So, at 1600 yesterday I am ready to head out to the airport. I open the garage door only to discover a car parked completely blocking my exit. Now, I’ve lived here long enough to know that the natives pretty much park whereever they please, but to actually block the entrance to a parking area for an entire apartment building is especially discourteous. So I get out of my vehicle and look around for the driver. There’s two Korean guys standing across the street watching me but they give no indication they know anything about the whereabouts of the owner of the offending vehicle.

Knowing how it’s done, I pull out my cell phone and call the number on the windshield. No answer. I left a rather nasty message in English. Now I’m very frustrated and highly pissed. I go back upstairs and call my landlord telling him he needs to get a tow truck because I had to get to the airport. He said he’d call the police, so I go back downstairs to wait. One of the two guys from across the street comes over and starts talking to me in Korean. All I recognized was “Hangul-mal” so I knew he was asking if I spoke Korean. I told him no, but he continued to speak to me while I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders.

About this time my landlord’s wife walks up and starts talking to the two men. They just shake their heads. I tell her I really need to get to the airport and she talks to the two men more aggressively. Then one of them walks over, pulls out some keys, starts the car and moves it! I was astounded and livid. I asked the landlord’s wife “what’s up with this?” and she just shrugged. I was about as pissed as I’ve ever been and if I hadn’t have been so pressed for time I might have gotten into an altercation. I surely wanted to slap that rude MF’er around. Oh well. I just can’t figure out what the motivation for that whole scene was. Duke thinks they were just messin’ with me because I’m a foreigner, but that makes no sense at all.

Anyway, I pick Duke up in Itaewon (he agreed to be my navigator on my first time drive to Incheon) and we head out. Very easy drive with almost no traffic and we got there in plenty of time to meet Nolan’s plane. In fact we had time for an 8000 Won draft beer in an airport bar while we waited for him to clear immigration and customs. So Nolan makes it through and we are ready for the drive home. I had been a little nervous about driving the old hoop dee on the freeway, but she did just fine and I had no trouble cruising along at 110 km/h. Dusk was falling so I turned on the headlights. I noticed my intrument lights were awful dim but didn’t really think much about it. We got to talking with Nolan and I missed the turnoff for Seoul, but no big deal, we just took the expressway on the opposite side of the river.

Traffic was very heavy, but we were moving along ok. And then my car started to stall. Same thing it did a few weeks ago. Duke said we absolutely do not want to break down in the middle lane of a crowded highway, so I moved over to the right lane. We had about 5 kms to go before reaching the Hannam bridge and I knew there was no way the old car was going to make it. Fortunately, there was an exit to the Han river park and we got off there. I found a parking lot and pulled in. Had just enough power left to get the windows up and that was it.

Nolan grabbed his luggage and we commenced walking. We found an underpass to the other side of the expressway, and after a relatively short distance caught a cab home.

So today I need to figure out just where my car is and how to tell a tow truck driver to get there. I’m sure I have a bad alternator. I was surprised when I took it in last time and all they did was replace the battery. It ran fine until I turned on the headlights, but clearly I was not getting enough charge to keep the car going after that.

Life can be such a joy sometimes.

Kevin (aka Big Hominid) mentioned in the comments to the birthday post that the restuarant where I dined was named “Nolbu Myeong-ga.” He alluded to Nolbu being a character in a Korean fable and suggested that I have a Korean tell me the story. So, courtesy of Ms. Kim, Yong-im I share the following:

이제 내가 흥부와 놀부의 이야기를 들려 줄게~
It’s a story time. The story about Hungbu and Nolbu…

옛날에 흥부와 놀부라는 형제가 살았습니다.
Once upon a time, there were brothers whose names were Hungbu and Nolbu.
동생 흥부는 마음씨가 착했고, 형 놀부는 심술쟁이 , 욕심꾸러기였어요.
Younger brother, Hunbu, was very kind.
But older brother, Nolbu, was grumpy and very greedy.
부모님이 돌아가시자 놀부는 흥부네 식구들을 쫓아냈어요.
As soon as thier parents died Nolbu foreced Hungbu’s family to leave the house.
흥부는 자식이 많은데다가 가난하기까지 했어요.
Hungbu was very poor and had many children to feed.
흥부는 놀부네 집에 가서 보리쌀을 달라고 했어요.
Hungbu went to Nolbu’s house and asked some boiled rice with barley.
그런데 놀부의 아내는 밥주걱으로 흥부를 철썩 때렸어요.
But Nolbu’s wife slapped his face with a rice spetula.
결국 흥부는 빈손으로 터덜터덜 돌아왔어요.
So Hungbu had to come back home with bare hands.
따뜻한 봄이 왔어요.
Spring had arrived.
가난한 흥부네 집 처마 밑에도 제비들이 집을 짓고 알을 낳았죠.
Swallows nested and laid eggs under the poor Hungbu’s eaves.
어느 날, 제비집에 구렁이 한 마리가 나타났죠.
Oneday, a snake showed up to eat swallows up.
흥부는 급히 구렁이를 쫓았지만 새끼제비 한마리가 다리를 다쳤어요.
Hungbu shooed the snake but a chic had a broken leg.
그리고 흥부는 정성껏 보살펴 주었어요.
Hungbu took care of it sincerely.
가을이 되자 제비들은 흥부네 집을 한 바퀴 돌고는 하늘 멀리 날아갔지요.
When it came fall, swallows circled around the Hungbu’s house one time and flew away.
다음해 봄이에요.
It was next spring.
어디선가 제비의 노랫소리가 들려왔어요.
There was a bird singing somewhere.
그리고는 제비가 박씨를 떨어뜨리고 갔지요.
Then a swallow dropped a seed of pumpkin and disappered.
흥부는 박씨를 담 밑에 정성껏 심었어요.
Hungbu planted the pumkin seed closed to the fence.
며칠 후, 금세 박씨는 쑥쑥 자라기 시작 했죠.
Few days later, the pumpkin started to grow already.
그리고 커다란 박이 주렁주렁 열렸어요.
And huge pumkins grew in clusters.
흥부와 아내는 박을 탔어요.
Hungbu and his wife saw the pumpkin.
첫 번째 박에서 흰쌀이 쏟아져 나왔고, 두 번째 에서 금, 은, 보화가 나왔어요.
White rice was inside the first pumpkin.
Gold, silver and treaures were in the second one.
그리고 목수들이 나와서 대궐 같은 집을 지어주었죠.
Carpenters showed up and built a mansion for Hungbu.
그리고 놀부는 제비 다리를 일부러 부러 뜨리고, 제비의 다리를 고쳐 주었어요.
On the other hand, Nolbu broke a pwallow’s leg on purpose and cured it.
제비가 박씨를 가져다 주었죠.
The swallow brought a pumkin seed to him.
박이 열리고, 놀부 부부는 박을 탔어요.
It produced plenty of pumpkins and Nolbu cut them with saw.
첫 번째 박이 갈라졌는데 똥물이 쏟아졌어요..
When the first pumkin was opened, there was flood of dirty waste.
두 번째는 도깨비들이 나와 몽둥이로 마구 두들겼어요.
Spooky monsters came out from the second pumpkin strated to beat him with sticks.
그리고 세 번째 박은 마귀들이 나와서 집을 부수어 버렸어요.
Finally witches from the third pumpkin destroyed his house badly.
그리고 흥부를 찾아가 용서를 빌고 흥부와 놀부는 의좋게 살았다고 하네요.
Nolbu ran to Hunbu’s house and begged forgiveness.
Hungbu and Nolbu lived happily ever after.

Started this fine Saturday by making myself a hearty breakfast of steak and eggs. Now I’m fixin’ to carry my trash out and pick up my dry cleaning on post. Exciting stuff, no?

Actually, I do have some nice plans for the next couple of days. This afternoon we will commence a two-day birthday celebration. Today is Duke’s birthday and tomorrow is mine. Duke and his girlfriend invited me to tag along with them to see a theatrical production of Grease. I’m pretty sure this one’s in English, certainly the songs have to be. Afterwards, I’m taking Duke and Ji Young to dinner. I had suggested dining at the restaurant atop Seoul Tower and we made reservations. When Ji Young discovered the meals were 60,000 Won each she wouldn’t hear of it. Instead, they made a reservation at a traditional Korean restuarant that apparently has some type of dinner show associated with it. That’s all I know at this point, but I’ll give a full after action report next week. I’m just hoping that traditional doesn’t mean sitting on the floor. My old bones just don’t take well eating Korean-style. I love the food though.

I guess our plan is to party well into Sunday morning to ensure that both birthdays are appropriately celebrated. After some sleep and aspirin, I’ll be at Dolce Vita Sunday evening for the final day of the darts Challenge League. I’ve got one game left to play but because I sucked on Thursday its meaningless. I can’t catch the player in 3rd place so I won’t be finishing in the money this time. Ah well, it’s been fun. And the practice is paying off, I won 60,000 Won Monday night in a tournament and I’m holding on to the #5 ranking in B division (my goal is a top ten finish this year).

So, I’m looking forward to the weekend festivaties. I really dislike feeling like a third wheel when I hang out with couples, but I’m done with turning down invites to do things. Wishing my partner was here doesn’t make it so, and sitting around doing nothing is no solution either. I’m actually finding ways to have a good time and I have a generally positive outlook regarding the future.

You may have noticed I have a new best friend in the comments section. I can’t figure this Jeff guy out. He writes like an intelligent person, but he seems whacked in a Ted Kacynski kinda way. I tired of him pretty quickly, but I’m sure Carol is quite capable of defending my manhood from his spurrious insinuations. Really though, who cares what some loser who has nothing better to do than leave long rambling non-sensical comments on a little read blog thinks?

My other big news is I’m going to have a visitor from the USA coming in Thursday. More on that soon. Now, its chores and getting ready for tonight.

UPDATE: I just got sent the current stats for the challenge league. I have NOT been mathematically eliminated afterall. If I beat Tom all three legs tomorrow in our game, we will tie for 3rd place. Which triggers a three game playoff. Tom is an American, but he grew up in England and used to make money playing darts in the pubs. He’s basically been playing the game his whole life, versus me playing for just a year. He’s more consistent than I am for sure. I’ve beaten him before though, so I know it can be done. I just have to bring my best game and hope he is off his. Still, I prefer to have a shot at something rather than just be playing out the string.

Ok, I got emailed this picture of our merry group hanging out with the star of the show….

I’m the old guy. Geez.

Yesterday I attended the musical “Dorothy” at the Yonsei University theatre. It was my first exposure to the performing arts in Korea and I was very favorably impressed. It was a rather unique take on “The Wizard of Oz” story, recognizable but quite different too.

Of course, almost all the dialog was beyond my comprehension but the singing and dancing was very impressive. They did an excellent job with the costumes, and the stage props, while simple, were effective and appropriate. Not a Broadway production by any means, but very professional and entertaining.

I was curious how what had always struck me as a uniquely American story would translate for a Korean audience. Turns out, the tale as told in this interpretation was quite universal in its values. There were 9 in our group, 5 American and 4 Koreans. None of the Koreans had seen or heard of “The Wizard of Oz”. This surprised me because TWOO is one of the most popular movies ever made. Then again, I am still very much America-centric in my thinking which is something I need to constantly guard against as I attempt to engage Korean culture. It was my faulty logic that led me to think the story wouldn’t translate well. At least one of the Korean women in our group was crying while Dorothy said her goodbyes to Scarecrow, Tinman and the Lion.

So, for you TWOO fans, here is how they told the story in Korea (remember, I caught almost none of the

dialog, so take my observations with a grain of salt (hell make it a pound of salt). Or its metric equivalent (see, I’m trying).

It started with a “cat” (portrayed by a beautiful Korean woman in a skin tight leotard) doing some modern dance routine under a crescent moon. Very graceful and sleek, her movement was indeed “catlike”. And then a man in a chicken costume (assuming man based on voice) appears on stage. The cat stalks the chicken and after some back and forth captures the fowl and drags it off stage. Soon the chicken (much reduced in size (stuffed toy) is carried back on stage in a cage by the cat, who hangs the cage on the tip of the aforementioned crescent moon, which then ascends from view as the stage fades to black. I have no idea what that scene was all about, other than the cat had some magical powers (beyond the power of seduction). Well, I wasn’t technically seduced, so let’s rephrase and say I found the cat enchanting…

Anyway, the curtain rises and we see a telephone booth (telephone was written in English) and underneath the booth we see the legs of the wicked witch (of the East?). Then the Munchkins come out and discover the body which pretty much freaked them out. They weren’t “little people” like in the movie, but they were gaily dressed in colorful costumes and their antics were quite hilarious. While they were checking out the body to make sure their nemesis was indeed deceased, Dorothy pops out of the phone booth. Unlike the movie, she was already wearing the ruby red slippers (as opposed to taking them from the dead witch). Upon seeing Dorothy, the Munchkins freak out again, but finally they calm down and introductions commence (I understood anyonghaseyo). Then they break into a song and dance routine, although the song WAS NOT “ding dong the witch is dead”.

Soon the other bad witch (of the West?) shows up with the aforementioned cat. When this witch figures out that Dorothy killed her sister, her and the cat attempt to accost poor Dorothy, but the red slippers apparently act as some kind of shield and they are unable to lay a hand upon her. About this time, Glenda the good witch (from the North?) arrives and the bad witch and cat retreat. Quite a bit of dialog occurs, and then Glenda breaks into song. Didn’t understand a word of it of course, but that witch could sing! And then after some more chat, Dorothy heads off down the yellow brick road on her quest for Oz. She didn’t sing the “follow the yellow brick road” song, instead it was a catchy little tune with some “la la la’s” and “dee dee dee’s” that had the audience clapping along.

Next we see Dorothy in the forest and when she tries to pick an apple, the trees give her a stern talking to. There were three of them, great costumes and the Korean speaking audience was chuckling over whatever they were saying. In the background you can see the scarecrow hanging on his pole. To my delight, the cat shows up again in this scene and is soon attacked by the trees. Dorothy rescues the cat by tickling the trees until they retreat off stage. The cat seems rather ungrateful and leaves shortly thereafter. About this time, the scarecrow comes to life and does a little song and dance before he and Dorothy continue down the yellow brick road.

Soon they encounter the Tinman, rusted into immobility. With a little oil in the joints he’s as good as new, and he of course breaks into a lively dance, where he is joined by a group of female tin men (er, tin women). I don’t know what it had to do with the story, but they did a great robot dance set to rock music which was quite visually appealing. Yeah, they were also quite sexy. So sue me for being a man.

After continuing down the path they meet up with the cowardly lion. He was definitely the audience favorite. Don’t know what he was saying, but all the Koreans were laughing hysterically. Then out of nowhere, a whole bunch of cats show up. They are dancing around, mewing, and getting into mini-catfights with each other. You know I loved that part! The lion (or was it the scarecrow?) starts counting the cats “one, two, three, five, eight, ten!” which I think was the only English in the production and I thought it was funny as hell.

Continuing on their way the troupe is put under some enchantment by the evil witch and they fall asleep. The cats come and capture Dorothy and carry her off to the witch’s lair. When they awaken and discover Dorothy is gone some hilarity ensues while scarecrow and tin man convince the cowardly lion to join them in rescuing poor Dorothy. Which they do after fighting off the cats and melting the witch (Which witch? The wicked witch). Dorothy is watching the action from inside a bird cage, and of course when she is released it calls for a song and dance. Seems like the cats are relieved to be free of the witch and they are in a partying mood. Two of them were all over the lion, patting his fur and rubbing his paws. Lucky lion! When it was time to continue the journey to Oz the lion didn’t want to leave the cats, but eventually relented and joined his friends.

Once they get to Oz the guards won’t let them in at first, Dorothy cries and tin man gives the guard the witch’s broom and finally he relents. They did a pretty nice job with the wizard prop, and it was of course soon revealed that the wizard was nothing more than a little man behind the curtain. So he gives the scarecrow a diploma, the tin man a heart shaped clock, and the lion a medal. Tearful goodbyes are said, Glenda the good witch returns for another powerful song, and Dorothy gets in the balloon with the wizard. No clicking the heels three times and saying “I wish I were home.”

As I say, it was very well done and quite enjoyable to watch. Enough of the original where I could follow along, but different in ways that made it a new experience. I especially liked the updated music and dance routines. Wanna go? I think it runs through next Sunday the 27th, but don’t trust me on that. Check with Yonsei to be sure.

Oh yeah, afterwards we got invited back stage where we posed for pictures with Dorothy (Eun Guil who also goes by Evie which is good because I butcher the pronunciation of her name). Like the idiot I am I forgot to bring my camera but hopefully someone will email me some copies. I told Evie it was a great show but I had wanted to sing along with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. She said they had really wanted to include that song but could not afford to pay for the rights to use it. Another interesting tidbit, Evie’s boyfriend said Evie had never seen the movie either. Well, she nailed the part quite nicely and maybe not trying to do it the way Judy Garland did was a better approach.

Anyway, it was a great day and a good break from my Itaewon routine. I even took the city bus for the first time. Yeah, I’m quite the adventurer aren’t I?

Friday after work I joined a couple of co-workers for dinner in Itaewon. Had middle eastern cuisine. Don’t recall the name of the restaurant, but it doesn’t really matter because I won’t be recommending it. Not bad, but nothing to blog about either (which of course didn’t stop me, did it?). Anyway, afterwards we walked to my place. Had some beers, chips and cheese dip, and watched a couple of DVDs. Yeah, so what? Well, given that my life outside of work is almost exclusively darts these days, this event was sorta newsworthy.

Speaking of darts, partnered up with Duke on Saturday to take first place in the Blue Frog tourney. Sunday, I played 3 challenge league matches, losing to Duke 0-3, and taking Grant and Ji Young 2-1 each. Monday night in our league matchup with Jester’s I pretty much sucked, winning only two of six legs. Still, the team held on for an 11-8 match win, which keeps us undefeated and hanging on to first place by a thread.

One of the Korean players on the Bless U team is dating an actress. Not a big star or anything, but I understand she has done some dramas and commericals. I met her once, don’t recall her name right now but I do remember she is quite beautiful. Anyway, she is playing Dorothy in a stage production of “The Wizard of Oz” and I got invited to tag along with Duke and Ji Young this Sunday. I’m really looking forward to experiencing the wonder of Oz in Korean. Having seen the movie countless times I am certain I’ll be able to follow along quite well. It should be interesting to see how well this piece of Americana translates.

Otherwise not much else to speak of. Unless you want to hear me bitch about the heat and humidity. It has just been so damn uncomfortable these past couple of weeks. Anytime I venture out to the bars I arrive drenched in sweat. How bad is it? Well, let me put it like this: I bought some diaper rash creame the other day. ’nuff said?

Wish we could get some rain to cool things down!

Dart league tonight. I was a little off, lost two legs in singles, but pulled out three wins in doubles. Team won, and we are solidly in first place.

I have a telecon back to DC this morning (i.e. 0130 local time) so I am staying up waiting to call in. No easy task after the beers and shots I imbibed tonight. That’s it for now.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much rain. I mean I know it’s monsoon season and all, but this is getting ridiculous. Saw on the news that it is the rainiest its been since 1973. We had to get DPW to come out and put sandbags around the doors of our building because the water started coming in the door.

Into each life some rain must fall I suppose, but what a royal pain in the ass.

And that’s all I have to say about that. Or anything else right now.

I just learned that my National Security Personnel System training has been approved. Which means that providing HQ gets my travel orders to me on time, I will depart this Sunday for Columbus, Ohio. On Friday I will leave Columbus and go home to Virginia then on to South Carolina to spend some time with family. Its been almost a year since I was home, so its about time. Definitely looking forward to it.

In other news, we had the dart league banquet last Saturday. It was a semi-fiasco. It was held on the rooftop of Hollywood Grill in Itaewon. And that’s what it was a rooftop. No tables, no chairs, and no shade. It was definitely a warm day up top too. The food was good, but you know, the logistics of eating it was sorta overwhelming. Some people just left, but since our team took first place I wanted to stay for the awards. Here’s some photos:

Ok, the only thing good about the rooftop was the view. This is looking out towards the Mosque. I live behind the Mosque. You know, I never liked that “up on the roof” song anyway. Now I can attest that it is pure BS. At least in the summertime.

As I mentioned, finding a comfortable position for eating was difficult. Ji Yong and Gina from the Bless U pub were doing alright, but Koreans are a lot better at sitting on the hard ground than I am…

Duke and Johnny didn’t seem to mind standing out in the direct sunlight. To hell with that….

The chow line was also in the sun. Trust me, I avoided the deviled eggs and potato salad….

Chris was occupying about the only shade to be found….

The highlight of the afternoon (such as it was) was the presentation of awards. Here Jim and I accept the first place plaque for Dolce Vita. Damn, am I really as fat as this picture makes me appear? Naw, couldn’t be, must be some optical illusion created by the intense sunlight. Yeah, that’s it…. Anyway, I also got a nice plaque for taking second in the league tournament and each member of Dolce Vita got a cool mug with our name engraved. Very nice….

After the awards ceremony was dispensed with, we all moved over to the Blue Frog for the banquet dart tourney. Here we are warming up (I didn’t have the guts to take a flash picture during actual play).

Tae Shin gives Tom some Korean first aid. No clue what that was about. Partners for the tourney were selected by blind draw. As fate would have it, I drew Tae Shin for a partner. I played with her and against her on a couple of occasions, and generally have better luck when she is on my side…

The tourney bracket board. Not sure if you can make it out or not, but Tae Shin (who goes by TS) and I started out fine (we are in the number 7 slot if that helps), then got knocked into the losers bracket by Sean and Max. We then proceeded to play our butts off up the losers bracket until we encountered Sean and Max again on their way down. We played a hard fought 3 leg match which came down to the last dart in 01, but we just couldn’t hit our out. Alas. Tae Shin is Sean’s fiancee and I asked him later if he had her throw the game. He denied it. Still, there were a lot of good players throwing, and we took 4th overall. I was not unhappy with that result and we played a lot of games and drank some beer in the shade.

The Dolce Vita players present all finished in the money. Here’s Jim with his partner Adam accepting the 8th place payout Adams T shirt was pretty cool, it says: “Keep staring, I might do a trick”, which many Westerners in Korea can relate too….

Tae Shin and me proudly accepting our 4th place reward…we each got 40,000 Won in those envelopes. Woo Hoo! Oh yeah, in the door prize drawing I also won a dart board. My lucky day…

Duke and his partner CH took second place. As you can see, CH is not happy about that. They went all the way through the winners bracket only to be defeated twice in a row. That stings, but still, second place was worth 100,000 each…..

Sunny (on the right) was our gracious hostess. She’s a real sweetheart. Note the green frog on the bar. The frog on the sign out front is green as well. Why is the place called the Blue Frog? Beats the hell outta me….

After the tourney it was on to Dolce Vita for some celebration (and beer drinking). This is a picture of Erica, the newest barkeep. She’s sorta of crazy, but fun.

Anyway, it was a good weekend and actually carried over to Monday night I was fortunate enough to take a first place at the Bless U tourney. Mr. Kim and I defeated CH and Rick, so CH was forced to settle for another 2nd place. Ah, too bad.

Ain’t my life just full of excitement?

Well once again I am overdue for a post. Not much to update, but I’m doing fine. Had my followup appointment with the doc and she seemed quite surprised at the results of my blood work. I’m surprisingly healthy. I’m sure she expected some negatives given my lifestyle choices, but so far I’m doing alright. Which is not to say that I don’t need to make some changes. Gonna start walking to work 3 days a week (weather permitting) as a start.

More tests to come. Doing the stress test thing Monday. Need to schedule a CT scan because the chest x-rays were unclear (something about my fat getting in the way). I’m also supposed to do a pulminary test and I still have to do the colonoscopy. Eh, getting older is not all its cracked up to be, but then again, it beats the alternative.

I’m waiting to hear about a trip to the States later this month. It all comes down to funding. Seems the Army is out of money, but if it works out I will do a week of training in Columbus and then take a week of vacation and go home to Virginia and South Carolina for the 4th of July. I’m really wanting to go, it’s been a year since I was home and I’m missing my family, especially that sweet granddaughter.

Dart league starts up in a couple of weeks. I’ve been playing in some tourneys, but not playing well enough to have anything to brag about. We have our banquet Saturday and I’m looking forward to that.

And that’s about it for me.

Though Adam was a friend of mine, I did not know him well
He was alone into his distance
He was deep into his well
I could guess what he was laughing at, but I couldnt really tell
Now the story’s told that Adam jumped, but I’ve been thinking that he fell

–Jackson Browne

Today the expat community is abuzz with shock and sadness upon learning of the death of Shawn Matthews, author of the Korea Life Blog and more recently the China Life Blog.

I only knew Shawn from his writing, but he was the type of person I enjoyed sharing adventure with, albeit vicariously. Even as a stranger, I somehow feel diminshed by his loss. I’m not sure how to explain that, but I know on my dark days far from family and friends, I have often been comforted by the words and kind thoughts of my fellow bloggers. Shawn was surrounded by people who loved him, and yet he was still beyond their reach.

As others have said, suicide is incredibly selfish. Whatever pain Shawn was expericing was not escaped, merely transferred to friends and family. But I’m not going to judge, only regret that Shawn chose to stop singing in the middle of his song. And his voice will always be missed by those he left behind.

We beat the Hyatt team from Bless U Pub last night! They had finished 3 games ahead of us to take second place during the regular season, and they had beat us twice previously. So this was a big win for us. We play in the championship round Monday night against Eberhardt of Scrooge Pub. Eberhardt finished first in league play, but we beat them once 10-9 and lost once 10-9. So we are going into the finals feeling confident. We just need to bring our best game.

I didn’t play particularly well last night losing my singles 0-3, but I somewhat redeemed myself in the doubles 701 match, which we took 3-0. Anyway, we celebrated heartily last night. I had the good sense to take today off though, so no hay problema.

Today I attended the Memorial Day Honor Guard ceremony on post. Quite moving really, and I really enjoy that unique military pomp and circumstance stuff. My cell phone died last week, so I picked up another used today. Bought gas and did my grocery shopping. And that is the up to the minute report and my amazing life in Korea.

I’m hoping to be able to report some BIG news (the good kind) in the next couple of weeks. Send me some positive vibes that this dream becomes a reality.

I’ve been reminded that it is past time for an update. And this is it.

Last night we had the league doubles tournament for darts. The “A” division players were paired with us “B” division types, so it made for some good competition. I was fortunate enough to draw Petro as my partner, he’s the top rated “A” player.

We did great, when he was a little off, I filled in the gaps. But he is a tremendous player and we sailed through the winners bracket. And then things fell apart. Petro lost his cool over a bullshit call, and I started throwing like shit, and we wound up with second place. I’m not complaining, it was great fun and I had a lot of the “A” guys complimenting my game.

Tomorrow night we have the first round of league playoffs. We are playing the Alley Ratz from 3 Alley Pub. We beat them both times in league, but they have some good players and we can’t take them lightly. Looking forward to a good match.

So, does it sound like my life revolves around darts these days? That’s only because it’s true. Hey, there are a lot worse ways to spend your time in Itaewon.

I am finally going to break down and see a doctor next week. I’ve had some numbness in my left arm these past few days, and coupled with the blackout incident I’m guessing it may be a good idea to find out what’s up inside this rapidly aging body. I’ve just about let the ignorance is bliss attitude run its course I guess. I’m confident nothing is seriously wrong, but just in case I’ll get the physical. Worse case scenario I can stop worrying about the future!

Anyway, all is well. Still fat and relatively happy these days.

But it is hard to eat for someone as klutzy as I am with chopsticks. Still, as this video clip indicates all you need is a little technique…..

Yes, this is a real commercial….

Everything is fine. Nothing happening here of late that is worthy of note. I’m having a good time and I’m generally happy. Just so you know.

The Marmot posted this video clip of an accident involving a motor scooter. What was most interesting to me is this is the gate I use to access and leave the base everyday.

Now, I don’t drive much, but when I do I am in an extreme defensive driving mode. But as you can see, in this case there wan’t much the driver could do to avoid the red light running scooter. This particular intersection is notorious for red light runners. Sometimes half the signal cycle is gone before the cross traffic actually stops.

Anyway, if I’m gonna get hit I expect it will be from my alley onto the main drag. I usually wait for the pedestrian light to change, which at least slows traffic. But if no one is crossing they are just as likely to blow through. I’m not ragging totally on Korean drivers here, I note a lot of the cars running the light have SOFA tags.

Still, these scooter drivers are insane. Especially on the sidewalk. Give me DC traffic anyday….