User:Informa3 blog 2006

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Andrew Rutherford's Web log - The location of my previous web log, now used for backup. This is now the 2006 blog my new blog is here User:Informa3 blog 2007

Notes from Incheon

Contents

[edit] Web log

Welcome to my world wide web log. This is a wikitext document that is best viewed with Mozilla Firefox.
 If you would like to contribute to the slight madness of the wiki please click here

I have decided to move this web log to here on my informationism.org site, because then I can edit it from anywhere easier, but I will keep the previous page as a backup.


[edit] Incheon Webcam

webcam.jpg

I set up this webcam looking out the apartment window. You might call it the Incheon pollution level monitor


[edit] 31/12/06 New Blog location

This is now the 2006 blog my new blog is here User:Informa3 blog 2007

[edit] 28/12/06 Me (with beard)

Image:외국인-1.jpg

[edit] 24/12/06 - The New Zealand 'hof'

The New Zealand brand

[edit] 20/12/06 - End of year tests

Above: Student bleeds on test

[edit] 19/12/06 - Teacher

Students: Teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher!

Me: Yes?

Student: What!

Me: [Continue]

Students: Teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher, teacher!

Me: Yes!?

Student: What! What!?

[edit] 18/12/06 - Seoul bands

I recorded a couple of bands in Seoul.

Have a look here:

http://www.informationism.org/video/club_drug_16th_dec/

[edit] 17/12/06 - Snow

I was in Seoul yesterday and it started snowing - heavily. So it's looking very 'Christmasy' here at the moment.

[edit] 15/12/06 Paper hats

I finally worked out a use for all the paper flyers that Iyah keeps sending me. (they send us double what we need)

[edit] 14/12/06 Now Incheon is famous for something!

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea has opened the world's largest garbage-fuelled power plant and expects to reduce its imports of heavy oil by 500,000 barrels a year as a result.

The 50-megawatt plant, designed to provide power to more than 180,000 households, began operating on Tuesday. It sits on a mammoth garbage dump in the city of Incheon west of Seoul, the ministry said in a statement.

For fuel, it uses only the methane gas naturally generated from the decomposing garbage on the site.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061213/sc_afp/skoreaenvironmentenergy_061213083922

[edit] 13/12/06 Interviewed by co-teacher

My co-teacher interviewed me on my new video camera: Watch it here:

http://www.informationism.org/postphilosophy/video/teacher_interview.MP4

[edit] 11/12/06 - Photo of me

I just found this bad photo of me on the Iyah site. It's from when I was at the company camp.

TV listings

This is for anyone who may not know that you can get the English TV listings in English on the internet here:

<a href="http://www.onmoviestyle.com/schedule/weekly/weekly_style.asp">Style weekly</a> <a href="http://www.onmoviestyle.com/schedule/weekly/weekly_ocn.asp">OCN weekly</a> <a href="http://www.onmoviestyle.com/schedule/daily/daily_ocn.asp">OCN daily</a> <a href="http://www.onmoviestyle.com/schedule/daily/daily_action.asp">Super action daily</a>

There's a little printer icon at the bottom of the page. When you click that it brings it up in English.

I hope this is of use to someone.

An Unlikely Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monkey_Tuesday&oldid=92254943

[edit] 8/12/06 - Weeks flying by

Wow, the weeks seem to just be flying by at the moment. Soon I'll be old! I'm thirty in January and I don't want to be.

[edit] 30/11/06 - Snow + Open class

Well, we got the first snow of the year today. I'm looking forward to going skiing in a month or so.

I also had my second day of open classes today. The only thing is, that I didn't understand that the 'open classes' aren't expected to be open classes at all - as in you're not supposed to do what you usually do, but rather put on a practised show involving students and English.

Basically they want me to spend time not teaching the students, in order that I can show them; me pretending to teach them.

The other thing was that I happened to be at the hardest part of the book, so I had to learn all these spelling rules to do with how to put 'ing' on a verb. Who would have thought that I would ever be teaching spelling? I can't even spell myself, although I'm probably better than I used to be. Actually I'm even learning about the English language even though I'm teaching Korean kids at an elementary level. I looked at a slightly more advanced grammar textbook today and I think if I had to consciously know all the rules in that I'd be struck dumb - I wouldn't know how to speak anymore.

[edit] 30/11/06 - The war they should have finished off before they did the next one

The Taliban once again control half of Afghanistan. The group's leaders have issued a new book of rules:

http://www.signandsight.com/features/1071.html - If you look at the things they ban you see the things they do

[edit] 28/11/06 - Robot guard

I've been meaning to say something about this for a while they've got a robot guard which they are going to put along the North Korean border. I can't see it all going horribly wrong. Here's the details:

South Korea's Intelligent Surveillance and Guard Robot is a robotic sentry gun designed to detect and if necessary fire upon intruders along the border with North Korea.

The Intelligent Surveillance and Guard Robot is the first fully robotic system to offer surveillance, tracking, firing and voice recognition built into the same device.

"Until now, technology allowed these robots to conduct monitoring function[s] only. But [now] our robots can detect suspicious moving objects, literally go after them, and can even fire at them," said Sang-Il Han, principal research engineer at Samsung Techwin. This robotic sentry gun is able to use voice recognition to check on answers to the "Who goes there?" query. If the intruder is unable to provide the necessary access code when at a distance of ten meters, the Intelligent Surveillance and Guard Robot can either sound an alarm, fire rubber bullets or make use of its K-3 machine gun.

Prototypes will be tested this year; deployment along the border could take place as early as late 2007.

And the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMkV8E2re9U

[edit] 27/11/06 - Encouragement

Saddam Hussain has death coming up, I am facing parents open day. Both of us need encouragement at this time

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-chait26nov26,0,536965.column?coll=la-opinion-center

[edit] 26/11/06 - Uses for English

Sometimes it seems like the only use for English among the kids I teach is to insult each other. It's acceptable to call someone a pig in Korea in reference to their weight and yet at the same time it is an insult. so students go "Teacher, teacher (student name) - pig" and then they indicate that I should throw that student out of the classroom window (I am on the second floor which is the the first floor in NZ terms, they don't have a ground floor here) They have now innovated to combine their two known insults in English into 'crazy pig'.

[edit] Korean magazines

The funny thing about Korean magazines is how everything on the cover will be completely in English, while in side the magazine there will be no English at all. that says alot about Korea. English is used to insult people or look sophisticated i.e more superior which is the same thing really.

[edit] 25/11/06 - I love this software!

This wiki software that is. I was working on http://www.Queenstown.net.nz the other day and found a new feature if you go to the discussion page and click the plus tab you can put in a comment without even having to do any wiki editing!

[edit] 21/11/06 Humidity

It's funny, they have these humidifiers everywhere in Korea, shooting of steam into the air like kettles. In New Zealand there's dehumidifyers

Go on, give yourself a scare read this:

Apocalypse Soon By Robert S. McNamara

[edit] 20/11/06 Koreans are so conservative

Koreans are so conservative. There's this Korean magazine for teaching English. And it had an article debating the pros and cons of whether people should be allowed to live together before marriage. I thought students could read the magazine to practice their English, but my co-teacher said that the Korean word for people living together before marriage was a bad word. It's basically like New Zealand in the fifties.

On another note, here's an interesting article about Afghanistan:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-hari6nov06,0,2531827.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

[edit] 19/11/06 Seoul to Incheon

There are a few ways to get between Seoul and Incheon. One is the bus, which take up to two hours depending on traffic conditions. Another is to take a taxi, which may take as little as 20 minutes, although this does depend on getting a maverick taxi driver who is prepared to dive at speeds of up to 180k along the motorway for no reason at all. We got a driver like that last night. It was like being in a video game except it was real.
Actually if you want some excitement in Korea, don't go to a theme park and ride the roller-coaster - do it for real. Flag down a taxi. Try to get one with lots of scrapes and dents on it. You could be in or a rip roaring time along city streets. Remember to fasten your seatbelt!

http://www.seoulstyle.com/bars-clubs/funky-funky-live-music-hongdae.htm

[edit] 17/11/06 webcam problems

Yesterday my webcam went funny and when I got home I realised that all the video on the computer had gone funny, so what I think has happened is that the chip that plays moving video has gone bad. That seems like the most likely explanation. The computer is wrecked anyway. I only keep it there because it can sit in a corner and work on high speed ethernet. Now it can't even do a webcam! So I'm going to update my webcam less often from Simona's computer. I can't even buy another computer because I just bought a video camera.

[edit] 14/11/06

I found out today that Mr Park lies in a different way than I thought. I thought he only lied to cover his tracks or for some kind of reason but as it turns out he just lies about banal and everyday things. When I first came to Korea he told me that he had lived in New Zealand for some number of months. When I asked him what made him come back he said that he realised that "Auckland was just like Incheon". Which seemed strange to me at the time. Today someone from the company came round and said that she had been to New Zealand. I said "Oh, the same as Mr Park" yes, but with one slight difference - Mr Park had never been.

[edit] 11/11/06 Pepero day

I just found out they have a festival of the date being all ones today. It's called Pepero day and was invented by Korean businessmen in order sell sticks of chocolate.

To truly get in to the spirit of Pepero day I suggest you listen to the Pepero day song:

http://www.pepero.co.kr/talk/fun/song.jsp

Happy Pepero day!

[edit] 10/11/06 - Juba

Amazingly it has now got to the point where one guy called 'Juba the Baghdad sniper' is more deadly to the Americans than the entire Iraqi army was during the the invasion of Iraq. Basically what happened is that all those years that they were flying over Iraq enforcing the no fly zone and bombing the odd thing here or there the Iraqis didn't like it, but there was nothing they could do about it but now it's the Americans that are hit out of nowhere and there's nothing they can do about it. The difference is that before the Iraqis couldn't engage because the Americans were at a distance then they came closer and made themselves an accessible target. At least the Americans have taught them something

"The insurgents have trained an elite brigade of snipers and perfected techniques to strike US forces. They learned their trade from a book, called The Ultimate Sniper by a retired US Marine sniper, named Major John Plaster." I'm sure he will be happy to know that his book has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S soldiers. Actually, they shouldn't be worried about him continuing his work in Baghdad - It's if they fly him over to Washington that it could get to be a problem.

Times online is great:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2442924,00.html
http://www.jubaonline.org/

[edit] 03/11/06 Another Option

If I get sick of teaching English I could do this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6067002.stm


Above, My bosses wedding.

[edit] 02/11/06 - Rubber, Eraser

In New Zealand a rubber is what you use to rub out pencil mistakes. In America this is called an eraser while a rubber is used to refer to a condom. It pays not to get these two confused in some contexts.

I found this amusing joke on Urbandictionary.com http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=kiwi

7. Kiwi

A person born in New Zealand, a small country made up of two islands below and to the right of Australia.

There is a historical rivalry between Australians (commonly called Aussies or, occasionally, wankers) and the Kiwis (mistakenly called sheep shaggers). Despite this, the two peoples have a strange habit of defending each other and feeling comforted by the others presence in countries outside their own.

A Kiwi and an Aussie are riding through the sheep country when they discover a sheep with its head stuck in a fence. The Kiwi gets off his horse, strides over to the sheep, shags it, and them gets back on his horse. He looks at the Aussie who is staring at him and says, "Sorry mate, do ya want a go too?" "Alright," says the Aussie and gets off his horse and walks over to the fence where the sheep is still stuck. After a pause, he looks back at the Kiwi and asks "Do I have to put my head in the fence?"

[edit] 01/11/06 - Videos from the camp

These were taken by a fellow English teacher on his cellphone.

[edit] 29/10/06 - The company 'camp'

I was at the company event over the weekend. It was both inspiring and tiring. The location was nice - some 'English town' south of Seoul. We had to do all these events such as football, tug of war and throwing stuff. There was a running race which I decided to try and win because there was a 200,000 won prize. I did infact win it which was surprising considering that I'm quite unfit and they had us go in groups because there were so many people. I was in the last group to leave and the first people probably had about a four minute start on us. The race was over four ks and was the hardest race of my life. I overtook the company president and maybe that's a no no in Korea. By the end I felt like I was dying. Then Mr Park came over and said something like "that race was for the computer teachers - you weren't supposed to win" but it put them in a difficult position and they ended up giving me the money but not the prize. That was pretty much the problem with the whole thing. We were told it was compulsory to attend but it was not 'for' us. Then it came time for our performance of Hey Ya by Outkast. A song which I learned inspite of the fact that it had a difficult structure and much of it was just talking over the beat. When we finally got up there the CD was somehow lost so we couldn't do it. I wasn't too worried about that because we had never practised it as a group.

[edit] 28/10/06

If you remember deep fried moro bars, then this one is more insane: deep fried coke

[edit] 26/10/06 - Inha University hospital

I live near a major hospital here and it's interesting to see the attitude of people to being sick here. You often see people in hospital pyjamas covering large distances. It's kind of like a 'sickness uniform' Not only that but you'll even have people with drips on a little trolley walking around and doing things. I once saw someone cruising into the entertainment district of Juan with one of those things - I couldn't believe it!

[edit] 25/10/06 - Incheon on CNN

CNN was reporting from Incheon port today about the ship 'interdiction' thing where they check North Korean ships for banded weapons. This is a threat to North Korea, not so much because they're carrying nuclear bombs around, but because of all the drug loads they carry. Be interesting to see what happens.

[edit] 24/10/06 - The craziest job add

The craziest job add I've ever seen:

Reverence as a minor diety on Peru's north coast...or follow the nancy-pansies to asia

Posted By: L&B Language School <lyb.teachers@gmail.com> Date: Saturday, 30 September 2006, at 7:22 a.m.

The bottle washer’s record:

Maybe you’re one of those people who really wanted to sell insurance, and that’s why you got your English degree. Or maybe you really were after those solid research skills that those essay writing assignments afforded you. Or was there another reason?

What if I told you that it was all true? The hunches, the rumours and aeonic whistling. These truly are the last days; the great evening of consciousness is upon us in 2012. The visitors are here. Don’t you want to be part of it?

Trans-Gaeic communication written backwards in the language of our oppressors.

Which side are you on?……..Do you know?

Here/s the deal:

Roof overhead Greenbacks in pocket. Public and private adulation. More bragging rights than you can point a bone at.

…but I had you at life insurance didn’t I? Besides the great god squishy has already told me that you would work for me, so if you make him a liar I’ll have no choice but to hex you like a midget with a bad case of the sniffles.

Brandon Reece Chief Bottle Washer L&B Language School lyb.teachers@gmail.com Av.G. 65 Talara, Peru

http://www.eslcafe.com/joblist/index.cgi?read=12897

Dave's ESL Cafe International Job Board is maintained by Dave Sperling with WebBBS 4.33. Travel/Teach English: Global TESOL College™

[edit] 24/10/06 - Possible hope of change in North Korea

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2415492,00.html

If you want to be disturbed read this:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2404345,00.html

[edit] 22/10/06 - End of crisis (hopefully)

I am hopeful that the North Korean Nuclear crisis is over. This is because it is believed that China has told North Korea that if they do any more Nuclear tests then they'll cut off the oil. It's possible that North Korea is so crazy that they'd just go ahead and do it anyway - but they'd pay for it.

No brace yourselves for the 'ship boarding crisis'. the US is currently tracking a North Korean ship and they may board it. The question is what the North Koreans will do about that.

The US recently tried to negotiate with insurgent groups in Iraq. These are the conditions set by insurgent groups in Iraq for the start of peace talks with the US: 

the return to service of Saddam's armed forces, the annulment of every law adopted since Saddam's ouster, the recognition of insurgent groups 
as the sole representatives of the Iraqi people and a timetable for a gradual, unconditional withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign troops in Iraq.

The negotiator described those as "very removed from reality."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061021/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_us_insurgents

[edit] 19/10/06 - Seoul, Rock and roll video

Here's some video I've uploaded onto the site from when I went to see the Cants at "Funky Funky" in Seoul

http://www.informationism.org/video/the_cants/Cants_two_songs.mov

And this is Sun Radio:

http://www.informationism.org/video/Sun_radio/sun_radio_2.mov
http://www.informationism.org/video/Sun_radio/sun_radio_3.mov Mona lisa

These may take a while to download.

cants2.JPEG Melbourne band The Cants

I just gleaned this piece of info from the Dave's ESL forums: 

Goose Goose sucks. Everyone who is anyone goes to "Rock Bar" now. 
Same street a little further down on the 3rd floor. (past the Chinese restaurant)

[edit] 18/10/06 - Who's fighting America's (next) war?

This is the conversation that one American English teacher had with the US army when he got back to the US:

Me: How did you guys know I was back?

SSG: We saw your arrival record from JFK.

Me: Why wasn't I called up earlier?

SSG:The call-up is sorta' like a lottery and your name and SSN came up for review by the IRR board. Also, with the way the war in Iraq is going and the possible war with North Korea, we need more people now than before.

Me: I was told I didn't have time remaining on my last contract, what's up?

SSG: True, you don't have time to serve in the Army. But you do have time remaining in Federal Service Time. As prescribed in your contract (and I read ALL my previous contracts and SHE WAS RIGHT!!!) you have to serve that time in either active or reserve duty as needed by the army. After 9/11, The president authorized the regular call-up of inactive members of the military on a regular basis to supplement the forces already deployed.

Me: What made me stand out more than other IRR members?

SSG: I don't want to lie to you. We know you spent the past 6 years in Korea and know you have knowledge of the language. Again, with the way things are now with North Korea going nuclear, you are deemed valuable to any action the US might take in the next 180 days.

Me: What will happen?

SSG:Thats way above mine and your pay-grade.

Also, she went into some detail about some of the charity work I did in China and some of the contacts I had there (I am so surprised that the government knew SO MUCH!!!) that made me very valuable....

So, I am waiting to see if the balloon goes up....either way, I'll be on my way back to Korea....

[edit] 17/10/06 - Who's fighting America's war?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061016/us_nm/usa_immigration_military_dc

Here's an interesting site. It allows you to show the effect of a nuclear bomb on a US city. The smallest one is the size o the nuke that North Korea blew up. http://www.fas.org/main/content.jsp?formAction=297&contentId=367

Here's for the fallout:

http://www.fas.org/main/content.jsp?formAction=297&contentId=426

Then I wanted to be scared so I read this:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/oplan-5027.htm

Oh, in a language related thing I realised today that if you say you like an animal it depends whether you add an 's's or not whether you like to eat it or not as in "I like horse" or "I like horses".

[edit] 15/10/06 - Sanctions & rock and roll

The UN has put punishing sanctions on North Korea on top of the total trade ban independently put on by Japan. Australia is considering closing its ports to North Korean ships. It is effectively a blockade of North Korea as any country can now legally board North Korean ships to look for weapons of mass destruction. Not to mention a ban on North Korea importing luxury item. I can imagine North Korea will be like: "But solid gold pistols, are they really a luxury item? Doesn't everyone need them?
The thing is that this is a huge kick in the guts for North Korea, perhaps their biggest ever. The question is" "What are they going to do about it" I suppose we'll find out when someone first tries to board a North Korea ship. If the North Koreans shoot them dead then that probably means that they're not going to accept it. Even China is scared of the consequences of the resolution calling on countries to "exersise restrain" in enforcing it. I mean really, who votes for a UN resolution and then asks for restraint in it enforcement?

North Koreans on CNN

I laughed when CNN interviewed some North Koreans who said: "but those nuclear weapons are to be used against America - No other countries need to worry".


Rock and roll

I sacrificed my hearing on an alter of rock and roll last night watching a band called The Cants:

http://www.myspace.com/cantsmusic

And Sun Radio:

http://www.myspace.com/sunradio

As well as a bunch of other bands. Those are the two I would rate most highly though. Check them out!

[edit] 13/10/06 - The Wayback Machine

Have a look at this:

http://www.archive.org/index.php

Put in your favourite site, and see how the internet has changed over the years.

I tried it with http://www.glenorchy.net.nz, http://www.toylove.org and http://www.meansandends.com

It's like someone cares (tear)

[edit] 12/10/06 - What now

What I think I'll happen now is that North Korea will make greater and greater provocations until they get what they want which is money basically. North Korea is like a desperate person and "Seoul is like their hostage" as someone once put it on the Daves esl site. The only problem with that strategy is that the US doesn't intend to give in. The North can cause a great deal of damage to the South Korean economy to make up for the damage to their economy. They can do this simply by saying that the truce is no longer in effect and start skirmishing at the border. I would leave if that happened. We're a few steps off that though.

[edit] 11/10/06 - More Nuclear

I actually had something here but obviously forgot to save it, woops!

here's the image though:

Image:42180597 nuclear testing203x152.gif

[edit] 10/10/06 - Nuclear standoff

Since I live about thirty five km from the North Korean border the Nuclear test worries me quite a bit, but nowhere near as much as it did when I first heard about it. For a start I'm not so worried about the threat of the bomb itself. If North Korea launched a Nuclear attack on Seoul for instance the US response would be devastating and overwhelming. North Korea can already wipe out Seoul/Incheon with the 14,000 pieces of long range artillery that they've got along the border. They also have a huge arsenal of chemical weapons. What I think will happen now is that the US and Japan will go for a blockade of North Korea. Whether this actually works depends on what China does. North Korea cannot survive for long without aid from China. There is also the remote possibility that Japan may launch some kind of airstrikes on North Korea but they are prevented by their constitution from doing so.

At the moment it's simply a case of wait and see.


[edit] 09/10/06 (afternoon) - Nuclear test

I heard the News today oh boy, one great big hole in Gilju, Hamgyong province. So they went ahead and tested that thing. I thought they probably would. Now it remains to be seen what happens next.

[edit] 09/10/06 - back from Jeju

So, I've just come back from Jeju and Gwangju. It was a great holiday from Incheon and the stresses of school. We went down in the KTX train to Mokpo on Monday then took the ferry from there to Jeju-si stayed a couple of nights there then went to the other side of the Island and stayed one night. It really is a place in Korea well worth visiting. After crossing back across to Mokpo we took the train to Gwangju which is probably the friendliest place I've been in Korea, and then back to Seoul on Sunday night. Great!

In Other News

There is a situation at the moment which will turn into a crisis is North Korea goes through with their threat to test a Nuclear bomb. Whether they do or not depends mostly on the attitude of China to such a test. I think such a test is quite possible based on the information I have at this time. In the event of a test I would expect Japan and the US to take all possible measures against North Korea short of actual military action. For instance I would expect a Cuban missile crisis style blockade of North Korea. If this occurred the area would be on the edge of open warfare and I would consider leaving. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.


[edit] 01/10/06 Off to Jeju

Just a quick note to say that me and Simona are going away to Jeju tomorrow morning. Hopefully I will be able to report on our journey as it progresses.

[edit] 29/09/06 'Schdule' for October

Part of the the unexpectantly amusing 'Schdule' for October: 

Hello, Teachers!
How are you doing!
Hope everything goes well....

This is  OCTOBER's Schdule.

*21th of OCt:  Herdquarter meeting( All of the teachers should attend 
 themeeting)

[edit] 28/09/06 - Stop getting spam

I am constantly frustrated by people opening themselves up to spam and web attacks on the internet. This may be because they don't know how to prevent it. The best way to prevent yourself getting spam is to sign up to a web mail service like yahoo mail that filters spam, and then don't give your email address to anyone that you don't trust. This includes not posting it on the web especially in its raw form.

Also, don't use hotmail, as that is prime target for spammers who know that they can get a 'hit' off just about any combination e.g abc@hotmail.com is going to go to someone - poor them! It may seem that 'short is best' for mails as it is for web URLs, but infact having a long email address reduces the possibility that someone can use a random letter generator to generate your email address for spam lists.

The other thing is that anyone can go to google type in @hotmail.com and search. If you go to about page ten of the results then you find that it's just a whole lot of peoples email addresses same for @xtra.co.nz, you can start building your spam list now if you like! But it's worse than that, spammers can use automatic programs to simply trawl through the web and create a list with millions of addresses on it. To find out if you're part of such a list simply go to google, type in your email address and search. If it comes up you can be targeted.

So how to you get your email address out to people that you want to have it on the web? One way is to write your email address in plain English form so it can't be searched for in such a way e.g: example at yahoo dot com Unfortunately a web search for "at hotmail dot com" comes up with two million results, so while slightly safer, it isn't safe at all, not to mention that it may confuse some people. No, the best way is to have an image jpg of your address and provide a link to that. e.g:

rutan668.jpg

Which is displaying: http://www.postphilosophy.com/korea/rutan668.jpg

Thanks, I hope this message helps people avoid spam.

spam_set.jpg

Korean Shops offer a 'spam set' as a gift idea for your family at Chusok.

[edit] 27/09/06 Traditional Korean dance

Simona got free tickets to a Korean traditional dance show, and it was great! Especially the drumming which became quite intense. Also they had thse dancers in long skirts and they moved in such a way that it looked like they were moving round on wheels, such was the smoothness of their movement with no apparent leg movement. Later we went to a restaurant where a diner who spoke English told us that the restaurant specialised in the 'insides of pigs' and the we might not like it. Pig offel? Why ever not? We chose something else and were asked if we would like it hot or not so hot. I chose not so hot which meant that you actually could eat it, even though your mouth was on fire. I suppose with the normal you actually become incapacitated and a whole burns through your stomach.

[edit] 25/09/06

Great photos of North Korea

[edit] 24/09/06

Korea the 'just good enough' society. I've been reading this book called The Culture Code, which describes the cultural ideas of various societies in a brief phrase, and I believe that the code of Korea is 'just good enough' that is, everything has to do what you want it to do and nothing more. This applies to everything from architecture to food to clothing. It doesn't matter what it is if you state the criterion to a Korean and he'll say whether or not he can provide the good or service based on whether it is just good enough. In Japan 'it must be perfect' and in China the idea is 'we can do it' whether or not it can be done. But in Korea everything is 'just good enough'. That is why my building is considered a 'foreigner building' because it is more than just good enough - it has a high ceiling - crazy!

That's why you'll see these motorbikes that have been modified into little three wheeler trucks - because the original motorbike wasn't good enough anymore, but the modification made it 'just good enough'.

I went and bought some shoes the other day and asked the salesman where they were made. He said "A Korean goes to China with a sewing machine." This is because in Korea things from China aren't considered 'just good enough' unless there is some Korean involvement in them.

What about the code for New Zealand? I believe it is "me too" that is, like the old phrase "anything you can do I can do better" but without the "better". The thing that New Zealand most desperately wants is to be regarded as a western country at the same level as Australia, America, or the U.K. If New Zealand didn't think it could keep that up then the whole country would probably move out for one of those countries. This means that actually winning isn't so important as showing that you can do it at a world class level along with everyone else. For instance if the Americans found out that someone had got to the moon before them it would be a national disaster, whereas if New Zealanders found out that Hillary wasn't the first on Everest, that would be OK because it would still mean that we could do it too.

You can listen to the culture code interview: here

[edit] 17/09/06

Well, We finally had the party last night. A typhoon was predicted and I thought it might rain again, but stayed in the south of the country. So a few people showed up and we had a few drinks on the roof.

Today I decided to see if I could ride down to waterfront in area they're reclaiming for the new city near the port. We're about fifty meters from the water in our building but you never actually get to go down there because it's in a restricted security area.

Anyway, I rode towards the area they're reclaiming and eventually got to the 'end of the road' at the water where there was a fence topped with coils of barbed wire.

A thing I've noticed about Korea is that although there's no direct evidence of the Korean war from damage or structures etc there are odd little things like some older commercial buildings along where we live have these little concrete bunkers with a firing slot in them at the corners of the property. The other thing is that all round Korea they have these 'firing positions', usually along the sides of roads. They consist of sandbags or concrete blocks in a sort of U shape. You would think that this sort of thing would be relics of the past. but when I when down to the edge of the reclaimed area, along the waterfront, (as well as the fence) they had built these brand new bunkers, watchtowers, and firing positions. Basically they had invasion defences along the waterfront of what they want to be "The financial hub of east Asia". I wonder if they're expecting the invasion before or after the multinational corporations move in.

simona_fortress.jpg

See the small patch of bush behind Simona with a walkway to a watchtower coming out of it?

fortress.jpg

Close up we get to see that it's not so much a patch of bush but...

fortress_bunker.jpg

Invasion defences.

[edit] 13/09/06

I've been doing much stuff on the web, I set up a site for the band The Enemy on myspace and I'm thinking about moving this blog to my Informationism site so I can access it in more places, like at work. We're trying to hold the roof party again this weekend. Last time it was a disaster because it sort of was on and sort of not because of the dodgyness of the weather. The switch has been turned on the weather again here so you notice the coldness in the air again after a month or so of heat all though the night. I really love the weather thing. Actually the weather is way better here than anywhere I've been in New Zealand and it's so predictable here too! If only the air wasn't filled with industrial pollutants it'd be really great!


[edit] 05/09/06

I was going to say before that it doesn't look like we'll be going to China at Chusok when we get a week off. We might just stay round Seoul/Incheon and save money. The reason is that they don't have ferries going to China at Chusok because it's a public holiday. That's the problem - Every time there's a public holiday it's hard to go anywhere because:

a: Everyone is, and;

b: Not everything is running.

We could fly to China but it's expensive. I might go and do the DMZ tour and go to Suwon and things like that though.


[edit] 03/09/06

I feel like a spider has walked through some chemicals and then crawled down my throat and made a nest. I was in Itaewon last night talking to some people about the philosophy thing and we ended up staying quite a while and missed the last train home. So instead of doing something sensible like going to a motel near the station we went back to Itaewon and stayed in the worst place I've ever stayed in. It was so bad it was kind of interesting. The wallpaper which was peeling off was pasted on haphazardly OVER various fittings like the curtain rail, which meant that you couldn't close the curtain. In other places there were mysterious bulges in the walls where other things had been wallpapered over. I almost expected to see the outline of a body, maybe a deceased guest.

The reason for the chemical spider was that the bedding smelled of some kind of dry cleaning chemical (I presume) which seemed to leach into my skin making me feel poisoned and sickened by morning.

This place was up what's called 'Hooker hill', which as you can guess doesn't have the most luxurious accommodation or discerning clientele. We had to go there because the other place was full. There were hookers and nightclubs full of people when we went up there and I was quite surprised to see the same when we walked down - the party was still going at six in the morning when it was light!

The night that I was in Itaewon I ordered a 'Polish kraut dog' that's how bad Itaewon is.

News: They're recruiting a thousand English teachers for Seoul elementary and middle schools. Or should I say one thousand random people who happen to have a degree? Still, I don't know how Incheon will be able to keep any of their teachers. Who wouldn't rather be in Seoul? Still, that's not a big deal it really depends on where in Incheon or Seoul you are.


[edit] 29/8/06

So what's new? I had to name a child the other day, so I called him Bob. What else? Well, we're trying to start planning a trip to China during Chusok, which is the Korean Harvest Festival and is like Christmas and Easter all rolled into one. Apparently you don't want to be in Korea at Chusok because the whole country goes crazy because everyone has to visit their home town - And it's not Seoul, so it's transport chaos throughout the whole country. That's why I want to get a ferry to China..


[edit] 26/8/06

It's a party tonight. I expect people to start arriving in about half an hour. It was going to be a roof party but that is looking increasingly unlikely as it's just started raining. We were in Seoul earlier today and on the way back on the bus it started pouring but we've been spared - until now at least. The reason we were in Seoul was that we've joined the Korean film club there and were watching a movie that turned out to be pointless and dull. The only Korean movie I can truly recommend at this point is Old boy, although The King and the Clown isn't bad. Old boy may suffer a Hollywood remake soon, and the film we just watched is in production with Sandra Bullock and Keanau Reaves. I keep working and working on my Informationism site cos I need to get it into a state where people would want to go there. I got a boost when I found out how to have off site embedded images so go there and embed an image today!


[edit] 22/8/06

We're going out to the Korean film club tonight to see The King and the Clown which is one of the most popular Korean movies of all time. I've already seen Old boy which was great - Kind of like fightclub Korean style at least in feel, if not in topic. I recommend you see it if you can, although Korean movies might be hard to get hold of outside Korea.

Apparently about the wedding the couple have a small private 'Korean' wedding after the 'western' wedding.


[edit] 19/8/06

Bah. I'm a little hung over after going to the Goose Goose last night, which is the 'expat bar' in Bupyong. Then I wanted to go to my bosses wedding to see what it was like. It wasn't what I expected actually. It wasn't a traditional Korean wedding for a start. There were heaps of people noisily milling round while the wedding ceremony was taking place, and downstairs there was this massive hall downstairs with people eating while the wedding was on - which we were advised to do.

Then later I saw Mr Park and he pretty much comes up to me and says, Hello... So Andrew, when are you going to get married? I probably should have said that looking at the probable cost of the whole thing "When I'm rich".

For instance one of the things they do is to take the wedding pictures of the bride and groom before the wedding so the people can see them in a book at the wedding. The book looks like a professionally printed coffee table book.


[edit] 17/8/06

Another hot day in Incheon - Just like NZ Ha ha well that's not true. I hope you've been enjoying the videos - more to come! Simona is better now, and she's bought a new Canon Powershot 700 digital camera. I've been busy at work doing my English vocab and spelling list, which is based on the simple English word list on Wikipedia. I want to now produce a CD of English words for students to learn. My other main project has been setting up a wiki site called informationism.org This comes out of my frustration with certain elements of Wikipedia, so I said "I could start my own Wikipedia" - and now I have! The purpose of the site is to provide a place for creative collaboration. More on that later on.

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