Driving Ranges in Korea

Golf is popular here, but the bad part about Korea is that there's just not a whole lot of room. Instead of putting driving ranges in the countryside, Koreans prefer to have them close by so they can swing by after work. Here's a panoramic shot of a driving range behind Hogye Middle School, where I teach classes after school three days a week.

Happy together...

Lily and I finally made it official yesterday. Wish us luck!

My neighborhood

I've been playing around with a program called PhotoStitch that came with my digital camera. It easily lets you combine multiple images into one large panoramic photo. The process is automatic and the results have been great so far! Here's a picture I took on the bridge in my neighborhood. It's actually four photos merged into one.


More to come soon!

Bill Gates gives Lee Myung Bak a present.

This is pretty cool. Bill Gates gave Lee Myung Bak a customized 360. Well, the 360 is cool. The fact that an insanely rich man bought another insanely rich man a gift, well, that's not really that special.



From Engadget:

Apparently not one to let a tacky trend pass him by, Bill Gates has commissioned 100 mother of pearl-clad Xbox 360s to be used as extra special gifts, the first of which was given to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak earlier this month, prompting a response that we can only imagine to be, "gee, thanks." To be fair, the design by Korean artisan Kim Young-jun is a bit classier than most of the crystal-encrusted gadgets we come across, but the same can't quite be said for the move of bringing a bit of thinly disguised self-promotion to a visit with a head of state. We can also only assume that Gates is dreading the day that the President calls him up and asks him what the red rings on his Xbox mean.

New Flickr Set - Ulsan Grand Park In Spring

This past weekend I went to Ulsan Grand Park. The trees and the park an general were so beautiful, especially after coming out of the urban sprawl that is Ulsan. Of course, nothing was as beautiful as the girl I was with :)

Spring in Ulsan

It rained all last night, and driving to my far away Monday school in Gangdong, we passed all the flooded rice paddies in the countryside, with the cranes walking around inside them...it was like a scene out of some Vietnam War movie. I'll try and take a picture soon.

Two great pictures.

Last Wednesday was Teacher's Day, and to celebrate we took my gumdo teacher out. We ate jok bal, which is Pig's feet. I managed to snap this picture of the restaurant sign as we went in.



That's Marilyn Monroe with a pig face, and the name of the restaurant is "Sexy Pig Feet." I am not making this up.

Inside the restaurant, there was a bag with mysterious contents.



As far as I can tell, these are what the warning symbols mean:

1. Umbrellas are ok.
2. No Captain Hook.
3. This product cannot catch fire.
4. This product can withstand a falling meteorite.
5. Beware falling meteorites hitting you in the back while trying to lift this product.

Bus Ads

When you ride the bus as often as I do, you find yourself staring at the ads on the back of the seats for what seems like ages. This one I seem to get in front of me more often than not. It reminds me of a cross between my sister and Portia de Rossi from Arrested Development.

Happy Teacher's Day!

Today is Teacher's Day in Korea. Kind of reminds me of Teacher's Day in the US. Oh, wait. In the states teachers get zero respect from anybody. Anyway, I used today's holiday as an excuse to write a letter to one of my favorite college professors, Ray Feener. Mr. Feener was the director of the Singing Men of Ohio during my tenure at college, and I was a member of the group my junior and half of my senior year. Here's the letter I sent him.

Dear Mr. Feener,

My name is John Shawler. You may not remember me, but I attended Ohio University from 1999-2003, and was a member of SMO from 2002-2003.

Anyway, it just occured to me the other day that I never had a chance to thank you. I was a music ed major at OU and my principal instrument was trombone, but I never enjoyed an instrumental ensemble half as much as I did SMO. A big part of that was the way you handled the ensemble. Even though I rarely go back and listen to wind ensemble recordings I was part of, I'm always listening to old SMO performances.

These days, music isn't a big part of my life anymore. After teaching elementary school music for 4 years in the DC and Virginia Beach area, I decided that I wanted a change and have been teaching English in South Korea for the past 10 months. I still sing in my church choir here (in Korean, of course--I'm the only foreigner there), but aside from that and teaching my students a song once in awhile, I never even think about music. Kinda strange that I spent all those hours practicing, huh?

I know that you've moved on from OU to bigger and better things, but I just wanted to let you know that you really touched my life in a profound way during my college years. I really appreciate all the time and effort you put into SMO, especially our Florida trip, the most fun I had in college. I still laugh at the surprise Harry Carey part in Please Mr. Columbus.

I'm sure you get these kinds of letters from SMO alumni all the time, and I would be remiss if I didn't add my thanks to the pile. Never underestimate the influence you have on your students, even those who are college age. I truly believe that through your direction, you provided many young men in SMO with an experience they will never, ever forget.

Best wishes,

John Shawler

If you get a chance today, why not write one of the teachers that had a positive effect on your life? I'm sure they'd really appreciate it.

Could a robot orchestra be far behind?

So I kinda made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to post any more random non-Korea related videos, but this one is just too awesome to resist. This is a robot called Asimo made by Honda. Human directors don't have to worry though, he's only a semi-conductor*.




*I totally stole that joke from the Engadget comments, but it was too good not to copy.

It's my last day of vacation...

Starting tomorrow I'll be back on the ol' update trail. Oh yeah, and I actually have to return to work. Until then, enjoy this awesome music video made with the best OS on earth.

On vacation!

Yeah, I'm on vacation. Again. A week and a half this time. Well, two weeks if you count the time I had to come to school but had no classes. Anyway, my goal this week is to spend as little time in front of the computer as possible. In fact, I'm posting this from a coffee shop downtown that's serving as my main base for studying Korean. So anyway, I just want to apologize in advance for the lack of posts this week. I'll be back at school next Wednesday, and you can expect me to be back on my normal schedule of updating once every few days. I'll have some new pictures to post by then too. Ok, back to studying!