Betty Crocker?!?
Mmmm, Cookies...
Okay, slow day {Yeah, right!} so I made some cookies. Recipe is right off the White Chocolate Chunk bag. I've made these cookies before. Of course by the look of the picture, I'm not very adapt at using only a couple of dishes... On of these days I'll get it figured out.
It was only a slow day once I got home - it was busy day at work. Of course, one of the things that I really needed to do was get the moped safety checked and re-registered. Well, when you wait the to last minute of the day, you get the safety check, but the vehicle registration was closed. Oh well, I will hit them up first thing in the morning. But, tomorrow is another day...
65" Sony Television
Okay, so a 65" Sony Television was the goal for today.
Yes, today was the great Yongsan Lanes 65" TV give-a-way. It was not quite a give-a-way. First problem, get your named pulled from a box of food receipts that had been collected over the last three months. It think they said there were about 2500 receipts in the box - yep a lot. So getting your name called was issue one, the next issue is bowling a 9 or a strike under "Cosmic Conditions".
What is Cosmic Conditions you ask. Good question. Well, they basically turn off the lights, turn on the blacklights, throw in some disco balls, moving spot lights and loud music -- poof you have Cosmic Conditions. Oh, did I mention that they had the bumpers put up as well.
Then from there, if you were still standing, you then drew another envelope with the locker and a locker combination that included a bunch of parting gifts, but only one had a flyer for the 65" TV (what did you think it would fit in a locker?). One also had a bowling ball.
Okay now that the background is out of the way - I didn't make the cut; more specifically, my name was not pulled out of the box. But, there were several associates of mine who had their names pulled, but weren't there; one even twice.
I did know two of the people that made the first cut. Of that only one made the second cut, but he didn't win the TV. It actually went to a guy that was so shocked that he won, he didn't realize it until somebody had to show him the flyer. His wife and kids were extremely happy.
With nothing left to do, but head down to Osan to pickup some clothing items for dvn2rckr and then come back home again.
When I got back, I did hit the lanes again to blow off a little steam before heading back home to eat dinner.
Lazy Day
Well, I went Geochaching today. But wasn't really planning on it.
Background: A couple of weeks ago we adopted a local Geochache here in Korea as the individual that planted it was no longer able to maintain it. We received a report that it was possibly missing. So, I went on a little trip to check on its status. Of course, If I knew what was in the cache, I might have done more than just check to see if it was there and pulled the Travel Bug.
Other than getting some exercise by hiking through a Seoul Urban Green area, I did see some things that I had not seen before.
On my trip to the location (I took the subway), there was a guy selling what appeared to be hair bands. He showed up as the subway was crossing the Han River, then got off the train at the next station. Strange. I had seen and was used to sellers at the metro stations, or in on the street, but never on the train.
On my way back, I could have either headed straight back home or stopped at one of the other markets areas. I had considered Dongdamun or Namdemun. Rather than pay for a third subway ride, I decided to stop at Namdemun. Which makes for a interesting trip in itself, as once I had reached home, I had not traveled to the same subway station twice... Okay, just a little subway humor.
I walked around Namdemun, and it was quite crowded. Didn't really see much of anything that interested me. There was something that caught my eye - Kimchi chocolate. Didn't seem very appealing to me. And no, I didn't get any to sample either. It did look like it was similar to some of the Jeju Orange Chocolate we had bought last month in Jeju.
The day finished with a quick run to the grocery store to buy some items for dinner. Bulgogi beef, cucumber kimchi, and cheese. After dinner, I spent the time surfing the net to look for information about a next possible job location.
Memorial Day Weekend (First Half)
Not much going on or planned for this weekend.
Friday, I did a fair amount of work trying to fix up the map for the LBNA for Washington. dvn2rckr is currently working with the major letterboxers in Washington to determine on how to best redivide the state to support letterboxing. There are several options in for the running which includes putting King, Pierce and Thurston Counties in their own section.
The other problem with the map is that Puget Sound is not accurate, and the first picture fixes the layout of Puget Sound.
Anyway, here is the updated map of the current setup.
Updated(?) LBNA map of Washington
Here is what the map of Washington looks like as originally posted. Notice that Tacoma is not show as being on the Puget Sound. Which do you like better?
LBNA - Washington Current
Saturday was spent cleaning up the apartment and attending an after ball party. This was a BBQ for the people behind the scenes that made the ball a complete success. Depending on how I feel later on, I may go to the bowling alley and attempt to get in some "Cosmic Bowling".
The Where is the Blog...
Well, I've been quite busy since the last posting. I'll be posting throughout the day to get everybody back upto speed.
Mmm... More Beer
I received several packages in the mail today. One was a box of shorts from dvn2rckr, rnrB, and trkr as part of my birthday present.
The other package that I received was more ingredients to brew more beer. In this case, it is Oktoberfest beer. The goal is to have it ready for drinking by September (the traditional Oktoberfest time period). I think because of the Oktoberfest beer I may have more visitors in September/October this year - not that I am complaining.
An update on the Pale Ale that is in secondary fermentation. It appears to be clearing nicely and will probably bottle on either 4 or 5 June. That is the plan as it stands right now.
Star Wars, Episode III
I finally break down and braves the crowds to see Episode III on Sunday. By then most the of crowds had dispersed and the line was fairly short. Of course, it paled in comparison to waiting in line when the Original Star Wars was released in 1977 and wondering if we were actually going to be able to get into see the show. We did, and what was more amazing was that at the end of the movie, everybody clapped and applauded.
Okay, fast forward what, 28 years, the movie ends and everybody gets up to leave, no applause, etc.
I won't give away any spoilers, but it did cleanup a lot of loose ends and also brings to clarity several notable phrases from Star Wars. I don't remember very many lines from any of the other movies other than maybe one from Return of the Jedi. Of course, it did raise some other questions but again, spoilers, so I won't discuss them.
Female String Quartet
The final act of the evening is was a female string quartet; three electric violins and an electic chello. They take the classical music and put a pop twist on it. It was great, but then again, I'm easily impressed. (Of course, I could digress and talk about the Bejing Opera - but, that is whole other post).
Female String Quartet (Like the Flames?)
Ball - Mid-evening Entertainment
According to one of my tablemates during the evening, the ball that I am currently posting is the BEST ball in Korea. Part of that is the excellent entertainment that is lined up during and after the official portion of the evening.
Below is a picture of one of the two Korean gradeschool performers. I apologize for the blurriness, but the lighting was poor at the time of this performance.
Enjoy...
Early Entertainment - Gradschool Dancers
Korean Entertainers - Dood Roock
So the official portion of the ball ends and we begin the unofficial portion of the ball with entertainment.
Of course, if you've ever been to a Military Ball, then you usually do not get any entertainment during or after the ball other than a DJ at the end after everything is over.
This particular ball we had four separate acts or different entertainment before we even get to the DJ. This first is a Laser Light Show, which was very facinating. The second was a Salsa band, that had recently returned from the Army Battle of the Bands in Washington, DC, where they WON. They were good, but might have driven some people away early.
The next group to perform was a Traditional Korean Drum group call Dood Rock (yes, it is spelled "Dood". They take traditional drums and put a modern flare on it. Notice the flames, there was also a smoke generator as well. I had to take the photo with the flames to ensure enough light.
Dood Rock Dumming Away
Okay, let me step into the wayback machine. It is set for one week...
I spent most of the day setting up for and the getting ready for the second of the three balls. This one I was heavily involved in, unlike the other two where I am just a participant. Spent the better part of the day at the Seoul Grand Hyatt either setting up for the ball or participating in the ball.
I'm my effort to get ready for the ball (after the setup), I was planning on getting "The Works". Which is really nothing more than a haircut, hairwash, facial, manicure and a massage. I really wanted the massage, and wasn't going to have manicure (didn't need one) or the facial (which would have been nice). Unfortuneately, I guess that I didn't express my needs very clearly and I only got the haircut, wash and the very very good back massage (which worked pretty well for me).
I finished getting dressed and went to the ball and here is the picture of me all dressed up...
Trkee all Dressed Up.
The rest of the evening follows in posts.
Field Trip
Well, the field trip went extremely well.
During lunch we were entertained by a number of performers, which included a Marimba (a type of xylophone) and traditional Korean drums. The Marimba was a solo that was an arrangement of the Hungarian Rhapsody #5. This is probably the closest that I have ever been to a drum performance here. It is definitely part drumming, and all show.
Listening to the music reminded me of a concert that I attended a few years back with in Japan. The concert was performed by a Japanese Army Band where they played familiar songs from around the world as well as traditional Japanese music. The highlight and the finale was them playing John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever. All of us in attendance left with a much better feeling and tremendous degree of respect. Anyway, that was several years ago, but for some reason I thought back to that concert today.
On the way back to Seoul, I spotted two OINK’s (Only in Korea).
Of course of the last couple of years we’ve noticed OINKs in other parts of the world and not just Korea. OINK 1: A tow truck parked on the side of the expressway with a satellite TV dish mounted on the two-arm. I suspect this is for the tow-truck driver to watch TV while he waits for the tow that will eventually come.
OINK 2: Not long after seeing the one above. I spotted a “SlimSlide” mini-van
(A SlimSlide is really a mini-mini van and is maybe about a third of the size of a standard US mini-van) being towed by the tow-truck (with the tow arm). Sounds normal, right? Well, the SlimSlide was complete on the back of the tow truck perpendicular. The funny part is that not that much of the truck was hanging off the side of the tow truck.
We arrived back at the office around 530pm. I needed to quickly changed and headed off to stand in line to see Star Wars Episode III. I got in line around 600pm, but by 610pm all the seats had been filled so I was right about not being able to see it today due to the field trip.
Racking the beer from the Primary to Secondary fermenter.
The picture above is the glamorous part of beer making. Transferring the wort from the Primary fermenter to the secondary fermenter. I use glass for the secondary so I can see the wort clearing over the next couple of weeks. The beer is a Pale Ale and should be ready to bottle around the 1st weekend of June.
The not so glamorous part of beer making is sterilizing everything and then the unenviable task of cleaning the primary fermenter of the waste trub
( pronounced troob- "The sediment at the bottom of the fermenter consisting of Hot and Cold Break material and dead yeast")
Random Musings
So the rain from the previous day continued into Wednesday and kept the day extremely cool after it stopped around noon. In all it was a very nice day, overcast and cool; definitely not a typical May day in Korea.
Not knowing what else to do today, I did try to gather as much items as I could so I will be able to keep myself entertained on my "field trip" on Thursday.
Star Wars Episode III is completely out of the question for Thursday as I'm not schedule to return home until 730pm. My big hunt was for my rather large (by today's standards) MP3 player. I was fairly sure that it was still in the office - it wasn't. Did a search for it at the apartment; figured that I had moved it out of reach of the kids - nope not there either. Walked on back to the office to search for it again - still wasn't there. Did a look in the car when I got back to the apartment; yep, put it under the driver's seat. Must have done that a couple of months ago since I don't drive it the car that often or on long trips where I would want to listen to music. It is now safely plugged into the wall charging up for the trip tomorrow.
The other thing that I wanted to do tonight was rack the beer (transfer the beer from one fermenting container to another container to achieve clearer beer). Based on my time of return on Thursday I'll probably do it then.
Also went for a quick trip to the bowling alley tonight since I hadn't been bowling for a long while. Anyway, before I get to the results of tonights bowling, I do need to report on the status of the results of the final round of bowling. As I had stated earlier there was a slim chance, very slim chance that we could move ahead of the team that was two teams above us. Well, we didn't move ahead of that team - we tied them. It is extremely amazing seeing that the team last year was near the bottom of the standing. Anyway, tonights results were good for me as well. My previous best has been 191 on a practice night and my league best is a 183 (I think). Anyway, the night didn't start very good. I barely got a 115 on the first game, the second game something must have clicked becuase I got 6 strikes in a row and a final score of 211!!! The third game was more of my normal score of about 141. I just need to figure out what I did on the second game and do that all the time.
Just becuase I'm in Korea, I'm not immune to the price of gasoline. While it is cheaper than some places in the states the cost on the economy is around $4/gallon. My price is usually around $2.25/gallon. Makes me glad that a ride a moped most of the time since I can usually go a week on one gallon. Of course China had the best price in the region of about $2.00/gallon. Kind of hard to drive there for a fill-up though...
Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday
Well, first of all, I guess the "mailto" option for posting to the blog isn't quite working correctly. I had attempted to use this on Monday, but it didn't work. Oh well.
The short of the post is that due to a last minute commitment, I probably won't get to go see Star Wars Episode III on the 19th. Fortuneately for me, it is playing for seven days straight begining on the 19th. That was my news for Monday.
Tuesday begins as most days do with the alarm going off
and me hitting snooze a couple of times. :)
My deputy made a cake (German Chocolate with Coconut Pecan frosting) and brought it in to work. The office asked what my plans/preference for lunch; I didn't really care one way or the other, so we ordererd in for Pizza Hut.
I ate a piece of cake after my pizza.Work throughout the day was pretty much standard as not much is going on and the computer security updates have pretty well settled down for the month. Nice that Microsoft has somewhat of a schedule for releasing security updates.
Somewhere in the afternoon the rain began to fall, first it was as little waves of light rain, followed by a dry period, then another wave. Little rain is okay for a little bit, but when driving a moped, its not great especially since it hasn't rained here in a month or so. My original idea was to head to dinner right after I finished work, but because I didn't want to deal with the rain any more than required.
So... I throw on the rain gear, hop on the moped and zip on home. Drop the rain gear jump in the car and head out to dinner. Okay, so I was a "geek". I took myself out to dinner. I was only thinking about having a nice hamburger (which in itself would have been a nice change from the leftovers that I had been eating). Anyway, when I got to the TexMex resturant the special of the day was Fajitas. I said to myself, sure why not.
(No, I don't talk to myself; or maybe I do and talking is okay. I just have to make sure that I don't reply. :) All that I can say is that I got my fill of fajitas tonight.
Upon return to the house, I finished up watching and catching up with a SciFi program before heading off to bed and the end of yet another day in May.
Lazy Days
Sunday started much in the same way that Saturday ended. As I was getting ready for church, I got a call from dvn2rckr. We talked about a number of things, but the most interesting was the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) list that recently came out. From what I saw in the news is that it won't be until sometime this fall that the list will be final and approved by the President and the Congress.
Following the discussion I finished showering and getting dressed for church. I decided to use the cuff links that I had on my tuxedo shirt from the night before on my regular shirt (since it had those holes).
Oh, my tuxedo shirt, is not the standard tuxedo shirt that one would think. This one is called a "Party Shirt" as the sleeves and the back are not white, but a different pattern. Mine happens to be a tropic fish motif. The idea is that when the formal portion of a ball is over and the DJ and the dancing start, the jacket top come off and the "party" starts. Okay enough asides.Church was uneventful, the Chaplain did ask if the family got off okay. I told him that they did. He understood my sense of loss with them gone. Finished ushering (the other volunteering that I do) and headed for home.
Since dvn2rckr, trkr and rnrb left, I've been slowly cleaning up. Today was the day to mop the floor in the living room area. Since I hadn't done a complete mop job in at least six months, I decided to pull up all the furniture (okay, almost all of it, I left the TV stand) to sweep and then mop. Since I would either be stuck in a room or outside I decided that I would make a run to the PX to replace the 5 gallon bottle of water that used for the beer while the floor dried. Sure enough when I came back the floor was dry except for a small area right near the kitchen. While that dried, I put the rug and furniture back in its place.
It was still early, so I went on a little tour of the Yongsan Electronics Market (which was closed, but the outdoor vendors were open) and made my way over to Space9 and the E-Mart located above the Yongsan Train Station. Hadn't been to either of those places other than the Yongsan Train Station, and then only as the KTX that I was riding in passed through it. I might also have changed trains with dvn2rckr and the kids after a letterbox/geocaching trip. After my self-tour of the facilities, I headed back home, but made a small stop at the office to run some computer updates. Its easier to make updates on computers when they aren't being used.
At home, again. I started to make dinner (Brats and corn-on-the-cob). I ate the brats with Deli mustard and a little saurkraut.
The rest of the evening consists of laundry.
I may get a chance to see Star Wars Episode III on the 19th when it opens here. :)
English and the Signal Ball
One of my main volunteering jobs that I do on a regular basis to teach English to Korean ROTC Cadets. It may seem funny for those of you that know me, as English is not my forte. But, these classes are used to suplant their normal English instruction, which is design to pass the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication). A satisfactory score is required for the Cadets to graduate and be commissioned an officer. Most of the students that I've spoken with are doing ROTC (and the subsequent commission) in lieu of basic conscription. (Korea has compulsory military service for all males.)
It is fun to do and we take the subway to and from the University. "Teach," which is really a dialog with the Cadets so they can hear other native speakers rather than just the clean and correct pronunciation from the audio tapes. After class we have a quick lunch in the cafeteria and head back to the rest of our weekends.
Except this weekend...Today officially began "Ball Season" for me. As I will be attending three balls in a five week period. The first out of the hopper is the Signal Ball. While interesting, the ball that I'll be attending next week is a lot more exciting. For me, it was a chance to wear my Dress Mess (a black-tie tuxedo equivalent military uniform). I found that I like the Dress Mess more so that my usual attire to these events which would be Dress Blues. Anyway, when I get a chance to get a copy of some of the photos that were taken, I'll post one.
 Dress Mess Jacket with Ribbons and Medals |
 Dress Mess "Party Shirt:. Notice the tropical fish motif? |
We sent a small contingent from our unit, there were five total of us. Of course, since we're not in a "Signal" unit we really didn't know very many people, but we did see a couple of people that were alums of the unit and were there with their spouses (and felt just as left out as we did).
It was a good event, and gave my NCO a chance to get a tour of the facility before our unit's ball next week.
Evening capped off with another call from DVN2RCKR before she ran off to manage the chaos of a small amoeba of the US Government.
Bowling Night
So work was another uneventful day, except spent it mostly in meetings during the day as it was our major meeting day of the month.
Anyway, the highlight of the day was the final week of the bowling season. (Next season starts the first week of June.)
As I stated in the last post, we were bowling the team that is ranked ahead of our team in the standings. We were virtually assured that we would maintain our current position, but there was also a slim chance that we could move up one position in the standings.
That was our goal. In order to do that everybody needed to be on their best game. Hence the extra practice the night before.
Well, things started extrememly well for us as we took both the first two games and had an overall lead of about 130 pins going into the final game. Either way were assured of a 4-4 split and maintaining our current standing. The final game would determine if we gained position in the overall standings.
It's not to say that we fell apart in the last game our that they got it together, but in the end we lost the last game by about 30 pins. But because the margin of victory we had in the first two games we also won on overall pins, giving us a 6-2 victory and a move up in the standings.
Beer Brewing
About two weeks ago I ordered some beer ingredients from my local homebrew store in Tacoma, WA.
(I'm not in Tacoma so I have to have it shipped to me. And no, there aren't any local homebrew supply stores where I'm currently located.) Knowing that it usually takes about 7 days for packages to arrive to my location from the West Coast, I patiently waited to find that little lovely yellow card stock letting (and email) letting me know that I had a package waiting for me. After about a week of waiting and checking, I proceed to the mailroom counter and low and behold I spy a box with my box number clearly marked
(and dated, 6 May, the day it arrived in the mailroom). I retreive my package and continue to work the remainder of my busy IT support day.
I quickly change clothes and head to the bowling alley. I bet your wondering why I do that instead of head home and start brewing the beer? Well, the short answer is that I needed to get some bowling practice in for our last series of the bowling league on Friday. We would be bowling the team ranked above us in the standings and we all needed to be on our best.
Practice was completed and I head home. Realizing that it was still quite early, I begin the process of brewing the beer. But, first I had to head to the local market area and buy a rather large wire mesh strainer to catch the grains and hops from the mash cycle and during the boil. I started by sanitizing everything that would be touching the beer (pots, utensils, thermometers, etc). I started by steeping the grains in about 160*F water, strained them through the new strainer and sparged with more water. To this water, I brought it up to a boil and added the liquid malt extract. Once it began boiling again, I added 2 oz of Cascade Hops; 40 minutes into the boil added 1 tsp of Irish Moss (Used as a fining agent); at 45 minutes into the boil added .5oz of Mt Hood Hops and the other .5oz at 55minutes into boil. At 60 mintues I turned off the heat, fished all the hops and scum on the top of the wort. Cooled the wort in temperature and strained the wort through the strainer (to catch any remaining large particulates).
Beer boil a bubling... (The Stuff on top are the whole hops)
In about a week, I'll be racking from Primary Fermentation to Secondary Fermentation (glass). Oh, and the beer is a Pale Ale. The taste of it just of the boil was outstanding, so it should be really good when it is complete.
The night cap was a call from
dvn2rckr.
The beginning
So why start a blog? I mean really, who cares what I post? Should I even bother? Well, to start this blog will be of little use to anyone except my immediate family.Just to keep you in the know. Most days (if I post) will probably contain rather boring information as nobody really wants to hear what I do at work all day during the week.If you've made it this far, great and enjoy the blog.
