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Raised on promises She couldn't help thinkin' that there Was a little more to life Somewhere else After all it was a great big world With lots of places to run to Email me: lao.ocean @ gmail.com December Photos Now Playing: Sorak-san The Windmill Salmon Festival Soccer Goal   Where do visitors come from? (Since 20-Dec-04) Fave flowesr: Plumeria Birthday: DEC 31st
Dance like no one can see Love like you've never been hurt Live like it's heaven on earth 
 Let's set it straight - Is the country Laos or Lao?Here's the answer This week... Things that make me happy
Movies I've seen this month
What they're saying about me
"She's a nut! Not too sure how else to describe an "at-first-glance" seemingly quiet girl who dances like a chicken when she thinks no one else is looking, who likes to pass off her "made up" answer for fact, until you look at her and see her hopelessly trying not to crack a smile, who WITHOUT FAIL remembers to put a line of dental floss in her purse before she goes out (and isn't afraid to use it after dinner, thankfully NOT at the table!!). I can always count on her to know the hottest hollywood gossip, and to dance till all hours of the morning with me." "My co-worker just told me that there was a premiere for Bridget Jones 2 last night, just blocks from my work, and we missed it! Hugh Grant, my beloved and the framework upon which my future husband is based, was just blocks away, breathing the same oxygen, and I missed it! If I had a friend here who was as savvy with E-news as you are, this catastrophe would never have occurred!" Guess what I heard... Oh my god!! This donut is so good! - Ras about a Krispy Kreme donut "I want to do! But what is paintball? There is no such word in dictionary." - Suwa, Japanese teacher "I am now skipping church to see if I am going to win my bids!!!" "YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA.....I won the felt tip pens!!!!!!!! Yippeee...."who let the dogs out...arf, arf, arf, arf"...."let me hear you say Y..M..C..A"....oh yah, who's your daddy!!!" - Renee Other favorite quotes:
A gift is an offering. A selfless act that adds something to someone's life. Something that they need. Have you ever walked by something and you just had this feeling that someone you knew would absolutely love it? Faith is believing when there is no rational reason to believe. Homer: "We Americans are England's children... I know we don't call as much as we should, or aren't as well behaved as our goody two shoes brother, Canada... who I should mention has never had a girlfriend... I'm just sayin'..." Anything less than mad, passionate, extraordinary love is a waste of time. There are too many mediocre things in life, and love should not be one of them. The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it. When your heart speaks, take good notes. Travel has a way of stretching the mind. The stretch comes not from travel's immediate rewards, the inevitable myriad new sights, smells and sounds, but with experiencing firsthand how others do differently what we believed to be the right and only way. It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting. Sometimes to see the light, you have to risk the dark. |
Instant Coffee Taste Test
3/8/2004
I'm having today to reflect on, and write about last night, as I was too tired to go into detail in my previous entry. Of course, the night turned out to be longer than I had anticipated. I hadn't counted on dancing to house music for an hour or so, but was doing it because there were people actually dancing! In actuality, I don't even really like house music. This may sound stupid, but dancing to music that doesn't have words I can sing to, gets boring fast. Lyrics give me a time frame for a song. I have an idea when a song will end, if I happen not to like it. A song is typically three minutes, right? But when you listen to techno, the songs seems to go on FOREVER! Can you imagine Britney Spears singing a song for 5 to 7 minutes? Can she even speak in a continuous thought for that long? Maybe I'm missing something. I really DO want to REALLY like techno and house, but I just don't get it. I can appreciate it artistically, but most of it sounds the same to me. During the night, a male friend insisted that we had a heart-to-heart talk. He was drunk, and I was just trying to listen and be polite. He kept insisting that "we're friends, right?". In replying "yes", he then wanted me to divulge my deepest thoughts and dreams.... to "break down my walls". I think that's a load of crap. Just because I said we're friends, does't really make us "real friends". You can't expect someone you occassionally talk to, to open up just because you want them to. I WILL admit that I have "walls". I might be a hard person to approach. To put it frankly, I might seem like a cold b*tch with you first meet me. I know that. I'm not one of those people that can meet a bunch of strangers, and pretend like they're all fascinating people. I WISH I was a social butterfly, but have come to the realization that I'm an indifferent, fly-on-the-wall type. I even have a hard time feigning interest. I know this should be easy. Theoretically, it just involves eye contact and occassional nods of the head, right? Instead, I find my mind wandering... I wonder how long it took him to pluck his eyebrows... it's called Chaptstick, ever heard of it?... when is this conversation ever going to end? But this is NOT to say I don't have, or like having good friends. I just pick friends carefully. When I have a good friend, I AM a good friend. You can be sure you'll get a Valentine's present, even if you DO live all the way in Edmonton, Canada. Wasting my time browsing on Ebay, I can do. Wasting my time with boring people, I can't do. On a lighter note, I decided to have an instant coffee taste test. I never really drank instant coffee before coming to Korea. My parents always brewed a pot of coffee every day, and if I ever went somewhere to drink coffee, of course it would be brewed. I find that I like drinking little shots of coffee - just the perfect amount for me. I use the instant pre-mixed packages because I take them to work and it's a whole lot more convenient. As you can see, it's a choice between Maxim Mocha: Gold or Taster's Choice: Golden Mocha. It's really not too scientific, but here are my findings. Both mixtures looked the same when poured into a cup. When hot water was added, Taster's Choice had a darker color than Maxim. Taster's Choice was a little stronger, and bitter (to me). Maybe some people like it, for the fact that it's stronger. Overall, I prefer Maxim, because it was lighter and smoother.
Turn Tables
3/7/2004
I just got back from The Warehouse, and am waiting for my water to heat up... so I decided to write. I always say to myself, I'm going to go out for a bit, but make it an early night. It never turns out that way. During the long holiday last week, I was out from 10pm - 7am! That's more drinking than I work in TWO DAYS!!! Insane! Actually, it turned out to be a lot of fun, and I was doing pretty good until around 6am, when I s.tarted falling asleep at the table Tonight, Ryan brought his turn tables and and played around with it througout the night. It was cool to hear something different. After 1:00am, he was playing a lot of House music and quite a few people were dancing. One of the Korean teachers from my school came out with her friends. (She's the one in the denim jacket in the picture below.) They had come before, and I really didn't get the impression that she liked it that much, because it seemed kind of loud for them. It turns out, that they were there until 4am yesterday, after I had already left. They came back tonight, and one of them said he was coming back tomorrow with his friends. It's surprising, but I'm glad they had a good time. It was nice that everyone was getting into it and dancing. I'm a little exhausted... going to bed now...
Runny Nose
3/5/2004
It's still freakin' snowing. I'm just not in the mood for it this afternoon. It's a combination of the fact that the snow is dirty, and I'm starting to feel the effects of my cold medicine. They're tiny flakes that melt upon hitting the ground, making the street wet and dirtier than it already is. So yes, I started getting a cold yesterday afternoon. I was perfectly fine until then - and even went to th gym for the first time in a month. Then one moment, I started sneezing, and my runny nose hasn't stopped. Blowing your nose costantly with a nose ring, is NOT fun. I've only had a cup of coffe and some anti-histimines, so it's starting to hit me. On a side note - I don't really care about the whole Janet Jackson "nipple-shield" incident. I believe she knew exactly what she was doing, and it's not a big deal, but prime-time was not the appropriate place to do that. Still, that doesn't take from the fact that I think she's beautiful. Here's the album cover from her latest album. I love that font/script.
School Issues
3/5/2004
This weather is strange. Two hours ago, it started snowing! Just last week, it was really warm spring weather. Of course, the snow's not sticking, but it was nice to see flakes coming down. I really don't like this in-between weather. I was about to bring out my spring clothes on Monday, but then saw the weekly forecast of potential snow. I started my new spring schedule this week. I can't believe it's even better than last term. Basically, twice a week I work 3-7pm, and three times a week, 4-8pm. It still only ends up being about 17 hours a week. Yeah, it's a coosh job - better than most jobs out there. Still, quite a few people have moved to Seoul from Kangneung trying to make more money (or other reasons), but I don't think Seoul is the great city everyone seems to think it is. I absolutely enjoy being in a city with fresh air, the mountains, and beaches nearby. The summer will be great, when I can scoot to the beach before my first class. On Thursdays, I don't teach until 4:40pm, so I'll definitely make it to the beach earlier in the day. I really enjoy going to Seoul once a month, but am so happy to come back home. This past weekend when I went to Seoul, Friday was a beautiful day... very unusual. Then the next day, the air and the sky looked horrible. It looked like a mixture of yellow dust and smog. It's not something I can get used to.
Confessions of a Sarcastic Mind
3/3/2004
Today, I figured that I'd come clean. I think everyone has quirky, unmentionable things they do, and would not readily share with others. Mine has to do with food. I know it's a joke among many people, but I'm talking about SPAM. You know, the lunchean meat in a can? I'm here to proclaim, I LIKE SPAM. It's taken some time to publically come out. It's one of those things that you know is not cool to eat, like cow instestine, but you wonder why? Why does everyone shun it so? So I made a purchase while in university, while my roommate was away for the weekend. Hmmm, the cashier at Safeway doesn't look at me strangely. I went home and tried it out. It wasn't bad! (Mikey likes it! He really likes it!) You may be one of those "you actually eat that stuff?" people, but when's the last time you had some? Do you only make fun of it, or have you actually tried it? Personally, I like to cut up the pieces in 0.5 cm slices, then pan fried it until it's slightly crispy and brown. It actually does look like square pieces of ham, then. I eat it with rice and pre-salted seaweed. The bland ricea and the salty "spiced ham" provide a nice balance of flavor.
Spam History: Hormel Spiced Ham got off to a slightly rocky start. Other meatpackers began to introduce their own canned luncheon meats, and Hormel lost its controlling share of the market. Soon, however, they came up with a cunning plan to rectify this situation - they would give Hormel's luncheon meat a truly catchy name. Toward this end, they offered $100 for a suitable appellation. The winning name was, of course, ''SPAM'', and a legend was born.
(Yum yum!) Nifty Spam Trivia!
To end things, I wanted to add a haiku I wrote:
My feet are tired
2/27/2004
I'm sitting here at the guesthouse, resting a little before I go out. It's another Club Night, but I'm not as pumped up about it as last month. I'm tired today... I slept on the bus to Seoul, was falling asleep on the subway, and really contemplated taking a nap before going out tonight. Once I get out there, it'll be a lot of fun, like it was last month. Today, I had grand plans of going to Lotte World, Namsan Tower, and the aquarium at COEX Mall. I only accomplished the last one. I thought there weren't going to be as many people out today, since it was a workweek, but there were the same amount of people out as during the weekend. Don't these people work?!? Well, I do have to remember, some women are housewives, and students are still on vacation. You'd think that travelling by subway would be fast, but it's still slow, with all the walking and transferring. Like I always say, I like to visit Seoul during the weekends, but I'm happy I don't live there. There's just something about it... I could happily live in a metropolitan city like New York or Barcelona, but Seoul lacks the coolness factor that would counter act the hassles of living in a large city. Yes, Barcelona (or Barthelona, as the locals pronounce it) is an AWESOME city!
Anyway, the aquarium was cool. One might wonder if it's worth the 14,500 won entrance fee, but it's a nice splurge. They had a lot of sharks, and some of the fish were amazingly beautiful. While there, I was going to see a movie. The ticket line for movies was one floor down. So I looked over the balcony to see how long the line was. I'm not good with estimating, but I would say it was at least 30 minutes. I had never seen a movie in Seoul, and figured that the wait might be worth it, to sit in a better theater than the ones in Kangneung. Plus, it wasn't like I had any pressing matters to attend to. I went down the stairs to find the end of the line. Once at the bottom, I found that there were the same number of people waiting BEHIND the stairs! My god, an hour wait to buy movie tickets! That's when I gave up. The COEX movie theater really looks like a cool place, but I'd recommend catching a matinee, or having lots of patience.
It's Spring
2/26/2004
I figured it's about time I changed the snow on this blog. As much as I like occassional snow, and was hoping for one more snowfall of the season, it's about as likely as me learning to cook anytime soon. So instead, I opted for "spring flowers". It's been getting really warm lately, and winter is defitely over. For me, signs that spring is here: - I can no longer keep drinks cold by placing them in my tiled bathroom. - The lock on the scooter is no longer rigid and hard to unwind. - I went out last week without a scarf and hat. - I'm no longer afraid that my down jacket will catch on fire while at school, because it's been too warm to turn on. - The downtown chestnut vendor is gone (sweet potatoes are still for sale, though). - I'm already starting to daydream about days on the beach
Been busy
2/25/2004
I realized it's been such a long time since I've written anything. I've been really busy with helping at The Warehouse, and really didn't have any free time. For the last couple of weeks before the opening, I was at the bar almost every night, until 2:00 or 3:00 am. Mostly, I was helping with designing different aspects of the bar, painting, and just general cleaning up. Opening night on February 20th turned out really well. From 8-10pm, the place was full. Michael had come in earlier in the night with some of his students. After awhile, the students noticed that people were trying to come in, but had to leave because there were not seats available. In response, the students left, so that other people could come in! Isn't that nice? Go back home, and you woudn't see anyone leave a bar or club, so that other people could enjoy the place too. Last week's opening was mainly a small opening for friends and friends of friends. There was absolutely no advertising, and on opening night, there wasn't even a sign up. This week has been a test period - organizing the menu and the logistics of running a bar. This Friday will be the public opening. There's supposed to be a banner outside, and "Grand Opening" plants that friends and associates send to wish good luck. I'd like to see how it goes, but I'll be in Seoul on Friday night for Club Night. My school's taking a day off on Friday, so I'll end up having a four day weekend. I'll head up to Seoul Friday morning and spend the day doing some touristy things. I like the idea of having a free day, while everyone else will be going about their day, busy with work or school. It'll feel like playing hookie, and wherever I go won't be as busy as it would be on a weekend. Yesterday, I saw Cold Mountain. I didn't know too much about it, other than who was starring in it, and that it's up for Best Picture of the Year. I've also seen Lost in Translation, and thought Cold Mountian was a better film. Cold Mountain was slow at points, but I felt the story was more interesting and I got more out of it than Lost in Translation. I've always thought Nicole Kidman was a pretty woman, but in some scenes, she was really beautiful in a simple looking way. I could see where some think she's a striking beauty. Her skin seems to be made of flawless porcelin. Today and yesterday were such blustery days. The wind was blowing everything around! I could hardly even scoot around, and the dust was torture to my contacts. Yellow dust is just around the corner.
Valentine's Day
2/14/2004
A trip to the dentist - ouch!
2/12/2004
Yesterday I went to the dentist to have a check up and cleaning. Maybe I should have been a little weary when the destist finished with her patient and then washed her gloved hands, intead of getting a new pair, before heading to me. I guess on the bright side, she DID wash it thoroughly, and her hands were never actually in my mouth. Still... it's the are-they-doing-it-correctly-in-Korea? factor. My dentist at home would throw away his gloves even when he wrote in my chart with a pen, or touched an x-ray. The dentist came to me, and asked, "Where does it hurt". I told her it doesn't hurt anywhere, but I wanted her to check if I had cavities. All she did to "check" was to use the air blowing instrument in between my teeth. How are you supposed to tell anything by that? I'm no dentist, but if there was a VIP card for people who went to the dentist enough times, I would be an official card holding member. If you want to know about root canals or crowns, ask Dr. lao_ocean, D.D.S. Anyway, what she should have done, was to individually check my teeth with the metal probey-thing and take x-rays of my whole mouth. There's a lot that can go on under the surface. A few more shots from the air machine, and it was determined that I had no cavities. Hard to believe... I know I eat lots of sugary foods and snacks. (I'm still working on the Halloween candy Renee sent me.) I'm not looking for th dentist to tell me I have a cavity, I just didn't think she was doing a thorough job... especially since she didn't even check my upper teeth. While there I had her remove two old fillings and replaced them with resin (tooth-colored fillings). I was surprised how cheap it was! Only 50,000 won ($42 USD), while it was $150 when I did it at a small dentist clinic in California. So, I was pretty happy with that. Afterwards, the dental assistant came over and gave me a cleaning. While the fillings were good, the cleaning was the most painful I've ever had in my life!!! She used some kind of sharp metal intrument, that upon contact with my teeth, sounded like screaching metal on metal. She also didn't take any caution in jamming that thing into my tender gums. At times, I wanted to sream out, but instead clenched my fingers and curled my toes from the agonizing pain. Luckily it ended pretty soon, and I didn't die. Still, after all that, I didn't even get a fluoride treatment or even a free toothbrush or dental floss (to add to my collection). I guess the only real positive thing I can say about that experience, is that it was cheap. I'll let you know where it is, if one day you're feeling masochistic.
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and Jasmine
