Demo

We went to the US Embassy in Seoul yesterday to take care of some paperwork, and didn't get done until after 3pm. On the way home, the traffic patterns were all screwed up, and riot police buses were lined up two deep on both sides of the road. We got up to where some of the demonstrators were, and we could finally see what the issue was. They were demonstrating against No Muhyon's plan to get rid of the National Security Law. Getting rid of it would legalize the communist party and make it possible for south Korean agitators to travel to north Korea for instructions instead of getting it through third countries. They were pointing out that perhaps this wasn't such a good idea at a time when the north was making a concerted effort to build nuclear weapons... They were also very pro-US/ROK alliance. Many American flags were being waved right alongside the Korean flags. When we got home, we later found out that more that 100,000 people had been at the demonstration. These people are why we're here, and why we should stay here.

Happenings

Lot's of action lately involving watching security cams... I'm n0t going to go into details here, but my wife is very upset that some old lady walked off with a considerable sum of her money. As for me, the action around here lately has involved a lot of driving around the country, which is almost never a pleasant experience in Korea.

I've been playing Medal of Honor, Allied Assault on the PC. I've had it for a long time, but my old computer's graphics couldn't handle it (another long story I won't go into). I picked up Spearhead and Breakthrough as well, and as soon as I manage to finish the first one I'll be giving them a whirl.

I picked up the 2nd season of "The Shield", but since my wife was out of the country until last Thursday she hasn't seen season one yet, so I'm going to wait until she catches up so we can watch it together. Season one was excellent, and I expect good things.

Another quiet day

Spent today working and dodging the Chusok traffic. Chusok is Korea's Thanksgiving/harvest festival. There are about 45,000,000 South Koreans; 40,000,000 of them hit the road over the Chusok holiday. Traffic, which is normally not great (driving from Seoul to Pusan, the length of the country, late at night, on a weekday, takes about 4 hours... during Chusok, that trip takes 24 hours on the same road), becomes a nightmare few can conceive of. With careful scheduling (travel at the high points of the holiday when the Koreans are at wherever they all went, but before they are on the road home) you can get around it, and actually have the clearest roads you'll see all year... Finished up the first season of "The Shield"; I'll be picking up the 2nd season for this weekend. My wife and her sister get back from Canada tomorrow, so I'll be traveling to the airport to pick them up... I could end up caught in the tail end of the bad traffic because we can't really tailor the flight schedule for traffic avoidance... Oh well, she's worth sitting in traffic for for however long it takes!

Quiet day

It was a quiet day, spent mostly with the TV. I picked up the first season of "The Shield"; I hadn't had a chance to see it while I was in the states, but it looked interesting so I picked it up when I saw it on the shelf. I'll be picking up the second season as soon as I finish this one. It's kind of like the Sopranos meets NYPD Blue, but the main character in both is a cop... It's good stuff.

Darts

One of the things that is big over here for foreigners to do is to play in dart leagues. The biggest and best one is in Songtan (outside Osan AB), and I was a member of that league for a number of years, but there is also one in Seoul. Since I'm up here now, I'm on a team that plays out of a club in Itaewon. A couple of days ago we had one of our best nights this season, we won all but one game, and took a leg of that one too. A very good night was had...

Intro

I'm an American who has spent most of my adult life in Korea (13 years out of the last 18). My posts will reflect that, as I am still here; but that isn't my focus. This blog will be about anything that interests me, it's just that my background will have a major effect on what some of those things are. The name for this blog actually came to me in a dream (it was more like "one buffalo stampeding underground", but that seemed a little cumbersome). I hope people will enjoy my meandering thoughts...