It was a week ago today that my six day Chuseok vacation started. It didn’t seem like I did much at all, but time sure flew by. Here’s a quick recap of what happened this past week:

• Friday: Ras had chicken and beer with Bart after work. I met up with them and we then had Baskin Robbin’s for some ice cream. I’m currently in a friendly competition with Dave to see who can get the most “Happy Points.” I’m hovering around 4500 points.
• Saturday: Ras and I went to Yongsan with Bart. Ras bought a new “car stereo.” I bought a polaroid camera. We had lunch at a Japanese restaurant and Ras tried to buy and Asahi Dry t-shirt from the waiter. No luck. We considered playing miniature golf on the roof, but it looked like rain. We went home to install the new stereo and then the three of us had pizza and beer at our place.
• Sunday: Did lots of web surfing and watching of new TV shows and movies.
• Monday: Ras and I met Bart at the car wash. We washed our car, while he washed his motorcycle. I went to the park with Ras, Bart, Dave, Pete and Steve. The guys played basketball with each other and later found some Korean guys to play a full court game. I took pictures, some videos, and read a book on a bench nearby. After everyone cleaned up, we had bosaam and dongdongju near our apartment. Dave and Bart came back with us to watch a DVD quality copy of Transformers. I fell asleep… the ju will do that you me. (Ju is the Korean word for alcohol.)
• Tuesday: Ras went to the park to play some basketball and frisbee with the guys. I stayed home and lounged in all my glory. In the evening, we went over to Bart’s to try and barbecue on his rooftop. His grumpy security guard wouldn’t let us. Instead, we cooked in his apartment, the guys drank lots of beer, we watched most of Full Metal Jacket, and watched the second episode of this season’s Prison Break. Since then, I’ve vowed not to be in a small apartment with four loud, drunk guys while trying to watch any TV show I’m even slightly interested in. Please stop talking through the show!
• Wednesday: I cleaned the apartment from days of lounging, eating, and wine drinking.

New shows (to me) I managed to watch:

• Kid Nation (funny in a ridiculous way. Does it make me a bad person for laughing at kids?)
• Survivor: China
• Chuck (kinda lame, and not funny for being a comedy)
• Journeyman (Has potential. I wonder about the logistics of all his “journeys.”)
• Bionic Woman (Has potential)
• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Eh. I don’t care what the reviews say, it’s no Arrested Development.)
• Gossip Girl (A teen show - I’ve got to have one TV show guilty pleasure.)
• Kyle XY (Slooooow. Plus, it’s on ABC Family.)
• Fallen (Kinda of a ridiculous storyline about fallen angels. It’s also on ABC Family.)
• The Pick-up Artist (Lame. The Master Pick-up Artist is named Mystery???)
• Californication (Very good)

New shows to start this weekend:

• Cane
• Private Practice
• Tell Me You Love Me
• Moonlight (Please Jason Dohring, carry the show with your talent and help make the show not suck as hard as the critics say it will. I’m speaking for all Veronica Mars fans here.)

Old shows that started again:

• Prison Break (This season better redeem itself from season 2.)
• Heroes (Wow! I can’t wait to see what Kristen Bell’s power will be.)
• Criminal Minds
• CSI
• CSI: NY
• My Name is Earl

I’ll let you know which ones I’m going to stick to watching this season. Which shows are you watching this fall season? Any you’d recommend?

This street performing arts festival has peaked my interest, especially since it’s less than a half hour away from where I live. It takes place the weekend after Chuseok. I’d like to see the French and Belgium troupes perform.

18,000 won for all-you-can-drink French wine.  Sounds too good to be true?  Not according to this.

2007/05/16

The monthly “rendez-vous” party, “Le Cafe du Commerce,” hosted by Novotel Ambassador Gangnam, is a good opportunity for both local and foreign lovers of French food and culture.

On the second Thursday of every month scores of them meet at Novotel to exchange views and thoughts on French culture and its ties with South Korea, wining and dining at a very reasonable cost of 18,000 won per head.

In the party they are given French snacks and unlimited amount of French wine, all thanks of the efforts of its General Manager Jerome Stubert.

I wish I had a Friday off, because I’d definitely be interested in this.  The next “rendez-vous” is October 11th.

Don’t you hate PeOplE ThaT Typ3 lIKE ThIS?  How about the Facebook poker?  Do you think it’s as useless as I do?

You don’t call people on the phone if you have nothing to say to them. You don’t send your friends e-mails that are completely blank. So why would you poke someone using Facebook? It makes so much more sense to just send a message or, better yet, don’t do anything. If poking was a real-life conversation, this is how it would go:
Some jack-off: Hey, I’m looking at Facebook.
Us: Oh. Cool, I guess.
Some jack-off: Yep.
Us: Did you have anything to tell us, or…
Some jack-off: Nope, just poking you.
Us: Fuck this, we’re going to lurk professional sports cheerleaders that are well above the legal age of consent (let’s see you take issue with that, lawyers) on MySpace. 

Do you fit any of these internet stereotypes?  Then you could be THAT GUY.

About a month ago, Ras bought a portable media player (PMP) - the Cowon Q5. It’s a 60 GB touchscreen media player that can stream local TV shows (and record them while watching), holds music, videos, photos, has a dictionary and encyclopedia, is a navigation system, and runs Windows CE. Check out a video of it HERE. More about SPECS here. Engadget has a blurb about it HERE.

• 5-inch wide-screen, 16-million-color TFT LCD with ultra-fine 800×480 (WVGA) resolution and touch-sensitive interface;

• HSDPA modem, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for wireless networking;

• Windows CE Internet Explorer browser;

• FM radio and recorder, voice recorder, built-in stereo speakers, and TV-out supporting component and composite connectors;

• DVR functionality with video (MP4) recording from TV, VCR or camcorder;

• GPS navigation;

• up to13 hours of audio or 7 hours of video playback; and

• 40GB or 60GB hard disk.

The navigation system has been such a lifesaver when driving in Korea. The instructions and voices from the system are in Korean, but Ras hasn’t had too much of a problem. Since having it, we’ve gone to the the public swimming pool in Yeoido, the Flickr Launch in Gangnam, Ocean World, Anmyeon-do, Jenay’s apartment in Suwon, and Greg’s apartment in Mok-dong. I can’t wait to explore more of Korea with it - I love road trips!