Thursday, August 30, 2012

Game of Death

A big big thank you to Gusts of Popular Feeling for the post about "Game of Death". As he mentions it is in a Top Ten list of greatest movies never made.

When I first saw this I was all agog. It was a great story. An unfinished movie that could have been epic! Damn! Then I remembered watching Game of Death and the elation waned. Was this BS? Did someone screw up and think a movie that was made wasn't? What the kimchi?!?!? I was perplexed so I consulted that cornucopia of movie knowledge the Internet Movie Data Base.

Lo and beheld, there WAS a Game of Death film released, with Bruce Lee, somewhat, in it. Six years after Lee's death director Bruce Clouse took what Bruce had filmed in 1972 and made a movie around it using new cast members. This included two stand ins, whose faces are never fully seen. Footage of Lee's actual funeral was used in the movie. I knew I had seen it! But it wasn't the film Lee planned on making.

The film was originally planned to be filmed at Beopjusa. SongniSan is one of my favourite places in South Korea. I went there, and Beopjusa, many times.  I loved the video link from YouTube GoPF provided. It was interesting to see how the movie was planned to be made . And the views it was supposed to represent, such as No Style v.s. Style.

It is a shame that Clouse made that mash up. I wish we could have seen the movie Lee wanted to make. Now I am going to have to have a Bruce Lee festival next weekend.


Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Responding to comments.

I wrote a little post about some of the fucktards who comment on my blogs. (Said fucktards being the ones who like to post death threats, fuck off's, etc.)  It is over on Flint's Follies if you want to take a look.

If, like I often am, you can't be arsed to follow the link I will provide a brief synopis of the post below.

Thanks for helping relieve my boredom and showing that while what you say means nothing to me my words get your panties in a bunch. :)


Thursday, August 23, 2012

Slurs, sneers, and stares.

"If you're a Jhereg and an Easterner, you have to expect to be insulted from time to time.If you want to live, you have to learn not to take offense at every slur and sneer. But this was beginning to get annoying."

I was recently re-reading the book Taltos, by Steven Brust. (I highly recommend his books.) When I came upon the above quote I chuckled. It SO fits the way foreigners are treated in Korea. I would paraphrase it like this;

If you're a foreigner in South Korea, you have to expect to be insulted. If you want to live, you have to learn not to take offense at every slur, sneer, stare, and rude comment. But sometimes it can be too annoying and you may need to vent in some way.

If I had responded to every major slight, REAL ones not imagined, I would have been in way to many fights. That isn't even considering the smaller slights that happened pretty much daily. One thing South Korea helped me with was to learn to control my temper better than I did before I got there. It just wasn't worth getting physical or even vocal with the idiots most of the time. I am not saying I was perfect and never slipped but for the most part I was able to control my temper. Blogging helped a lot as did venting with friends. It gave me a release for the anger that built up.

For those who complain about bloggers who bitch about the stupidity they encounter in South Korea I have a question. Would you rather people vent and get it off their chests? Hold it in and just go postal one day? Or start attacking every asshole they encounter? I would prefer people do the former but that is just me.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Punctuality

I have always been punctual. It is something I pride myself on. I would rather be 30 minutes early than 1 minute late for anything. A lack of punctuality on the part of someone is a sure way to raise my ire. Before I went to Korea I would always be at work around 15 minutes before my shift started. I was never one of those people who would show up at the last minute. It meant that I never had to rush.

I found myself showing up even earlier at my 1st job in Korea. It became my routine to be there when the doors opened at 6AM. Our first class was at 6:30. I would use this time to prep anything I needed, which rarely happened, drink coffee, and read the paper. It allowed me to actually relax before starting the day.

At my second and subsequent schools I would usually show up an hour before classes started. I would use my laptop to catch up on email, read some news from home, and anything else I needed/wanted while having coffee. If something was going on that the foreign teachers hadn't been told about, which happened WAY TOO OFTEN, I would sometimes find out about it then and not be caught completely by surprise.

When it comes to my punctuality, my time in Korea served me well. Now that I am home I find that I like to be at work 45 minutes to an hour before my shift starts. I can find out what has been going on, read the paper, drink my coffee, and catch up with co-workers. Sometimes I have even picked up an extra 30-60 minutes of work when they were short and would ask me if I could start right away.

Now if only more of my co-workers were punctual. Or even just on time.


Friday, August 3, 2012

What the ... shuttle cock?!?!?!?

Another day and another Olympic controversy. 8 badminton players have been kicked out of the Olympics for poor sportsmanship. They basically threw their games so they would face weaker opponents in the next stage of the games.

Wow, to read this article you would think it was only the Chinese team that did this. Even though TWO South Korean teams were kicked out for the same thing. Which makes what the South Korean coach a double hypocrite for saying the following.

After the match, South Korean head coach Sung Han-Kook reportedly said: "It's not the Olympic spirit to play like this. How could the number one pair in the world play like this?"

You tell them coach! And at the same time why not tear a strip out of YOUR four players who did the same thing instead of ignoring it?


Added August 3rd 2012 12:46 PM

And thanks to the actions of a British cyclist and the governing body of cycling the South Koreans have more fodder for their paranoia.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

And it begins.

The latest Olympic Games have started and it didn't take long for the Korean Cult of Victimology to start up.   It can be seen in the headlines in the Korea Times, Worst in the Nation.


A series of judging controversies for South Korean athletes at the London Summer Games has marred the credibility of the Olympics.


Three athletes fell victim to controversial decisions by judges, which triggered an enormous outpouring of public outrage in the country. 

Yes, of course. How silly of me to think otherwise. THREE "controversial decisions" against South Koreans calls into question the credibility of the entire Olympics. The first example they cited kind of left me shaking my head wondering what the kimchi they were talking about.

Swimmer Park Tae-hwan experienced a controversial decision that first eliminated him from the 400-meter freestyle finals and then reinstated him several hours later to compete in the finals.

Now, correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Park resinstated and allowed to compete? Hmmmm, the Times actually mentions that don't they? If that is the case doesn't that show that the process actually worked? A bad call was made and it was rescinded in a timely fashion so as not to affect the athletes ability to compete. Isn't that a good thing?

Then the batshit "we are victims" chant became louder.

Sources in Seoul said that in the international sport arena, there have been moves to keep South Korea in check. For instance, the International Archery Federation changed its rules four times as Koreans have dominated international archery competitions for the past decades.

Anonymous sources who may or may not actually exist. A trademark of the Korea Times and Korean "journalism" in general. Then you have an actual source brave enough to spread his batshit.


Professor Lee Jeong-hak of Kyung Hee University in Seoul said: “The West has made most sports rules. They might strongly believe that as the host they are entitled to do so. As they feel depressed because of the current euro economic crisis, there could have been jealousy against Korea. 

Yes. They are all trying to keep you down. The Korean badminton players didn't show poor sportsmanship. The man is just keeping Koreans down. 

The solution? 

A senior official at the Korean squad said: “More Koreans should make inroads into the governing bodies of the International Olympic Committee and international sport federations to prevent a recurrence of similar judging controversies for the country in international events.”

Infiltrate the various governing bodies of sports organizations so Korea can control everything ... errr protect themselves from being picked on. Of course, if it is all a conspiracy to keep Korea down wouldn't "they" keep them out of the various bodies? Hey, a new conspiracy for Koreans to promote!

What a fucking joke. Should be interesting to see what happens when South Korea hosts the Winter Games and decisions go against them.