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.