The Stumbling Engineer

Culture Tuesday

2012-01-24T19:15:00.006+09:00

I got some culture in this lazy holiday - went to the theater. The Shin-Yeon Arts Hall, specifically. Chose a play at random, called "The Absurd Scandal".

That's a loose translation of the Korean title "기막힌 스캔들". That, in turn is a very liberal translation of the original title of this Marc Camoletti play "Pyjamas Pour Six", or even it's English title "Don't Dress for Dinner" (see also here). Despite growing up in and around theaters and drama folks, I have never heard if this play nor this playwright before. He apparently is famous for an earlier 1962 play called "Boeing Boeing" which ran for over 20 years, and to which this 1982 play is a sequel.

This section of Seoul has a bunch of small theaters, kind of a mini-arts district near Hyehwa Station on line 4. The play was a performed with just five actors and one set, however I noticed online that they rotate four cast members through each role, making a total cast of 20. The play ran about 1-1/2 hours, and kept the audience in stitches most of the time (it's a comedy). Even with my poor Korean, I was able to get about 1/3 of the language, and actually understood almost the entire story just from context and body language.

In a departure from the plays I've seen in America, the program or flyer didn't list the actors and actresses names (though they are listed on the website, and were also posted on a wall in the entrance hallway). Also, I noticed they spelled the author's name incorrectly ("Comoletti" instead of "Camoletti"), but at least they gave him credit. There was no intermission, I guess because this theater is so small there is no lobby. I made a rough count, and I'm guessing there is seating for 150 to 200 patrons.

This was a good experience, and reminded me a lot of seeing plays as a kid that my Dad was involved in as Technical Director or otherwise. I will definitely go back to this area and catch some more plays in the future.

Oh, and lots of good restaurants nearby.

Here's one which served spicy barbeque chicken, although I ordered a beef and seafood fried rice with cheese-filled-rice-cake "extra". Wow, it was great!

Humidity Wars

2012-01-23T13:25:00.001+09:00

It is that season again, time to begin my battle with the dry winter air. I've never used the heating in my home; somehow it absorbs heat, too much heat, from the neighboring homes. At least this is my theory. Consider today - it minus 7 degrees Centigrade outside, yet in my home it is nearly 27 degs!

I can't complain (too much) about this, but the dryness is another matter. Here you can see the indoor humidity is 33%, where I've read 40 to 60% is ideal. On occasion I've been able to get it just above 40. Today no such luck, despite both my humidifiers running full blast:

Looks like I'll be getting a third humidifier this season, or else my nose and throat are going to become fossilized.

What's this Cup Stuff?

2012-01-22T08:44:00.001+09:00

Coffee cups, that is. Or in my case, tea cups. I noticed my coffee pot labels indicate it holds 10 to 15 cups. I know they use a smaller than normal cup when defining the capacity, but I didn't get anywhere even close to 10 cups.

Finally I measured things, and here's the results. First of all, the pot fills up at 5-1/4 cups, or 42 fluid ounces. According to Wikipedia, the standard coffee cup unit of measure is 6 ounces. So that means only 7 "cups" in the pot. If we believe 10 to 15 cups per pot, thats only 4.2 or 2.8 oz per cup - mighty small if you ask me.

I measured the few coffee cups in my cupboard. I would say they are typical coffee cups, not huge or tiny. The measure between 8 and 10 ounces. This explains why I'm only getting FOUR cups from a 10 to 15 cup pot!

Interestingly, there isn't a universal standard for one cup. Again, according to Wiki, the cup varies all over the place. Extrapolating from common measures, it should be 236.59 grams. But US law declares a legal "cup" as 240 grams. Almost like the mythical story of Mississippi declaring pi to be 3.00. Leave the US, and definition of the "cup" is even more uncertain, if at all.

So grab a pint of beer, and let's toast the metric system. It's been around for more than one deca-score years, and can be easily mastered in one fortnight by even the slowest of students. Cheers!

Beef Butt

2012-01-08T06:13:00.001+09:00

Made a quick Costco trip yesterday, as always ignoring my number one Costco rule: Never ever go on a weekend! Bought a pack of the cheapest beef I could find (I'll be boiling it in soups or stews).

When I got home, I tried to translate the name. My dictionary said It was stupid or foolish! I finally found an excellent description of Korean beef cuts on the Seoul Eats blog.

According to this, I have the beef butt. A rump roast or round roast. I suppose this might refer to a fool...

Fresh Air

2011-12-26T21:55:00.002+09:00

Ran into this interesting article in today's paper. I feared things might get this bad, but it looks like it's for real:

SEOUL AIR TO BECOME EVEN CLEANER

SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonyap) Amid recent smoking restrictions, the Seoul City Council announced new “enhanced” measures to further protect citizens from the health effects of poor quality air - and not just from smokers! Phase one is called “Jump and Ride”. Beginning March 1st, buses will no longer be allowed to stop at center-street bus stops, thus minimizing exposure to hazardous exhaust fumes. Drivers will slow down to 10kph within 150m of the stop in both directions. A representative of the “Drivers' Union of Metropolitan Buses” says some drivers will complain about the new procedures, but most welcome the change, as it will protect the children and elderly.” The ban will expand to all bus stops from early June.

Phase two, called “No Poop, No Stink” begins on May 31, and is modeled after the successful 2007 Korean Animal Protection Act. Under this program, citizens will no longer be allowed to defecate in any public restroom, including office buildings, shopping malls, or any bathroom with more than one toilet stall. “The eradication of harmful sewerage gasses such as hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, methane, as well as dangerous bacteria, has long been the goal of the World Toilet Association”, says it's chairman Mr. Kim Seu-koop, who spearheaded these efforts from behind the scenes. “We knew we had to eliminate smoking first, but now it it time plunge ahead and attack the next biggest polluter of Korea's most beautiful toilet environments”. He also hints that flatulence, urination and expectoration will be on the blocks in future campaigns. “We considered starting with the ban on spitting this year, but frankly thought it would be too difficult for citizens to accept. So we only lobbied for a ban on defecation from this year”. Mr. Kim's dream is to see every restroom in Korea completely free from all bodily wastes, be they solid, liquid or gas. This ban will be expanded to all restrooms in Seoul of any size or location, public or private, by October. Similar legislation will be considered by the National Assembly this spring, to be implemented country-wide.

Another benefit of the legislation will be the creation of the new “Freshie Air Reinforcement Troops”. It will be manned by the thousands of retirees who were recently discharged from the Parking Lot Corps, as more and more building complexes became fully mechanized. The Chief of Staff of the Ajossi Ministry reports that all members will be transferred to the new organization with full benefits, and will retain their previous rank and pay grade. These heroic pioneers on the front lines against dangerous smells will be stationed at bus stops and toilets throughout Seoul, and are empowered to issue citations on-the-spot.

This new legislation, “Wind Like 10,000 Roses”, passed last Friday just before the Christmas Holiday. At the press conference today, Mr. Park Gung-ho, an official of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, said the new law is intended as a present to the people of Seoul. Mr. Park said the Council had considered the creation of a Yeouido Noxious Fume Offset Market, where citizens with fresh smelling bodily emissions could sell and trade. But this proposal didn't smell right to many legislatures, and was tabled until 2016.

SEOUL

Tapa De Botella, or 뚜껑

2011-12-14T09:14:00.004+09:00

Bottle caps. When I was 12 years old, my Mother took me on a trip to San Francisco for a conference, returning via Mexico City. Her story was that this was the last year I could fly on a discount children's air fare (do they even have those anymore?) When I was 12, I also had started a bottle cap collection in the basement. I gathered bottle caps from wherever I could find them, and stored them in this big cardboard cheese "box". Actually it was a huge circular box, and really sturdy - the cheese it once contained would have fed several families for a year. Naturally, I was excited for the opportunity to collect bottle caps from Mexico (or rather, "tapa de botella", as I called them, correctly or not). I particularly remember leaving Mexico, passing through the metal detector at the airport and setting off the alarms. The guard asked me if I had any metal on me, and I sheepishly emptied my pockets, which held about 1 liter of bottle caps each (it was a large, winter coat). I think that was a first for the security guards. They got a big laugh out of it, and let me through with my stash (today, bottle caps might be considered a concealed weapon).

Fast forward to last night, when I met up with my friends Tuttle and Gargamel for dinner. We began eatcing some delicious lamb meat skewers, where we set next to the manager at the Coca Cola office, who has been working there since it's beginning in Korea. Tuttle and I couldn't pass on this opportunity to complain about the scarcity of Diet Coke here in Korea, and the nastiness of the more common Coke Zero. We'll see if our complaints amount to action, but I won't be holding my breath.

After dinner, we visited a new HOF called "The Beer Bottle Cap". This place is really unusual for Korea, and was great. The decor is simple, wooden tables and benches. One wall is lined with coolers of beer, sorted by price, and from every country in the world. A few simple snacks are available (we had a bowl of Cheese Balls), but most guests order food from outside restaurants by delivery! As Gargamel pointed out, it's a much different business model than the typical places, and it seems to be working very well, judging by the crowd.

I've since lost the bottle cap collection passion that I had as a young boy. And The Stumbling Brother disposed of my cheese box of bottle caps many years ago when cleaning up the basement. But after last night, I may need to return to my old hobby. But first, I need to buy and eat 100 pounds of cheese...

Measuring with Anchor

2011-11-26T21:28:00.003+09:00

One of my recent projects involves an electronic weight scale, and I've been using various items for rough calibration. I thought I was onto a "Great Milk Conspiracy" when I discovered that my 1 liter bottles of milk only contained 950 cc. But upon further investigation, it turns out that my trusty Anchor Hocking Company measuring cup (bought from a Walmart, in Hawaii I think) is not accurate! After lots of head scratching, I finally weighed various levels of water on a commercial, precision scale. You can see the data here:

Bottom line, there seems to be an offset to the printed scale - for kitchen purposes let's call it 10 cc. For scientific purposes, I would say don't use this - get an accurate graduated cylinder or beaker instead. Well, at least I have solved the milk mystery. Next, I'm going to solve the rice conspiracy (5 out of 5 bags of 1Kg bags weigh EXACTLY 990 grams)...

We'll Always Have Paris...

2011-10-21T06:43:00.004+09:00

...NOT. Since I've lost some weight over the past couple of years, my pants have been getting looser and looser. Especially my nice wool pants, which I got from my tailor in Itaewon - Paris Tailors. Since I remember he told me alterations would be free, I've been threatening to take them in for some time now. But during the summer it was too hot to worry about wool pants. I finally got up to Itaewon last night.

But I arrived in front of the tailor shop, only to be totally confused. Instead of a tailor shop, there were two men grilling meat out in front of a Turkish restaurant. This was not a good sign. I tried to ask the men what happened to the tailor, and they couldn't speak English. One guy was about to run get the owner, but I told him never mind - I thought that three Turkish men who didn't speak English wouldn't be any better.

So I tried to find the phone number by calling my colleage CH, and also searching on my smartphone. After about 15 minutes of research, I found the number. Called it, but it was not a tailor at the number. I was about to give up hope, and decided on a whim to just pick a nearby tailor at random and ask him what happened. The Paris Tailor had been around for almost 20 years, it seemed unlikely they would close. I was guessing instead they had moved. If not, at least the random tailor I chose could alter my pants.

I must note something about this short section of street. In just this one front, there used to be 4 tailors, let's call them A, B, C, D, and E (Paris Tailor was A). I was about to walk into tailor E, but he looked busy. Instead I went into tailor E and asked him for help. He immediately realized the problem, and informed me that Paris Tailor had really closed. However, they had sold they customer list to another shop across the street, the "London Tailor". He sent me there to have my pants altered.

I arrived at the London Tailor, and the fellow was very confused. He basically told me I was crazy, that they had no relationship to the old Paris Tailor. Furthermore, he told me that there was no way he would alter clothing made anywhere else but his shop - even if I paid an alteration fee! So even more confused, I headed back to tailor D one more time, if only to tell him he was quite mistaken about the Paris Tailor customer list.

When I confronted tailor D with this information, he immediately apologized and explained his confusion. Apparently, TWO tailor shops had recently closed on that street front, shops A and B. B's customers were transferred to London Tailor, but Paris' customers it turns out were transferred to tailor C. Unbelievable. At least it was close, literally two doors down. The fellow personally escorted me to the tailor shop to explain things.

Now here's where the story get really strange - as we're walking on the street, who do we see in front of us but the former owner of Paris Tailor - WHO IS NOW THE OWNER OF THE TURKISH RESTAURANT! I never could get a straight answer as to why he closed the tailor shop and opened a restaurant, but at least he went along with us to tailor C and took care of everything for me. So, tailor C now has my pants to be altered, and I should get them back Monday or Tuesday.

Does anyone recommend a new tailor? I'm not sure I'll continue using this tailor C or not, but frankly it doesn't really matter for now. I very rarely use a tailor, and I've never even had a suit made. At most, I expect I might have get some shirts in the next 12 months, although even those I might mail order from the USA. It's kind of sad to see a 20-year old business close. But in the scheme of things, there are just too many tailors there in Itaewon.

A Pair of Orsons

2011-09-29T06:57:00.004+09:00

Somehow this obscure thought came to light during dinner with friends this week - I used to get these guys confused:

Orson Welles:

Orson Bean:

One was morbidly obese, one was morbidly thin. To be fair, looking at some photos from their younger days, the contrast isn't so striking:

And if we can believe Wikipedia, Mr Bean is still alive. All this thinking about Orsons reminds me that I've never seen Citizen Kane...

Tiger Farts

2011-09-07T22:29:00.005+09:00

I got a fresh supply of Tiger Balm last week (more on that later). Although you can smell me coming from 4 blocks away, this stuff is great for my back aches. I happened to unfold the impossibly thin piece of paper that comes in the box, and among the 2 dozen languages I found some English instructions:

FLATULENCE???? I can't begin to imagine. Well, actually, I did have one vague idea: if you apply enough of this cream to your body, you will smell like a menthol/camphor factory. Perhaps that would mask even the worst possible gaseous emissions? I'm still puzzled about the dizziness, any ideas?

Those who like these unusual claims, I've written about two similar ones before:

Sansachun wine bottles

sliced bread at a local bakery chain

Democraziness - TNSTAAFL

2011-08-26T05:40:00.006+09:00

Now I don't follow politics very closely, not in the USA, and even less here in Korea. However, there was an election held this week in Seoul over a controversial law to require free lunches for all school children, poor or not. But that isn't the reason for this post.

This law was opposed by many, including the Seoul city mayor. Presumably he was so opposed to it, he spearheaded a referendum, giving the citizens an opportunity to overturn the law. Not content with that, he then announced that if the referendum fails to repeal the law, he would resign his post as mayor. But even that isn't the reason for this post.

The election was held on Wednesday, and indeed it failed to repeal the law. In fact, it failed to even attain the necessary 33% of voter turnout necessary to make the results valid. But I believe THE REAL STORY was buried in was the following tidbits from the news coverage of the election.

1. The folks opposing the referendum to repeal the law (folks who support the law) were ACTIVELY CAMPAIGNING FOR CITIZENS TO NOT VOTE !!!!!!! This is absolutely unbelievable. Don't these parties have an obligation, implied or explicit, to support the very basic form of their government? Or at least, not to subvert it? It seems astounding that any citizen of a democracy would encourage citizens NOT to vote. It's one thing to promote your cause, but it's another to encourage citizens to abandon their most fundamental civic responsibility. If that's not illegal, well maybe it ought to be.

2. It gets better. Apparently, the rules of the election are such that if the threshold of 33% isn't met, THE VOTES AREN'T EVEN COUNTED! That, too, seems crazy. Maybe it's the engineer in me, but who wouldn't want to know data like this? It might or might not be helpful. But you won't know unless you count them. Say for example the results showed that 99% of the voters were on one side or the other. Isn't this something that the officials would want to be aware of? You can never have too much data.

I don't really have a strong opinion about the whole free school lunch program. It seems entirely reasonable to provide lunches to students from poor families, indeed it seems this has been the case, even before this new law. I'm not really opposed to the concept of free lunches for everyone, but with limited government funds (which I hear is the case), I'm not sure it would be extremely high on my priority list. Furthermore, I've learned to be suspicious of things which are supposedly "free". TNSTAAFL, as Robert Heinlein wrote years ago ("There's No Such Thing As A Free Lunch").

I will say that throughout this whole school lunch controversy, it is painfully obvious to me that the fight HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FREE SCHOOL LUNCHES. The whole reason for this supposed crisis was that the current system provides free lunches to children from poor families, but it makes them ashamed to be seen by their friends getting lunches for free. If that's the only problem at hand, then the solution is obvious - issue prepaid lunchroom cards to everyone. Parents who could pay would, the government would pay the others. Any Korean could immediately come to this conclusion after one minute's thought. Koreans use electronic cards like this for nearly everything in their daily lives - subway and bus cards, parking lot cards, there are even cards like this built into many cell phones, not to mention the ubiquitous credit cards. No, the fact that such a program was not quietly implemented in the first place tells me that this whole circus was for some other reason. And since I don't follow politics, I couldn't even begin to speculate what that reason might be.

I've had my say. I know a lot of crazy things go on in politics all around the world, sometimes behind the scenes, sometimes out in the open. But this really pegged my absurd meter.

Read My Lips

2011-05-29T22:55:00.003+09:00

An interesting buzz in the news this week was the proposal by lawmakers to make it illegal for performers to lip-sync, although apparently there is an exception when the performer informs the audience in advance. This of course got lots of people talking. I think I heard at least three different discussions of this topic on the radio, and that's just on the English station.

I tend to agree with the majority of the people I've heard, that is, the this is NOT an area where legislation is needed. However, if the government must legislate this for some reason, I think the law should be reversed. That is, it would be assumed that everyone IS lip-syncing, and require artists to announce when they are singing live.

For some reason, this silliness brings to mind these phrases from an old Tom Lehrer song,

Yes, now that he’s a senator,
he’s really got the chance
To give the public
A song and dance!

Speed Racer

2011-05-02T06:54:00.005+09:00

"The difference between men and boys is the size (and expense) of their toys".

I wandered across the street on Sunday, and noticed a large crowd out in front of the Technomart. On closer inspection, it was racecars! Not real racecars, but radio controlled cars.

The first race was pretty tame. But a later race was really cut-throat. Cars were crashing into each other, rolling over, and there were several complete wipe-outs. Unlike real car racing, apparently doing a couple of barrel rolls doesn't faze these cars. I remember one mini-cooper (car #7) rolled two or three times in the air, landed "feet down" like cat, and just kept on racing. This happened several times in just a few minutes.

Not Simian

2011-04-18T07:07:00.005+09:00

I decided to take a walk yesterday. I was tempted to go up around Yeouido and see the cherry blossoms, but I heard on the radio that they are running busses from out of town to bring people to that park. I decided to stay away. But instead, I took a walk along Do-Rim-(trickle of a)-Stream running by my neighborhood. This is a minor stream which runs into the larger trickle called Anyang Stream, which itself empties into the Han River near that strange tiny island near the Niagara Hotel.

Despite some bridge building construction which I couldn't quite figure out (was it for pedstrians, trains, or cars) the stream-side walk was really pleasant. The walking "park" was almost the same calibre as those along the Han River, complete with the same heavy, fear-inspiring bicycle traffic. I took to the stream walk a few weeks ago, when we had another false-start of Spring, going the opposite direction to the south. That walk was really interesting, because it was almost underground. Most of the walkways were recessed and gave an almost cave-like experience. This walk to the north was much more open. And, I still got to see the cherry blossoms. Just like the Anyang Stream walkway when I lived in Mokdong, they have an elevated, tree-lined walkway parallel to the stream walkway below. Very relaxing.

Many of the parks and walkways here in Korea have these public exercise stations. I stopped at one yesterday, spent a few minutes on each of the various machines, some of which really scare me. Not because of my poor fitness level, but rather because of my poor coordination. Some of these machines are quite easy to operate, but I can so easily see myself slipping and flying off into the concrete. One which simulates huge walking strides which standing still comes to mind. I did find one I really liked, kind of an eccentric (off-center, not strange) body twisting apparatus.

What nearly DID kill me was not the exercise area, but instead an innocent set of monkey bars along the tree-lined walkway. "Oh, monkey bars!" I thought to myself, "These bring back such happy memories from elementary school". That should have been a warning, not being simian nor an elementary school student. Rather, I'm an overweight man with back problems. Cautiously, I approached the bars, grabbed the first one, and started a gentle swing. Not gentle enough, it seems. I was not prepared for what happened next. I felt an incredible stretch somewhere along the sides of my back, almost like something snapped! I immediately ceased all monkey activity. Actually, I think the stretching would have been great, had it been administered slowly (like from midieval rack torture). But coming in one sudden jerk as it were, I'm still feeling it this morning, almost 24 hours later.

Dog owners here tend to pamper their dogs. And small dogs seem to be most popular (I guess small dogs go better in small homes with no yards). I've seen well-groomed dogs, dogs with hair-dyed ears and/or tails, and even dogs wearing clothes. I have even heard stories about The Stumbing Aunt's dog wearing a backpack. But for the first time, I saw a dog wearing walking shoes!

Less is More

2011-04-03T11:18:00.006+09:00

Well, I finally got out to the Museum that I almost visited back on New Year's Day. (I wrote about back in February). I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I really enjoyed it. The exhibit featured the design work of Dieter Rams, a German industrial designer. He worked for many years for the Braun company, and it is said that his followers used his design techniques and philosophies in the design of the Apple iPhone.

It should be clear from the title of the exhibit, "Less is More", that he espouses a simplistic, minimalist design. As an engineer, I've always wanted more and more functions on a product. The more buttons, dials, meters, displays, the better. But the elegance of his designs, convinces me otherwise. That, and years of operating OTHER people's products which were too complicated to understand. I definitely plan to read more about him and his design style.

Let start with the most astounding design, in my opinion. I have not been able to find any details about it, and unfortunately my cell phone camera didn't catch enough detail to read the label. I call it the "one button TV set"

Here are some other photos from the exhibit:

Let me also say it is a bit unsettling to be in a mueseum exhibit, and see products that you remember seeing on the store shelves as a child. Make of that what you will.

Organization Help

2011-03-31T16:18:00.005+09:00

From grade school, I am familiar with the Dewey Decimal System way to classify books in the library.

I am aware of, though not familiar with, the Library of Congress, which has it's own catalog system for books.

And in the world of computer file organization (which is where I'm heading with this), we have the traditional Unix/Linux style directory structure

And of course the Microsoft directory structure, which I've tried to use for years now without any real success at organization. This must come to an end.

I have half a dozen disk drives containing files, some of import, some just old backups. This happens as I change computers every couple years it seems. The old backups keep piling up. This isn't even counting the boxes of zip discs and floppy discs that I reluctantly had to throw away a few years ago.

I want to orgnaize this better. I've looked at all these aforementioned systems, and none of them seem to be the right fit for my files. The Unix/Linux might be close, but it doesn't go far enough. I'm afraid the various Library systems might me too detailed, but not sure. I would like to be given a suitable framework, and then I can move everything over. Ideas?

The Idleness of March

2011-03-21T07:13:00.008+09:00

Nothing really exciting has been going on these days to post. This week was a little more active. First, I met up with Ben and Sandy for some Galbi in Itaweon, followed by a long overdue visit to Trevor at his new pizza place, Beer O'Clock Pizza (review here). Had a fun time, and met his French pizza chef Julian. Despite my four years of French studies in my younger days, I couldn't catch a single word of Ben and Julian's carrying on in French.

Business must be good - several times during our visit he had to hop his scooter and rush the pizza order to the customers. We just had some garlic fingers, having just eaten dinner. But I'll go back soon and order something hearty - probably my favorites, the BBQ Chicken. Or I wonder if I could convince Trevor to learn to make CiCi's famous BBQ pizza???

My friend Tuttle told me there was a free pre-season baseball game on Saturday. It was a last minute decision, but I decided to go join him and his friend Nick. This was only my second time to see the Heroes at the Mokdong stadium. And it was quite a let-down. Not the team, although losing 10-1 might be considered a let-down unless you follow the team closely. But I mean the stadium itself. First of all, looks like they had been changing all the stadium seats. One might thing that was a good thing, and it was, to a point. The seats were comfortable, wider, and in great condition - in the completed sections of the stadium, that is! Only about 30% of the seats had been installed. The remaining 70% of the "seating" was bare concrete, closed off with ropes and closely monitored by well trained and uniformed seating police.

Furthermore, the sections between first base, home place, and third base were among the sections roped off. So everyone had to sit way out along the outfield (well after we were seated, we noticed they had suddenly opened those sections - not sure if people were sitting on concrete or what...)

The other complaints include no food or drinks being sold in the stadium, either from people walking around nor any of the 650 shops lining the stadium. Obviously we missed the memo on that one. Fortunately, we contacted Nick who was en-route, and he managed to scrounge us three kimbaps, some beef jerky, dried squid, and beers on the way. It was an interesting lunch. Despite all this lack of food, it was amazing to see nearby Koreans feasting on huge meals of hamburgers, pizzas, fried chicken, and of course Ramyen noodles. I have no idea where all this food was coming from, but they must have brought it in from well outside the immediate neighborhood.

Just an observation, when I was a kid, I rememeber my Grandparents had a number of thin cushions for using at the ball park. I remember them having the name of a gas station, so I'm assuming they were given out with a fill-up. Here's one I could find online, for the Arkansas Razorbacks:

What surprises me is that I didn't see anything similar here at the Korean ballpark. It isn't because they don't want to carry stuff to the game - witness the plentiful food, and one fellow seated in front of us even brought a Hello Kitty scooter with him! It isn't like these cushions are unknown to Koreans - almost every home and restaurant have them, for sitting on the floor (bang-seok, or 방석). Maybe there's a business opportunity there for the enterprising cushion salesman...

On the positive side, it was a beautiful day and the weather couldn't have been nicer. (I'm using my Blogger Writer's License to ignore the yellow dust level, which rose from Unhealthy For Sensitive Groups, to just plain Unhealthy, to Very Unhealthy and Hazardous during the course of the game).

The restrooms were among the cleanest I've seen in a baseball stadium, or indeed in Korea. I'm guessing they were recently renovated as well, along with the new stadium seating. Fortunately all the plumbing fixtures had been installed, except for the hot water heater. There was even soap!

As for the game, not being a huge sports fan, I can't comment well. I think Tuttle summed it up well when he said "the Heroes "magic" is still with us this season".

Finally, Nick reports that a new stadium (with a full dome) will be opening soon neraby in Guro. I can't find the opening date online, but I see reports from the project's onset which said it would be open in time for the 2011 season. I was told Saturday that the season opens April 2nd, so if it's not finished now, looks like it maybe the 2012 season! That will make two ballparks nearby, Mokdong and Guro.

Time Lapse

2011-03-11T08:35:00.003+09:00

No, not a drunken black-out (what would be called a "film-cut" in Konglish). But rather, I had a sudden urge to make a time lapse movie from my apartment window. I have no idea what caused this sudden desire. Nor do I have any special technical knowledge about HOW to make a time lapse movie. Did that deter me? Not in the least.

I have a movie camera I occasionally use for work, so I brought it home and set it up on a tripod looking out the window. So far, so good. Then I searched online for time lapse photography along with the model of my movie camera. To my surrpise, I found that one of the features newly introduced when my camera came out was time lapse photography! I was in luck. I just pressed a few buttons, and off it went. I chose the 80-second mode, which means it captures one frame every 80 seconds. Normal video is at 30 frames per second, so in the 80-sec mode, 24 hours works out to be 36 seconds of video (my video is a little shorter, because I didn't let it run a full 24 hours).

Enjoy my silly movie, but don't expect to see me accepting any Academy Awards anytime soon.

Spinal Liberation

2011-02-23T08:09:00.007+09:00

Speaking of The Stumbling Mother, this article caught my attention recently. Japan has been slow coming to the ebook table, and a cottage industry has sprouted up. People's homes are overcrowded with books, and they are taking matters into their own hands - by scanning their books and converting them to electronic, PDF format! The company featured in the article charges just over one dollar to scan a book. Even though there are an estimated 60 such companies, there is still a 4-month waiting list to get your books scanned! This is amazing. I hope it catches on. Could this be the modern-day microfiche? I'm looking forward to seeing some of these companies start up in Seoul. Ah, the reason this reminded me of TSM, is that she would have been one of their top customers. I, too, have inherited the ~~book~~ pack-rat gene from her.

For anyone interested in this technology, I found a few other cool links. This Japanese scientist has invented a machine which non-destructively scans a 200-page book in 1 minute! For the do-it-yourself-er, this fellow put together his own system at home. He doesn't say the total scanning time, although he says the processing takes about as long as it takes him to turn the page. But still, he must have a lot of patience. And finally, I like this term from the Wikipedia article on book scanning, under the section of destructive scanning:"...once liberated from the spine...[the pages can be scanned using standard equipment]".

To spinal liberation...

Of Oil and Hangnails

2011-02-19T14:46:00.003+09:00

The Lunar New Year was just celebrated here in Korea, indeed all over Asia. As for me, I enjoyed working in a very quiet city for a few days. Almost no people, no traffic, and unfortunately almost no restaurants were open, either. Koreans give all sorts of gift sets for this holiday, such as the SPAM gift set which I delivered to The Stumbling Brother a few years ago. Well, this year one of our kind colleagues Mr. H delivered a Holiday Gift set to me - three large bottles of Grape Seed Oil! Not sure whether that ranks above or below SPAM (can it get any lower than SPAM?). But now I'm all set for my cooking oil needs for the next year or more.

I always have trouble with my fingernails, specifically the skin around the edges. Working with electronics, I'm always scratching or damaging my nails. I haven't had good luck trying to repair the damage with nail clippers, my teeth, or even wire cutters, either. So finally last week, I was walking by a fingernail manicure shop in the "Techno-Mart" shopping center near my home. Actually, it is hard NOT to walk by such shops - there seems to be a huge demand for nail care in my neighborhood, witness by the 3 dozen nail shop found on the B1 level alone!

So, I stopped and got into a discussion with the owner about my cracked and broken hangnails. Using body language and my partial understanding of Korean, she explained that it was simple. She gave me a complimentary nail file, and explained what to to. This file was smoother than any I had seen before (I suppose not to sand away all your skin). She told me to file the skin with this file, but to coat the file with oil first. My eyes lit up so brightly when I heard that. As you know, I am the proud new owner of 3 large bottles of Grape Seed Oil. But, when I explained my plan, she told me I had to use Baby Oil, not cooking oil. So, I've added one more bottle of (Baby) oil to my collection. And I have nearly hangnail-free fingers, too.

The Stumbler is not a sissy, and wants to emphatically deny any rumors that he was recently seen receiving a manicure at the Techno-Mart....

A Walk with Mom

2011-02-19T14:25:00.002+09:00

First, I want to welcome myself back to my blog. I was unusually busy the last half of 2010 with work. Then The Stumbling Mother suddenly became ill, and passed away after 5 long weeks in the hospital. My life is slowly returning to normal, and it is time for blogging to resume. I will start off by posting a short memory I wrote about Mom back on the New Years Day weekend.

I decided to get some culture this weekend. There was an exhibit at a museum which interested me, so I took off towards downtown on this clear, crisp first day of 2011. In the back of my mind, I heard my Mother teasingly scolding me for living in a city full of galleries and museums but rarely visiting them. But surely she was happy that I was going to a museum, relaxing and taking a break from work. I walked around searching for the museum (there are dozens and dozens in this area, so it can be a search). Again my Mother was with me, as I recalled her spotting a small sign in this very area, "Silk Road Museum, 300m". She just had to visit, no matter that the 300m was entirely uphill. We had better luck on that day compared to today - at least the Silk Road Museum was open. This museum I tried to visit today was closed. I don't know if it was becase of New Years Day, or because the exhibit was not yet open. Not to get too discouraged, I stopped at a coffee shop and regrouped. Sipping my coffee, I remembered just how fun that unexpected 300m uphill walk turned out. The tiny museum featured relics collected along the silk road, collected by the owner herself. We were the only visitors, and received a personal tour by the owner. She even served us hot tea. These unplanned stops can be as rewarding or more so than the planned ones.

I then decided to take a random detour to nearby Insadong. Took a stroll up and down the artsy (and touristy) street, and once again I could hear my Mother shouting at me to wait up, while she went shopping at the 15th pottery store of the day. I passed a store displaying the beautiful long scroll paintings, just like Mom brought back to America to adorn her walls. Next on the street I saw the old tea shoppe sign. Again I was hearing my Mother as she insisted that we stop there, because her friend Tom had told her this tea shoppe had monkeys. None of us believe her story, until we finally asked the owner, whose face lit up when she told us that not only did they used to have monkeys, but racoons as well! We never should have doubted you, Mom. Then I passed the silly oil-can-man, who had posed for a photo with me and Bill while Mom snapped the picture.

Finally for dinner I ate at a Vietnamese restaurant, and ordered the rice paper wraps (lots of chopped vegies which you wrap in rice paper and then dip in sauce). As they brought out the food, I heard Mom telling me how delicious it looked, and how were were planning to enjoy this very meal together on her next trip so Seoul. I thought to myself, "Mom, you won't be able to visit Seoul anymore". But then I realized, she had been visiting with me all day.

Thanks, Mom, for joining me on this first day of 2011. I love you.

Hellstate

2010-12-12T16:11:00.002+09:00

You might have missed this interesting article, which I found by accident in a report on the latest news from the Korean construction industry. The article didn't have any photos, but I found this amazing drawing from the referenced Tokyo project (click to enlarge):

Here is the article:

New Hyundai Apartment Complex Announced

Dec 7, Seoul, South Korea. In response to concerns here in Seoul over the recent shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, the Hyundai Engineering and Construction group announced today an addition to their successful Hillstate brand of apartment complexes. The new brand, “HellState” will be an underground complex of apartment buildings, completely safe from any North Korean artillery. The plan is already being heralded here by Korean industry insiders a sure winner of the 2010 Worlds Best Deepest Deluxe Dungeon Class of modern living award. It was quickly noted that because they are underground, these buildings will not be subject to Seoul city building height requirements – many complexes will be over 100 stories deep.

The design was rapidly dusted off from the archival vaults here late last month after the surprise North Korean attack. The original founder of the Hyundai group, Chung Ju-Yung, had completed an almost identical design in 1931. An architectural genius at only 15 years of age, he was conscripted by the Japanese to design an underground living complex. The “DepthScraper” was being planned in response to the devastating Tokyo earthquake in 1923, in which over 100,000 people died. Sadly that project was never completed. Due to a pre-war shortage of rubber, there weren't enough erasers for the draftsmen to finish the detailed designs, and the project had to be scrubbed.

Due to the political situation in the North, Hyundai company management has put the project on a Fast Track schedule. Initial housing orders will be accepted from the first day after the Lunar New Year. Prospective buyers are invited to a newly constructed sales office and demo home currently under construction on Yeonpyeong Island, exactly 200 meters underneath the largest shell crater. The locations of the new complexes are still under consideration, but at least two are rumored to be planned for Gangnam, and several in Paju. Hyundai engineers boldly envision the cityscape of Seoul will be quickly buried by a vast underground terrascape, leaving the remaining above-ground structures to be converted into parking lots and barber shops.

The only downside is the cost, which will be about 2000% higher than the typical apartment in Seoul. “We are asking people to consider their family's safety first, and to just dig deeper in their wallets to pay these increased prices”, said a company spokesman. Residents who want to survive the next North Korean onslaught are encouraged to contact their nearest Hillstate sales office for further information.

Kimchi Washer

2010-10-18T07:29:00.005+09:00

Another Korea Sparkling invention, this time from the home appliance division of LG Electronics:

Yeouido, Seoul: Friday, October 15 - 2010:

Just in time for the annual kimchi-making season (gimjang), LG Electronics announced Friday the latest revolution in Korean home appliances: the Kimchi Washing Machine. An addition to the popular All-In-One Washer/Dryer series (WD family), the new Washer/Dryer/Kimchi series (WDK family) will be an instant hit among young Koreans who are too busy to make their own kimchi the traditional way. "We have clearly demonstrated by today's announcement that Korea is the Universal Worldwide International Hub of Convenient Cabbage Cooking Combined with Clothes Cleaning Technology," said company spokesman Mr. Chi-jjan Kim.

Instead of working for hours washing and soaking the cabbages, the new WDK machines automate the kimchi making process at the push of a button. Simply fill the washing machine with fresh cabbages, add salt instead of laundry soap, and add shrimp paste in the fabric softener resevoir. Then select "KIMCHI-MODE" on the dial and press START. After six hours, the machine alerts the operator to add red pepper paste, oysters, spring onion, garlic and ginger. Two hours later, the cycle is complete.

Customers will not be worried about cleanliness, either, with the innovative PKCC (Pre-Kimchi Cleaning Cycle). One bottle of soju and 1 kg of powdered red pepper are added to the washer's tub, where it is mixed with steam to kill all bacteria and germs, in addition to SARS, Mad Cow Disease, and AIDS. This results in A World's Best Sterile Environment for your kimchi. "I used to bend over the tub of cabbages for hours and hours", says Mrs. Park, mother of 3 children in Daechi-dong. "This is the best time-saving appliance I've seen in years, even better than the electric watermelon seed remover I bought this summer, and much better than my battery-powered chopsticks". Mrs Jang, housewife and mother of 2 in Seocho-dong, said "Not only is this kimchi easy to make and delicious, but there is extra bonus on laundry day, too! For two weeks afterward, my husband is surrounded by a wonderful aroma of garlic and red pepper everywhere he goes. He is the envy of every colleague - it just makes me so proud."

In an unexpected sober moment, spokesman Kim added these comments to the otherwise festive event: "This technology was very difficult to develop, and came at a steep price within the cephalopod community. In the beginning, our engineers worked unsuccessfully for 4 years on a combination washing / nakji-bokkum (spicy fried octopus) machine. During this time, countless octopusses sacrificed their lives, in order to better the condition of Korean housewives." Mr. Kim paused to dry the tears from his cheeks, and then continued: "Finally, one day last year, senior engineer Mr. Boo-la Bae was cleaning octopus pieces from the floor. Suddenly, just like so many errant octopus legs had hit his head before, he was struck with an idea: let's try automated kimchi instead! The result is the exciting new technology we present today."

The new Kimchi Washers have been released first in front-loading models, available in stores beginning next week. This feature will be added to top-loading models in early 2011. And to further ease household burden, the optional T4A (Ttong-To-Ttong Transfer Accessory) is available. Using LGE's patented Kimchi-Krane technology, it will automatically move the finished kimchi from the washing machine to your kimchi refrigerator. Look for these products at your local appliance mart today.

Friendship Force

2010-10-07T11:04:00.005+09:00

I had a great chance to meet a group from the "Friendship Force" clubs of Alabama and Hawaii, travelling to Korea over the next couple of weeks. I escorted them from the airport to their overnight hotel, and then got them safely onboard the KTX train to Gwangju this morning. Things went almost as smoothly as I had planned, although we had to improvise on a few ocassions. They will have a wonderful trip, I am sure.

All gathered at the airport, waiting for some flights from Hawaii to arrive.

At the train platform, waiting for the train.

Finally, it arrived. Full speed ahead!

Blinking Aircon

2010-09-10T19:35:00.003+09:00

My air conditioner is acting up. It is old, and despite being checked several times, it doesn't cool the house down very quickly - in fact, it takes hours. The solution offered to me by the maitenance men was simple - just leave it on all the time. Ignoring the energy waste, there turns out to be one problem with that solution. Not only is the unit not strong, it randomly turns itself off. So often I will come home to the apartment well over 30 degrees, and it will take 3 or 4 hours to cool it down.

So finally I had a huge pow-wow with the aircon A/S man and the building maintanance men. Lots of checking, phone calls to the repair center, not taking, voltage and current measurements, and the result? They don't know what is wrong.

But wait - the unit has a diagnostic function built in. When it turns itself off, it will blink one of two LED lamps (the right or the left one), some number of times - say once, twice, or maybe three times. If I note this error code, they will know what is wrong. Seems easy?

Well, it only blinks this code for 1/3 of a second!!!!! I have to catch it JUST as it is turning off. Since it only turns off maybe 1 or 2 times per day, it will be next to impossible. Oh well, I'm going home now to watch the aircon.

Translation: aircon = air conditioner
A/S = After Service = After Sales Service
30 deg C = 86 deg F

Kompasu - Take 2

2010-09-07T10:49:00.002+09:00

As I came back to the office Monday morning, I noticed small leaves and branches on my desk. I just assumed that for some reason, someone had put a plant on my desk temporarily while I was away. But later, we got a phone call from a neighbor, who said that my outdoor TV antenna was missing!

The window next to my desk has a plastic panel with insulating foam, held in place by strong duct tape. This panel holds the exhaust hose for our small office air conditioner. Well, on further inspection, the duct tape has come loose in the typhoon winds, and that was the source of the leaves and sticks. Gotta get some stronger tape, and a new TV antenna.

Typhoon Kompasu

2010-09-06T09:03:00.006+09:00

With near-perfect timing, I departed for a short vacation to Jeju Island just as Typhoon Kompasu was nearest to the island. In fact, I was one of the last flights from Gimpo to Jeju that day - my friend JI was on a later flight which was cancelled. Imagine the excitement of landing in a 100MPH crosswind. The ground track on approach was nearly 45 degrees to the runway! Fortunately, Kompasu passed quickly, and I enjoyed mostly clear skies for the rest of the trip. And I missed all the excitement such as eletricity outages, wind damage, and subway closures here in Seoul. Don't ask me if it's a typhoon or a hurricane - I'm confused about the terminology. I would call it a hurricane, but they call it a typhoon. I'm not going to buck the wind... (As I heard it, KOMPASU is the romanization of how the Japanese pronounce the English word COMPASS).

Very briefly, I really enjoyed the trip. Jeju reminds me a lot of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands, which I have visited often over the past 10 years. It is about the same size, has very similar vistas, and I got the same lazy island feeling. Surprisingly, it seems Jeju is much more populated, 300 people per square km, versus 40 for Kauai. I wouldn't have guessed it from the deserted streets, museums and other tourist places.

Despite the cool weather in September, I could not visit Jeju without getting into the ocean, if only shin-deep.

Unlike these fools to my left, who were completely swimming in the ocean, undoubtedly covered in goose bumps (notice all the debris on the beach, washed ashore by Kompasu):

I'm too busy to post more, but I have some good food photos (what else?) for later.

[EDIT: it has been politely pointed out that I look to have gained weight in this photo, a point which I will concede. But in truth, I have not gained any weight, and have actually began to lose the pounds again. I never have liked photos of myself. I must not be photogenic, just phatogenic]

Scabbardfish

2010-08-26T09:53:00.003+09:00

From one ugly fish:

To one delicious dish:

According to Wikipedia's article on the order Perciformes, family Trichiuridae, there are 40 some species of this fish all around the world. Also called Cutlassfish, Hairtails, Walla Walla, or Frostfishes. They are silver colored, and because they look like a steel blade they've earned two of those those names. Now if I caught one, I don't think I would be comparing it to a shiny steel, but something from a nightmare. I would run first and wouldn't worry about cooking it.

Fortunately, this came freshly frozen and filleted, so there was nothing frightening about it at all. (Believe me when I say that getting a fish that has been filleted is indeed a joyous event here in Korea for us westerners no used to choking on bones)

Now go fry some up some sword-like nightmares and enjoy.

Dialogue.

2010-08-24T15:25:00.004+09:00

Part 1. Chicago. 1972. This certainly seems like a dated political protest song (which it was), but these lyrics are still meaningful today, 38 years later.

Diaogue Filmed Live Arie Crown Theater, Chicago, Nov 1972

Q. Are you optimistic 'bout the way things are going?

A. No, I never ever think of it at all

Q. Don't you ever worry, When you see what's going down?

A. Will, I try to mind my business, that is, no business at all

Q. When it's time to function as a feeling human being, Will your bachelor of arts help you get by?

A. I hope to study further, a few more years or so, I also hope to keep a steady high

Q. Will you try to change things, Use the power that you have, the power of a million new ideas?

A. What is this power you speak of and this need for things to change? I always thought that everything was fine

Q. Don't you feel repression just closing in around?

A. No, the campus here is very, very free

Q. Don't it make you angry the way war is dragging on?

A. Well, I hope the president knows what he's into, I don't know

Q. Don't you ever see the starvation in the city where you live? All the needless hunger, all the needless pain?

A. I haven't been there lately, the country is so fine. But my neighbors don't seem hungry 'cause they haven't got the time

Q. Thank you for the talk, you know you really eased my mind. I was troubled by the shapes of things to come

A. Well, if you had my outlook your feelings would be numb. You'd always think that everything was fine.

We can make it happen.

Mr. Q above was sung by Terry Kath (RIP), and Mr. A was sung by Peter Cetera.

Sorry, this deviates from my typical food postings, but I just couldn't get this song out of my head today.

Android Forum

2010-08-23T09:09:00.004+09:00

I went to the cell phone store two weeks ago, to buy a new screen protector for my phone. I left 2 hours later with an Android smart phone. I couldn't find any places among the websites here to discuss the Android from the expat's perspective, so I wasted a couple hours and threw up a forum website: The SeoulDroid, a discussion board for Android users in Korea.

There should be general Android discussions as well as Korea-related topics, so anyone can participate. Right now there aren't many topics, as I just opened it this weekend. Please join up and start some discussions!

Quiznos

2010-08-18T20:02:00.003+09:00

We've been working late at the office a lot recently, and I decided to do something special for dinner tonight. There is a Quiznos sub sandwich shop very close to my office. The last time I went (back in March, I think) I had asked them if they delivered. They said they did. So, I've had this take out menu here at my office waiting for just such a chance as tonight.

Wanting to be independent, I decided to order the sandwiches myself. Things went kind of downhill from there. First, they didn't answer the phone, even after several minutes of it ringing. As I was about to give up, I noticed a FAX number on the menu. Well, this is great. I don't have to worry about the language, I can just FAX in my order. Which I did. I waited 5 or 10 minutes, expecting to get a call back. Nothing. So I called back, and this time someone answered. He was very nice, said he received my FAX, but they don't make sandwiches there. Turns out I had sent the FAX to the headquarter office, not the store. But, he said he would transmit my order to the store. Now we're talking. Next I got a call from the store, and I was overwhelmed by her Korean. I finally gave up being independent and gave the phone to CH.

It turns out that in general, they don't really deliver. If you are in a very few limited office buildings, and order more than $50 of sandwiches, THEN they'll deliver. Quiznos is a little expensive here, but even with three sandwiches, I wasn't going to break the $50 mark. So the only choice was to cancel or go pick it up myself. Well, by this time, I was so worked up to have a hot, toasted Quiznos sandwich, I agreed to go pick them up in 15 minutes. Nothing else can go wrong, right? Wrong.

As I said, our office is very close to Quiznos. Normally it would just be a 5 minute taxi or less (it was raining). On the way, one must pass through about 2 blocks of pretty heavy traffic. Heavy did not begin to descibe the traffic tonight. It took over 20 minutes to go that two blocks. Total time took me about 30 minutes to get there, by which time any hope of eating a warm toasted sandwich was out the window.

Regardless, we had a good meal, a litle out of the ordinary, and I got one more blog post. And here's the back of the menu. Any fool with half a brain could see which number to dial...

Misc Photos

2010-08-18T15:05:00.009+09:00

I still have been too busy at work these days. And changing over to my new laptop as well. Here are some miscellaneous photos I haven't had time to post from the past few weeks.

There's a "Mister Tofu" near my new home. This day my eyes were bigger than my stomach. Here you can see I made the mistake of ordering not only a bowl of tofu stew, but an extra side dish of an egg (it's basically a vegetable / cheese omlette). Boy, was this omlette huge - MUCH bigger than I expected. There was enough food here for two people, and I hated to leave half of my food (but I did).

Here is a small bucket/bowl a got over a month ago to go with the small air conditioner we installed in the office. This is a semi-portable unit, and requires you to empty a water resevoir periodically. We were told it would last for several days before needing to be drained, and when it needed draining, an indicator lamp would come on. To our surprise, the light has never come on. I even unplugged the pipe one day to check for water (maybe the lamp is broken), but no water. This new bowl is as dry as the day I bought it.

"From ???ing garden gather fragrance ??? of the vanished flower of a hundred years before"

"Little Flower -- but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is".

Hmmm, okay. And here is the aircon, er, air conditioner that this bowl is meant to service:

Need to do some Kolon shopping?

Years ago, when my eyesight was better, I used to carry around my pocket computer, the HP200LX. I still have it, and from time to time I turn it on to see that it still works. Back in those days, there was a very active international "club" of active users, and we still maintain a very inactive mailing list. Recently one of the members in Germany located what he believes might be the perfect HP200LX replacement, and turns out it is made right here in Korea. That would be the MBOOK by the UMID company.

Another member in Portugal wanted to get one of these new computers, and arranged for me to buy and ship it for him. But before boxing it up to go overseas, I took a photo comparing the old and the new. It's a nice design, but I didn't power it up. While I make jokes about my failing eyesight, I seriously wonder if I could even be comfortable working on this small of a screen. Anyway, I'll look forward to Alberto's report from Portugal in the months ahead.

By the way, my ruler is NOT crooked - the camera distored the image.

"New" Address System

2010-07-30T19:21:00.002+09:00

I was at the factory outside of Seoul for about 10 days straight since moving, and didn't get a chance to go report my new address to the Immigration Office. I almost forgot, until last night I suddenly remembered. First thing this morning, on the last day (you get 14 days to change without penalty), I went down to get it changed. It really wasn't any big deal, but when she handed me my card back, she showed me the new address, and it wasn't anything like the address I had given on the form! I didn't want to question it (don't rock the boat with Immigration, is my motto). On returning to the office, I asked CH about this, and he said that this was a new form of address that the government was adopting, although it wasn't widespread.

Well, for all these years in Seoul, I had finally gotten used to the address system. Now they're changing it? Did a little research online, and found this post from 2004 (!) describing the new address system, which is like we have in the USA. Street names, street numbers with odd and even numbers on opposite sides of the street. Wow, this has been around since 2004? Here is the official website, you can translate an "old" style into the "new" style, and also see a map showing street names and house/building numbers. But wow, at least 6 years going and it's still not popular?

How Many Real Estate Agents...

2010-07-30T18:39:00.005+09:00

...does it take to sell apartments in one building?

There are FIVE real estate agencies all next door to each other in my building! And there's at least one more around the back - there could be more. Amazing...

Even More Signs

2010-07-30T17:23:00.003+09:00

After reading my friend Tuttle's post on signs, inspired by his friend Jo-Anna's post on signs, I couldn't help but share these two bathroom signs I saw last week at lunch. Don't quite know what point they are trying to make - are you supposed to climb over the stalls? Or hang like a spider from the ceiling?

Panorama

2010-07-30T00:11:00.003+09:00

Click to enlarge:

Click to enlarge:

Found some free Microsoft software that makes panoramic images. I played around with the view from my new home. You give it a series of images (which of course have to have been taken ina panoramic sequence), and the program automatically "stitches" them together. Pretty cool.

Posville

2010-07-29T23:58:00.004+09:00

That's the name of my new apartment building. Here are some photos of the new place. Still organizing, but I'm basically comfortable and it's liveable and cozy.

Crazy Busy

2010-07-29T21:46:00.006+09:00

Well, let me try to catch up on the past to weeks. The first excitement was my move. I've known for a couple months now that I would be moving, but there were some issues setting the exact move date. I had located two possible new places, and I coudn't decide which one. Suddenly I found an online advertisement for an apartment that turned out to be perfect. It is just a 10 minute walk from the office, and located right at Sindorim subway station. At this station, there is a huge "Technomart" building, which includes numerous shops, restaurants, a movie theater, and yes, technical shopping, too. I claimed the apartment, and began he process of moving.

The first order of business was to downsize. The new place is a large studio apartment. Not exactly a one-room, but almost. This downsizing required me to sell my treadmill and my refrigerator. That took up an interesting half day, helping the truck driver wrestle these down to the truck:

Moving day went smoothly, despite the constant rain. I think the two moving guys had under-estimated the job. They worked extra hard, and we still didn't finish until 7pm or so. I couldn't believe how many boxes I had.

Some things I'll miss from my old apartment, the doggie-decorated hooks:

the four-burner stove (the new place just has two):

And as a testament to my poor housekeeping skills, this hairpin was in the floor of my closet when I moved in back in Feb 2008. Two and one half years later, it is still exactly where it was, plus a little extra dust:

Goodbye Room 1404

Choices - NOT

2010-07-07T09:17:00.003+09:00

When I first came to Korea, there were four really big shopping "mart" stores (think super Walmart-like). Carrefour, Homeplus, Homever, and E-Mart. Carrefour was closest to our apartment, and coincidentally seemed to have the widest selection of products to choose from. Over the years, through a series or acquisitions, there are now just two big ones left, Homeplus and E-Mart. You might think that when two stores merged, you would get a super-set of each stores product lines - the best of both worlds. Instead, they went the opposite way. At eash acquisition, I observed the product choices seemed to be fewer and fewer.

Then we have this article in the morning newspaper "Retail chains cull range of products on shelves". Well, to me, this isn't news - they've been doing it for years already. But apparently they're getting serious about it now. One chain will take an "intelligent" approach, and eliminate products that don't sell well. Maybe logical, unless one of those products happens to be my favorite strawberry jam or my real, American-style mustard! Another chain will restrict manufacturers to just one size of their products - the example being given was laundry soap - you will now only find one size of each brand on the shelf. I guess from now on it will only be 50Kg bags of laundry soap, purchased once a year, or 1Kg bags purchased every week.

I'm not sure how this is going to play out. If I worked in this industry, seems like I would already be acutely aware of the large reductions in product choices over the past years. Cutting the choices even further seems like the last thing I'd want to introduce. At some point, the customers are going to revolt.

Well, let's see how it plays out. In the meantime, I'd better stock up on mustard and jam - and oh yeah - laundry soap!

Babysitting

2010-07-07T07:58:00.001+09:00

As a public service, I will post some baby-sitting do's and don'ts on my blog today (click on any image to enlarge):

Korean Elvis

2010-07-01T19:13:00.002+09:00

The Stumbling Mother reports the following appeared on her whiteboard recently:

I take partial responsibility for the awkward looking man on the left, but that's all. Someone else's been changing my artwork!

The Stumbler vs. The Chair

2010-07-01T09:43:00.004+09:00

Met a couple of friends for a pleasant dinner and conversation last night (review to be posted on ZenKimchi Dining soon). After dinner, we chose a decidedly Korean activity of sitting out front of a convenience store to chat and have a few beers.

I am reminded at this point in the story that although I am losing weight, I still have quite a ways to go. In the middle of our conversation, suddenly my chair broke and I went flying to the ground:

I escaped injury, except a small scratch on my elbow, not to mention embarassment. To add insult to injury, one friend suggested I switch to Lite beer! You won't hear me saying this anytime soon: "One more bowl of rice, please..." It's time to redouble my efforts at weight loss, before I do further furniture damage.

Sleep Study

2010-06-16T19:39:00.004+09:00

Well I finally got around to having a sleep study done last night. I went to the Seoul Sleep Center, apparently one of the, if not the, premier place in Korea for sleep problems such as apnea (a nice English review here).

Since this place is about 45 minutes away for me, I scheduled it so I could do everything in one trip. I arrived at my appointment time of 5pm, and met with one of the English speaking doctors for about an hour. Then I want to a nearby small restaurant for dinner. After eating, I still had some time to kill, so I stopped at a nice coffee shop and had some tea. Finally around 8:30pm I went back to the sleep center to my appointed room.

Lots of pillows, so I was happy:

And there was a TV, watched a little bit of the movie "Paycheck":

The two night-shift nurses proceeded to hook me up. There were more than 20 sensors hooked to my brain, face, nose, throat, chest, torso, and legs. When all done, I felt like a walking robot:

The nursing staff weren't fluent in English, although one of the nurses was pretty good. The task of answering a questionaire, and installing these numerous sensors was pretty funny with the language barrier. But finally all was successfully completed.

I went to sleep at the appointed time, 11pm. The only issue was my sleep position. They wanted to collect some data with me sleeping on my back. I can't sleep on my back. In fact, it is almost like torture for me to sleep on my back. I tried like a good patient to sleep on my back, but after about 15 minutes I gave up with excrutiating pain. I rolled over to my side and promptly went to sleep. The nurses weren't too happy, but what could we do?

They woke me up again at 5am, telling me the sleep study was over. He removed all the sensors, then said I could sleep longer if I wanted (I did). Seems like they should have just let me keep sleeping, but maybe there is a reason. I woke up at 7am, and took a shower to wash the glue from my hair and body! I was hoping to get some preliminary comments from the nurse, but alas, the shift had changed and the nurse who knew English had gone home. So I'll have to wait until next week to get the official results.

One good news - the doctor warned me that my sleep problem might be so severe, that they would wake me up during the sleep study and get me to use the CPAP breathing machine. In fact, she strongly suspected this would happen. But, it didn't. I can only guess that my sleep problem is not the severe type. Wish me luck.

-The Sleepy Stumbler

Stuffed Chicken

2010-06-15T13:28:00.002+09:00

A friend of a friend, SH, posted a recipe on his Facebook some time back for stuffed chicken breasts. I finally got around to trying it this weekend. I didn't 100% follow his recipe, since I didn't have any sour cream, and I kind of just winged it on the spices.

I took chicken breasts, sliced them in the middle (butterfly them), and inserted cheese (I used pepper cheese) and spinach leaves (quickly boil the leaves first). Then I sprinkled on some salt, pepper and basil. At the last minute, I decided to pour in a little wine before putting it in the oven to bake. Unfortunately, I only have red wine, so my chicken turned a little purple on the bottom. Even so, it was pretty good for a first try. Thanks SH. I'll try the sour cream next time.

Go Big Reds!

2010-06-15T13:08:00.004+09:00

The first Korean World Cup match was Saturday night, Korean time. I dug deep in my closet and pulled out my special red tee-shirt, which first appeared on this blog during the last World Cup in 2006. I bought a couple of extra items this year, a cap and a big red "towel" to help cheer the team to victory:

Obviously it worked, since Korea won against Greece 2-0. A pretty exciting game, considering... my air conditioner (sorry, aircon) is broken and the one repairman servicing Seoul can't come until the next century. So I had all my windows open. Apparently everyone else in my neighborhood had their windows open, too. I could hear the cheering whenever Korean challenged the goal. However, everyone would cheer 4 seconds too early! I finally realized it was because I have satellite service. The link delay from the groud up and back to the geostationary satellite is about 1/4 of a second, so either Skylife radiowaves travel slower than normal, or they introduced some extra delay, intentionally or not. It also seemed to me that the video was not truly in HD. I know on any given night, I can tune into this same station (SBS) on the Skylife system, and see crystal clear HD programs. But the game just didn't seem very high quality. I'm going to try some other channels next game and see if I can figure it out.

Next game is Thursday against what I'm told is a very strong team, Argentina. I do want to go watch a game in a public venue like a restaurant or sports bar, but I'm just too tired this week. I think I'll just be lazy and watch it at home again - of course, with my big red towel cheering them onto a second victory.

Bulgogi

2010-06-04T09:44:00.005+09:00

One of the small gifts I brought The Stumbling Mom was a bottle of Bulgogi marinade sauce. We wanted to try it out, so Monday night we decided to prepare a Korean meal. Started with some Sirloin meat, which I tried to slice as thin as possible - still wasn't thin enough, but it was good. Cut up lots of small vegetables to add to the marinade sauce - onions, mushrooms and green onions. Let is soak for a few hours (overnight would have been best, but we didn't have the time):

Next, The Stumbling Mom roasted some pine nuts, I cut up some more of the "cucumber peppers", made some brown rice in the new rice cooker, and finally cooked the bulgogi:

Here is the final result. The home-grown lettuce leaves weren't very big, so I spilled a lot of rice when making a wrap. Also, the brown rice isn't sticky, which made it easier to spill. But still, very delicious.

Tuesday morning I headed up to Tennessee to meet with a colleague. Did some last minute shopping at Walmart, and drove on to Atlanta through heavy rain. Spent the night at the airport hotel, and left back to Seoul at the crack of dawn Wednesday morning.

Meat, Meat, and More Meat

2010-06-01T03:56:00.005+09:00

Visited The Stumbling Brother this weekend, the focal point being a big meat cookout attended by me and two of his friends. He has converted part of his back yard into a meat cooking pavillion.

Here is a list of the meats that were cooked that afternoon. We added it up, and we cooked a total of 80 lbs of meat, or 36 kgs!

Brisket, qty 2, 4 lbs ea

Butt Roast, qty 4, 7-10 lbs ea

Turkey Breast, qty 2, 7 lbs ea

Whole Turkey, qty 1, 13 lbs

Chicken Wings, qty 24

Catfish Fillets, 5 lbs

Baked Beans w/Sausage, 3 lbs

Fried Hushpppies, 1 lb

Corn Fritters w/Black-Eyed Peas and Garlic, 2 lbs

French Fries, 3 lbs

SPAM, 1 can

The meat cooking equipment (that was used) consisted a gas grill:

a gas stove,

an electric "table-top" turkey frier,

an electric smoker,

and an experimental "trash can" method using hot coals.

I don't think THIS grill / smoker was used, but I'm not 100% sure:

Here we all are, sitting around waiting for the meat to cook...

The Stumbling Nephew in his St. Patrick's Day coat with Young Stumbler #4:

Sunday Visits

2010-06-01T03:34:00.004+09:00

Went to visit The Stumbling Brother this weekend, and took the opportunity to visit some folks from my long ago past. First, on Sunday morning, went to see Dr. and Mrs. W, parents of my good high school friend KW. Back in High School, we used to jokingly call him "Dr. Dr. W", since had two doctorate degrees. However, on Sunday he embarassed me by reminding me that we also used to call him "Big Dummy" at marching band events! It was great to see them again after 25 years.

Then on Sunday afternoon, we visited an old family friend EB, who lives out in the woods south of town. He told us lots of fun stories from the old days, and we had a fun visit. EB is a Ham Radio operator, just like The Stumbling Brothers, and is encouraging me find a way to get on the air from Seoul someday.

Piercing Day

2010-06-01T03:16:00.004+09:00

Friday, The Stumbling Girls had a plan. We met for lunch, then took Young Stumbler #4 to get her ears pierced! I have never seen my other girls getting their ears pierced, so it was a very interesting event for me.

Here is the result. It seemed that the actual piercing didn't hurt very much, but the piercing machine didn't want to let go of the earing. It seemed that she hurt more from the machine than the piercing. But she was brave, and now has freshly pierced ears and new earrings:

Then Friday night, Young Stumbler #4 had a fun overnight birhday party with several of her friends. Swimming was planned, but thunder and lightning made them postpone swimming until the morning. Young Stumbler #3 and I bought some pizza, fed all the girls, then ate birthday cake. Get ready, make a wish, and blow out the candles:

Graduation!

2010-06-01T02:46:00.007+09:00

Young Stumbler #3 graduated from High School this week! Congratulations!

Wednesday night we had a small dinner for her at The Stumbling Parents' house. Hamburgers with corn-on-the-cob, roasted garlic, red peppers, potatoes, and many more...

Big, red, peppers. In Korea, these are called 오이고추, or literally "cucumber pepper":

Here we roasted whole garlics with some olive oil in the oven. Really soft and delicious.

The Stumbling Dad preparing hamburgers:

and cleaning the grill:

Oven-roasted potatoes:

Here is the grill ready for the hamburgers, with the corn on the top shelf:

I made a fusion dish - kimchi burger!

Oh - yeah, this post was about Young Stumbler #3 graduation! I got distracted by the food...

Young Stumbers #1 and #3,

and Young Stumbler #4 (#2 was working this night)

After dinner, we were treated to a concert by Young Stumbler #4 - she has been practicing a song for several months now, and was ready to show off:

The graduate played for us a little on her new keyboard graduation gift:

The next night was the graduation ceremony itself. I was seated behind the band, with 9 tubas and 20+ Trombones! It was great:

Here is Young Stumbler #3 receiving her diploma:

After a final and unnecessarily long second speech of the night, the principal declared the class of 2010 officially graduated. And off came the hats:

Based on previous years' experiences trying to find a restaurant after graduation, this year I made a reservation. However, we arrived at the restaurant to find it mostly empty! Not quite sure what happened. Here is The Proud Stumbler and the nw graduate:

Handkerchiefs

2010-05-26T21:31:00.002+09:00

Ever since discovering them in Japan years ago, I've always carried a "towel-style" handkerchief with me. They were especially useful in Japan, where they don't usually have towels in the bathrooms, to dry your hands. In Korea, too, bathrooms don't often have towels, but this style of handkerchief is not popular and I can't buy them in Seoul. So when I had a short layover at Tokyo's Narita airport on my flight to the USA on Monday, I stocked up on 6 new towel-style hankies:

Let's see, we have bicycles, goldfish (The Stumbling Mother had to explain that one to me), beer mugs, watermelons, elephants, and finally penguins! May I continue to have dry hands. And my pants legs will stay dry, too, since I won't be wiping my wet hands on them...

I had a trouble-free but long journey home. Flew Monday into Atlanta, and took an onward short flight to North Carolina for a meeting. Then flew back to Atlanta Tuesday morning, rented a car, and drove 4 hours back home. Whereupon we almost immediately attended the Baccalaureate Service for The Stumbling Daughter #3's High School graduating class, and finally ate dinnner at 9pm. Busy, yes, but in a good way. Plus, I didn't give in to the normal jet-lag-driven desire to fall asleep in the afternoon for two days straight.

The Stumbling Mom surprised me with two Korean foods on the table, kimchi and dried seaweed (Kim, or Laver). The latter she bought only for the free Lock-n-Lock storage container:

Logic

2010-05-13T11:27:00.003+09:00

SUPER GEEK ALERT

I don't normally write such technical posts, but this is the exception.

Recently I had a problem with a circuit board here in my electronics lab. I needed a logic analyzer to troubleshoot. These are usually pretty large, expensive pieces of test equipment. If I had to guess, I would say $10K or more. I started thinking, from who could I borrow one? Finally, I decided to look on the internet, and see if there were any low-cost options. Well, there was:

This little box cost $500, plugs into your computer, thus turning it into a logic analyzer. It arrived Monday morning, and in 30 minutes I had it runnng, connected to my circuit, and found the problem. Even though I've used logic analyzers before, it was very simple to operate - I think a novice would learn quickly.

Note - thus I get in trouble with new regulations I've read about, I was NOT compensated for this post by the manufacturer in anyway. I'm just a satisfied customer excited about the product. But, if they WANT to compensate me, I would be happy...

River Habit

2010-05-10T10:19:00.002+09:00

I've started a new habit - walking and resting along the Han River on Sunday. Yesterday I brought my new lightweight folding director's chair with side table to the park:

First I took a one hour long walk along the riverside, listening to my Car Talk podcast along the way. Then I settled into my chair for 3 or so hours of reading, sleeping, reading, sleeping, etc. Here are some views from my chair.

I sad directly under the Dangsan Railway Bridge, moving my chair about every hour to stay in the shade!

This photo has three points of interest. First, in the foreground, you can see a tandem bicycle. I saw several of these going by. Next, way out near the riverside, you can see a dark square on the concrete. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but some old lady took a large package down to the river, laid out a small bamboo mat, and proceeded to spread something over the mat. I'm guessing she was drying something in the sun, but I don't know what. Finally, also near the river, you can see a couple of fishing poles. I spent 4 hours at the park, there were numerous fishermen, and I didn't see one single fish!

I was a little nervous when I left my chair to go to the toilet and buy some water bottle and fishcake soup - fortunately my fellow park-goers were honest and nothnig was stolen.

This was so enjoyable and relaxing, I think I'll try it one evening this week. But I need to consult the internet and find when sunset, or else reading my book will be difficult in the dark. Which reminds me of this quote from Groucho Marx: "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read".

Football Match Not

2010-05-05T17:45:00.005+09:00

Today I went to the World Cup Stadium in Mapo-gu to meet Tuttle to watch the FC Seoul football match. In all this time here in Seoul, I've never gone to a football game. And I still haven't. We met outside the subway station exit, where my friend JI and Tuttle's friend J joined us.

A problem was soon evident. The place was JAM PACKED. Today is Children's Day in Korea, so public places, especially parks (and apparently ball parks, too) are very crowded. Further thwarting our efforts was that today children were being admitted free to the stadium.

We started out trying to find the end of the line to buy tickets. It wrapped over half way around the World Cup stadium! Along the way, J gave up and left us (in hindsight, he was the smart one). We decided at this point to give up on getting in the stadium on time, and came up with an alternate plan. Go eat lunch, wait for the crowds to thin out, and join the ball game in progress.

Alas, we weren't the only ones with this idea. We walked around the underground of the stadium, in what must be the largest Home Plus I've ever seen. Both the food court and other restaurants were so crowded we gave up, and returned to the GS25 where we originally met! Even the GS25 had a long line just go get inside. We found a table, had a simple lunch listening to the crowds yelling from the stadium. The game was about halfway over, and we could still see a long line to buy tickets, so I just gave up and came home around 4pm.

However, I'm going to try again. I'll be out of town the home game, but I can catch the one after that. I'm looking foward to it.

EDIT: I heard on the radio station this morning that the attendance was nearly 61,000 fans at the game, smashing a 2007 record of 55,000. Considering that the stadium only holds about 68,000, it was indeed a crowded day at the soccer field. Well, it probably wasn't too crowded ON THE FIELD, just the rest of the stadium!

Sunday Stroll

2010-05-04T10:39:00.002+09:00

The weather was perfect for a long walk along the Han river Sunday. Lot's of people were out, flying kites, fishing, picnicing, just enjoying the weather.

This fellow had a bicycle attached to floats, and the pedals were attached to flippers which propelled it in the water. Sorry, but my finger got in the way on the last photo.

Ten of One

2010-05-01T14:57:00.002+09:00

I ran out of rice this week. I always hate buying rice, because there are over two dozen brands to choose from. I asked a friend for advice, and ended up ordering rice online! I ordered the usual 10kg of rice, but to my surprise when it arrived, there were ten each one kilogram bags!!!

I guess it doesn't matter, I'll dump them all in the same rice storage box. Just seemed strange. And boy I can better appreciate losing 10kg, after lifting that box full of rice!

Electronics Market

2010-05-01T14:37:00.004+09:00

Well, I neededto buy a very small, inexpensive audio connector this week. I knew I could get it at Yongsan, but didn't want to go that far. On a whim, I decided to go to the nearby Wholesale Electronics Market. I've been there several times before, and have been amazed at the size and wide variety of available products. In my haste, what I forgot was that this huge complex suffers from a complete lack of organization. Unless you know exactly which shop(s) to visit, AND WHERE THEY ARE LOCATED, you might as well be shopping for electronics at flower shop.

I arrived, walked around about 15 minutes, and decided to eat lunch first before doing further serious searching. I ate some soup and rice in the numerous small restaurants in the basement, then went back to search. I decided to just start in a random building and walk systematially through the shops. Well, after 15 more minutes, realized this wouldn't work either. There are probably 40 or 50 "wings", each one wih 3 floors! Finally someone suggested I look on the main floor (basically outside on street level), so I spent another 30 minutes walking around looking without result.

Don't get me wrong, I had a GREAT time. This is the perfect place for an engineer to go window shopping. There are so many different things concentrated in one place (random though they may be). Unfortunately, finding a specific item is a challenge unless you have a skilled guide with you. Eventually, I ended up going to Technomart where I found the connector in less than 5 minutes, efficient but boring.

Here are some random shots of my "walk"

View down the main, center street.

Wire and cable, anyone:

Steel Cabinets for your next project?

Copper bars?

Or perhaps an industrial sized can of WD-40:

It was lunch time, and the waitresses were scurrying everywhere with carts full of lunches for all the shop owners:

Air compressors:

and LOTS of screws, every size imaginable:

Finally, as I was leaving, I saw this store, where you can buy fireproof clothing (or are these alien costumes?)

Mexican Feast

2010-04-23T09:13:00.004+09:00

Even though I'm eating almost entirely Korean food these days, I've made a new habit to cook something "Western" on every Thursday night. This week, I had a craving for Mexican food, and began preparing the ingredients and searching some recipes online. Here is the resulting meal, enough for six people:

The dishes were made entirely from food I can get locally, with one exception - a package of taco seasoning mix which The Stumbling Mom sent me, which it probably way past its expiration date. I don't think I've ever made Spanish Rice nor Refried Beans before, it was both fun and tasty, if I do say so myself.

I wasn't entirely happy with frying the tortillas to make taco shells and a few nacho chips. While they tasted good, they weren't quite as crisp as you would get in a restaurant. I think this means my temperature wasn't quite right. I read in one recipe to fry them at 175 deg C, which I checked with my thermometer. However, I'll try a diffrent temperature if I do this again. Not to mention all the newspaper and paper towels I needed to drain off all the grease - not something I'll do often.

My only real complaint is there was too much cheese. In the past, I would always say "you can never have too much cheese", but for some reason these days I prefer to eat smaller quantities of cheese and other dairy products.

By the way, mashing the beans was really fun! Test for my Spanish speaking friends - what does "refried beans" mean? I discovered, while searching for recipes, it does NOT mean twice-fried beans.

Is Spanish Rice from Spain? I prepared the rice in the skillet as instructed in the recipe. Interesting fact - hot rice in the skillet will start to jump, similar to popcorn! Then I actually cooked the rice in my rice cooker. It worked just great:

And finally, out of curiosity, I tried a little Korean-Mexican fusion. I ate some kimchi along with the enchillada. It was DELICIOUS! Also with the refried beans! I might be onto something. These days we have the Taco Truck folks in California with their bulgogi tacos. How about a kimchi chicken enchilada anyone?

Fountain

2010-04-15T15:41:00.004+09:00

I've been walking at lunch time these days, along a "street park" in front of my ofice. Last week, I noticed they dug a huge rectangular hole about 4 or 5 feet deep, lined with concrete. I thought, this must be a fountain, although it seemed pretty deep for a fountain. Over the next couple of days, they filled in the "pool" with a steel lattice work, completely baffling me. I was about to give up on my guess that this was a fountain, when suddenly they posted this large sign. It will indeed be a fountain, completely with a light show!

K-Popular

2010-04-13T15:55:00.004+09:00

The Stumbler Meets As One

Through a bizarre set of circumstances last week, I was invited to a phone interview on a local radio program K-Popular hosted by the K-Pop duo As One. Shortly after that phone call, I was invited to come to the studio today for a live segment at lunch time. I was asked to present three of my favorite K-Pop songs, and explain the story behind each selection. It was really tough to choose only three songs. But I finally selected these, becuase they had the most interesting stories.

채연 / Chaeyeon: "위험한 연출" / "Dangerous Presentation"
(1) It's My Time (Aug 2003)

나얼 / Naul (Browneyes): "귀로" / "The Road Back"
Back To The Soul Flight - Remake Album (Jan 2005)

마야 / Maya: "친달래꽃" / "Azaleas"
(1) Born To Do It (Feb 2003)

Here is a CD I had from 2004 that they signed for me:

After the interview, I met a couple of friends who work there at the station, then headed back to the office. But, I stopped along the way at a small place which served pork soup (되지국밥). I didn't take any photos, but found these pictures on someone's blog which is exactly what I had for lunch! (I just had to sneak something about food into the post).

Old Cow, New Cow

2010-04-09T18:39:00.008+09:00

GEEK ALERT - THIS POST IS ABOUT OLD COMPUTERS

An unusual set of circumstances found me needing to ressurect a VERY OLD computer that has been in storage for 5 years. And it was already too old 5 years ago! The brief and simplified story: there is a very special (expensive) circuit card in this computer that I need to use, and it won't work in a modern computer. Let me introduce the Gateway 2000 DX2

(well, the CASE of the computer - it's still dismantled). I wouldn't have remembered it was from 1992, except for the date code stamped on the case:

From the press release announcing it:

Personal computer mass marketeer Gateway 2000 Inc of North Sioux City, South Dakota, has introduced a new local bus system based on Intel Corp's 66MHz 80486 DX2: the 4DX2-66V is the first AT-compatible personal computer to use AT&T Co's custom-designed Ultra local bus video board: the system, which is scheduled to ship in mid-September, has the company's first implementation of the VESA VL-Bus local bus specification which uses a 32-bit data path running at processor speed; the computer comes with two VESA-compatible slots at $3,000.

Well, after vacuuming 5 years of dust from the inside and outside of the computer, I tried to make it boot up. No dice. Finally, after a MUCH more thorough cleaning (which involved removing many circuit cards and even chips), I was able to get it to finally boot up. Alas, the two ancient hard disks in the computer were a bit flaky, and I had lost some data (cause unknown). So, gave up on the hard disks, and replaced two hard disks witha single 2GB compact flash card.

Yes, that purple thing is a floppy disk, for you young readers. If you zoom in, you will also see a 5-1/4 in floppy drive!

It has a whopping 16MB of RAM. The date on the BIOS is later than 1992, because at some point in time I upgraded the BIOS for some reason.

Well, end of geek post (I am an engineer, after all). Now I have a vintage DOS computer with almost no moving parts (only the power supply fan). Yeeeeee-ha!

EDIT: Okay, the floppy disks and CD have moving parts, but now that the computer is working, I could unplug them if I really wanted to.

Right Tool

2010-03-30T12:03:00.007+09:00

I've been making another lab bench recently for a new project. Got a good, strong table from the used furniture store. Covered it with anti-static mat, and finally I found some "shelves" at Homeplus. Actually, they are small, cheap (low-quality) student's computer desks - but they are plenty strong for my purposes. As I was assembling them this morning (some assembly required), I noticed that my screwdriver was EXACTLY the same tool as shown on the instructions.

I know, I'm an engineer, and never read instructions. I wasn't actually reading them, I just happened to notice the picture of the screwdriver as I was about to throw away the instructions! Here is the finished product:

EDIT 1: I needed to show the clean lab bench, because in just a few weeks time, it will end up looking like this:

Well, that's not entirely fair, this photo was taken on a really messy day for the lab bench - usually is isn't quite so cluttered.

Finally, I am quite proud of myself for solving a problem. It's a little difficult here in Korea to connect to the building's electrical ground. In the USA, our plugs and outlets both have a fairly easy way to connect to the earth ground. But in Korea, two factors work against me for this purpose. First, the ground connection isn't a prong and socket, but rather a springy "finger" which wipes against a small metal strip on the side of each power plug. It is not easy to connect to this (I've tried). Secondly, there are not many electrical outlets in a room. In the USA, it's relatively easy to connect to ground at the outlet, but in my office here the outlets are under the floor. Accordingly, everything is powered from plastic outlet strips. The first lab bench I connected to ground, I did it by taking apart the plastic power strip and soldering on a long ground wire to the internal ground bus. It was clumsy, and I didn't like the result very well.

This time, the outlet strips I got for the new lab bench didn't have screws. If I wanted to take them apart, I was going to have to break something. Therefore, I came up with my new idea. I bought two power plugs at the store. I then took them apart, removed the main power prongs for 220V (just to make it safer and clearly something special). That left just the grounding prongs. Now I can connect my lab bench to ground very easily - just screw the ground wire to this special plug, and then plug it into the outlet strip (The Stumbler says with a big,proud smile).

EDIT 2: My super grounding invention wasn't so super after all. Turns out the two main power prongs also provide the main force that holds the plug in the socket. Without these prongs, the plug is only held by the spring wipers of the ground, which isn't very strong. In the end, I just taped the plug to the socket using duct tape, which isn't very elegant.

EDIT 3: Why do we call it a lab bench? You don't sit on it. Several Korean friends were confused when I mentioned lab bench, and thought it was a kind of chair.

Bibimbap

2010-03-13T19:08:00.002+09:00

My first attempt at bibimbap.

I think I put too much hamburger, but it was still delicious.

Chicago in Seoul

2010-02-24T09:33:00.006+09:00

The unique and energetic sound of Chicago filled the Olympic Park Fencing Auditorium in southeast Seoul last night. Here are some photos I managed to sneak

Patiently waiting for the show to start. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the start of the concert will be delayed about 15 minutes due to so many latecomers"

I believe this photo was taken during "Dialogue"

Here's Pankow on the big screen:

I think this is from "Old Days"

Jamming Brass:

Can't remember which song - I just liked the way this photo came out:

Here are three of the original four members still touring with the group:

Second Encore, Feeling Stronger Every Day:

Much to my delight, one of their encores was the full Ballet for a Girl in Buchannan, better known for it's two hit songs "Make Me Smile" and "Colour My World". Take a bow, job well done:

I don't go to a lot of concerts. I could probably count all the concerts I've been to on one hand (at most two hands). This is my second concert in Seoul (first was Norah Jones in 2005). I was susprised how many people came out to hear Chicago, and further surprised at how many young people were there. I expected all the audience would be grey-haired old men like The Stumbler. Admittedly, the average age was probably a bit higher than the Norah Jones concert, but it was still surprising at the strong following Chicago has over here in Seoul.

They played mostly old songs, with a couple of new ones I had not heard before (they were real funky latin beat with lots of brass, very enjoyable). Even after all these years and personnel changes, they still are full of energy and have done a good job of keeping the same, original sound of the band. They were big on audience participation, and kept us clapping during most of the songs. And the whole audience was on their feet and dancing during "Saturday In The Park".

With red hands from clapping, and a hoarse voice from yelling, I walked home from the subway station feeling high on music. It was a great concert, and I'm glad I went.

Planning

2010-02-20T10:55:00.004+09:00

The other week I was at the bank, and noticed a large pile of these nice wallets:

The clerk told me these were bank book holders, and let me take as many as I pleased. I took 3 of them (I have a lot of accounts). Just yesterday, I actually tried to use one, by putting my bank book into the wallet. Well guess what?

It doesn't fit! No wonder he told me to take as many as I pleased, he knew they were worthless...

Tuna Melt

2010-02-14T22:21:00.003+09:00

Korea, meet the Tuna Melt:

Lotus Root

2010-02-13T16:25:00.007+09:00

Let me introduce the Lotus Root

It's an ugly thing. You first peel it like you would a carrot or potato

Then you slice it. Which is hard. The root is almost like balsa wood

Then you boil it, like you would a potato, which makes it softer. But it's still one of the firmest vegetables I've eaten. After boiling, you cook it with a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, and honey (or sugar)

Looks funny, but tastes great. Had I actually seen a lotus root before having this in the restaurant, I probably would have been afraid to try it. I don't know if you can buy this in the USA or not, but I'm sure The Stumbling Mother will search for one.

Korean Lunch Box

2010-02-11T13:44:00.003+09:00

Here is my Korean lunch today:

And it was too much (big burp...)

Big bowl:	참치김치찌개	Tuna and Kimchi stew
Small bowl:	밥	Rice
Box, Left:	양배추찜	steamed cabbage leaves
Box, Top:	메추리알	boiled quail eggs
Box, Right/Top:	쌈장	fermented soy bean paste sauce
Box, Right/Middle:	단무지	pickled daikon radish
Box, Right/Bottom:	참치조림	tuna mixed with red pepper
Box, Bottom:	볶음밥	fried rice
Box, Center:	고구마줄기조림	boiled stems of sweet potato

Strong to the Finish

2010-02-11T13:38:00.003+09:00

Cause I eat my spinach:

I might not be Popeye the Sailor Man, however I don't know my own strength. I broke the paper cutter today!

Clearance Toy

2010-02-08T10:03:00.003+09:00

I just couldn't resist this children's toy that was on clearance this week at the grocery store (mart). I had been wanting a play basketball hoop for some time, and this was a combination basketball AND magnetic dart board!

Surely I am now the envy of every elementary school boy in Seoul. For my birthday present, I want a bag of 10 each 6 inch Nerf basketballs (I'm too lazy to get off the sofa and retrieve the basketball).

Off the Wagon

2010-01-25T18:39:00.004+09:00

I fell off the Korean food wagon tonight, as I prepared my favorite Salmon dinner (Burp...) Tomatoes weren't so great, not being in season. I'm trying to use Jalapenos in every dish these days, and this was no exception.

Trio

2010-01-24T12:01:00.003+09:00

I tried to organize a party of 6 people this Saturday to listen to live jazz. Unfortunately, 2 people had to cancel, although they had completely understandable excuses. But that still left 4 of us. The evening started out late, because I kept forgetting the map of the Jazz clubs that I had carefully prepared 2 days earlier. Despite being 30 minutes late, we had a great time. Unfortunately, the #1 jazz club choice, Club Evans, was jam packed. There were no tables free. Fortunately, I had researched and prepared two backups, Club Palm and Moonglow. The Club Palm had one table free, so that's where we went. Just as we sat down, the trio began their music set. Mid-way through, a jazz singer joined them (no longer a trio, I guess). It was really enjoyable. Being a former bass player, I was especially impressed with the bass player's solos.

Bird Seed for Rice

2010-01-24T08:00:00.002+09:00

Stumbling Mom asked about the "rice thingies" that I've been adding to my rice. Since I just recently bought some, I still have the package. As you can see from the photo above, it looks like bird seed. The lady at the grocery store explained that these are sold depending on how many different grains are included in the mix. Not knowing any better, I chose 15 - the more the better, right? Other choices were 5, 7, 9, and 12. I bought the smallest pack, 800g, which just perfectly fits one of my many empty Costco sour cream jars!

You add about a cup of this "mix" into the rice, and the result is tastier and more colorful rice. I would be curious what exactly each of the 15 grains are. The product title, according to my dictionary, means mixture of miscellaneous grains. That sounds about right.

Chirp Chirp says The Stumbler.

EDIT

I asked my Korean teacher to translate the 15 grains listed in this bird-seed, and here is the result. We're not 100% sure about some of these, but it's reasonably close:

할맥 17% pressed barley
찰현미 15% brown glutinous rice
찹쌀 15% glutinous rice
현미 10% brown rice / unpolished rice
검정현미 8% black rice
흑태 black soybean
백태 white soybean
옥수수 corn
수수쌀 sorghum
서리태 small black soybean
황태 yellow bean
팥 red bean
녹두 mung bean
청차좁쌀 blue glutinous millet
기장쌀 millet

Rice System

2010-01-22T10:22:00.003+09:00

I've perfected a system to keep from throwing away rice, since I don't eat it as often as most Koreans. Now I make a large pot of rice and freeze the remainder. I use the latest food packaging technology to hit the shelves here in Seoul, the Glass-N-Lock. It's one step above Lock-n-Lock, but the bowl itself is glass (actually, I bought an imitation brand, it was a bit cheaper).

This works pretty well for me. Take a bowl from the freezer, pop it in the microwave for 5 minutes, and you've got instant rice. The only slight problem is the top of the rice is a little dry, maybe from freezer burn? I've been pouring just a little bit of water into the bowl before putting it in the microwave, and that seems to help.

Speaking of Glass-N-Lock, I've also bought two soup sized bowls that I use to bring my lunch a few times per week. The big advantage is the lid seals really well, and I don't have soup leaking all over the lunch bag.

Incheon

2010-01-18T09:59:00.003+09:00

The city, not the airport. I toured the Yeonan Pier fish market, which is similar in style to the Noryangjin fish market in Seoul (although I think Yeanan was bigger). I saw almost every kind of fish and sea creature on display. And afterwards enjoyed a set menu of fresh (raw) seafood at a nearby restaurant. I'm still a beginner at eating sushi, and here's my opinion as of today. I like the tuna sushi the best. The fish meat itself tastes better to me, and I prefer the serving style, that is, the various items you eat with the tuna. Next in line I like the fish sushi. You eat it with just wasabi / soy sauce, but the taste and texture is really good. Finally on my list is the various sea (shell) creatures. These aren't my favorites (that's why their last on the list). However, a few of them are really good. The sea cucumber was delicious, as was the abalone. And I'm slowly developing a taste for oysters - I could imagine eating a huge plate of them.

After stuffing myself with sushi, I visited the statue honoring General George MacArthur. I couldn't help but think, as I overlooked the bright Incheon harbor bustling with activity, that this is what he fought for. I think it is a perfect spot for his statue. Godspeed General.

Phantom Touch

2010-01-02T11:36:00.004+09:00

I've been meaning to write this for almost a year, so let's start the new year with this topic: TOUCH. The Midas Touch. Soft Touch. Touch a Nerve. Out of Touch. Finishing Touch. Green Thumb. Black Thumb. Left Click. Right Click.

You guessed it, today's topic is Touch. Specifically, computer input. Mouse clicks, touchscreens and buttons. Or more exactly, a worring LACK of touch I have observed over the past year.

Let's take something as simple as the mouse click. I have noticed again and again that I will click the mouse, even hear and feel the click, but nothing happens. I have to click a second time to make it happen. I have two different mice, one at the office and one at home, so I can't really blame the hardware. Furthermore, this happens with other kinds of computer input. My latest cell phone is completely a touch screen, with tactile feedback (it beeps and vibrates when you "push" one of the virtual buttons). Again, often I will "push" one of these buttons, feel and hear the feedback, but nothing happens. This isn't something that happens once in awhile, but regularly. Regularly enough to make me wonder about it, and write a blog article.

The first thing that came to mind are reports I've heard about amputees who have a phantom feeling in their missing limb (something of course I have not experienced). Or, reports of people feeling their cell phone / pager vibrate when it isn't ringing (something I have experienced). Am I imagining that I've pushed the touchscreen or mouse click? If so, that's disturbing. Has my computer developed a personality, and playing tricks with me? If so, even more disturbing! I am at a complete loss to explain this, but it continues to happen to me with alarming frequency. I am open to comments and ideas what might be going on.

Finally, let me report on the touch screen phone. These are becoming more and more popular here in Korea, and of course with the iPhone, all over the world. While I think there is room for improvement, I really like the concept. The implementation on my phone, with the vibration and audible feedback, is really well done, indeed I think almost necessary (I don't know how iPhone does it). I have heard there are some patent issues with this technology, which means some of the good techniques are limited to certain devices (two-finger zooming is one example I've heard about). One frustrating thing I have with my phone is the input keyboard isn't consistent - when you write a text message the keyboard is slightly different from the dictionary keyboard, but this is more an indictment of this phones software and not the touchscreen technology. Generally speaking, I like it and think more and more devices will be using the touchscreen input in the future. So like it or not, better get used to it.

Happy New Year all, from The Phantom Touch Stumbler

Shining in Seoul

2009-12-15T13:16:00.004+09:00

Well, that is what the Romanian man D told me when we met last week - "You seem to really shine here in Seoul". Here are some random photos from this month:

From what I read, this is the largest Christmas tree in Korea,

Located at the Times Square Mall:

A modern version of a sundial - The Shadow Clock. Pretty Cool!

A huge exhibit of cows, in front of COEX mall:

A strange building I found walking in Gangnam. I've nicknamed it the "Swiss Cheese" building:

Finally, the first course of an all-vegetarian dinner I had Sunday at a place called 채근담 Chaegundaam. I understand this is monk-style vegetarian food, and it was delicious. No more photos of the rest of the food, I was too busy stuffing my face.

Whatever Ails You

2009-12-15T13:05:00.003+09:00

I thought I blogged about this years ago, but I can't find it. One of my favorite Korean wines, SANSACHUN, has recently changed their bottle style. Along with the change, their label has been remade. I happened to have one last bottle of the old style. Since the old label was one of my all-time favorites, I took a photo to remember it:

If you can't read it closely (the English, that is), it says:

"Sansa is a fruit bearing, broad leafed, plant belonging to the rose species. Red and a pleasant scent. Good for treating weak stomachs, backaches, and cut"

I never was sure, are you supposed to drink the wine if you get a cut? Or pour the wine over the cut?

BTW, my dictionary says this SANSA plant is in English a HAWTHORN, which still doesn't help me because I've never heard of either term.

Golden Disk

2009-12-11T15:35:00.009+09:00

Last night I was lucky to have my former neighbor G invite me to the 2009 Golden Disk Award show, something similar to the MTV Awards or Grammy Award show. It was broadcast live, but I hope to catch it in re-runs, too (if I watch it on TV, I can see the captions and graphics, which really helps when you barely understand the language).

Here's G, his mother and her friend, who are visiting Korea for a couple of weeks:

Here's me and G. Either I am over-dressed, he is under-dressed, or both.

The award stage. Really impressive, and very high-tech. We had rolling platforms, several elevated platforms, trap doors, spectacular lighting, fog, and even fireworks.

Let the show begin. Started off with the new hip-hop girls group 4minute, here they are receiving their award and performing. In my opinion they seem to be just a 2NE1 copycat, but I really don't know.

Next came another girl group, T-ara (pronounced "tiara", as in the crown). Receiving their award,

and performing, front view,

and back view (no, this is NOT Kara)

Next came one of my favorite singers, Baek Ji-young. unfortunately, I only got a photo of her receiving her award. But her performance was great. She sounds even better to me live than on TV or CD.

Next up was the group SG Wannabe, which stands for "Simon and Garfunkel wanna be". They almost lived up to their namesake, putting on a great performance, even though one member was limping with a crutch.

I had never heard this band until last night, but they were great. I will definitely get their CD soon. Jang Gi-Ha and The Faces. They were full of energy and got the crowd involved in their songs. The lead singer (Jang) was so funny in his singing and dancing style. Very entertaining.

Here he is, with The Faces:

working the crowd,

and wrapping up the act. The whole rear platform rolled offstage!

Epik High receiving their awards, with a super up-beat performance that had the crowd out of their seats

Davichi receiving their award, and performing on an elevated stage. Sometimes on the monitors in the auditorium, we could see a bird's eye view of the state, and the floor of this platform was a huge LCD screen with images and patterns!

Here are some of the crowd waving their light sticks during a slow ballad song

We noticed on entering the auditorium there was a sign indicating no beer and no hamburgers! I really could have used a hamburger, since I didn't eat dinner (but G's Mom gave me a few crackers). I didn't see any beer, but some girls came by eating hot dogs on a stick. And the lady in front of us was eating a huge bag of tangerines:

An old singer from the 60's/70's (?) Song Chang-Sik was given an award, I guess a lifetime achievement award. He didn't sing, but some of the younger singers performed some of his songs, to everyone's delight

After this, they did a short tribute to Michael Jackson, complete with an excellent moonwalk:

Son Dambi receiving her award and singing her 80's disco-style song "Saturday Night". Check out that elevated stage!

Here comes Drunken Tiger (aka Tiger JK). He also put on a wonderful performance, worked up the crowd, and also had his wife Yoon Mirae (aka "T"), an execellent singer in her own right, come on the stage and sing with him.

Here is the huge 50+ member girls group SNSD, or Girls Generation receiving their award:

Another long time singer, Lee Seung-Cheol sang a ballad, complete with heavy, dense fog. You can see it enveloping the other entertainers at the tables set below the stage (Lee is on the VERY far left of the photo)

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Wrapping up the program, the top two awards of the night were given to SNSD Girls Generation and Super Junior.

Here both groups are walking the runway, singing "Sorry Sorry Sorry" with the crowd.

It was a really fun evening, and thanks to G for inviting me and getting us such good VIP seats.

All That Jazz

2009-12-09T23:17:00.003+09:00

I was introduced to a nice Romanian couple tonight in Itaewon, D and M. They are on a business and vacation trip through Japan and Korea. They just arrived in Korea, and we had a nice dinner, giving them their first taste of Korean food.

After dinner, we went to a live Jazz club, All That Jazz. I have only been there one time about 2 or 3 years ago. I need to visit more often, it was great.

Love that upright bass!

After 40 Years

2009-11-29T09:20:00.005+09:00

A few months ago, I had a chance to reconnect by email with a friend from elementary school over the internet. My friend GE had transferred to another school the last year of elementary school, and we had not see or contacted each other since then. We exchanged a few emails, and then I learned he was coming to Seoul this week! I went to pick him up at the bus station, and spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning sightseeing, enjoying Korean foods, and catching up on the last 40 years. GE is a professor, and was giving guest lectures at a few Universities here in Korea. I attended his lecture yesterday afternoon, and was then invited to a nice dinner hosted by the department head. We had a great time, it was so fun to meet him again after so long.

We went first to the Gyeongbok Palace, after walking all over the neighborhood in search of a place to eat. We finally found an interesting cafe whose hamburgers were made like pieces of artwork! (sorry, no photo). The burgers we ordered were huge towers, without the usual hamburger buns. It was definitely required a fork and knife to eat, rather than using your hands. Then we took a tour of the palace, and the amsll Korean Folk Museum beside the palace. And finally we enjoyed a delicious grilled Korean beef dinner (where the above photo was taken).

Saturday morning we went to the National Museum of Korea, and afterwards a brief tour of Itaewon. He was interested in some Korean pottery, so I took him to Mr. Lee's Koryo Ceramics shop, where The Stumbling Mom bought a nice piece of pottery during her visit in 2007. While Mr. Lee makes most of his pottery using various traditional techniques, he showed us a couple of pieces he was experimenting with because of the Christmas Holiday. I almost bought this one (big one on the right).

We ate a Chinese lunch, at a place I had heard about called "Ho Lee Chow". It was a nice place, and food was great. Since I don't know the area well, I find it hit-and-miss when it comes to Itaewon restaurants. But this place was definitely a hit. After Itaewon, he had to get to the University for this lecture. They really were promoting this lecture - there was a banner over the street with his name announcing the event! Here we are at the University right before his lecture.

After the lecture, the University director and some staff and students took us to dinner, where we all had a great time. For me, I got an interesting glimpse into the inner workings of the academic world.

From what he told me, his visit in Korea was very good, and everything we very well. I'm actually a little jealous, because he got to see some of the country side down south, where I've never been. Anyway, I'm glad we were able to meet after all these years.

Old Age

2009-11-16T21:33:00.007+09:00

(The Stumbler after 1 hour walk in the freezing cold, wearing his Ga Tech cap from college which still fits!)

I'm getting old. I've over weight. I don't exercise. My father died at age 54 from a heart attack. Even though I have Korean health insurance, I recently lost my USA health insurance, and was denied supplemental health insurance here in Korea. And my back's been acting up again. All these points hit me suddenly - I don't want to die early. I'm trying to improve my health. I've visited some doctors, and my complete health checkup is ongoing. Any interesting news that's not too private I'll post as I learn it.

However, there is no time to spare! I've already started diet and exercise. Let's talk about exercise first. Walking. Last week was 30 minutes per day, this week is 1 hour per day. Today I planned a new walking route, which happened to take me by a brand new shopping mall, Times Square, apparently the biggest in Korea?

It's already time for Christmas decorations here in Seoul. Much too early, if you ask me.

Made it back home in just over an hour. My Google Map planning worked perfectly. Let's change the subject to diet. I ate pretty well last week, but the doctor made some specific changes for this week. I have a list of foods to include in my diet this week - I only know about half of them. Of the half I do know, I can probably only cook half of them. It's going to be a challenge. At the corner vegetable stand, I stopped and bought two of the items I remembered being on my list:

In the middle of course is a small pumpkin, which I can probably figure out how to cook and eat. The things around the pumpkin I believe are persimmons, which I have no idea how to cook or eat. I *think* I've eaten these like fruit years ago, but am not sure. Anyone have a recipe for persimmon pumpkin?

One other interesting thing today was that I went to get a series of X-Rays made of my back and related bones. I went after work, and it was right at their closing time. Fortunately, there were no other patients, as the robe they gave me to wear was entirely too small. It only overlapped 1 cm at the front, and even then not well. I was really open for all to see, but fortunately they let me keep my underwear on! The nurse didn't quite know what to do with me. But the X-Rays went well, even though I ripped one of the sleeves in one position she put me in!

More Teeth

2009-11-14T11:48:00.005+09:00

I bit down on a strange snack last night, which was basically dried ramyeon noodles, and broke a filling on my front tooth! This is a tooth that broke in a very similar accident involving a peanut several years ago, which actually chipped the tooth. My American dentist made a "filling", more like a repair, on the tooth which has lasted a few years. Come to think of it, I believe this broke once before in the USA and he re-repaired it one time.

So this morning, I arrived at my Korean dentist promptly at opening time 9:30am. I asked to have my tooth repaired and all my teeth cleaned. I discussed it with the dentist, and then they started cleaning. After the cleaning, the nurse said I had to come back next week for the repair, because Saturday was such a busy day. But the dentist saw me as I was about to walk out the door, and asked why was I leaving? He then spoke quickly to the nurse, and they turned me around and put me back in the chair. Total time - 1 hour, no appointment, about $140 final price.

P.S. He told me the repair would only last a couple of years, and I'll eventually need a crown on that tooth. I hope my bank account will be larger in two more years.

Ergonomics

2009-11-13T12:00:00.006+09:00

In one of several attempts to ward off back pain, I have (hopefully) improved my office enviroment. First, I got a new chair, supposedly good for your back. I'm told this is the Korean equivalent to the Herman Miller chair, called Duoback.

Ironically, I probably sprained a couple back muscles wrestling this chair out of the shipping carton. And a few more while laying on the floor balancing the heavy chair above my head while trying to line it up with the rolling base (which rolls VERY easily, even when you don't want it to!)

Once the chair was operational, I realized that I was still hunched over, because of the height of my laptop screens. Whereupon I elevated my laptop to eye level with a lap top "stand", and elevated my auxiliary LCD display with a box.

Now I have no excuse for poor posture (he types while straightening his back from the slouching position).

EDIT - interesting quote from the Herman Miller website - "Zero is Hero. We won't stop until we've achieved nothing." Not quite sure what to make of this...

Meet Brazil Meat

2009-10-03T12:31:00.004+09:00

My friend Ben has been bugging me for well over a year to try out his favorite steak restaurant out in Gangnam, a Brazilian place called Mercado. Finally we went last night, and it was really great. Some unbelievably delicious meat. Served at your table on swords! All sorts of meats, mostly beef, were served. My favorite was beef wrapped in bacon, and garlic beef. Chicken and veal was also served. The most unusual was chicken hearts!

Since this was my first visit, the waiter insisted I try out the sword and knife myself!

I saw a few actual Brazilians guests (or so I assumed, based on the fact that they were speaking what sounded like Portugese to the owner). But most of the guests were Koreans. I guess this place is popular with the locals, too. It was all you can eat for about $22. Here is a group photo of the well-fed guests:

The only suggestion I could make, and this is really nit-picky, would be to play some Brazilian background music. I think some Bossa Nova and Samba style music would really complete the dining experience.

Let's Eat

2009-09-24T09:54:00.002+09:00

I was reminded last night of a class I took in college. I don't even remember the title or the overall subject matter of the class, except that is was in the humanities category, probably a history or literature class. The one lecture that I remember was about (sit down for this) EATING! I remember the professor spent the whole class talking about how mankind had a history of combining celebrations and eating. Celebratory feast. In the USA we have many examples of this - of course there is Thanksgiving, New Years, Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July, and many other holidays where we will gather with family and friends to celebrate the holiday and share a (usually large) meal. On a smaller scale, you might invite a few friends to dinner to celebrate a birthday, a new job, a retirement, etc.

In Korea, I have previously attended a Korean wedding and also a special birthday party that is given for a child's first birthday. Both of those events include the guests dining together, often from a large buffet with endless food. Last night I attended a Korean funeral for the first time, expecting it to be a short solemn gathering. There was certainly an air of solemnity, but I was surprised to find that the funeral included a full dinner! All the family and friends arrived throughout the evening, paid their respects to the immediate family, and dined together at tables next to the chapel area (for lack of a better term).

While I haven't been to all that many funerals in the USA, I don't recall eating at any. I thought about it last night, and I this dinner + funeral combination is a good idea. It doesn't need to be full-fledged New Orleans' style wake with a Dixieland Band and a parade, but having all the family and friends eat dinner together seems like a good way to celebrate the life of the person who has passed away. Please pass the kimchi...

Puzzler

2009-09-18T10:03:00.005+09:00

I've been doing circuit board layout all week long, so last night at dinner when my friend gave me this puzzle to solve, I was surprised. It used the exact same part of my brain as circuit board routing, and it took me only a few seconds to solve.

Rules: You must connect 1 to 1, 2 to 2, and 3 to 3 by a line (the line can curve, it doesn't have to be straight). But the lines may not cross each other, and the lines cannot go outside the border.

It was so easy, I made a slightly harder version by adding 4 and 5 to the puzzle:

(sorry for the poor sketches, I'm learning to use my computer sketch pad. So far, the results look like something a 3-year-old kid would draw).

Royalty

2009-09-14T09:18:00.003+09:00

Sunday my neck and shoulder was very stiff. I remembered the previous week's haircut, and how relaxing the scalp massage was. So, I asked an online Korean friend WH if he knew anyplace that gave scalp massage like the hair shops. He found for me the "Chinese Royal Massage" office, just a few blocks away from my office!

While scalp was not a choice, "neck, shoulder, and back" was available and only about $12 for 30 minute massage. Since that was what was hurting, I decided to go for it. (Other choices that I could translate were foot massage and aroma-therapy).

The first problem was changing clothes:

The "training clothes" that they gave me to wear wouldn't fit me! (I've had this problem before at the Dr. Fish place). So, I just wore my t-shirt and jeans, and went to the lay down on the special table.

I'm not sure if he was a China man or Korean, but this strong, stout man began giving the massage. At first it was pretty relaxing, similar to the head massage. But as he progressed the massage became stronger and stronger. While the massage was titled "neck, shoulders and back", he seemed to focus on the back. My back normally hurts, and the muscles are all in knots anyway - no doubt this style of massage was probably good for me. But I wasn't sure I was going to survive it. In the end, with some strange leverage, he was using his whole body weight to loosen my muscles. I have a stooped posture, and one set of exercises he did was stretching my arms back, thus straightening my back. I did feel a bit taller when it was over.

Conclusion? Well, whatever tightness I may have felt on my arrival was gone, only to be replaced by pains in places I didn't know I had. As soon as I can walk again, I'll post my final opinion.

Too Far

2009-09-09T09:13:00.002+09:00

I forgot to mention this on my last overseas trip. You've perhaps heard how the airlines are clamping down and charging extra fees these days. For example, to check a second bag, to check even one bag, overweight bag fees, etc. Well on my last trip they ruled that I was overweight, and I had to wear this tag througout my whole journey!

While I am too heavy, I think this is going a bit too far.

French Toast

2009-09-07T14:33:00.003+09:00

Over on Facebook, I recently confessed about my indulgent, high calorie, high-fat breakfast that I sometimes enjoy. Here's a photo.

Extra-thick bacon from Costco (probably means extra fat and calories, too). French Toast prepared with thick, soft, white bread having no nutritional value whatsoever. Sprinkled with cinnamon and drenched with pancake syrup. No need for butter, and the toast was prepared in the frying pan with plenty of butter. Lowfat milk, however, tops off the meal along with a cup of black tea.

Knob and Post

2009-09-07T14:06:00.005+09:00

You don't see the old knob and post wiring method very often these days. But I saw this at a popular restaurant this weekend.

I'm guessing this might be low-voltage lighting, although I wasn't brave enough to lick my fingers and touch the wire. I've been bit one time here in Korea by 220VAC, and I don't want to repeat that again. I did get a few odd looks while taking photos of the ceiling, but then again, I'm used to getting odd looks in Korea so it didn't bother me.

Quick Dinner

2009-09-02T11:28:00.003+09:00

Quick and simple dinner from the 7-11 (well, actually it was the Family Mart).

One can beer, SPAM/egg triangle kim-bap, and boiled quail eggs. The ~~breakfast~~ dinner of champions. Yummmm

Dreams Again

2009-08-25T08:53:00.002+09:00

This summer I had a possible client with a possible project here in Korea. The work continued to be delayed and delayed, and the final form of the project in the end was just unworkable. I sent a very polite letter declining the project, and never heard anything from them (this was about 3 or 4 weeks ago). Yesterday, over lunch, I just happened to mention to my colleague CH, "I wonder what happened with that company? I wonder why they didn't even reply or confirm my letter?"

Well, last night I had a dream. I was in a large hotel ball room, where dinner was being served. Over in one corner, there was a group of people from this very company conducting a training class! I went over to talk to them, and then my dream ended and I woke up.

This morning, after my breakfast, my cell phone rang with a strange number. I answered, and it was someone from this very same company, asking if I was possibly interested in a different project!

Just too weird. Don't know if this project will pan out or not, there are very few and sketchy details right now, but who knows...

HAND UPDATE: As of Saturday, I could really tell it was healing well. My strength was slowly returning, and I could almost make a complete fist without any pain. However, Sunday I had a couple days setback. I went shopping at Costco, and no matter how careful I was to only use my left hand, I think I hurt it some lifting the shopping "box". Also Saturday and Sunday evening I installed an auxiliary audio power amplifier for Trevor on their terrace. I was so careful, made other people do any lifting or wire pulling. But just once or twice, I slipped up and ended up holding the entire power amplifier in my right hand. Just now, Tuesday morning, I feel almost back to the point I was Saturday before I over-exerted it.

ELBOW UPDATE: The swelling is getting smaller each day, although I think slower than the doctor had suggested. It is still quite warm to the touch, however. It has gone from the painful stage to the numb/itchy stage. But if it doesn't improve remarkably in the next couple days I'll go back.

Medieval Torture

2009-08-19T19:02:00.005+09:00

Yesterday the doctor asked me to return today to have another look at the elbow. We finished at the factory in time, so I stopped by after work. He said the swelling was going down, gave me one more antibiotic shot, and said to keep taking the oral antibiotics. If it was still warm and swollen on Friday come by again, if not, it's all over and no reason to come back.

As I was leaving, I asked him about my formerly broken hand, which is still weak and a bit painful. I asked if they had a hot whirlpool tub I could soak my hand in for a short while. He said that they don't use hot water, but instead would give me a "paraffin treatment"! It was either no extra cost or $2 extra, I'm not sure.

This was something I would imagine they used to torture people in days gone by. A heated bowl of hot wax. Dip your hands in repeatedly, and layers build up on your hands. After 5 layers, let it all cool, peel off the wax, and repeat 4 times! It was painfully hot. Several times I wondered if I wasn't actually giving myself burns. Especially the first dip, when it was my bare hand. After that, the subsequent dips in the wax were a little less painful.

I have no idea why this is used instead of water. My hand does feel a little better, but that might just be because it has cooled down from being steamed like a crab. I had the nurse photograph my hands immediately after the procedure. Can you guess which one was treated?

And the one positive side effect: there is absolutely no residual smell from the cast. Now my entire hand smells like a crayon!

Elbow Grease

2009-08-18T20:28:00.003+09:00

Well, not grease, but rather medicine:

About two weeks ago, as my hand was healing up, the elbow on my other arm began to hurt. I didn't recall hitting it or anything. My best guess was that it was some delayed pain from the sidewalk fall which broke my hand. However, I did NOT mention this to the doctor. I thought it was just a sprain and would heal on its own. I just couldn't face the thought of having a cast on my hand AND my elbow.

But where my hand has been healing just fine, this elbow hasn't gotten any better, and the swelling was getting larger and it felt very warm to the touch. Finally I went to the doctor today and showed him the elbow. He immediately said that it wasn't the bone nor a sprain, but instead I had an infection! Just like when I thought I had a sprain, I have no idea what caused it. So I was given an antibiotic shot, a 3-day course of oral antibiotics, and told to check back tomorrow. He said something about aspirating the infection with a needle if it didn't get better soon!

That's A Lot of Spam

2009-08-11T14:31:00.003+09:00

My internet service provider has a spam filtering service. You can visit a website which allows you to search and review emails which have been identified as spam. This is necessary sometimes when an email gets accidentally flagged as spam. Well today I happened to notice this statistic counter on the site:

That says that 90% of all my incoming emails are spam! That's hard to believe!

Who is Ben Harper?

2009-08-01T12:45:00.003+09:00

"Who is Ben Harper?" you might ask. I certainly did. Caught this song on the radio the other day, and let me warn you the tune will stick in you mind for days on end!

Steal My Kisses (YouTube Link)

I actually sent a text message to the radio station, asking for the singer. I received a prompt reply from the station with the answer, addressed to me personally. Kind of Big Brother-ish, since I didn't send my name in the message. I must investigate this further.

The above link is to a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles from 2003. In addition to the song, we are treated to an excellent extended bass solo on a Fender 5-string bass.

Ben Harper seems to be one of several American musicians that I have learned of here in Korea, who have a larger following outside the USA than within. Again, listen at your own risk.

If you like his voice, and can get past the full-sleeve tatoos, listen to some of his gospel songs on YouTube with the "Blind Boys of Alabama" group. Good Stuff.

(Apologies to Young Stumbler #1's music blog. I don't intend to compete, this is just a one-time thing. I will return to normal, boring posts soon.)

Thumb's Back

2009-07-30T20:39:00.002+09:00

Almost a week with this splint, and my hand itself is still swollen and hurting. Even though I was told to come back in 2 weeks, I went back to the doctor's today to ask if there was anything that could be done. I was thinking ice or heat therapy. Well, he was concerned about the swelling, and took another X-ray. Turns out the original bone near my thumb which was suspect before, is just fine now. But instead, my pinky finger is partially broken (not the finger itself, but way down in the palm part.

So I have a different splint, on the other side of my hand. My thumb is free, but my fingers are more restricted. He said usually he could use a waterproof cast, but my hand was too swollen. Instead I get the splint. Estimated healing time 3-4 weeks! Next visit 2 weeks.

Super Ultra King Klutz

2009-07-24T13:38:00.003+09:00

Fell flat on my face last night, just walkin down the sidewalk minding my own business. Well, not my face, but rather I caught myself with my right hand. And boy it sure hurt this morning.

Went to the doctor, and got lucky. It was 5 minutes before lunch, so they rushed me through, no wait (that I was the only patient helped, of course). Doctor said it was probably just a sprain, but took an x-ray to be sure. After studying the film, he said my scaphoid bone (don't know it? click here) might be fractured, it wasn't clear. Fortunately (well, not so fortunately since I'm right handed) the treatment is the same - put it in a "splint". More like 1/2 of a cast held on by a long bandage. The splint material looks like these modern lightweight casts they use these days instead of plaster. It got really warm while it was setting.

Anyway, he says come back in 2 weeks, and a follow-up x-ray will show more clearly whether or not there is a fracture. I sure hope not, or else he'll have me in this splint for weeks more. In and out in about 10 minutes, total cost about $40! And the doctor spoke English...

Safe Recycling...

2009-07-17T21:12:00.004+09:00

...or, how do you throw away a trash can?

I've noticed this iron safe located in our office building's recycling area.

Is the safe there to be recycled? Or is it store very expensive items to be recycled (gold teeth perhaps)?