That title has absolutely nothing to do with this post. Eva made me watch the season finale of America’s Best Dance Crew which is hosted by AC Slater. So, there you go.
President Obama wants to do away with the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy implemented by Clinton. I don’t think this is a feasible option. Currently males and females sleep and shower separately in Basic Training. Logically. This separation is based openly and entirely on sexuality. If gay males and gay females are openly admitted, where will they sleep and where will they shower? Gay males can’t shower with other gay males; there would be sexual issues. Openly gay males can’t shower with straight males because that would be like straight males showering with straight females, it’s just inappropriate. Openly gay soldiers would have to live and shower individually and separately, as in one per room, one per shower. This is simply unfeasible. Additionally, there’s nothing wrong with the current policy. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is equal; just as you can’t ask someone if they’re homosexual, you can’t ask someone if they’re heterosexual. Straight people are let it, gay people are let. Their sexual orientation is a non-issue. That being said, if “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is repealed, it will inherently make sexuality an issue it does not need to be. Oh well, we’ll see.
Ok. Enough of that. This photo has nothing to do with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” I took it in Seoul.
Seoul, Korea
A fantastic gift. Our friends Nancie and Danielle got Eva and I a night in the amazing W Hotel on Walkerhill in Seoul, Korea as a wedding gift. It was spectacular. Thanks again girls. If you’re trying to decide what to get a couple as a gift, consider it.
I have no idea what this river is called. I’m sure if I did know, I’d pronounce it wrong however. We’ll go with the Danube. Why not.
Seoul, Korea
This is a shot I took of Eva in Korea at a gilatto shop in Seoul. I overlayed an image I took of a wall in Photoshop for the effect and erased it in spots to reveal specific portions of the image–very easy.
Eva, Seoul, Korea
Eva told me that this shot looks like something out of a Korean Nail Salon, hence the title.
This is from the Seoraksan National Park in Korea. We stayed in a hotel inside the national park with a complete British theme. By complete I mean complete, all encompassing, thorough and over-the-top. Photos of Princess Di everywhere. Family photos of Prince Charles and Princess Di with their sons. Relics once owned by the Royal family. It was just very bizarre and out of place. The only thing missing was a full-scale diorama of a smashed up and smoking Mercedes surrounded by French papparazzi.
Too soon?
HDR, Seoul, Korea
These stairs led down to the water near the 63 Building in Seoul.
Or they led up to Eva.
Depends how you look at it.
Eva, Seoul, Korea
This is what happens when the magnificent US Army Abrams main battle tank fires. It’s awesome. Trust me. Well, I guess most of you will have to just trust me. Everyone sees us roll past them at about 30 mph with our heat blasting in December, listening to our iPods over the comm system and is instantaneously jealous. “Why carry a gun when the gun can carry you?” they say. I agree. Except now I’m on Humvees spelled HMMWVs. Bummer.
Seoul, Korea
There is an electronics super mart in a wing of this mall. It has everything imaginable with an on switch. It is magnificent. It is spectacular. It’s like a bowl of angel tears poured into a plastic ice tray and frozen to make angel tear ice cubes to chill glasses of maple syrup from the maple trees which were in the garden of Eden. Still not convinced? Then don’t go. Loser.
Seoul, Korea
First of all, the photo today has less to do with my commentary than it usually does, which is impressive. Eva and I went to 7 Springs Ski Resort in Pennsylvania to ski. It was a lot of fun, except for the fact that I got some kind of hellish flu. 102 degree temperature=horrendous. Anyway, we get to 7 Springs and unpack a little bit and hang out with the family for a bit. It gets late, and since we’re trying to get out skiing early the next morning, we go downstairs to get ready for bed. We were sleeping in bunk beds with my mom and dad. Eva and I were both on top bunks. So we’re getting ready for bed, and we open up my toiletries, and there’s my toothbrush. But not Eva’s. So then Eva says: “Oh man, I can’t believe we forgot my toothbrush.” WE. Makes the flu worth it.
The pic is of my old tank’s track in Korea at the Korean National Training Center.
HDR, Seoul, Korea
That’s exactly what this guy was looking at. Nothing. I was there, so, trust me. Now, I realize that most police related reality shows up to and including the one with the redneck leather skin guy that captures criminals for the bounty while riding around with his obese common law wife in unnecessary convoys of black SUVs with Limousine tint windows will probably tell you that eye witness accounts are worthless after he learned it from ‘Law & Order’ just like I did, but that doesn’t apply here.
Seoul, Korea
This is the view out the northern facade of Dongducheonjugong Station, one of three stations close to Camp Casey, all of which were stops on the blue line, and all of which would take me to Seoul. Seoul is like Narnia. Camp Casey is like Detroit.
HDR, Seoul, Korea
This post will either vanish deep into the profound obscurity of the blogosphere–a term I hate not for its pop culture sweetness, but rather because it now makes me think of a certain impeached Chicago media prostitute–or it will garner me serious attention from our friends in Homeland Security and make it difficult for me to fly domestically. Oh well, they’ll never find me in Iraq.
HDR, Seoul, Korea
In honor of the character “Twofer” on 30 Rock, I am posting two pictures today. “Twofer” is referred to as such because he is black and went to Harvard, so they say they got a two-for-one with him. This is either very funny or very inappropriate, depending on who’s asking me.
Above is a picture of Eva pointing directly at the building she lived in downtown in Seoul for the second year we were in Korea. It was much nicer than where I lived. Let’s put it this way: when she moved in her rent was $3,500 a month; when I moved out of my shanty 10 km from the DMZ, a woman came to inspect it and apologized that I had to “live in these conditions.” I took this from the base of the Seoul Tower right near a padlock covered chain link fence that you will never, ever see. Ha.
The shot above is one from the top of Seoul Tower looking… eastish?
Eva, Seoul, Korea
This is not a clock radio. It has nothing to do with Furbies. This is a beautiful building near the main terminal of the Seoul International Airport that no one has ever entered; locals refer to it as the “Sung San.” It is a massive glass thing of beauty, complete with doors and moving walkways… and yet no human has ever stepped foot inside this structure since its completion. Strange you say? Not when you understand Korean history. You see it was the year 983 or 984 when Sung San Lee’s small recreational boat (he was wealthy Korean royalty) was swept out to sea in the hurricane of that year. The boat capsized, stories say, a mile or so off the shore of Japan. Sung swam to the small (at the time) Japanese port city of Wakkanai. He had only the water-logged clothes on his back and spoke the now dead language of Ku Sunsaka or “Cloud Whisper,” which had been the language of his town of Kingu which no longer exists. On the shore of Wakkanai he met a group of four to six women (historical accounts vary) who were practicing an ancient form of yoga and had seen him swim to shore from far out at sea. The women killed Sung out of fear, believing him to be a sea serpent because he spoke in a tongue no one could understand. They brought him to the village elders and told them what had happened. The town’s chief elder, Kinzaborou, recognized Sung as the son of his sister who had been gifted to Sung’s father Han Il to quel international differences as was customary. Kinzaborou, aghast, took the boy’s body to his home where he placed it and ordered everyone out, never to return. He wrote a letter to Sung’s father explaining, as best he could, what had happened and told them he would take his own life there with the boy to preserve Japanese honor. He did. The letter he wrote made it back to Korea and Sung’s family more than fourteen years later, accompanied by both the left index finger and gilded bracelet once belonging to Sung. Sung’s brother Oojin, the first elected leader of Kingu, (Kingu was, as it’s little known, the world’s first Democracy), mandated that a shrine be built in memoriam of his brother and that upon its completion no other human should ever enter the building. No one ever did. That shrine’s location? The very same as the glorious glass mega-structure pictured here. Now, I ask you, is it so strange that no man or woman has entered this building since it was completed? I’ll let you decide.
Abstract, HDR, Seoul, Korea
’30 Rock’ is the funniest show on television. Unless there are re-runs of ‘Arrested Development’ playing and then it’s the second funniest.
This picture was taken outside the tallest building in Seoul: The 63 Building. The building is a coppery colored upward tapering uber-modern monstrosity. It has an aquarium. And an art museum. And a wedding hall. Classic Korea. The best part, however, is the fact that on the outsides of the building (yes, plural, as in two sides) the phrase “Love Your Life, Love Your Dream” is printed in 10 story letters. “Love Your Life, Love Your Dream.” Well said you steel and glass literary climax of all poor literal English translations splashed across Korean media and advertising in an attempt to appeal to an undeniable cultural romantic attraction to all things western… well said.
Abstract, Seoul, Korea
My very first posting. Many more to follow when and as I figure out this WordPress thing. This is one of my more recent HDR photos; it’s the view down a Korean subway line. I had to take it with a bunch of Koreans gathered around me, looking at me and wondering what I was doing. I gesticulated and smiled, making faces in an attempt to convey the “I’m almost done here, seriously, like 10 more seconds.” It didn’t work but I got the pic. Eva was embarassed.
HDR, Seoul, Korea