::A Geek in Korea::

After an upgrade DISASTER last time around, the new Wordpress 2.5 is a lot nicer experience. All the buttons and widgets have been moved around on my end as a contributor, but it should be easier once I get used to how it works.

The new features more than make up for any inconvenence in relearning the interface. Also, there are new integrated plugin features, like stat tracking, I’ve been missing for a while now. With the delay posting feature, I could write several posts in a single day, then have them post while I am busy some time. This could come in useful if I ever go on vacation. There is also media handling, so I can host videos, or images locally. Awesome!

While the interface is radically different, this is for the best, because the old Wordpress admin screen was a total mess. This is much cleaner, and there is a lot of fuctionality visible. Basically, for you, this means nothing, but for me, I’m going to have an easier time writing and doing cool things, so in the end that means a better experience for everyone.

(From the Chosun Ilbo)

Yesterday, my wife and I were walking back from Bennigan’s, completely stuffed after a Power Lunch set. We had made a compromise. She was allowed to window shop at a department store if I was allowed to check out an electronics and appliance store on the way to the subway.

By the time we got to the electronics store, both of us had to go the bathroom to work off some of our meal. The nearest public bathroom was across the street at a large grocery store. We had to wait at a crosswalk for the lights to change. The corner we were waiting on, as well as the corner we were walking to, had a group of supporters for a local canidate.

They were all middle aged women wearing bright blue coats, gloves, and hats. When the lights would change, they’d bow to passing cars, wave, and try to get attention for their candidate’s causes. All of this was syncronized, but it wasn’t precise. It wasn’t like a cheerleading squad or a dance group. Really, it was just a bunch of women waving at cars.  Since all the candidates are given numbers and colors, getting people to look over at your supporters is enough to get people’s attention.Then, later, people check out the candidates platforms on posters placed on walls around apartment complexes around the city. This happens for a few weeks, then the election is over.

Anyway, after we were leaving the supermarket, we noticed that the group of supporters had left their corners to take a break. Some had gone into the bathroom, and others were taking a break in a van nearby. As we were walking across the crosswalk, a group of rival supporters with green sashes and hats showed up. They were stealing the same corner we had crossed to get to the supermarket!

They lined up and got ready to start waving. Same thing, different colors. The blue group came out of the van, and some came out from the supermarket to check out what was going on.

We were watching to see what would happen. Would there be a rumble for the street corner with the best hand waving potential? Were the blue group done for the day? Was this an arrangement worked out ahead of time? Did vans of supporters roll around the city trying to steal the best positions to wave to the most traffic?

So many questions! When we left, the green group was waving, and the blue group was sort of walking around listlessly.No rumble. THIS TIME. Who knows how fierce this campaign will get. If any hand waving riots break out, I’ll be the first to pass on the news.

photo credit: Matthew Ev

The single player adventure mode Subspace Emissary has been defeated!  The final level of the adventure mode, “The Great Maze”, is somewhat infamous already. People that rushed through the game just to get the characters for their multiplayer gaming were complaining it was too long. It was something like a Metroid map, with lots of interlocking levels that required to to fight previous brawlers. I thought it was fun. I actually liked it more than the “normal” stages through the rest of the adventure mode. There was more action and it was fun to try to find all the doors to the “corrupted” characters.

I liked it all except the final boss. Fuck that guy. Giving a boss character a “One hit kill” move doesn’t make me smile. It’s cheap, and it’s not fun. Anyway, after two tries on the “normal” difficulty, I beat him. Now that it’s completed, I’ve got two more characters left to unlock. I’m not going to go back and try for harder levels or more points or anything. I’m perfectly happy to call this mode “done” once I get it finished properly.

I got kicked off the television tonight so my wife can watch her drama, so I’ll probably get all the characters in under a week of receiving the game if I am successful tomorrow. The last time around for Melee, it took weeks, and I unlocked the characters by chance going through some of the modes because I was bored. Mr. Game & Watch took a LONG time to unlock last time around.

The last 50% of the game I used the same four or five characters. Diddy Kong, Kirby, Wario, Pit, and occasionally Luigi. Luigi was who I was best at in Melee, but I’ve never considered myself “Good” at the game at all. I dropped using the Wii “classic” controller, and now play the game with the Wii Remote and Nunchuck attachment. I’m very happy being able to customize my controls. The defaults don’t work for me, but I’ve got a set up that feels pretty natural now, and I don’t even need to keep a Wavebird plugged in anymore. Now that I’ve got a handful of characters I really enjoy playing with, I’ll go through the other single player modes, try the events, then get better in the multiplayer.

However, before I am able to play online, I’ve got to have some people add my friend code. My Brawl Multiplayer Friend code is 2105-8569-3462. I haven’t been sucessful connecting to anyone in the United States (The region of my console), but if any Korean import Wii owners want to play some Brawl, add your own code in the comments below and we’ll try to work something out.

Very happy with my purchase. Highly recommend it to any Nintendo fans, or casual fighting game fans.

There are certain topics books should never talk about, no matter how interesting, because they simply cause too many problems. One of these forbidden topics is anything suggesting more sleep. Even if I want to teach students about how important sleep is, I never want to give the impression that falling asleep in my class is better than staying awake in it.

In my last class for today, I had to teach about the many benefits of taking naps in the afternoon. Everyone in the class was as exhausted as I was, and the book went on and on extolling the virtues of sleep. It increases memory! It reduces stress! It helps you study! 20 minutes of sleep is the best thing ever!

According to the book, the best time to nap is 8 hours after waking up from a long night of deep sleep. That meant that the class I was teaching was taking place very close to the best time for my own “optimal nap time”.This irony was not lost on me in the slightest. The students said that they’d be doing research on the “topic” by resting.

I wish I would have been permitted to take a nap for twenty minutes to get back my attention span for the rest of class. Talking about sleep isn’t something books should do frequently.

One of my middle school classes will disband next week for a month while they prepare for examinations. This is a shame, because I was starting to enjoy their classes more. In particular, I like grading their essay materials and finding out about their unique points of view.

Sometime around middle school students start finding humor, and defending their opinions. Recently our books have had some dour topics that were boring to read when you get the same boilerplate answers. I teach the students to express themselves in class, but with peers they are less likely to say what they really feel. The journals are more direct, and I’ve often gotten surprising answers to some questions:

On the topic of “Should elderly people be put in nursing homes”, The standard Korean stock answer was that not taking care of one’s relatives is dishonorable, and that it is a family duty out of respect in love. No exceptions. 99% of the essays I read were just restatements of this theme.

However, in the middle school class, one of the girls said that old people really aren’t pleasant to look at or deal with, so they should be put in nursing homes so the young people aren’t depressed all the time. It might be selfish to toss people in a hole to keep from being depressed, but she said what she thought, and I made sure to give her extra points for having a unique thing to say.

On the topic of “Should people gossip?” this same girl said she loved to gossip, and it kept people in line and allowed for social connections. She said she’d be lonely without being able to gossip. This was also outside the norm, as most students considered gossip no less than a high crime to a friendship.

Another female student in the class said that to be the best daughter she can be, she should be as beautiful and popular as possible. While this answer was somewhat vapid, she had detailed reasons why this would be the best possible thing for her, and why it would make her parents happy. If she’s going to be able to support an opinion, it’s good enough to pass my test.

The boys in the class are still regurgitating what their parents have taught them and aren’t sharing daring opinions at all. While all the girl’s opinions are counter to my own at times, the fact that they take the effort to explain them and share then well is wonderful.

Some companies are slowly realizing their is a “Worldwide” part to the “World Wide Web”, and they are slowly making their video based entertainment available on it. I’m deeply appreciative of this effort.

South Park and The Daily Show have two of the best websites ever. I love both of the shows, and I’ve been watching them since their beginnings.  They have nearly all of their content available, streaming, for free, accessible online. Who needs to worry about a few pesky advertisements (as long as they are optional and unobtrusive) when the entire archive of a show is available, for free, online? This is such an easy, and awesome solution, and I’m happy that the American Media companies are slowly “getting it.”

I’ve heard rumors South Park isn’t available everywhere yet from people scattered around the globe. It’s still rolling out in The UK and Australia, and possibly other countries, but Korea is up and running now! Wee!

Making things easier to connect to, easier to watch, yet possibly advertising supported is one way to beat piracy and yet not make everyone hate you in the process. I’d rather watch The Daily Show when it was released, but waiting a day for it to be added online is an acceptable compromise now that the entire archive of the show is available for viewing anywhere.

South Park has been one of my favorite shows for the past few years, but digging up older episodes was harder to do. Now if I want to watch a show, I can check out their website and see anything they’ve done. If the point of making a television show is to promote a point of view, or to entertain, then the only way that is accomplished is by making it available for viewing to as wide an audience as possible.

MSNBC’s politcial coverage is top notch. I like Keith Olbermann’s stuff, and I’ve been watching Countdown and other MSNBC programs because they are available, streaming, online. CNN got removed from my cable package. There is no English language news source ON television anymore, so if I want to keep up with politics or news, MSNBC’s video player was the single best, easiest source for news I could watch online. CNN might have videos, but it’s not organized by show, or topic, so why bother sorting through it all? MSNBC’s organization blows CNN’s out of the water.

These are websites that “get” it. I’m so appreciative of the effort, I’d be MORE willing to support something they’d do monetarily, even though they are giving things out for free.

I’ll have to again state my hate for Hulu.com, which is stupidly unavailable for use in Korea. This website puts television shows online, but kneecaps their service by making it only available to Americans in the continental USA. Most broadband users in America probably appreciate this, but over here in Korea, land where American television goes to die, it’s a total waste. I’d love to discover new shows, and would even tolerate watching some advertising to do it, but I’m not afforded the option.

It works for MSNBC, South Park, and The Daily Show, but not Hulu? Why not?

photo credit: Matthew Ev

Super Smash Brothers Brawl has arrived. Of course, the day after I posted about how the game was very late to arrive, it shows up. I played about 90 minutes or so of the game so far. I’ve been dabbling in the The Subspace Emissary (Adventure Mode) as well as the free-for-all modes trying to unlock characters.

I’ve already grown attached to Wario as my favorite character. He can kill people with a motorcycle, or a killer fart. How can you NOT want to play as him? I’m working to unlock Snake, who kicked my ass the first time I met him. I can consistently beat low level computer characters (Except when I choke to unlock them), and I’ve worked on my button input configurations to get a more natural feel for the controller. I’m currently playing with the “Classic” controller, but I have all four options available for me when someone else comes to play.

My wife has a drama on television she watches every night. I got kicked off the television for that, which gives me the perfect excuse to write my website about how I want to leave and go play Brawl some more. I’ll be like this for several week, then it will pass and I’ll only be playing the game in my available free time, instead of at the expense of all other things, by and large.

This is probably my favorite game series of all time, even though I’m not very good at it, and turned me into a huge Nintendo fan. Sometime next month I’ll hold a game day over at our apartment. I’ve got to get the characters unlocked in anticipation of the event. That’s the excuse I’m giving myself to stay up late to play a video game.

According to Wikipedia:

Schrödinger’s mind-game was meant to criticize the strangeness of [superposition]. Influenced by a suggestion of Albert Einstein, Schrödinger extrapolated the concept to a larger scale. He proposed a scenario with a cat in a sealed box, where the cat’s life or death was dependent on the state of a subatomic particle. According to Schrödinger, the Copenhagen interpretation implies that the cat remains both alive and dead until the box is opened.

Roughly put, and man do I only “roughly” claim to understand ANYTHING of quantum physics, Schrödinger used this as a thought experiment that, you can’t know where something is unless you measure it, but by measuring it, you fundamentally alter it. Until you measure it, the wave form state that has yet to collapse, and thus you could see one of two scenarios when you open the “box”. It’s only until you try to measure that this wave form collapses and you get an outcome.

My copy of Super Smash Brothers Brawl I ordered exists in a waveform of either “delivered” or “undelivered” every morning before I go check. I don’t know which until I go down the elevator to check. When I’m getting Yoshi ready for his walk, the chance that the game has been delivered is uncertain, but with each day it grows more certain. Every time I ride down the elevator, I try to think of the percentage chance that perhaps today, even after 14+ days since it allegedly shipped out of Hong Kong, it might have been delivered. I add 5% each day out of optimism, but every time the elevator door opens, the waveform collapses, and I end up with no game. I sigh, and then add one more day to my wait.

From now on, I’ll never skip on package tracking. This is getting ridiculous.

A few months back, I borrowed “Darkly Dreaming Dexter” from a friend in a book swap. He highly recommended the title as a unique crime drama style novel. I don’t read crime drama, and other than The Shield, I don’t watch crime drama either.

I read Darkly Dreaming Dexter in a two day marathon session over a weekend. I thought the novel was interesting in theory, but ultimately unsatisfying in execution. The protagonist was not worthy of sympathy, and I didn’t find his version of vigilante justice admirable at all. The angst stuff was way overdone, and the glorification of murder left me off put. The potential was there for a lot more than what was done.

It was unique to read something from a “killers” point of view, but it didn’t seem real, but more of an excuse to write gore. It wasn’t my cup of tea. The ending of the novel was awful. I wouldn’t have read another in the series. I got all my “crime is solved with a vengeance” kicks out reading Batman as a kid. It doesn’t do too much for me now.

Today, a few of my plans fell through, so I didn’t have anything better to do other than check out the Dexter series on MegaTV. I had heard that the series was good from the same people that recommended the book, but the Totally Rad guys didn’t like it much. I watched the first two episodes today, and I’ll probably watch a few more.

It’s not a BAD show, but it’s not that impressive either. Is it better than a CSI or other procedural drama? Sure, but so is watching paint dry. This is more of a anti-hero story than a crime procedural anyway.

I almost wish I hadn’t read the book, because I know where the story will go at the end of the season, and it’s going to suck. The first two episodes made it through 50% or more of the book. There are some differences, like Dexter’s victim in the first episode NOT being a abusive priest, and a few “extra” kills to keep the episodes from dragging along. It’s interesting enough that I’ll watch a few more episodes to give it a chance.

It’s odd. For a show about death and murder, there weren’t any shocking things in the first two episodes. The Shield manages to shock me every single episode, but this dark and edgy show with a serial killer is more murder-porn than poinant and unsettling.

There is a proprietary, Korean only office document format I’ve been waging war on since my first interactions with Korean business culture. My very first document was sent in “Hangul Word Processing” format, or a “.hwp” file. Heard of a .hwp? Probably not, because it’s the Korean-only equivalent of a Microsoft Word document, except it isn’t widely read by competing document readers.

While Microsoft Word documents used to be this proprietary sort of file that locked people into using the MS Office suite, that has gone away due to programs like OpenOffice that can open a variety of different formats. As of now, OpenOffice can handle most Microsoft documents without a hitch.

However, OpenOffice has problems with the Korean word processor Hangul’s .hwp format. OpenOffice can only read up to a Hangul 97 file, while newer versions of the program break the importing and conversion filters.

While the rest of the world ran on Windows MS Office, Hangul was more popular in Korea because it has Korean only features (Korean Hanja support, better formating, etc…), and is much easier to pirate. If you work in a Korean office, documents are usually handled in both .doc and .hwp formats frequently. My first contract was sent to me in .hwp, and I basically replied with an email saying, “What the heck is this, and how do I open it?” (At the time Abiword had the only Hangul 97 compatibility available. Thus starting my lust for non-MS word processors.)

Recent versions of Hangul broke their ability to be read outside of the proprietary Hangul word processing program. Whenever we had to deal with these files, I usually had to ask the person to resend it to me in a format neutral form, like a .doc or an XML file. I consider sending proprietary formats without asking if people have the means to open them “bad manners”.

A LOT of people don’t value open file formats to any large degree here due to a myopic view of the computer and business worlds. My wife has told her business that she has no way of reading Hangul-only documents, and that they should save them to open formats so that ANYONE can read them without needing to buy that specific program. Her boss told her to go pirate a version of Hangul instead. Actually, he told her to “download it for free from the Internet,” but left it up to her to “find out where” to do that. There certainly no LEGAL way she could find to do that. One of the reasons the makers of Hangul almost went out of business was due to rampant piracy.

Since I’m not going to pirate software on principle (Go go FOSS!), and asking an employee to pirate software to do their job is simply ASTOUNDING, I wanted to find out what other alternatives we had. Short of buying Hangul for Linux or Windows, not much. Nothing else reads this document format. That’s why proprietary software and file formats suck. We want to do work, not worry about what is needed to open a file.

We called my brother-in-law, who happened to have a legit copy of Hangul we could have. He came over and I installed a legal copy of Hanguel 2002 via Virtualbox so that my wife could do work at home. He had a spare, so now we don’t have to worry about this damn format anymore, and we didn’t have to pirate something!

I’ll keep using OpenOffice, but since the Korean translation of OpenOffice isn’t great, my wife can use this as an alternative. I’ll make SURE to teach her how to save things in open formats so that we don’t get locked into using this program and will be able to migrate to an alternative as soon as it is available.