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I have impeccable taste in K-blogs, and am probably good in the sack, too.

John,
Tryin to render health to your blog and keep it active by tryin to post fairly often, but seems I’m nearly the only one posting these days….what’s up with that, I wonder…….??:oops::oops::oops:

Also, I guess my interactive questions to you go unanswered, huh? Hidden message in that, maybe?

Ok, maybe I’m a dot. No problem and no answer expected.

Regards,

» Posted By Dentoku On 16/April/2009 @ 10:42 pm

?????????

The blog-link whore hasn’t added you yet.

» Posted By Dentoku On 16/April/2009 @ 10:35 pm

I normally fly Delta.

Yeah,

Bout time, IMV.

But the liberal media is already talking about what an affront and a travesty this is. Maybe they should pay for the extra seat.

What in the hell has become of my homeland???:shock::eek:

Seriously…… I don’t see a hellofa lotta hope anymore…..:cry:

» Posted By Dentoku On 16/April/2009 @ 11:00 pm

A birthday bash

Great party, John.

What’s a man do (Dave) to merit such fan-fare and recognition:?: Or is the situation more like the expats in the P.I. in the locale of the former Clark Air Base – just love to party and continually do so for almost any reason?

BTW, here’s a great link to keep up with what’s going on in the P.I. if you didn’t already have it. Monthly newsletters by a guy whose been living there for 30 years plus, who goes by the name of ‘Harry the Horse, you may know of it/him already. Archived newsletters go back to 2000, at least, and a new one is added every month. Can be interesting reading and really helpful for anyone planning a trip to that area.

Link: http://www.harrythehorse.com/index.htm

Regards to all,
Dentoku
P.S. Don’t say you weren’t warned and armed.:razz:

» Posted By Dentoku On 16/April/2009 @ 2:56 am

Walkin’ around Itaewon

Thanks for the Itaewon pic’s John, great refresher. When stationed at Kunsan (Ugh….) and while TDY in Korea a thousand times, traveling all over the country on inspections and what not……. I was always fascinated by Itaewon and was actively negotiating a follow-on assignment to USFK/Yongsan when my boss, the PACAF IG asked me to go to Kunsan as his 8TFW/IN. As a brand new Major going into an LtCol slot it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up – though in retrospect I hated nearly every minute of it. Looking back I would’ve preferred to go to Seoul and had some really great jobs offered that were passed by. One was the script writer for UN Commission for the Armistice meetings – but it woulda been a lot of work., surely. Even so, I was really looking forward to living in Seoul and participating in the culture and ongoings, similar to what you are doing now, so I guess that’s one reason I get a bit of vicarious fun out of your blog.

Ah, the memories – hang in there and have all the experience and fun you can.

Regards,
Dennis (Dentoku)
PSing – Never doubt the value of what you are doing with your blog and the pleasure you are bringing to the very many people who keep up with your meanderings. Have all the fun you can and by all means, keep your nose clean (as you well know, it can be easy not to) – in retrospect you won’t regret it and the memories will be among your favorites and will live with you always.

Hope that wasn’t too corny. 😕

» Posted By Dentoku On 14/April/2009 @ 10:31 pm

Spanked

Good point, that, VJ.

A note of interest. When I was assigned to the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Security Policy, PSYOP Directorate, I used to visit Panama (USSOUTHCOM back then) the PSYOP schools at Ft Bragg, and Hurlburt to the Spec Ops schools to give presentations on what we were trying to do at OSD/PSYOP and try to explain ‘OSD Policy’. The Panama and Ft Bragg trips were ones I particularly enjoyed because sometimes I would be presenting to Latin American troops from various locales of South and Central America who were attending schools there. These mostly younger enlisted troops were always fluent in English but, even so, a simultaneous Spanish translator was always provided, which had an interesting effect on the tempo of the presentation. And, though I’d like to think I spoke clearly enough to not need the x-lator,…..in retrospect, maybe not….

But more to the point of this comment, a Colonel friend of mine in the Pentagon had earlier been an “area specialist’ for Belize in the JCS and he told me that he had learned that the South and Central American’s were often a little perplexed that the Norte Americano’s (US) seemed to be of the mind set that the only real ‘Americans’ were the ones from the US, when in fact by simple definition, all South American’s, Central American’s and Canadians too were American’s by simple definition. So I guess I we can conclude that Canadians are really ‘American’s’ too, whether they care to be included in the definition of ‘ordinary American’ or not (probably mostly not). In any case, since then I’ve been a bit sensitized to that point though I wasn’t expecting a Canadian to be in the mix above, and used care back then when addressing those groups to avoid the ‘Gringo faux pas’.

Never mind. Just another mostly unnecessary and mostly unimportant point of interest.

Regards to all,

Dennis
blogging from SE Florida
but missing Korea agoodbit.

» Posted By dentoku On 05/May/2009 @ 12:00 am

Lessee, John,
You seem to have an ordinary American, a geezer American, a Japanese guy, a Korean guy and an Arab?

Pretty unusual mix, seems….. no offense intended.

Please clarify who these guys are, if you get time.

And happy darting.
Whatever else is going on and whoever they are……… you seem to be having a great time…….that, and still getting pretty good use out of your new camera…..

Good to see ur trying to keep it going.

All the best,
Dentoku

» Posted By Dentoku On 14/April/2009 @ 11:43 am

“When Austria is mocking you, you’re having a bad week”

It can get worse, it will get worse, you ain’t seen nothing yet, I firmly believe. Obama will dismantle pretty much everything it has taken the free world (US) many decades to put in place and has already taken half dozen steps along that path. The sad part is he will do it without a lot of fan-fare as he has already begun and not much hew and cry will be raised and the American electorate will be too busy with American Idol or whatever else is on this week, or too tired from the two parent family (those with jobs) working everyday tryin to make ends meet in this dwindling economy, to even pay any real attention. It never ceases to amaze me how often I ask otherwise intelligent and, I thought, in touch and aware friends of mine if they have heard this or that Obama shoe drop today and find that they have no idea what I am talking about – stuff that was covered on Fox News Channel pretty much a dozen times or so. And these are the college educated, good paying job, bright people…….what about all those down there at the end of the line, sucking hind-tit, cashing their food-stamps for lottery tickets or drugs or booze, the ones Move-On dot org bussed to the polling places? No, most folk, I tend to think’ll grumble when cigarettes double in price, gas goes to 5 bucks a gallon, and a six pack to 10 or 12 dollars – grumble, mind you, otherwise, not so much.

Here’s a glimpse, one facet, of what we’re up against. Before I pretty much gave up on organized religion I was fairly active in the church and used to go to church dinners at a major local church every Wednesday evening where I would sit with at least a dozen other guys and we would have ‘fellowship’. None of them except for me had ever been in the military and all of’em who had anything to say at all, had such antiquated notions, what notions they had, about the whole subject so much so that it was realy pretty sad and probably even a little frightening. None of these guys had ever done anything but mostly look out for himself and his own interests and had never had even a brief flirtation with the idea of serving the country in any way whatsoever. Not bad guys, by and large, but totally clueless when it came to discussing any news of the day regarding the progress of what-ever armed conflict was in the news and being discussed. Their views were completely uninformed, completely naive, and when rendered, always emotionally done. The bad part was there was no way to help inform any of them at all because the gulf of ignorance was just too large. It was a very sad and frightening situation and still is.

I heard a prediction several nights ago on late night radio, Coast to Coast AM, that within six months or so Armageddon in the middle east will take place, when Israel is forced to take out Iran’s nuclear capability or be taken out themselves. This was rendered by a guy who does predictions and has a pretty good track record of being right, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to add it up and come to that conclusion – this has been coming for quite awhile, but it’s really getting closer now. But who is watching? Who is concerned about it and talking about it? My girlfriendseyo doesn’t even know where Israel is, let alone Iran……..yeah, somewhere over there….. but that’s about it. So what will happen after this Israeli strike? Obviously all the rag-heads will be wanting the heads of the Israeli’s (even though secretly a few of which will probably be happy it happened)……. but what position will it put Obama and Co. in? Hell, by then we might be totally disarmed with no where to put combat prisoners anymore anyway even though most of the American public probably still won’t realize it.

Please, someone, tell me the one good and decent country where I can go live and forget about this mess. Not that I want to leave my country when it is in peril, really, it’s more that I can’t stand the sound any more. The sound? Yeah. The great sucking sound being made as the country goes down the drain.

I don’t know what the press is saying over there, John, but today, here, Obama is getting high marks for his decisiveness in intervention against the Somali pirates. No foolin.

Regards to all,
Please just step over my partially vented spleen as you go…….
Dennis (Dentoku)

» Posted By Dentoku On 14/April/2009 @ 7:58 am

Dinner in Insa-dong

John,
Give us a hint of the cost of such a meal these days in US$, can you please?

Thanks.

» Posted By Dentoku On 15/April/2009 @ 8:46 pm

John,
As I said before, you would appear to be a far better photog than you thought. Great pics.

I all looks wonderful, but I miss the near-dozen or so dishes of kimchi-ed veggies most of all.

Happy Easter,
Dennis

» Posted By Dentoku On 12/April/2009 @ 10:32 pm

“Obama has recently completed the most successful foreign policy tour since Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow”

John,
Excellent find on the article.
Well done.
Dennis

» Posted By Dentoku On 12/April/2009 @ 8:59 am

Naksan Trip Report

Excellent report John and great pics. You are apparently a better photog then you think you are, STM.

I don’t remember seeing you address the point one way or the other, but are we to assume that you went on this trip alone? If so, quite an under taking and sacrifice I would imagine, what with all that feminine beauty in and around Itaewon.

Other than the traffic at the end of the trip it appears you had a great time and got a well deserved break.

Good on you.
Regards,
Dennis

» Posted By Dentoku On 12/April/2009 @ 8:39 am

On the road

Hey John,
I totally envy your upcoming trip and would have definitely enjoyed to tag along. Having not referenced a map of Korea for awhile (your inset is too small to find it on – realizing it is not intended for that purpose) sounds like your travels might take potentially near to Kang Nung which is on the upper east coast almost directly east of Seoul if I remember correctly. I mention it because my former business partner is originally from there and she always spoke well of it. She comes to mind as you speak of this trip and did also when you commented recently on Korean feminine beauty (which I totally agree with, and even more I really appreciate the maturing Ajima process and result – gorgeous maturing women, none better, IMV).

I had forwarded to her the clip of how Korean mothers discipline their kids and she thought it was hilarious proclaiming that, though childless herself, if she had a child she would no doubt be just that way too. This diminutive and still perfectly proportioned at now 50 YOA, and whom I miss tremendously and count as a major error in my life for not having held on to with both hands, is beautiful, more feminine then you can imagine, BRILLIANT, in caps no less, with degrees in nursing (was an RN in a former incarnation) as well as a former ROK Army Captain, a BA in Psychology (at 4.0 GPA), and another in Accounting (another 4.0) and a CPA to boot. She worked for awhile at one of the big eight accounting firms in DC and while there passed the exceedingly difficult 4-part CPA exam on the first try (a nearly unheard of feat, I’m led to understand) – and as an immigrant, mind you. She was the only accountant at this fairly prestigious firm to ever have done so. Surprisingly at first, though in retrospect somewhat understandably, she decided after only a year at the firm and already on the fast track of progression, that accounting was simply too boring so she decided to look into something else and settled on real estate investing. That led us, with me freshly retired from the USAF, to team-up in buying and selling foreclosures, which I gave up after five or six years when I relocated to So FLA, (gave up not by desire but by state governmental hassle in FL) and she is still doing in NoVA, and doing quite well too.

As a side note, I hope you will do a post on your observations of the Korean work ethic and desire to excel if you haven’t already done so. And I add, that I have met and known many many people in my life and travels but I have never before met any person as gifted and just plain smart as the lady I speak of above. And having met and known many other Korean people in my life have always been impressed with their native abilities. Your insights might be interesting.

One last unrelated point: If you get a chance look to see if Netflix has a DVD titled, “The Civilization of Maxwell Bright”. This movie is about a pretty much disgusting example of male flesh, a guy in LA who, fed up with his experiences with American women, decides to import an Asian bride and does so – he wants one who will wait on him hand and foot, he thinks – you get the picture. What then ensues carries the viewer through a range feelings and emotions seldom experienced in a movie, hilarity, distain, anger, compassion, sadness and awe…..no fooling..and I haven’t begun to touch on all of them. Not to give away the end in any way, but it turns out that the girl he ‘buys’ for 100k is a former Chinese Buddhist nun (interesting story here too) who he thinks initially is well beneath him but then as events proceed, learns in reality, is eons ahead. In the process the comparatively soiled underbelly of the ‘popular’ American culture is exposed in all it’s raging stain and it really gives the viewer something to think about. A fairly low budget film I had not before heard of, it stars Patrick Warburton and includes in the cast, Eric Roberts too (well established brother of Julia), along with other recognizable characters – the movie is quite well done. Warburton http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Warburton, if you remember, is the guy who played Puddy, the love interest of Elaine, in Seinfeld. Please, find this movie and watch it if you can, then tell us about it. Though American made, it fits your Asian theme profile, quite well, STM. Even if it didn’t the contrast is like nothing you’ve seen before.

Nuff said this go round. Enjoy your trip.
I understand spring-fever quite well too, BTW.

As always, regards to all,

Dennis (Dentoku)
in SE Florida

» Posted By Dentoku On 09/April/2009 @ 10:36 pm

Attack the Gas Station!

(This is a long post. If you prefer such posts be sent by private email to you please lemme know).

John,
Thanks for the coverage of the Korean popular film culture. My former home was in northern Virginia (Pentagon duty) and having spent around 4 years or so in Korea while on active duty I thoroughly enjoyed the sizeable Korean presence in No VA to include the people, shopping, restaurants and grocery stores. So sizeable is the Korean presence in No VA, you may know, that some of the grocery stores rival the large American grocery stores in size and product availability and all of them have a collocated noodle shop on site as well as every Asian product a person could want.

In any case, having relocated some ten years or so ago to the south Florida area I’ve been pretty much in Asian food and Korean culture withdrawal for this whole time, and have to try to find it where I can, since the presence of Asian people here is very small in comparison and the restaurants (particularly good ones) are few and far between, as are the Oriental grocery stores for that matter. I’m not sure at what link of yours I saw the video clip about the guy teaching his girl about Chajangmyung (black bean noodles), the brand called Chapegetti, but it was the first time I had seen that product (and I enjoyed the clip too). I had earlier in VA used a different ‘instant noodle’ brand for that noodle dish but have really been missing it alot. I recently had a bowl of Chajangmyung, in fact, at a local Korean restaurant, one of the scarcely few better ones, and paid through the nose for it so I wasn’t eager to go back down that path. So yesterday when I saw your clip and the Chapegetti brand I searched online for it and low and behold I actually found it on Amazon.com, which really surprised me. So I ordered a box of that and of the (spicy) Shin Ramyon too. With the over $25 purchase free Amazon shipping it wasn’t a bad deal, particularly since the Chapegetti isn’t even available in the stores here. So, again, I thank you for posting access to those clips. In addition I watched the entire series of My Sassy Girl yesterday, clip by clip, and really enjoyed it as well. I also sent it to several friends who reported back that they were glad to have access and planned to view it too.

Sorry this is getting long but one last point to make. I don’t know if Armed Forces Network or the local cable companies in Seoul give you access to the American “Sundance” cable channel or not but I can tell you it’s one of my favorite sources of foreign films. To that end, on Sunday night at midnight every week Sundance channel airs a program called Asia Extreme. Each week a different Asian film is aired and they can be from anywhere in Asia. I’ve seen films from the Philippines, from China, Japan and Korea. There have been more from Korea, actually, than from any other place, and the quality is really very good. I do, however, tend to agree with your assessment that they can be sometimes melodramatic and even corny by our standards – I still enjoy them alot for the cultural aspects and the interesting approach. If you watch enough of them you can get a pretty good picture, as well, of the amazing and real progress being made in Korean infrastructure and life too. I usually record the movies and watch them at a more convenient time. Many, maybe half of them, are what we would call of the “thriller” or even “horror” genre, which I don’t care for as muchm, but I haven’t found any that I was unwilling to watch. In any case it’s a great source of Asian cinema and I wanted to try to let you and maybe your readers know about it.

Hang in there and keep up the great blogging.
Glad to see the ramping up in your blog presence and enjoying your daily posts.

Dennis (Dentoku),
in (reluctantly) SE Florida

» Posted By Dentoku On 09/April/2009 @ 4:04 am

As the dart flies

John,
You’ve probably mentioned this before and I missed it, but just curious……. how much does beer drinking during a tournament affect your play?

It would probably hammer me, but I probably wouldn’t care much…… after the second game, at least….especially with the excellent beer available in Seoul.

Not pulling your chain, truly curious.

» Posted By Dentoku On 07/April/2009 @ 10:55 pm

John,
You’ve probably mentioned this before and I missed it, but just curious……. how much does beer drinking during a tournament affect your play?

It would probably hammar me, but I probably wouldn’t care much…… after the second game, at least….especially with the excellent beer available in Seoul.

Not pulling your chain, truly curious.

» Posted By Dentoku On 07/April/2009 @ 10:52 pm

The view from the couch

Offered very respectfully, something you might like to know, grammar buff that you are and all….:roll:

Quoted from http://www.answerbag.com :

What does i.e. mean when used in a sentence?

“that is”. The abbreviation “i.e.” comes from the latin words “id est”.

Addemdum: “i.e.” doesn’t mean “for example”, even though some (read some as most, in truth) people abuse it in this way. “e.g.” means “for example”. It’s short for “exempli gratia”, which means “example provided”.

so in short:

i.e. -> that is
e.g. -> for example

——————
So, like the man said…..Oh YEAH, and like, who cares……:oops:
If it’s not funny, no offense intended. Just consider it historical (pun intended).

» Posted By Dentoku On 07/April/2009 @ 10:44 pm

I am not depressed

Excellent post, John.

» Posted By Dentoku On 23/March/2009 @ 11:34 pm

What’s your name worth?

Here’s something your readers would probably like to see.

What’s a billion dollars look like?

How about a trillion?

Here it is:
http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

» Posted By Dentoku On 18/March/2009 @ 1:12 am

Quite a story, John. I visited your blog spot a dozen times and kept getting the same drug spammer and figured you either gave it up or got busted. Then I realized that if you gave it up the new-guy probably wouldn’t get up and running so fast, so I guessed it indeed was spammed somehow. Then I figured, surely the idiot hosts of the site would intervene on your behalf if they were worth a damn but it didn’t seem to be happening. Finally I was surprised to see your email down the list and only found it because I was looking for another lost email in the web address I use for these kinds of things. In any case, I was happy to see that you had clawed your way back in and glad to have you back. Hang in there and post to your blog now and then, can you? It’s interesting keeping track of you, civilian puke that you are and all. No problem. Have an OB for me.

» Posted By Dentoku On 18/March/2009 @ 12:58 am

I missed this on the DMZ tour….

Excellent !

» Posted By dentoku On 05/July/2009 @ 2:44 am

Greetings Earthlings!

This is old news from me, but this was a great post. Thanks.

» Posted By dentoku On 04/July/2009 @ 10:54 pm

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