Just me and ten million Koreans

Frustrated with watching television on a 15″ laptop screen, I made a trip to Seoul yesterday along with a couple other guys from work. It didn’t quite pan out as expected for a number of reasons.

1. January 30th is the Lunar New Year, a national holiday here in Korea .. so half the city was closed, including most of the big electronics marts. Oops.

2. Seoul is big. Really big. It’s also not exactly traveler friendly. Outside of a few tourist districts, you have to have a rather clear idea of where you want to go and how to get there to really see the city. We knew neither.

3. Korea apparently still hasen’t quite gotten over that whole “Decades of occupation and subjegation” thing Japan inflicted upon them earlier in the 20th century. Consequentially, Japanese electronics are hard to find over here, and when you do find them they cost even more than they do in the States. As it happens, the TV I wanted to buy is made by Sony. Morale of the story; you can buy anything you want in electronics district of Seoul, as long as it’s made by Samsung or LG (and it’s open).

That being said, I did have a good time, and have a better idea of what to expect in the future. I also learned my way around the public transportation system a bit, which never hurts. Ironically I had a hundred and eighty four page guide book specifically for Seoul sitting back in my room, that I didn’t bother to bring with me. Next time will be better.

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Det 1, 33RQS

I snapped a few photo’s down at work the other day. Unfortunately by the time we launched the aicraft out it was way too dark to get any pictures. If I had brought the tripod with me I probably could have gotten one or two, but c’est la vie.

The exercise is amost over, thank God. I’ve been cooped up in this room all week, I need to get out. The hot water has come and gone intermittently the last few days. When it’s gone, it’s really gone, the stuff coming out of the faucet has got to be close to the freezing point. Supposedly there are a few boilers on the fritz right now and they’re suppossed to be fixed today. We shall see. My internet has been going out just as much, although I think that’s more due to the defective modem them gave me, it seems to turn off if you touch it or look at it the wrong way. Outside the base in Songtan, you can get a 100Mbit internet connection for 36,000 Won a month (around $36). Here on base, I pay $58 a month for what seems to be a 3Mbit connection that doesn’t work half the time. Korea telecom, why hast thou forsaken us?

We sold our van! We even got close to our asking price for it, which is cool, considering some of the issues it had. Riki even managed to get cash for it. Which, as it turns out, led to another little problem. I guess Logan decided it would be a good idea to grab one of the fifties and hide it in his room. We’ve had reoccuring problems with him stealing loose change from us, from Conner, and from his friends over the years, but never anything like this. It’s very frustrating, we can’t seem to instill in him how wrong stealing is. He’s even experienced it himself, someone stole his bike a couple years back. Hopefully it’s just a phase, I love the little guy but raising a klepto is going to get old fast.

Enough for now, I’m off to work. I miss everyone, don’t be afraid to call. Unless you’re Silva, cause then you’re just creepy.

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I really hope the Koreans appreciate this ..

You won’t be hearing much from me this week. The following is why. For the uninformed, that means we’re in one of Osan’s famed exercises, which means long hours at work and not going anywhere because the base is playing wargames.

For you guys back at Little Rock who hate it there, just trust me on this one … that base has perks you’re not quite grasping yet. Admittedly I’ve not really fealt the brunt of this one due to the nature of my job, but it doesn’t take much looking once you’re here to realize just how un-fun these things really are.

Not much else going on. I’ve been working non stop the last couple of weeks, which isn’t really a bad thing as it makes the time pass more quickly. I bought a cool painting in Songtan over the weekend, it’s a blue tone landscape of a vaguely asian looking river wandering thru a forest, done by a local artist. Original artwork, hand painted, framed, forty bucks. Not bad. It’s the same guy that did the painting of the B-1 I took a pciture of the other week, actually. I might buy a few more from him, he’s really good.

I’m off to bed, assuming the giant voice (that’s a military base wide PA system) that’s been blabbering on about exercise stuff all night lets me get to sleep

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Beauty in our own backyard

I was in my room working on the computer the other day. I happened to glance out the window at one point for no particular reason, and did a double take. I hadn’t been outside yet that day, so I was surprised to find that I could barely make out the trees that are no more than twenty yards from my room. An odd, thick fog had descended upon Osan. It was late in the evening, and the light was fading fast. These are the pictures I managed to grab before it started to mist more heavily and forced me back inside.

It struck me afterwords how often we have moments like this in our lives, brief periods of awe that for the most part fade from our memories as quickly as they entered them. I think that’s what seperates artists from the rest of us. They have a talent for recognizing those moments and saving them. We all know beauty when we see it. It’s just some of us have come to take it for granted unless we have it specifically pointed out to us.

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I don’t get it

Why does stuff like this never take off?  It seems like I’m reading yet another story about some amazing technology that could revolutionize some aspect of our life every day.  And yet, my life remains unrevolutionized.  I suppose the answer is that the suppossed amazing new technology actually turns out to be less amazing that it’s developers claimed it would be.  Still though, one has to wonder if there isn’t some evil robber baron business conglomeration out there somewhere cackling gleefully every time the squash another innovation.

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