Destiny's Child, have you no shame??

Jessica and I witnessed something last night that had both of us laughing/cringing for the better part of an hour. We borrowed a DVD copy of the classic stop animation Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Side note to Team 13: It belonged to Kacie. One of the extra features on the DVD was something called "Destiny's Child Video". We couldn't resist watching; like the car crash metaphor. Words can't really describe how funny this was, that's why I grabbed a couple of stills from it to share.



It opens up with a stop animation DC dropping it like it's hot in the studio. Nothing too crazy here, unless you count the stop animation DC. They're singing a souled-up version of the classic Rudolph song. They sing a little here, then the scene changes and they put on snowboarding attire and go racing down the slopes to meet up with Rudolph himself.







So they give him a big hug, as they sing their hook, "Rudolph, we love you boy." But then things take another turn. They get into some triangle formation and do this spinny move to reveal...








that their snowsuits have been covering up revealing ghetto rat clothes. If you look closely, you can see the snowsuits flying off the top of the screen. I could pull pictures from this sequence all day, but I have a limited amount of space here at Blogger.com, so I'll just let you know that once they shed the extra clothes, there was some pretty funny animated booty shaking going on. But that's not what really got Jessica and I laughing. That honor goes to this next picture.






This is Sam the Snowman. In the original "Rudolph", he's voiced by Burl Ives and does the narration on the story. That was in 1964. We can see that over the years, Sam began a successful career as a music producer and sound engineer. In this video, he's in the booth while the girls are singing in studio. Toward the end of the video, we see him as he is here, feeling the groove and waving his hands in the air. Some would say he's waving them like he just don't care. Thank you, Destiny's Child, for making me laugh harder than I have all week.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas from everyone's favorite reindeer/baby hybrid! To all of our friends and family around the world, we sincerely wish you all a very merry Christmas. Jessica and I were talking, and we realized that we truly do have friends scattered around the world. From here in Korea to Iraq, to the Cayman Islands, to places all over the U.S. We're very fortunate that no matter where we end up at, we're bound to be close to someone that we know. It's not everyday that you can say that.

In Korea, I'm quite fetching...

There's some things that happen in Korea that would never happen in the U.S. If there's a theme to this blog, I guess that's it. This is another tale to re-iterate that point.
So there I am, out in downtown Seoul buying our Filipino nanny a Christmas present. She had gotten us this sweet lamp that we had wanted so we thought it the least that we could do. By the way, this lamp is similar to another lamp that my parents got in the Philippines 30 years ago. My brother and I have an ongoing feud about who is going to eventually get this lamp. I decided to take matters into my own hands and get one myself. But I digress...
So I'm sitting in the store talking to the salesguy about getting our nanny her present. We haggle over the price and finally agree. Instead of picking up the purchase from him, he makes a call to his... supplier?... and tells me to wait five minutes for the guy to bring it around. So we're sitting uncomfortably silent for a couple of seconds before he asks me if I'm from the U.S. and how old I am. I tell him, not too surprised because Koreans love to ask you how old you are. It's a status thing. The older you are, the more respected you are. Then he goes on to tell me that I'm "very handsome, movie star." This was completely unsolicited and took me a little off guard. But I took in stride and we kept talking. Next he wanted to know who was the biggest movie star in America. He proposed that it was Brad Pitt. I agreed, saying he's probably the biggest right now. Then he said, "Tom Cruise?" and made that side-to-side hand tilt that means "a little fishy." I said that Tom was pretty big, but probably not the biggest anymore. This was all a little surreal. Then another Korean guy came in that worked there. Without asking the other guy, he asks me how old I am and tells me that I'm very handsome. Did I miss something? Why am I getting a creepy feeling all of a sudden about this place. But there was nothing strange in the way he said it. It was an honest compliment.
It had me thinking how strange and out of place that would be in America. As a guy, I can never ever think of a time when another guy has said how "handsome" I am. Let alone a salesman at a store. Imagine if you were at Best Buy and the kid showing you the TV's said, "Hey, you're a really good looking man." It just does not happen. Ever. But here, it's apparently not that uncommon.

On a completely unrelated topic, Aidan is arguably the safest baby in the world. This picture was completely unstaged and he brought me the safety gear to put on himself without any prompting. As far as an explanation why, I have yet to figure that one out. Enjoy.

They warned me!

Here's another unrelated picture that has nothing to do with the post- but I know everyone loves to see Aidan.

Before (and since) we came to Korea, lots of people warned us about "crazy" Korean customs, behaviors, etc. Although we have only been here two months, I feel totally confident in saying they were WRONG. Ha ha. Here are some common beliefs about Korea/ns and what I, the new Korean expert, think:
1. Koreans wouldn't pee on you if you were on fire. That's not exactly what I was told, but this is a family blog. This is supposedly based on their Buddhist beliefs, that everyone has a circle of friends/family to help them, and if you're not in theirs, someone in yours will eventually wander by and help you out. To the contrary, I have found Koreans to be very helpful. Once I didn't have any won for the subway, and the ticket guy let me put $1 in the charity box as payment instead. Downright sweet of him, I think.
2. Seoul is a filthy, disgusting city with unbreathable air. We have not yet been here in summer, when the smog is supposed to be worse, but again, I have to say I disagree with common perception. Seoul may have poor air quality, but it sure is tidy. Our building security guards are always sweeping and doing minor yard work, and I see old Koreans sweeping the streets with brooms all the time. National motto: If you have time to lean, you have time to clean.
3. Koreans smell like garlic and kimchi. Not so much; maybe this one has a little truth to it. But, you'll never guess what Koreans think Americans smell like- butter! If you think, "Butter doesn't smell so bad," then I challenge you to stick your nose in some room-temperature butter for a few minutes and see if you change your mind. I did.
4. Seoul is too expensive. I'm still debating this one. To make a fair judgment, I think you have to compare Seoul to other big cities, not cheapie suburban wonderlands like Clarksville. Unfortunately, I have never lived in another big city, so I can't say. Sure, a coke may cost $3.50 in restaurants, but you can also buy a Louis Vuitton wallet or an Abercrombie sweatshirt for $20. That's got to even out.
5. Koreans are crazy drivers. Guilty as charged.

Bonuses that no one told us about:
1. They play classical music and birds singing on the subway
2. The technology here is ridiculous- remote control ceiling lights, fingerprint locks on the front doors, security camera screens in the apartment so you can see who is outside your building or front door... It's crazy.
3. Korean cuisine is more than just kimchi and bulgogi- Joel loves kimbap (sushi), and my favorite is mandu (dumplings). Also, there is so much international food here- we've eaten at four different Indian places already.
4. Everyone speaks English- just not that well.

Walking in an Asian Wonderland

Well hello there. I didn't see you sitting there. I was just about to talk about the blight of the Korean pedestrian. [Note: no, the photo doesn't really go with this post, but here's the view out our side window after a recent snow.]

There's a couple of things you should know before driving or walking in Seoul. It is not like the U.S. I think I might have mentioned this in the past, but let me reiterate. First of all, you should know that Koreans hate sidewalks. Hate them. There is something in the national unconscious that causes them to be diametrically opposed to the concept of walking safely away from oncoming traffic. Mind you, this doesn't mean that they don't have sidewalks here. Hell no! In fact, the city is rife with wide, inviting sidewalks. The intersections often have gentle ramps up from the street to the sidewalk to ease in the pedestrian's transition. But, a typical Korean will walk two feet away from the sidewalk in traffic rather than on the sidewalk. I don't understand it. It's not that the sidewalks are crowded; it's more like they can't be bothered with maneuvering over to the sidewalk. It's baffling. The only exception to this are major roads i.e. greater than four lanes. The pedestrians will typically stay off these. But that doesn't stop the old women or men with the enormous push carts from taking up a lane.
These octogenarians will pull a giant cart, similar to a rickshaw, laden with whatever it is that they're selling in traffic as if they were a car. Cars and city buses just switch lanes and pass right by them without slowing down. I haven't see one splattered out from under their carts yet, but I'm certain that in this city of 12 million it must have happened once or twice.
As a westernized driver, there is a certain unspoken agreement between pedestrians and drivers that I subscribe to. Namely, if you are a pedestrian you will do your best not to step blindly out from the side of the street and into oncoming traffic. Likewise, if you are a driver you will come to a stop and yield to a pedestrian if they are in the process of crossing the street. Clearly, Koreans have no such agreement. While driving, I've had all types of people dart out in front of my car when they clearly did not have the right of way. Old ladies, mothers with children in strollers, members of the clergy. Similarly, as a pedestrian in a crosswalk with a green "walk" signal I've had all kinds of cars barrel on through as if I wasn't there. Taxis, police cars, the Popemobile. The really crazy part about it is that when they nudge you, or you nudge them, they look at you with complete surprise and bewilderment, as if saying, "Holy crap, where did you come from? What are you doing in my way?" But never angry. Always stunned or... befuddled, I guess.

I went out today to buy Jessica a Christmas present. Can't say what, because she reads this and I don't want to give her any hints. Anyway, on the way back home I made a detour by the electronic mart to see what all they had out. I walked out to this one pavilion that seemed to have a lot of activity. Sitting out on this sidewalk was every type of computer component that you could have imagined. Cases, motherboards, power supplies, DVD drives, graphics cards. All of it legit looking and all of it cheap. Like 75% off cheap from what you'd expect in the states. Also, they had some of the ubiquitous bootleg DVD guys out there too. Some guys were selling a box-set of the first four Harry Potter movies, to include the one that's in the theaters right now. I saw one guy playing it at his cart and it looked really good. I think I'll wait a couple of weeks and pick King Kong up on DVD when it's released in theaters. 'Yoink!

Sick House

Well it's flu season, and our house has been hit hard. Aidan came down with something earlier this week, and he's just had a rough time kicking it. Lots of coughing, sneezing, wheezing. He's had a hard time sleeping at night, which means that we're having a hard time sleeping at night. If that weren't enough, Jessica has caught whatever Aidan has been carrying and she's been done for a couple of days now. So our Saturday was spent mostly sleeping and resting up. Lots of fluids, etc. You know the drill. On the bright side, it's been pretty cold and overcast recently so we wouldn't be able to do a lot outside anyway. I guess it's as good a weekend as any to get sick.
To keep myself amused, I did just get in my DSM-520, D-Link HD Media Server. I hooked it up Thursday and we've been playing with it since then. Basically, its a wireless receiver that hooks up to my HDTV via HDMI and plays music, video, and pictures from my computer, in high definition. We've been pulling U.S. shows off the internet using BitComet. It's been great, because we can get anything that shows in the states almost immediately after it airs. Plus, no commercials! Anyway, Jessica and I have been enjoying it a lot. It definitely beats sitting in front of the little computer screen to watch T.V.
Tonight we're going to duck out and leave Aidan with a sitter while we go see Harry Potter on post. I'll let you know how it is.