Today’s my birthday. Yeah! Thanks to everyone who left nice birthday wishes for me.

I’m in an Itaewon PC bang, and had to look up Allison’s cell phone in my emails, so I could call her for dinner. This morning, Ras, Reardon, Kevin, and I had brunch at Suji’s, which was excellent! I then went to get my hair cut, while the boys had afternoon drinks. The cut itself was only 10,000 won and took 15 minutes. While sitting in the chair, I saw a woman getting fake eyelashes put in. I asked how much it was, and how long it would last. For 50,000 won, I’d get individual eyelashes glued on to my existing eyelashes, which would last 1-3 months, and if taken care of very well, 6 months. I had never done it before and was curious. I thought, what the heck, it’s my birthday. For 50,000, it was a good deal because it was SO labor intensive, and took 2 hours to do. They looked really good and when I met the boys, nobody said, “What the hell happened to your eyes?!?” So, I think it was good. So, that’s a good sign.

Tonight, we’re having dinner at 7:00pm at Marakech Night for Morrocan food. After that, who knows. I hope everyone has a FANTASTIC New Year’s Eve, and I’ll see you all next year!!

I was in some serious pain today. Last week, I had two root canals re-done at the OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University) dental school. The great thing about the school, is that they also do research and have world renowned endodontists as professors. Therefore, my “dentist-in-training” did an excellent job - even better than previous endodontists I’ve had. Dr. Bui was very diligent in trying to extract the tip of a metal tool stuck in the canal of my root (from a previous botched root canal). After several failed attempts, and “the super glue” method, I had all but given up hope of it coming out. Finally, as we approached the third hour(!), he was able to pull out a 13 mm thin piece of metal. He, I, and his collegues cheered when it finally came out.

The misperception is that a root canal hurts. Actually, the process doesn’t hurt at all because you’re completely numbed up with novocaine. It’s easy breezy. The painful part is recovering from the trauma to the tooth. Last week after the appointments, I felt no pain. Today, the pain hit. And OH MY GOD, did it hurt! I took 5 Advils and I could still feel the throbbing pain all the way to my scalp and my eyeballs was even sore. I could barely think straight. If you’ve ever had bad tooth pain, you know it’s one of the most excruciating things ever. At one point, I was running on 10%. The other 90% was focused on how much pain I was in. At the time, I was out in Portland and couldn’t wait to get home and take a Vicodin. It eased it slightly, but not very much. Five hours later, after another Vicodin and more Advil, the pain has subsided to a “3″ out of 10. That’s why I’m able to type this. Before, it was 8.5. With my first root canal, it was a “10.” Now THAT was painful. I would lay awake in the dark, not able to sleep because it hurt so much. I remember crying in the middle of the night from the agony, and thinking that if I had to live with this for a long period of time, I’d rather kill myself. I sympathized with people who did. Thank god for painkillers. Now, I just have to wait until my teeth heal.
It’s Christmas Eve (Christmas Day in Korea). Tomorrow I’m hanging out with my family. The day after Christmas, I pack. I’m flying out December 27th for Seoul. I’ll be ringing in the new year and my birthday (Dec. 31st) in Korea. Then I’ll be teaching at a children’s winter camp in January. Korea, here I come!

I sent this email out to some people I know, and thought I’d post it here too. I know Skype has been around awhile, but it’s new to me, since I’ve never used it before. I just installed Skype, and I have to say, it’s pretty cool! I heard of it before, but didn’t think I wanted to take the time to learn it. I’m glad I did, though. Here’s the deal for an easy start-up:

• Go here, and download Skype: http://www.skype.com/download/
• Install and open up. The interface looks like MSN messenger. Underneath the sign-in, create your new user name and password.
• You can read about all the other features later, but at the bottom left, there’s a small blue and white icon with a phone, that say “Call ordinary phones.”
• Click on it and enter a phone number in the US or Canada.
• Dial. Enjoy.
• You can call any land line or mobile phone in the US or Canada for free! Sitting in my brother’s house on my laptop, I called my parents house and my cell phone as a test. Worked great - I didn’t notice any lagging.

Here’s the catch. This service is only free until Jan. 18, 2007. This was the promotional period, and Skype will phase it out, and charge $30 USD for 1 year of unlimited calling in the US and Canada. But, if you sign up for this service before Jan. 31, 2007, it’s an introductory rate of $15 and 100 free international minutes. If you’re out of North America, unlimited calling to friends and family back home for a year, for $15? Still sounds good to me. If nothing else, install it and try it out. It’s free.

For me (on a computer) to call a mobile phone in Korea is 12 cents (USD) per minute, while a land line is 3 cent/minute. Of course, Skype to Skype calls are FREE. Another feature:

A news article

Anyway, for friends and family, I’m easily searchable using my real name. Look me up, give me a call!

Mac fanboys are in a tizzy because the new iPhone was announced today, and it’s NOT even from Apple! Cisco owns the copyright, which they applied for 10 years ago. Brian of Gizmodo sort of apologizes for misleading everyone, but not everyone is happy:

Brian Lam is an Ass

Damn You Brian Lam