Something About Wolves

This past week CNN aired two segments featuring an inside look into North Korea. The segments had correspondent Mike Chinoy interviewing residents and officials. Part 2 of the segment (aired Tuesday) has Mike in a hotel room reading from the North Korean Phrase Book. The passage he read was too fast to catch in Korean, but it's English translation was "Yankees are wolves in human shape." In another part, Mike and his crew are permitted to film a North Korean circus as long as nobody goofs up. Sure enough, someone fell off the high wire and filming was ordered to be stopped. CNN advertised that they will air the entire segment, "Life In North Korea," again this weekend. You can watch the 2nd segment here. Interesting stuff. I remember someone telling me about South Korean text books (Janice?) in my first year hear. Some of them went along the lines of "If one red commie has lunch with 3 red commies, how many red commies do you have?" Again, funny stuff. In keeping with the whole Korean theme, my High School students think I am becoming an Asian. On Monday one of them commented that my hair looked blacker that day. They all agreed. When I protested, they said "Oh, no teacher, we have noticed this happening for some time now." They think that my hair has been getting darker because I am "turning Asian" (Koreans all have black hair). The crazy part about this is that they were completely serious about their remarks (they are 16 years old!). I can assure you that my hair is not becoming black. I went on to tell the class that I had blonde hair until I was 10 years old and since then it has been blue (when the Jay's won the 2 World Series), multi-coloured (I attacked my shaved head with a bingo dabber one Christmas) and occasionally blonde. In final news, I have decided to visit Hong Kong from September 16th - 19th.

Something About New Orleans

Gordie was right all along: maybe New Orleans CAN sink.

Something About Televangelists

The following is a satirical news commentary dreamt up early this morning while my cat was in heat. While the facts are true the circumstances in which they occur are not.

Pat Robertson Banned in Britain

London- U.S. televanvelist Pat Robertson has been denied entry to the United Kingdom for a planned tour this fall, officials here say. Robertson, who had planned to take his "700 Club Neo-Con Tour 2005" to London this September had no immediate comment. Britain finalized a new plan on Wednesday to help deport or bar radicals who promote terrorism. Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the list of so-called "unacceptable behaviors" will counter the "real and significant" threat of terrorism. The list of "unacceptable behaviors" includes those that:

• foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence;
• seek to provoke others to terrorist acts;
• foment other serious criminal activity or seek to provoke others to commit serious criminal acts; or
• foster hatred that might lead to inter-community violence in Britain

Earlier this week Mr. Robertson shocked the world with comments regarding Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. On the Monday show of "The 700 Club," Roberstson suggested an assassination of Chavez: "You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don't think any oil shipments will stop." He continued by saying:"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion (US) war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

British officials believe that an assassination of a world leader would be considered an act of terrorism, and do not want Robertson promoting this kind of hate in their country. Prime Minister Tony Blair said that "the guy is nuttier than my grandmother's fruit cake." Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said his department "doesn't do that type of thing [assassinate leaders], although private citizens say all kinds of things all the time." Asked what would happen if a private citizen made a similar assassinationtion remark about President Bush, Rumsfeld said "We'd deal with him Texas style. You know, a big ol' barbecue. We'd fry that sucker."

Something About Google

If you were to look on my computer you would find the following programs running:

• Microsoft XP Operating System
• Microsoft XP Office
• Norton Internet Security
• Google Desktop Search
• Google Search Bar (for IE)
• Google Side Bar
• Google Task Bar
• Google Talk
• GMAIL Notifier
• Google News (set as my start page)
• Blogger (the site that hosts this blog)

As you can see, I like Google. When they introduced Google Desktop Search V2 I installed it right away. I now have a bar at the right side of my computer that runs a slide show of every picture on my computer, recent emails, recent news and more. It makes your screen a bit smaller but I still think it's cool. If I had my way, I'd even own shares in Google. I was thinking about buying some when they first came out last summer but didn't want to risk it. The stock has now tripled in price since it's release. What I think is funny is how Google still manages to make more money than any other online search engine. It's closest rival, Yahoo!, has many options that you need to pay for. One of the biggest money makers for Yahoo! is Geocities, the popular website hosting company. You also need to pay an extra fee if you want more storage on your Yahoo! mail account. My GMAIL account is the best email service I've used. Not only do I have 2.5 Gigabytes of storage it also allows unique organizing and a nice interface. On Wednesday I also installed the new Google Talk program. I haven't been able to try it out yet (I need someone to talk to!). Google makes the majority of it's money solely on advertising. The only other fees that I know of are with a pro edition of Google World (satellite imaging) and the fees paid by companies to have top search rankings. Some people are skeptical about Google because of privacy concerns. I don't see what the big deal is. If Google used your personal information maliciously someone would eventually find out. If that were to happen I think the entire company would fold. I really don't think a multi-billion dollar company would risk that. People also complain that not everyone has access to GMAIL (you need an invitation from a current account holder). That maybe so, but GMAIL account holders are given 50 invitations to give out. I'm sure if you asked around you could find someone who has extra invitations. I've given out 3 of them and somehow still have 50 left (if you want one send me an email). So, that's my spew about Google.

Something About Gambling

I was reading in the weekend paper that, in The Philippines, gambling is illegal unless it is done in government owned casinos. The only exception is during a wake. The ideology behind this is that it helps the bereaved families stay awake during the mourning period. It has now become custom to have poker games during a wake. Not only that but you can also "rent" a dead body (usually someone who doesn't have a family) so that you and your friends can gamble in public. When I read this article I couldn't help but think of that famous picture with dog's sitting around a poker table. Now imagine a casket sitting in the corner. Funny stuff.

Something About Canadian Liberalism

I've posted on this topic before, but a recent news event pushes me to comment once more. It is being reported that Todd Cameron Smith, the Taber, Alberta man who went postal at his high school when he was a student, recently walked away from his halfway house in Toronto. To refresh your memory, this is the kid who took a sawed off shot gun to school, killed one student and wounded another. It was his intention to gun down as many students as possible; thankfully he was stopped before he had the chance. What gets me, and should get everyone, is that 6 years after his rampage he is living (or, was living) in a half way house. Judges, lawyers and psychiatrists have said that this man is dangerous to society and is likely to reoffend. I've worked in a half way house before. You work 12 hour shifts and get paid minimum wage. Why on earth is this guy living in a halfway house? Better yet, why is he even out of jail? Why is it that criminals in this country have as many rights as everyone else? If it were Texas he would have been executed years ago. While I don't belief in Capital Punishment I think Paul Martin should spend some time re-evaluating Canada's justice system. When ever I tell my friends (Koreans, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, and British) about cases like this they can't believe it. It makes you wonder why so many foreigners are so eager to come to our liberal red country.

Something About My First Few Days Back

In coming back to Korea I've had to get the hang of a few things again. The first thing that gave me a double take was the whole women holding hands with women and men holding hands with men in a heterosexual manner. Next up was my car. In Canada I drove both my parents and grandmothers cars, which are both automatics. For the first few days in Canada I always pressed the brake (I mistook it for the clutch) to move to the next gear. Coming back to Korea had the reverse effect. On Friday I thought something was wrong with my car because I could not get it to go into reverse with out stalling. After about 3 minutes of frustration and the entire apartment complex watching me I realized I had my foot on the break instead of the clutch. I get enough stares as it is by just being white... I don't need any other reasons for people to look at me in awe. I've also had to re-learn driving in Korea. There are no stop signs and drivers never signal. That, combined with 35 degree heat and no air conditioning in my car provides for interesting drives into school. Because I flew home on Air Canada I was able to use my Aeroplan card. I was certain that a $2,000 CAD plane ticket would give me a worthwhile reward. I learned the only thing I can cash my points in for is a box of fudge. In non-related news, I was listening to The Edge while in Canada and learned that the first song to be encoded to the MP3 format was "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega. Apparently the song provided enough acoustic, vocals and base to determine the quality of sound an MP3 could provide.

Something About Being Back In Korea

After 21 hours of constant travel I have finally made it back to my apartment. I was very happy to see that it was just as I had left it. The rainy season is over and the hot season has begun. I had my fan on high all night just so I could sleep. The flight back went well. I discovered that if you ask for a Coke at the front of the plane they will you give you a can while if you ask for a Coke at the back of the plane they will give you Coke in a glass, minus the can. Strangely enough that kept me happy for the rest of the flight. The movies shown were "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous," "Hitch" and "In Good Company." Anyways, that's about it in terms of news right now. I put links to the pictures from my trip on the right of this page.