Dreams of a lego spaceman...

The Hanti station's card machine

2008-11-18T16:42:00.000-08:00

It's the little things that sometimes matter most

2008-11-16T21:01:00.000-08:00

Since being in Korea, I've discovered that I end up taking great pleasure in findng little things that bring me a sense of finding a sense of home.

For example, I went to a blackmarket shop (not really as evil as it sounds) and found Diet Dr Pepper. I used to drink Diet Dr Pepper by the caseload with more per day than anyone ever should. I bought probably 18 cans of it (at an insane profit to the seller), and this was weeks ago. About 3 or so. I still have 4 left. I find myself happy that I have them, and that I found them. I drink one every now and then. Okay, doing the math, that's almost one a day, but it sure doesn't feel that way. I guess a few days in the beginning I had an absurd amount of them, having missed them, but it's been few really since then.

The same goes for computer games. Fallout 3 is out, and I really, really, really want to play it cause I love the Fallout franchise. But I have my laptop here instead of my desktop (who knows if I'll ever see that computer again...), so I can't really play Fallout 3 without problems. Therefore, I have to find my pleasure in other things. So, I've managed to search the web to find copies of some of the older games that used to be the greatest games ever created. Last week, I was spending my idle time playing Millennium: Return to Earth, which was one of the first great space strategy games back in the 1980s. Still a great game today. Sure, it doesn't have the graphics of today, but the game was well designed and there's a reason it took the game world by storm. Right now, I'm playing a game I remember from 20 years ago called Phantasie 3, a typical "find the evil wizard and kill him before he kills you" kind of game. I loved it way back then. I'm now loving it way back now. It's campy, mainly because it set the stage for so many other roleplaying games to come, so you can see the genius in this game because you realize so many others copied what they tried to do in this little, simple game. Peole tend to forget that some of the greatest innovations are much as Newton claimed in his accomplishments: "On the backs of giants".

My medical status has been a trial of trials. I don't even want to get into how much this has been costing me because my boss can't figure out I'm trying to tell him he needs to supply me with national insurance (which is the law). It's costing me a fortune every time I have to go see a doctor, and I'm getting so frustrated with the whole process. The woman he hired to be the office manager (and translator) speaks about as much English as he does, and neither one of them understands my attempts at Korean (because they really don't listen anyway), so I keep getting into crappy situations with this here. I had a recent scare (which isn't really completely over) with my blood sugar going through the roof because I was lacking a medication. I have it now, but the doctor didn't understand and prescribed only half the dosage necessary, which means I need this fixed soon or things are just going to be really bad. Essentially, for the last three weeks I've been living with the immediate threat of a heart attack because of my situation. I don't know if it's solved because I have no way of gauging it, although I'm doing everything I can to fix it. My vision has been really screwed up lately as a result, meaning I can barely read anything (although I can see normally elsewise. The vision appears to be coming back slowly (since I received the half dosage of the medication I was lacking), but I'm not completely confident all is well yet.

If it's any consolation, I've lost a ton of weight since I've been here. I was weighing about 170 lbs (which was way too much). I'm coming in around 154-7 these days. It probably has something to do with the fact that I walk everywhere here in Korea. Some of the walks really suck, because there are hills here that hill giants would frown upon having to walk, and they're everywhere. Also, there are no elevators that people take in the subways, so you go way down into the ground and then you walk up TONS of stairs to get back to the surface again. There are a few times where I'm completely winded and feel embarrassed because I just don't have enough energy to get out to the top of the stairs of the subway after I reach my destination. One habit I got rid of immediately after arriving here was eating at McDonalds and Burger King. Yeah, they have those places here, but you can't survive on that stuff as food. I find myself a lot happier with frozen chicken meals or Healthy Choice soups that I have discovered at Costco (which I recently discovered are sold at a local market for about the same price).

As for work, well, it's better than when I started, but it's usually chaos most days of the week. Classes start up brand new and then get cancelled later that week. And no one tells you the class was cancelled until you've finished preparing that day's lesson and are about to walk upstairs to the classroom where everyone has already been informed a day ago that the class was cancelled. That gets old really fast, and no matter how many times you complain, they stare at you as if it's not a problem (BECAUSE THEY KNEW).

As for relationships, not even thinking about that because I'm trying to fix my life first. Too many Maslow needs are necessary to accomplish before I can even think about taking care of any social aspects of my life. But I'm working on it. We'll see how things work out.

Been told the thesis is now back on track

2008-11-14T15:35:00.000-08:00

I really hate bureaucracies sometimes. The thesis has been turned in finally. Obviously, the secretary there at the grad school office was the one rejecting it and requiring changes (which she should NEVER have been doing as she didn't even know enough to enter the thesis into the "turn in" category when it first arrived). I talked to the grad school office today, and when I was told all was good, I mentioned that the secretary shouldn't have been turning it down, I was told that didn't happen. I said, actually, that is exactly what happened. My friend had to revise it based on THAT person. So, the response was: "Well, we're all beyond that now." In other words, bureaucracies continue to defend their entrenched membership, no matter how incompetent they are, no matter how many people are injured or killed in the process. This is why we have 10 year wars that can't be stopped. This is why we have entitlement programs that no longer serve the people but serve corrupt politicians and people who have figured out how to gauge the system rather than need the system.

I almost didn't go to UOP two years back because somebody in the graduate office totally screwed up the paperwork. The next year, some mysterious person in the graduate office seriously screwed up the paperwork for three incoming graduate students to our department. 10 years before that, some mysterious person in the graduate office screwed up my paperwork to the graudate office when I was first accepted at UOP before I gave up on the process and went to Western Michigan University instead where at least they didn't totally screw up the paperwork when trying to get through their stupid paperwork system.

So, the response to these types of situations is to sweep it up under the rug and hope no one notices. The person is NEVER disciplined, which means she'll continue doing the same thing over and over again, which keeps leading to horrific results for the client, the students.

I'm most likely graduating now. Until this entity fucks that up again somehow. I don't know how she will, but I have a lot of faith in her and the system's ability to look the other way when it ends up happening regardless of common sense or those pesky standard operating procedures and regulations they fool themselves into believing might actually cause someone to do their job correctly. Yeah, I'm really steamed right now.

Stuck in Korea while my life is falling apart back in the states

2008-11-13T16:12:00.000-08:00

I called the Graduate School today, trying to figure out how to pay my $100 for my graduation, and it turns out they've never received my thesis. At all. Never seen it. Don't know a thing about it. Never came in through their door. No record on file. Duane's not graduating. At all.

I don't know what happened. I was told that it was going through the usual process, that it was being formatted to fit the parameters of what the grad school needed, but the Grad School says they've never even seen it. If they would have seen it, it would have met the Nov. 15 cut off for graduation. But they have no record of it. I can't get a hold of the person who knows what's going on, so I'm pretty much screwed. I went through hell trying to finish that thesis with the final revision, and it was for no reason. I'm not going to graduate.

And I was done. Everyone approved it. And I got killed by red tape that shouldn't have ever happened.

If I could find a subway station that actually stopped at a bridge, I'd finally jump off one. I've really had enough of this ride. I want to get off.

Link for Ameriad on Kindle

2008-11-10T18:00:00.000-08:00

The Ameriad is now up on Amazon. You can see it here.

The Ameriad available on Amazon's Kindle

2008-11-10T08:18:00.000-08:00

This was something different for me, but I wanted to try it out. My latest novel, The Ameriad, is now available on Kindle from Amazon. In case you don't know, Kindle is their new hand held device that you can download books onto and read on the go. I think it's a great device, and I thought I would just try this out to see if there's any viability in using this platform for publishing.

The Ameriad, for those of you who don't know, is a humorous Greek epic that tells the story of Amereaus, one of the survivors of the Trojan War, who goes on a journey to find a new land, which will one day be called America. It took me five years to write, and there is a lot of great stuff in this book, especially if you like humor, archaeology, Greek guys who tear off their tunics to beat their chests, and gods that take themselves way too seriously.

It should be up within 24-72 hours. That's all. I'm thinking of putting the already published novels up on Kindle as well, as I do own the digital recording rights for those books, even though they were published by specific publishers for first rights. I'll see how The Ameriad does first.

Democratic Politicians Are All Vying for High Profile Jobs With Obama Administration

2008-11-08T15:59:00.000-08:00

President-elect Obama has a chance to be truly visionary here, or to continue to be just another politician who said what was necessary to become president. It appears, at least according to the media here, that powerful politicians in the Democratic Party are all vying for top positions in the Obama Administration. Senators like John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, plus Governor Bill Richardson are all trying to become the next Secretary of State. But honestly, why them? Why do these politicians really feel that they would make the right choice as Secretary of State?

This country is in dire need of a Colin Powell-like leader, not another freaking politician, but if things go the way that quid pro quo seems to let it, we're going to end up with a politician who paid his dues to the Democrats rather than a statesman who really paid his dues to foreign policy for this country. I'm sorry, but just because someone is a popular senator does not make that person the right person to represent our country to the rest of the world. Just because someone is good at getting legislation passed in an old boy's school network of government does not mean that person is the right individual to be negotiating with the future of America with some of the most nefarious characters in the world. We need someone with stature like Powell, not some politico that is really looking for the next rung to keep climbing up that political ladder.

So, Obama really has a choice here. He can go for the political solution, which makes him just like any other politician, or he can continue his promise of change and show us that the future is going to really be one of positive change where he puts the interests of the country in front of him, instead of behind him as an afterthought.

The Many Fascinating Sights of Korea

2008-11-06T06:14:00.000-08:00

One of the nice things about living in South Korea is that you get to explore new culinary delights that you cannot find in any other land. Take the photo on the left here as an example. I found this very interesting, nostalgic Korean cuisine establishment called Sbarro, which I believe translates to "the place called Sbarro". They have very authentic Korean food here like this one dish they call "pee-zah". They also have a noodle meal here they named "spa-keh-ti", which, according to a wandering minstrel I came across, told me this name was from the ancient Korean god "Spackiata" who used to keep the roads safe from falling asphalt. Supposedly, there was a rash of falling asphalt tragedies in the 2nd century B.C.

This second "only in Korea" restaurant I found is one of those that can only be found after a ten mile trek through the jungle, past the Idol of Death(TM), after sneaking past the Primitives Who Worship the Idol of Death(TM), and then over a bridge made of straw that was described in the tourist manual as "The Bridge of Faith". The Koreans call this restaurant "KFC", but I inquired inside and no one could tell me what the letters stood for. Obviously, the "K" must stand for Korea, but I'm not sure what the F and C might stand for. I tried to engage the restaurant personnel in conversation, but they kept pointing to pictures of food and then asking me if I wanted "Number One-see, Two-see," and a couple of other things I could not make out. The food I ate there tasted amazingly like what we have back in the states and call chicken. I found this amazing because in all of my travels, I have never discovered another food anywhere that has had a taste similar to chicken. Crepes d' Suzette, yes, as everyone knows almost everything tastes like Crepes d' Suzette, but nothing I've come across can even come close to capturing that unique, distinctive chicken taste. But this place did it, and I can only imagine that this recipe they used must have been passed down the ages amongst elders. This got me to thinking that perhaps this may have been the true rosetta stone to describe the migration patterns of human kind. I mean, perhaps humans did not migrate because they were seeking new lands, but because they had a special chicken recipe and they needed to spread it to other lands. Definitely something to think about. I must write a paper on this one day.

I managed to find another phenomenon in Korea that I know people back in the west will definitely find a bit curious. In November, these people here worship this strange guy who dresses in red, stands in large shopping malls and then poses for pictures with people. He has this really long beard, although no Koreans have beards of their own, and I'm not sure what he says to these people, but I get the impression he's some kind of politician because he keeps promising to give them things, and I'm sorry, but no matter how rich this guy is, no one can afford to give the amount of stuff to people that this guy is promising. These people are going to be so pissed after the election.

I did find one really curious thing about this guy. He seems to have convinced people that everywhere he stands there is snow, or some kind of white powder that appears around him. This got me thinking that perhaps he's some kind of glorified cocaine dealer, and that's how he pays for all of the presents that he promises people. It's kind of like Pablo Escobar in Colombia when he would build sports stadiums for the citizens to show them that they, too, benefited from his illegal drug deals. This guy is not only nefarious, but he sounds like he's pretty dangerous and cares little for the law and the welfare of others. When Obama takes over, I hope he realizes that we might have to go in and eradicate this guy before he hurts more of these innocent Korean people.

One thing I did discover is that his "smoke" is not real. You see these two culprits here he has working for him? They have large bottles of smoke spray, and they spray it whenever this coke dealer starts talking to the civilians. This gives the impression that there is a wave of smoke, or snow as the druggies like to call it. They've really thought this whole thing through.

Well, I thought you might all like a little trip through one of my wanderings in Korea. As you can see, I am learning a great deal of information about this very foreign land. I hope to continue to enlighten the rest of you about how foreign it really is.

Why California's Proposition 8 (ban on gay marriage) Passed

2008-11-05T15:27:00.000-08:00

Some time ago, I made a blog post about what the anti-Prop 8 people needed to do in order to stop Proposition 8 from passing. At the time, I was explaining that the rhetoric being used by the grass roots organizations that were coming out against the amendment was so vitriolic that it was going to cause people to create a major backlash against them, and the measure would pass. Well, the measure did pass.

But there was a secondary demographic impetus that caused the measure to pass, and it's going to be very interesting to see how people deal with this piece of the puzzle, because I can't really see a politically correct way to handle the issue without causing an eruption in the usual suspects that make up this grass roots membership. Here, I'll post some interesting information from the election, and tell me if you see a concern.

Maybe it's just me, but I see an anomaly in the data that is a glaring problem. It seems that if the proponents of a change to this constitutional amendment want to attack the issue again, that grass roots momentum is going to have to address a specific demographic that they have always kind of thought was in their pocket all along.

You see, there's an interesting dilemma here because these wannabe social activists sort of assume that African-Americans will automatically support social issues because they have been treated as marginalized, disenfranchised people for so long. But when this issue of gay marriage, or gay rights, came up, the African-American community has come out as a direct barrier to the social agenda.

Why this group is the most active supporter of anti-gay rights, or anti-gay marriage, is really for others to discuss. What is important is that the people who keep trying to force tolerance down the throats of those who don't see eye to eye with them on such issues are going to have to realize that they have a much different fight on their hands that can't be won by shaming the other side or hoping that things will just work out for their cadre, because things won't.

You see, a whole new approach is needed, or the issue will never turn in their favor. Think about this, which is what educated activists should have been thinking in the first place: The general demographic of a social activist in this country, and especially in California, tends to be a young, white college-educated female. The last characteristic is less prominent in the statistics, meaning we can level it out to approximating a young, white college-educated person. The issue is being argued as "civil rights" or "human rights". The usual rhetoric has been to condemn anyone that is against gay rights as someone who is out of touch and intolerant. Now, notice who makes up the greatest constituency of the demographic they are targeting. In other words, let me explain it: YOUNG, WHITE COLLEGE-EDUCATED PEOPLE ARE TELLING AFRICAN-AMERICAN CITIZENS THAT THEY NEED TO BE MORE TOLERANT TOWARDS OTHER PEOPLE. Now, honestly, try to sell that one. Privileged young folk are making the argument that a long-time, disenfranchised, marginalized group of people who have fought over the span of generations to achieve their civil rights THAT they need to be more tolerant of other people. Good luck with that project.

So, having said that, for reasons I don't understand because the people who should be listening never do (they always know better than anyone else because THEY "understand things better than the rest of us"). If they want to win this next time, they need to approach the African-American community with a respectful attitude and explain why gay marriage should be allowed. Attempt to shame them, you lose. Attempt to reason with them using third graders' analysis, you lose. There can be such a commonality between both sides, but as long as they keep "assuming" it's just going to fall in place, then they'll continue to lose and never understand why they lost.

I've been reading some analysis on why Prop 8 passed, and again, it seems to be a choir singing to another choir without even knowing the song.

The Election of Obama, the Healing of America, and the Future of Cooperation and Friendship with the Rest of the World

2008-11-05T06:33:00.000-08:00

The election was a very long one, and a lot of people are exhausted, finally getting through this process that has managed to prove how divided a nation the United States really is. We knew we were divided some time ago, when each subsequent election showed that half of America wanted one party while the other half wanted the other. In a winner take all system like we have here, that meant a lot of people being completely misrepresented by a party not their choosing. This allowed the Republicans to run the White House, and so many others to continue to control the halls of government of this once great, shining country.

But when it came to the election, people became so divided that they stopped seeing clearly. Instead of seeing people who disagreed with them as the other side of the family that loves you but holds you in check, people saw anyone who disagreed with them as enemies, as people who not only had to be defeated, but had to be disgraced, dishonored and, if possible, destroyed. This has been politics in this country for some time now, and right now, things can get better, or we'll be turning over a cesspool of political disfunctionality to those who come behind us. It's our choice, even though we sometimes make it without thinking about exactly what we are doing when we finally do it.

The United States has suffered greatly because of the misguided intentions of a few who believed they had the best intentions at heart. And they probably did. But their thinking was archaic and outdated. Their thinking was confrontation leads to solution, but that's 19th century thinking that led to 20th century destruction. The future needs to be something different, and unfortunately, people have been swimming in the same muck for so long now that they are no longer capable of thinking about alternatives other than what someone may have tried before. Unfortunately, hitting the same nail into a board only goes so far before you're just breaking wood. The future needs something different than what we are capable of achieving with our think tanks of old ways and diplomats of ancient ideas. The world has been crying out for a future direction, and all we keep hearing is old ways that rarely worked in the past as if they will somehow work some day in the future.

What the world needs is directed cooperation, not mandated imperialism or negotiated compromise. In interpersonal communication literature, one of the final achievements of success in successful communication with another person is not the predicted compromise, but an understanding with the other person that together both of you can achieve a combined learning process that leads you both to a successful outcome that is not a compromise for either but achievement for both. People still don't think that way. Even counselors rarely think this way, telling people that one person must compromise so that two people can reach a commonality (although it is usually directed at both partners, so that both compromise).

The future can be one of successful cooperation, but only if the most powerful nation on the planet realizes such a future can be achieved. Right now, we live in an era where our diplomats play catch up games with international affairs. If someone treats us unfairly, we treat them unfairly in return. If someone does something nice for us, we produce easier trade routes into our borders. That may seem, on the surface, to be the answer to achieving successful economic stimulation, but it is really only temporary, and in most cases does not produce friendships that are long-lasting but develops trade relationships that last only as long as it is economically viable for both sides. In a game theoretic framework, this means that we continue to prosper as long as our "friends" prosper, but once one of us drops out of the game, the only path usually ends up being one that utilizes either the proverbial carrot or the stick. Our paradigm does not know any other functionality.

I suggest the future needs to look at this game theoretic and introduce the idea of cooperation and generational footprinting. What this means is that our targeted friends should not just be those who do right by us, but that when we do right by those who are in our economic and political spheres of influence, we must also do right by those who are overlapping our partners' economic and political spheres of influence as well. This isn't the old "my friends of my friends are my friends" but more a directed desire to work towards friendly relationships with those who border us, and recognize changes in our relationships to where we share certain, fundamental characteristics, such as the desire to wear plaid pants (dumb example, I know). The more functions we share with this neighbor where we wear plaid pants, the more likely we are to also begin sharing other characteristics, like wearing the same kind of hat. This expands out into the cultural realm as well, so that over time we become more like our neighbors, and our neighbors become more like us.

Then we focus on their neighbors, and we look for when those neighbors (who may have very few dealings with us as well), and if we see them wearing plaid pants, we reward them by opening up functionality spheres with them so that we share more venues where we can both show off our plaid pants, so that we, too, might begin to share other attributes and then become more and more like our friends.

This is a simplistic example of the model I'm proposing, but at the same time it also leads to the ability to create long-lasting friendships with potential friends and enemies. This isn't a new process by any stretch of the imagination, but a recognition of certain mathematical principles that do exist in raw social interactions. I use a matrix application to run the interation mathematics that drives the process, but what is important is that nations that are actively involved in attempting to build stronger friendships must be as willing to recognize the change in others as well as accept changes within themselves because self-reflective entity nations have a tendency to attempt to self-correct themselves when they see change as an error rather than a natural progression of cooperative behavior.

This is kind of an offshoot of the FOT (Friendship Over Time) Theory that I created with K. Bruce, and it is going to be presented at the NCA National Conference. We sent a shortened version of the process to the Obama campaign during the last month of the election, as I felt it was important to at least make an attempt at trying to find a better alternative to the rotten ways the US attempts to conduct international relations. My guess is that our letter was either ignored, passed on to some flunky who ignored it, or treated as fan mail. Unfortunately, there are really few avenues for an academic theorist to try to make one's ideas known, especially ideas of such magnitude that would require enlightened leaders to take notice. So I just thought I would say that I at least gave it a try before realizing that in most cases, no leader ever really vies for changing the way things are, even if one's campaign is run on the idea of change.

There is a better way. Making it known is a deeper struggle than finding the solution.

The Domestic Honor Fight

2008-11-01T21:06:00.000-07:00

The last time I experienced this phenomenon was 20 years ago, the last time I was in Korea. I had completely forgotten about this sort of thing. I'll explain.

The other night, around 4:30am, I was woken up by the sound of a woman crying. She was somewhere out my window, either on the street or in an apartment very close to me. She was very loud. She was crying, yelling, screaming and the sounds she made there's no way to describe other than it sounded like the despair of a creature on its last stand. You really don't hear this kind of wailing anywhere else, at least not in any of the many places I've traveled. Every now and then, you could hear her husband, and he'd retort with a "Huhn" or some other gutteral sound that really didn't say anything. But it would be the woman screaming for about five minutes, and then the husband with a few gutteral sounds, and then the woman screaming again.

What was going on? Usually this sort of thing has a few causes, but it usually means that someone's life situation has changed dramatically. And yes, Koreans can sometimes become over dramatic in these situations, but I think there's a logic to it because these situations are generally of such importance that they become issues like this. In these types of cases, usually it's something the husband has done that has forced a bad change to the family. In most cases, it's usually a loss of an important job where the wife is wailing about how they're about to become destitute and homeless (as I live in the most expensive part of Seoul, I can see this as a HUGE issue if it ever happened). Or the wife could have found out about an affair the husband was having, and somehow it has become of such importance that the wife finally felt the need to address it and show how it has completely destroyed her every foundation worth living.

These moments usually appear as if they're life-shattering. For everyone else in the area, you are forced to listen to about an hour of this battle between husband and wife, much like you might have to listen to two cats in heat going back and forth, because it actually sounds a lot like that, without the positive aspects that such an encounter might bring for two cats. It is also the loudest thing you'll ever hear at 4am in the morning. Eventually, you fall back asleep and the issue is over, but I have yet to figure out what the resolution is between the husband and wife that bring on this event. I wonder if they work things out, or if their existence is as threatened as the wife's wails indicate that it just might be.

The Korean Odyssey Thus Far

2008-11-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

I guess you could say that I'm starting to get used to Korea. I'm not really satisfied where I am right now, but I'm no longer in a desperate mode, trying to figure out what I should be doing next. Let me explain.

Before I came to Korea, I was pretty much living paycheck to paycheck. Or more likely, paycheck to paycheck - $200, meaning I was never really making it but always a little bit behind. I put myself into that situation when I decided I wanted to go back to school, and it's been a little gremlin that's been nagging at the back of neck for so long now. Now, I'm in the job world again, and I'm still feeling like I'm in the behind payment schedule kind of life. But I'm not really there anymore. In about a week or so, I get my first paycheck from here. It's not going to suddenly cause me to become filthy rich, but it's enough so that I no longer feel like I'm about to go bankrupt at the next time I use my ATM card.

Unfortunately, this situation didn't come until I came to Korea, and I'd rather not be in Korea right now. First off, the place smells. Awful. It is the most pungent smell you'll ever come across, and Seoul smells like a backed up sewer. You never really get away from the smell.

The women are stunningly beautiful, so that's great. But I'm finding myself just not interested. I come across a couple of beautiful women every day that end up having conversations with me, but that old Duane just doesn't seem to show up. I engage them in conversations, and then I'm done. I really don't want to be in a relationship anymore. I don't want someone in my stuff, in my life, or any of that. I would love a constant companion, but I just don't see that happening without adding the rest of that baggage to the equation. I don't want to date. I really don't. When I go out to eat dinner, I kind of like being alone. I'm finally realizing that. I can't imagine some woman wanting to date or marry me if we pretty much had the separation I crave, so I guess I'm kind of stuck with the aloneness factor.

Korea itself is a very frustrating place to be if you're not planning to go native. And that's just not me. I love traveling through the lands here, but that's it. I don't like the food, and the custom stuff just doesn't work for me. Instead, I find myself wandering train stop after train stop, looking for Western stuff that can provide me with a sense of a nostalgic memory. The other day, I found an international gray market that sells diet Dr Pepper at a high markup. That was worth it to me, and I bought out her stock. It's not going to keep me in my favorite drink forever, but I can effectively have one can a night, and I feel like I have a sense of home with me here in this country.

I've managed to find all sorts of familiar places since I've been here. When I have time, I travel to the Coex Mall across town, and I eat at a Sbarro pizza restaurant. Other days, I'll hit KFC and get me some scrumptious chicken. If I'm desperate, I'll find myself at McDonalds trying to pretend their cheeseburger is just like the ones in the states...they're not. I've walked by and not entered Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, Dominoes, Papa Johns Pizza, Pizza Hut, TGI Fridays, Bennigans, Starbucks, Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits, the Coffee Bean, and probably a few others I haven't remembered. I've shopped here at Costco, noticed how expensive clothing is at The Gap, and just wandered into one store after another that is no different than the ones back in the states. However, I have found a few Korea only (or semi only) places, like Emart. There's a really cool story about Emart. Turns out Walmart showed up in Korea in 2003 and was going to show the Korean people how business is done by Walmart. Emart kicked its ass so hard that Walmart sold all its stores to Emart, and now only Emart is here instead.

The place I work is really disorganized, and it's really frustrating for me. I like things stable, and it's never stable here. I always feel like I'm doing something wrong, when I'm not, and it just gets really frustrating. Things like schedules being made that get changed but the changed one never gets to me, so I end up with some phone call asking why I didn't show up for a class. I'm trying, really, but I'm not sure I'm really cut out for this environment. I've never really been all that good with little kids, although other teachers tell me the kids really like me. I can never figure them out, and I've started coming home with really bad headaches almost every day.

Other teachers tell me I should just jump ship and find a university here to teach at because I have the degree already to do so. I'm really apprehensive about doing this because the salary I'm receiving (or will be receiving starting on the 10th) is really impressive compared to the normal salaries pretty much anywhere here, including at Korean universities. So I really don't know what to do. I kind of like the Hagwon boss, even though he can be a pain to understand sometimes. I keep hoping to just push through this and expect things might get better. I mean, things aren't horrible. Things could be much worse.

An example: I was walking home from work tonight, a bit frustrated, when I ran across this western foreigner walking down the road I walk home. He looked confused. I asked him what was wrong. Turns out he has been here for less than a day, someone dropped him off at his apartment, and he went out to get something to eat and has no idea where his home is. So, for the last four hours, he's been wandering the streets trying to recognize his apartment. So I walked with him for awhile until we were able to get him back onto the road to where his Hagwon is, so he can hopefully find someone there that can steer him to his apartment. I felt really bad for him. I had the advantage that I can at least read the language here, so getting lost was my own dumb fault each time I did it. But I always found my way home because I could at least phonically get my idea across when talking to someone and trying to get directions. So, things aren't really that bad for me here.

I'm also done exploring for a little while. Every weekend I've been going to another spot on the subway and seeing what's out there, usually looking for some significant place that I wanted to find and pick up some hard to find items. I think I'm good to go for a little while. I now have enough food in my fridge and cupboards to last me until payday, and I'm pretty much going to enjoy that and take it easy on the next day I have a weekend (I haven't spent a single day at home doing nothing YET).

I really don't know where I'm going with my journey right now. I was pretty close to giving everything up when I was in Stockton. And I mean everything. I'm not in that place right now, but at the same time I don't really feel I have a purpose in life, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to find one. I've never been all that religious (nor will I ever be), and I've never really been able to find satisfaction in the "simple" things. So I don't know.

I keep looking. But eventually that approach wears thin.

Huge Crackdown on Prostitution in Eastern Seoul, Korea

2008-10-28T07:59:00.000-07:00

Had this crackdown happened 20 years ago when I was a young, spry GI living in South Korea, well, I might not have liked it. But to be honest, I don't really see it as a horrible thing right now. As most educated people know, the people who are pushed into this life are generally tricked into it or just outright forced into it in one way or another. In a country like South Korea, prostitution is not something women generally chose as the best career choice they could have; it was usually something chosen for them. Although, I will admit there is probably a ronin element of prostitution with young women who see it as a lucrative way to buy expensive things. But I'm not really feeling a lot of compassion for that crowd either.

The Korea Times reported here about the recent crackdown. What caused me to actually become interested enough to post in my web log is the part that states:

At the height of the crackdown, a pimp identified as Choi hung himself in an underground parking lot on Aug. 29, condemning the head of Dongdaemun Police Station who initiated the operation for the alleged undue crackdown.

Now, maybe it's me, but I just don't see the police or the authorities crying over the fact that a pimp killed himself in a protest against their crackdown. I mean, mathematically speaking, he just made their job one pimp easier than the day before.

I understand the whole argument about free expression and how someone should be able to do with his or her body whatever he or she desires, but there's always been a shady element to the kind of prostitution you find in a place like South Korea. If it was a legit type of business, I don't think I'd have a problem with it, but way too often it feels like it's part of an exploitive environment where people who aren't doing the work are making themselves wealthy off of the exploited work of others. And that's never a good thing.

Did My Obligatory "Eat Like a Westerner" With a Group of Koreans today

2008-10-26T03:36:00.000-07:00

The boss at our Hagwon bought us lunch. Most people who know me know that I'm really not a fan of any cuisine that is different than that I eat on a daily basis. Not a fan of Asian food, at all. So, one of my co-teachers brought a menu from a Korean restaurant that was going to deliver, and I found some chicken item that didn't look like it was going to crawl out of the plate and attack me, and then lunch was delivered.

First off, while I have no idea what it was I ordered, it was actually pretty good. It was a breaded chicken thing with some veggie stuff hanging off it (that quite easily was slid off with my handy chopsticks). Speaking of chopsticks, that was the obvious brunt of the joke for the westerner's first meal with the group. Yeah, I really can't hold chopsticks. One of the girls was concerned and wondered why no one asked for a fork for me, but I said it was no big deal, and I continued to eat. If I had to eat with those things every day, well, I'd starve very slowly. But every now and then I managed to get a chopstick full of rice, and I was able to eat again. Yeah, that's how someone uses chopsticks when they never learned to use them and really never intended to (and still have no intentions to).

But the meal was good.

Soon after the meal was over I got to go teach another debate class. Now, to those debaters out there that think this is actually teaching debate, that's not really it. What I do is babysitting. And every now and then the kids get up to a platform and argue over issues they know nothing about. Well, nothing more than I've spoonfed them during prep. It's really not debate, although every now and then someone will say something that surprises me, and I remember this COULD be debate. Instead, it's debate disguising itself as English learning, which is really a mask for the fact that this is glorified babysitting. I never thought I'd reach a point in my life where I'd hear: "Teacher, may I use the bathroom?" Yeah, it's babysitting.

But you know, that's not a horrible thing. The kids are somewhat cool, although some of them drive me freaking nuts. Yeah, I'm not a real kid person. Other teachers tell me that the kids really like me, but that doesn't take away from me the realization that I don't feel like I'm good with them. I treat them as I would college students, and I think that actually gets them to somewhat like me, because I don't treat them as kids. They're usually around 12-14 years old, so I don't really feel right treating them as kids. I give them a certain amount of respect, and I hope that they'll return that as well. I never imagined I'd be teaching middle school kids, so this does have me a bit off kilter at this point in my life. I always thought I'd be teaching college students, and this just really feels odd.

Money is a problem right now, although my boss has actually been pretty good at fronting me some of the money I need until the first paycheck. It took me awhile to realize what my real purpose was for being here, but I started to find out from the other Korean teachers who I have started to befriend here. It appears that having an American who has skill in speech and debate is pretty good, but what really seems to be the selling point is my two MA degrees and my ABD status for the Ph.d. AND what kind of surprised me was the inclusion of the fact that I'm a novelist who has written 12+ novels. What I discovered is that my boss has been telling this to all of the parents of students who have started to enroll in the academy here. I kind of kept the whole writing thing on the down low, but it turns out that everyone knows about it because he spouts it out all the time whenever he's trying to convince parents to send their kids to our school. I guess I should be flattered, but it always feels like I'm some kind of fraud, even though all of the accolades he is using actually happen to be true. I guess I've never really felt comfortable being perceived as some kind of selling point for a school; I'm very self-conscious about myself, as most people who know me can attest to.

It's starting to get cold here already. I have two small jackets that are kind of doing the job right now, but I have a strong feeling it's going to get really cold, really soon. Already at night I'm having some difficultly sleeping because I don't really have a decent blanket to put over myself like I use to have at home. I have a comforter I bought when I got here, but contrary to its name, it's not all that comfortable. I had three really good blankets at home that I have had for many years (one of them I think I bought in Korea 20 years ago). I may have given 2 of 3 of them to Goodwill, and if I did, I'm kind of depressed about that. But I'd be so grateful if I could have one of those here now. I haven't been able to find a place that sells any of them so far while here, and even if I found a place, I'm not really going to have any money to buy them anytime soon.

However, I do get paid on the 10th of November, which is not that far away. I'm thinking my perspective on a lot of things will become a lot more comfortable once that happens. It hasn't been nice being in a destitute situation of life, as I have been for so long now. Going back to school was not a great idea financially, although it was a great idea when it comes to mind and soul. Now, I have to start paying back money to the government for all that time in school, and that's one of those looming headaches that I'll have to start dealing with very, very soon.

The Sad Tragedy of My Stuffed Bean Bag Frog Named Elmer

2008-10-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

This is Elmer. He's a frog. He's usually a pretty happy frog. He's been with me forever.

In 5th grade, I sat next to a girl in class who owned Elmer. She used to sit him on her desk. A friend of mine and I (don't remember the friend's name to this day) used to grab Elmer and play catch with him. This usually didn't go over very well. But we did it every day.

Some months later, Elmer started showing up on my desk in the mornings before I arrived to school. He and I became friends. I don't know if Elmer chose to sit on my desk, or if the little girl who owned him put him there. You see, Elmer has always been somewhat of his own frog, pretty much living for what he wants to do. He's a real individual.

Anyway, in 6th grade, that little girl gave Elmer to me, saying that he had become my friend and should belong to me.

So, Elmer moved in with me. And he's been with me ever since. He's been in the military with me (people called him Lt. Elmer). He traveled around the world with me. He never traveled as baggage; he was always brought with me to wherever I went, sometimes in my luggage, but he was always the first of my little friends to emerge.

Over the years, other women I have known have contributed various stuffed animals to my vast collection. They have always been special to me. But aside from Joshua, my little penguin, Elmer has always been the senior of the stuffed animals. He watched over the others because he had experience and he knew how to keep the others safe.

Well, Facebook is a really interesting service, and by surprise, I came in contact with that little girl who gave me Elmer. I was really excited about this because I wanted to show her how well Elmer had been taken care of, that he was still my little buddy. So I sent her this picture you see here, and I waited to hear her response. To my shock, she said that the frog looked familiar, but she didn't know anything about him.

Both Elmer and I were devastated. I had told him we were going to be showing her a picture of him, and he was all excited. But she didn't remember Elmer at all.

Fortunately, Elmer and I still have each other. But I'm having a hard time explaining to him how such a thing could happen. Bean bag frogs don't handle this sort of thing well.

Why I'm Here in Korea

2008-10-23T05:17:00.000-07:00

This is a subject that has been plaguing me for about almost every moment that I have been here in South Korea. It's not like I've never been here before, so the "it's new" rationalization hasn't been here in this adventure. Yet, I have had this distinct feeling that coming to South Korea was important for me, that it was something I had to do rather than something I wanted to do. But I really haven't known exactly why that is.

I think I'm starting to see through the reasoning, or at least through the haze to feel that I might eventually see the matrix that makes up the reasoning.

I'm starting to think it all comes back to my writing. And while I kind of talk around that subject a lot, and a few select people know about the volume of my writing or its content, I really don't share all that much with people other than some of the writing itself. Before I left, I handed five or six manuscripts of my 12 or 13 novels to Kat because she was interested in reading some of the stuff I have written. To be honest, I have been kind of closeting much of that writing because it's really a different part of me. Well, let me explain....

My early writing was all about getting things on paper. That's how the first nine or ten novels went. Then there was this really long hiatus between the tenth, or eleventh, novel and the last novel that I wrote. It took me about five years to write my last novel, and it was mainly written during the last six months of that period of time. And to me, it is probably the greatest novel I have ever written. It was different, it was humorous, and it was written so that numerous audiences can get different readings from the same material. It was very hard to write, but I wrote it, and I'm very proud of it.

But that novel (the Ameriad, in case people are curious) was a milestone for me. A breakthrough in a way. After having written that novel, I have a really hard time taking myself serious with the type of writing I was doing before.

You see, I used to write a lot of mystery/suspense. It was fun fiction, and I write that kind of stuff really well. That was my earlier work. That was my first published novel, Innocent Until Proven Guilty. Then I started branching out and writing pretty much anything that came to mind, including science fiction and fantasy, and sometimes both at the same time. All in all, I have two really strong books that have introduced series characters that realize I will be revisiting over and over again for the rest of my life (the first is the Reagul series, which is fantasy, and the second is my Soldier series, which takes place 80 years in the future in a fantasy setting here on Earth).

But when I was doing Forensics, I started writing something different, what I like to refer to as the psychological study piece. I really felt this need to get into the minds of people, into men, into women, into crazy people, into neurotics, into anyone who sees the world slightly different from everyone else. That has led to a number of short works I have recently written that have won numerous awards. My latest short story is called Precipice, and it explores an extremely deep analysis of suicide and its motivation; my writing is evolving into something I do not yet understand.

So, here in Korea, I find myself constantly thinking that this is the place where I need to really hone this writing into something I was born to write. A number of idea pieces have been nagging at me lately, and pretty soon I have a feeling I'm going to be disappearing and doing nothing but write with my spare time. It's kind of funny, but this is how my writing process always happens. I start to get nuggets of material that come to me, and then I try to ignore it or avoid it, and it just keeps building until I finally sit down and start knocking out the story. It's my way of writing. It's been with me since I was a little kid.

But I'm ready for something big, but I keep having to tell myself that I'm not going to be writing something big because I have this belief that if you glorify the work you are creating, it becomes tired and overly reflective. So I plan to let it just run its course and hope that it becomes what I suspect it is going to become.

So that's what I'm believing may be the reason why I'm in Korea. I really can't put my finger on anything else. I really don't think I'm going to hook up with anyone and get into a relationship or get married. I missed that calling in my life. I've resigned myself to pretty much living a solitary life without anyone else in it. And that's not a horrible thing. I've been a loner most of my life, even though I'm generally pretty good with people. I've come to realizing that I can only feel comfortable trusting myself, and maybe my stuffed bean bag frog Elmer. Well, maybe just Elmer, but that's just cause he's such a freaking cool frog.

Initial observations of Korea after a week

2008-10-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've been here more than a week (10 days, actually), but the title still works.

First off, I am somewhat regretting my decision to come to Korea. I had a pretty decent offer from Missouri, and I should have just taken that. Sure, the pay wasn't great, but it was back in the states, and I would have been getting experience in my chosen field of communication. Instead, I'm in a very unsettling environment, teaching students who really make me feel like they don't want to be here, and that becomes really bothersome after some time.

What am I doing? I'm teaching English and debate. Mostly English. The lesson plans are not put together by me, but by someone else and they're mostly unclear most of the time. It's not unusual when I end up spending two hours before a class reading up on the material because that's the first time someone has given me access to the reading material. Then I have to prepare what is already a designated lesson plan that rarely ever come out right when actually teaching the class. It makes me look like it's me that's unorganized, and I really feel stupid sometimes when I have to teach this way. For the most part there's little consistency, and it makes me feel bad for the students. But at the same time, this lack of consistency also makes me feel bad for me as well. So I try to do the best I can, but it is really not enough.

The woman I work for is massively passive-aggressive, the kind of person who gives you limited information and then rolls her eyes whenever you ask her a question. It gets to the point where you don't want to ask a question, but then you realize you have to, so you have to go into a mode where you feel like a moron for asking the question because you're going to be treated like a moron in the response. I don't even think she knows she does it, but when I've tried to circumvent this behavior, it never succeeds.

My days off are split, which is not always the greatest thing in the world. If I was 19, it might be cool, but it doesn't work at my stage of life. I kind of need TIME away from work, not a few moments before having to go back to work. Plus, after the first week, the days off are already becoming "negotiable", in that my big boss came to me with those reassuring words of "You teach essay class on Tuesday, no?" meaning "I want you to work on your day off". I'm a creature of habit, so breaking the habit for bizarre changes really doesn't reflect well on me, and it makes it harder for me to become comfortable with my environment.

Food. I can't find certain things that I wish I could find to make my life so much more pleasant. I like soda. The soda here is like drinking battery acid without the kick. Diet sodas all taste the same, almost as if they have one big vat and they fill all of the different diet brands with the same junk. I'd kill for a 2 liter of diet dr pepper right now, but that entity does not exist in Korea. They have regular Dr Pepper, but not diet. I also can't find so many different frozen brands that would have made this trip easier. A 10 pack of bean and cheese burritos would be a godsend. Hot pockets, oh how I miss thee. I managed to find Eggo Waffles, but I had to hike to Costco to get them, and it was literally the longest road march I have ever made in my life. That's not the kind of trip you can take and then carry something that far back. Especially if it is heavy. Which brings me to water. The local emart has water, but to buy it so that it's cost effective, you have to buy large bulk water, and carrying it home is a nightmare. I carried a six pack of 2 liter bottles yesterday from Emart, and let's just say that I was exhausted by the time I finally managed to get home. I need to find an alternative to this, but my little brain hasn't come up with it yet. I don't yet trust the local water to even do a brita filter system, so I have to figure out a way to get bottled water home.

Interactions with the locals: Not great. Mostly I find them evasive rather than friendly. When working with the locals, I've found them to be annoyingly unreliable. You talk to someone and that person indicates that he or she will do something, and then when that times comes around, nothing happens. You find the person, and then he or she acts like you're asking them something for the very first time. It gives me the impression that the only way to survive here is to not rely on anyone for anything, because you're going to have to somewhat assume they're not going to come through for you no matter what.

Other than that, my recent difficulties involve the fact that this place is way too expensive. I'm barely surviving. It's also really hard to find anything you need, like an index card, certain kitchen items, soft toilet paper, and all sorts of other things. I'm sure they're here somewhere, but good luck finding them unless you already know a source.

Right now, I'm trying to survive until my first paycheck (the 10th, which is exactly a month and a day since I got here). Until then, things are really kind of sucking.

The ESL Caste System in Asia

2008-10-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

I guess it's one of those things that should be expected, but there's a full blown caste system that exists in Korea and Asia, in general, between the different foreigners who work here teaching English to the Asian population. You wouldn't think this would be the case, as one would think that as foreigners these people would try to stick together in some kind of familiar comraderie, but that's anything but the case.

As it turns out, your placement on the caste system is as simple as it is being a part of the caste system in India. In other words, everyone has a say in it, and there are almost no real clear cut rules. First off, there's a ranking structure that has to do with what type of school you teach at. It goes something like: University, college, private institution, Hagwon, and a couple of other lower entities as well that I don't yet understand or recognize. Then there is a delineation based on your education. But that's not all. If you have a higher level degree, there's a caste system based on exactly where your degree came from, how prestigious that school is, and whether or not you might be making big bucks back in the states if you were not here. But also, if you CAN make big bucks back in the states, you automatically lose a few placements in the caste system because there's something obviously wrong with you if you are here instead of back in the states making big bucks.

So far, my analysis of the caste system has resulted in this mathematical formula:

Let A = you. Let B = the jerk who thinks he/she is better than you because he/she is not you

So, your status = A = B - B's overblown ego - B's lack of ability to think beyond $$ = A's new caste placement

I read this article in the Korea Times a few days ago where this English teacher who has obviously been here too long went on a column sized diatribe about how every other English teacher is a moron, everyone should learn to be fluent in Korean, and until then everyone should just shut the **** up. I found it somewhat unique that he wasn't fluent in Korean himself, but he felt everyone else should be.

What I think this whole caste system crap seems to miss is that people are people, and they come to this stage in their life for all sorts of different reasons. I don't even have a reason for why I'm here, other than I felt I wanted to come here, mainly just to see if this place has changed that much in the last twenty years. And it has. In some ways, better. In other ways, not. In some ways, things have stayed annoyingly the same, except the annoyances have now become institutionalized. Corruption is a major problem here. No one will acknowledge it. They just accept it. And that is tragic. But again, no one really cares because they grew up being used to it.

The ESL community here is somewhat unique in that it seems to be massively tied to the idea of commercialism and greedy capitalism. In other words, people aren't here because they want to help young Koreans (or Asians, depending upon where they are) to learn English better. They're here, according to ESL theory of caste rationalization, because of how much money they can make, how much future money they might make, and because they have no other options in the real world to be productive.

It's kind of like listening to a bunch of garbage men yell at each other over who is the better garbage collector, meanwhile trying to avoid the obvious realization that their entire day consists of taking out other peoples' trash.

Cultural Icon Finally Being Retired, For the Second Time

2008-10-15T21:30:00.000-07:00

First off, I want you to just read this comic:

This was the sort of thing that greeted people of the United States every Sunday, and each day there was another comment about Bloom County and its assortment of wonderful creatures who were really representations of our own societies and people. No one really ever "got" it like Berke Breathed.

The story of Bloom County was of Milo Bloom, who really saw the world differently than everyone else. In the beginning, it was all about him and his thoughts, but slowly this new character took over. His name was Opus, and he was a penguin. He saw the world as an innocent creature of the wild, but in a very short time he saw the world as it was, and so many people would tune in each and every day just to see how our litle friend interpreted the very world we lived. Ronald Reagan was president at the time, but Opus was truly the king of our cultural power base. No one was more enlightened about what was happening than Opus, and he did it once a day, both examining, and exploring, the world we existed within. He saw through the ridiculousness of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), through the juxtapositions of the smoking industry, through dating and how ridiculous that could be, and through so many little nuances of common sense that you couldn't help but put a sign on your yard lawn begging others to vote for Bill/Opus for President (Bill was a later introduced cat that was suffering from katnip addiction and ended up having a controversial affair with Jeanne Kirkpatrick, the US Ambassador to the United Nations (Bill the Cat was later accused of selling secrets to the Soviet Union during this affair, specifically the formula to Secret antiperspirant).

America's love affair with Opus lasted many years, and ran until 1989 when the author decided to discontinue the beloved comic strip and ran a Sunday only strip called Outland, where some of the characters jumped ship and appeared. Eventually, people made enough calls for Opus and he reappeared in the strip, and it was relaunched as Opus. But unfortunately, the beauty of the strip that was once Bloom County could never really be recaptured.

Just recently, Berke Breathed announced that Opus would be discontinued and retired. Unfortunately, a new generation of people will receive that announcement never having known the genius that was once Opus and his friends. Some of them may have been influenced by Bloom County's successor, Calvin and Hobbes, which was a much lighter presentation of what became America's comic strip. Today, we are left with such nuggets that attempt to fill this creative gap as Pearls Before Swine, but no comic has managed to ever grasp the true wonder that was Bloom County.

But Opus's demise has been needed for awhile, unfortunately. While Bloom County was wonderful, the subsequent attempts to relaunch the wonder that is Opus never worked. He was never really the center stage of Bloom County, but he always stole the show. In Outland, he was an outsider. In Opus, he was center stage, and that was a position for which he was never comfortable. He was the ultimate outsider, giving the cartoonish middle finger to whatever the power structure represented. And he will be solemnly missed.

When your cell phone and you just don't know how to communicate

2008-10-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

I received a cell phone yesterday. It is called a Show cell phone (guess that's the brand). Looks nice. Makes lots of nice little music sounds. It rang once and it was my boss on it. We could speak. Well, kind of. He doesn't speak English well, and I still need a lot of work with my Korean.

As for my cell phone, well, he means well. The little guy chimes up when he should and he makes all sorts of little cute little sounds and images to tell me he's doing something. Not sure what yet, but it's something.

Since last night, I have received four text messages. In Korean. Don't know who they're from, what they say, or really even what to do with them. So this has me concerned. Is the Korean equivalent of Commissioner Gordon trying to contact me to tell me that the Joker has run amok in Seoul, South Korean, and I can't stop him because I don't understand the message? Did the Joker kill Robin, or is he holding him hostage? Or is it Robin calling me asking me to bring back a carton of milk to the batcave? FYI, where the hell is the batcave? I'm having a hard enough time trying to figure out how to walk a straight line from my apartment to the school where I teach.

So, my cell phone is continuing to make little cute sounds, which might also mean it is warning of danger that I can't understand. So, if the Joker comes through your town, or Braniac destroys your local drinking establishment, I apologize for not being there to save the day. I got the message, but I just haven't been able to translate it yet.

An observation on the state of women in South Korea

2008-10-14T17:59:00.001-07:00

My last blog post was obviously a joke, but this one is a lot more serious. People may not know that this is not my first trip to South Korea. As a matter of fact, I was here 20 years ago, and let's just say that this has given me a unique perspective on things here. I've been observing something that I never would have even realized had I not been here two decades ago.

I was in a McDonald's in Seoul, South Korea the other day, and three young, attractive girls were working behind the counter, giggling and pointing out cute guys. They seemed like high school girls from pretty much any other American city. And it made me so happy to see them like this, realizing they have their whole lives in front of them, and they can practically live it any way they choose.

As I said, this is not my first time in South Korea. When I was here 20 years ago, this civilization was a much different place.

20 years ago, I was a GI in Tongduchon, a town near the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the border South Korea shares with North Korea. The women were the same back then as they are now; they giggled all of the time. The difference was that their lifestyles were so much different. Back then, the typical Korean girl I came across was a bar girl or some kind of prostitute. If they were lucky, they worked in some sort of formal tea shop, but even then things felt a bit suspicious with the women I came across.

But everywhere I went women were involved in some sort of the out of control sex trade. The peole of Korea at that time were finally bouncing back from the 1950s Korean Civil War, and in the 1980s, there was a move to fight against the repressive government that had maintain martial order after the Korean War. Things for the future started to look like they were going to be different as students took to the street and demanded that freedoms be enacted as were promised to that generation.

Every day was a major protest. Tens of thousands of people erupted in the streets during the time the Olympics were coming to South Korea. You could feel change in the air.

During this time, I would have lots of conversations with every women I came across during those days. Unlike the other GIs who were conversing with the women for sexual favors, I was more interested in their lives and what they were hoping to do with them. For the most part, there wasn't a lot of hope, other than an occasional hope that someone might marry a GI and end up in a better life back in the states, which was often more fantasy than reality because GIs didn't historically do a very good job of providing for better lives for their Korean brides once they got them home. During this time, there seemed to be a sense of hopelessness, almost as if there was really nothing that could be done, so the people were doing what they could to make the best of difficult circumstances. I remember leaving South Korea in a bit of a depression because no one seemed to see a brighter future, and no one certainly was all that happy about that particular present.

Now fast forward 20 years, and it's like the entire population has changed. People are going on with their lives, and the society is actually flourishing in many great ways. This country went from being a reactive entity to being a country that is one of the major economic forces in Asia. And the women? I see many of them engaging in the big decisions of every day life, although there is still a major thread of male dominance in the system that may or may not ever be overcome.

But for now, it is so much nicer to interact for a few friendly seconds with a young girl who is thinking about hooking up with her friends to go shopping than it ever was to try to have a conversation with a young woman who has been dirtied by the whole sex industry that ruined so many previous lives. While I'm sure there's still a bit of a footprint of the old ways around some of the military posts, I would like to think that overall things are so much better for the prospects of the women of Korea.

Musings on my first days in Seoul, South Korea

2008-10-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

Day 1: As I stepped off the airplane with my native guide Mubutoo, I watched these very interesting people who call themselves "Ko-ree-yans" mingle around me in curiosity. Having met them for the first time, I can only assume their reactions to me happen to be curiosity, but what else can you describe about a people who appear to be pretending to ignore me completely as they talk on these mobile transmitter devices to each other, obviously not wanting to make eye contact. I attempted to engage in direct eye contact, but these wily people were quite capable of squirming their way around me, and if accidentally they did make eye contact, a quick "ring tone (a term the natives have used" of Circle Circle Dot Dot allowed them to break that eye contact and pretend that we never made contact in the first place.

I realize that it may be difficult to integrate myself into the affairs of the native population as I attempt to study them for the posterity of future analysis.

Day 2: After Mubutoo prepared my breakfast feast, I decided to venture into this wilderness the natives call "Seoul", which I believe was named after the god Seoul, which must be a great deity of South Korean prominence. I also find myself musing on the fact that the people seem so inclined to call themselves the "south" yet I have yet to see southern influences, such as Georgian hairstyles or breakfast items that resemble grits or items that can be found on the bargain menu of the Waffle House. No, they appear to desire to call themselves the "south" for reasons that escape me, yet I find that it is one of those exotic puzzles to which I find myself absorbed and enthralled during my adventure.

As I walked down the streets of this strange village with bizarre writing, I often find myself staring at this writing and wonder if it actually has meaning, or if it is just random scribbles that the naive natives have put up to indicate a possible language to the outsiders who might visit. My attempts to find a translator of these bizarre symbols has been thwarted at every attempt, and even Mubutoo's vast knowledge of many languages, which include English, American, Southern American, Valley Girl and Brooklyn accent, has not managed to help break through the confusion of this scribbly-like language.

As I turned the corner, I saw what appeared to be a restaurant with some type of religious reference to it. I should point out that I have begun to suspect that all of the writing that I have seen is religious in origin, indicating that every store and restaurant must be controlled by the clergy of this foreign land. This establishment, however, appeared much more prominent than others, and it was adorned with a sign that resembled a large golden M. I could only imagine its significance to the daily life of these people, but I went inside, and I conversed with the young females who stood behind what appeared to be a large counter with an ancient adding machine. The young girl said something in her strange language, to which I did not understand. Mubutoo attempted to speak Valley Girl to her, as she was holding a similar cell phone-looking item in her hands and giggling into it before we approached her position. But she was not intelligent enough to understand the brilliant Mubutoo.

Then she pointed at a picture of what appeared to be food. I nodded yes, and discovered that a nod was the universal acknowledgement of "yes, I'll take the Big Mac on the picture up there". She then revealed that the compensation for this food item would be a certain amount of local currency. Having no bones upon my being nor golden nuggets to exchange, Mubutoo stepped forward and gave several pieces of paper with numbers on them to this young woman, and then we were presented with an appropriate exchange of food.

The many people in the M restaurant stared at us with curiosity. It was obvious that they were interested if the rumors were true of our enhanced manhood, and while it was probably inappropriate, I showed them all that the rumors were in fact true. In awe, none of the people in the M restaurant continued staring at us anymore. Their fear was understandable.

Day 3: My next jaunt through the mystic land of Seoul was to find me in yet another local establishment that I had to experience, just to be able to tell my breathren of such findings. This place actually had what the natives call "Romanji" writing, which I have come to believe means English writing. The Romanji spelled out a nonsensical word called "Starbucks". Mubutoo and I went into this shop and discovered that a great deal of gods are worshipped here and represented by different styles of drinks. I could not read what the different drinks were, but wanting to honor one of these gods, I pointed at the board and ordered one of those drinks. Surprisingly, my drink tasted much like a vanilla bean frappucino with carmel flavoring. I wondered what god I was praising my drinking of this particular drink.

Upon returning home, I felt that I have uncovered many parts of this new land that future explorers can only possibly try to rival. And my adventure is far from finished. Tomorrow, Mubutoo and I intend to explore two native locations we have heard great things of. One is called "The Pizza Hut", and the other is called "Subway". For those wishing to embark on such great adventures, it is important to leave your old ways behind and do what is called going completely native, as I have done. Otherwise, you never learn anything about your new surroundings.

Leaving Thursday for Korea

2008-10-07T23:39:00.000-07:00

While I'm overjoyed to finally have a day when I'm leaving, it came as a bit of a surprise that that day was going to be in a few days rather than something more like a week. I've been going crazy trying to finish off everything I have to do, but for the most part, my apartment is the hardest part because I just have way, way too much stuff, and I just don't seem to have the time it takes to get this stuff packed up or taken care of in some way.

There is so much I really feel I have to do, but there's an inner part of me that just wants to say screw it and leave everything, starting off in Korea with absolutely nothing from before. Great fantasy, but that leaves a lot of stuff here that won't be taken care of. Can't really do that, as much as I'd like to do that.

I leave early Thursday afternoon, but I intend to be at the airport waiting for a long time because I'm not going to jeopardize this adventure by being late for my flight, like had happened with the flight to Michigan where I was pretty much guaranteed a job at Hillsdale College when missing my flight screwed up my future job. I was so pissed when that happened, and I so did not want that to happen,

So, I really don't know how Korea is going to be, but I want to make the best of it. That's really all I can do. I want to do well. I want to come away from the experience feeling that I did something constructive. I haven't been all that constructive over the last decade or so. This is my chance to feel like I'm putting myself back on the right track again. So I have to do my best at making that happen.

Well, that's all for now. I will have access to a US phone number for the time being, although it will not be my cell phone. So, if you want to leave me a message (not sure when I'll actually have a phone hooked up to it, but I can still get messages through another means), my contact after Thursday will be 415-513-5471.

Review: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

2008-10-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

For those of you like me who have grown tired of World of Warcraft (WoW), a new game came along called Warhammer Online. Now, like WoW, this is one of those games where you benefit from knowing a bit of the backstory before actually playing the game. With WoW, I was not a big fan of the real time strategy games, Warcraft, so I went into that game knowing very little of the backstory world. Eventually, I kind of caught up with it as I played the game for the year or years I was playing. But still, there was a lot of the history that made little sense to me, and it just wasn't worth figuring out.

The same thing happens with Warhammer. There's a huge backstory in this game, which you probably understand if you were enamored by the many Warhammer real time strategy games, but I never was, so again, I find myself wondering why I care about this or that particular part of the story. That's a criticism for those who aren't part of the mythology of a game, and unfortunately, they don't seem to care. For that matter, I am looking forward to Star Trek Online and Stargate Online, mainly because I love those particular mythological stories, but I guess that's what makes the fanbois happy with the game I'm discussing now.

First off, installing it kind of sucked. I've not been a real fan of Electronic Arts lately, even though I once worked for them. They seem to be forcing people to have the best equipment to install certain games, and many people have been stuck in the inability to install this game because it does not recognize older dvd rom drives. I had to go out and buy a new dvd rom drive to install this (well, got it for more reasons than that), but many other people have been extremely frustrated and have never gotten past the installation.

Game play: The game is designed to be much like Dark Age of Camelots realm warfare. At the same time, it steals directly from WoW in that it makes your character "flagged" when you do something realm versus realm (rvr) like. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of functions in the game that just remind you of WoW, but that's the problem with most of the games these days. Nothing really seems all that original.

So, this gives you a lot of opportunities to fight other players from the other realm. That can be fun and fast paced, but eventually it becomes an e-penis battle of proving who has the better character than others, with lots of bragging rights for killing lots of people from the other realm. That gets old really fast.

There is a player versus environment (pve) functionality to the game as well where you don't have to fight other players, but the environment is extremely under-developed. If you focused on just the pve environment, the leveling takes forever, and it's really not all that much fun. You go to an area, kill enemy non player characters (npcs) controlled by the computer, and maybe run what we in the gaming industry like to call "fedex" missions, where an npc tells you to deliver a book or some other stupid item to some other npc in the game. There's not a lot of intelligence developed into the pve environment of the game, so if someone comes to this game expecting that type of environment which is massively superior in Everquest 2 or World of Warcraft, you're not going to find it here.

Technical Issues: This is why I decided not to continue to play. The game is massively flawed tech wise. I lost count of how many times I flew to the main capital city, only to have the computer crash to the desktop. There is crafting in the game, but it was like the computer programmer who worked on crafting was a 12 year old English Second Language student because none of the wording makes logical sense. If this was a port from Russia, like a great game called Space Rangers 2, I would understand the bad language translations, but this is a company that speaks English, so I have no idea what their problem is.

Customer Service: Non existent. Simple as that. I joined a guild with friends and I couldn't be promoted in the guild because there was a technical problem with the game. None of the officers could promote me at all. Sent in a customer service report in game and waited, and waited, and waited. Sent one outside of game. And waited, and waited, and waited. They never responded. That kind of customer service leads to people leaving the game. Simple as that. There are also really annoying gold spammers in the game (people who mass send messages to everyone in the game that they are selling gold). The /ignore function in the game doesn't work. The spammers send messages right through the /ignore function, almost as if there was no ignore function. Customer service: doesn't care.

My overall conclusion of the game is that it could have been a really good game if it would have really tried to balance a pvp/pve game, but it didn't really try to do that. It's mainly a pvp game with no real goal in the end, unless the idea of sacking an enemy's city is to be considered "end content". It also appears to have been released WAY too early. There are so many glitches and bugs in this game, and no one seems to care. After awhile, you try to ignore those errors, but it does become massively frustrating, to the point where you start debate whether or not to continue playing.

On a scale of 0 to 10, I give Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning: 5. It's not a horrible game, but if I'm paying $15/month, it needs to be a lot better.

Speaking of hypocrisy

2008-09-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone has caught these obnoxious commercials Comcast has been running. The gist of their commercials is that their broadband is being made lightning fast with some special chemical they're adding to it (some fantasy they've created that they're somehow speeding up the Internet). Then they turn around and ban you if you actually use their broadband a lot. They tend not to mention that last part. In other words, if their ad was true: They offer great, fast service that you'll be banned from using if you ever take advantage of it.