Money or Time?

July and August are the busy summer months here in Korea. Instead of taking a well deserved respite from their studies, students choose to load up on extra classes during their vacation--anything for that extra edge.

My MWF work schedule has looked something like this: Arrive at 8am, leave at 9pm. Somewhere in the middle I have a four hour break, one hour of which is usually devoted to preparing for the evening classes. T/Th are busier still.

I guess I'm supposed to take solace in the fact that I get paid by the class and I stand to get a +30% increase in pay this month, but it does little for me; I simply value my free time too much. 'Stress' doesn't really get to me, but this month is trying even my patience. Of course, this all boils down to the simple fact that (most of us) can have either money, or time--but not both.

As an amature hedonist, I'll take the time.

There's a First Time for Everything

My hopes of a speedy recovery from last Saturday's assassination attempt have not panned out. It's been six days now and I am still suffering the side effects. Without getting into the gritty details, food has been going in and very little has been coming out. I'm feeling much better today thanks to some over-the-counter meds I picked up, but I've still decided to go to a hospital this afternoon and get it sorted out for good. Surely something that lasts this long must be a kind of intestinal infection.

Being plugged up is a totally new experience for me, but it certainly reminds me that I really hate anything that interferes with my eating.

Treachery Revisited

It seems I've been poisoned again, albeit not so strongly.

Adam and I headed to the beach yesterday for some gay tanning before hitting a movie. The beach was fairly packed but the overall booty count wasn't anything special. It was megahazy yesterday and not really that hot. After cleaning up, we strolled over to Megabox Cinema--where we happened to meet one of Jung Hee's friends and her boyfriend. We had lunch at Subway (which would go on to haunt me later) and watched 'Island'. All in all, it was pretty good. As Adam said, "You could pick holes in the story, but the crash action was ridiculous." All in all, worthy of the price of admission.

Afterwards we went over to BEXCO (Busan Expo/Convention Center) because I had heard they were having a Brazilian Samba Festival there. We met up with one of our coworkers and a group of foreigners. The women were beasts, but the guy was a cool US Army soldier. They always have interesting stories, so that was alright. About that time I started to detect some aching pain in my stomach, which I quickly recognized as a very mild case of food poisoning. Sure enough, it was. After some tomfoolery trying to get home, I managed to get to bed without problems. Today I don't quite feel right, but I am basically fine.

I must say, though, that this poisoning crap is getting old.

Twighlight Reflection

As I was drifting off to sleep last night, I had a strange scene occupy my mind. It was basically a potato field in late summer, part of which was dug and part remained to be harvested. I could see the tire tracks of the tractor, digger and trucks. I could practically feel the freshly dug earth sinking under my step. Without getting overly sentimental, I think you know what I mean.

Anyway, at that moment it really hit me how far I am from all of that.


My thoughts at the moment: >:(

Backslapping Barbecue

Several of my coworkers and I went out for dinner after our evening classes yesterday. Being located downtown, there are a multitude of options available. We decided on getting some 삼겹산 (Korean style thick-cut pork). Typically this is cooked tableside by the diners themselves, which makes for a fun time. The typical accompaniment (besides a multitude of side-dishes) is 소주, vile poison that it is.

This restaurant was a bit different, though. In addition to getting a variety plate of different pork cuts, we also had a tray of seafoody goodness. This included baby octopus, shrimp, clams, oysters and the like. Typically I'm not a big fan of shellfish, but when you barbecue them and throw on a little 고추장 (chili pepper paste) it can be quite good.

Naturally, as the alcohol began to flow the essential nature of man began to rear its ugly head. Surrounded by multitudes of thin/shaply women, this usually means much flirting and philandering. Last night was no exception. It is always a pleasure to watch your coworkers turn up the sleaze dial a bit--not that I blame them for this, hell, I'd be doing it if I could. They managed to rangle a pair of drunk Korean girls over to our table and enjoy the communication barrier in a way that only alcohol can provide. Nothing too serious came of this, everyone just had a good time. I was rather bemused by the fact that one of the girls, whom I was speaking to in Korean, kept asking me every five minutes "한국말 알아요?" (Do you speak Korean?) That's how drunk she was. Anyway, aside from the occasional back-slap (an annoying Korean behavior) fun was had by all and we stayed out of trouble, more or less.

More Than Meets the Eye

Spielberg, I'll have a classic--or I'll have your ass.

Click

Rainy Season

We're beginning the end of the rainy season here in Korea. A thunderstorm rolled in this morning around 8am and it's expected to rain through Sunday, afterwhich we'll be moving into the drier phase of summer. This is most welcome, as it means the super-humidity levels will begin to taper off and I'll stop sweating like an animal on my walk to work.

There are three special summer days in Korea which mark the beginning, peak and decline of the hot season: 초복날, 중복날 and 말복날. Today is the first of these, 초복날 (choboknal). Traditionally Koreans will consume either 삼게탕 (samgaetang, chicken-ginseng soup) or 보신탕/영양탕 (boshintang / yeongyangtang, dog soup)--which gives a whole new meaning to "the dog days of summer".

Perhaps I shall have 보신탕 for lunch? (I prefer it to 삼게탕.)

The Bloggings Will Continue Until Moral Improves

As you peruse these posts, take a moment and check out Jason's new blog. It seems I played some role in it's genesis and he is one smart cookie to boot. His text-based rants have amused me for many a year now. (I expect the color scheme to be upgraded shortly.)

Team 'merka

Shortly before being poisoned on Sunday, I finally had a chance to watch Team America. After a series of dismal outings at the theater (Sin City, War of the Worlds) , I was primed for something that didn't suck. This movie delivered. The best things about these guys (Parker/Stone) are that they pull no punches and take no sides. They blast everyone equally.

I can't believe it took me a year to see this movie, but at least I know what all the fuss was about now.


America, f'yeah!

Treachery!

I think I've been poisoned.

I went out with Adam for a 삼겹살 (samgyeopsal, strips of pork barbecued tableside) meal on Sunday. Naturally, we split a bit of soju with the meal and ate like Kings. Afterwards we grabbed a beer, went back to his place and fired up the laptop to watch Simpsons episodes and kill the afternoon.

About halfway through the bottle of beer, I knew something was up. A headache of some magnitude was setting in. Long story short, I got home by about 1800--brain nearly splitting in half. I was asleep within half an hour and slept for nearly 12 hours straight. I still feel like crap this morning, but it is slowly wearing off.

The amount of alcohol consumed clearly does not warrant such a reaction, which leads me to ask: Is it possible to be poisioned by beer?

Why "War of the Worlds" should be renamed "Tom Cruise's Family in a Bunch"

How can you make a movie entitled "War of the Worlds" without any war?

Okay, I realize Spielburger was trying to make this a more 'human' story by keeping the focus small and on a man and his family, but come on now. You cannot have an epic movie without opening the lense at least a little wider. Scale, people. Scale. But the ending... dear God, the ending.

Consider the following points:

- Aliens plant underground 'tripods' here on Earth a long, long time ago.
- Aliens manage to coordinate this effort over said time, which includes maintaiing civilization and records of the original 'seeding' mission.
- Aliens manage to keep their technology backwardly compatable with existing million-year-old technology
- Aliens can transport their physical bodys via 'lightning' (ie, transporter)

Considering this level of sophistication and coordination, one can't help but wonder: HOW COULD THEY BE SO STUPID? I mean, c'mon... we put our own astronauts through quarantine when they return to Earth, you're telling me that the aliens couldn't devise some sort of environmental protection system, be it in their vehicles or as a suit?

Movies are really pissing me off, of late. Am I really asking so much, or am I just being fashionablely hyper-critical?

'Movies' or "Why People Who Didn't Like 'Batman Begins' Suck"

Some people claimed that this movie was 'indecisive'. That is, they couldn't decide who the target audience was. Is this an action movie or a character-driven piece? Some people felt bored by the developmental aspect of the first hour, others felt the action focus of the last half was a cop-out to lure in the average moviegoer.

These people suck.

Heaven forbid that we have our cake and eat it too. Granted, I found myself more interested in the development of the first half of the movie, but c'mon. This is a Batman movie, he has to blow shit (and people) up as well.

Speaking of destruction, I'm going to 'War of the Worlds' tonight. It'd better not suck. I shall report on it upon the morrow. In the meantime, I invite someone to explain to me why 'Sin City' wasn't unbelievably terrible.

Bench Training

Ross from Rugged recently posted on replacing DE Bench day with a DB-RE day. Like most of which he writes, it's nearly unintelligible but very smart. I've been doing something similar recently and noticed some nice gains in my strength-endurance. (Haven't gone for a 1RM yet.) Check the post out here.

Work

Work has sucked (has been sucking; had been sucking until now; will have been sucking for five days on Friday) ass the last few days. Allow me to share my schedule thus far this week:

Monday
0720: Arrive + Prepare for Classes
8000 - 1300: Class
1300 - 1800: Prep + Starve
1800 - 2100: Class
2100 - 2200: Prep for Tuesday + Waiting for Adam

Tuesday
0630-0800: Prep
0800-1300: Class
1300-1400: Travel to PNU area for Korean class + Quick lunch
1400-1600: Korean class
1600-1700: Return trip + prep
1700-2100: Class

Wednesday
0630-0800: Prep
0800-1300: Class
1300-1700: Prep + Making this Blog

Tonight will be more of the same. The madness of summer class registration seems to be dieing down today and everyone seems to be adjusting to the new workload. Nevertheless, it will be nice when the new teacher arrives to cover his classes. As bad as this seems (and as much as I love to bitch about it), others here have even more to do than I do... so I shall try to refrain from whining too much.

This is, after all, why they pay me the big bucks.

It begins...

"I have absolutely no idea what your day-to-day life is like."

Hearing something like this from a member of your immediate family should serve as motivation to alleviate such a situation.

This 'Blog' is an attempt to do exactly that. Consider it home to random musings, amusing asides... and anything else which pours forth from my mind.

Without further adieu, let us begin.