Two days ago while shopping at Costco, we saw that the 32GB iPods were being sold for 519,000 won, which was 20,000 won more expensive than it would have been with a discount through Brad. Plus, if we bought them then, we could play with them that night, instead of waiting to have them ordered. Up until this point, I was going to get the 16GB version. I had been using a 1GB MP3 player anyway, so 16GB would have been sufficient for me. Then I got to thinking… If I were to teach private classes (not saying that I do), upgrading to the 32GB would be equivalent to 3 hours of teaching private classes. So, that’s how I justified it. 3 hours of private rates = 16 more gigs. Ok, I was sold.

We’ve both been playing with our iPods for the last two days, and can I say… It’s so freakin’ COOL! I’ve never subscribed to the hype of the iPod because it was just an MP3 player. Sure, it was cooler than most, but it still just played music like all the others. What made me finally buy the Touch, was the versatility of having an MP3 player, video player, my photos, web browsing, and the functions of a PDA, all in one sleek and sexy machine. I don’t really care about a phone function, so I don’t see myself ever getting the iPhone. I like being able to see my contacts, my daily planner, flip through photo albums, check the weather, write an email, and watch TV shows, all in the palm of my hands. All I need now are native Scrabble and Bejeweled games, and I’m all set.

We had also ordered BodyguardZ protective film through eBay and they arrived today. I watched the instructional video while covering both our iPods with it. I want to cover up my iPod for two reasons: 1) to protect it from scratches, and 2) when I decide to sell it, it will be in pristine condition.

What is the material?
A: The material is the same material used to protect cars from the scratches, sometimes referred to as ‘car bra’ material.

“The Photo Time Capsule digs up your photos on Flickr from a year ago, choosing the ones that are most interesting (most views, comments, and faves), then sends them to you a quick email. I’ve been using it for a while, and it’s amazing how nostalgia-inducing getting a little time capsule every couple weeks has been.” — Amit Gupta, Photojojo

I immediately received an email and was pleasantly surprised by the photos.  It really jogs your memory as to what you were doing a year ago this week/month.  Last year during this time included Pocky sticks, Myeong-dong with Allison, chicken on a stick in Itaewon, and grilled chicken in Chuncheon.  Boy, I was busy!

• I switched the registrar for my domain, lao-ocean.com
•  signed up for a new web host
• migrated my blog to the new webhost
• my webhost deactivated my account because my credit card information was for the U.S., but my ISP was in Korea
• had to call and reactivate my account
• upgraded to WordPress 2.3.3
• spent hours and hours reading about WordPress themes, plugins, upgrading, blah, blah, blah

Initially, I had considered opening up a WordPress.com account and just redirecting my domain there.  There were two main reasons I didn’t go that route.  One, I couldn’t customize my theme or install plugins.  Therefore I couldn’t even use my current theme (brown and red with the dragonfly).  Second, I’m hoping to make my blog more multi-media rich in the future, and needed a little more elbow room to stretch my wings.

More work needs to be done tomorrow, but for now, I’m going to relax and enjoy tonight’s episode of Lost.

Then I wondered if this could be my cousin:

If you believe this insider tip, here’s what Apple plans to announce:

Macbook Nano is go!
Fri, 01/11/2008 – 6:35pm — mike
A little bird tweeted that the MacBook Nano will be announced next week. It will be half the size of a MacBook, 3/4 of an inch thick, SSD drive, no optical drive and will use a new thing called Beam Technology to transfer data faster than Bluetooth. The little bird also said something about watching TV on the iPhone.  Could that be what’s in the air?

What do you think about that???  If it’s true, I can’t wait to see it.  There are lots of fanboy speculations 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!

TIME: Is Facebook’s popularity connected to its focus on authenticity? On your site, misrepresentation of your real self is a violation of company policy.

Zuckerberg: That’s the critical part of it. Our whole theory is that people have real connections in the world. People communicate most naturally and effectively with their friends and the people around them. What we figured is that if we could model what those connections were, [we could] provide that information to a set of applications through which people want to share information, photos or videos or events. But that only works if those relationships are real.

TIME: With more than 40 billion page views every month, Facebook is the sixth most trafficked site in the U.S., and the top photo-sharing site. What are your international expansion plans?

Zuckerberg: Right now a lot of our growth is happening internationally. We have more than 10% or 15% of the population of Canada on the site. The U.K. has a huge user base.

This month, I’ve been watching a lot of movies.  Two weeks ago, I added the “Flixster” application on Facebook, and am going to list and review all the movies I see from this year on.  So far, all 16 movies listed have been everything I’ve watched since arriving in Oregon for the summer.  The best so far were: Born into Brothels, Transformers, and Hard Candy.  The list of movies to see in the next two days include: Ghost World, Grave of the Fireflies, and The Devil Wears Prada.  At the end of the year, it’ll be interesting to see how many movies I’ve seen from the second half of 2007.  Yesterday, brother rented a Japanese movie that came out this week called, “Yo-Yo Girl Cop.”  Besides the funny title, I can’t decide whether I want to watch it or not.

It takes about a minute to download, but it’s here.  Someone took pictures of the pages of the book, up until page 495.  How can you possibly dispute this?

It seems like a pain in the butt, just to read it four days before the release.  I’ve already pre-ordered my book from Amazon and will probably take it back to Korea with me to finish.  Once I do, I’ll most likely re-sell the book on Dave’s ESL or some place like it.  Anyone interested if I do?