Paul and I hit Beer Kaiser, a quiet weekend

This weekend, being the weekend before pay day, was a quiet one.

On Friday Paul came up to Daegu and we went down to Beer Kaiser (a local hof) for Szechuan (kung Pao) chicken and a couple of pints. Not much happened and we were both asleep by one. Saturday we got up early to find food and wound up at the gimbap heaven for breakfast. Then in teh early afternoon he left and I spent the rest of the day crashed out watching TV.

The Simpsons is on course for its 25th season...... sigh

Well after facing cancellation over budget issues the Simpsons has been renewed for a 24th and 25th season.

Why? (note, I realise that revenue is the reason why)

Despite the fact that it should be in the bin of 1990's trivia with Kurt Cobain, the X-Files and Monica Lewinsky, it will continue well in to the second decade of the new millennium. Don't get me wrong, I have very fond memories of watching this show.......... when I was in grade 3, or talking like Ralph Wiggum......... in grade 8. It's a huge part of my childhood. Season 4 and 5 still have some of the funniest moments on television (a streetcar named Marge, Kamp Krusty). It was clever, satirical and actually funny. Not cheap laugh/groan funny, but laugh til you can't breath anymore funny (Planet of the Apes, the Musical). Phil Hartman's death was the first thing to go wrong with the show, Conan O'Brien leaving was another, but at the end, the writers have just been out of ideas....... for a decade. The charaters are charicatures of themselves. We all know what Mr. Burns is going to say and then he says it and we all laugh. There are no more stories, it's like an episode of Family Guy (which also needed to stop about ten years ago).

Anyway, 25 years (10 of which were actually good) SHOULD be long enough and I hope it will be. I know people will say that there was a good episode in season 19, or that season 21 was better than the last 5 (or whatever) but it's like in the 1990's when all of these dinosaurs of rock started releasing records and touring again. Jimi Hendrix seemed to have more unreleased material than should be possible. The Beatles had more Anthologies than they did records. The Stones were touring ("what a drag it is getting old" sounded better out of Mick in 1965 than it did in 1995 for some reason). Page and Plant, Alice Cooper, Eric Clapton etc. Now we all thought that their music was great, I mean who doesn't like Zeppelin IV? But didn't you secretly think it was also kinda sad? I mean, was any of it half as good as their 1968 records? Wasn't it just our parents nostalgia keeping these guys going? Would you really rather listen to Jimmy Page tuning his guitar than, you know, a song? It's T.V this time but we are doing the same thing. It's nostalgia for season 5 that has given us season 25. Maybe that's a testament to how big a part of our youth the Simpsons was but much like Page and Plant to our parents, it belongs in our childhood.

The Simpsons is a relic from our childhood, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Wow, I really suck at this

Well I said that the AL Championship Series would be the Yankees and Rays, and it will be Detroit and Texas.

I said that the NL Championship Series would be the Phillies and teh Diamondbacks and it will be the Cardinals and teh Brewers.

I did say that Arizona was a pick from the heart, not the head so maybe I have an excuse there, but that's about it.



What a crazy year! Boston collpases and misses the playoffs. Atlanta follows suit. The best team from the AL and NL respectively drop out in the division series and a wildcard team that really had no business even making the playoffs is now in the NL Championship series against the Brewers, the Milwaukee Brewers!

So anyway:

AL Championship Series is:

Detriot Tigers vs. Texas Rangers

NL Championship Series is:

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Milwaukee Brewers


I'm very hesitant to pick, simply because this year has been the most unpredicatable in recent memory and I went 0-4 in the divisional series. In a season where Philadelphia and New York are both blown out with a whimper after stellar seasons I have no clue, so I'll pass and just enjoy the next series.

Protecting YOUR right to throw midgets in bars.

Read here about a Florida state senators attempt to repeal a 20 year old Florida law that outlaws Dwarf tossing in bars.

This is great on so many levels:

1- The fact that this actually became so common in Florida that it required a law in the first place.
2- The fact that it's being repealed as an attempt to create jobs for dwarves.
3- The fact that Dwarf tossing is considered by some to be a freedom.


God Bless America.

WaBar, Korea's Western Ice-Bar

Everyone is Korea, or at least Gyeongsan, knows WaBar. It's a Korean chain meant to be a western "ice bar" (whatever that is). It's not bad, food is a bit pricey but you can get the largest variety of beer in any Korean bar at not too unreasobale prices. However, for many westerners showing up in Korea, especially if you are going to one of the smaller towns, it's your first drinking hole. It was certainly that way for me when I pulled up in Ulsan in 2008. It was my first week and Kris took me down for a pint where I met Paul and a friend of his who has since gone home. Paul and I are still friends to this day. It was a regular place to hang out and I had a lot of fun nights there. Since coming to Daegu the sheer variety of restaurants/pubs makes WaBar a less frequent hangout. However, the really small one in Seongseo was still the place we had Kris and Miranda's goodbye dinner and later a place I took my dad when he came to Korea. In fact, the table where Miranda carved their initials is still there, with the initials in tact.

Now I have a new WaBar near my place. It's a really nice one with a small patio and a great upstairs area. I've hit it up a few times and really like it. It's still one of the best places for a 500cc pint in Korea and being that the franchise has a bit of history with me I'm happy to keep on going. After heading there the other night and talking about this with a friend I felt I should share it with friends.

Anyway, maybe it's not that interesting^^

How much do I fly?

I was chatting with a friend recently about how much we fly. I know it sounds dumb, but when I stopped to think about all the flights I've taken, I realised that I actually do fly a lot, though in clumps (2003-2004; 2008) etc. So here (and I won't be offended if you skip this section and continue reading below, it's more for me than for anyone else) are the flights I've taken so far (that I can think of):

1996 - Vancouver - Los Angeles
            Los Angeles - Seattle (stopover)
            Seattle - Vancouver
1997 - Vancouver - Los Angeles
            Los Angeles - Vancouver
1998 - Vancouver - Los Angeles
            Los Angeles - Vancouver
2003 - Vancouver - Hong Kong (stopover)
            Hong Kong - Melbourne
           Melbourne - Sydney
           Sydney - Melbourne
2004 - Melbourne - Brisbane
           Gold Coast - Melbourne
           Melbourne - Hong Kong
           Hong Kong - Vancouver
2007 - Vancouver - Las Vegas
            Las Vegas - Vancouver
2008 - Vancouver - Hong Kong (stopover)
           Hong Kong - Bangkok
           Bangkok- Chiang Mai
           Bangkok - Ko Samui
           Ko Samui - Bangkok (stopover)
           Bangkok - Siem Reap
           Siem Reap - Bangkok
           Bangkok - Hong Kong
           Hong Kong - Vancouver
           Vancouver - Seattle (stopover)
           Seattle - Seoul (stopover)
           Seoul - Ulsan
2009 - Seoul - Hong Kong (stopover)
           Hong Kong - Bangkok
           Chiang Mai - Bangkok
           Singapore - Hong Kong
           Hong Kong - Seoul
2010 - Daegu - Jeju
           Jeju - Daegu
2011 - Seoul - Taipei
           Taipei - Seoul
            Seoul - Tokyo (stopover)
           Tokyo - Vancouver
           Vancouver - Seoul (stopover)
            Seoul - Daegu


Well that's it, and unless my winter break falls in December (and it may) this year, it's complete through the rest of 2011. This list also, obviously, does not include all the bus and train travel I have done (or had to do :P) and I won't even begin to make that kind of a list.

It seems long to me but I certainly know people who would laugh at this list. I also notice it's a lot of the same places. Hong Kong, Bangkok, Melbourne, Seoul, L.A and Vancouver account for most of the departure/arrival destinations. Also, I've had a lot of stopovers in Hong Kong, but I always end up going there on the way back. BTW - Hong Kong is my favourite place is Asia, and maybe the world so far. Go there.

I also noticed, and I don't know why I never have before, that I have never taken a domestic flight in Canada. Truth is the only other Canadian province I have ever been to is Alberta. I have had domestic flights in the U.S, Thailand, Korea and Australia, but not my own country. That actually kinda blows me away.

Also, though not on this list, is that virtually all these flights (except for the ones in the 1990's and the Aussie domestics) have been on Asian carriers (Cathay Pacific mostly, but also Bangkok Airways, Korean Air and Japan Airlines). Asia carriers are great, less expensive and offer free stopovers. Cathay gives you free stopovers in Hong Kong. How can you beat that?

Finally, I didn't get on a single plane until I was 14. Is that late?



So how about you? How much do you fly? How young were you when you started? Do you go to a lot of the same places or is every flight to a new place?

checking out Andong

With it being a three day weekend I decided that I needed at least one day outside of Daegu. I have wanted to go to Hahoe village, Deosan Seowan and the city itself for over a year now but for reasons that are unexplainable I never seemed to just get up and go. So on Sunday I grabbed my coworker Kris (not to be confused with my old coworker and friend Kris), met Geoff and one of his friends, and headed off to Andong. We were also meeting Angela and two of her friends there. Our plan was to meet at the bus stop, cross the street and grab a bus to Hahoe.

I had read about Andong in my Korea travel guide and on my friend David's blog (he lived there for three years) so I had a pretty good idea what was up. However, this being Korea things change faster than you can keep up with and in the last year Andong has built a whole new bus terminal in the west end of town (a 7000 won cab ride away). So the four of us opted to bus to Andong Station to get train tickets for the ride home and meet Ange and her friends there to catch the bus. We grabbed our tickets but then decided just to cab it out. It was like 30000 won but split four ways was cool.

Hahoe itself was packed for the mask festival, so we got some food and decided on the 330 show. This gave us time to walk around the village, which is set in an absolutely beautiful mountain setting, with rice terraces, gardens and minimal power lines and apartments. The village itself is very similar to the folk village I saw up in Suwon but it was still really cool to see it. The buildings have retained their traditional architecture and design but unlike in Suwon, there is a large family clan who live here (so big sections are off limits). The Korean government subsidized people who are willing to live in the traditional Joseon way. It keeps the traditional culture alive in an era of rapid modernisation and it is great for domestic (and some international) tourism. Either way it was very cool. Next was the 330 show which was good, but all the dialogue made it difficult for those not fluent in Korean (ie -us) to really grasp what was happening, so we opted to head back to the village and see a bit more. We then had the task of getting back in to town. The bus, which only runs every couple of hours, was not put in to higher circulation for the festival. We all lined up but when it did come people just ran/shoved each other in a mad dash for the bus (like those really fat ladies that wait outside Wal-Mart on Boxing Day or Black Friday in North America). I was actually a bit sickened at the lack of regard/courtesy for other people, but then I remembered where I was.......... anyway we all got on, crammed in though we were and got back in to town. We then decided to walk around Andong a bit and eventually found a bbq place to sit, eat and chat for a while before we parted ways and hopped on the train.

Unfortunately we didn't have time to see Deosan Seowan or really as much of the city itself as I had wanted to, but that's okay as I've already decided that Andong is somewhere I will go back to a couple of times before I leave Korea. I will probably do another trip up there in the next couple of months as fall sets in and Deosan Seowon gets its beautiful fall setting. I also had more time to catch up with Ange, meet her friend who I  really liked and get to know Kris better than I thought I would. With that in mind the trip itself was an overall success. Andong itself is a cool little city and being one of the few Korean cities without any major industry, the air was very clean and the mountains especially beautiful.

When I replace my camera cord I'll throw up the pics.