oh sony, why do you toy with me so much?

EA Sports NHL 2010, called the best sports game ever by gamespot, not produced in Asia, and region locked in the West. Fuck you. So even if I buy an American version, it's one of the few PS3 games in existence that's actually region locked. Total and complete fucking bullshit. I hate EA. They fuck everyone. Has anyone ever tried that piece of shit hype-machine 'Spore' that was supposed to revolutionize sim gaming and turned out to be a mosquito smudge on my car window? Yeah, eat my nutsack EA, you fucking suck.

Anyways, I have lots to write about, but I'm just too busy. Intensives started this week so I just don't have any time for anything. Pretty much all my free time is spent preping classes, and the rest of my time is spent in class.

I'll try to update later this week and tell my tale 'o' Christmas. I met my girl's parents finally, and we set a date for the wedding, and a bunch of other shit happened, but I just don't have time now.

Don't worry though, I haven't abandoned the blog, I'm just too busy.

Plus, I finally got the PS3, so I've been spending a bit of time playing that too.

Later.

ASA!!!!!

Amazing.

I miscounted on the change. The actual number is 600,360. I thought I was going to have a heart attack carrying it all to the bank.

An adjumma who happened to be sitting near the change machine was amazed. "이 해" I told her. Two years it took me to collect all that change. I'm almost sorry to let it go.

My girlfriend can't complain about me buying the PS3 now.

I'm still shocked. I thought I did a pretty accurate count, but I was off by 25,000.

I can't believe I thought I only had about 250,000 before I counted it.

the things we do

Next weekend I'm meeting my girlfriend's parents for the first time. She is worried about the age difference, even though they know how old I am, and doesn't want them to notice that I'm older than her. So she insisted that I dye my hair. I am still only 34, but I've got quite a few gray hairs up there.

I was resistant. I don't really like the idea of dying my hair, it seems kind of fake. I just want her parents to like me for who I am and not care whether I have a few gray hairs. Is that too much to ask? Her parents actually seem like really nice people. They've given me gifts without even knowing me. Every few months they get me some fresh juice from a farmer they know. Their nice people. I don't think they would care that I have some gray hair.

My girlfriend cares though. So yesterday I went and got my hair dyed. It actually looks pretty good. I was worried, but it turned out okay. I can still smell the shit in my hair though. A constant reminder of what I'm willing to do to keep my girlfriend happy.

Other than that I've just been very busy with classes.

Yesterday morning I took some time and counted how much change I have. I've saved 575,000 won in change. Looks like the PS3 is coming earlier than previously expected. I think I'm going to order one this week. I've already ordered Dragon Age, so hopefully around Christmas I'll get the game, and maybe the day before I'll get the PS3.

I'm psyched because last week I bought Call of Duty 4 and I'm fucking seriously disappointed with it. After all the hype I thought it'd be great, and the graphics really are. However, if I spend $50 on a game I want to actually be able to play it for a while. It only took me 5 hours to finish all the missions. Fucking waste of money. Maybe it's just because I usually play RPG's, but I'm used to having 50-100 hours of gameplay, not fucking 5 hours.

Don't waste any money on that piece of shit.

The online part is supposed to be good, but I don't really feel like getting massacred by a bunch of fat 12 year old kids who play it 16 hours a day.

Listed

Well, I got my listing on the Korean Blog List. It's cool, I guess. I've already gotten some traffic from it. Although, I'm not even sure why I care. It's not like I'll ever put any ads on here or try to sell anything.

Nothing much has been happening lately. The new term started at my hagwon (academy), so I've just been busy with classes and getting to know my new students. It's too bad that we are only with each class for three months. I don't think that's really enough time to get to know the kids. I'm a much better teacher when I have kids who've been in my classes for a term or two. That way I know the methods that suit those particular kids the best.

Hagwons can be a little bit like fast food sometimes. Get them in and out quick, punch the little hamburger button on the cash register, and move them along to make way for the next customer. Sometimes I wonder if the average kid is learning as much as they could. The best students will always learn, but the average kids suffer. They get pushed through the levels to keep their parents happy, even though they should be staying at the same level.

We have to make it appear as though the kids are actually learning, even if they aren't. So we push them up a level if the parents bitch enough. It results in kids who are reading shit that's college level English, when they're barely high school level, sometimes even lower.

Anyways, I'll bitch about Korean education some other time.

This weekend my girlfriend was all pissed. For once she wasn't pissed off at me though. That was actually nice, to have her pissed off at someone other than me.

She's pissed off at her parents, and she's pissed off at her brother. Her brother is getting married in January. His fiance's parents want them to get a nice apartment after they get married. The way it works in Korea is that the guy has to pay for the apartment and the girl buys the furniture. It's all bullshit if you ask me, but hey, it's their traditions, who the hell am I to tell them the way they should live their lives.

The apartment the girls parents want them to get is like $80,000USD. A pretty fucking hefty chunk of change for a 29 year old Korean guy to come up with. I think he's only actually had a job for about a year. The 28 year prior to that he just lived off his parents.

This brings us to the reason why my girlfriend is pissed off. Her parents are giving them $50,000USD. Because of this, they have to move out of the apartment they now live in and move to a smaller place in Dongnae. My girlfriend loves her culture, but she understands how fucking stupid this is. She said to me "It's Korean tradition, but why the fuck do they have to give him the money?" Yeah, she even said 'fuck'.

So she's pissed. We'll get $0.00USD from her parents when we get married. And personally I don't give a shit. The last thing I want is to be indebted to her parents. I wouldn't want it even if they did offer anything like that. But it bothers her. She's upset with her parents, in part because it means that she has to move also, and because they're following the retarded tradition that the first born son is king of the shit heap. She wants her parents to treat her equally, and I don't blame her. And she's pissed off at her brother, because he's receiving this gift that causes his parents the hassle of having to sell their apartment and find a smaller one. And she hates his fiance because she thinks she's a greedy bitch.

Anyways, that's the conversation we had this weekend on our way to church. Then we left church early because the 4 year old kid in front of us kept getting up and down, and spinning around in the aisle. The little pain was so antsy that my girlfriend got so dizzy watching him that we had to leave because she thought she was going to get sick.

Sir, yes, sir!

Some funny shit here. A facebook friend posted this video of elves doing "Full Metal Jacket".



Anyways, I know it's been a few days since I've posted. I'll put up something soon. I've been busy.

Exactly what the FUCK is your JOB???

Hello. I work at the front counter of your apartment building. I know my job looks easy, but it really is very difficult. There are many parts of my job that you just don't understand. You may think I'm a lazy dick, but that's only because you fail to put yourself in my shoes.

First of all, I'm always tired when I get home. When you spend 90% of your time at work sleeping at your desk it really wears you out. My adjumma wife is always complaining. I get home from work, have a bottle of soju and go back to sleep. She also doesn't understand the severe physical and psychological toll that my job takes. It's really not easy.

I realize that every time you walk by me you see me sitting there watching Korean dramas on my cellphone TV, but I'm really doing work. You see, in my spare time I keep up a fan blog of The Kingdom of the Winds, so it might look like I'm just a jackass who spends all his time watching TV when I should be working, but I'm actually doing research. In fact, I was so emotionally drained when Boys Before Flowers ended, I had to take an entire week off from work. Of course, I didn't tell my employer that I was taking a week off, and I didn't actually stop coming to work or accepting my paycheck, I just slept a little bit more often at my desk.

You also don't know how my work is killing me. Literally, it's killing me. Because I can't just sit at my desk all day and do work. I have to take my fifteen cigarette breaks. This job is giving me cancer. I only wish I was doing it in the USA so I could sue my employer for polluting my lungs. I have worked so hard here that I really deserve to be able to retire.

And you also don't understand how difficult it is to send all these text messages about packages to tenants. Of course, I could take the packages up to your apartment, but why should I exert myself in even the slightest of ways. I'd rather just send you a text message. That way I won't miss any of my shows.

I realize that you also think I'm supposed to be a guard of sorts, but keeping tabs on who comes in and out of this building is really not my responsibility either. I'm not really sure whose responsibility it is, but I'm pretty sure it's not mine. So when I'm out smoking my fifteen cigarettes with the door open it's not my job to care about how anyone can come in and out of the building. My only responsibility is to make sure that when I'm at my desk I don't buzz in anyone who is delivering any kind of food. I really hate those delivery guys, so I try my hardest to keep them out of the building, they are the real threat.

So please, Mr. Waygookin Renter, keep all these things in mind if you ever need my assistance. If you ever have a complaint, like someone living above you pounding on the fucking floor from 2:00am until 7:00am every night, understand my position. I realize that it's not only you that's complaining, I know that both of your neighbors have also complained. But what you don't know is that if you live in 513, I have no way of figuring out what apartment number is directly above you, I mean it could be 613, or 612, or 614...that's a lot of apartments to check. Things like understanding the layout of a building are not part of my job description. And logical thinking, like reasoning out that 613 might be the apartment directly above 513, is just too much thinking for my job.

Because of this, if you ever hear those BOOM, BOOM, BOOM's again at 4:00am don't call me and ask me to do something about it. You need to come down to the front desk, wake me up, and hold my hand while you walk me up to 613. I can't find 613 on my own, I need your help getting there. I'm not even sure how to work the elevator, do I just say "613" out loud? What are all those buttons for? Why isn't there a 613 button? I understand that you don't speak enough Korean to actually do anything or explain anything when we get up to 613, but I think it'll be funny for the renter up there and myself to laugh at the silly foreigner who thinks his complaints matter.

Anyways, please, I'm just a tired old man who needs to watch his dramas and get 18 hours of sleep when I'm not outside smoking and criticizing you for not knowing which trash bucket is for colored plastic and which is for clear plastic. It's not my job to tell people to stop banging on the fucking floors constantly or to address the complaints of the people who live underneath said floor bangers.

Thank you for your time. Anyeongi gah sayo.

P.S. Fuck you, you silly, stupid, waygookin.

New PS3 on the horizon

It's definite. I'm getting a PS3 after the holidays. And I'm a sneaky bastard.

I planted the seed with my decision not to get the iphone. When I told my girlfriend that in the long run it would cost me less money to get a PS3 than an iphone she started warming up to the idea. She knows that sometimes I'm going to spend money on things like that, she just wants me to keep it under control. Of course, I haven't mentioned how much the games actually cost, but she's not my wife yet so she doesn't have to know that Final Fantasy XIII is going to cost me about a hundred bucks.

This weekend the decision was made. 100% certainty now. I will get a PS3. I was smart. What I did was I told her that first of all I would buy her engagement ring first. If I spend $1000-$2000 on a ring for her, she really can't complain if I spend $400 on a game for me. The next step was that I told her I would use change to pay for half of it. That's right, change. She laughed when I said this. She said, "Haha, okay, if you want to use change to pay for half of it, then you can buy a PS3 anytime." Little did she know that I've been holding onto my change since I moved here over two years ago. I already have like $200 in change. I am a sneaky bastard.

I said, "Great," and walked upstairs to the loft to get my gigantic load of change. It was great seeing the shock on her face when I came down the stairs with a bag that had so much change in it I could barely carry the damn thing. The bag was so full that I think my downstairs neighbors must have thought I dropped a bag of bricks on the floor when I put the bag down.

Now all I have to do is hit the gym a few times a week so I can actually carry all the change to the bank to exchange it for cash.

I can't wait. I predict I will have my PS3 by the end of February. Intensives are coming up in January so buying her ring will be easy. Then it's all PS3 all the time baby.

If you notice a big lapse in my blogging for a two month period after I buy it, you'll know why.