The Address

I know October is around the corner and that means football, brisk winds, leaves changing colors, Halloween, and my Birthday! So in case anybody wants to send me anything here is my address:

Olympiad/OLA
Seoul South Korea 130-838
Dongdaemun Jangan4dong 295-5 6FL

Of course you don't have to send anything for my birthday, but there it is if you want to.

The streets of Seoul

Here you go, this just proves that streets of Seoul are littered with these damn mopeds! Read this article.

I guess I am a liar

I am sufferring from writer's block. I have too much time on my hands. I am bored out of my mind. I have started writing about like three different topics before throwing them away. I need help. E-mail me any questions you might have, or any experiences you might want me to talk about.

I've got a lot of time

This is going to be my forum for the next couple of weeks. The topics will have no particular order just like my writing style. I have a lot of free time on my, hands because I don't have to teach a class for the next two weeks. My students are preparing for a standardized test to gain admittance into high schools. This is similar to our process of getting into college, so the better score a student gets equals a better school. These are very important tests. I have been given "busy work" tasks of coming up with names for grade levels (this takes 30 minutes) and writing a couple of books over reading comprehension. This sounds challenging, but it is really simple. I have a format to follow, and I don't have to write the passages, just questions over the passages. Expect numerous posts over the next couple of weeks.

Here is a great quote I found today while perusing the Internet:

Those who understand interest, collect it; those who don't, pay it. - Albert Einstein

Some of the people I have met over here came to Korean in an attempt to pay off credit card debt. Meg and I both have some school loans to pay off, but I can not imagine how twenty year old somethings amass so much credit card debt.

Maybe it is the "monkey see, monkey do" effect, because the previous generations are bogged down with credit card debt. A house, three cars, a house at the Ozarks, a boat, and everything else under the sun is the kind of actions adults take, including many of our parents, which isn't the best role model for younger generations to follow. It seems like our government is a great example! Maybe it is the relative lack of education we received on the subject. It seems like the average American is clueless. I mean, I don't understand deleveraging and swaps and ratio leverages and derivatives and the majority of financial lingo tossed around during the past couple weeks, but I know that if I spend more than I make, then I'm in the red. With that in mind, many of these twenty year olds would not have any debt if they just curbed their spending habits.

I'm not an expert, and I have yet to live in a challenging situation where I might be forced to take on debt. Take this with a grain of salt from a novice who is just trying to pass some time, but the root of America's financial problems can be traced back to people living beyond their means.


Here is a Ron Paul video dealing with America's recent financial woes. My friend Derek brought this to my attention via Facebook.

Density, Sidewaks, and the Perils of Both

The modern world in Asia is as dense with people as my mom’s former garden with weeds. The buildings are tall advertisements for Korean conglomerate companies, with their logos stamped on all corners reading Hyundai, Lotte, Samsung, and LG among others, begging the numerous consumers on the city streets to remember their favorite company. The cookie cutter skyscrapers house over 20 million people. About 60 years ago, the city I’m living in was mere rumble. How does a city rise from the ashes to become the world’s second largest city and the most “wired” city in the world? Industrialization has to be the only answer; Korea is China’s case study on growth and the consequences of such rapid growth.

Amongst the thick air, the fast culture, and a country fighting with problems of reunification and dependence to the United States lies a 22 year old who is mad. YES, I’m angry. The time is now, where I stand up and let my RAGE out. In the states, there is an epidemic called road rage. Everyone of course is familiar with this; a feeling washes over the driver like someone pointing out XYZ, warm blood travels throughout the body as mounting frustration follows closely behind. The driver is not in control during rush hour, and this leads to acts of fruitless hostility towards others on the crazy road of modernity. Slow drivers in fast lanes, fast drivers in slow lanes, and the normal drivers caught in the middle trying to navigate the chasm between the polar extremes.

I don’t have a vehicle in Korea, and I love it. Just as my pet peeves with traffic lights has been replaced by waiting for elevators, so too has road rage. In Korea, I have dubbed an epidemic, which I call “Sidewalk Rage” Seoul is a fast paced environment, much like every other big city in the world. Lost in all this hustle and bustle is me. I wake up at 2:00 in the afternoon every day, and I don’t go to sleep until like 4:00 at night, give or take two hours. College was not the real world, and this certainly is not either. I’m never in a hurry, and this is a direct conflict with the swift Koreans.

Here is a common example: Meg and I will be walking down the road and an on comer will be walking toward us heading the opposite way. The sidewalks are fairly large, and there is ample room for the misguided pedestrian to easily avoid us, yet to my continuing surprise they come at us like a heat seeking missile after an M-I-G. We are doing are part by picking a side and moving towards it by an easy three feet. Still here is a Korean heading over towards us! What are you doing, are you trying to send a message? I just don’t get it.

Then there are the slow walkers busy watching TV on their cell phones, texting their crushes, or innocently day dreaming about what food they want to eat with their kimchi tonight. I’m a slow walker sure, but these walkers are S-L-O-W walkers. Getting around the slow walkers can be tricky with all the fast walkers swirling around.

Slow walkers and fast walkers are difficult to manage, but it pales in comparison to the traffic. Yes, there is traffic on the sidewalks of Seoul. Parking lots must be hard to come by, so if a driver needs to get to the bank, then that driver will just park on the sidewalk near the bank. It’s maddening. These drivers will cut you off on the SIDEWALK! My friend Doug was almost hit a couple of weeks ago. And the damn mopeds!!! Oh, man the mopeds piss me off! They are ziggin and a zagging through the people like professional slalom skiers. These moped drivers are usually delivery men of pizzas and other foods. They drive on the roads, and if a red light comes up they just hoop on the sidewalk like it’s I-435. I’m not normally a violent man, but I want to drop an elbow on these drivers on a consistent basis. I had a dream where I was the frog in “Frogger.” Instead of a street, I was trying to get from point A to point B on the sidewalk. You already know my obstacles, and I couldn't even get past level 1. So in this age of speed, remember to SLOW DOWN, besides you’ll live longer.

Links and other Randomness

Al Davis: The Most Frightening Man in Professional Sports


Whenever you have a bad day at the office, think to yourself, "It could be worse, I could be working for this man."

Al Davis is nuts. Lane Kiffin's reaction is priceless, just laugh it off, Lane. He looks like a cross between a very old pirate and a very old snapping turtle. Or just really old ________.


Here is a clip from a Korean TV show. I know my reaction would be the same or worse.

Here are some more Asian pranks. The emu is classic, because every man has had that sensation wash over them that someone is directly behind them starring at the goods. What a scary sight that an emu would make. Here is another one. I like the last reaction the best. Finally, here is one of the classic pranks from America.



Have any women ever thought to themselves, "I just wish I could pee standing up." I know if I was a woman, I would experience a little envy going into a disgusting Johnny on the Spot while tailgating for an MU football game, of course while anticipating another dominating victory. Well, those crazy Japanese have caught on to this market and are selling a peeing video game.

The user gets to feel the pleasure of standing while going to the bathroom, while wearing a strap on appendage equipped with a phallic like controller. The future is coming way to fast and I know this because the Japanese are selling virtual reality peeing games!

Bush praises South Korea, rebukes NorthStory Highlights

Just click the title. I have seen North Korea in the news lately, most stories are related to Kim Jong Il's health. The part of this story I like the most is that North Korea has 11,000 thousand rockets aimed at the Korean capital. There's nothing like looking down the barrel of a gun, happened to be held by a 5 foot maniac owning a scary track record. Pretty scary!