it will be like this forever

Off to the K-Land

2011-07-18T05:47:00.002+09:00

I started this blog back in 2004 as a way to record my thoughts, impressions, and images of Korea as I began my new life in Daegu; first I didn't even use Blogger, I wrote my own flash app and coded the blog myself, then uploaded it to my parents' Comcast webspace. A year or so later, I switched to Blogger, which relieved me of coding duties and freed up a lot more time for writing. The frequency of my blogging has definitely hit peaks and valleys over the years, but since starting grad school it just seems I post pretty randomly, and rarely do I post anything substantial.

Content has also changed. At first I focused on 'things I noticed about Korea' from the way people shared all of their food at the dinner table, to the usage of English lettering as graphic design rather than text, to how annoying it was that everybody always asked me if I could eat spicy food. As time went on and Korea became my home, my blogging shifted to bitching and moaning about girlfriends, and photos of travel adventures. Now I just post links to the Daft Punk song generator and the occasional Makgeolli recipe.

What should I do with my blog now? The title would immediately become inappropriate if I shut down the blog; yet I find that as the internet has become less DIY, other services have reduced the necessity of the type of blogging I'd been doing. Facebook all but obviates the need to blog about what I've been doing or plan to do, or post photos of last weekend's trip. I would use this blog space as a place for artistic endeavors, but there hasn't been much of that as of late. If I had more time/was less lazy, I could write about school (about which I have a lot of strong opinions) or the stuff I've been studying, but I already have to write tons of papers and read hundreds of pages a week for that, so blogging about it is kind of unappealing.

At any rate, school's out for the summer and I'm off to Korea, and I've been gone for more than a year now, so going back feels like the first time (Yes! Two song titles in one sentence!). I'll try to use this reincarnated sense of novelty to jump-start the blog back into action. Hopefully I'll be able to combine my newly acquired academic knowledge, photography skizillz, and perspective of old age (I'm 30! Respect me younglings!) to write and make images about being a white dude doing Asian Studies, in a way that is both personal and intimate yet interesting to a broader audience, including people who aren't even my friends.

Matt Speaks with Nature/Hunter Fights Off the Trees

2011-04-03T14:40:00.005+09:00

Nuclear Reactor

2011-04-03T13:39:00.010+09:00

What Have I Done?

2011-03-27T14:29:00.001+09:00

Suddenly, upon turning 28 (that was almost two years ago now), I had what I can only describe as a 1/3rd life crisis. And it's still going on. I thought, "Oh shit! I've been teaching English in Korea and gallavanting around the globe for far too long now. If I don't get out now and make something of myself, I'll be stuck here doing this forever!" So what did I do? All within a few months I had quit my job, said my goodbyes to my girlfriend of 2 years in Australia, and started grad school at the University of Washington.

One year and $36,000 into it (going on $60k), things are not how I wanted them to turn out. Classes are generally fine, sometimes actually worth the money, and occasionally a complete waste of time. Seattle is a cool city (I saw Deerhoof here a couple weeks ago), although a bit too PC and over-regulated for my liking. Bike helmet laws, what? There are even signs, for sidewalk bicyclists, telling them when a sharp turn is coming. I was politely yelled at by a police officer the other day for not having a helmet. In Arkansas, it would've been "Boy, what're yew doin' in ma neck a' th' woods with'at a hel-met? Imma give yew a ticket yew summbitch." but here in Seattle, the warbly voiced officer kindly implores "Hey buddy, get yourself a helmet, alright?" Lame.

Oh and did I mention I left my girlfriend in Australia? Why did I do that? She is really cool, and we got along really well most of the time. At the time, I remember thinking, "oh man, I've waited too long already, I can't waste any more time going to Australia to work on a farm for a year, I'll be like 35 by the time I get my masters degree if I do that and then nobody will ever hire me for a real job. Girlfriend will probably break up with me anyway." Since when am I the kind of guy who makes his career a higher priority than love?

So what the hell? What possessed me to first quit the cushy job, which afforded me the ability to save $25k + per year AND have several months vacation, then sever myself from the woman I'd had a passionate relationship with for the past couple years, leave the land of wallabies and kangaroos and bright green birds that attack your car and no responsibilities, and plunge myself into massive debt?

Don't most people usually kind of stop when they find a woman they are sufficiently in love with, stay with her, and eventually get married or form some other similar union? I mean yes, we were fighting quite a bit prior to separation, but that seems pretty inevitable. Isn't working 25 hrs/wk with four months vacation and still being able to save tens of thousands of dollars a year what people are into these days? Granted, with a masters degree, I can go back to Korea, and work even less while making more money, but that's beside the point. If I had just committed myself to staying by girlfriend's side indefinitely, I think our remaining relationship problems would've subsided. We could've camped our way around Australia, making just enough money to scrape by, done a lot of hiking, fishing, laying on the beach, and what not, and THEN maybe I could've gone to grad school. Why didn't I do that? I have no idea.

I feel like I've made a huge, irreparable mistake. Now that my visa has expired, I can no longer go back to Oz to work, and girflriend still can't come here except on a student visa, which would require her to fund her stay here or work illegally. I basically created a situation for her that would be the absolute most conducive to finding a new man, and that's exactly what happened. For some reason, leaving Australia, it felt like I would only be gone a short time, and then we would see each other again, no problem. I quickly realized my mistake, however, but by that time it was far too late. Now I'm entrenched in debt, financially enslaved, and have to complete this MA degree. After that, I will probably be forced to find work however I can (the upside is that I will probably be able to make more money than I did before, but upon calculation, it turns out that the debt, when compounded with interest, cancels out much of the salary increase I am likely to see) and join the rat race for the rest of my life! That is not what I wanted at all. I want to take a couple years off and bicycle around the world (or at least a couple continents), I want to do Peace Corps, I want to hike the 백두대간 산맥 길 in Korea, I want to own a cool motorcycle, I want to put a down payment on a house/apartment in the states and rent it out while I am abroad to cover the mortgage, and tons of other stuff, some involving making money but most just personal growth of one sort or another. It seems like debt makes it hard to do a lot of that, but maybe I'm just freaking out because I am new to American culture.

Anyway, things I have learned, some of which I kind of already knew:

1.)I am not god's gift to anybody or anything.

2.)I need to calm the fuck down and take things slowly.

3.)For the self-confident, laid-back hippie-esque image I put forth, I worry wayyy too much about social status, money, and possessions.

Is a career something people concentrate on when they can't/don't want to find love? Or is love something people do when they have no other ambitions? How can I fix this situation?

This may not be everyone's cup of tea but...

2010-12-05T05:49:00.000+09:00

I came across an awesome Korean death metal band the other day! Finally, the music of the enlightened has made its way to the hermit kingdom.

Check out Necramyth on MySpace.

and some video goodness...

막걸리 만들기!!!! Making Makgeolli!!!!

2010-12-04T04:35:00.004+09:00

I finally made the attempt, and I'm happy to report that not only am I not blind, but I just finished off my first cup of cool, refreshing, 내가 직접 만든 makgeolli! Actually they sell commercially produced makgeolli here at the grocery store, but it's not refrigerated, and has been imported, so I guess it's gone through some sort of pasteurization process or something, resulting in flat, nasty makgeolli. Now the nitty gritty of how to make yummy makgeolli goodness in your own home. Oh and if you'd like to look at the Korean wesbsite where I got the recipe, well click on 'recipe'.

Equipment:

광목천-straining cloth. I used regular old cheesecloth, layered a few times for a finer mesh.
A glass jar(s) big enough to hold how much ever makgeolli you want to make
A big pot to boil water for sterilizing your glass jars, as well as for steaming your rice
Some kind of steaming apparatus for your pot (I just used one of those flower petal-shaped steamers that you put inside a regular pot, but you could use something different)
A big plastic or glass bowl for mixing your rice and yeast, as well as for straining your final product
Tongs, a big wooden spoon, maybe even a spreading spatula would be nice
Glass or plastic bottles/jars to hold your finished product

Ingredients:

1 part rice. I'm sure Koreans would insist that you use Korean rice, but I used short-grained Japanese sushi rice, because that's what's readily available here. Same same.
1.5 parts water. All the water that goes into your makgeolli needs to be purified in some way, either boil it or use distilled water.
0.007 parts yeast. Regular baking yeast.
0.02 parts 누룩 (nuruk). Nuruk is malted wheat, which is probably only available at strictly Korean grocers. I ended up using the Japanese equivalent, koji, and it seems to have worked well. If I can get my hands on some nuruk, I'll try that next time.

I started with 1.25 cups of rice, not quite 2 cups of water, a quarter package or so of yeast, and a couple teaspoons of koji, and it turned out fine, so I guess precise measurements aren't super important.

Step 1:
Soak your rice for 2~3 hours.

Step 2:
Drain your rice for 1 hour.

Step 3:
Wrap your rice in the cheesecloth, place it in your steamer, and steam for an hour, then let it sit for about 20 minutes. (make sure there is enough water in the steamer)

Step 4:
Remove the rice rice from the steamer (but not the cheese cloth) and spread it out on a flat surface to cool. Mix in your nuruk with a wooden spoon/spatula until it is evenly distributed.

Step 5:
Dissolve your yeast into a very small amount of water.

Step 6:
Put the rice/nuruk mixture, water, and yeast/water mixture into your big glass jar/container, give it a good stir, and seal the lid tightly.

Step 7:
Keep it at room temperature for two days, stirring once or twice a day.

Step 8:
Keeping it at room temperature, remove the lid, replace it with dense cheesecloth rubber-banded to your container's opening. Leave it this way for 5 more days, making sure to stir it a couple times every day.

Step 9:
About now it should be smelling like alcohol, and there should be a layer of alcohol on top and the sediment on the bottom. Your makgeolli may ferment slower or faster, so you may have to experiment with time. If you think it's ready, get your big bowl out, as well as a big sheet of cheesecloth, and pour your little fermentation babies onto the cheesecloth (which is laid out over the bowl). Pour out just enough so that you can wrap the cheesecloth around it and strain out the liquid into the bowl. There shouldn't be much left of the rice, but if your cheesecloth gets clogged, rinse it out under tap water, wring it out, and repeat until you've strained all your makgeolli. Transfer the strained makgeolli into your jars/bottles, refrigerate, and enjoy! Actually the blog I linked to said to let it mature for a few days before drinking, but I didn't notice any difference with mine, but hey whatever you want to do.

Ok, photo uploaded, but I think I forgot to mention a couple things, especially for those of you who have not had the opportunity to try makgeolli before.

The ideal texture for makgeolli is kind of a thin slightly fizzy milkiness. Not too chalky, not too bubbly, not too thick. Taste should be both sweet and sour.
Fermentation continues even after you bottle your little ones, so you need to keep them refrigerated and drink within a few days. Good reason to have a makgeolli party!
It's really important to keep your brew warm during the fermentation process. I think too warm is better than too cold. After the first day or two, you should see lots of bubbles and if you put your ear to the opening of your container, you should hear the sound of bacteria excreting alcohol.
When you serve makgeolli, please don't put it in a glass. Drink from a bowl! Or at least a wide-mouthed shallow vessel of some sort.
Makgeolli goes well with sauteed kimchi and tofu, or a nice jeon.

High Commander's Order Issuing Meeting

2010-11-20T08:59:00.000+09:00

One super hard thing about translating Korean into English is that Korean is stylistically the opposite of English. Paragraph-long sentences, circular logic, and strings of nouns are commonplace, and so even with comics like this, in order to make it sound at all natural, you really have to subjectify your translation a lot.

----

The banner behind the soldiers says, "Thorough fulfillment of the high commander's orders..."

Guy on the left reads, "Following the high-minded example of our Youthful Leader (Kim Jong Un) let's sacrifice our youth!"

First sitting soldier thinks, "Heh, whatever, YOU go ahead and sacrifice your youth..."

Second sitting soldier thinks, "I'm hungry, I want to eat."

And fetal position dude thinks, "Training again this time. He's dead, I see."

----

Actually, I can't really figure out what the last guy is trying to say, and even though I think I've got the translation down fairly well, none of this seems like a very potent criticism of Kim Jong Un. Any help, Korean speakers?

Hey Guess What's cool?

2010-11-08T05:51:00.002+09:00

Daft Punk Song Creator

I made a poster!

2010-10-26T11:21:00.001+09:00

Where's T-Pain when you need him?

2010-10-18T05:42:00.000+09:00

Guess who spent yesterday on a boat, motherfucker??? I joined the UW sailing club recently, because, well, I've always wanted to learn how to sail, and now I live next to the ocean and sailing at the UW is super cheap for students. Like once you pay your membership dues, which are equivalent to a few days worth of groceries, everything else is free. Although I'm not even rated to sail this:

unsupervised as of yet, while out practicing Friday the supervisor (below), was kind enough to invite me out on a REAL FREAKIN' YACHT for Saturday. A little apprehensive, I decided it was an opportunity not to be missed.

Here we are, having motored out of Lake Union and into the lock, which will lower us to sea level, and

voila, the magical doors open and release us into the ocean (well Puget Sound).

Two rough and ready sailor folk (well sailor-physician and sailor-dad invented spellcheck) enjoying a brewsky (appropriately named 'Full Sail') on the calm seas before the fun begins.

Yes, they let me drive. And no, I didn't flip the boat.

Apparently when the boat is at this angle to the water it's a good thing.

The stovetop and kettle are actually level.

Look Ma, no hands!

Turning the boat (tacking) is a three man effort.

Time to go home, that is Olympic National Park in the background.

Don't forget to stop and pump out the day's biological waste.

...and after going through a few draw bridges, we're home!

Good times were had all around, although I found out that I get seasick, and it's really cold out on the open seas, even when the sun is shining and you are wearing lots of layers. I got home, took a long, piping hot shower, and slept for 12 hours. Now it's time to memorize Korean vocab! Fun!

NK Kid Wearing South Park Shirt in Pyongyang!

2010-10-04T04:25:00.002+09:00

Do you even know what I'm talkin' about?

2010-09-17T04:01:00.001+09:00

오토바이 샀어!

2010-09-15T03:49:00.000+09:00

A guy in an asian studies program needs a bike called the ninja, right? I didn't take any photos of the other side because that's where all the scratches are.

I know I posted this before, but...

2010-09-13T04:51:00.000+09:00

It's so rockin' I had to post it again:

Which Bike to Choose?

2010-09-08T05:54:00.002+09:00

I am adding content to this post post-post, but if I add content to the bottom, nobody will notice it, and if I add it to the top here, it won't be chronological anymore! Oh well...

Or I could get the 1982 Honda FT500! Single cylinder, from the 80's...and only $875

There's also this SV650, which will by far be the most powerful of the bikes, and probably more fun to ride around on than the ninja, but will get slightly worse gas mileage and require more expensive tires and what not. There is also a version with a half fairing, and I could get ~8 year old one for under $2500, which is about my limit.

The cheapest and most practical choice would be something like the Ninja 500 here. Gets 60mpg, has a small wind fairing and some underseat storage, and a comfortable seat for two. Will probably be a fair bit quicker than the Honda I had in Korea. Also comes in pretty cool colors like purple, neon green, and bright yellow. The 2001 bike below is listed for $2200 but I bet I could get it for cheaper.

This is what I really want. The DR650. It's like the orange bike I had in Korea, but with a 5x bigger engine. It will be super grunty at low speeds and be able to hop off of curbs and fly over speed bumps, potholes, and train tracks like they're not even there. Plus it comes in wicked 90's color scheme. Downside is that I will have to pay to put road tires on it, and because of my stumpy little legs, I'll probably have to pay to have it lowered as well. This one is going for $1800, but it's a 1992! The newer ones go for $3000 and up.

The DRZ400, similar to the DR650, is already supermotoed, and so I wouldn't have to change the tires. I would definitely have to have the seat lowered though, and with a 400cc single cylinder engine, it probably won't bee too good for long road trips. At $3000 this particular one is at the absolute bottom end of the spectrum for these, so it's a little out of my price range.

Should I go cheap and hassle-free but a little less fun? Expensive and impractical? Or listen to my heart and have to deal with changing a bunch of stuff right away?

OMG I have the internet again so I should write a blog post.

2010-09-08T04:33:00.001+09:00

It's amazing how quickly I got used to surfing craigslist on my phone, but there's just no substitute for a 13.3" screen and 20mbps wifi!

Now, sitting in my new and extremely humble abode adjacent to the UW campus, the loneliness has subsided and I'm kind of starting to enjoy the feeling of being in a new, big city, all by myself. Let's post some pictures.

Going home to Arkansas, which I haven't seen in over 2 years, was like going there for the first time. I'd forgotten how beautifully green and mountainous it is, how peaceful and unpretentious, and how nature's goings-on far outpaced humanity's.

Spending some quality time with the fam

and old friends

It was also great, and a little overwhelming, to remember the awesome selection of stuff we have in 'merica, like

But then I was horrified by how every single day of every single week, if I wanted to leave the house, I had to drive (usually my brother's truck, the fuel consumption of which is about $20/hr of driving time), and how my parents went out to eat almost every day, and every time my mom would get what was leftover from her wayyyy too big meal 'to go' in a styrofoam container, as well as get a styrofoam cup for her ice tea. Later, I might eat the leftovers, or they might just get thrown away, unseparated from their container.

Also, whenever I visit home, it's like whatever I've been up to lately gets erased and I have to start over as a little boy. Mostly I mean that from a living-with-parents-again situational point of view, because to my Mom and Dad, I'm always just their little baby, and whatever silly antics I get up to, like traveling around the world, caring a little about the environment, or playing accordion, are seen as passing fads no different from hypercolor t-shirts or subwoofers in the car.

So it's time to go, and now I'm in Seattle!

I can easily walk or ride my bike

to Trader Joe's QFC, Safeway, and a farmer's market from my quaint apartment:

And I thought I was going to be completely friendless for the next 2 weeks until roomie gets here -

but guess who was in town visiting James from the WashU Waterman Crew???

Now that I've got the crib all set up with craigslisted or dumpstered furniture, and possess the internet, I just need to take care of a couple bureaucratic matters like getting a WA driver's license and student ID, and I'm good to go until the end of September. I am also on the prowl for a sweet 오토바이 under about $2500, so if I find a set of wicked wheels from the 90's, I'll be sure and post.

As always, there are more photos to browse on flickr.

Latest Accordion Endeavour

2010-08-26T01:58:00.000+09:00

Went to visit Mike in STL this past weekend (you can see photos at right) and we jammed! Playing with someone else is really fun! Next I wanna do "You Know My Name".

Russia in color, a century ago - The Big Picture - Boston.com

2010-08-26T01:56:00.000+09:00

Click for the whole gallery -

탈옥 means 'Prisonbreak'

2010-08-25T07:03:00.001+09:00

The Korean had already been translated into English in this version, which a friend of mine posted on facebook, so I had to hunt down the original Korean version, screen capture it bit by bit (the K-net doesn't think you should be able to right click and download images freely), and piece it back together. Sorry for the misaligned frames!

What's the deal with this cartoon? It's mildly funny on first read, but then I pondered it for a moment and just thought, why? Thinking something was missing from the translation, I went back to the original Korean, and they match up better than most translations (except for when he says "You were the only one who cared for me despite me being black". A more accurate translation would be something like "It was you who treated me me most humanely when I was mistreated by others for being black".)

So what's the point? Why is it that a Korean guy and black guy are escaping from prison together? Does the artist see Koreans and African-American's as being in the same boat as far as their racial place on the world stage? Team members in the fight against white hegemony? I guess Koreans do really like hip-hop.

Why is it that the black guy has to sacrifice himself for K-man just because he didn't discriminate against him? Was that some kind of favor, as opposed to an intrinsic human right, as most people assume? Why does K-guy defer so readily?

Then there are the two blonde white guys in the last frame. Oh man, black guy has jumped the gun, he didn't need to sacrifice himself at all. Are white people really that far ahead of the game?

Maybe my critical thinking skills are a little rusty, all having been out of school for a few years, but I don't get it. Somebody help.

Found this in my closet today.

2010-08-11T08:26:00.003+09:00

My American closet that is. It looks like it's 50 years old. I guess when I got it it would've been 2004/5? I can't believe I've been in Korea long enough to have found something like this.

How do I make the chinese hooker touts stop advertising on my site?

2010-07-20T21:47:00.004+09:00

I tried changing the comments permissions so that now you have to be a blogger user to comment, and you have to do the 'enter the text from the box above' thingy, but they keep commenting! What can I do?

Also, I'm going to repost this from flickr:

Written in the description below the title were the words:

we all try harder as the days run out

I Can't Even Motivate Myself to Write this Blog Post

2010-07-11T22:24:00.005+09:00

...whew, a little stretching and a sip of goon (Aussie slang for box wine) seems to have done the trick.

I'm over the desert, and with just two weeks left of mind-numbing work I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. To be fair, the job Hong and I do is not that bad, and we work with some really interesting characters, and as I've mentioned before, what would have been near slavery in america pays enough here to allow us to afford a really cheap room, food, and to save about $3000USD in under two and a half months.

The mind-numbing part comes from working such long hours. We've really only been working about 40 hours or so per week thus far - and before you theoretical blog readers retort by reminding me how comparatively little I've been working the last few years - but I really feel like it's draining on every level. Even working just eight hours a day with a paltry 15 minute bicycle commute and 30 minute lunch break leaves me with just about 5 hours of 'off' time per day, during which I have to do things like cook, shower, eat, go to the grocery store, fix broken things, and other tasks that take up leisure time, leaving me with astonishingly little time, energy, and willpower to engage in conversation, partake in hobbies and activities, etc.

I find myself going to fast food restaurants and eating unhealthy food more often than I would like, and even at the grocery store choosing items like the 2kg pre-made lasagne on special instead of buying healthier things that I would have to cook. When I get home, instead of spending an hour practicing the accordion or posting in my blog more often, look at hotties on facebook or peruse images of cool motorcycles, all while sitting across from Hongeun, who is contemporaneously doing something similar, but with no interaction.

I also can't seem to care too much about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, or...(what else is going on now?) I know I'm being a total sissy, but to be fair, I'm also dealing with the...shockwaves? backlash? stress...of the imminent separation from Hongeun, which I'm sure has something to do with my apathy.

At the same time though, even though I did work a full time, mind-numbing job for a year after college, having the cushy gig in Korea and then having to temporarily return has really enabled me to understand why there are so many obese americans, nobody cares about world politics, and people just keep buying things to make themselves feel happy.

And I suppose if you really like your job, like I assume my Dad does, and some other friends assert that their parents do, it's probably satisfying, and not life-force draining, and not a problem, but for the vast majority of people who I also assume don't like their jobs, this is probably not the case. Am I just a spoiled brat, product of post-modernity, too 'new-school'?

It looks like I'd better hurry on to grad school and continue my thus-far privileged life, hopefully never having to work hard at anything I don't totally enjoy ever again.

Why Can't I Do Everything?

2010-06-26T22:36:00.001+09:00

I've checked out but it seems like I can never leave...

2010-05-31T20:21:00.002+09:00

A scene from my latest accordion fantasy

Alice Springs is quite possibly the weirdest place I've ever been. This haphazardly slapped together town, built solely for tourism in the middlest of nowhere, in a desert that's not quite a desert, with some secret underground artesian well providing its water, on land stolen from its original owners, who now, deprived of the hardships that for 60,000 years made their culture what it was, have nothing better to do than booze it up and get obese on KFC every fucking night of the week, litter the streets with broken beer bottle glass and piss all over every street corner...oh, and break into my car...twice...in 3 days.

The first day, Hong and I got up to go to work, and found both front side windows broken. Looking inside, only my mp3 player had been stolen. Not Hongeun's, which was next to mine, not the fm transmitter or the $300 tent in the back or any number of other expensive items. Just my $150 mp3 player. The windows cost $400 to replace. I can just imagine some dirty 13 year old homeless kid, high on the gasoline fumes he just sniffed, wandering by with his 'mates' and looking into my car at 3am, saying in some indecipherable australiaboriginal accent something to the effect of "Hey, let's steal that mp3 player". Next, dude and his buddy pick up a rock each and bang on my windows until they break, open the doors, grab the goods, and giggle as they run off to the liquor store...or something.

The second time, two days later, the thief was a little more resourceful, if quite a bit stupider. This time, no windows were broken, just the front door lock jimmied and a screwdriver broken off in the ignition. Nothing stolen. Thanks asshole, now I can't drive my car AT ALL. I did learn how to disassemble my ignition key mechanism via youtube, however, which I'm excited about, and tomorrow I will put my new knowledge to the test when I attempt to drill out the ignition cylinder and install the new one myself.

So we get bikes. From K-mart. For $99, or so we thought, until the guy in the red shirt made us aware of the fact that because the bikes we were planning to buy had been assembled in-store and were ready to ride (as opposed to still being in the box), we would be charged an extra $16 for each bike. Ha. Anyway we buy the bikes. Next day both of Hongeun's tubes flatten, simultaneously, making us late for work. After work, we go to back to K-mart (we're walking now, think endless strip-mall in the desert), where the douchey customer service guy tries to get all metaphysical on me and tell me that the ti(y)res' inner-tubes are not a mechanical part of the bicycle, and therefore cannot be considered defective in the sense that would allow me to return the bike for a refund. I yell at him until he relents, or at least agrees to give me 'store credit', with which we go to purchase another of the exact same model off the display and wheel it back to the checkout line, where we are told that display models cannot be sold without the manager's permission. Did somebody say manager? Just then manager appears from nowhere, giving the ok to sell the product. Doucheboy still doesn't want to do it, and has to be told twice to in fact go ahead and sell said bicycle to customer. So we turn in our little red store credit slips, head outside, mount our pink and blue couple "Southern Star Apogee" mountain bike style (there is a sticker on the bikes that say that although they look like mountain bikes, our bikes are not intended to be ridden off-pavement) bicycles, and wheelie off into the sunset.

* * * *

Completely off-topic, if you look off to the right, you'll see that I've reorganised (kk) my links section a bit, and added a 'motorcycles' section. If you feel up to it, click on Song of the Sausage Creature (or hey you can just click to the left and save yourself some future arthritis). At the risk of sounding a little (or a bit) pretentious, I think Hunter S. Thompson's description of motorcycle riding is pretty awesome, and sums up my feelings about motorcycles in a really uhh elegant way that also doesn't make it sound all technical or too macho or douchebag cum motorheadesque. Yeah man.

일 구했다!

2010-05-22T21:23:00.002+09:00

내 한국어 능력이 안 떨어지도록 한국어로 글을 쓰겠습니대.

영어로도 나의 머리속에서 나는 다양한 생각들을 챙기지 못 하는데 한국어로 쓰면 나도 이해 못 할 것 같애.

그렇기 때문에 또 리스트로 쓰기로 해야되겠다.

1.일 구 했네! - 오늘 부터 홍은이랑 여기 엘리스 스프링스의 Wayoutback이라는 관광사에서 일 시작했다. 우리둘이 하는 일은 주변 사막 관광 갔다온 버스나 관광 시설 그런 걸 싯고 빨래도 하고 등...

2. 오늘 일 하면서 관광 갔다온 아이스박스안에서 관광객이 안 먹은 파인애플을 찾고 집으로 가져서 금방 맛있게 먹었다.

3. 이제 일을 찾은 바람에 기분이 훨씬 좋아지고 다시 호주를 좋아하게 됐다.

4. 또 일 하면서는 자동차를 세차하다가 내 물 젖은 신발안에 발를 노무오래 신어서 발이 불편하고 약안 아파지기 때문에 신발을 벗어가지고 발 피부가 다 구불구불하고 심한 냄새 났다.

5. 엄마 보고싶다.

갑자기 다른 생각 다 없어졌다. 이제 이발 딱고 잘 거다.

The first thousand was fun...

2010-05-17T22:19:00.003+09:00

...the second full of hope...

...now that I'm almost to three thousand (dollars that is) (in the hole), I've stuffed myself in a little hole here in Alice Springs, and am refusing to spend any more money on anything except food and a roof over my head until I get a job. This working holiday has so far been mostly holiday and no work.

I really should've thought this through a little better before I decided to come here just prior to graduate school. Granted, when I made the plans to come here I didn't know if and frankly didn't really think I'd be getting in to grad school, and it was really time to go, but now that I'm here, and I'm quickly spending all the money I worked so hard (well maybe not SO hard) to save over the past year or so, I'm starting to feel the holiday disappear from the picture as well. So if there's no work, and no holiday, then what am I left with? No money to do anything fun with a girlfriend who also has no money and with whom I'm going to have to separate in the next few months (yeah and there's been lots of stress about that too).

On the other hand, I probably wouldn't have had the chance to walk the Jeju Olle trail, see fairy penguins or kookaburras or wallabies and whatnot if I had just kept on keepin on in Daegu, and I might have gone to grad school totally burned out on Korea, which probably at least in part because of my current situation I really miss.

Actually money aside, maybe seeing how hard it is to get a boring job chopping lettuce or cleaning hotel rooms has made me more interested in studying Korea and Korean, which I kinda forgot was interesting there for a while. Maybe this bad financial experience will make me a way better graduate student. Blinded by the light huh?

On a side note, I met a girl working at Mickey D's here and she gets paid $17/hr (like $15.50 USD) to flip burgers. The minimum wage is different from state to state, but I don't think it drops below $15 anywhere. Oh and before you communiphobes say "Oh but I bet the taxes are like 75% right?" I'll say no, it's around 20%, which is roughly the same as what Uncle Sam takes out. Oh and no the burgers are not 3 times as expensive, not even twice as expensive, and not even 150% as expensive as Mickey D's in the US. I should know because until recently I had to spend way too much time there trying to use their shitty internet.

Last words:

I really wanted to do a Korean translation challenge, but there is only one person I know who would be up to snuff, so I'll just complete challenge myself.

Challenge:
Find two English translations for "자지말고 보지" [Jah-jee-mahl-go boh-jee]

Answer below (scroll down to check against your answer):

1. Don't sleep, [you] should look.
2. Not a cock, a cunt.

I swear honest to FSM that the above can be read as both a command to look and not sleep OR phrase correcting someone's probably mishearing someone else talking about a cunt as talking about a cock. Both readings are totally grammatically correct.

Goodnight.

Tasmania - Done! Hello South Australia

2010-05-04T20:38:00.005+09:00

More lists:

Tazzie Pros:

-Wallabies that hop up to you while you're unpacking at campsite metres from the ocean

-Boag Beer in Big Bottles

-Weird Possumracoons with what look like opposable thumbs that watch you from a tree 5 feet away while you make dinner

-Not changing clothes for 3 days at a time

-Mi Goreng

-Free camping almost everywhere

-Crochet Ammonites

-People giving me two thumbs up when I play the A-Team theme on accordion

-Accordion by the beach

-Sleeping with hong on an air mattress in a tent for a week

Cons:

-Internet is rarer than wombats

-Cellphone reception nonexistent except in the capital

-Getting our car in the last spot on the boat off the island for 2 weeks, surrounded by the Tasmania Targa Rally Cars

-Thinking too much about my future

-Nothing but fried fish, chips, and meat pies as far as the eye can see

-Sleeping with hong on an air mattress in a tent for a week

Clearly there are more 짱점 than 약점, so I suppose that's proof our Tasmania trip was awesome, not that I needed convincing. It's hard to live happily with someone in a confined space with limited financial resources. I am giving vegetarianism a go, with Hong of course, for financial and body image reasons, as well as the fact that food is so damn meat-based here it's disgusting and constipation inducing (seriously the food is terrible. In any other country I would scold the Koreans for putting 고추장 on everything but here it's either meat pies or fried potatoes every day all day long. I even saw a deep fried battered hamburger the other day)

Oh we're in Melbourne now. Tasmania got a bit too chilly and the lettuce farm work kind of dried up, so after a week of living out of our car

like this

we hopped on the boat to Melbourne and tomorrow it's off to visit some filming location from Mad Max and then down the Great Ocean Road towards Adelaide, where we hope to find some more farm work for a while. If that fails, it's up to Darwin and if THAT fails, we can always head over to Brisbane and work cutting up chicken carcasses for the supermarket shelves. Last resort. Anyway before my time in Ozzie (I'm cringing as I type 'Ozzie') is up our route may look something like this:

I promise I don't just have unlimited fincances. I'm actually really worried, especially considering I will be upwards of $60,000 in debt 2 years from now.

Oh, at the lettuce farm we had two supervisors; one of whom was a really nice guy named 우진, the other a fire breathing dragon lady called 효진. 우진 looks like my little brother's Korean doppleganger, and that's where his role in the story ends, except for the fact that he is Dragon Lady's supervisorial antithesis. When we worked with 우진, it was a happy, productive day where you could enjoy working with your hands under the sun, and 우진 would spend time working side by side with everyone, making conversation and generally doing a good job of keeping the morale up, as well as letting everyone know the day's plan and giving timely breaks and such. Dragon Lady, on the other hand, not only didn't know her way around the farm, didn't know what she was doing, and sat there doing nothing while we worked, but would randomly step in to chide someone in probably the most annoying voice I've ever heard, for something that she couldn't even form a proper sentence about in Korean. For example, at one point while I was cutting lettuce, she came up behind me and in her best authoritative voice and repeatedly and in quick succession, started saying "put it on the bed put it on the bed put it on the bed" and when I didn't understand after the 4th iteration or so that it was the lettuce basket I was supposed to put on the bed (as opposed to the gutter of the lettuce field), just picked up my basket and tossed it next to me onto the bed, and immediately went up to another worker, whose first day it was, and started rapping her lettuce knife on that person's basket telling her to cut faster. When DL was supervisor, we had no idea if or when our breaks and lunch time were coming, and quite frequently would work for 5 hours or more without food, water, or toilet time, which is illegal here in Australia. You know what that means?! I get to call the corporate headquarters of Houston's farm here in Australia, and try to get her fired! Oh btw don't buy bags of pre-cut lettuce or salad mix bags if you can avoid it. Hongeun and I saw the production process from start to finish and I would say that up to half of each head of lettuce is wasted either cutting the lettuce from the field or later in the processing plant where you have to separate leaves into different categories and make it all look pretty for the sales floor.

As always be sure to look at the photo update at left!

Farm Livin' is the Life For Me

2010-04-04T19:48:00.003+09:00

Where do I start? Yet again I seem to have procrastinated to the point that the task at hand is too cumbersome for me to handle all at once, so it looks like I'll have to omit quite a bit, skip around, and be kind of vague. Oh why don't I start with some lists?!

But first, and because I'm stealing internet from McDonald's (see below) now and it's ghetto internet, click on THIS link or the photo spread at left to look at recent photos from oz.

Things seen:

-Little Blue Penguins nesting under the pier in Melbourne

-Everywhere slightly freaky vegetation that looks like something Gene Rodenberry would've thought up to use as set elements for an M-Class planet that Kirk and his away team beam down to

-Marsupials WTF?!

-UTEs - Think Subaru Brat if production continued to the present day

-250ft tall Eucalyptus trees in a national park with cool cats from the hostel

Things done:

-Have yet to eat at a proper sit-down restaurant

-Spent lots of time stealing free, shitty internet from McDonald's

-Bought a 1990 Toyota Camry Station Wagon!

-Visited a penitentiary

-Made and ate a real sandwich

Other:

-Someone addressed me as "ma'am" from behind

-Tasmanian children seem to be terrified of me

-I was asked twice in one day if I was Swedish

-I can't bring myself to say "g'day mate" or "no worries"

-Almost bought a crocodile dundee hat but then thought better of it

I haven't really done much at all except eat and walk around, as everything is as expensive as the dickens down here! Even eating is difficult when the cheapest of non-fast food meals costs you upwards of $15, so I generally do all my own cooking, which is ok because I can borrow 고추장 from the Koreans at the hostel.

I started work this past week at a lettuce farm, the owner of which is some Tasmanian dude but who contracts his labor out through this Korean guy 우진, whose phone number I got from a Japanese lady Mami, whose car I was thinking about buying, but didn't.

So you get a farm contractors phone number, and send him messages every day saying you want to work until he replies and says "Ok, meet at such and such at 6:10am tomororw" and then you suddenly have to wake up at 5am, ride in a car with a bunch of people you don't know to a place you don't know, and pull weeds in a big field for 8 hours.

14,947km from Home! / Photos from Jeju

2010-03-20T18:02:00.002+09:00

Using this handy distance calculator, I found that I am further from home than I've ever been before and almost as far away as it's possible to get without drowning in the ocean or going to Antarctica. If I went to Perth, I'd be over 17,000km away, so maybe I'll head over there instead of up to Brisbane.

I'm staying at a place called Lord's Lodge here in Melbourne, just for two days until I head off to Hobart. It's just a big old house with beds everywhere. Most of the people here seem to be long term working holiday people, and all seem to have some shitty job here in Melbourne.

Mostly I've just been getting over jetlag an finishing up some photo editing, but I walked around today for a few hours, along the beachfront for several kilometers and was continuously struck by how urban the city is, with highrise buildings, an extensive tram/bus system, etc. but also by how clean and natural everything is kept. People were outside exercising everywhere playing volleyball and windsurfing on or near the beach, biking around, sailing in their boats and what not. Also there are so many people here with hot bods I feel a little inadequate. Looks like I need to get my exercise on.

Anyway I'll post more about Oz once I get to know it better. First, take a look at some photos from my Jeju trip, which, in the end, was totally awesome.

Above are three planets; the first near the top of 송악산, which is an old sub-crater of Hallasan. Secondly, the beach at 대평, and finally an army post somewhere along the coast.

Next, various 돌하루방, stone grandfathers, that were all over the island. I successfully resisted the temptation to buy a miniature as a souvenier.

Various gates, doors, and paths encountered along the way.

Edibles!

Visit to the sex museum...

Landscapes! (more of these to come)

- Stragglers -

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

2010-03-11T21:37:00.006+09:00

I know I said I wouldn't post again until Australia or just prior, and I was really planning on going all Walden cum Into the Wild in the subtropical wilderness of Jeju-do ~ but! it turns out there are a lot of people here too, with a lot of computers and an equal amount of internet (figure that one out, grammarians) and since this is about the halfway point of my trip, and I've got a little house all to myself here in the little village of Daepyeong (at the end of leg 8 of the trail around Jeju as seen in the previous post) with a little computer and a small amount of internet, and I bought a liter of Makgeolli (most of the way through it now, obviously) for $1 from the corner store, the owner of which also owns the place in which I am staying, and there's nothing to do here after sunset, (end subordinate clause), I'm going to ramble for a bit. I was going to describe the hardships and joys of the first part of my trip, including:

Hardships:

-sending half of my luggage back to Tony after realizing there would be no camping on the Olle
Trail
-being blown about by intense sea-winds that forced pressurized air into my nostrils
-constant rain
-yesterday's blizzard (Jeju-do is *NOTHING* like Hawaii - don't let anyone fool you)
-old fogey-level joint pain from not having exercised for months and then suddenly walking 6
hours a day carrying a 30 pound pack

Joys:

-picking 귤 (clementines) and 한라봉 (hallabong, the perfect citrus fruit)from trees wherever I
went
-watching a horse eat a radish
-not speaking for hours at a time
-being able to see one day's departure point and destination at the same time
-not washing my hair for a week
-not a single cellphone call unless I turn on the phone
-sitting in a traditional tea shop in my dirty hiking clothes smelling like ass, drinking bottomless
tea with all the celadon accoutrements and reading "Corporations are Gonna get your
Mammma"

Oh I just described them! I don't have the wherewithall or photo editing software to back all this up just yet, but it's been a pretty intense trip so far.
Is this fun? Why am I doing this? Is it impressive that I am traveling by foot alone on an island hanging off the bottom of a peninsula that might as well be an island halfway around the world from where I was born? Am I just so desensitized to new sensations and unable to form relationships with people that this is easy for me? Am I fully appreciating this experience? How many liters of Makgeolli do you have to drink before you start muttering like a douchebag?
I know the answer to one of those questions.

Probably the Last (possibly second-to-last) Post from Korea (for the foreseeable future)

2010-02-27T10:35:00.003+09:00

This post is a mirror image of Mike in Daegu's return to Korea post. Mike and I have been on opposite schedules for the last year or so now, him leaving Korea when I'm here and me coming when he's going, but now it seems that he's here somewhat permanently, while I will soon be gone for quite a while, so I thought I might write my post in a similar style to his, and compare.

3 days from now, I'm hopping on a plane to Jeju-do,
where I hope to complete the 올레길 [Olleh Trail], which circumscribes the southern half of the island like this:

...and hopefully, if I have time, I'll be able to scale the big volcano in the middle. In the days leading up to my departure, I've mostly been spending my time taking care of bureaucratic bullshit, like getting a visa extension, going to another city to get a health check for my working holiday visa, selling all my crap, sending my savings from Korea to 'merica, sending boxes of my crap that I want(ed but now wish I had also tried to sell) to keep, researching plane tickets, etc...and it's been a huge pain in the ass. I still have to sell the car, (I am going to try to avoid purchasing a four-wheeled internal combustion vehicle in the future), cancel my internet and cellular services, and then once I get to Oz, find a new job.

One thing that has really surprised me is how burdensome it is to dispose of all of my belongings. There are some things, of course, that I'll make a big effort to keep, like cameras, my accordion, postcards, etc, but having to find a new home for my furniture, appliances, and the vast majority of my clothes just makes me feel like I've wasted a lot of money and caused myself a lot of unnecessary stress. I think my next residence might have to be furnished solely through dumpster diving or homemade items (J'Carlos, care to make me a bed sometime in the future?). Another irksome observation is that there seems to be a lot more to take care of this time around than the last time I left Korea. Maybe it's because I spent the last 3 years living like this was my home, whereas during round 1 in Korea, I had a fairly firm timeline for leaving before I even arrived.

I've also been having a lot of mixed feelings about departure, as I'm totally abandoning a super cushy job, some great students, and a solid set of 친구들 [friends]. I had my last lesson with Door's cousin's class of four middle schoolers, whom I've been teaching for a year and a half, and amid all the tear-shedding and hug-exchanging, I started to feel really good about what I've been doing for the last couple years.

On the other hand, my life has become pretty stagnant, and I'm not moving anywhere professionally or spiritually, although I am getting a lot better at the accordion, which I hope it's not too long before I can play again (accordion will be sent to 'merica soon, wish her luck on her month long sea adventure halfway around the world). Also, if Oz somehow sucks and I don't get into graduate school, Korea will be there waiting for me, so I suppose I should feel pretty secure.

Anyway, this may be the last post until I get to Tasmania, although I might have time for one more while I'm waiting at the airport or something, so while I'm off the radar, wish me luck, and be excellent to each other.

주소 없음

I'm on a Roll...

2010-02-14T00:42:00.002+09:00

Spacial Relationships I

Spacial Relationships II

Puppy Power I

Puppy Power II

Nuts

Not Nuts

What I Need...

To Do The Job...

Yay! Star Crackers!

I Want to Make Banana Bread but I Have to Go to Bed

2010-02-12T00:40:00.005+09:00

What should I do? Stay up for an hour and a half, make banana bread, and only get 6 hours of sleep tonight? Or go to bed right now, and try for a more restful 7.5 hours? Decisions decisions.

In other news, I bought a new Camera! I sold my old K-10 to Serge, combined that money with Christmas moolah from mommy, added a little of my own (ok a lot) and voila there you have it (this is someone else's K7):

I'm going to try not to make this bit sound too much like a photog's camera porn fantasy, but this camera is basically just orgasmic. The entire thing is made of metal. It's smaller than the K10, but feels even more solid. The buttons and menu layout are even more perfect than on the K10, and the screen is bigger, brighter, and more detailed. The shutter is quieter, autofocus faster (although I'm way too cool for autofocus) shake reduction works even better, and the camera processes images even faster. It has the ability to create HDR images in-camera (see sample below), and shoots HD video! We'll see how much I actually use it, but I would love to do some Sunrise Earth style video clips, and it's just incredible that I can now shoot video using lenses of any focal length and control the depth of field. Basically, the camera is really satisfying to use in almost the same way old, heavy, metal film cameras were. Here are a few shots from today:

Accordion - No HDR

Accordion - HDR

Hong at ISO 6400!

Umm...My Bedroom Blinds

Public Transportation Party

Cheaper than Tire Shoes!

What a Scary Place to Buy Your School Uniform

Things You Can Win on the Street

Chicken

One Hour

2010-02-05T00:14:00.003+09:00

[Formal Puke]

[Don't Let the Shoes Get Away]

[I See You Taking A Picture of Me in the Mirror While I Examine this Dress, Asshole]

[Three of Me]

[Fire 1]

[Fire 2]

I rode a Harley today!

2010-02-02T20:50:00.003+09:00

As part of the article Serge and I are writing for Daegu Pockets, we decided to go to the Harley-Davidson dealership here in Daegu to interview the branch manager. The dealership in town is one of only two Harley shops in all of Korea, if you don't count the accessory store in Incheon Airport, so we basically got to see where half the Harley's in Korea come from. They had some pretty rad machines in there, including a HUGE 1800cc touring bike, and even the demo bikes were all decked out in chrome. After the interview, and thanks to both Serge and I having real official Korean motorcycle licenses, the manager let us take a Sportster 883, just like the one you see above (except gray) out for a ride. Both of us thought it would be a cumbersome beast and were a little afraid of dropping what we imagined to be a heavy, vibrating small cock extender for middle-aged men, but it turns out that the Sportster at least handles awesome, has loads of power, and is really smooth. I will never again see a harley gang and yell "Fag!"

The interview was also very interesting, with the manager expressing concern over the 'image' presented of Korea in February's issue of DP. There was an article about gisaeng (korean geisha), which he took issue with since he seemed to think talking about Korean women that way made them 'look bad', although if he had actually read the article (which was printed in both Korean and English) he would have realized that the article was in fact trying to use historical fact to dispel the myth of gisaeng as prostitute, as is commonly assumed by foreigners and koreans alike here. Anyway if our motorcycle article gets finished I will post it here.

Recent Activities

2010-01-30T21:05:00.003+09:00

It's only a month until I'm out of here. The plan is to go to Jeju-do for 2 weeks and walk a circle around the island and then up Hallasan, the highest peak in South Korea. I tried Hallasan way back when, but the trail to the peak was closed so I had to stop short of the top. Also apparently there is a walking trail all the way around the perimeter of Jeju, which I'm excited about.

Then in mid-March it's off to Australia! I need somethink to do until grad school starts (assuming I get in), and ideally I'd like to continue making money, or at least not lose any or much during that time, and Hong will be there, so it's off to Oz to work on a farm or something. Honestly, I don't really care what I do, but I'm not really keen on working long hours. Ideally I would live in a trailer near the beach and pick fruit or serve coffee or something for a few hours a day and make just enough money to pay for that trailer and eat a little food. Maybe drink a Foster's once and a while. Haven't really decided where exactly to go yet; there may be an internet English teaching opportunity for me in Brisbane, I hear hospitality jobs are in demand in Perth, and I recently met a Tasmanian man who really talked the place up.

If grad school doesn't work out, I think I'm going to go to Thailand, get my CELTA, and then go work in Japan and apply to the Peace Corps. Gotta keep things exciting I guess.

On the blogging front, I feel like I don't really write anything of depth any more. Instead it always seems like I'm just throwing up crap I find on the internet, or posting photos without much info, or hastily summarizing my plans or recent past. I'm pretty sure that when I first started this blog I was full of interesting insight and that my prose was relatively interesting to read, so I'm going to attempt to get back into that, and hopefully I'll have the time/inclination once I get settled in Kangaroo land.

My beautiful accordion...what should I do with her when I leave? Post her to 'merica and try to find an inexpensive instrument in Australia? Or risk checking her in as luggage and then 'lug' her all over Oz and/or Taz for 4 months?

English Camp - Done! Here are my kiddos. As exhausting as it was being locked in a hot, stuffy, windowless chamber with 10 10-year olds for 4 hours a day for a month, I miss the little bastards already. They were super cute, and some of the nicest people I've met in a while. Except for one. See if you can guess.

Me buddy Serge and I are doing an article for Daegu Pockets about motorcycling in Korea, and so for the motorcycle law info section of the piece we went to the main police station and interviewed who I think was the chief of police, as well as this rad bike cop dude! It was like a total field trip.

This and the next two photos are from my recent trip with Hong to 속리산 Songrisan National Park. We saw a giant buddha, watched ice freeze in a stream, came across a girl playing the gayageum on a big rock in the woods, and slept in a mountain inn, subsisting on tofu and grilled kimchi, makgeolli, and ddeokguk while reading a fairytale from a really really old book in the inn, about a lumberjack who gets jealous of his neighbors hot wife, and so murders the dude secretly, gets in good with the missus, and eventually marries her. Later, after years of marriage, he decides it's time to let her in on the secret. So angry, wifey kills her second husband, and then overcome with shame at having married her first husbands killer, commits suicide. Oh and then another one about an idiotic tiger that is continually duped into not eating a bunny, first when the bunny passes off hot rocks as roasted rice cake and then runs away, and later when the bunny convinces the tiger that fish would be much tastier and so tells the tiger to dip his tail into the river and wait until a fish bites it. The tiger waits and waits (it's winter), and eventually his tail freezes into the water and he can't move. Bunny gets away.

This last photo is my first attempt at a planet. I just used a photo from the archives, but later I'd like to go out shooting with this idea in my head and hopefully come up with something that doesn't have a big line down the middle.

OMG I should've just gotten an Ipod Touch

2010-01-19T22:41:00.001+09:00

Oh man do I ever have two new websites for all y'all

2010-01-04T15:51:00.003+09:00

Korea is Best.com - I got down to "In Korea, the teenager do not do the Homeless Sexual" before I realized it was an awesome joke site. Please don't report me.

Beyond Koreanfornian Cooking - Someone make the Korean style potato salad and let me know how it is.

On other notes, I have sent off my first application to grad school - the University of Washington to be exact. Sooner or later I need to send off my application for University of Hawaii too. Oh and while searching for off-campus housing options at UW, just trying to get a feel for how much it would cost to live in Seattle, I happened upon a couple websites that are renting/selling HOUSEBOATS on the lake. Some of them are basically just floating mansions, while others are actual small boats, the interior of which have been outfitted with beds and chairs and toilets and such. the cheapest one I found rents for $1300/mo though. Graduate accommodation at UW isn't far behind at almost $1000/mo. Yikes! Maybe I should just go to UH and pitch a tent in the jungle behind Honolulu.

Also I just got home from fixing my bicycle. At the shop, while waiting for the guy to replace my wheel, (the jury's still out on whether or not he 'took me for a ride' so to speak), some other ajosshis were munching on a big, half-dried pile of 꽁치, which the dictionary tells me is 'mackerel pike' in English. Oh and there was soju. (If you have been to Korea you will understand that it is not necessary for me to say why I had to partake of this meal) At first I looked at this pile of half-dried flesh laid out on the newspaper and felt relieved that I would have mid-afternoon soju to wash it down, but then I tasted it, and damn if it wasn't some delicious half-jerky; not too squishy, not to tough, salty, but not too salty, and no fishy taste to speak of. I'll be darned. So I ate a few pieces. And rode my bike home.

Last note: I just discovered the peanut butter and jelly sandwhich, all squashed and mangled in my bag, that I had made as backup breakfast before going to work this morning (it is now 5pm). Not only was it a gleeful accident, but the appearance of the sandwhich conjured up memories from elementary school, when I would open up my sack lunch to the same meal, probably 60% of the lunches I ate contained a PBJ.

New Links Section

2009-12-27T14:03:00.002+09:00

Now that I've been playing the accordion for more than a year, I thought it was time to add some killer 아코 l33nks to my jumble of visit-worthy websites over on the right...Is it obvious that I'm trying to put off writing this grad school paper?

On Vegetarianism ㅋㅋ

2009-12-26T21:12:00.003+09:00

At the beginning of this semester, I briefly contemplated my eating habits at the behest of my vegetarian (now vegan) friend Mike and later Adam, also vegetarian. We talked about the moral reasons for vegetarianism, like not eating animals because animals have complex nervous systems, avoid pain sensations, it's wrong to cause suffering to anything that can feel suffering, etc... but my reason for not buying into these arguments was that I didn't, and still don't see the division between plants and animals as edible and non-edibles based on the similarity of their physiology to ours as anything short of arbitrary. At first I felt kind of silly though, saying things like "plants can feel pain too" and "plants have a survival instinct", which seemed pretty true, if not entirely analogous to the situation with animals, and I didn't really have any specific information to back up that claim. It turns out I was pretty much right though, so peruse this NY Times Article entitled Sorry, Vegans: Brussels Sprouts Like to Live, Too at your leisure and tell me what you think. My opinion is that facts like these make the pain and suffering side of the case for vegetarianism a lot weaker. This article doesn't touch on the (environmentally) disgusting practices of industrial animal farms or the possible wastefulness of eating meat instead of the vegetables that were used to grow that meat, but I wanted to post this because it clarifies and provides factual data for ideas that I was never really able to elaborate on before.

P.S. When I said I briefly contemplated my eating habits, I didn't mean to imply that I have completely ceased contemplation, or that I think the issue is settled at all.

Big Red Toe Shoes!

2009-12-23T23:58:00.002+09:00

My mom sent me a pair of Vibram Five Fingers toe shoes for Christmas. I saw a pair on some guy trapsing around the king's palace in Seoul when Adam first got here, and since then getting my hands, er, feet on a pair of these has become a part-time obsession. Until last Saturday that is. These shoes are SO unbelievable comfortable. There have only been two drawbacks so far: 1) The cold. The soles of these bad boys is only a couple millimeters thin and so it transmits cold (haha reminds me of another discussion...) way more readily than other shoes, so I can only walk around outside for maybe 15 minutes or so on the concrete or asphalt before my tootsies get painfully chilly. 2) The color does not at all match the color shown on the website, which was a nice burnt salmon hue. The actual shoes are just plain red, which is alright, but if I'd a known so I would've probably chosen another color scheme. Those issues aside I've already noticed that my stride feels more stable, I seem to balance better, and it's actually really nice feeling the texture of whatever I'm walking on without the pain and dirt associated with walking barefoot. And now, before I start to sound like I'm working for Vibram, I'll stop.

Bwahahahahaha

2009-12-23T02:28:00.000+09:00

How to Make an Accordion

Two New Songs! - Make that Three!

2009-12-19T01:26:00.003+09:00

I'm Writing this Post from a Network called Are-You-Gay?

2009-12-18T19:12:00.000+09:00

Ninja Made a Movement

2009-12-12T23:19:00.003+09:00

Hey I'm having an art show! Come and See!

=======================

Below: Images from my trip to Busan with Adam for the purpose of celebrating Mike Sperry's birth.

Ajumma pulling heads off octopuses. Ewww!

These fish look terrified!

Sea penises and something else!

Filleting an eel!

I don't know the names of any sea creatures ㅠㅠ

Adam met some cuties on the street! Oh hey one is my special lady friend! Watch out!

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Thanksgiving Images

Thanksgiving banana bread! Yummy!

Ton-hee and Adam in front of Dong-A Mart with 8 liters of Makgeolli Sangria! Delicious! (The leftover fruit is still rotting in my boiler room).

=======================

Adam and I go to Kyeongju

Yeah awesome love motel in Kyeongju!

Oh yes did we ever party like two dudes togther in that hot tub! Snacks on snacks!

...and drank beer in the in-room sauna!

Look at this elevator floor! Direct from Egypt!

It was so beautiful we didn't dare partake...

The fruit we did eat however...

Yeah and the name of the hotel was totally 'Sugar'

Townee does some donuts! On a helicopter pad!

Adam, just before he jumped through the open Towner doors and rolled out into a fighting stance on the other side.

I Play the Accordion So I Can Be the Center of Attention...

2009-12-06T23:44:00.000+09:00

Sweet Accordion Photo

2009-12-02T14:05:00.000+09:00

Oh yeah and Mario Underwater Theme...

2009-11-23T19:46:00.000+09:00

I got a Van!

2009-11-23T16:54:00.003+09:00

With the weather getting cold and me wanting to take a few more trips around Korea before I split in the spring, I decided to sell my beloved motorcycle and buy my other Korea dream vehicle -- a Kia Towner. Not only do I get almost the same gas mileage as the motorcycle (with my 800cc 3-cylinder engine), but I also consistently get that one remaining parking spot that was too small for any other car to fit into, and the directly-above-the-front-tire driving position makes me feel like I'm the captain, and makes for incredible visibility. If only they would import this to North America...

Oh and before I leave Korea I will do this at least one time:

As you can see,

2009-10-06T11:46:00.004+09:00

Adam has already adjusted well to korean culture. + other photos.

63 building hacking awesomeness + story

2009-09-26T14:45:00.001+09:00

===============

Hacking Goodness

===============

==============

Story

==============

Last night, Door and I went to see 건훈씨(Gunhoonshe)[Mr. Gunhoon], a friend of ours, play at Kyeongbook U. where Door halfheartedly goes to school. There was some kind of outdoor music event, and there were four bands; 극력파괴기구[Mighty Destruction Toy], 토마토먹는고양이[Tomato- Eating Cat], 건훈씨, and 한희정[Huijeong Han]. Mighty Destruction Toy was an entertaining, but quite forgettable metalcore band, TEC totally sucked, 건훈씨 rocked the house (I think I'm becoming a groupie), and then came Huijeong. It was amazing to see how full of oneself a performer can actually be. She spent half of her stage time playing, and the other half scolding the crowd for taking too many photos (she actually said "don't take photos while I'm playing), and guiding the audience as to how to dance, telling them to sit still for some songs, and to sway back and forth for others. It was really quite disgusting and embarrasing to watch, especially considering the totally uninteresting music she was playing. I suppose music taste is a pretty subjective thing, but damn did she seem like she was too big for her britches.

꿩처럼 건강하냐?

2009-09-25T14:53:00.003+09:00

A selection of some noteworthy photos from the summer that weren't a part of my tributes to hangin' with the fam, silly tourists, textury doors and walls, or Door:

The Hagia Sophia. More than a millennium and a half old, this is probably my favorite building in the whole world. The coolest thing about it though, is that unlike a lot of other really old structures, the Haya Sofia retains almost all of its original stonework and such, so you can see the effects on the stone and marble of centuries of walking, touching, rubbing, etc. On top of that though, there is more modern graffiti everywhere, as shown in this photo. Talk about 4-dimensional architecture.

Soviet architecture, and sculpture, while pretty ugly at first glance, becomes quite beautiful when you think about the extreme ideology and utilitarianism that drove its creation.

Last time I went to Istanbul there were stray cats EVARYWHERE. I took loads of pictures of them, and now those negatives are in a box somewhere in my former room at my parents' house. This time there weren't so many cats, but those that I saw were pretty badass, like this guy chillin' on his couch on the street.

This hungarian guy was playing bluegrass outside the Mickey D's in Pech, Hungary. Hey hey globalization.

Door and I ate a lot of fast food while in Europe, I'm sad to say. Unfortunately, the only foods we could afford were 1.Kebabs, 2.McD's,KFC, and Burger King, 3.Ice cream. We did eat from the grocery store alot, but when food preparation was not an option, we tended to fall back on our 3 mainstays, only because eating at real restaurant was often wayy too expensive. Thankfully, the Sertes McFarm Burger was a welcome change from the run-of-the-mill big mac.

Click on the flickr bar over on the left to look at more photos.

Yay! Photos From Europe!

2009-09-12T14:04:00.003+09:00

Finally managed to edit all the photos from the trip this summer. Below, a sampling. First, the 'rents, me, and Door in Prague and Vienna, complete with first and second mojitos, Mom looking stressed to be kissed by Dad, and me and Dad with street booze.

Next funny tourists at touristy locations like the Haya Sofia, Charles Bridge, Budapest, etc...

Pretty textures, doors and such...

...and tribute to Hong, the most wonderful girlfriend in the world (who is sitting next to me at this moment with her leg over my lap, supporting the computer).

More soon.

I'm Back!

2009-08-25T15:53:00.009+09:00

And excited about having the next few days to sit around and unwind after the past 7 weeks of unwinding. The trip was excellent overall, although there were some stressful moments. While hiking I turned my ankle a couple more times and hot-damn did my foot feel like it was going to explode. For the past couple weeks, however, no pain, so I guess I haven't completely obliterated my ligaments.

I'm just going to come out and say it: unless you are a member of one of those freaky families that actually get along and have functional relationships, NEVER INTRODUCE YOUR GIRLFRIEND TO YOUR PARENTS THROUGH A 9-DAY TRIP ABROAD. EVER. While both Prague and Vienna are nice cities, the time I spent there was just one uncomfortable, stressful test of willpower one moment after another.

Actually, I'm going to get even more specific and say that it was all my mom's damn fault. Maybe if I write this as a letter (yeah like I'll actually send it) it'll sound more dramatic.

Dear Mom,

I love you. Thank you for giving birth to me. You are a wonderful mother, and I'm glad to have spent time with you in Europe this summer, but I was appalled and embarrassed by your immature behavior on our trip. You acted uncomfortable/offended when Door and I spoke Korean together, yet it was obvious you weren't interested in making conversation in English with her. For 9 days you passive-aggressively made both myself and Door uneasy with your thinly concealed dismay at having to share your son with someone on your trip (was that even it?).

Usually, when you meet someone new who has a close relationship to a friend or family member, you attempt to make conversation, ask about their life, interests, etc, but not only did you not try to accommodate Door's language disadvantage, much of the time you didn't really bother to converse with her at all even when she made the effort. You could've had a fun time of getting to know someone from another culture, and hell, if Door didn't understand, you could've made a game of testing your son's supposed Korean fluency. (Is that something I shouldn't expect from most people?) We had our moments, usually over a mojito or two, but all in all you made things really awkward, and displayed surprising disinterest in someone from the other side of the world, and so in turn, the life I have made there. The few times you made the effort, you managed to be closed-minded about what you got (I'm thinking of when you asked Door what her most embarrassing moment was, and she said "about two weeks ago when I drank too much and fell off my bicycle on the way home" and when Door told you the story about falling ill as a toddler and her grandmother taking her to a witch-doctor who burned the top of her foot as a cure.), rather than being flustered (why do you even need to be flustered, is it because those stories make Door seem 'unchristian'?) but trying to continue on a related topic, you brought our conversation to a dead stop, sending shockwaves of tension through the air around us with the disapproval emanating from your furrowed brow and grimacing lips.

Your behavior carried over to other aspects of our trip. Surprisingly suspicious of the bone church at Kutna Hora (is it evil for being made of bones?), you hurried us on to Vienna, on the way to which you managed to get pissy (while insisting, of course, that everything was ok) about us being hungry and stopping for a snack, me buying shoes, and Dad wanting to take pictures of sunflowers (what kind of person gets angry about sunflowers?). In Vienna, you rushed us from one tourist attraction to another, seemingly concerned only with the logistics of our trip rather than what we were actually doing. I stopped at a sheet music shop to look for some accordion music, and in the 15 minutes it took me to find something appropriate, instead of having a viennese coffee at the cafe RIGHT NEXT DOOR, you stood outside the window of the shop, your panties in a wad, annoying DAD to the point that he had to come in a yell at me for you. Do you remember going to the park where there were supposedly free evening concerts? I don't know if it was because it was in Door's guidebook and not yours, but you were dismissive of the idea from the git-go, complaining every 5 minutes of a 20 minute walk about how far we had to trudge, and even when we got to the damn park, wanting to go back before we even found the concert venue. And then when we did find the building, as soon as it looked like the concert was already on and it was a suit and tie affair, you RAN AWAY, (because you were underdressed?) not even waiting for me and Door to catch up. Do you know how rude that looks? I was really excited to introduce my girlfriend, whom I love very much and have been with for almost a year and a half now, to you and Dad, but I had to apologize to Door for your behavior so many times on that trip I can't even count.

What's the deal? Is it menopause? Empty nest syndrome? Your ridiculous religious beliefs? Whatever, let's talk about it, the whole family will help you deal with it, but your behavior was that of a child, and totally inexcusable.

On the other hand, I was really impressed with Dad on this trip. He didn't get angry at you once, just took it all in stride. I mean come on, when he said "Hey, so what time're we gonna go see those marinades" on the Charles Bridge in Prague, did you really think he confused "marionette" and "marinade"? The laser beams shooting from your pupils almost brought down a UNESCO world heritage site.

Love,

Chris

I probably shouldn't actually send this to mom right? I don't know, I have to censor my words/behavior around her so much, on the one hand, I kind of feel like I should just let it all out and deal with the repercussions, but on the other hand, maintaining the status quo has worked well thus-far, and there's no real reason why I can't just continue this way. Just seems a shame.

Otherwise, the trip was great. We visited 9 countries altogether, 4 of which were new to me, bringing my total up to 28 countries just a couple months after my 28th birthday yayyy! Door and I did have our fights, and I think we almost broke up at one point, but hey you know what they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Highlights of the trip:

*9am beer with a Polish guy at the camp site at Tatranska Lomnika, Slovakia
*Bear-watching at the dumpsters behind an apartment complex in Brasov, Romania (baby bears like watermelon)
*Museum(s) of musical instruments in Vienna and Brussels (harps and harpsichords are awesome)
*Drinks at a bar filled with communist paraphernalia (I didn't know that word had 2 Rs) with Bence, the guy who helped me order food at a cafeteria in Szeged, Hungary
*Getting cursed by a gypsy in Dracula's hometown
*When the nasty old tramp who was attempting to lure two middle-aged gentlemen into the old - "got a light? Thanks...say, let's go have a drink at this bar I know..." (3 hours later) "Your bill is $500 sir, if you don't pay in cash right now, we're going to break your legs - scam said "Why you make a picture?" (Think super thick eastern european accent) after I took her picture.
*Hiking down from a craggy peak with Door while it hailed and then poured in Zarnesti, Romania
*Turkish food; eating turkish food at a streetside restaurant in Istanbul with Apo, my friend from high school
*Riding a motorcycle around the deserts of cappadocia
*Albert Hein

For now, I'll end with these screenshots of our route, (and my route from the trip across asia I took 3 years ago). Pictures soon, promise.

I'm in Transylvania...

2009-07-31T01:37:00.001+09:00

No sweet transvestites as of yet, but I did just get cursed (maybe)! Some guy with bloodshot eyes tried to make me buy a rose for Door, and when I refused he tried to write on my forehead with ballpen (luckily I was a little sweaty so no ink came out), and then dropped a rose on the ground in our path up a hill to some gothic church here in Sighisoara, Romania. We'll have to wait and see what if the curse was successful and what the results will be, but until then make a necklace of garlic and hang some crucifixes upside down for me ok? Thx.

Out

2009-07-06T13:16:00.004+09:00

At this moment I'm lunch, which consists of a hamburger bun with butter and strawberry jam, instant coffee and really icebergy iceberg lettuce salad with red onions a feta cheese and balsamic vinagrette dressing. It was all that remained in my kitchen after I threw everything out last night. I guess I could munch on some

mocha flavored custard pies (eewww) that some bastard brought to my house the other day.

Anyway, the house is clean, bags are packed, I'm ready to get on up out of this piece for a bit. I'll leave you this food for thought:

My Foot is Getting Better

2009-06-27T01:55:00.001+09:00

As you can see from the photographs below, I'm no longer wearing a hard splint; in fact, I've been hobbling along quite well without assistance for almost the last week, and should be 90% recovered by the time I get on that plane 9 days from now.

As long as I was taking pictures of my foot, I thought it'd be fun to take pictures of it with ALL of my lenses, starting with the (left - right, top - bottom) 50mm f1.4 / 40mm f2/ 30mm f1.4/ 24mm f2/ 21mm f3.2, and finishing up with the good ole' 14mm 2.8. Not that anybody cares about this, but I'm considering selling the 30 and/or 21 and either investing in the sexy 77mm f1.8 or maybe putting some of that money towards a new K-7. Just the thought of using the shallow depth of field or super wide angle of some of the lenses in my arsenal with full HD video makes me want to orgasm and then go out and make a documentary about middle school kids getting beat at school or a pretentious music video featuring a shitty local band.

Some photos from the past........ ...

2009-06-26T02:17:00.003+09:00

Hopefully this will be me someday...BTW I can walk!

2009-06-19T23:45:00.001+09:00

Countries with no Mickey D's / I had a little Accident

2009-06-15T21:26:00.004+09:00

Nations unable to bask in Ronald's presence are in gray. I have been to two of these countries!

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Riding my bike home from hiking on Saturday, an ajumma making an illegal left turn side swiped me, crunching my foot between her car and the bike. I went flying, and now all the ligaments in my left foot are all messed up. It's certainly an interesting experience. While I was amazed at how efficient the insurance company is at taking care of this and how little paper work there is (I'm even apparently getting settlement money without having to threaten to sue!), making it relatively stress - free, the hospital is a bit ghetto. It's kind of self-serve, if you can imagine. I had to get friends to go back to my house and pickup toiletries, a water bottle, and such. And the nurses just kind of leave you to your own devices, and ask me if I want medication and such instead of telling me what to do. I am also in a room with 5 old men, one of whom is 92 years old; all of whom snore like freight trains all night long. All things considered though, it's not too bad, and I have cute nurses slappin' my butt every few hours after each injection of painkillers, so I guess I can't complain too much.

Damnit Kim Jong Il - Quit bein' an asshole! You're messin' up my exchange rate!

2009-05-28T15:56:00.002+09:00

Recently

2009-05-28T14:58:00.004+09:00

Scooter 1 / Scooter 2

Wild Flowers

This is How I Roll

ㅋ A Big Fuck You to all Those Assholes with Significant Others by their Sides ㅋ

FAKE Lotus - At a Temple

My Accordion School!

3 Bad Dudes

North Korean Central News Agency Nuclear Test Report

2009-05-27T12:36:00.003+09:00

I tried to go to the actual KCCKP website to check it out from there, but hey the South Korean government says it's an 'illegal' website! Anybody wanna check out kcckp.net and tell me what all the fuss is about?

Happenings

2009-05-21T21:26:00.002+09:00

I have this night class up at school. It's all ajummas and ajoshis (middle-age women and men). They rarely show up to class because it starts before they get off work. Yesterday the 'main' ajumma shows up to class wearing a t-shirt designed after the Coca-cola logo, but rather than coke, well, er...it said "cocaine". I tried to explain to her what cocaine was and she was a bit flabbergasted, but mostly she was just worried that people might think she was a drug addict.

Also yesterday, I went to the gym. I often get nervous, fleeting glances at my huge junk from other guys in the locker room. Yesterday, while showering, one ajoshi was just staring at it like he wanted to eat it. So I swung it around and smacked him in the face with it. Actually I didn't, I just stared back for a good 10 seconds before he noticed that I was looking at him. Then again as I was leaving the shower, we're toweling off next to each other, and he's staring again, this time from about 2 feet away. I wiggle it back and forth a couple times to see if I can shake his attention, but no dice. I say, "Ajoshi, look somewhere else." and he does that 'I'm laughing because I'm really uncomfortable' laugh that only asian people do so well that it really seems like they're not uncomfortable at all. He didn't look uncomfortable enough, so I continued, "You're pretty embarrassed, aren't ya?" at which point the chuckle ceased and the grimace ensued, and an ajoshi really was not comfy.

Por Una Cabeza YEAH! ~ Hybrid Rickshaw

2009-05-16T21:38:00.003+09:00

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SSEO

2009-05-15T19:16:00.004+09:00

I found this rad line drawing blog today. I was browsing a facebook group page that lists musical events in Daegu, from which I clicked on a link to a Daegu band's myspace page, from which I clicked a link one of that band's friend's myspace pages, on which I found her? blog, which is awesome. My favorites are these little landscapes that look like they've been scooped out of their surroundings and colored in by a 5 year old. Makes me want to draw again. ㅠ

I wish I was a savant...sometimes

2009-05-11T11:55:00.000+09:00

Special Boy With Freakishly Large Brain Wins Spelling Bee

Awesome North Korea Photography

2009-05-04T10:51:00.003+09:00

Thomas van Houtryve (whose last name I will probably never know how to pronounce) has some incredible photographs of North Korea. Most NK photography is pretty mediocre, probably because of heavy restrictions on who/what/where/how many be photographed, but van Houtryve seems to have managed in spite all that. Check out his other galleries as well for work in Nepal, Moldova (might go there this summer), Cuba, etc...

I haven't laughed out loud this hard in quite a while...

2009-04-27T11:30:00.001+09:00

I MADE A BOOK

2009-04-12T20:48:00.003+09:00

Originally I was going to make the couple counterpart to Door's book, which was made from the back of my turquoise-colored chair, but then the other day while exercising in the hills behind my school, I happened upon an abandoned chair made from this totally ugly, sunbleached velvet you see below (maybe it was originally blue? ㅋ), so I cannibalized the thing, gave the fabric a good washing, and voila. This time I also used thin plastic instead of cardboard as the base of the cover, so the whole book is not only velvety but flexible as well.

안팔아! : Yellow VS. 노랑 : Waste : Waste : 죽어간다 : It's Over : Sweet Shoes

2009-04-11T11:58:00.005+09:00

Crap

2009-04-11T11:48:00.002+09:00

Let's go to Hong Kong...

2009-03-25T12:28:00.003+09:00

...is what the girl being airplaned says at the end of this commercial. I first saw this spot a couple years ago, and at the time just thought it was another (seemingly) cute, innocent advertisement for Vita 500, which is an energy drink sold here in Korea. Last night, though, while talking to Door, I learned that it contains some rather racy sexual innuendo and consequently, imagery.

Boyfriend is trying to airplane girlfriend but he's having trouble maintaining, if you know what I mean, and so he downs a bottle of 비타500. Immediately invigorated, duder now has no problem keeping her up, and at the end he asks her, "Where shall we go?" She replies, "Hong Kong!", which I now know is a pretty popular euphemism here in Korea for an orgasm, its origins being the affluent image of Hong Kong that was held in the collective consciousness of Korea until not too long ago. So ladies, next time your man asks where you wanna go, demand he take you to Hong Kong, and don't let him stop till you get there.

The most surprising thing about my conversation with Door, though, was not that this sort of euphemism exists, but that it's taken me 3.5 years of living here to learn about these things. It seems that virtually all Koreans want to present a pure and innocent version of Korea to the outside world, so whenever I've asked friends, coworkers, even past girlfriends about this sort of thing, the answer is almost always, "We don't talk like that in Korean" or if it's obvious that they do talk like that in Korea, some transparent deflection of the question is attempted. What the hell? I need to write a dissertation on how Korea has repeatedly shot itself in the collective foot by caring wayyyy too much about appearances and not nearly enough about content.

Oh and props to Door for being the only korean lady cool enough not only to talk to me openly about this sort of thing but be amazed that other koreans would be reluctant to do the same. 사랑해 자갸!

Good Band Names...

2009-02-27T13:58:00.001+09:00

*The Nautiloids

*The Siphuncles

P-핀 갔다왔당!

2009-02-24T17:51:00.005+09:00

It all seems like such a blur...a blur that started with "Salt of the earth...hmmm" and ended, just like life, the same way it began.

...

Here is a small selection of photography from my little excursion to Palawan with Mike, more of which you can see by clicking on the Flickr bar at the left or visiting Mike's blog over there on the right...As always, I got back wishing I had been a more prolific photographer instead of missing shots of our awesome but vertically challenged waitress Jinalin, Larry Joe the Ladyboy, and loads of bat shiat. Anyway enjoy...

The drunk security guards in front of their armored vehicle at the Baclaran bus station in Manila.

Our awesome Chicken Adobo, a very easy to make, very delicious Filipino dish. (Scroll down for recipe).

Jason, our boat driver for 2 days.

Catholicism and scooters man.

A derelict trike.

Waitin' for the jeepney~

Monkeys fuckin'!

Apparently, post-coital tristesse is a universal phenomenon.

Chicken Adobo mid-simmer.

Mike, our awesome chicken adobo cooking instructor, and our faithful mascot. (Here's the recipe).

Chicken Adobo (can also be beef, squid, or pork adobo)

-Chicken meat (your choice)

-soy sauce

-some kind of white vinegar

-sugar

-chopped red onion

-minced garlic

-olive oil

In a large pot, sautee the garlic and onion in olive oil for a minute or so until brown. Add your chicken. Pour in a roughly 3:1 (soy sauce:vinegar) mixture, enough to almost cover however much chicken you plan to cook. Bring your soy/vinegar mixture up to a simmer, add sugar to taste, stir occasionally until chicken is cooked all the way through. If you need some veggies, cut up some potatoes or green beens and toss them in at the same time as the chicken. Voila, delicious food in like 10 minutes.

Sexy bods in a cave.

This was literally only scratching the surface of the marine life around Palawan. If you snorkled 100 feet away from this spot you were surrounded by thousands of colorful fish and coral.

Before...

After...

Play time...

This coconut came from a tree like 10 feet away.

The view from our guesthouse...

These little rascals had a full on, no holds barred conversation with us in English...Why can't korean kids do this?

The newest member of the Village People.

These people look a little disoriented coming out of the underground river.

Cute couple #1

Cute Couple #2

Stop Abortion Damnit!!!

So bird-headed Jesus is supporting crucified Jesus while crushing the Earth under their massive holy weight? That's not right.

Tricycle party!

I think we ate here about 5 times during our stay. The best 50 cent burgers EVAR.

Some Pho-toes from around town...

2009-02-09T01:47:00.001+09:00

Another Awesome Accordion Adventure!

2009-02-08T16:48:00.003+09:00

Sorry to subject you to this once again, but it keeps the morale up. I think I had to play each song about 20 times before I got a sample even remotely worthy of your patronage. I promise I can play these songs better than this, but why is it that even performing for my computer makes me so anxious? Anyway, without further ado, I hope you will enjoy Cute Chris and his Shiny Music Box (Yes I am wearing a hair band, I'm totally growing long hair this year).

First up: Arirang, the timeless, borderless tune of brotherly love (that's 정 if you're korean).

And next, Fascination. This song is so fun to play. I'm still working on the second half, maybe you'll get to hear that later.

Everyone's favorite from mother Russia, Katyusha.

...and finally, Le Valse d'Amelie, of which I also cannot play the middle part, which is the same as the first part, but with chords, so way more difficult.

박수!!!!(Clap!)

Korea is getting Weird~

2009-02-06T19:45:00.003+09:00

The other day my bike ran out of gas on the way to work, so I had ditch the beast in front of the airforce base, take a taxi to work, and then try to find a gas station afterwards. I found the gas station, and when I asked the attendant if he could just sell me one liter of gasoline, he emptied out the last bit of a bottle of windex-y stuff, and without really even rinsing it out, filled it with gasoline. Anyway during the 4 minutes or so that it took to procure the bottle, dispense gas, and pay, the guy tried his damndest to tear me a new one. He started by making fun of me for letting my bike run out of gas, and then he asked what my job was and when I told him 'English teacher' he said that a teacher should dress better than me, and then (dude had the weirdest accent ever and I had to ask him to repeat most of what he said) he told me that I couldn't speak Korean well. He said this as I was handing him my check card, but without thinking I just told the fucker "NO you can't speak Korean well, so I can't understand you". He seemed a bit put off but didn't try to steal my card or overcharge me or anything. Then he asked me if I knew anyone who could teach English at a kindergarten.

After accompanying Door to the airport last Tuesday, I met a former student of mine (who now works at the airport) for about 2 minutes. This guy is the most awkward person ever to walk the earth. Someone could write a dissertation on this sort of person, which I believe to be unique to Korea. He has what you might call 'Second Language Deficit Inferiority Complex', (someone think of a better name) whereby the afflicted is pressured by korean society to think that his self-worth is determined solely by how well he can speak English, and therefore anytime he is placed in a situation where he is not the best English speaker, he feels a sense of shame. Where this gets interesting is when our subject encounters someone whose native tongue is English, but who speaks Korean better than he speaks English (that's me). You should have seen the dude get all embarrassed when I addressed his coworker in Korean, as if my speaking Korean would let on to the coworker that duder really couldn't speak English well, and that we conducted most of our conversation in Korean.

I went out to dinner with Door's cousins (whom I also teach) and their parents the other night. We had some excellent samgyeopsal, but while talking, the parents would ask me a question in Korean, and I would reply in Korean, but while Jihyun and Jiyoung could understand perfectly fine, the 'rents had to have the girls repeat everything I said, WORD FOR WORD, also in Korean. I actually encounter this about 50% of the time with older people, the other 50% of the time the old fogies seem to have no idea that I'm not korean.

In yet another class of middle-aged ladies, we were discussing food and the related cultural differences, in particular the concept of the 'sack lunch', which I explained usually consisted of some sort of sandwich, some fruit, maybe some chips or fresh vegetable, and a juice box (that was my awesome lunch every day for like 10 years anyway). One of the ajummas (old ladies) just couldn't handle it, and said exasperatedly "Excuse me for asking Chris, but was that enough food for you? Weren't you still hungry the rest of the day?" In the same way that once I made Korean food for my family, and my father needed his serving of dinner rolls even though he had already eaten tons of rice with the bulgogi, because it 'wasn't a meal' without bread, k-peeps often can't imagine a world where someone doesn't eat rice with every meal, and moreover think bread is unhealthy (probably because korean bread is total shit, often laden with sugar, and even their 'whole grain' bread wouldn't even make the cut for the 99c rack at Schnucks). Actually I felt so indignant at this ignorant old lady's comment that I actually told her that, pretty much word for word. I think I made her feel a little uncomfortable.

Basically people age 40+ are pretty much totally worthless (awesome blanket generalization) pretty much everywhere. I hope I never get to the point where I can't accept or even imagine anything different from MY way of doing things, or where my ability to comprehend someone's speech is dependent on my physical perception of them. Boo to all that poo.

Adieu, 홍...

2009-01-29T22:08:00.003+09:00

O! Holy Night

2009-01-17T16:01:00.002+09:00

I think it would be awesome if Mitch Hedberg sang that song. He'd probably do much better than I did yesterday, singing it after a heartbreaking rendition of Bon Jovi's 'Always' in the Norae Bang.

On the way home last night, after watching another one of Mike's stellar performances, this time at THAT, (Mike you should really write about your falling-out with SoKong), and wayy after butchering Adolphe Charles Adam's masterpiece, I caught one of the last subways home and sitting around me was every kind of korean imaginable. To my left there was a group of drunk butch lesbians man-handling each others' cellphones while trying to 셀카[sell-ka](take photos of oneself or oneself and one's friends with your phone), while directly across from my was an intoxicated adjossi, staring me down and who obviously had never smiled in his life, with his legs spread as wide as possible so as to make the people on either side of him uncomfortable, and directly to my right, there was what I guess you could call a yuppie, wearing a nice scarf, peacoat, and expensive leather shoes with torn jeans while quietly reading a leather-bound book written in hanja, and finally across and a bit to my right sat a dangerously underweight girl with giant, surgically altered eyes and bleach-blonde hair, looking like she just stepped out of a 만화[manhwa](manga). It was excellent.

But before that, I watched Mike's show. None of these photos are of Mike, unfortunately, as he and the drummer were hiding in the shadows at the corners of the stage and made for bad photographs. I did get some pretty good shots of 현욱 and the piano guy:

First, to set the mood...

...and then on to the show:

Let's Yodel!

2008-12-30T19:46:00.009+09:00

I was scouring the korean internet today for an accordion club in Daegu, and in the process I found THE DAEGU ALPIN ROSE YODEL CLUB! Who knew such a thing could exist!? How does one get into yodeling, especially if you are Korean? I can't even imagine there being a group of random whities in America who get together once a week to play the gayageum(<---CLICK ON THIS LINK FOR AWESOME GAYAGEUM ACTION), haegeum, or piri together, just for fun, and without some asian guy there to guide them. It's really pretty awesome if you think about it, and I bet these yodelers are some of the coolest nerds evAR. Be sure to click on the image and turn on your speakers for yodel goodness. Oh and I have translated their mission statement, the original version of which you can also read by clicking.

The Daegu Alpine Rose Yodel Club was founded in 1973 by Mr. Kim Hong Cheol and several other significant people.

The yodel club is a gathering of people who take folky yodels from the swiss alps region, mix it with country-western music and some wholesome korean ga-yo, and rock out together in a friendly environment. We are proud to play a small role in the development of regional culture through recitals and lessons, as well as the role of unofficial international diplomats in an exchange of national culture.

Of course the propagation of yodel music is one of our purposes, but the thing we consider much more important is the mutual enjoyment and fraternization of our members. To further that goal, we put on the first national yodel society camp and the Young-ho-nam camp for mutual cultural exchange, as well as conduct a variety of performances and events, and we have weekly meetings for our members.

We welcome the participation of yodel-loving people everywhere, so feel free to contact us!

My friend Murray is taking this woodcarving class...

2008-12-27T23:52:00.003+09:00

...and he's learning some cool stuff. The pictures below are not his but they come from the studio's website. Dude rides his motorcycle into the mountains outside of Daegu every Friday night to learn this stuff. Apparently the master is the guy who takes care of and re-carves all the tripitaka koreana at Haeinsa probably one of the coolest, if not most important temples in Korea.

Check out more photos of stuff Murray's studio has done.

Also, even though I hate 'best of' compilations (except for mediocre bands or collections of disco music) be sure and take a look at this collection of pretty awesome journalistic photos from 2008 (click the image to go to the website):

David Holt - www.TED.com

2008-12-27T14:24:00.000+09:00

Merry Christmas Everybody!

2008-12-25T12:27:00.001+09:00

Kim Jong Il Goes Bowling?

2008-12-21T22:53:00.002+09:00

The most recent incarnation of the Kim Jong Il t-shirt. I'm likin' all the repetition in this newer version, but it still needs a lot of work...particularly I think it needs more texture, but I'm not sure how to go about adding that. I also need to keep it to just three colors - white, dark gray, and salmon. I think I'll just stop there and let it sit for a while. Any thoughts anyone?

Happy 150th IWBLTF!

2008-12-20T01:40:00.006+09:00

Well, it's my 150th post. What can I say, a hundred and fifty posts are but a passing moment in the history of a blog like IWBLTF. Yet, it is difficult to imagine what life would have been before the arrival of the all-present red Post Box. For today’s urban youth who communicate through e-mail and SMS, the Post Box and the Post Office may not be such an important part of their lives. But for generations of Indians, as indeed for generations across the world, the Post Box is part of their folklore. Novels have been written, poems and songs composed and movies made about the Postman, the Post Office and the Post Box. Indeed, for millions of countrymen even today, there can be no life without postal services. I am, therefore, delighted to be here at this inaugural ceremony. Whoohoo!

Lookout! In a couple month's it's Origin of Species' 150th too! and Darwin's 200th!

-------------

I received a Christmas package from my mother the other day. With it came a note saying that I could open the box and eat the non-wrapped food inside but that I was under no circumstances allowed to unwrap the wrapped presents before Christmas day. Well needless to say, I unwrapped the presents, and inside were:

-a Lensbaby Muse!

-a copy of Thinking with Type!
-North of the DMZ!

I'm pretty excited about all these presents. Thinking with Type I've been eyeing for a while now, and I hope it will give me some insight into the mind of a typographer when editing my resume and such might even redesign the blog after reading it!
I flipped through the North Korean Posters book, and there's some awesome juche going on that I think I could use to the benefit of a Kim Jong Il T-shirt or two.
Haven't had a chance to look through North of the DMZ yet, but it's supposed to be translated accounts from real NK defectors, which I'm pretty excited about, as until now, all I've read are books by usually american academics. I'm still getting used to the lensbaby. It's pretty fun to play around with, but it seems that it's not a *real* tilt/shift lens, as instead of a manipulatable plane of focus like a lens should have, the lensbaby has a weird 'sweet spot', like an in-focus zone, that you can move forward/back, left/right, up/down by manipulating the lens. I don't know how I feel about that, but anyway here are some preliminary shots:

Door took these two:

Bush gets shoed...

2008-12-16T18:08:00.000+09:00

Recent Events

2008-12-08T11:56:00.002+09:00

Mike, Jihye, Door, and I last weekend used what appeared to be the last window of relatively good weather as an opportunity for one more road trip before winter really set in. So we loaded the ladies on our bikes and headed to Palgongsan (that's a mountain's name) for some 꿩[ggweong] (pheasant)---------------------------------------------------------------------->. Door and i saw a live 꿩 in a local market once, and it looked a bit more colorful and exotic than I remember pheasants looking back home (have I ever seen a pheasant at home?) so for a long time now we've been meaning to go eat one. It was excellent, tasted sort of halfway between turkey and chicken, and made for a good Thanksgiving meal.

Now Palgongsan is an interesting area, and illustrates the perplexing contradiction that is Korea. You ride your motorcycle out of the city, into the countryside humming Iron Maiden's 'Run to the Hills' until you reach an intersection, at which point you must make a very important decision. Do you continue on the straight and narrow path to one side of the mountain, which is littered with temples and Buddhas of various material in various poses, or do you turn left and head to the other side of the mountain, covered with love motels, restaurants, and drinking establishments. Well we chose both.

There was some janif and icecream on the sex chair in the love motel as well as snowflakes gracefully falling around a temple. Oh and free HD porn on the huge flatscreen in our rooms. Not that we were all watching porn together while eating icecream and playing cards or anything.

Below is Hotel Zeus, our accommodation for the night.

and two of the hotels immediately next to ours. (Keep in mind this is all situated in the middle of nowhere). There was also a pirate ship hotel, a couple more castles, and something that looked vaguely victorian.

Happy campers in front of their den of sin.

and the last little bit of zen, or 선[sun](I think) before departure.

Totally Unrelated

There've been lots of protests downtown lately. The city government decided to remodel the main drag in the city centre recently, and in the process managed to totally piss off local street vendors AND handicapped people all in one go. The vendors are angry because with the makeover, 포장마차 [pojangmacha](street vending carts) are no longer allowed on a strip that was once full of them and customers as well. All for the sake of 'modernization' apparently. Boo to no more 오댕[oh-dang](boiled pressed fish part patty) and 호떡[hoddeok](nut and sugar-filled pancakes)! The 포장마차 is one of the best culinary experiences in Korea, but once again, the rich old fogies in power, who must be respected, btw, simply because they're older and not because of any meritous behavior, have managed to destroy something interesting about Korea for the sake of appearances -- and appearances are what angered the handicapped folk, because now with the regular concrete and asphalt road replaced by a roughly textured granite and cobblestone pedestrian walkway, wheelchair-bound people can no longer stroll around downtown. Big 박수[baksu](applause), Daegu government.

Oh and I had grilled 장어[jangeo](eel) for the first time the other night. It's the most meaty marine mammal (ok not a mammal but I couldn't resist the alliteration) EVAR. Over the course of dinner two of my older ajossi students tried to bribe me into giving them a cheat sheet for the final exam, which I flatly refused. It was weird though, how I was actually considering doing it because the two were much older than me and I felt sort of like I had to because of that. I guess I've been here too long.

Sometime in the not too distant past...

2008-12-06T14:36:00.004+09:00

I was talking to my mother, who told me that Anne Pressley,

with whom I attended high school for a while (she was maybe 1 or 2 years younger than me?) and KATV Little Rock news anchorwoman, had been attacked in her home and subsequently died.

Well, in searching for more information about that story, I came across whiterevolution.com, an organization that wants to "create a safer, cleaner, healthier, and saner world for White children, and to help our people regain control of our destiny". This organization, based in Russellville, Arkansas btw, has an interest in the case because Pressley's assailant was allegedly a 'negroid beast' going by the name of Curtis Vance. Also make sure to read about the 'Wal-Mart Worker Trampled To Death By Niggers'.

First the maps linking obesity, poverty, heart disease, and republicanism, and now this. What the hell people. Arkansas really is a nice place I promise! Well, conservative values arepretty pervasive there, what with all the massive evangelicorporachurches and all, but people don't really seem any poorer or fatter than people in the rest of the country...except maybe california. Anyway, if a rock band, still in existence or otherwise, were to make a song called 'Negroid Beast' who would it be? My votes are for either Devo or Iron Maiden. Please contribute.

More Filler

2008-12-05T01:14:00.001+09:00

Something to tide you over...

2008-12-01T20:06:00.000+09:00

Untitled

2008-11-20T18:15:00.002+09:00

There are these chairs on the mountain behind my house, by whom and for what purpose I know not, but the light was nice yesterday so Door and I went up to photograph/exercise.

This chair identified itself as the Tomb Guardian (look closely for tombs in the background...have I mentioned before that there are tombs all over the damn place in Korea? On any hillside that's not already covered with buildings, you have a very good chance of finding a tomb or two) and said that none shall pass without its permission. We asked the Guardian's permission, and he obliged.

I snapped this photo of the second chair staring at Door...

and on the next peak we encountered this poor soul, who had been tied to a tree and torn apart by the elements like Prometheus on the rock. Unfortunately, there was nothing to be done, so we moved on...

...to the mouth of the mighty mountain...and staggered home.

Racist Accordion

2008-11-19T14:57:00.002+09:00

I've been practicing the accordion a bit recently, and have moved on from easy songs like 'Amazing Grace' to slightly more complicated pieces such as 'The Tetris Theme Song (Krofchika/Kroptchika?)'. It's so fun to play, and it feels good to know that you really can get better at something by practicing every day, which is something I don't really think I ever believed until the last year or two, embarrassingly enough. Anyway feast your ears (and eyes) on my breasts-bigger-than-an-ajumma's self prickling the ivories on my wicked victorian machine below:

I made this video last night, and thinking it would be good to have an accordion instructor or at least join an accordion club to help sustain the motivation, I went around to a couple of the music 'academies' in my neighborhood to ask if they taught accordion as well. I went to two places, neither of which taught accordion, but I am telling this story because at the second place something really infuriating occurred. The words I spoke after walking in the doors of both establishments went something like this:

Me: 안녕하세요, 재가 아코디언 좀 칠 줄 아는데 혹시 여기서 아코디언 수업을 합니까?

나: Hello, I play the accordion a little, do you by any chance have accordion lessons
here?

Now the response at the first place was an uneventful enough "No sorry we don't, and I don't think there's any place around here that does." The mouth-breathing cunt at the second place, however, started by going all bug-eyed and dropping her jaw, then crumpling her already disgusting face into a horrifying picture of terror/embarrassment/incomprehension while grunting Tim-the-Toolman-Taylor style. THEN, after repeating my query a couple times, when she finally did understand what the barbarian was trying to convey, she had the audacity to stand on her tiptoes so that she could look over my shoulder to answer my question to Door, who was standing (purposely) directly behind me.

That last bit actually happens quite often, but it's usually at the checkout at the supermarket, where I later found out that it's common for the cashier to speak to the woman (who handles the finances traditionally here in Korea) rather than the man, and is not indicative of any kind of racism.

In this case, however, there was no financial transaction going on! So anyway, I moved my head to block her view of Door, and placed my hands perpendicular to my temples, waving them back and forth towards her temples so as to direct her attention back to me, as she reluctantly did, and when she had finished her answer, which was also "No we don't but the drum school downstairs might know someone who does", I just walked out of there cursing under my breath.

For fuck's sake, how stupid and daft can a person be? I can understand her having a preconceived notion that foreigners cannot speak Korean. That seems reasonable, but as soon as I opened my mouth, she should've understood what I was saying, which was spoken in totally correct and intelligible Korean, I assure you. It reminds me of the time when Jihyun was visiting me in Arkansas, and we went to Starbucks together. No matter how many times she said "1 cafe latte please", which was totally understandable, the fuckwad behind the counter couldn't understand because he could tell she wasn't from 'merica and assumed that he wasn't going to be able to understand her.

Enjoy my terrible accordion playing.

Maybe Obama Should Stay Away From Here...

2008-11-10T16:56:00.005+09:00

Thanks to STL Mike for this little bit of info about my motherland. This map shoes which states voted MORE republican or MORE democrat in the 2008 election, compared to 2004. Dear lord, how can a statistic confirm a stereotype so clearly? Just to make things interesting though, read on...

Above is the geographical concentration of heart disease in white males...
...and geographical concentration of poverty

as well as obesity. Wow.

Edit: I guess it was so obvious I forgot to mention; I'm a little ashamed that Arkansas is the most bright red area in every map. It's really not all cornfields and rednecks with shotguns in the back window of their pickups and dogs under their porches I promise! ...although, my family does have shotguns but no pickups, and a porch but no dog (as of a couple weeks ago...goodbye Lucky). I also think most of my family voted republican. double ㅠㅠ

오바마!!Obama

2008-11-06T00:43:00.003+09:00

Congratulations Barack Obama, on becoming the 44th US president! I am saddened, though, that the russians will probably not fly into Sarah Palin's airspace now...anyway, to commemorate this day of great moment, I would like to post a bunch of random photos of recent activities...enjoy.

Mantis

First, isn't this the weirdest thing ever? I think this was the first time I'd ever seen a mantis up close, and it just kept LOOKING at me! No matter from which angle I took a photo, the little fucker would turn his head and stare straight into my eyes, waiting for the perfect moment to unleash his kungfu on me.

Paintball

and here are some photos from the paintball trip. At top is the photo from the newspaper, and then we have our very Kim Jongil-esque paintball...generalissimo? distributing 'gun eggs' Just above, in the bus, there's me, my coworker Tony, his lova Eunhee, and this girl Farrha. Oh and the back of the headrest was pretty.

Matrimony

My more recent hapkido master, master Kim, got married on Sunday to Boksun, who was like my very first korean friend, and whom I had crush on for a while because she could throw people twice her size to the floor. I'd never seen either of them dressed in anything other than a martial arts uniform or a t-shirt before, so it was quite the shock seeing this:
and then master Pak, my very first hapkido master and whom I forged a friendship with about the same time as Boksun, was at the wedding, and he was so happy that he caught the bouquet, but not so happy that he has to marry his girlfriend of like 8 years now.

Binge-Drinking

[congratulations, gamjatang]

[aww Mike and Jihye have the same smile!/can you not see the anger seething from Door's eyes?][this guy's night is not going well][for some reason, 2째 Mike's friend doesn't look human here][is he nervous about his first kiss, or worried she's about to 'plode the night's vittles all over him?][what are those people on the second floor discussing?]

2 weeks ago was Mike's girlfriend Jihye's birthday party, so we all went out and started off the night with some gamjatang (spicy, slowwwww simmered pork bone and potato stew, delicious) and and somek (soju +mekju (beer)) continued on to 2-cha feelin' a bit blue at TEUM, which means gap. Things kinda fell apart from there, as you can see. Keep in mind I wasn't quite sober when i took these pho-tos.

Halloween Arts & Crafts

Red Silver Door and I made a pretty sweet pumpkin for halloween. We carved, stabbed, whittled, and shaved for about 2.5 hours before the finished product was ready. Unforunately, he has since turned to mush on my roof, and I am loathe to clean up the mess.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for a post of some photos from the 2008 Daegu Photo Biennial. 잘들어가세용...

Alien VS. Panda Dance!

2008-10-30T13:31:00.003+09:00

I had a lot more trouble translating some of the expressions in this one into something that made sense and/or was funny in English, so please be graceful. Most of the humor in this one, as well as the previous comic I suppose, juxtaposes the inherent cuteness of Korean and a cartoon panda with some kind of ridiculously violent storyline to achieve its effect, and I feel like English just doesn't cut it in the cute department. Also, what's a funny expression for giving birth? Click on the image to see the original korean version.

Paintballing in Korea

2008-10-23T15:22:00.006+09:00

This past weekend, I joined the Facebook Daegu Friendship Club on an outing to a paintballing venue a couple hours east of Daegu. We had a time, and I got re-aquainted with some people I hadn't seen in a while, as well as met new friends. Click the photo to go to the newspaper's website, and click on the 'Expat Living' section and then the article called 'These guns don't kill' to get the scoop. Or just look at the photo. Oh and that bottom photo there is mine! Yeah!

Panda!

2008-10-17T22:35:00.005+09:00

I found this webcomic a while back and have been meaning to translate it for a while now. It's pretty silly, but made for fun translating work, especially translating a lot of the natural-sounding Korean into natural-sounding English, I ended up liberally interpreting a lot of it (with Door's help) so it wouldn't sound totally boring and/or would make some semblance of sense in English. Anyway I hope I did a good job. Check out the original through the link above, or check out Panda-Dance.com for some desktop backgrounds and purchasable merchandise...

Took the ring flash out for a spin yesterday...

2008-10-17T18:30:00.003+09:00

convinced Door to get all dolled-up for me and after getting over the shame of having people stare and point at her while I shoved this huge camera apparatus in her face, she threw face-saving to the wind and became HOT HOT HOT. I'm pretty pleased with the results overall, and I managed to mix available light and flash well. I think later I'm going to walk around Daegu in the middle of night and do some environmental portraiture of all the crazies around town at night. Especially drunk adjosshis passed out in the road. Anyway...

(Hongeun actually weighs about 300 pounds and partially crushed this bench when she sat down)

(Pretty Fingers)

(I need to start wearing makeup)(내가화장한모습을찍었나자기야?화장된크리스사진보내줘)

(Not ring flash per se, but pretty cool nonetheless. An under-construction apartment block behind a huge intersection near my house)

(Hongeun tries to hitch a ride as all the ghosts head home after a hard day's work)

(Stop taking fucking pictures asshole!)

(Yes, I know I am the most sexiest woman alive)

(Fuck off, 크-Tard!)

DIY Ring Flash!

2008-10-15T00:24:00.003+09:00

Cost me about $10 in tape and bowls. Works well but is wayyy too powerful for most portrait taking situations, and unfortunately my flash is so cheap it's impossible to adjust the power output level.