south korea asking permission to defend itself…

south korea wants to build better missiles to attack north korea(link)

in what is possibly an attempt at a political deterrent to the north, an official hinted, announced might have been a better word, that south korea wants to build long range missiles capable of hinting north korea in its belly button.

according to the article, a 2001 agreement limits the range on south korean missiles (to hit what? itself?), and south korea wants more firepower. the agreement doesn’t limit the range on cruise missiles, but those are supposedly slower and easier to stop.

what’s interesting is the actual distance between seoul and pyongyang. north korea’s capital is 120 miles away from seoul and within striking distance of the current missiles whose range is 186 miles. even if the missiles were hidden 20 miles south of seoul, pyongyang would still be in south korea’s target radius. assuming there was war and both of the capitals were annihilated, what target would south korea want to hit?

this could mean several things.

1: south korea means to hit two birds with one stone. by asking the most powerful nation (the u.s.) for permission to create more powerful missiles, a message is sent to every nation in the region that peace is at stake with a peninsula loaded with ballistics. japan will want to create bigger missiles, taiwan will want to create bigger missiles, and china and russia will be left wondering when all of their neighbors started carrying boards with nails in them. it also sends a message to north korea: we aren’t messing around.

2: saying you want to destroy your southern neighbor is one thing. saying it to them when they have the latest in ballistics while you’re testing hussein’s old scuds is another. north korea knows that an armed south will make it harder for them to make threats. the north has also been given the hand by the u.s. who is basically saying, we’re gonna leave these here and go deal with iran. by giving south korea the reins to the conflict, the u.s. makes it that much harder for the north to extort it for aid. imagine your little brother getting picked on by a bully. give your brother the means to protect himself, and you can walk away and handle other pressing matters. the bully, with nothing to gain and no desire to hurt itself by engaging in a meaningless battle, will have to find another way to get attention.

3: south korea can obviously hit pyongyang now. that’s a given — where else would they point any missiles they had? long-range capability means several things. with a long-reaching missile, south korea can build missile deploying sites closer to its southern border and allowing more flexibility with choosing site locations. it also gives south korea the ability to reach the northernmost parts of north korea. why would south korea want to do that? having the u.s. on your side can do wonders for intelligence gathering efforts, and i’m sure south korea knows where some of those northern missile sites are located. this measure would be as much defensive as it is offensive. the north, not being totally stupid, knows this.

the north may respond to this with more rhetoric. it might give in to peace talks which would be in the best interests of all the countries in the region. north korea’s test to the u.n. by sending a ship to myanmar failed, so it will be up to the north to realize it needs to either dig up or stop digging. the hole that it’s created is huge, and it needs to come back to the table and be a part of the global community.

casino highs and casino lows…and if you write it…

well, if you write about transformers, anyway. who would have thought a movie review would generate around 250 hits?

my average, like i said earlier, went form single digits to double after i wrote that transformers 2 review. i’m still getting hits on it, and i’m tempted to find more bits of information to write about. i don’t know why this movie is as popular as it is — it sort of makes me wish i finished writing that dark knight review after i watched it instead of keeping it in my draft pile.

ah, well.

i feel like i’m keeping a big juicy part of my life out of this blog by neglecting to write about my job. i’m worried that it will create a backlash when my employers find out. there are so many interesting stories, though most of them come at the cost of someone else’s reputation. i work with some interesting characters. i’ve seen things that would be great material for the television show — it definitely rivals it in terms of sheer hilarity and absurdity.

take, for instance, the members of our writing staff who are in charge of the bulk of the elementary grade materials. richard is from washington. he’s a native english speaker and has no excuse for writing sentences like: We were astounded by the titanic amount of people that attended the movie premiere.

our newest writer, sunny, is a native korean with a few years of working experience. normally, that would be a plus, but her resume says she graduated from the university of missourri this year. thinking about how she could have gone to class in america while working here in korea makes my head boggle. and, assuming she did receive a legit diploma, she would have been working in korea illegally up until the time she received her diploma. here’s something she wrote on a recent set of tests: Even if you achieve, you can start over and worker harder. she also decided to go against protocol and make up her own definitions to the words that kids have been studying and memorizing for the past few weeks. granted, she’s a noob, but she already worked on last month’s tests.

our other canadian writer, trish, writes at the fourth grade level. that’s my own assessment based on the work she’s turned in. here’s a sample sentence: What did Pedro had to do before he could create words and tell his stories? i gave her the benefit of a doubt — her use of “had” instead of “have” might have just been a slip. but then, in the same test: What did Gabriela had to do first before she read stories about princes and princesses and about birds and flowers?

jae wan, our senior writer doesn’t write as much anymore. he’s also from canada and borrows books from the school library to improve his english. problem is, those books are at the fifth grade level. when novel studies projects were being handed out to the writers, he chose the book that he, coincidentally, was reading at the time. when he does write, he makes tests for the lowest level — gti (first grade). i wouldn’t consider him a native english speaker — he’s more fluent in korean than he is in english. here’s a sample of his work: We have plentiful enough of junk food for the camping trip.

i’m not trying to be an elitist. proficiency in a language doesn’t always make a person more personable, and the inability to speak english doesn’t make someone worthless. it does, however, make for interesting scenarios at an office that specializes in creating curriculum for an english school that parents pay half a month’s salary for each month.

if i could, i’d quit my job and make my money at casino. yes, it’s risky, but it’s more challenging, fulfilling and cheaper compared to clubbing/drinking (when i lose). i almost began to type out that it’s also healthier, but i remembered ben telling me that the casinos pumped in pure oxygen. i blame that for my giddiness and inability to walk away from a table despite being a few hundred up.

since i started playing pontoon, a version of blackjack, my tallies have been:

day 1: 1,000
day 2: 1,130
day 3: 810

day 3 was a bittersweet experience. i spent nearly 12 hours there trying to reach a goal of 500. i hovered around even for most of the night until the end when i shot through the roof almost scoring a gold chip (1,000 in profit). the dealer beat my 19 with one of her magical 20s. had i won, i would have been a few 10-dollar chips away from 1,000.

the next morning, i woke up and realized i lost my cellphone.

photo essay – michael arnold…

michael arnold’s youtube page(link)

i met michael arnold through craigslist a a few months more than a year ago. i was looking for job opportunities to fill my time outside of my teaching position at cdi, and he had put up an ad for a script editor. it was a natural fit for me since i enjoy editing and wanted more experience related to film.

a few emails later, i joined his club on facebook and worked as a continuity supervisor on one of his short films gus’ turn. a few months later, he texted me wanting to know if i wanted to be assistant director for his next short, karma. i accepted as quick as i could.

in between locations, locals would stop michael asking him if he ever starred in a korean television series called surprise. a lot of people recognized him for his work on that show. in addition to having the most foreigner credits in korean television media, michael worked as a casting director helping companies find models and actors.

when it came time for michael to head back to canada, kbs, the biggest broadcasting network in korea, did a special on him. the korean government gave him permanent residency — an honorary f5 visa in recognition for his many cultural contributions.

i had the honor of being michael’s photographer for some headshots his agent wanted. i wanted to do an urban set of photographs. michael wanted to bring his suits. he had three of them. we walked through insa-dong, a tourist spot near anguk station near the nakwon music shopping center. the heat kept us sweating, but michael didn’t complain despite being overdressed.

i don’t know what the numbers are — how many films, shows, commercials he’s played a role in. he hopes to get work back in north america. “i’m going to be famous,” he told me. it’s something i’ve heard myself say — it’s the dream, but not for fame’s sake.

we have stories to tell. “i’m going to be sad,” michael said. “you might not be here when i come back.” his dreams are to bring funding back with him to make a feature film about the country that adopted him. who knows, michael. maybe next time, i’ll be the director asking you for help.