Farming Fail

WTF? I went to a replica Korean folk village just outside of Seoul last weekend and that’s where I found this doozy of a sign. I’m not exactly sure what this crop is, but I don’t I’ll be asking the farmer to find out. No sir.

Unconditional Love

Happy Friday. Have you hugged your cat today?

This is Awesome

I must have watched this magnificent short about seven times by now. It’s called “The Lost Tribes of New York” and it’s by Andy and Carolyn London. They took interviews from random New Yorkers and set their voices to inanimate objects. The outcome is straight whimsical. My favorites are the two news stand dudes.

Random Thing of The Day: The Philosiraptor

North Korea is Terrifying/Hilarious

Cracked.com has a nice rundown on why North Korea is the Funniest Evil Dictatorship ever. Did you know they have a website…and a fan club? Come on North Korea, you’re not gonna be scaring anyone with that (though the nuclear arms arsenal you’re stockpiling might do the trick). Here’s what the article says about their comically awful attempt at building a world-class hotel:

Unfortunately, like most virgins of things, North Korea went in only with knowledge they’d seen on TV, had to stop before the project was even close to finished and now just pretends it never happened. Breaking ground in 1987, the Ryugyong Hotel, at one point, would have been the tallest hotel in the world. There were going to be seven revolving restaurants at the top. Considering the quality of construction of the project, it seemed inevitable that at least one of them would go spinning off into the horizon like a Frisbee.

The North Koreans even put it on a postage stamp before it was finished. This made it even more uncomfortable when construction shut down in 1992, thought to be because the dissolved Soviet Union was no longer funding the project and huge errors in construction made it unsafe to stand within 10 blocks of the thing.

Give it a read and let the head scratching begin.

Link via Cracked.com

Is Conical Pizza Necessary?

I’ve been seeing these signs around Seosan lately advertising for cone pizza and I must say, I’m not happy about this recent geometric redesign of one of my favorite foods. Why do people feel they can mess with perfection? First someone went and made raspberries blue. Then they took breakfast cereals, subtracted the milk, and condensed all my favorite brands into disgusting bar formations. Now someone has the bright idea to take pizza, which for centuries, if not millenia, has always been round and flat (and delicious btw) and reformatted it to resemble some sort of Baskin & Robbins experiment gone horribly awry. Are people really getting that bored with pizza that they will only eat it if it’s presented to them in a cone? I think not. My message to marketers: please stop screwing with food fundementals. Raspberries should always be red, Cheerios should always be served in milk, and pizza should always be triangular. That’s just the way God wants it.

One Year Anniversary and New Adventures

So I’m a little late getting to this, but last Wednesday was my official one year anniversary here in Seosan, South Korea! My how time flies. There were certain points early on where I wasn’t sure if I’d make it through the whole year, but now, 365 and some odd days later, I know I made the right decision. Life out here is basically a paid vacation, and in fact, if it weren’t for friends and family back home, I probably would stay a lot longer. Which is why, I am, sort of.

I have extended my contract by six weeks, which pushes my departure date from Korea  back to May 3rd. Before I head back to the friendly confines of the Emerald City, however, I meeting up with two good friends I’ve made in Seosan to embark on an adventure of epic proportions.

The plan is as follows. Just before my contract in Korea expires, I will send pretty much all my belonging back home via cargo ship, and then head off to meet my friend John in Bristol, England. The only things I will take with me will be a bike and two 20 kilogram pannier bags filled with a change of clothes, camping gear, and my camera. After hanging out in Bristol for four days, John and I will catch a plane to Porto, Portugal where we’ll meet up with out friend Chett, a fellow teacher and all-around awesome dude.

In fact, this whole idea is his to begin with. After biking across Canada, Vietnam, and New Zealand, as well as walking from Mumbai to Goa, India, Chett decided that he’d like to cycle across Europe. His goal is to one day cycle around the world in little chunks, finishing up in Beijing. Why do such a thing? Because it’s there, and he can.  When he invited John and I to join along, we didn’t hesitate in answering yes. If Chett doesn’t continue teaching he should probably go into sales, because from the moment he pitched me his idea, I was hooked.

After we leave Porto, we’ll head Northeast and cross through to northern Spain, continue on through southern France, and then end up in Northern Italy. We’ll follow along various sections of the Eurovelo, a network of cycle-friendly roads which criss-cross Europe. It will be six weeks of cycling, camping, and just generally prolonging returning to the real world as long as possible. I should arrive home just in time for my sister’s wedding on June 21st.

So that’s the update for now. I’ve got a little less than six weeks to go here in Korea, and right now, I plan on enjoying every last minute of it.

Here’s a very rough view of what the route will look like:

P.S. If anyone knows a good bike shop in Seoul, please let me know.

Related Viewing: “Sheep Go To Heaven” – Cake, from the album Prolonging the Magic

End of an Era

Today brings sad sad news for the state of journalism – as if it needed any more – as the Seattle Post Intelligencer has officially shuttered its print edition to become a solely online entity. It is the largest paper in the United States to make such a transition.

As a kid I remember reading the P.I’s sports section with my dad, and fighting over the comic section with my sisters, who only got to after my mom had thoroughly dismantled the crossword puzzle. In high school I remember clipping pages from it to use for research projects and social study reports. As a journalism major at the University of Washington, I remember meeting many writers and editors who worked for the Seattle P.I. who were both passionate about their work and hopeful for the future of newspapers. I remember feeling intimidated by their writing ability and their vision, and also inspired by it.

As a teacher in Korea, I read the online version whenever I feel like I need a dose of home, something no print version could ever do anyways.

While this is no doubt a loss for Seattlelites and anyone who values sound journalism, I believe that solid writing and strong reporting can make an impact no matter how it comes across, be it in print, or floating around somewhere on the Internet. If it’s meaningful, relevant and well reported, people will find it, and people will find the P.I.

The P.I.’s Official Website

Also, check out this profile via the New York Times.

Happy Monday!

Mondays can sure be a drag, so here’s a little pick-me-up to help your week get off to a fantastic start. If this picture doesn’t cheer you up, even for a fraction of a second, please seek medical attention immeditely. More pics at cuteoverload.com

Hoop Dreams: Pick Up Basketball in Korea

Messed Around, Wound Up With A Triple Double

Now that the reasonably warm weather has returned to Seosan, I’m spending a lot more time partaking in one of my favorite pastimes: pickup basketball. This game has been with me since I was kid. With my house located directly across the street from a giant schoolyard blacktop with four full courts, perfect for the casual game of Horse or impromptu games of hoop. All you had to do was walk up, call next game, and wait for your turn. Games to eleven, winner stays, play by ones, win by two. Couldn’t be simpler.

If organized basketball is like a orchestrated concert with its complex trapping schemes and triangle offenses and various other forms of higher strategy, pickup basketball is the sporting equivalent of a basement jam session. It’s fluid, it’s fast, unrehearsed and unhinged.

Playing basketball in Korea, I’ve found that the numerous cultural differences I experience elsewhere in daily life seem to just fade away when on the court. That’s the beauty of sports. No matter where you go, the rules of the game are constant. If you take three steps without dribbling the ball, that’s a travel. If you hack someone’s arm while he’s going to the hoop, that’s a foul. If someone makes an incredible circus shot, you let him know he got lucky. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Seoul or Seattle, rules are rules. When you’re thousands of miles away from home, it’s comforting to know that some things in life are impervious to change, like the singularly satisfying sound of a composite leather ball swishing through a chain-link hoop.

Maybe it’s the unifying characteristics of the game that have been a catalyst for basketball’s rapid global growth in popularity in recent years. When I went to China last December, my tour guide told me that his life long dream was to travel to Los Angeles to see Kobe Bryant play a game in the Staples Center. That day we talked more about the NBA than we did about the Forbidden City.

Though the fundamental rules of the game are concrete, there are still plenty of distinctions between the pickup games I’m used in the States and the ones I play here in Korea. One of the biggest contrasts is the fact that teams tend to play zone defenses instead of man-to-man. Instead of guarding an individual player, defenders guard a particular space on the court, thus making driving to the basket more difficult and forcing offensive players to shoot from the outside. In a warm, heated gym, taking outside shots is straightforward, but on a brisk March afternoon with the sun in your eyes and swirling winds wreaking havoc on your release, connecting with a a long range jumper can be next to impossible. The low scoring turns games into marathon events, but for the true fan of the game, that’s actually an added bonus. I don’t really care about who wins or loses, I just like being on the court.

There are other differences as well, some of which have nothing to do with the actual game unfolding on the court. Take, for example, the increased occurrence of PWG – that’s Players Wearing Glasses. With so many guys sporting on-court eye wear, the propensity for flying spectacles is quite high. Some guys use a little strap that keeps their glasses from getting sent airborne. It’s a look that probably won’t strike fear into the hearts of opponents, but it keeps your specs on your face, and that’s all that matters. Kurt Rambis would be proud.

Perhaps the biggest contrast between games in the States and games in Korea takes place on the sidelines between games. Instead of reaching for a glass of water or some neon-colored sports drink, many players reach into their pockets and pull out the ultimate thirst quencher: cigarettes. Call me crazy, but when I’m doused in sweat and gasping for air, the last thing I want to do is inhale the smoke from a smoldering menthol, but hey, that’s just me.

In the end these differences are minor. Like a guitarist choosing his Telecaster over his Les Paul, it’s not really important what you play as much as how you play it. And when it comes to basketball, it turns out that rebounding, passing, shooting, defense and teamwork are the same in any language. Just follow the simple formula and you’ll be ok. Games to eleven, winner stays, play by ones, win by two. Couldn’t be simpler.