Me Likey

Current play(life)list:

Kings of Leon: Sex On Fire
The Band: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Fionn Regan: Hunter's Map
Guster: Come Downstairs and Say Hello
Jack Johnson: Breakdown
Jason Mraz: After An Afternoon
Old Crow Medicine Show: Wagon Wheel
Silversun Pickups: Three Seed
The Avett Brothers: Swept Me Away
The Prize Fighter Inferno: The Going Price For Home
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles: You Really Got a Hold On Me
The Fugees: Fu-Gee-La
James Taylor: Mexico
Jeff Lynne: Lift Me Up

* * *

Twouble with Twitters-- "Don't you twitterstand? You can become a twitter-elbrity!"
Hilarious! Although it makes me feel guilty for updating my facebook status. =/

Anis Mogjani-- "Rock out like the mangoes are in season. Rock out like the record player won't skip. Rock out like this was the last weekend, like these were the last words, like you don't wanna ever forget how." Slam poet.

* * *

It has been a fairly slow week for me here in Gyeongju. First of all, it is damn cold, making me not want to go out and do much. According to AccuWeather (which you know I live by) it is 37 degrees with a "real feel" of 28. Brr. It made my hot and fresh mendu dinner all the more delicious. Well that, and I also forgot to turn my heat off when I left today so I came home to a surprisingly warm apartment. Not the worst thing in the world!

The other night Diane and I had dinner at some chain restaurant in wonsungdong. It was delicious. My meal consisted of spicy ramen noodle soup with egg and mozzarella. Immediately after we treated ourselves to ice cream from Baskin Robins (boom batty much?). They serve the babiest of sizes there, and all for fairly cheap (2500W/cup). I am going to have to really try to not go there frequently. Instead of grabbing a cab home, we decided to walk. We walked past the Gyeongju stadium where our home opener is being held. It is huge and beautiful and says "Gyeongju" in the stands. It is definitely a professional stadium, with flood lights and room for 10,000 fans. I hope my leg is feeling up to it.

We also walked past this statue of a Korean general on a horse pointing his sword onward and upward. It was really amazing. It's got to be like, 20 feet tall or so. Huge. I estimate that it's a couple hundred years old. I don't know the name of the General, just that he fought off the Japanese. I have heard Koreans say that Japan has invaded Korea "2,000 times in 2,000 years". Not to be taken literally of course, but an interesting indigenous perspective all the same.

In other news, North Korea has a (test range) missile on a launch pad. The images from GoogleEarth that have been shown in the media show it clearly. The North Korean government is saying they are sending a satellite into space, but from what I've heard and read, nobody believes that. Supposedly the missile could reach somewhere as far as Alaska. The whole thing has got the Japanese military protecting the sea as well as part of their territory that the North Koreans have mapped out as "missile zone". The Japanese are concerned that debris could hit near Tokyo. I don't know. I try to keep myself informed and I keep reading about it. The conclusion I've come to is that ultimately North Korea is calling a nuclear weapon a satellite; China, who is a distant ally of the North has remained relatively quiet about the situation; Japan has urged the North to scrap its' plan, saying that it would "damage peace and stability".
The U.S. and South Korea, along with Japan, are strongly opposed to North Korea testing long range missiles, and say that the North would "face international sanctions under a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution prohibiting ballistic activity by Pyongyang (NK President)".

I'm not worried, and I won't be worried until the Koreans worry, which here in SoKo, they are not. Just something to think about. To end this rant-tacular blog on a positive note, here are a couple pictures of the Gyeongju crew from Aleesha's birthday last Friday.

George and Steve

Nightmare Before Soju (props to Diane for the pic)

Beau, Diane, and Simon

Bill, Simon, and Aleesha

Kelly, Beau, Lena, and Dave

Diane and I

Til next time... it better be warm by then! :)