Bad poetry? Hell no-etry!

My friend Dylan Lee's dad, John B. Lee, is Canada's most prolific poet--40 published volumes, and tons and tons of awards. Google him if you're into that sort of thing. Normally I hate poetry, but I've been reading one volume that he gave Dylan as a wedding present and it's really enjoyable.

Also, if you haven't yet, go see The Departed. It's one of the best movies I've seen in a long time, and if you'd given up on Scorsese after Gangs of New York, this should reaffirm your respect for him. And, unfortunately, it will probably make you grudgingly admit that Leonardo DiCaprio is a pretty good actor.

MUSIC!!!!!!!

Got the internetz hooked up, finally. For the past three months I've been listening to an Atmosphere CD that my friend Jimmy burned me, and a compilation I got at the door at an indie rock show in Seoul, and the 20 songs I had on my shitty mp3 player that were there before I left Canada. Over the past 24 hours, I've downloaded every song by the Beatles, the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, Bowie, the Flaming Lips, and lots, lots, lots more. It's the happiest I've been since I got here.

I got a cheap X-Box, and a few controllers, and I've been playing Halo-2 with Jimmy and Greg a lot. It's cheap entertainment--I'm saving for Thailand and for a digital camera. I'd like to get a nice one; Greg's new Panasonic Lumex is pretty nice, but I'll probably get something cheaper, and get a real snazzy one when I'm not suffering under the crushing burden of student loans.

Leave download suggestions in comments, if you'd like.

Nov. 11th

In Canada, we spend November 11th remembering soldiers who died fighting for our country. In Korea, they have PEPERO DAY! Pepero are called Pocky back home, and are little stick cookies dipped in chocolate. They celebrate this day because the date 11/11 kind of looks like five sticks. Understand? I don't really either. But regardless, I have to buy a bunch of bland cookie-thingies for fifty kids or else there will be a mutiny.

The company I work for, YES Youngdo English Academy, is offering students here a chance to spend January and February in Waterloo, St. Catharines, or Sarnia, for the low, low price of ELEVEN THOUSAND FUCKING DOLLARS. (Airfare's included, though, so it's not such a bad deal. Two years of university tuition, but hey, it's only money.) Kids here get January off (and then only a month in the summer), so while they're loathe to spend their winter holiday going to school in Canada, being away from their terrible lives for the month of February is very appealing. The idea of only doing an hour or two of homework a day while in Grade Six sounds utopian to them, not to mention never having to go to school on Saturdays. This is a terrible country to grow up in.

Not dead...

...just still without my own computer and camera. I get paid on Friday, though, so I'm going to get one of each. I went to the electronics market called Youngsan on Saturday and bought a cellphone (still not activated, but that will be resolved today). That market is insanely big--biggest in Asia, actually. Nerd paradise.

A guy I met through my friend Dylan is selling his X-Box (girlfriend's orders) for fifty bucks, with six games and the chip required to play DVDs. Hello Halo 2, goodbye social life.

I ate a delicious stew on Friday that had giant pieces of pig spine in it. There's a surprising amount of meat on that piece of the animal, and it's very tender. Not too pretty, though.

I bought a new backpack yesterday. It's a Berghaus, and well worth the hundred bucks I paid for it. The dude who sold it to me said that it's the third-best brand in the world, and the best brand is Arcteryx, from Canada. Who knew?

Anyway, there will soon be photos and video and ponies and rainbows and all sorts of cool crap all over this ugly blog. Check back in a week or two.