So one day when I was riding the bus this song came on. I checked the radio station’s website to find out what the song was.
It was the first time I’d ever heard of this artist, but I found the song so moving and I kept thinking…. as great as K-pop is… the “Korean Wave” is shortchanging a whole swathe of Korea’s music culture by not marketing stuff like this.
Before you read this through I will add a disclaimer that I don’t have any control over the official story of the Final Fantasy series, so this really just amounts to elaborate fan fiction and some really desperate attempts to link together games that are similar but can’t likely be related.
With this guide, I will attempt to show how all the Final Fantasies are on the same planet. This will explain:
1. Why topography of the planet is different between games even if they are on the same planet.
2. Why the Gysahl greens are called such even though there is no town called Gysahl in most games.
3. Why multiple different towns called Mysidia were built.
4. How Cid in each game is in fact the same person.
5. Why crystals are so important to the series.
6. Why the character classes are largely consistent through each game.
How will I do this? Time Travel!!!! Read on after the jump!
There was once a show on cable TV where taxi drivers in New York had conversations with their passengers and they stuck a hidden camera in the cab so they could get all the drama. It didn’t last long and it was mocked mercilessly by SNL.
But I only bring it up because last night I had an experience where the driver seems to have let me in on a big secret.
They’re orange, not yellow in Korea.
I took a cab home along a route that normally takes about 15 minutes, and by cab would cost around 5000 won.
But that’s not what happened. As we got onto the Gangbyeon expressway the cars were only inching along. I thought nothing of it at first. It was rush hour afterall.
But this wasn’t rush hour traffic. This was like, Walking Dead we have to get out of Atlanta traffic. It was Everybody Hurts so let’s all get out of our cars and abandon them on the freeway traffic (for the young or very old, that’s a reference to an R.E.M. music video).
As we moved onward and onward as the snail does, it became apparent that there was an accident ahead. Only that would explain why we were barely moving, and why I would likely be paying more than double.
The driver turns on the radio to listen to traffic updates. It’s confirmed. There’s an accident. I start thinking of other terrible car accidents I’ve seen the aftermath of. The one where the VW bug was upside down; the one where two old ladies were trapped and it looked like EMT was struggling to get them free AND attend to their medical needs; and the one where both cars were ablaze.
But suddenly my reminiscence was interrupted as the cabby begins honking rolls down his window and shouts out probably the most profanity laden tirade I’ve ever heard. It had the 18s, the dog babies, their mother, and probably things I have yet to learn.
“What’s going on?,” I say as I look out the window. We drive by 2 demure ladies who have had a fender bender in the middle lane of traffic on the expressway and simply stopped in the center lane instead of driving to the side or off the freeway. One could hear their conversation. “What should we do? What should we do? One was crying and the other wafting her hands over her face in that annoying motion that accompanies crying and not wanting to ruin makeup.
As we passed, people stopped rubbernecking and traffic began to flow normally.
The driver was still mid tirade when I said, “sir, it’s okay. Those people were thinking only of themselves. That’s why they didn’t consider everyone behind them. ”
And he said “No, it’s because they are Korean, and Koreans are rotten.”
He hits the meter saying he can’t in good conscience make me pay more than what the meter had already run up. We were still only halfway home.
I retorted, “surely not all Koreans are rotten.”
“Trust me, I’m Korean. Enough of us are rotten and our society is going to fall apart.”
He then started talking about how Japanese didn’t loot or fight in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster and were very orderly and most survivors made out alright.
“If that happened in Korea,” he said “You’d see robbery, killing, and prostitution over cup ramen.”
“Well you’re not a rotten guy,” I countered. “You stopped the meter.”
He agrees, but then admits he was contributing to the traffic jam by rolling down the window to scream at the two drivers and didn’t bother to call the police to come help out.
I got out of the cab in front of my apartment and gave the driver more than the fare. He tried to give change, but I tell him to keep it. Another lady gives me a dirty look as I’m gathering my stuff. She hops in and starts screaming at him to go somewhere.
Digging for gold commissioner? How about promotion and relegation?
Yes, I’ve come out of blogger semi-retirement to pen my first article in nearly 6 months… and this one is good. Why?
Well.. watch this video…
Did you enjoy it? Doesn’t it make you just want to go out there and eat Korean food? (actually who cares if you eat it as long as you spend money on it?)
The obvious answer is no…. and this video came to my attention from another blogger who I met recently. He writes Scribblings of the Metropolitician. Well, anyway why am I coming out of blogger semi-retirement for this post?
Find out after the jump.
I know I have not written here for a while. The reason is because I actually have two writing jobs and they both take all my creative juices away. My readership has dwindled because I don’t update as often…
Sorry.
It also appears that I’ve gotten a lot of traffic the past week thanks to my Dokdo posts. Leave it up to the controversy over Dokdo to drive traffic to my blog. Not complaining of course, but I think it is high time that people realize that it is time to talk logically about Dokdo. I’ve gotten a lot of complimentary comments that I don’t want to publish because they seem to be very ignorant. Let’s just say I don’t really like it when people say to me “Yeah, Eugene! Stick it to those no good dirty Jerps!” I can’t get down with that..
By the way that’s an extremely mild version of what most of the comments say.
And another thing. If you’re Korean and you’re calling Japanese people monkeys…. how do you think that non-Asians view you? I guess the retort would be “I don’t care what non-Asians think.”
But if that were really the case then why are you trying to convince non-Asians that Dokdo is Korean?
BRAIN EXPLOSION!
Actually, Monopoly is still fun, for me anyway, but a lot of people complain that it takes too long and nothing ever happens. Well those people simply do not know how to play. Youre supposed to make deals with other players to get a color group and bankrupt everyone else instead of just going around and around paying 22 dollars here and there.
Another problem is the house rules people play by whereupon the Free Parking space gives y $500 and too much money is infused into the game.
So if you eliminate those rules then the game should just go smoothly.
But that’s not necessarily fun.
If you want to have a different Monopoly experience, try these house rules.
The everyone is rich game…
1. Start with $2000
2. Get 400 for passing go, 800 for landing on it.
3. Free Parking collects fines and taxes and starts with $500 which is replenished when anyone lands there.
Analysis: With this game, you will see for sure that it really does come down to statistics. The reds triumph over all, but having the reds and oranges while your opponent has the entire rest of the board, you will still have a higher chance at winning.
The everyone is poor game
1. Start with $1000
2. No salary for passing go
3. Auction all declined properties starting at $1.
4. No free parking
Analysis: The only way that money can be infused into the game is by chance and community chest cards, thereby necessitating that some things get auctioned off cheaply. I got Boardwalk for $35 when I played this way. Railroads become the best properties. The 4th side of the board is practically worthless because nobody has enough money to build anything over there.
The Utilities matter rule
1. If you own one utility you get 5 percent of all rent collected on properties with houses or hotels. (That’s $100 if someone lands on Boardwalk with a hotel.)
2. If you own both utilities, you get 20% of all rent collected on properties with houses or hotels (That’s $400 if someone lands on Boardwalk with a hotel.)
3. If there are no houses or hotels in play, you get the standard utility fee if someone lands on your utility. If there is a house or hotel in play then landing on utilities is free.
This rule applies even if you land on someone else’s property with houses and hotels, in effect giving you a discount.
Analysis: It might not seem like much for some properties, but you’re basically getting rent for other people’s stuff.
Actually riding the railroads
1. When you land on a railroad, you may travel to another railroad space owned by the same person. You only have to pay the fare for the first railroad, because you are getting off at the second one.
Analysis: This makes the game a lot less about statistics, because people will ride the railroads to get past dangerous monopolies. Purples become huge in this game, especially if Boardwalk and Park Place are developed, because people will go to Reading Railroad to avoid that one.
If I think of more I’ll write them.
I suppose it is my own fault for not understanding Korean enough but I received a phone call from SK broadband yesterday about upgrading my Internet or something. I thought someone was going to come to my house and give me some new hardware.
Instead I got a call the next day. They asked me to turn on my computer and connect to the Internet. So I did. Then she told me to go to this website and download that thingamabob. Open this and click that. Suddenly she had gained control of my computer and wanted me to type in my Alien Registration Number to allow her to “check my hard drive for viruses.” I immediately became suspicious and told her that I did not have any viruses and I didn’t like that she had access to control my computer.
She said it was a temporary thing and that she was going to only check for viruses and delete any files that are not necessary.
I told her again that I used to work in IT and that I knew that I didn’t have viruses.
She replied that I couldn’t know that unless she could check.
And that’s where I drew the line. I told her thanks but no thanks. I appreciate that SK wants to eliminate the spread of viruses by scrubbing down every computer, but I found the process invasive and somewhat insulting.
Now I’m no expert about computers, spyware, viruses, or any of that, but I have enough knowledge about computers, networking, and troubleshooting to know that I don’t have viruses. Even if I did, it wouldn’t matter because I have everything important backed up on an external drive and I am pretty sure that if my computer were to be overrun with worms and spyware I could just reformat it and there would be no problem.
The point is, I know more about that than the average person, so telling me that I can’t know unless I give her remote access so she can check is like a car mechanic telling the lady who works at Jiffy Lube that she can’t know if the car needs an oil change unless she allows the him to check first.
(I know most people working at Jiffy Lube are men. Changing the gender helps make that last sentence more understandable without me having to make names for the two. )
I wonder how many SK customers just blindly follow the instructions? Not that I would suspect the company of anything, but it would be easy for someone to pretend that they are from SK and make a webpage that looks legit. Giving the faker access to your computer would allow them to check your computer for bank account and credit card numbers or nab any file of yours or plant illegal files on your computer.
Be careful everyone.
John Lennon, the most progressive guy ever, right?
I know it’s tired by now. The blackface incedent has been talked about to death by this point, mostly by people who are not black themselves. I didn’t really have much to say about it though. It’s not because I don’t care, it’s more because other bloggers have basically said practically everything I want to say. But in a previous post I heavily criticized the sheer amount of condemnation for Korea or Koreans emanating from the K-blogosphere over the issue. I must reiterate again, that I don’t in any way approve of what happened. I think that it was and is wrong to make fun of other races of people, and ignorance is not enough of an excuse, especially when this is not the first time it happened, and there was a high profile backlash the last few times it happened.
So if this is your view, then why were you so critical of other bloggers and their judgement of Korean society based on this incident?
I said what I said because I learned about the incident from a Korean who hasn’t spent a long time overseas, who was outraged over it. I said that you can’t make a blanket generalization of the whole society based on one incident alone, without proper context. Saying that Korea is a racist country because this kind of thing is tolerated isn’t really fair, nor is it particularly constructive.
Take a look at that guy in the picture. He’s a pretty famous guy. (John Lennon for those who are too young to recognize him, though honestly that would be hard for me to believe).
WTF does John Lennon have anything to do with this?
Is John Lennon a racist?
Huh?
You heard me…. Is John Lennon a racist?
You’re kidding me right? The guy who wrote the song Imagine? The guy who wrote Give Peace a Chance? Basically one of the most influential figures of the 1960’s and the civil rights movement? The self-proclaimed feminist? The man hated by “the man?” You have got to be kidding! No way! John Lennon was not a racist! He was the personification of peace, tolerance, and brotherhood of man! Did you ever listen to his music? Come on Euge, what the F are you talking about?
Woah woah! Slow down! I agree, John Lennon was not a racist, and stood for the end of racism and peace and love between all men and women.
What’s your point then?
I’ll get to my point after the jump.
Continue reading
The K blogosphere has been up in arms about blackface. Apparently some Koreans took it upon themselves to paint their faces up to look like some cartoon character who is himself questionably offensive. If that character himself isn’t offensive, then the cartoon itself is, because it depicts Africans with bones through their noses.
But we didn’t know it was offensive!
Now, why am I writing this post? Plenty of other K-blogs have condemned the Korean media/Korean education/Koreans themselves for this action. I’m not going to do either of those things. I in no way support or condone what has happened and I am thoroughly disappointed, but this post is about the other bloggers.
My good friend Roboseyo was probably the least vitriolic of the bloggers who wrote about this issue.
Other bloggers took the chance to point out that this is proof that Koreans or Korea is racist.
I’ll have you know that this particular blackface incident was not learned from a fellow blogger or fellow expat… A Korean person who has never lived abroad and who doesn’t interact with foreign people on a regular basis pointed it out to me and was very distraught about it. “How on Earth could something like this happen!” were more or less the exact words.
So my friends, this may only be one example out of many, but we have to realize that not everyone in Korea feels that this is not a problem, and that Koreans themselves are not a hive mind.
Are there racists in Korea? Yes.
Are all Koreans racists? No, and far from it.
Express outrage over the issue and boycott the station or organize a campaign to promote awareness of this issue.. but don’t make it worse by stereotyping an entire nation of people.
Eugene is huge! 