let's answer the questions this picture conjures up in order
1) oh yeah, that's a handlebar
2) yup, that's a hooters' t-shirt
3) those aren't korean prostitutes, just some girls from work dressed up as adjumas
4) adjumas are mean old korean ladies
5) oh yes, there is a hooters in korea, 2 in fact, and they seem to be the only place to get a dill pickle in the whole country

ok, so these girls from work tell me about a 'bad taste' party they are having on saturday. i realize i can be kind of a hermit sometimes so i say sure, i'll go. that's when the idea hit me for shaving like that, plus it's starting to get hot here. and what a bad taste party it was, i even got to see a very pregnant woman drink beer all night. now i thought shaving was showing commitment to the party, but she took it to the next level...



let's call this one "just about to realize that it's 5 in the morning" yup, right after that i booked it for home. i was shocked to see the sky was already starting to lighten. ugh. fortunately my 5 korean words were just enough to get the cabbie to take me to the 7-11 right by my house.

several years ago i saw a wonderful movie called battle royale. i strongly recommend it. it's basically a japanese lord of the flies meets stephen king's the long walk (both of which i also highly recommend). set in an alternate present, the japanese government randomly selects a ninth grade class and puts them on an 10 sq km island. the children are told by their former 7th grade teacher that they have to fight til one remains by the end of the 3rd day or they all die as their collars will explode. each child is given food, water, a map, and a weapon (random from uzis and shotguns down to pot lids and a paper fan (though the kid with the paper fan quickly upgrades)). of course the kids go ape-shit on each other. despite some peacenicks and conscientious objectors, it turns into a splatter fest. all in all, a tremendous movie.

i bring this up because i recently downloaded it to watch again to see how it held up. you know: some movies get better after a few years, some movies lose their sparkle. i remember watching it the first time and being deeply involved with the teenage characters, wondering who got what they deserved or who got the short end of the stick. the second time around was just as good, but the strange thing was i felt a switch in my sympathies toward the evil teacher. good lord, if i had kids like that i'd ship them off to an island too! as i was watching it there was some serious whatyacallit- some kind of displaced rage violence fantasy going on. sad to say, the teacher didn't win...sigh for that poor misunderstood bastard. probably due to my job, this time when i watched the movie, i didn't notice the mistakes the kids made, i noticed the mistakes the teacher made.
one last thing,:



so i guess freud moonlighted as an architect in seoul...and how!