Put down the cheeseburger and back away slowly...

Little did you know the beef you've been eating all your life is highly likely to cause mad-cow disease. Apparently the Koreans know something we don't. Some background to the story: Korea has refused American beef imports for several years (3-4 I believe) and recently the new President agreed to reopen the Korean market. This has created a genuine firestorm of protest from some likely and unlikely sources. Of course Korean beef industry workers are furious as they won't be able to charge me $15 for a damn Kg. of beef...and MUCH more at a restaraunt. But oddly, students are the leading force behind the protests, as evidenced in the video. Apparently school union leaders are heavily promoting and recruiting (see propagandizing) to students some incredibly ridiculous information that has flooded not just schools, but text messaging, the internet community, mainstream newspapers, all the halls of the political system, and even last week when I traveled to see those kindly Buddhas, there was a small protest going on (pics to follow). Check the video, the first 1:20 are pretty dull..but then it picks up a lot..note the dancing 'Mad cow' or literally 'crazy cow' as it translates from their language. And also note at about the 3:00 mark when the man is speaking from the truck, the crowd is chanting like a sports match...they are yelling 'garbage...garbage...garbage' Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what they mean...

Wow..the chuckles never end over here...

hope you guys are enjoying the posts...plenty more where that comes from...

Love you!

The Birds Part 2 - Seoul Snatchers!!!

That's right boys and girls...everyone's favorite flu, the avian influenza, has reached not merely southern South Korea, oh no...not simply the hinterlands of the Republic of Korea...gasp...but has encroached on Seoul proper!!! Amid the culling of 16,000 chickens, geese, ducks, pheasant, quail, and one unfortunate adjossi, South Koreans now recoil in hellish terror at the site of an formerly unsuspecting pigeon pecking it's death-carrying self towards one of them. Watch in horror as simple carrier pigeons put a touch of the devil into the hearts and minds of school girls and grown men alike. Enjoy that invigorating gag-reflex as you watch some witless dupe downing a fried chicken breast through the plate-glass window, knowing it could be final ingestion he makes. Find yourself looking warily towards the heavens to avoid any near-misses from the defecating heathens...

That's right..don't look now, but it's THE BIRDS PART 2 - SEOUL SNATCHERS!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Buddha x 333,334

Now...the guide book and maps said there were 333,333 statues of Buddha at this temple and in

the surrounding hills...but I counted 333,334...can anyone find one I might have missed?

Happy birthday Buddha x 333,334!?!

Wizened women working willingly....

This one is mainly for dad, and I apologize for not being able to speak more intelligently about what it is they're foraging for. In any event, I hope you all can enjoy them.

A week or two ago I took full advantage of a gloriously blessed Sunday and walked towards one of the giant warehouse-style supermarket/discount stores near here. I took a lesiurely stroll along the stream that runs parallel to my building and aims north towards eternity and south towards the Cheonggye stream that we walked along your first night in Seoul and finally empties into the massive Han river downtown. Along the way I found two of the elderly women I'd mentioned to you over the phone hunched over plucking herbs? weeds? ...? to use for cooking? flavoring? remedies? I really haven't a good clue. I snapped the first two shots from some distance in order to frame them, give some perspective that I wasn't out in the sticks somewhere doctoring the photos of some farmers, and also to respect their privacy. As I neared, I asked the one lower to the walking/running/biking path if I could take a closer shot. She, missing nearly all here teeth, pointed to her small rucksack and mumbled something unintelligible. My first thought was she was asking for money...so, deciding not to press the matter, I lowered my 'weapon' and thanking her, continued to enjoy my walk and day.

Enjoy yours...

Love you guys!

2008 Summer Olympic Torch in Seoul

A few weekends ago, as you all may already know, the beleagured Olympic torch made a brief tour through Seoul here in South Korea. I happened to notice a blurb about it on the news that morning and ventured out to take in the sights and sounds. Not sure the time of the parade exactly, when I saw everyone carrying Chinese flags and wearing red and gold heading the opposite direction in the subway station, I thought for sure I had just missed it. It was reminicent of the giant crowds downtown for the last World Cup here or during the World Baseball Championship with throngs of suited up fans mingling jollily through the subway stations. Fortunately, upon alighting from the stairs, I was overwhelmed with the tens of thousands of cheering and jubuliant supporters. The entire Seoul City Hall court was awash in red and gold. I have never seen so much singular support for one country here in Korea, besides the obvious enthusiastic support for the home team. I bought some batteries, grabbed a drink, and pushed off into the crowds. I was curious to find some interactions between the Chinese, mainly student, supporters and Tibetan, mainly white 'never been to Tibet-type', supporters. To my dismay(?), I came up blank on that account. [The next day's new reports of several scuffles, rock and bottle throwing, even attacks with Chinese flag poles proved that while I may not have witnessed it, there were certainly high tensions] Eventually I bellied up to the street I thought might have the best odds for seeing the actual flame. Skip forward three hours of waiting around and finally the torch itself arrived. I guess I don't know what I was expecting, but the row upon row of metropolitan police, horse-riding officers, bicycle cops, undercover agents, mysterious figures, and even special forces complete with what to the untrained-eye (mine!) could have been fully- or semi-automatic weapons, well, it certainly took away from the festive, humanitarian, 'we are all brothers and sisters' feel that the Olympics typically trancends to and imparts on humanity. Oh well, I kept shooting hoping to get a clear shot of the guy carrying the flame, check the evidence for yourself, I'm posting the clearest shot I had out of 20-25 I snapped furiously while he past. All in all, not bad for my second viewing of the flame, was it April I saw it with for the '96 Atlanta games there in Tumwater near the Dairy Queen? Anybody...?

More posts to follow... :)

Love you guys!

History

http://www.friendsofhercules.org/cinerama2.htm

Don't you just love researching history. After our wonderful weekend, I looked into the history of the theatre. The Cinerama in Seattle, WA that shows one show at a time. I was blown away by the simplicity of it all. Here sits your father and I ready to watch a movie that your father couldn't wait to share with me. He knew he could never get me to read the comic books directly. What a deep moment. I was brought into Dad's childhood. YEP! I LOVE HISTORY!

Iron Man movie weekend

Hah!
What a weekend!!
This won't be a movie review, but an "experience review". You can read a thousand reviews if you want.

Cori picked me up at the airport wearing a damn Iron Man T-shirt! Crazy!!

We checked in to the Sheraton and once we got to our room, Cori bestowed many "gifts".
First, a T-shirt of my own. The Avi Arid "fist punch" shirt. Very cool.
Plus a couple of action figures to put on the mantle in my office.

We headed out towards the theatre in our Iron Man shirts to pick up our tickets and the first guy we walked by stopped us to ask how the movie was. The entire afternoon we were getting lots of attention; honks, "thumbs up" signs and people hollering "Hey, Iron Man. Cool!!"

Once at the theater, we asked some guys to take our photo in front of the movie poster.

We worked our way back to the hotel and went up to the Club Room for drinks and snacks. The Sheraton Club is a little bit "uppity" and then we rolled in with our Iron Man shirts on. Hah!

Back to the theater so we could get a good seat. WOW! The Cinerama is a one screen super theater. And the one screen is massive! We found a seat down below but,looking around, we noticed the balcony. What could be better then a balcony?!?

I headed up to check it out and then hollered to Cori to come on up. We found seats dead center in with a whole mob of "fan boys". There were even guys reading comics while we waited. Those geeks! ;-)

I knew it was going to be a fun night when the crowd went nuts for the "Bat Man The Dark Knight" trailer. I mean really nuts...for a trailer.
By the time the movie started, the theater was completely FULL!

People cheered when the first scene opened showing a glass of Scotch on the rocks that pans up to reveal Tony Stark.
People cheered when each version of the armor was first shown.
Hell, people cheered when someone got up to get popcorn!

At the end of the film, no one moved...everyone sat through the credits and you could tell that something was coming up. A guy behind us hollered "shsssh. and then the final scene kicked in.
Tony Stark + Nick Fury! WOW!
the whole theater erupted!

The crowd poured out of the theater and we headed to the Icon Grill for Mac & Cheese. MMMmmm. Good stuff!

Anyway, the entire night was such a blast! The movie was amazing and we blended in with all the other geeks. Cori now knows everything there is to know about Tony/Iron Man and I'm in fan-boy heaven!

A perfect weekend with my own Pepper Potts!!

Iron Man Movie Premiere!

Here we are at the premiere of Iron Man in Seattle. Some other fans took our photo.
Check back later for my weekend in review!!!!