South Korean ppi-geo-seo-kae-ee-ting prodigy Kim Yeon Na will not be participating. She is getting ready for the winter Olympics next month.
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Four Continents Ppi-geo-seo-kae-ee-ting Championships
Tomorrow, Monday 25/01/10, the Four Continents Ppi-geo-seo-kae-ee-ting Championships will begin in Jeonju.
Saturday, 16 January 2010
Thumbs up for Korea!
A stupid competition, organised by a Korean company has been won by 2 young Koreans. In an amazing display of evidence that kids today spend too much time sending text messages, Bae Yeong-ho and Ha Mok-win won a competition in NY city to see who had the fastest thumbs. Britain came last because our kids are stupid and fat.
BBC story here
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Hey Mr
According to the UK's Daily Star, Korean girl group (Not Japanese as the Daily Star would have you believe) Kara have been reported to have dedicated their song 'Mister' to Frank Lampard. India's ANI News Agency cleared up the mess with an explanation.
On the 7th of January, 'Quality' British tabloid, the Daily Star published a story titled "FRANK LAMPARD SCORES CHART TOPPING SINGLE IN SOUTH KOREA" and came with pictures and talked about how the lyrics that were superimposed over a live version of the video were about Lampard, Fabregas, Beckham and Ronaldo. The faux lyrics talked about the upcoming World Cup and someone called 'Fat Frank.'
According to The Star, that bastion of credible journalism, the song contains lyrics such as "In a glance you look in my eyes, my captain Cesc" and "Even though you left me for Madrid, I still love you Ronaldo" but moves onto Mr Lampard with the lyrics "Forget those two losers, Chelsea blue is the only one" but that is where the affection for Frank ends as they refer to him as "Cute, chubby Frank mister"
The song proves itself to be a hoax (and perpetrated by someone whose command of English isn't the finest and Frankly has some kind of multiple personality disorder) with the lyrics "Excited me when Cesc spats in Ballack's face. Typical for a dirty Arsenal, yah!" The fantasy lyrics end well for Frank however when they wish him well for the World Cup in the summer. Fantasy indeed!
The ANI coverage is much less misleading, stating that 'Mister' is a popular song that is regularly heard in clubs in Korea. The article (although titled ' KOREAN GIRL GROUP CALL LAMPARD CUTE AND FAT) exposes the false subtitles as being put there by netizens.
The original article in Korean, exposing this shoddy journalism, can be found here, the Daily Star article can be found here and the Yahoo music article that seems to have bought these lyrics hook, line and sinker and may have started all of this can be found here.
The cheeky subtitles can be seen on Dave Rumour's Yahoo page here and the original song, with accurate English subtitles is below for your viewing and listening pleasure.
Originally translated from the Korean by Christina M.
Scuppered by Snow
The snow may be causing havoc all over the UK, making roads treacherous and upending grannies but aside from all the little kiddies, who are off school and throwing snowballs until their frostbitten fingers give up, the snow also keeps the rabble and the riffraff indoors. And even when said ruffians decide to venture out to mug someone or attack a cash machine (ATMs) with an industrial saw, the snow comes to the rescue. 2 such buffoons were apprehended by police after the bizzies followed footprints in the snow from the shop, straight to the front door of a house a few streets away. Full story here and amazingly another example can be found here.
Snow 2, Idiots 0
Friday, 8 January 2010
Some Cool Pictures
A few satellite pictures from the MODIS Rapid Response System, developed to provide daily satellite images of the Earth's landmasses in near real time. True-color, photo-like imagery and false-color imagery are available within a few hours of being collected, making the system a valuable resource for organizations like the U.S. Forest Service and the international fire monitoring community, who use the images to track fires.
Thursday, 7 January 2010
I Can Do Nunchuka!
I recently met an interesting man in a bar in Jeonju. Actually I often meet interesting people in Korea but this guy was particularly interesting. He was a Hapkido master and was drinking with a few of other Hapkido master friends. He also told me he was a master of the nunchuka and told me that videos of him could be found on YouTube by searching 'I can do nunchuka.'I searched and found him doing all manner of crazy twirling type actions with nunchukas. There are 50 or so videos and if you want to learn how not to hit yourself in the testicles with a pair of nuchukas, he is the man for you. Have a look here.
Then, in a completely separate Internet foray I came across a Japanese man who is also adept at throwing the nunchukas around. And so in what appears to be the nexus of a series on Japanese people doing unorthodox things with deadly weapons (after the post which included a video of a baseball chopping samurai), I present another baseball related martial arts lesson, enjoy. But remember, don't try this at home or this might happen!
Stupid Things Seen on Facebook
Everyone who is on Facebook could surely come up with a huge list of stupid things they have seen on Facebook but I have resisted until now. The following is the smallest smattering of the seemingly infinite amount of numb skulls out there.
"We Will Not Pay To Use Facebook. We Are Gone If This Happens ►► INVITE ALL!" is a stupid group but when you look at the pictures and then the comments of the pictures you see the kind of people that we will be losing if Facebook should decide to start charging. Not a big loss I think you'll agree.
A large woman whose bra you can see through her shirt says "I will not pay and will remove every thing. Shame on you for wanting to make a buck" I hope she is referring to her content and not her clothes.
A guy called Patrick, of the above mentioned photo says "That's right..we shouldn't have to pay. great photo. would you like to be farmville neighbors?? add me" Which I think speaks for itself.
Someone called Noor (It's a name) commented on an obviously fake photograph highlighting possible Facebook charges (here)
"This is soo demented WTFFFF like srzzlyy Misspelling is 0.02 WTF? ND complaining bout facebook changes are $25 WTF these people srzly need their heads kicked in !!"
And the scariest thing is that this group has 105,396 members and counting.
This is a status I have borrowed from Facebook.
"goin' down to Chinatown" in reference to an upcoming trip to Beijing and someone she knows, probably a 'Facebook friend' commented
"Have a safe flight!! Watch out for homeless people with cardboard, they are likely to throw it at you as a distraction and then steal your wallet. Love youuu"
Now, unless I am mistaken, this friend, or this is the implication, has been mugged in Beijing by a homeless person, armed with only a piece of cardboard, which presumably said something like 'will do Tai chi for food.' Bizarre you say, well her wording of people suggests that it has happened more than once. That is some pretty bad luck or, as the case probably is, she has read a news article or watched a program on say, the Fox network entitled "When homeless Chinese beggars go BAD" and has decided to do the right thing and warn all his/her friends and family of the bands of Chinese beggars who go around mugging people with bits of cardboard.
Gotta love Facebook!
Saturday, 2 January 2010
January 2010!
A little list of what's on in Korea this month has been collated by me from various resources for your reading delectation.
A few PDFs and/or links to various calendars first
- What's on in Busan, courtesy of Busan Haps
- 10 magazine's January events guide is here
- A PDF version of January's Daegu Pockets magazine is here
- And here is a PDF from the Visit Korea website
Korea4expats.com has this little list
- Muse, Thur 7 Jan 2010, Olympic Park
- Film Night, German Film-English Subtitles, Fri 08 Jan 2010,
- Hwacheon Trout Festival, 9-31 Jan 2010, Gangwon-do
- Strange Soup, 9-10 January 2010, Yeosu - Yeosu Civic Center
- Etoile Ballet Gala, 12-13 Jan 2010, Seoul Arts Center
- Strange Soup, 16-17 January 2010, Jeonju -Sori Arts Center
- Taebaek Snow Festival, 22-31 Jan 2010, Gangwon-do, korea
- Strange Soup, 23-24 January 2010, Changwon - Sungsan Art Hall
- Inje Ice Fishing Festival, 28-31 Jan 2010, Gangwon Province, Korea
- Winter Fam Tour to Jindo 4 Dog Lovers, Sat 30 Jan, RSVP Dec 09
- Charity Gala, Sat 30 Jan 2010, Grand Hyatt, Seoul
- Burns Supper, Sat 30 Jan 2010, Grand Hyatt Hotel, Seoul
- Strange Soup, 30-31 Jan 2010, Daegu - Daegu Cultural Center
- Traditional Performances, Saturdays Jan-June 2010, Natl Folk Museu
From the official Korea tourism site there is
Taebaeksan Mountain Snow Festival
Period: 01-22-2010 ~ 01-31-2010
Region: Gangwon-do
Inje Icefish Festival
Period: 01-28-2010 ~ 01-31-2010
Region: Gangwon-do
2009 Seoul Festival of Light
Period: 12-19-2009 ~ 01-24-2010
Region: Seoul
Hwacheon Sancheoneo (Mountain Trout) Ice Festival
Period: 01-09-2010 ~ 01-31-2010
Region: Gangwon-do
Boseong Tea Fields Festival of Lights
When: December 11-January 31, 2010
Where: Boseong Tea Fields, Hoecheon-myeon, Boseong-gun, Jeollanam-do Province
Pyeongchang Trout Festival
Period: 12-22-2009 ~ 01-31-2010
Region: Gangwon-do
Here is a page with these festivals and a few more for the winter period.
Chris in South Korea has this little list, which includes The Andy Warhol exhibit at the Seoul Museum of Art, Monet to Picasso:masterpieces from the Philadelphia Museum of Art at the Hangaram Art Museum and Masterpieces of Italian Renaissance Frescoes at the Seoul Art Center. Even though there will be some crossover between posts, I think it's better to have a small overlap than to miss something!
And finally a little more crossing over, but once again, better to be safe that sorry. Matt Kelley's blog 'Discovering Korea' has a list of winter festivals in Korea, have a look here.
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