Korea, the land of technology

...or almost. Tell that to my friend who looked up online to see where the iPhone is being released. 70 countries approximately, and as he put it. Japan is getting it, fricking Colombia is getting it?!?! But yes, you guess it, no South Korea. Whether or not we would be banished from our work if we bought it is another question entirely. But thankfully we have not been tempted...

...and in the US

Every time I hear about crazy things happening in Korea (head of one company who hired goons to beat up a guy who had gotten into a fight with his son, OR embezzlement from the head of Hyundai), I have to remind myself that it isn't just Korea where some of this stuff happens.

And a post I read about the former head of Broadcom sure puts that in perspective. My favorites:
- Putting Ecstacy into the drinks of unwitting technology executives (to help make the sale)
- Smoking so much marijuana in a plane that the pilot had to put on an oxygen mask

Wow. What can you say to that? I think that one takes the cake (not sure if I want to be patriotic though for that).

A long weekend…

My friend James came from the states for a long weekend (it is not fair, since he works for Northwest airlines, he can get some pretty good “deals” on flights!) We made the most of the weekend, out until 3 or 4 am for three nights in a row. I never really could do that before, so I am definitely lagging now!

Out to clubs, including one of the hottest in Seoul, Club Volume. We also did a nice little hike that was only 15-20 minutes from my house, wandered around the markets, and ate some great food. I had to show James the dance at Hooters (they gave me a VIP card this time, although ironically enough, you are not allowed to use it the same day you are given it, huh?)

Sunday was a day to relax, and we ate Juk (a good hangover food), went to the nearby batting cage (the balls were all thrown for someone 6 inches shorter than me), and checked out my gym (which had just been remodeled and looks awesome!)

The classic thing is that after 4 days in Korea, James understood most of the references in this video, including the bowl of Fruit Loops. For anyone living in Korea, this video is hysterical!

Stories that we find entertaining…

- Women wear inserts here (to give them selves more curves). Now we know about padded bras, but padded underwear? (a friend of mine was VERY disappointed to hear this…)

- The rear entrance in our building is for VIPs, and it has been under construction for the last 2 weeks. This building is only 9 months old, and we wondered why…No covering, so a VIP will get wet in the 10 feet between the building and his car. Amazing that this sort of concept wasn’t thought of earlier (the front has a covering). Apparently it took 4 days to complete each floor (no comments about what that means for quality control), but it has taken a lot longer to add this covering!

- The logo for one of the nearby street food stands is a small puppy. No comment needed…

Don't count your chickens until they hatch

...but it looks like I will be transitioning roles to do product marketing for cell phones. The transition should be awesome, and I am looking forward to a new challenge. As a added side, one of my colleagues is working specifically on the online side, and they just produced a cool like viral video

Learn to Be Nice to Your Wife, or Pay the Price

This isn't Korea, but I can almost guarantee you that many of the challenges are the same...Fanscinating stuff about societies changing. In Korea, the divorce rate may be low, but it is growing at the fastest rate in the world, partially because of issues similar to what is mentioned in the article...

Learn to Be Nice to Your Wife, or Pay the Price
By Blaine Harden
FUKUOKA, Japan -- Salarymen -- the black-suited corporate warriors who work long hours, spend long evenings drinking with cronies and stumble home late to long-suffering wives -- have danger waiting for them as they near retirement.

Divorce. A change in Japanese law this year allows a wife who is filing for divorce to claim as much as half her husband's company pension. When the new law went into effect in April, divorce filings across Japan spiked 6.1 percent. Many more split-ups are in the pipeline, marriage counselors predict. They say wives -- hearts gone cold after decades of marital neglect -- are using calculators to ponder pension tables, the new law and the big D.

That was a more expensive game than intended

Last night a group of us went to a World Cup qualifying match, Korea versus Jordan. It was a great game for about 70 minutes, and the last 10 minutes turned into a big disappointment. After being up 2-0 (in your own stadium), Korea let Jordan tie the match, and we all left feeling slightly deflated. In addition, I went to take a picture, and noticed that during the course of the game, my LCD on my camera had cracked. As my friend put it, you can drop the camera, and it is okay BUT you tap it in the wrong way (or you roll over on it while sleeping in a tent...)

So all of the money saved on the super cheap beers (only $3 for a biggie cup). It does make it a lot easier to take the family when all of the food costs are super low...

So I debated at night, like any boy in an electronics store, "hmm, I could use this as an excuse to get a new toy (they have waterproof cameras up to 10 meters from Olympus...)"

At the same point though, I know that camera phones are getting much better, and I was just trying to ride this one out, doh! Needless to say, I decided to try and take the high route, use this as an adventure to try and get it fixed (in Korea!) or even better, to try and buy a new LCD and fix it myself. We'll see how dumb a decision that ends up being...