This story has no meaning and no end

It's 2:50AM here in South Korea, a fine predicament that is the result of a very long nap midafternoon, and a strong cup of tea at 10pm.

Interesting story, I had been looking for a particular piece of music for about three years since I had heard it back around 2005. Or maybe it was 2006 I don't remember too clearly. In any case, it was a wonderful orchestral piece that I only heard once and I didn't have the foresight back then to write down the stupid name of the piece or at least the composer. So for the longest time, I simply forged on, trying to find the piece by ear and hopefully through sheer luck. Of course, considering the expansive history of classical and romantic music, there is very little chance of me actually locating the piece without devoting an incredible amount of energy towards the project. So for a while I simply had the song in the back of my mind.

Two days ago, I went to see a movie with an acquaintance, and afterward we passed by a music store by chance. Normally I do not buy any CD's at all, but I figured if I spotted some weird anti-Folk or a Miles Davis CD that I could get for like $5, which is very feasible in South Korea, I might as well grab it. Strangely enough, I did end up purchasing a CD, but it wasn't something from the Jazz section or the Weird as Fuck Western Music section always present as alternatives to the ubiquitous music of choice in Korea, K-Pop and it's reluctantly accepted adopted step-half-brother cousin J-Pop. The name of the composer, Sibelius, was strangely familiar, yet I knew I had none of his music in my collection. So I spent the most money I ever had on any music, $8 for the CD, and went along my merry way.

Incidentally, this was the last time I would meet my acquaintance, Grace Yoo, before she left for the US and I for Japan. As of this writing, I hope she remembers to not tag me in any pictures she puts on facebook as I don't want to spend the time to go and untag myself from a bunch of pictures of myself molesting Hello Kitty figures. More on this sometime in the future.

In any case, I went home and I listened to the CD. While none of the pieces were the piece in question from two or three years ago, I did end up reminiscing about the piece after having it reclused in the back of my memory bank like some sock in the dryer that has a couple holes and it's weird that it's still there with all my other laundries. Anyways, the music on the CD made me remember the piece that I recollected with vividness now, and I decided to spend a little effort to find it.

So two emails, abusing Itunes Store's 30 second previews, and dumb luck, I found out that the piece I had heard back in the day was Sibelius's 5th Symphony. Which is funny because I bought a CD with Sibelius's 1st symphony. A few torrents later, I have the piece well within my grasps.

There really is no ending to this stupid story. I got the stupid musical piece now. Try finding it for yourselves, it is a really fantastic music. The End.

Ahahahaha tae kwon do judges

ahahaha, olympic judges are so biased for Koreans in Tae Kwon Do. I mean, it is the national sport of Korea, but seriously, those were some bullshit scoring in favor for Korean athletes.

Like that women's match between Korea and Turkey? Stingy ass fuckers, for the game to end 1-0. Especially with a single point win at the END. Fucking score only counters assholes lol.

Then in the Men's 68kg, Mark Lopez looked so pissed that Son Tae Jin got that single point in the last exchange to clinch it 3-2 for South Korea. I mean, I was rooting for both sides, but that judging was some absolute bullshit. Bring it into overtime rather than give a hax point to the Koreans when the exchange had Lopez score more than Son. On the other hand, Lopez did quite a bullshit move in that turn down on Son Tae Jin's knee in the middle. Who knows, maybe the judges were not going to let that slide.

Korea won at Tae Kwon Do yay. Let's hear it for bullshit points.

8-20-2008

So apparently summer is slowly dying, as the heat is toning down and the sounds of cicadas are slowly fading away and the crickets take over the night. August is in it's last half and I head for Japan soon.

I adopted an abandoned laptop to take to Japan, reformatted it and replaced it's Korean Windows XP OS with an US version with the help of the internet. I don't have any problems with a Korean OS but life is just easier if I can cuss at my windows crapping out on me in the same language it primarily displays. After installing a few drivers I felt the need to get some add-ons for the five year old laptop, so I purchased a wireless USB, a USB hub, some new headphones, and a universal card reader, all for about $50. Unsurprisingly, electronics are not expensive at all here in Korea. Unsurprisingly, all this shit really doesn't add much when the actual core machine is a relic in computer years, a 40gb, 500mb RAM laptop with little battery capacity.

The laptop is one of the few things I feel I should bring along to Japan. Along with some clothes I guess.

I gained about fifteen pounds over the summer, burgeoning near the 180lb range. Fortunately, all my pants still fit. The way I figure is, with all the continuous weight training I did over the summer, I gained about seven pounds in muscle and eight pounds in fat. Or maybe I'm just trying to pretend I didn't become a complete fatass. Since Japan is expensive as fuck, maybe I'll lose weight as a result of being unable to afford any food over there.

I might not have any money left by the time I go to Japan at the rate I'm going. I got dragged to Lotte World today, a theme park in Korea that, like all theme parks, just sucks up money. But w/e.

Diary Entry for 8-12-08

So I work[ed] at a tea store called Lupicia. One fact that always stuck with me about the franchise was that they had one store in South Korea. Just one. I just had to see it at least once when I was in Korea. Despite the fact that I hadn't gone to a Lupicia only since early July (when I sort of just stopped going due to lack of hours), I kind of forgot how the Lupicia stores look and feel and I also forgot how incredibly small my own store was until I went into the Lupicia store in Apgujeong.














While a lot of people almost instinctively hate franchises, I love the fact that stores rarely deviate from the main layout set by a corporate identity, only changing to accommodate physical and financial restrictions.















The Korean store carried a very wide selection of both teas and tea accessories/paraphernalia, had a little bar, could serve iced tea, and had zero customers. These were all things I richly desired everyday that I worked in my own Lupicia. Especially the bit about having zero customers.































They carried a lot of stuff that was discontinued at the states or pretty much trashed due to the inability to sell to Americans AT ALL. Gong-fu Tea sets were sold at 199,000원, which is about $200. I laughed when I saw this, because the US side couldn't sell any of these AT ALL and there was so much overstock that we gave them away as gifts to customers. I have two entire sets at home for myself.






























The power of tariffs and social perception became doubly apparent to me when I saw the price tags. Chinese and Japanese teas were being marketed at prices almost triple that of the US. Jasmin Mandarin, sold in the US at $4 for 50g, was sold here at 14,000원, approximately $13. Tsugaru Green, a green tea blend, sold in the US for about $5, was sold at 15,500원, or a little over $14. Two factors play into this. One, the Korean market is protective of it's domestic tea market which does not get sold widely outside of Korea. To prevent foreign tea blends, especially white and green teas from pushing Korean tea into extinction, high tariffs are implemented on Asiatic teas. This allows Korean tea farms to remain competitive at least in their own country.

The second factor is social perception. Koreans are stupid. Not going to beat around the bush here about this fact. The entire society has a perception of quality based on pricing rather than what should be, which is a pricing mechanism based on quality. In layman's terms, the more expensive something is, the better it is. It really doesn't matter if it is actually better or not. Koreans are willing more for goods purely on the increase in price of that good. A $4 tea, even if it is exactly the same as $14 tea, is seen as inferior, and the $14 tea is bought more often, purely for that extra $10 price tag. Accordingly, having a higher price tag not only increases marginal profit but volume as well. Logic does not apply very well here, but when has logic ever been applicable to Koreans?

Anyways, I had a good laugh and I left and I went home and I drank tea that I brought from the states, the exact same teas I saw in that store but I bought for nothing.

Flat Earthers

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,403802,00.html
Believers in Flat Earth Not About to Change Minds

So I found this story and love how Flat-Earth Conspiracy theorists say ordinary people use the term flat-earther as some kind slur. I decided to give them a shot so I went to their website at http://theflatearthsociety.org/. I went to their forum at http://theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php and had a look at their FAQ. These guys apparently do have the answer to everything. For example,

Q: "Why do the all the world Governments say the Earth is round?"

A: It's a conspiracy

Q: "What about NASA? Don't they have photos to prove that the Earth is round?"

A: NASA is part of the conspiracy too. The photos are faked.

Q: "Why has no-one taken a photo of the Earth that proves it is flat?"

A: The government prevents people from getting close enough to the Ice Wall to take a picture.

or to explain spacial phenomena:

Q: "What about the stars, sun and moon and other planets? Are they flat too? What are they made of?"

A: The sun and moon, each 32 miles in diameter, circle Earth at a height of 3000 miles at its equator, located midway between the North Pole and the ice wall. Each functions similar to a "spotlight," with the sun radiating "hot light," the moon "cold light." As they are spotlights, they only give light out over a certain are which explains why some parts of the Earth are dark when others are light. Their apparent rising and setting are caused by optical illusions.

And of course, to explain how water works:

Q: "Why doesn't water run off the Earth?"

A: There is a vast ice wall that keeps the water where it is. The ice wall is roughly 150ft high. This also explains why you can find a vast plane of ice when you travel south.

Wow...

Well, just to put it out there, if you are a proponent of Intellectual Design and believe in "teaching the debate" or whatever bullshit they spout, I suppose we also need to make room for these guys too right?

The Monopoly money effect

I can't imagine I'm the only person with this problem, but my spending habit drastically changes when I am somewhere outside of the United States. I am very frugal when it comes to spending on myself when I am in the US, buying very little asides essentials such as food and water. I carefully make decisions on my purchases, weighing the benefit to cost ratio to avoid unwarranted purchases. But when I go to Korea or Japan or wherever, money doesn't figure into my thought processes. I just pay for whatever I feel like buying and go.

I've long come to the conclusion that the reason why this occurs is because non-dollar paper money does not seem like real money in my subconscious. Since the majority of my life is spent in the US and things such as cost of living expenses are done in dollar figures, those Andrew Jacksons and Benjamin Franklins seem like two hours of work or a hundred Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers from Wendy's or half a tank of gas. The money factors into my living standard.

But when I am in another country and using another type of currency, it seems like I'm just playing monopoly. This is the "monopoly money effect": the subconscious discounting of foreign currencies and disregarding it's actual valuation. Essentially, the money is just there for my convenience. The money I use in Korea isn't usable in the Ralph's, Target, or the Chipotle back home. It's disney dollars, only usable in disneyland. The Sejong Dewhangs (10000원 notes, the primary bill of use in the Korean cash economy) don't carry the same impressions on my normative valuation as ten bucks (the rough equivalent exchange into US currency) does. I'd probably take some back to the US as souvenirs if I didn't come here so god damn often. I know plenty of people who do that when they visit other foreign countries.

If I left America for good and started my life elsewhere, I'm sure the money of wherever I planted myself would feel "real" after a few weeks. But since I do not plan to do so in the near future, I'm afraid I will just continuously throw away my money during my stay wherever, not doing comparative shopping or thinking about the future implications of my spending today.

Ja?

Freud: The Problem is your penis and your mother. The Answer? It's your penis and your mother.

So Bush is apparently in Seoul right now, coming right after I came to Korea like some sick stalker. Protests are prominent and no one except the communists give a flying shit.

I'm dying here of dehydration. I am perpetually thirsty in this heat. I suppose it's unavoidable, it is Korea in the summer.

It's hot here in Korea

How hot is it? it's so hot, people are eating kimchee to cool down

...

It's so hot, People are giving their dogs baths outside, and others come by saying they smelled dog soup and wonder if they could have some.

...

It's so hot, people are risking getting killed by turning their fans on at night.

...

If only Korea was a woman, I might actually enjoy how every summer night makes me restless and sticky into the morning.