Been Watching Soccer/Football:

So I had to miss the Korea/Argentina game because of something more important: Koreabridge's discussion on workplace unions in Korea - worthwhile if you're an English teacher; check it out.

But the upshot is, I'm glad Korea made it to the round of 16, so that I get to go watch Korea play in the knockout round, and yeah, I'll wear my red horns, and yeah, I'll be mixing it up with the masses in City Hall.  It's an experience unlike anything you've ever had before.  What would it take to get 600 000 or 1 000 000 Canadians gathered in one place?  I can't think of anything, except a broom the size of Saskatchewan.

Because he helped me with the translation request from the last post, I'm totally pimping my buddy's blog: Korean Football.  Go read about the world cup there!

BTW I'm still looking for a few people who can help with English to Korean translations.


A few other thoughts about soccer (as we North Ameracaners call it)

1. It will always be the world's most popular sport, because any poor kid can take four rocks (goal posts) and something resembling a ball, and play a game of it.  The only other sports even CLOSE to requiring so little equipment are basketball and track and field.

2. It will NEVER be popular in North America, the way it is in the rest of the world, until players get penalized, I mean, really penalized, for falling at the slightest contact.  I like the rule suggested by an (american) sports columnist: if play has to be stopped because a player goes down, he has to sit out for ten minutes, no questions asked.  Substitution can be allowed, but he has to be off the field for ten minutes: if you're actually hurt, you need the ten minutes.  If you're not, you get up and suck it up.  As long as jokes like this (see video) are made about soccer, it won't gain traction in the continent of ice hockey, lacrosse, and 'Mercan Football.



3. It also will never be popular in North America because there are too many draws, and too many 1-0 games.

4. It doesn't need to be popular in North America.

5. In international competitions, I root against the USA, not because of the Canadian inferiority thing (that only kicks in when it's Canada vs. USA), but because if Brazil wins the world cup, it's a month-long party in Brazil.  If France, England, Argentina, etc. win it, it'll make that country's sports half-decade.  USA has SO many sports things going on, they don't NEED the world cup, too.  If US wins the world cup, most Americans will go "Yeah! Awesome!  Is Nascar on?" (or whatever their favorite sport is) and forget the world cup next time a baseball pitcher takes a perfect game into the 8th inning, or A-rod takes his shirt off in Central Park, or Terrell Owens comes out of the closet.

6. In the same way that bad horror movies are more watchable than bad movies of any other genre, blowouts are more watchable in soccer than any other sport I've seen.  Spain dismantling Honduras,  Portugal spanking North Korea, Germany handing Australia their jockstraps: a superb team in total control is actually fun to watch in Soccer (as long as they aren't slowing down the game).  In Hockey, the closer the game is, the better it is, and the more evenly matched the teams are, the more fun it is to watch, and blowouts are boring.  Most other sports, too.  In soccer, some of the evenly matched games were actually more boring, because each team just moved up and down the middle, and then took turns failing to penetrate the other side's defense.

Plus, the fact that a two goal game can count as a blowout, means that every once in a while, a team might dominate the ball, but concede a fluke goal or two that ends in a wacky result.  Mistakes are REALLY costly in soccer - it's the anti-tennis (tennis, where you can make dozens of unforced errors and still win).  That it all comes down to one game, and goals are so hard to come by, means that anything can happen.  (Go New Zealand!)

7. It's amazing how, even with a dozen players on the pitch per side, the stars somehow manage to assert themselves.  Somehow BECAUSE there are so many players on the field, they find ways to shine, which seems counterintuitive - you'd think they'd get lost in the crowd.

8. FC Barcelona have the best jerseys of any sports team I've ever seen.  Messi's fun to watch, but those jerseys are exactly my colors.  I want one.  I'll wear it to the new Manchester United bar in Jongno.

If you see me at the next game in City Hall, say hi.

Call for Translation Help...

Here's the skinny, dear readers: I need a hand.

My fiance's father will do a short speech on the day of the wedding, and my father will do wedding vows in English with me and Hyangju, during the wedding ceremony on Sunday, July 4. Because we'll have some guests who can't speak Korean, and some guests who can't speak English, I'd really like to hand out a program with an English translation of Hyangju's father's speech, and a Korean translation of my father's wedding vows and speech.

I'm sending this out to a bunch of my bilingual friends, because it's if I can find a bunch of people to help, I can just send one or two paragraphs to each person, and it won't be a big burden on anyone.  After I've gathered the parts back up, girlfriendoseyo and I will put them back together.

The translation doesn't have to be 100% accurate - it's a wedding, not an academic essay, so a "quick and dirty" translation will do - and I'll take the English translations and work them together so that they have a style that flows nicely, and Girlfriendoseyo will take the Korean translation of the English parts, and edit them so that they have smooth style as well.

If you help us, Girlfriendoseyo and I will take you out for dinner sometime and we'll eat something really nice, our treat of course, in appreciation.  Or I'll totally pimp your website, or tell my readers to buy what you're selling, or whatever.

If you're willing to donate a bit of your time in exchange for my gratitude, a bit of fame, and maybe a pint or two at wolfhound's, or some other delicious place, please e-mail me as quickly as possible at Roboseyo@gmail.com

Thank you, my wonderful readers and friends.

Wedding Approaching; expect light posting

It's hella hot, and hella hot makes me hella tired, because I don't have an air conditioner.  Meanwhile, I have about 300 emails to write in preparation for my wedding, which is mere weeks away.  Some important hurdles were cleared this week, and we got some big stuff out of the way... but there's always something else.

Anyway, my buddy Abhi asked me to remind you of the fundraising event for two Non-Profit Organizations - the facebook event is here, and it's a battle of the bands on June 26, so not only can you help out some orphans, but you get to go see some sweet live music.  http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=126367257393094 

Plus, on the facebook event page, I looked through the list of people who said they're attending, and most of them are very, dazzlingly good-looking.

Web Site Story

Nope, it's not about Korea, but Collegehumor made a video a while ago called "Web Site Story" that's all about our favorite websites.  (Warning: if you're not an internet nerd, you might miss some of the jokes).  Nerdy, but great -- West Side Story happens to be, along with "Singin' In The Rain," my favorite musical (yes, I have a favorite musical.  Deal with it.)  If you want to increase your nerd rating, you can also go through this list of the 100 most iconic viral videos.  You can find out your nerdity rating by counting how many of these videos you've already seen, plus half a point for each video you stop to watch while you go through the list.  My score is embarrassingly high.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

One more for good measure: search the internet the same way you watch World Cup Football Games.

recording mp3s

skype mp3 recorder audacity - runs heavy

Memo to Kumho Rent-a-Car: Get Your Act Together

This is unacceptable.  Kumhorent.com/en is useless.  Even stranger: the Korean page will open in multiple browsers, even though over 90% of Koreans DO use internet explorer, but the English page won't open in Chrome or Safari or Firefox, though more than 50% of internet users outside Korea use browsers other than Internet Explorer.

In google chrome:

in firefox (aka the world's most popular browser)

frozen like this for five minutes now, in Safari:

Totally unacceptable.

Took a few pictures

Took this picture out a building window on the day I ate pork poop-chute with Zenkimchi Joe.  (I was on TV, too... one of my students spotted me.)



Took this picture in a gardenny place near Ilsan, when I was out with the In-laws-to-be.


Also, took this picture at HUFS one night: they were setting up for a big festival.  The hanging umbrellas are a neat effect.



They also strung a walkway up with colored yarn.  This was a little inconvenient (especially for tall people), but it looked cool.


Took this picture at Tapgol Park during the Buddha's Birthday Lantern Festival: bumped into Chris in South Korea, and was wildly entertained by The Lady in Red (who's my second favorite K-blogger's Other Half right now, topped only by Girlfriendoseyo, of course).  Buddha's Birthday remains my favorite Korean Holiday, and the best party in downtown Seoul.  I've written blissfully about it before.


and I took this picture at the Chunggyecheon with my friend Kelly NameChangedForPrivacy, on Erection Day (haw haw haw)

Pride Parade in Seoul

There's a Pride Parade in Seoul this weekend.

From 11am-6pm, around the Cheonggyecheon area, you can check it out.

Here's the Korea Queer Culture Festival website.

Here's the facebook page for the event.

Here's the facebook page for the group.

Here's a brief look at acceptance of Queer culture in Korea (diagnosis: still pretty weak), from Popular Gusts.

And an article from 2008's Pride Parade, on OhMyNews (English).

and Kiss My Kimchi's write-up of the 2008 Parade

Concert Fundraiser... Mark your Calendar: June 26

Got a letter from a buddy of mine, who planted trees with me on Arbor Day (April 1) - a great experience I was too busy/lazy to post, but which was sweet: we went to Kookmin University, and planted trees on a path they'd closed, in order to reclaim it as forest.

Well, he's now planning a fundraiser concert for an orphanage in Suwon, and a North Korean refugee center in Ansan.  Worthy, worthy, worthy causes, both.

The event, called "ROK Concert-Fundraiser: Bands Battle with Molotov Vibrations" is a battle of the bands at Club FF in Hongdae, on June 26 - mark it in your calendars!  The Facebook page is here, and I really think you should go.

My buddy Abhi told me about it, and he's a seriously stand-up guy.  If you live in, or near Suwon, you want to be on his mailing or phone list, because he cares about helping people, and he knows places and ways that YOU can help people, too.

Rain's Bum Joke Bombs... but Congrats Anyway

Former Kpop/current Hollywood star Rain, owner of the most preposterously self-congratulating album cover I've ever seen:

Was voted "biggest badass" for "Ninja Assassin" at the MTV movie awards... and his acceptance joke TOTALLY bombs.

"They told me I was nominated for the bad ass award, so I've been working out.... (crickets chirp, two fangirls scream) why so serious?"


But we shouldn't be too hard on the man.

It was a noble effort, but his delivery was off: he would have gotten a better laugh if he'd turned around and lifted up his jacket tails or something.  This IS an MTV crowd, after all.  Frankly, I sympathize: delivering a joke in one's second language, especially a verbal joke (bad ass award - our man is PUNNING on national television!) is hella hard.  Good attempt at a recovery, too, with the 'why so serious'?

Anyway, congratulations, Rain.  Sorry about that flubbed punchline, but I hope you have lots of success, and more opportunities to show off your sixpack in Hollywood movies.

And in case you think Rain don't do funny, I refer you to the Stephen Colbert/Rain dance-off, in my opinion, one of the high points of the show, and of Kpop relevance in America.