Rather be ashes than dust

So I have been very interested in North Korea ever since I have moved to South Korea but now that has been greatly amplified by The Vice Guide to Travel: North Korea. Basically the Vice Broadcasting guys have a habit of going to places where most wouldn’t want to go. Anyways after watching these super interesting documentaries I think North Korea might be among the top places I want to go and see.

What I found most interesting about these videos is that they show just how much of a different world North Korea really has become. The main narrator describes North Korea as the land that time forgot, like walking into 1930s Stalinist Russia. As you will see in the videos, North Korea puts up a facade to impress their tourists which really just displays how eerie the Northern dictatorship really is; like the Potemkin Villages built for Empress Catherine II most of the tourist destinations are just empty husks of false luxury built to impress. In reality this is only effective in displaying the austere decadence of a country that continues to limp along because of the solidarity of their brainwashed masses and charity of the rest of the world meant to appease a dictator that threatens world peace.

Vice Guide to Travel: North Korea
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Having trouble embedding the videos into my wordpress blog, so just use the links above.

Just something I thought I would share about Tonic Water. This originally came up because I am a big fan of Gin and Tonics, but someone offhandedly told me that Tonic Water was originally an anti-malarial. As it turns out Tonic Water is an anti-malarial due to it’s contents of Quinine which is a prophylactic (something that doesn’t treat a disease but is intended to prevent it) against malaria. The content of Quinine is what gives Tonic Water its distinctive bitter taste. Originally there were medicinal levels of Quinine in Tonic Water but now those levels have been significantly reduced in order to make the drink more palatable; unless you live in the tropics where malaria is endemic you most likely won’t need medicinal levels (although quinine does treat night cramps).

Well since Tonic Water is a prophylactic against malaria it is probably a smart thing that the European occupying British colonial India were drinking the stuff because well lets face it Europeans get their asses handed to them by Malaria on it’s home turf. Although those Brits in colonial India found the damn stuff unpalatable because of the bitter taste so someone had a stroke of genius, add gin. Hence, Gin and Tonics were born in an effort to cover up the bitter taste. Guess that gives some honesty to that drinking salute “Here’s to my health” … if your drinking medicinal tonic water … somewhere tropical with malaria.

Some reference information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonic_water

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinine

Since I have been in Korea for about…340 or so days now, I have fallen into some routines. One particular routine is my walk from my apartment to the subway/work (they are in the same spot) that I repeat multiple times a day. I know it sounds mundane but I think it is something that I will most likely never forget.

So let’s begin with right after I lock my front door. I look left out the window at the end of the hallway to check the weather (i.e. rain, sun, etc…). Then I take the stairs, since I refuse to take an elevator for 3 floors. As I leave the stairwell I check to see if I have any new mail and then check out the massage chair store to see if the stoic lady who runs the shop to see if she registers me passing by; I walk by that shop everyday and I don’t think she has once looked up to see who is passing by her windows which always struck me as odd. Next, I take a left past the the LG shop and give a casual nod to the guys who have to stand outside and solicit business from the pedestrians, being the first of the many hellos or annyeong haseyos I deliver along my walk. There has been a few times when I changed this up in the case of the guy who really enthusiastically wanted to speak english every time I passed, or the girl who would never smile when I said hello so I slowly escalated the energy of my hellos till I made her smile finally crack.

After that, I pass by an art gallery that shows some absolutely exquisite art. This art gallery seems to have everything from traditional Korean art, to more European styles, then on to styles which are enjoyable but I lack the sophistication in my art knowledge to know how to articulately describe. There has been more times than I can count on both hands that the passing glance I give into the store has resulted in a momentary stall in proceeding to my destination to admire some new piece the gallery has moved in. That brings me to the last point about this gallery; it must be the most successful gallery in Busan by the rate it moves art through its doors. The art in the gallery seems to be rotated out weekly or at least biweekly, which just strikes me as an incredible pace for anything art related (I tend to think the world of art dealing is a slow, careful, and calculated sort of business and not something that would move that fast).

Next, I say hello to an older Korean man that I have dubbed the Happy Ajoshi (ajoshi being the Korean word for older man). This is a man that regardless of the day, weather, or fact that he works from well before sunrise to late after sunset 365 days a year running his little mart seems to be indelibly happy. It may be that he just enjoys his life in that mart that much or the fact that I have seen him cracking open the makkoli at 11am, but I am always thankful for that happy smiling old man face and his “bongawayo”s I receive from him everyday. Something about knowing that no matter what mood I am in when walking down the street I will at one point be greeted by his smiling face seems to always shine a little light on any gloom I’m feeling. On an interesting side note, I once had to go to his shop to by some garlic for some fettuccine alfredo I was making only to find myself stumbling out of his store an hour later after sharing two bottles of makkoli with him.

After parting ways with the Happy Ajoshi, I get to dish out my last regular annyeong haseyo of my normal walk. The last is an ajumma (Korean for older women) that makes these black bean paste filled pastries that are shaped like fish in a street vendor stall she sets up on the corner of an alleyway. She watches me walk back and forth on my walk sometimes up to 8 times a day depending on my days errands; always greeting me with a nod, a smile, or a simple hello in what must be one of the raspiest smokers voices I have ever heard. Sometimes I almost feel embarrassment at what she must be thinking because of how many times I walk by a day, at least it seems to give her a laugh.

The little things such as my walk to work or the subway and the many hellos I pass out to people I see or places that I look at that seem to be some of the most memorable. Slowly my little walk has become something that I look forward to almost everyday even though it is so mundane to think about. It is nice to find such a routine so enjoyable since I so regularly find routines to be tedious and mind numbing. Stole the idea for posting my morning walk from my buddy Heath.

Ok, this has been something of a pain in the ass, a thorn in my side, and almost on the verge of creating some nerd rage on my part. That is finding movies with Korean subtitles for my Korean friends (I can find movies with English easily but that does not mean that they necessarily have Korean subtitled version). The nerd rage began from the fact that Korea seems to do all of it’s web programming in only a Microsoft friendly programming format, which necessitates Internet Explorer to run properly. Which for me is an obscene pain in the ass since I own a Mac and absolutely abhor using Internet Explorer (come on the browser just down right sucks). So usually I had to use VMware or something to emulate a Microsoft environment to use websites such as Cyworld, my schools attendance program, or even to check for airline tickets…then came along Google Chrome for Mac (you rule Google).

Next, I am on to the real meat of this post movies with Korean subtitles on a Mac. My first struggle was finding a website that would supply accurate subtitle files for digital movie formats. So I have found a website that will do just that, but I must apologize the website is only in Korean. Still it’s easy just type the name of the movie into the search field, English is usually fine unless the title has been Koreanized as such movies like Lord of the Rings will be (I don’t remember what it is in Korean but if you ever try to cite the movie to Koreans your in for a couple of blank stares), then just hit enter to search. So here is a link to Cineast which will provide you with the subtitle SMI files.

Last piece of this puzzle was finding a movie player for my Mac that could support the Korean subtitle formats. This was the first time that my usually video viewing program VLC has ever failed me in supporting a movie file. VLC kicks ass in almost all aspects except surprisingly this one aspect. So tonight I have finally found a movie player that is Mac friendly and actually coded by Koreans which means the programmed it to easily support Korean subtitles right out of the box! After hours of struggling with VLC to get it not to display little boxes because it lacked the font files to support the text, I actually shouted out when I saw the Hangul feeding across the bottom of my screen! Anyways, enough suspense the name of the movie player is call Movist. The website is in Korean but just click the link on the left side of the page to download. Also I found a link to the Google code site for the Movist player, which means that it has English to make the Hangul impaired experience a little easier. Happy Subtitling!

This is why not to mess with old farmers in Nairobi. If this guy badass I don’t know who is!

Nairobi - A 73-year-old man used his bare hands to tear out the tongue of a leopard that attacked him in Kenya and killed it, a newspaper said on Wednesday of an incident confirmed by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

The 73-year-old Daniel M’Mburugu was working in his potato garden near Mount Kenya in the centre of the country when the animal, apparently aggressive, hurtled from nearby grass and charged towards him.

“It let out a blood-curdling snarl that made the birds stop chirping. I froze for some seconds, then it dawned on me that death was staring at me on the face,” he told the Standard Newspaper.

M’Mburugu, a peasant farmer, dropped the machete he was carrying and forced his hand into the leopard’s mouth, pulling out its tongue in an act of self-defence, according to the report in the daily.

“A voice, which must have been from God, whispered to me to drop the panga (machete) and thrust my hand into its wide open mouth, I obeyed,” he said, explaining that the leopard sank its teeth into his wrist, but would not let go.

As the struggle continued, M’Mburugu realised the animal’s “breathing was belaboured”, prompting him to keep pulling the tongue.

Villagers only responded when the animal lay dying and he gained instant status as a village hero, the paper said.

“Wardens said the leopard attacked the man because it was injured elsewhere. Wild animals are usually very aggressive and attack unprovoked when injured,” said KWS spokesperson Edward Indakwa.

“Nevertheless, he was lucky,” he added of the incident that occurred early this month.

Incidents of human-wildlife conflict in the east African nation are common, mostly near game parks and national reserves.

- AFP

Here is a link to the original article

Here is an awesome website with some great comics and some funny fact stuff

The Oatmeal a totally legit site

Some personal favorites  of mine from the site

1. Reasons to keep your Tyrannosaur off crack
2. Ways to prepare your pet for war
3. Things that bears love

Earlier this month a big event came to the beach near my house, the Gwangalli Fireworks Festival or in Korean 부산불꽃축제. I am fortunate enough to have an apartment building that is near proximity to the Gwangan beach with a nearly optimal view from the roof. The view could have been a little better if we demolished Hotel Homers and Hotel Aqua Palace, but that seemed to be a bit much just for a fireworks show. Not to mention I generally enjoy not being an international criminal for destruction of private properties in a foreign nation.

So naturally since my friends were aware of how close I live to the beach they took to liberty to plan being at my house before I announced that I was going to have a party. To paint them in the proper light though, they aren’t as indecent as that sounds, they waited for me to say it was a go until they made their plans…they were more just hoping (I did get cranky at Mina which was a mistake, 미안합니다 미나). I called the party on after some semi-sober rooftop inspections of the view with Mijin, noticing that it was not possible to lock the rooftop hatch for my building (the hatch cover isn’t even attacted to the building), and some temporary worries about the troll security guard that terrorize the foreign tenants of my complex. All that was left to do was to clean the apartment and wait for Saturday to roll around. Why is it that I also feel the compulsion to clean my apartment right before I have a house party that I know will result in my house being 10 times dirty than it was before I cleaned, just to have to clean it again…but I’ll save this for another time.

So the Saturday that the party was on was a normal Saturday on Gwangalli Beach until about 5pm, that’s when things changed. Literally looking out of my window I could see countless people jostling down the street with nearly ineffective traffic cops (dressed to the 9s in the most fancy traffic cop attire I have ever seen) attempting to control the herd. Then a little bit later the peoples started to arrive at my modestly small apartment with only two couches, two chairs, and my bed all in one room. As you can imagine my place rapidly ran out of room for people to sit which meant we went Korean style and sat on the floor. At some point there were upwards of 30 people in my studio apartment, just getting to the bathroom or the fridge meant hurdling multitudes of people while cautious trying not to step on hands or knock over drinks. Luckily, it wasn’t long before it was time to hit the roof for the big show.

So everyone made the trek up to the roof which involves a minorlly harrowing ladder climb to a very dangerous section of the roof top with a fifteen story drop. Also the fifteen story drop is only protected by a wall that is less effective as a protective barrier as it would be just ensuring someones death if they were ever to collide with it, because the wall is oh about 1.5 feet tall. Tall enough to ensure that if your leg should hit it that you would descend head first into the abyss on its far side. After dealing with that minor adrenaline rush it was off to join all my friends and Koreans from the building who congregated on the rooftop to enjoy the spectacle.

Calling this a spectacle is an understatement, I have never seen a fireworks show that could compare to the magnitude or quality that South Korea pulled off. First off the setting is phenomenal! The show takes place over the Gwangan bridge which is covered in lights that constantly change to different colors over time. The fireworks are shot from barges that are anchored in the middle of the bay which allows all the fireworks to reflect off the eerily still waters of the Gwangalli Bay almost doubling the effectiveness of the fireworks when viewed from a lofty vantage point such as the roof of my apartment building. The bay wasn’t the only natural landscape that added to the show, because I also particularly enjoyed how the mountains behind my apartment complex would reflect the percussive booms from the fireworks. All this coupled with the choreographing to music, the shear size, length, and unusual assortment of fireworks that were used definitely created a lasting memory of one the best fireworks shows I will ever see! By far the most impressive pyrotechnic delights I saw were the remote controlled flamming phoenix like fireworks that recalled memories of the Dragon firework from Lord of the Rings and the hanging lantern fireworks that would lazily drift through the sky for distended amounts of time.

The last memorable sight I saw was the flood of humanity that poured like a river down the streets in mass exodus from the beach after the show. I found out later the next week that there were an estimated 1.7 million people on the beach…1.7 MILLION!!!! That is such a crazy amount of people that it is almost unfathomable. Literally the streets were building to building, shoulder to shoulder, chest to back packed for over an hour in all directions. I have never seen so many people at once let alone attempting to vacate an area. Some of my friends and I just sat on that precarious fifteen story drop and watched people flow down the street like they were leaves in a rushing river. Very astounding but made me very glad that I wasn’t down there with the herd shoving along instead of sitting on my lofty perch looking down at so much activity. After that subsided it was down to the apartment for more partying then to go see Ben’s band One Drop East play.

Highlights

• Massive amount of good and fun peoples in my apartment partying
• Fantastic Fireworks show
• Not getting in trouble with my buildings management (and in effect my work)
• Mina doing semi-topless push-ups for breaking the rules of King’s Cup
• Seeing everyone have such a good time together…I love my friends!

There are loads more photos out there but I haven’t been able to collect them from friends yet so this may be updated from time to time. So if you are one of those friends with photos let me know so I can steal them from you!

Also this was Allie’s last night here in Korea for family reasons…we definitely miss her so…

“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
J. R. R. Tolkien

I recently just watched a very excellent movie called The Life of David Gale with Kevin Spacey. The movie revolves around a murder and questions about Capital Punishment. I do not want to ruin the movie but the movie inspired me to recall one of my favorite quotes from Tolkien (spoken through Gandalf the Grey) about taking a life as punishment for guilt. My mind recalled this quote by Tolkien when Kevin Spacey’s character said “…what do we really know about death? Just that nobody comes back.” Both quotes bring up the fact that causing death is an irredeemable act which no one can take back. Just thought it was some wonderful food for thought…

So recently another Western holiday came and passed here in Korea. This time it was one of my all time favorites, HALLOWEEN! Sadly this is not a much celebrated holiday here in the Land of Kimchi but for those that want to party we make due in our own fashion.

To start this years festivities I had to do something I have discovered that I absolutely dread, school parties. I now know why my teachers all my life were more happy just to hold regular class and dispense with the festivities, because they are fucking exhausting! Really just think about trying to entertain literally hundreds of children for 6 hours on end. It will destroy your will to live trying to contain children en mass with sugar highs bouncing off the walls like manic bouncy balls. This round I was doing some arts and crafts which was fun but man my fingers hurt from tearing paper for hours on end for pumpkin mosaics, but the mosaics turned out pretty good…made me feel some teacher-esque pride! After the shenanigans of Halloween festivals with the students it was off for a going away dinner for Mr. Jung with the coworkers. There will be way less flash, shiny suits, and all around Korean Popstarness at the front desk of KJC Namcheon with his abscence, but his replacement Mr. Ye seems like a pretty nice guy. The company dinner was super fun but I got a little too drunk and sadly Mattugi got food poisoning. Although a good thing that happened that night was some lingering issues got worked out with an old friend…this made me very happy!!!!

The next day, it was off to try to find a last moment Halloween costume. Luckily, Tyler Cerro gave me an idea which actually required me to be in my own natural element, a nerd! It was so easy for me to pull together since I readily have so many nerdy things at hand like Rubix Cube that I bought early in the week with Jake (alas not as a prop but just because I really wanted a Rubix Cube), a Tri-Force pendant, jubilees of pens, and finally an inextinguishable ability to chat about nerdy things like math, video games, philosophy, nerdy cult classics, computers, etc…. Last thing to pull it all together the very marvelous and wonderful YeYe helped me pick out some nerdy glasses and mat my hair down into a grotesque nerd style.

Then we were off to Kyungsung University Area for a pub crawl which took the work crawl too literally. Walking into any of the bars meant that you would be walking at a crawling pace. There were so many people in all the bars there was only real solution…The Apex! Also known as Family Mart, which I have written about before. Basically, the crew and I posted up there and we just let the fun come to us and it did especially due to Jake and Lauren’s ass exposing rendition of Adam and Eve. They have reached 15 minutes of fame as minor celebrities with the foreigners of Busan. I have overheard people saying things such as “did you see that guy in the green thong in KSU on Halloween?” “Yeah that was my boy Jake.” Jake’s costume I think was just to much for most of the Koreans walking by that had no idea it was Halloween, let alone that they would see a near naked man walking the streets! Anyways I think everyone had super fun playing dress up and having a good reason to celebrate on a Saturday night!