I hate Lost

I think it's official. I'm done with Lost. This season started great, but since has seemed dull and slow and like a pale xerox of itself. Season 2 was much better than this. This season blows. And while we're at it, Veronica Mars is sucking this season as well. Let's hope when I get to Battlestar's season 3 it won't be dull as well.

Retards on Film!

So coming back from our Avalon work hike we had the displeasure to sit through a Korean film about a retarded man running a marathon. Worst retard ever. Flailing arms, food on his face, all in an attempt to win an Oscar. Terrible and boring. Nothing to even make fun of.

Iron Man's a Republican!

So I'm heavily into the Marvel Civil War series, which pits superhero against superhero over the superhero registration act. The act forces heroes to sign up or be criminalized. Iron Man is all for registration. He's also the former Secretary of Defense for Bush. So he is obviously a Republican. On the other side is Captain America, who appears to be a proud Democrat. Fuck yeah.

My cat!

My hairy crazy cat. This is how he should always look. Not going batshit crazy running the length of my room like his tail's on fire.

I had a good shit! Welcome!

Podcasttastic!

I'm hooked on my Air America podcasts. My Al, Sam and Randi daily fixes keep me going. Sad, really, but it's like being home without really being there. And that's good.

Nothing to see here

Just indulging in a day off with absolutely nothing to do. I've barely left my apartment and watched a ton of TV on DVD. Battlestar Galactica, 24, some Law and Order eps, even Numbers, which I kind of like now. I'm working on getting through the full run of BSG so I can finally start on season 3, which is waiting for me even now...

Christopher Pike. Captain of the Enterprise!

Kick ass book.

CSI DAY

It's Sunday and another 24 hour CSI marathon here on OCN in Korea. Fuck I can't look away.

Non Update Update

I don't update. I'm boring.

Work.

Where I work obviously.

Not. Working.

This is what I do when at work. Sit here and play on the computer, dicking around on the net. It's also apparently what everyone else does when at work too. What a surprise. My new position afford me plenty of sitting around time, but not so much surfing time. I don't have a private office, so whatever I do online is easily observed.

Livin' Long!

Nerd Heaven. I'm geeking out just thinking we'll see TOS on the big screen. After nearly forty years, the mini skirts and bright primary colors will grace cinemas. This is no TMP revision of the look. This is old-school Trek. And a product of J.J. Excellent.

The women of Firefly/Serenity. Nice.

Deadwood

I've been on a Deadwood kick for the last few days. And damn I'm either retarded or getting old, but I understand only about half of what's going on. About the only word I ever understand on that show is cocksucker. It's like Shakespeare. Beautiful language that just beats around the fucking point. Still watching it though.

Pretty Fucking Hot, eh?

Yep. It's summer. It's hot. I sweat. What a lovely season. The one in which my head burns and my pasty skin gets nice and red. I just love it. Along with all those great outdoor sports I'm such a big fan of. I just love being outside. Swimming. Yeah, fuck yeah. Get me in the water and watch me drown.
I can not wait for this season to be over. Thank whatever God you worship for air conditioning.

promoted!

I got a new job. Actually, a nice fat promotion. I am now the head teacher at one of our junior campuses. Starting on Monday I'm in charge of the Imae campus. Just for the foreign teachers, but still it's a nice little bump in money and responsibility. So I can be the foreigner wrangler, making sure everyone does their shit and doesn't take sick days so they can go to Cambodia a day earlier. Should be an adventure.

Asshat!

settle down?

I saw a headline on MSN telling women how to find out if "he is ready to settle down." Settle down? What and have a job, kids, mortgages and responsibilities? Be tied to people and debt and never able to just leave it all and go wherever? Fuck that. I already know and I'm sure most of you realize that I won't settle down. Ever. No buying a house for me. No property or fancy new cars. I hate debt. I hate strings and I especially despise the idea of knowing that what I am doing now is what I will be doing forever. That this is it, I'm done. To hell with that. We live to 80,90. Why settle down and grow old at 20 or 30? You go from being a child and living with your parents right into starting your own colony of progeny? No way. Live a little. Be free, move, go places. Too many people I know are stuck in jobs with bills and homes and other things locking them in place. They can't afford to up and leave and jet to India or even leave their city of a new one. They have no real freedom. And they may like it this way, but deep down we all want to be able to whatever we want. Maybe that's why I don't even pay my own rent or have anything major in my name. All I own is portable. All my links tenuous at best. I can move at a moments notice and all I need is my Internet connection to get me through the day.

Coming November of this year. It will kick ass. I hope.

Vulcan logic.

What the hell is wrong with air conditioning?

Korea's hot, really hot. Not desert hot, but rain forest hot. Humidity rests at about 50% constantly and it rains because it's monsoon season. So, I consider it too fucking hot to work. So we turn on the aircon as the Koreans call it. Yet, there must be something wrong with all these Koreans. They constantly complain that it's too cold. Too cold? I turned it to 60 degrees. Fucking hell man. I'm sweating like a pig, the classrooms have no circulation and I'm getting punchy in class, so I'm sure as shit going to turn on some air to circulate around the fucking room.
I never get complaints. Yet, yesterday I got one for it being too cold in the classroom. What the fuck? This is not a little kid who can't speak English. No, this is one of my highest level students who doesn't tell me this himself. No, he has his mommy call and let me know. So what should I do? Not turn on the AC? Then what if every other kid complains that it's too hot? There's no way I'm going to cater to this one kid. Sorry, it's summer and we have AC. Get used to it. Fifteen other kids in the class trump one kid's discomfort. And besides, it's always the kid in tank top and shorts, sitting right next to the AC who complains. Of course it's too cold. You're sitting in it asshat.

Nothing to say...

Except summer sucks. It's too hot and I burn my head here. Oh and I read a blog by some dick who works in Korea and seems to think it's the third world. Asshole. I say if it sucks that bad and you have such disdaine for the people and those who work here, then you can kindly fuck off. Anyway, I got to work, work and work. Then work some more. We're heading into speaking test time at work and the session's a third done. But there is the fun of intensives to look forward to. Oh joy. Long ass days. There better be overtime.

This is the reason to watch Superman 3.

That and Richard Pryor's hacking and cracking skills. Who knew you could become a computer genius in a week! Plus, once you do embezzle thousands, try to kill Superman and engage in a plot for world domination, there's no consequences.....you get totally off. Excellent!

Superman Flies!

It's a good, solid film that perhaps spends too much time paying homage to the better aspects of thos that came before and too little time on new material, but after nineteen years it's a great start to a new franchise. Hopefully they'll make a great sequel with better pacing. But now I can easily say that the new Man of Steel was a great choice.

Our Hero. 

It's a bird? A plane? Aw, shit it's Superman!

I'm a much bigger fan of Batman or the X-Men than I am of Superman, but I can't help but feel excited by the new Superman film. Maybe it will be the superhero film of the summer and sooth the bad memories of The Last Stand. Now that it's only two days away I'm getting all excited for the film. Listened to the score, downloaded some wallpapers and checked the Superman sites again. No matter what, there's no way it could be as bad as the last two in the series.

Top Ten Movies

Here are my favorite ten films as of today. I know I'll be forgetting quite a few.

Swingers

The Godfather Part II

Lost in Translation

Sideways

LA Confidential

Star Trek The Wrath of Khan

Moulin Rouge

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Midnight Cowboy

Bitter Moon

Hard to make a list like this, but here it is.

Capote!

Go watch Capote. Absolutely brilliant film with an even more brilliant performance from Hoffman. This movie kicks ass and makes me want to read In Cold Blood again. Damn fine film.

Top Ten

Something a little different to kill the time and fill a post, a top ten list. Thought it would be nice to think of my ten favorite (at the moment) books. In no real order:

Memoirs of a Geisha 8.5/10

Shibumi 8/10

Catcher in the Rye 10/10

Norwegian Wood 10/10

Post Office 8/10

Middlesex 8.5/10

The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay 10/10

The Tortilla Curtain 9/10

Shanghai Baby 8/10

You Only Live Twice 9/10

Hopefully I haven't left anything really good out. Of course I could add everything by any of these authors.

World Cup

It's here again and America doesn't care. All I know is the US lost its first game and Korea won its first. No surprise this place is going nuts. Red, red everywhere. We even had a little World Cup party after work to watch the game. Free food, free beer and a good way to kiss up to the bosses.

Yeah, I took a stand and well.....it's pretty mediocre. Oddly I don't blame Ratner. I blame the lame ass script and the need to either kill off or neuter every character in an arbitrary need to end the "trilogy." Why? You can make a dozen of these fucking movies. Oh, but we need a Wolverine movie....yeah, jut just do both. Works for Marvel. 

Random Update!

Hmmmm....not much to say really. Been back a week now since my week long trip to the states. Saw some people, did some things, didn't see some people. All very quick and very busy. So if I didn't get in touch with you, then I'm sorry, but there was no way I could go everywhere I wanted in so little time. Maybe the next time I'll plan it further ahead of time and get to see some of you. Don't forget that everyone knows where I am and can always get in touch with me here.
So, what else to say? Well, my brother and his soon to be wife are expecting a kid. So I'll be an uncle soon. Fucking crazy. My mom's moved into her own place and is having her own little golden girls lifestyle and I find that I have no place back there at all. So in that respect I'm glad I didn't stay with them any longer. I'm just a house guest with no life back there anymore. Here we started the new session at work. I missed some changes while gone and now we've got more new people and new classes and lots of crazy shit going on. I got moved over to the new(old) building and get the quiet office, but have to go back and forth constantly. Supposedly I have more responsibility, but not as of yet. For now I get more breaks and less work. Pretty sweet. As of today I've been at Avalon a year and I can't believe it. I'll be here awhile. I have a computer at my desk to do real work now and I've had a little more contact with the hot hot hot counselor, Lena. Still not sure if I should bother doing anything about her, but huddling under an umbrella in the rain with her was fucking nice. We'll see.

Master Chief! 

DaVinci bores?

Apparently the DaVinci Code is boring shit. Hmmmmm...so that's what happens when a hack like Ron Howard turns one of the most popular books into a movie. Him and that great screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. Well, the book ain't no great shakes, but still it deserved real talent to make the film. And Tom Hanks? Wow Ron, know any other actors?

Bad ass Superman poster! 

Maggie Q! 

Mission Accomplished

Saw M:I 3 this weekend and must say it kicks some serious ass. Best of the three. Totally nonsensical, but that don't matter one bit. Abrams knocked it out of the park and I've got great hopes for what he does next. Highly recommend this film.

OT on DVD!!!!

What a week for us geeks. First the Casino Royale trailer is released, in English finally, and kicks ass, then the Superman Returns trailer kicks even more ass and now HELL HAS FROZEN OVER. George Lucas is releasing the unaltered original releases of the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD this September. You'll get the 2004 versions as well as the very first opening day versions. That means Star Wars with no Episode number and Han shooting first. Which is really the only change I want put back. Now the whiners can shut up and history will be happy. Thanks George for giving us the choice. I prefer the special editions, but man isn't it cool to have both. Just like I get choices with my Alien Quadrilogy. Ah, film.

360?

Well 360 was to trump PS3 in the numbers area and about the all around nature of their machine. Instead of 2 vs 3 why not 360 vs 3? Lame, but better than Nextbox. Wii is just not at all a game machine name.

Impossible Missions and Days Off...

Finally there will be a big, new movie to drag me out to the theater. For being such a movie fan, I've been rather fucking lazy and not interested in movies. Maybe I'm old, but my attention span's just not there, I've got too many distractions and too few big movies have hit the local theaters. Bootlegs require effort to buy and the last thing I saw in the theater was V For Vendetta. Now I get this Friday off for the simultaeneous holidays of Buddha's birthday and Children's day. And Mission: Impossible 3 is opening world wide. If I can dodge the crowds I'm there. J.J. Abrams appears to have done the job right this time, focusing on team and character. Hopefully this will sooth my recent distaste for Alias.

Shaken AND Stirred!

Monday mornings blow, however this morning brings me the sight of the first teaser trailer for Casino Royale straight from French TV. Quality's a little iffy and it's dubbed, but fuck if that don't look cool. Been too long since a Bond film. Glad this is on.

Wiik in review...

Well, busy day of posting. Last thing for this weekend is the new name of Nintendo's next next gen console: Wii. Formerly the Revolution, this console will somehow be totally compatible with everything from Nintendo's last twenty years of gaming. Oh, it also comes with a wacky remote that you swing like a sword. Double oh, it now has a fucked up gimmicky name: Wii. As in we. So far nothing of this system screams "buy me!" While the name alone won't turn me off, I just don't get why they need a new name. I remember the good old days: The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) were good solid gaming names. You knew what you got and the name carried even without the company's name in there. Then we got the Nintendo 64. Oooookay. 64 bit, great! Then the Gamecube cause it looked like a cube. I thought and hoped that it would stick, much as Microsoft has it's X-Box and X-Box 360, Sony has it's PlayStations 1,2 and 3, I wanted Nintendo to continue it's cube line. Why not? Box, Station, Cube. That's what they are. A place for games. Not trendy, obscure games. They didn't need a fucked up marketed name for the VCR or DVD player. Keep the name simple. This is all about the ipod. Trendy names for simple things. It's a fucking mp3 player. It's annoying that I have to explain that mine is not an ipod because it's not by Apple. Where does Wii come in? It's cutesy and an obvious attempt to ummmmm...yeah, not sure what, but even Revolution was better...

Let the Wii jokes begin people.

I work with these tools? 

Alias sucks...

Hate to say it, since it was one of my favorites, but man has this show gone downhill. I'm waiting for the end, but man does it bore me to tears. Not even as good as the John Wells years on West Wing, this is a show that's really lost it. Actually does make me want to cry when I think how cool it once was. Rest in peace Alias, you'll be forgotten quickly.

Discovery this!

Since the local (cheap-ass) cable company decided to rearrange the channels, I have been without my AFN. That's the Armed Force Network to those in America. I'm not in the military of course, but it was nice to get the one American station overseas. They would take plenty from multiple networks and show one or two decent shows. Mostly I enjoyed it for the daily Judge Judy fix. Every weekday at 12:30. Fuck, I watched it at that time for four, five, six years. Now, it's gone. And instead of AFN I now find myself drawn to way too much Discovery channel. Fuck, I'm learning now. China's Mega Damn, Mythbusters, etc. Tons of pretty decent shit and always in English. Better than watching the same crap movies again and again on the local movie channels. Getting tired of Delta Force yet XTM?

Fucking sweet Casino Royale teaser poster right here folks... 

Weekend Warriors

Well, it is finally past us. The yearly Avalon retreat/workshop/mandatory socialization weekend. The time where all get together to pretend to work. The time when the bosses attempt to bring us all together as one, but in the most half assed forced way that actually backfires and reinforces the seperation between Korean teacher and foreign teacher.
As usual the biggest complaint is the total and utter lack of English for a so called English school. Don't get me wrong, I like it. Best school I've worked at. Still doesn't take away from the token whitie feeling. Imagine a million activities conducted in Korean in an attempt to forge teamwork bonds. All the while no attempt is made to even tell tyhe foreigners what the fuck is going on.
No wonder we have no spirit. They include us and yet don't include us. And that's the simplest thing to correct. I won't delve into cultural differences and who's better and who's worse, but man, at times like this you really can tell we come from very different cultures.
If team spirit and the cheer Fighting! could be bottled, you'd have a recipe for world domination. Oh, and by the way Korea, get a new fucking chant.
The weekend was a day of dull workshops, Korean seperated from foreign, a great night of booze and food and a way too early morning challenge course that just about had me shitting myself when I saw it.
Maybe under different circumstances it would have been fun, but the boot camp course from Full Metal Jacket is not my idea of fun. Throw on no try at telling me what to do and you get me pissing myself.
Thank the lord that I didn't have to do it. I'd include a pic, but imagine climbing fifty feet to jump on a bar and then drop by a harness, or climbing a rock wall, or a balance beam in mid air.
There's a reason I like the ground.
Overall it was an okay weekend. Longer than necessary and no one died. Let's just not do it again.

What I did this weekend......fun? 

Abrams does Trek!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Fuck yeah! J.J. Abrams has been hired to direct the next Star Trek flick. He's bringing along the usual Alias/Lost enturage. While I'm not stoked by the academy premise I do have high hopes for this film. New blood for sure. Just having a nice little geekasm.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider returns! Now available on every system under the sun. Check out www.teamxbox.com 

Everybody's favorite limp wristed "shoot his friend in the face" VP. 

Monday morning madness...

Nothing much to say, except I'm fuck all tired and the week will be long. Oh and there's the amazingly craptacular retreat this weekend to look forward to. Avalon 2006: We win gold medals in the special olympics, but we're still fucking retarded. Be ready for hours and hours of workshop fun followed by scheduled fun time and an early bed hour. Eleven on a saturday night? Who the fuck thought that up? We normally work till ten and if we're drinking soju on a saturday no one will be in bed by then. But to top it off we're up at six for exercises and a challenge course. Fun fun!! What really makes it special for me is all the time we get to spend with the other campuses. Ah, yes the wunderkinds from Miguem. The campus that's run like a frat house. Good thing their enrollment's high, cause their teachers blow.

Pay Raise?

So, for any who read this and wonder why I don't just come back to America and get a real job, well my answer is hahahahahahha....no, seriously I just re-signed with my school and got a nice raise. So fuck working in America. Stick with Korea where the taxes are low and the Won's better than the Dollar. So don't ask when I'll be back, ask if I'll be back.

Hyori! 

For all who care, this is Seoul! 

Live!

I got a headset for Xbox live if anyone would care to know this. I only play on the weekends, but try to find me there sometimes. Halo 2 and maybe Burnout Revenge.

Singles Night at the Old Folks Home

Went out last night. Been awhile. Met Rebecca and Lyndsey and some other random Avalon people. Still don't like them. Somehow we ended up back in good old Itaewon, the asshole of Korea, if Korea had an asshole. The bar we met Rebecca at seemed a little odd. Took me a few minutes to realize that for once I was one of the younger ones there. It was like singles night at Shady Pines. What were all these grey haired swingers doing in Korea? Fuck if I know, but this is the only bar in the entire country who called last call at 1:30. Korea knows no such concept as last call. You go until you're done and then you go some more. Hell, I bet Rebecca is still there as I type. Nothing like the oldies to make you feel young again. But we had to leave and granny and gramps take their meds and be tucked into bed.

Video Games kill......?

It will always be fashionable for those who refuse to accept that we are an inherintly violent species to blame something else for our actions. We as a society refuse to take the blame ourselves. Instead we blame video games. When in fact violence directly inspired or enhanced by game playing plays no larger part than violence inspired by any other source, whether it's football fandom or religion. In fact, if we want something to blame our violent nature on, one need look no furthur than religion and all the actions carried out in its name day to day. Watch reports of suicide bombings and terrorists and jihadist. Religious extremes to be sure, but watch them and then tell me one murder by a mentally fucked up nineteen year old, who played GTA, but was already violently inclined is any worse than the violence filling the streets of Baghdad. Today the weak blame video games, whether statistics back them or not. Twenty years ago it was MTV. Before that rock music. Before that soemthing else. And tomorrow it will be something else. People have always been violent and always will be. To say games don't influence is wrong. But to say their influence is so big we must ban them is even worse. Why should one spoil it for the many? Why should the mental illness of one gamer cause the responsible ones to lose their source of entertainment? These murders were committed by people who were heading in this direction before they ever picked up a controller. To say it's the controller's fault is insulting to humanity. To think we have this higher intellect, this ability to think and yet we don't. We go for the easy answer, the quick fix and call it a day. That's slapping a band aid over a severed limb. The root of the problem goes far deeper than the fun of murdering pixilated prostitutes, it goes to something within us and that scares people.

Lost in Seoul

Okay, so I like Lost. Great mother fucking show. And on it there are two Korean characters who speak pretty much only Korean. So over here they like it just for that reason. One of the actors is pretty damn famous over here and has been in a shit load of movies. Anyway, I was in Kyobo bookstore yesterday and made my way to the DVD section. There right up front is the box set of Lost season 1. I already own it, so no need to buy, but right there on the cover is a little Korean note all about how Kim Yun Jin is on the show. She gets more attention than the guy who plays her husband, simply because he's just a Korean American guy and has never worked in Korea. The whole thing makes it look like she's the star, which is fine, but I notice that there is what appears to be her autograph on the package. Hmmm, her signature, the xoxo and her character's name. Nice. Printed or real? Well I check the next box back and it's got nothing. So I'm left thinking it was a real autograph and she just happened to stop by and sign it. Honestly that's really possible here. So should I have bought it? Maybe. But I'd much rather just meet her here and get an autograph first hand.
I just remember the time I saw Lt. Hip from The Man With the Golden Gun at Seoul immigration and think how easy it is to run into Korean celebs here. Not to brag, cause no one knows, but I used to frequent a gym where plenty of local TV types also worked out and have spotted actors on the street in my old Seoul neighborhood. For all the millions of people here, it's a small place...

Welcome to the year of the dog

Another year gone and another one about to suck. Though this new year's eve I did attempt to be social. It was hit and miss to be sure. Along with just about everyone I work with I went into the country....and by this I mean, we drove twenty minutes from the subway and stayed in a campground....meaning a bunch of cabins up the street. No rustic fun here. Running water, cell phone reception, taxis five minutes away and a Norae Bang right there for your singing needs. Korea is never very country. But anyway there was plenty of drinking, some roast pig, some singing and some new people met. Oh boy. New people. It was an adequate evening all around, but I think the one thing I've realized is that I'm old. And I would have been just fine home by myself with a beer and a movie waiting for bed. Not that I was miserable out there or anything. Just that being like that holds less and less appeal for me. Wild and crazy is getting old. Saturday there was no girl. Nor many options. Most there were either already taken or not even under consideration. When it comes down to the fat chick with "drunk" before her name, well then there are no choices...2006 has come in like a lamb, with no resolutions and no attempts to shake things up or start over. Let's just hope it's not worse than last year.