Seoul Eats

This is Mr. Happy.

Nice vicosity. Deep rich purple color. Nose has hints of black licorice, currants, and soft leather. I know that sounds odd, but it's a nice bouquet. Wonderful mouth feel...silky with a bit of pepper. I'm getting coffee...like tanzania peaberry- it's a bit earthy. I'm tasting some licorice, tart strawberry, and semi-sweet nestle chocolate chips. Wow...the taste lingers and lingers. I'm getting a bit of mint and rosemary. It's herbacious! I like it. I'm going to score it a 91. Dan

I'm selling off a bunch of stuff that I don't need anymore. Here's the pics. If anyone is interested then e-mail me dnlgray@gmail.com. I'm near Nambu Terminal. Dan

Analyze your dreams! I am teaching symbolic analysis this term at my hagwon. Here's a list of different symbols that could be related to dreams. I feel that if I can teach kids the concept of symbols then they'll be able to make their own connections. I'm also going to be showing Cool Hand Luke and analyze the symbols in that movie. Dan 1. Animals represent habits. Animals function from instinct, reacting to pleasure or pain. Having differing degrees of memory and the ability for attention, animals lack the evolutionary development including sufficient brain capacity needed for imagination. Most animals in a dream will represent the dreamer's habits. 1. Baby is a new idea. A child is the result of uniting of a male and female. In the language of mind this represents the cooperative use of the aggressive and receptive principles to create something new. 3. Clothes signify how the dreamer is expressing Self. Clothes indicate the part of the Self others view. Many cultur

I'm going to be busy as heck for the next 4 weeks so I probably won't be posting as much. Forgive me and wish me luck. Dan

In my writing class the students were supposed to brainstorm about disturbing trends in Korea and I said that Black Bean Tea was a disturbing trend. Then I went on to expound on the ghastliness of corn tea (it tastes like soggy popcorn!) and that this will lead Korea to make teas from everything: from flower teas, bundaeggi tea, water tea, book-tea, and even pen-tea. The last one was a mistake. My class exploded with laughter and was left red faced.

I have started the search process to find my birth parents and I have made an appointment to see my adoption file. I feel a bit apprehensive and excited about this. As some of you know, I was adopted when I was five so I have memories of my parents and of the orphanage that I stayed. Hmmm...yeah. Dan

This wine won a gold medal in 2005 from the Concours Mondial Bruxelles 2006. I bought it at Shinsege for 25,000. It has a sparkling, crisp bouquet like a bit of spearmint vapor and a bright coffee cent. It's very quaint. In the mouth it is velvety and feels like a high quality darjeeling tea. It is good. Really good. I could just roll it around my mouth. The taste is blackberry and flat cherry coke but nix the syrup. Its like crisp blackberry Clearly Canadian. With a bit of green...wheatgrass. I think I'm going to buy a couple extra bottles. Because it will get better.

I just got my 7,777th visit to my blog! Thank you whoever you are! Dan

This is my favorite Murakami story. If you have time, have a read. It always brings a smile to my face. Dan Haruki Murakami: On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning One beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo's fashionable Harujuku neighborhood, I walked past the 100% perfect girl. Tell you the truth, she's not that good-looking. She doesn't stand out in any way. Her clothes are nothing special. The back of her hair is still bent out of shape from sleep. She isn't young, either - must be near thirty, not even close to a "girl," properly speaking. But still, I know from fifty yards away: She's the 100% perfect girl for me. The moment I see her, there's a rumbling in my chest, and my mouth is as dry as a desert. Maybe you have your own particular favorite type of girl - one with slim ankles, say, or big eyes, or graceful fingers, or you're drawn for no good reason to girls who take their time with every meal. I

Wow! What a show! It was full of energy, heart, and beautiful people. I would recommend that everyone go see it. I went with Yea-jin and she really liked it (especially when the guys took off their shirts^^). You can get a coupon from Groove Magazine to get 50% off. We got 2 front row seats for 50,000 won. Here're some pics. Dan

I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us.

Jack Palance was one of the great movie heavies of the 1950s, when he was often cast as a sinister villain in film noirs, westerns and melodramas. His impressive debut in 1950's Panic in the Streets was followed by Oscar-nominated performances as menacing baddies in Sudden Fear (1952, starring Joan Crawford) and Shane (1953, starring Alan Ladd). He played a has-been boxer in television's Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956) and won an Emmy, but in the 1960s and '70s he made mostly forgettable movies in the U.S. and around the world. His faded career was resurrected in 1989 when he played a mean crime king in Tim Burton's Batman, and his turn as the comically creepy trail boss in City Slickers (1991, co-starring Billy Crystal) earned him an Oscar as best supporting actor. While accepting the prize he showed the crowd his youthful vigor by dropping to the stage to perform one-handed pushups, and the wacky moment became his public signature. He also appeared in the 1994 sequel

boll weevil n. 1. A small, grayish, long-snouted beetle (Anthonomus grandis) of Mexico and the southern United States, having adults that puncture cotton buds and larvae that hatch in and damage cotton bolls. 2. Informal. A conservative white Southern Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

"The people called her Our Lady of Chains. They called that not bcause she wore chains..." "Not because she wore chains," the Daughters chanted. "They called her Our Lady of Chains because she broke them."

Why is May singing Oh-Susanna. It's an awful racist song. hmmm... It must have some symbolic significance.

according to Personalitypage.com The Protector As an INFJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you take things in primarily via intuition. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit with your personal value system. INFJs are gentle, caring, complex and highly intuitive individuals. Artistic and creative, they live in a world of hidden meanings and possibilities. Only one percent of the population has an INFJ Personality Type, making it the most rare of all the types. INFJs place great importance on havings things orderly and systematic in their outer world. They put a lot of energy into identifying the best system for getting things done, and constantly define and re-define the priorities in their lives. On the other hand, INFJs operate within themselves on an intuitive basis which is entirely spontaneous. They know things intuitively, without being able to pinpoint why, and without detailed kno

I picked this bottle up from my local wine store near Nambu Terminal for 19,000. First of all, it is a dark, dark wine. It's almost black. As I swirl it, it shows nice vicosity. It has a rich smell- I can smell some oak, dark chocolate and...hints of blackberry. The smell lingers in the nose. I could smell this all day. The taste is a bit unexpected. I thought it would be dry, but it's actually a bit sweet. Not Mogen David sweet, but a hint of blueberry jam sweet. It actually tastes like blueberry! And if you didn't know this, blueberry is my favorite fruit! I'm also getting a hint of plum. It's not oakey in the mouth, but has a bit of oak on the finish. The wine might be a bit young, but it's a good light cabernet sauvignon. I'm going to score this a 90. I'm going to get a couple extra bottles and put them away for a couple of months and at 19,000 it's a steal.

Hehe...it's so easy to be demoniacal. Comic Life and a Wacom is all you need. Zoom in!

I shouldn't have done a tasting of Vinapena. It's just a table wine so it really needs to breath. Once it has some air, it's smooth and sweet. Not Mogen David sweet, but with a slight saccharine feel in the mouth. It's still not my favorite, but it can be dealt with. There is still a slight bitterness on the finish and it's a bitterness that itches the throat. I'm going to change my score. I'll give it a 70. Dan

I'm going for the cheap stuff today, because I'd like to find a cheap bottle of sipping wine for thin days. I bought this at a wineshop around Nambu Terminal below Gyo Dae for 9000 won. This wine is called Vinapena and it's from Castilla. There is no year. The color is a bit pale- not the richest of reds...it's more dimeatap purple. The nose is...acrid. It smells like woodchips and Mogen David that's been outside in the sun for a couple hours. It has a hint of burnt tire. It smells dry on my nose. I'm not looking forward to this at all. It tastes like moonshine mixed with gasoline. I'm not getting any fruit, just a burn. It tastes like cotton with a hint of lavendar? I'm dumping this whole bottle. STAY AWAY FROM VINAPENA! Score= 51...remember the worst is Mad Dog because it ain't even a wine. Gross! It might be good to do shots with...hmmm... I should say something good right? It has a beautiful cork. It's very well made and fits per

This week's lesson is on Figurative Language, which is one of my favorites to teach. We start out by reading Alice Walker's "Am I Blue?" and I point out all the figurative language in the essay. Afterwards I write: Taxi Driver Dentist A pillow, Winning a Contest A clock Riding a busy subway And tell them to write either a simile, metaphor, and personification for each one. The one that my students seem to have the most problem with is metaphor. Here are some metaphor examples. The collision rang through the streets. The taxi driver stepped out of his mangled heap, stamped thrice-his hooves denting the asphalt. Smoke screamed out of his nostrils. He spread his horned fists and charged. The doctor buzzed, buzzed, buzzed in my ear and then stuck me with his needle and sipped my blood. Just as the bell rang I slammed my pencil on the paper. The black mark swirled around and around my answer. 2 points!

You wrote a lot and I commend your enthusiasm, but please focus on quality over quantity. Good writing should be direct, easy to grasp for the reader, and insightful. And it's always better to show through examples, figurative language, description, etc rather than by telling me about what you are telling me about. And remember what Mark Twain said, "I'm sorry. I didn't have the time to write you a shorter letter." Am I being too harsh?

Here are some interesting resources i found Here's a dictionary on Bokonism http://cns2.uni.edu/~wallingf/personal/bokonon.html

I wonder if I could work Arm wrestling into a punishment for not doing homework...hmmm...

I'm researching and developing material for Cat's Cradle and A Secret Life of Bees for my middle school students at my job. It's going to be a lot of fun. I wonder how the students will react to Vonnegut. Alrighty, back to work. Dan

http://www.agoda.com/ This is a great site my co-worker told me about.

Tonight I'm going to taste a bottle I got at the Shinsege Department store at the Express bus terminal. I must admit, the buyer for Shinsege has a nice nose and most of the wines I've gotten there have been pretty top notch. They wines in the 30-70,000 won (34-76 dollar range) have been wonderful. Everything seems well cellared and managed. I don't know about the salesperson knowledge because my Korean is poor. They have a nice range of American, Australian, and French wines. This wine is a 2001 Chateau de Callac. I bought it for 30,000 won at Shinsege. It won a bronze metal in 2001. This wine is dark and has a fragrantly bitter bouquet. The smell lingers and wafts between sweet and tangy. It has some legs when I swirl it around. I really like the smell of it. It's like Guatamala Antigua coffee with a bit of lemon zest. It has a bit of a bite the alcohol is burns a bit, but as it sits out it mellows out. It has a woody, mesquite taste to it and I'm getti

I'm looking for a talented up and coming comic book artist. I am a writer and I work for an entertainment company. Currently, I have one animation in the works. However, this is a very long process, so I want to start another project in the meantime. This time instead of starting with a cartoon pitch to the company, I would like to start out by with a Manga and then later try to develop this into a cartoon. I have contacts in publishing and this would be a great opportunity for those who've been dying to do something creative in Korea that is unrelated to teaching English. I am looking for people that have a unique style that can draw freehand and also on Adobe Illustrator or other computer based drawing applications. If you are interested then message me and then I'll send you an e-mail address where you can send samples of your art. Oh, and you should live in Seoul, Korea. Thanks, Dan

These were taken with my camera phone, so I'm sorry about the picture quality. the last picture is of black rice pudding with icecream. It was pretty good. I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but this is of two women on a motorcycle at night. The one woman is holding a baby and nobody is wearing a helmet.

I'm sorry, I didn't tell everyone. Last week I went to Bali to get away from Korea for a couple days. It was a very restful and productive time. I did some writing and I'm back in Korea with new perspective. Sometimes you just have to get away from it all. I stayed in Candidasa, which is a city to the east, at the Candi Beach Cottage. It had two beautiful pools and it was right on the beach. It also had a running trail- it's really nice to run among the palm trees in the morning. My room was nice, although a bit dark. My TV didn't work well- not that anything was on, but when it rained it would have been nice to watch something other than the geckos gathering around the door. They had an excellent complementary breakfast. The fruit and the omelets were my favorite. The service was sublime. Everyone was very friendly and helpful. It's a place I'd definitely want to travel to again. Oh, of note, it's about 2 and a half hours from the airport.