this is one of those things that i shouldn't mention in case it doesn't get done. but i will anyway. i'm currently trying to make a video of my daily work routine. it sounds boring, but i'll punch it up with special effects.... no i won't. but i'll put a good song on it, and least if you don't like the video, you can just close your eyes and listen.

the problem is, i don't even know if my video editing software works, or even how it works exactly. and secondly, i'm not sure i can put the video on here.

but i'd like to get your hopes high now.

high five.this is chai milk jam i got in japan. i like sharing, or giving away most food things i have. but i think this is one thing that i wouldn't want to share. yum. do you have any items like that?

http://little-people.blogspot.com/

i really liked this. it was quaint.

i avoided watching tv for almost a year, but then i finally plugged my tv in here. sigh. but i only get one english channel, and that is the army base channel. so if i have the tv on, that's the channel it will be.

every commercial looks like it costs about $100 to make; and i'm not sure if any are not geared toward military viewers. 'make sure you have all your documents in order', 'eat at your regiments cafeteria', 'be knowledged about new housing that you'll move to', 'sexual harassment is never acceptable'. The one i find ironic is when they inform the officers that if they speak about any superior officer, or speak about the president with contempt, that is an offense that can have them courtmarshelled. meanwhile, the shows that are aired on this channel, such as the late night shows, they make it almost a nightly ritual to degrade the president.

tonight, dan rather was on jay leno, and dan taught me something about the middle east situation. he said that the opium plant is the number one product in the area. it isn't exactly legal to grow, but no one can stop it at the moment. a lot of the opium is sold in central europe. and this is a very good funding tool for the 'terrorists'. dan told us that if you want to know how the war on terror is going, pay attention to how well the production of the opium plant is being limited.

I've been here exactly 3 months today. this is my calendar i follow. i actually use the other side of it. it looks like this(look below). it's not as pretty but i can write how much i spend each day. it's part of the routines i've taken up. along with reading each night, and doing push-ups and sit-ups. i can do 80 push-ups now. i'm saying this not to brag, but rather because if you are reading this brad, i know that you have always been competitive with me in the sense that i, being your younger sibling shouldn't be more physically able at anything strength related than you. and so if you're slacking on your push-ups, after hearing a number i can do, you will make sure you can do at least the same. you have 5 months to stay fair enough shape to compete with me when i see you next. maybe i should just lie. um, i can do 300 push-ups now.
yes.

i've been intending to post the blogs of all my co-workers, along with a site that they enjoy. but so far i have not gotten to that.

all i can post at the moment is:

malcolm:
furtherfrom.blogspot.com
(the redundancy is absurd)
recommended site:
bitsandpieces1.blogspot.com
also try this one if you like cute:
http://letsbefriends.blogspot.com/

i'm reading 'eats shoots and leaves' right now. it's making me very conscious of all my punctuation. that doesn't mean i will be better with it, i'll just now realize that sometimes people will pick apart my comma placement. actually, right now i'm semi dissecting why i put colons in the above section. but only semi.

i went for a gallery walk today. i now have tuesdays off because of the way the schedule is working. i like tuesdays off. i'd rather have my days off spaced out, and i like a day off during the week when more things like post offices are open, and things are generally less populated.

anyway, before i went on my gallery walk, i compiled a list from online of potential places to go. i left late, so i was very limited on how many i could visit. i wanted to go to the biggest one.

i asked some older guy what subway stop this one location was at, and after much trouble with the language barrier, he figured out where it was, and pointed to it on a small subway map i had. he even wrote out detailed directions to it that i could give to some korean to ask for help. of course the problem was that after he pointed it out, i realized it was on the exact opposite side of town, and i wasn't going to go there. and i felt bad that he was trying so hard to help me out. so i went on the subway anyway and i just asked the someone i sat beside where another closer gallery was.

i found one, it had photography, and it was ok. and i say another that just had a submarine made out of garbage.

then i went to a big bookstore and bought a book of korean expressions. i'm gonna have to start writing them here. they're awesome.


oh, by the way, when i stated that notion of a possible audience of 1 in my last post, it wasn't intended to be fishing for compliments.

ps.(do you do ps's in blogs?) sorry no pictures. i'm in a pc bong.

i don't write here nearly enough.
i don't post pictures nearly enough.
communication motivation is sometimes elusive.
and maybe the idea should be to reduce my standards.
maybe i should write even without exciting stories, or intriguing insight.
i think the internet can get people into a presentation mindset.
it instantly represents an audience, even though the audience may just be 1.
and with an audience in mind it seems it's appropriate to dress up words with poetic phrasing, and pretty pictures.

i don't always have pretty words, and poetic pictures though, or maybe i just don't care to take the time.

anyway, i'm just writing now to fill the blank space of me not writing. and it's somewhat appropriate that the blank space is filled with meaningless words.

i'm in korea right now. adventure on the other side of the world, and i'm writing about not writing.

here, i'll put a pretty picture here.i think all fast food should have clocks like this.

i've been meaning to do a list comparing canada to korea. i don't think i will. but one exists inside my head. i like both places for many reasons. and i dislike both for other reasons.

i will list some reasons why i don't like korea.
-you never know when things are going to be open or closed. hours of operation are optional, and even when they are posted, they're optional to follow. and actually, even when there's an open sign on the door, it doesn't mean the store is open.
-actually, sometimes stores close, and they leave up their store logo and everything. the only reason you know they're closed for good is because you never see them open.
-sometimes a place also keeps up signs, or leaves items on the shelf when they won't sell those items to you. they keep it there because they don't know what else to do with it. it can be very frustrating. especially when you go back a second time to the same store to try and buy the same item they didn't sell you last time; and you try to trick them to sell it to you this time, but no, of course they won't do that. instead they'll just put the item back on the shelf, and say it's not for sale.
-i can't stand the traffic lights. they leave the pedestrians waiting forever.
-the cars try to run you over.
-all the food is either meat, or too sweet. it's not good for me.
-there seems a distinct lack of organization about things.

and those seem to be all the major issues.
so in all consideration, it's not that bad.
-honestly, how many things about canada can you name that you don't like.
-expensive subway(ttc)
-worries about theft/vandalism/murder etc.
-poor work ethic
-there's others that i'm not thinking of, mostly because i'm not immersed in that culture at the moment.

i'll do my list of things i like about each country later.

Ok

So we were told the day before we left that we are going to japan. Amidst the numerous false announcements that we were going, it seemed only fitting that when we finally did go, it was with little warning. Luckily, the other supposed times we were going to go to japan allowed us to be prepared regardless…mostly. I actually didn’t really check out any tourist things, or really anything at all prior to the trip. I let everyone else do that, and when they said what they wanted to do I kinda picked and chose, but mostly just went with the flow. With only 3 days, most agendas you create are considered ambitious. Especially when 2 of those days are mostly taken up with arrival and departure plans.

i wanted to puncuate this list with lots of pictures. then i realized i had too many that i wanted to include, so i'll just put them on facebook instead under the category selected photos from japan. anyway...

So, the agenda was as follows…

-arrived, at the airport at about noon, and even cut in line to enter the country, to the chagrin of others, in order to get to the Korean embassy as fast as we could. We definitely had to get our visa requests in that day for them to be processed before we left.

-the irony was when we got to the area of the Korean embassy, and we met up with someone we cut in front of in line. And I think they got their work visa sooner than us.

-after much searching around the streets, we finally found the hotel we booked online. There’s a lot less English subtitles in japan than in korea.

-our hotel was in a more sexually exploitive district apparently(or that’s what we were told), but the hotel was actually a good hotel.

-finally at 8pm we were settled in, and we met up with a friend of a co-worker. She was a Japanese Korean who’s lived in Osaka all her life. I forget her name. it seems I always forget the names of Asians. I’m sure they have the same problem with us.

-we went to supper, and I noticed that Japanese cuisine is much better about accommodating vegetarians than Korean cuisine. I am a vegetarian in Japanese is watashiwa saishoku-shugisha.

-I wandered around taking pictures the rest of the night. Osaka is a very busy place up until just past 9pm when most things close. its still busy after that, but not nearly as much as before.

-I went back to my hotel and played cards with the others, and then went to sleep on my traditional Japanese bed. It was comfortable except for the pillow that was basically a big beanbag.

-I woke up early because I find it hard to sleep long in new places I’m not used to.

-I got my E2 visa. I’m FINALLY legal.

-I had pancakes at mcdonalds for breakfast which seems like the first time I’ve eaten at mcD’s for over a year.

-we went to Kyoto. And I saw an incredible temple that is actually printed on their 10 cent(or whatever) coin. I was actually very impressed by the historicity. Impressed enough that I bought playing cards from the souvenir shop for $9.

-japanese money is roughly equivalent to Canadian in the sense that 100 yen is about .90 cents Canadian. However they put their 100 yen and 500 yen in these small coins that look like they’re nothing in your pocket.

-after the temple, our group of 8 broke into 2 groups. I was now in a much more manageable group of 3.

-we went to the gates of heaven. It has about 9 gates leading up a mountain. Each gate is supposed to take you a step closer to heaven. We only went up 2 gates I think. so we were only kinda in heaven. There were lots of Buddhist prayer type things along the way. Apparently if there is a big rope tied around a tree it means that there’s a spirit in it. I didn’t participate in, or buy any religious related things because I think religion is a powerful thing that shouldn’t just be tried as a cultural experience. Especially when I believe that it contradicts my own faith. I did however buy a turtle keychain, which I promptly lost, and I’m quite disappointed in.

- we then went to an area that we thought was supposed to be where they geishas were. But it was entirely under-populated, and it was mostly just antique shops we saw. So we finally went in the opposite direction, and tada, lots of people, and lots of traditional looking shops peddling tourist related goods. I tried to buy plenty. Of course I’m not a shopper, and plenty still wasn’t a lot. I saw some traditional really tall wood geisha type shoes that cost over $1000. I didn’t buy them.

-with our ceaseless wandering, all we really had for supper was crepes.

-finally at 9pm we got some Japanese food. Well, it was food from a Japanese restaurant. I had deep fried cheese balls, and a pizza, and snow peas. The pizza was a tortilla wrap laid flat with pizza type things on it. In Japanese restaurants they actually charge you for just sitting there.

-my group of 3 finally went back to the hotel to meet up with the others.

-we couldn’t decide where to go, so we all tried on kimonos and took pictures.

-finally 5 of us just wandered and found a club in the basement of some place.

-there wasn’t many people in the club, but the bartender was from Africa, and we played connect 4 with him all night. He never lost, it was incredible.

-the music was mostly artists like kanye west, but then at one point the Japanese dudes busted out on the mics, and did some live rap.

-we finally went home really late, and just before we went in, jon wanted something to eat. So we went to the shop on the corner and he ordered chicken. We sat and tried to talk to this lady with too much make-up on. It seemed like we were waiting forever. Finally the chicken came, and it costs $22. I guess jon should have checked the prices first.

-I slept pretty soundly that night.

-the next day 6 of us went to an art gallery that was closed. So four of us left to go to Osaka castle. 2 stayed to go to a nearby imax. It is apparently the biggest in the world, but I still wouldn’t want to watch an oversized cinema with my limited time in japan.

-before we got to the castle, another person left to see some other galleries.

-so the 3 of us remaining saw osaka castle. it was really cool. It’s really just such an experience to see these aspects of other cultures up close.

-after the castle, we tried to go shopping. Although one person went to the namba district and me and another went to the umeda district.

-after walking around umeda for 15minutes because we couldn’t find shopping, we decided to go underground to the subway to try and find another area to go. And tada, the mall was underground.

-we were extremely limited on time, and finally the person I was with left, and I was alone wandering an underground mall trying to spend the last of my Japanese money.

-I had so many bags on me from having my big travel backpack, and my souvenirs, so I was tired, and I had to get back to the airport.

-after asking questions so many times I was able to find my way, and I met everyone at the airport in time to leave back to korea for 5:30pm.

-the airport was on a man-made island. Neat. After seeing japan from the sky, I understood why they needed to build it. Every available space was used up, except for the mountains. I’m sure they’ll even eventually need to learn to utilize the mountains more. I must admit japan is one of the coolest countries to see from above.

-the flight was only an hour and a half.

-I got back to korea, and I strangely felt comforted by being back home. I was happy to be able to be understood in Korean again. And it made me really realize how much apart of this city I’ve really become.

-I liked japan. It had an edginess about it that reflected my artistic sense. If you’re not familiar, post-modernism reflects a sort of raw aesthetic. It is about being exposed, and understanding and embracing things with all their dirt and ugliness. I feel I have an affinity for post-modernism. Atmospheres like japan breed new and edgy art styles, because it is so accepting of the latest thing. That’s one thing that appealed to me about the place, granted it carries with it a sense of superficiality.

-the problem is that raw atmospheres aren’t always the most ideal for living in. They just have a lot of character.

-so for now I like living in korea better. It’s safer, and more naïve. Of course this judgment is just based on a very short trip to japan. So it’s not worth a lot.

-one other fun observation about japan is that they love their bikes. These riders are so expert how they weave through people. There’s so many bikes that they need to put bike license numbers on them. And if they’re parked somewhere they shouldn’t be, they could get a parking ticket.

-and that was my trip.

dear blog,

IOU one long blog about japan.

lots of pictures
lots of stories
such an amazing time

look, cartoons for everything. even this door that has ambulances. i guess you have a less anxious nation when everything is friendly little caricatures.


this big rock looks like a whale. i bet that says whale on the side. either that, or do not ride.


i talked to some girls today. it was the funnest conversation i've had with koreans. it was four 17 year olds at church, and they only spoke a little english, but they were really trying hard to communicate. they would do little skits to try to demonstrate what they mean. for example, the one girl was trying to say that she saw me one time at the mall, and she waved, and i just ignored her. so she acted out with her friend how i snubbed her. and i apologized and said that i didn't see her. and then they were describing this one guy, and they said he walks like a penguin, and they demonstrated a penguin walk. and while they did that they said dui doon dui doon. i imagine dui doon dui doon means waddle waddle.

i think i'm going to use that word all the time now. it's good to incorporate useless words into your vocabulary when learning another language.

some pictures of the kids we were teaching.

to the left and ducking is angel. she was the smartest. and she always tried to help. one time some kid was being a brat with a balloon and she took it away from him and said he can have it back at the end of class.

the pouty one is kerry. she liked hitting me, but she was cute.
the bottom picture is self-proclaimed handsome david. everyday he went on about how handsome he was. in this picture i told him to be handsome.
there was another picture i tried to include but it's not here for some reason. and i'm on a public computer, so i can't get it here.

Your Vocabulary Score: A-

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

Life’s for the living, so check me tomorrow. Actually no, but those were the lyrics to the song I’m listening to, and I needed some segway into a topic about life. I was playing it this weekend. Life. The game. Board game. Yes. What else do you do on a long weekend.

Anyway as I was playing I went to university first. Maybe a little reflection of my own life. And then when it was time to choose a career I had to randomly grab a career card. And of course I grabbed the ‘teacher’ career. With the teacher career you get to randomly grab another career card, and through chance I became an artist as well. And thirdly I had to pick a salary, which ended up being $30,000.

Funny,

I’m going to be a teacher, an artist, and the teacher’s starting salary is $30,000. it’s not entirely indicative of my life though. A) I never had kids in the game(which I think I’ll have in real life), and b) I had to pay someone $150,000 in technical repairs right at the beginning. Ugh.

In other news, I’m starting to read Shakespeare, and also, I spent the entire day organizing myself today. At least it feels semi-productive.

Mc Mong
(he's called that apparently because he looks like a monkey)here is a video of his. it is blatant rip-off of 'where is the love' but it's still catchy, and it give you some images of korea.

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

1. the start of the video is in a pc bang(bang, pronounced bong, means room). these things are all over the place.
2. the guys that are being all rough, are really about as agressive as i've seen koreans get. which is not at all. it feels really safe walking around here at any time of day or night...except for the really bad driving.
3. the word com-sa-nee-da means thank you, informally(to friends) you'd say com-sa, and to be really polite you'd say com-up-sa-nee-da. the girl in the video uses the really polite form.
4. i forget where it is in the video but you might notice that when someone gives something or receives something, their second hand that is not holding the item is either touching their heart(= really polite), or touching their shoulder (= fairly polite), or touching the inside bend in their elbow(= polite), or touching the hand that is giving the item, or pouring the drink, or receiving the pour (= ordinary polite).
5. finally, at the end of the video mc mong is eating food in a tent. this is a street vendor, and they are everywhere. honestly. it looks exactly like it is in the video, except that you'd see more people in the tent, and the street would be busier in general. probably filled with more street vendors.

some other korean artists that i know of are a guy name 'rain' on his website it says 'more higher, more wider'. and another band named 'in soon i' (i is pronounced 'ee').

thinking things through and realizing that cyclical contains us in it's million arms. i am as i was as i will be, i was always this, but i am always better. it keeps me smarter. it keeps me trying harder to surpass my father and fathers' fathers. to go farther, but really just deceiving myself because i am and will always be something other, no matter which way i spin it. new generations always survive in new contexts that can't properly be compared to the previous thoughts. i never previously thought i would feel as i do, except i always expect to feel contrary to my present tense with each next step. each chapter contained with each chapters rules of format and plot development. i am a story for you to read. i am a thought to be remembered later in nostalgia.

it's valentine's day. so fellas, here's a slick move from the book of justin timberlake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dmVU08zVpA

in the news at my school in korea,
-hairy arms
-getting run over
-japan delayed
-and a crazy game called gostop

hairy arms...
apparently when you wear shirts that expose your arms, and you have some hair on them, kids like to pet your arms like you're a dog, or kids like to draw pictures of you looking like an ape. and it's not mean spirited, because they actually say they love the hairy arms. all in all, it's kinda strange. and for the record, i've never considered my arms to be that hairy. see.
getting run over...
i was afraid this might happen at some point. i mean given the crazy drivers around here that consider cars to have the right of way, not pedestrians, it only made sense that i would get run over at some point. basically what happened was that i've decided to run to the subway station from now on. i like it. but today, as i was running, i made a slight hesitation as i was running across a crosswalk because a car was coming, and that hestitation was enough to throw off my cantor, and it made me twist my ankle and fall. and of course as all good korean drivers do, once something is out of their vision(in my case being on the ground), it means go. and the car ran over my foot. the bottom of my shoe happened to be facing up as i was lying on my stomach, and the guy ran that over. i was ok, and i just kept walking because i didn't feel like telling the guy he was a dope. i'm sure he wouldn't understand anyway.

japan delayed...
yay!, we're going to Japan. yay, the plane tickets are booked. 2 days later... oh, remember how we booked your plance tickets to japan, cancel that. yes, of course nothing happens for us as we expect it to. and i've come to the point where i don't think anything will happen unless it's happening right then. of course we definitely will go to japan, because we need to get our work visas before the march opening of our school, but apparently not yet. we're going to osaka when we go though. so it should be exciting when it finally happens.
gostop...
it's a gambling game that i learned how to play the other night at a work party. then the next night, i bought some go stop playing cards and i played it for about 2 or 3 hours with some friends. and theeeennnn, i found out we played it for 2 or 3 hours WRONG. apparently there was a bit of trouble with the translation when they explained it to us at the party. but it's still a fun game. and now i'm gonna play it right. and if anyone wants, and they're really nice to me, i might buy them gostop cards. but only if you learn how to play properly, and you really want them... and you're really nice. here's 2 sites with the rules.

http://home.comcast.net/~t.sloper/gostop/rules.html

http://www.pd49.dial.pipex.com/pockets/games/hwa-tu.htm

I'm not saying I'm a big prorastinator...well, maybe sometimes. and blogs definitely are not a by-product of procrastination.

but anyway, here's a scientific link about it.

Sometimes there seems to be as many theories on a topic as there are people researching it. Fortunately, over the last 25 years, we have been testing these theories, trying to determine which one works best. Here we review four of the most popular theories of procrastination and consider the evidence for and against them. The empirical evidence comes from a recent meta-analysis, which is a systematic review of the all the literature written on the topic. The theory with the most support is Discounted Utility Theory, which is presented last.

or just go here: http://webapps2.ucalgary.ca/~steel//Procrastinus/theories.php

it's essentially the same thing.

i've taken to drinking walnut milk instead of regular milk. i thought i'd explore the milk alternatives. I actually think this is the best tasting one yet. too bad, it's only in korea as far as i can tell. it seems like it should be healthy for me too, although i can't really find anything on the internet that talks about it. i'm one step closer to becoming a vegan now, although i don't think i could give up cheese. it'd mean i'd have to give up pizza. and also i recently bought a 100 pack of cheese slices because they don't really sell chunks of cheese here, and because it's cheaper buying in bulk.

oooo, that reminds me. the day i was grocery shopping and i bought the cheese, i was in this quaint grocery store. y'know, kids in grocery carts and all. and then i noticed the song being played on the radio sounded kinda strange. so i stopped and had to listen to make sure i wasn't just hearing things. and yes, that songs chorus really was 'if you suck ___ put your hands in the air, if you lick ___ put your hands in the air.' and yes, the verse really was a step by step instructional on how to be ultimately slutty in a club, and an instructional for the guys on how to... anyway, all in all it was shocking and hilarious seeing the koreans non-chalantly shop while one of the dirtiest songs i've heard was played on the radio. and it's not the first time. some of those rap songs played in the dollar store are beautiful.

and for no particular reason, here's a picture of jon making a snowflake. he was practicing for when he had a class that needed to make a snowflake.

Car horns in korea don’t just give a good solid honk. They honk, and fade out. It’s kinda funny how it deflates any anger that may have been put in the honk.

And I think most people have a leak in their mouth, because there’s always some gobs of spit around. Maybe it’s a word I haven’t learned yet, but they also often do that horking noise.

I sometimes sit at the end of the hall in my building. There is a 4x5 foot area that is like an enclosed balcony. It is supposed to be a smoke area. I sit here to use the internet, because I can’t get internet in my apartment. I also don’t have tv. Well, I do, but I don’t want it. For some reason I feel like internet isn’t as mind numbing. But I know it still is, but in a different way. At least with the internet I often type things, and I develop my writing skills… I guess. And sometimes I find recipes for pancakes(I know, pancakes are impossibly easy, but I needed to make sure that I wasn’t forgetting anything).

But then, the problem with the internet is that I need to sit out here to use it, and it looks kinda awkward to anyone coming home to this floor.

I just saw 3 girls go into one apartment. I hope they don’t all live there. These apartments are very small. I think I’ve seen some public washrooms bigger. I mean, I like the place, but I don’t think 3 people would be comfortable.

They advertise on doors a lot. I made sure they only advertised on one door tonight. Rebecca’s. hehe. I collected all the ads from all the doors.

I almost forgot, I got a business card today. It was from the new owner of the convenience store in our building. I bet you’ve never gotten a business card from your convenience store owner.

Happy Birthday to you,
happy birthday to you,
happy birthhhhhhday kim jong il,
happy birthday to you.

GUESS WHAT! it's kim jong il's birthday today. i don't know how old he is, but isn't that neat. what do you get for a crazy dictator that has everything, even a kidnapped director to help him star in his own movies. i think i'd knit him a pair of socks, because that sort of thing comes from the heart, and you can't just buy that. and i'd write on the side of them some funny quip like 'you put the dick in dictator'. and we'd all have a good laugh.

anyway, my weekend pretty uneventful, aside from seeing my friend in Guri. i like his crowd. they're really... neat. it was one dudes birthday. and at one bar we went to there was a song playing in the background. and it was a song i've been trying to find the title for for awhile. so finally i could ask someone. and it's called ice cream by mc mong(because he looks like a monkey). or something like that. it's korean, and it sound like a complete rip off of where is the love. but i think it would neat to get a korean cd.

and the other neat part about seeing my friend is that he gave me a cell phone. now i just need to get a number for it. apparently receiving calls on it is free. horray.

maybe next weekend i'll actually explore seoul a little more.

granted i did go back to ipark, the huge electronic superstore. and i got my money back on an item that didn't come with an installation cd.(and i didn't have a receipt, hehe). and then i bought a new one. and the item is a USB lan thingy. it's basically an external device that allows you to get the internet. i know, i can already get the internet with this computer, but i built a mini satelite dish for the external one so it would boost the signal much further, and i could get internet from my bedroom. but of course i tried it out, and, sigh, it didn't work. so in the end it was still a waste of money.