had been buried with the dead for religious reasons. Whenever the Pilgrims realized they were being watched, they shot at the Wampanoags, and scalped them. Scalping had been unknown among Native Americans in New England prior to its introduction by the English, who began the practice by offering the heads of their enemies and later accepted scalps.

"What do you think of Western Civilization?" Mahatma Gandhi was asked in the 1940s. To which Gandhi replied: "Western Civilization? I think it would be a good idea." And so enters "Civilization," the civilization of Christian Europe, a "civilizing force" that couldn't have been more threatened by the beautiful anarchy of the Indians they encountered, and so slaughtered them.

These are the Puritans that the Indians "saved", and whom we celebrate in the holiday, Thanksgiving. Tisquantum, also known as Squanto, a member of the Patuxet Indian nation. Samoset, of the Wabonake Indian nation, which lived in Maine. They went to Puritan villages and, having learned to speak English, brought deer meat and beaver skins for the hungry, cold Pilgrims. Tisquantum stayed with them and helped them survive their first years in their New World. He taught them how to navigate the waters, fish and cultivate corn and other vegetables. He pointed out poisonous plants and showed how other plants could be used as medicines. He also negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and Massasoit, head chief of the Wampanoags, a treaty that gave the Pilgrims everything and the Indians nothing. And even that treaty was soon broken. All this is celebrated as the First Thanksgiving.

If you bothered reading this, good for you. If you are skipping to the pictures, good for you too cause here they are:
(Remember that my apartment is shaped like a giant L-block from Tetris)

The long view of my apartment from where will be my bed.

Kitchen action. Yes, the fridge is the size of my thumb. It shall be replaced.

Side view of the "closet" space. I will be getting sliding doors to cover those.

My office building at night, from across the street. I work on the 9th floor.

Monday

2006-11-20T09:11:00.000+09:00

As I type this I am sitting in my cubicle awaiting to see what my first Monday at work has in store for me. It seems I will have a few projects to work on this week which is refreshing to know considering I had absolutely dick to do last Thursday and Friday. I pretty much just sat here and looked over notes while occasionally sneaking out to have coffee. Overall the company seems really cool so far. Everyone is really friendly and I actually get to use my Korean pretty often. Today I need to sneak down to the HR department and see if I can get an advance on my first check because I am broke already. So much to do, so little time.

I moved into my new apartment this past Saturday. I guess my initial perception of the apartment was wrong because once I started getting things in there, it wasn't as small as I had previously thought.

The cool things about this apartment:
1) I have my own apartment again
2) It's in probably the biggest party area in Seoul, Hong-Dae
3) It's just been renovated so it's very clean
4) The layout is going to challenge my creativity for arranging apartments

The not so cool things about this apartment:
1) Until Sunday, I had no hot water or heat
2) It's in probably the biggest party area in Seoul, Hong-Dae (yes, it's a bad thing too)
3) It's far as hell from everyone I know
4) I have to furnish it still

I went out yesterday and in five trips managed to get it somewhat furnished though I am nowhere near completion. I bought a TV and converter (all night Final Fantasy sessions, here I come!). I also managed to get a humidifier and some other odds and ends around the kitchen. I guess I'm satisfied so far but I'm sure every weekend for the next couple months is going to involve me doing something for the apartment. Things I need to get include; a bed, curtains for the windows, a computer and computer desk, kitchen table and dishes, cool posters, a wine bar, and a stereo. This is by no means an exclusive list. I figure if I'm gonna be in this place for up to two years, I best pimp it out. I have the money now after all. I will be including pictures of the apartment as soon as I figure out how to get them on my work laptop.

That's it for now I suppose. As always, I will keep everyone updated.

First Day

2006-11-15T19:23:00.000+09:00

I'm back. It was a fun little trip on the planes coming back to Korea despite the seemingly endless hours of sitting. My ass hurt something awful. Thanks to my brother I was at least able to keep myself entertained with his DS. So let's chart the voyage back shall we? This will give people who have never traveled so far a good idea what to expect when they do.

6:00am (Chicago Time) - Wake Up
7:30am - Leave for airport
9:ooam - Arrive at airport
9:30am - Have my liquor stolen at the security check (Bastards)
11:00am - Plane Departs for Tokyo
11:30pm - Plane arrives in Tokyo (yep, 12 1/2 hours later)
4:00am - Plane departs for Seoul
6:30am - Plane arrives in Seoul
7:ooam - Take bus to Seoul
8:00am - Arrive at Dave's house (11pm Seoul Time)

So, for all of you mathematicians out there, that's 26 hours spent en-route. Lots of fun. I hope all of you out there get to enjoy it sometime.

After moving shit around and getting dressed at Dave's, I went out to meet some friends who had gathered at one of our watering holes in Gangnam, Woodstock. After drinking and bullshitting for a few hours, I needed to get home and finally get some sleep. After sleeping for about 6 hours, I woke up and got ready to go and meet my girlfriend. I had spent a lot of time deciding what to purchase for her so I was happy that she liked the things I had picked out. After eating lunch together and catching up I came back to Dave's house and lounged around for the rest of the evening.

The last few days have pretty much been like that. Meet the girlfriend, then come back here and lounge. Tomorrow finally changes all of that because I start my new job. I'm anxious to start there because it seems like a pretty good job. The company has provided me with a great salary, good working conditions and hours and an apartment(it's kinda small though). Either way, I guess I can't complain. Everyone wish me luck. I will keep everyone updated.

Week 3 Update

2006-11-08T05:00:00.000+09:00

Well, despite how slowly the time seems like it has been going, it's almost time for me to get back to Korea. It has been a lot of fun spending time with friends and family. It's a shame that I can't spend more time here with everyone. Ah well, I will be back here next year to visit so I guess it's the time between that makes my visits that much more special. So, enough reminiscing, time for the weekly update.

If most of you didn't know, last week saw the much anticipated release of the latest addition to my favorite video game series, Final Fantasy. Needless to say, I spent much of my mornings the last week accumulating about 20 hours of game play on it. Since I now have my own copy however, I no longer feel the rush and eagerly look forward to spending some of my free time back in Korea playing this beautifully designed game. In other gaming news, PS3 and the Nintendo Wii will be coming out next week but it doesn't seem like anyone (at least anyone I know) will be able to get their hands on them until early next year.

You know you want to play with me

When I wasn't wasting my time at home playing video games, I actually went out and met some of my friends and did things. I also had a little family/friend get together at my house to put a cap on my three week adventure home. Friday night saw me meeting up with Ralph and going over to have a few at the local watering hole in Bolingbrook, Tailgaters. It was cool because I met some people there I haven't seen in awhile. Good times.

Me and my friend, Eric at Tailgaters

Even though Halloween is over and I spent arguably the most tame Halloween night in history here, it did have it's highlights. One of which was my two dogs, Colt and Bullet, dressed as Batman and Robin. Even though I am thoroughly sick of all of the fashionably inhumane things they do to dogs in Korea, I thought this was really cute. Plus, at least they didn't dye their fur or anything.

From the left, Colt and Bullet

My last Saturday night in Chicago saw me spending time with my father and my little sister, Patrice. It's been hard to maintain a working relationship with my sister since she is only 6 and I've spent more than half of that time living abroad. It was a good time and I realized that teaching children for as long as I did helped me learn patience when dealing with them. This was a revelation for me since I have never been the most patient person when it comes to dealing with children. So I guess my old job influenced me in more ways than just turning me into a raging alcoholic to fight the pain of being employed there.

Sunday was my little home party. Some members of my family and friends came over to eat, drink and be merry. My mother and grandmother collaborated on some excellent food and I drank myself into a stupor with my friends. It was a memorable night since my friends actually stayed at my house despite having to wake up at a quarter to five in the morning and go to work. It's all love homies.

All in all, I have had a great time out here. Spending time with everyone has been surreal and I really can't wait to get out here again next year and do this again. As I will be spending the remaining time here with family, I doubt I will have too many more pictures to share but we will see what happens. Until next time.

Here are a few pics:

Me and my uncle, Ray and Family

Me and my uncle, Jarry

Kitchen Party!!

Garage Party!!

Ralph's head floating in a zebra skin ocean

Fuck me? Noooo....fuck you!

Week 2 Update

2006-10-31T04:06:00.000+09:00

Week two of my excursion home has been interesting to say the least. I've been running myself ragged to meet as many members of my family as humanly possible before my time here is up as well as drinking and carousing with my good friends since we won't have that opportunity for at least another year.

I got to go to my cousin's wedding this past weekend which was an interesting time because I was able to meet an entire side of my family in one day and also see my cousin who had just recently come back from Kuwait. As always, I spent most of my time at the reception drinking and mingling with family. I was in such a hurry to get there on time that I actually forgot my camera at my father's house, so no pictures of this event unfortunately.

My doggie, Colt

Watching the Chicago Bears play the 49ers this Sunday was too funny. It's very satisfying to watch the team that trounced us all through the 90s finally get their comeuppance for a decade of making me wince whenever I watched sports updates. 41 to 10. Haha. Stuff it up your ass San Fran. GO BEARS!!

That evening I also went out with some of my friends I haven't seen in awhile. Since we all wanted to drink in a bar setting without paying bar prices, we decided to go to my friend Chris's basement to play pool and drink. The night ended like it usually does when 8 people spend a better part of the evening drinking, with slurred yelling and head shaking. Here's to all of you drunken derelicts.

The cast from Cheers

Finally, Halloween this year seems like it will be a bust. Everyone is working and I can't drive anywhere because I lost my damn license. So the only "holiday" that I get to spend here seems like it will go out with a whimper. Whatever. At least I can sooth myself knowing that my friends back in Korea will be having a great time with whatever shenanigans they have planned. Rock out guys, take some good pics.

Homecoming

2006-10-26T04:20:00.000+09:00

It has been a busy, yet fun, first week back home. I finally arrived home to surprise my family and took the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/v/z6szypyDlTo

I think it's safe to say they were surprised...

A picture of my house

My first night when as planned, I slept for a countless amount of hours into Saturday afternoon. After awaking and having breakfast with everyone, we drove out to surprise some other members of the family. The next victim was my aunt, who, after having me walk in and greet her nonchalantly, stood there blank faced for a minute before she recognized me and gave me a hug. After having lunch together, I decided to do some shopping. Since my 16 months in Seoul gave me few options in the underwear and runner department, I decided to stock up while I was here. After buying a few more things I went home and prepared to surprise my friends.

My friends, while excited to see me, weren't too dramatic about seeing me for the first time in months. I guess it would have been a little awkward if they had the same reaction as my mom, so I understand their reactions. We proceeded to get shit-faced on beer, grey goose vodka, jose cuervo and the soju I brought back with me. I don't remember doing much during this time except laughing my ass off, playing pool (one game took a few hours at the end) and overall having a great time. One of my friends summed it up by saying my being there was "surreal" or maybe he said "so real" or possibly "No Deal", either way the vodka was good.

From the left: Ralph, Myself, Chris, Marc and Brandon

Sunday left me nursing a decent hangover and waiting to surprise the next major person on my list: my Dad. I was eating some Taco Bell (love to hate it) when my Dad rang the doorbell. I answered the door, once again rather nonchalantly, and my Dad greeted me with a smile, a hug and a "No Shit". If you knew my father this would be exactly what you would expect him to say. After sharing some stories and some coffee, we went out to the local Sports Authority to buy a few things and play with the air hockey tables that were on display. Overall it was a great afternoon.

Monday and Tuesday were much of the same thing: surprising relatives and drinking with friends. Needless to say, two more great days. I hope the next two weeks are as good as the first was.

Sweet Home Chicago...

The Touchdown

2006-10-21T06:26:00.000+09:00

Seeing the beauty of the skyline from my elevated position as the light cracked over the horizon. I'm home again. It's been 16 long months since I basked in your welcoming aura.

Sweet home Chicago.

Though I haven't surprised the folks yet (that will be transpiring in 3 hours) it has been exhilirating to see the same familiar roads and buildings again. I can't wait to see what the next 3 weeks hold in store.

Kid in an all too familiar candy store...

Going Going Back Back to Chicago Chicago

2006-10-19T23:01:00.000+09:00

As I write this, I realize I will be getting on the plane to go home in 8 hours. I haven't been home to see my family or friends in almost 16 months so this visit is definately well over due. I'm anxious to see how everyone has been doing in my absence. Even though it will only be for about 3 weeks, I look forward to spending time back home. The most interesting aspect of this trip, however, is the fact that NOBODY (with the exception of my friend Ralph, who is picking me up at the airport) is aware of the fact I'm coming home. I'm excited to give my family an "international surprise" that I'm sure they won't soon forget. I plan on putting all the videos and pictures from the trip on here when I get back so look forward to that.

Get ready Chicago, I'm coming back to you.

Back to Basics...

2006-10-16T16:38:00.000+09:00

Well, this is the first post. Expectations are high and I'm eager to disappoint so here goes...

A brief description of me for those of you who don't know me that well.

I currently live in Seoul, South Korea, one of the largest (if not the largest, depending on your tools of measurement) in the world. I have been here a grand total of 28 months dispersed between January 2003 and present day and it doesn't look like I'll be leaving anytime soon. I am originally from Chicago, where I spent the first 20 years of my life before I went to live in Japan as a student from 2001 until 2002. I graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in December of 2004 with a major in International Business Management and I have just procured a position at AC Nielsen Korea where I will be a Market Researcher. Hope thats a good enough description.

On to recent developments...

As I said, I have just recently been hired by AC Nielsen Korea. While it has been a rather tiresome process to obtain a job in Korea as a non-native, I look forward to the challenges it offers. The bright spots of this deal were beyond my expectations in many respects. My salary is well beyond expectations and I actually get to go home and see family and friends for 3 weeks before starting the new job. I am not, by the way, telling anyone about my trip home (with the exception of my friend Ralph, thanks for picking me up bro!) because I want it to be a surprise. Other than this recent excitement, I have just been resting up and recovering from my latest job at Wonderland English school.

I promise to start putting pictures and other forms of entertainment on here as soon as I have the time and energy.

Peace