I am a Sad Bastard

So here is the story. The other day I arrived at work and a small group of co-workers were huddled up in the parking lot standing in the wind. I was quickly informed there was a "big plane" about to take off, and that it would be worth watching. You see in Wellington, big planes taking off is exciting, not only because its a small town and entertainment is hard to find, but the runway in Wellington is notoriously short and the winds are notoriously strong, so a big plane managing the runway IS actually very exciting. So we hunkered behind a van that someone had there to block the wind and waited. Shortly other people, not from Weta, began to arrive, apparently having spotted us on the hill where our parking lot is located (which is also conveniently just across the street from the airport runway). These few people were "Plane Spotters". One guy, who had brought his entire family, was so excited to see so many other "Plane Spotters" that he couldn't resist making himself feel less pathetic by proving that there were more people like him in the world, so he filmed us. We all felt bad, because we weren't plane spotters, we were just trying to delay the inevitable work day, so we just played along. But long story short, I just received the email at work that he published his video on Youtube. So without further adieu, here I am in all my glory. If you can't spot me, I'm in the brown hoody and white hat. You can hear me talking to my friend as the plane begins to roll down the runway: "Oh look at that." "Building up a nice head of steam" and "How nervous is the pilot right now?"
Sad Bastard

Conjugal Visits

Yet another week of wind, rain, wind, clouds, wind, wind, and a bit of wind has gone by. It also rained a lot. Then the weekend arrived and Saturday had some choice weather. In a short 12 hours, it managed to go back and forth from rain, to sunshine, to rain again about 10 times. And each bit of rain or sunshine lasted for no longer than 5 - 10 minutes at a time. Of course to keep us sane, the wind is always a constant, which is what I have realized is the reason the weather can change so abruptly and so often here. With perpetual 25+ mph winds blowing, no cloud can stick around long enough to dump more than a few drops. But the same goes for the sun. It can't shine long enough to even find out if this "hole in the ozone layer" thing is the truth or just a big hoax.

That aside, I did accomplish a lot this last week/weekend. I signed the lease for my new house, which I cannot move into yet, but I can admire from afar. On Saturday I picked up my new car (new is relative, it's a 95, but its new to me). It's a 1995 Subaru Legacy Grand Wagon. And I'm proud to say my first 4WD vehicle. I managed to pick this beauty up for less than $3,000 USD. And yes, it works. It even passed the "Warrant of Fitness" check that every car in NZ has to take every 6 months. And this sort of cheap vehicle find is only possible because of New Zealand's seemingly insatiable desire to swap out their cars constantly. I could be way off in this observation, but after bearing witness to the thrice weekly car auctions they hold here, in which they sell off 100 used cars, rapid auction style, in a matter of an hour, I get the feeling there is a very quick turn around time for cars in this area. And every few days when they hold one of these auctions, they have another full fleet of 100 cars to sell, and almost all of them sell. Maybe I've been out of the car purchasing universe too long and this is actually a common thing in the States, but I found it pretty amazing. But enough babbling, here's some lovely pictures of my new darling. She's gonna be my savior for the surf and snow season.

In other big news, I have finished my 2 week stay at the lovely Duxton Hotel. I sadly never took any pictures of the suite I was in, but it was pretty ridiculous (and by that I mean awesome). 2 room suite with a hallway and 2 bathrooms. What was I going to do with 2 bathrooms? I even met another new guy at Weta who couldn't get a regular suite, because they were all booked up with other new Weta employees, so he had to settle for the Presidential Suite, complete with a 10 person dining room table. Just hilarious. Anyways, today, Sunday, was my move out day, and in turn my move in day to my temporary home. I am taking the 3rd bedroom in the condo of 2 fellow animators Jalil and Scott. It's a nice clean place, but it gets rather cold at night, and in comparison to the types of places and locations that a lot of our other friends have gotten, the location they have certainly leaves a lot to be desired. Although the 42in plasma screen and xbox 360 that Jalil is renting certainly comes close to making up for the negatives. Regardless, they have found another place they want to move into downtown, and this transition will most likely be happening in the next few weeks. So i will be moving yet again, with them, to finish out my freeloading in a downtown apartment. And to give an example of the other types of places people have gotten, I am enclosing, along with a few photos of Jalil and Soctt's place, some lovely photos of our friends Tom and Greg's place on the beach in Lyall Bay. I can't say enough about their deck.

Temporary Home

Tom and Greg's House

And then that brings us to today, in which out of nowhere, the clouds parted, the winds stopped, and it actually became warm. I wore a t-shirt around all day. It gives us all hope for the summer. So in recognition of the weather, we took a little drive down the southern coast and stumbled across a little hiking trail where the road comes to an end. Granted, at about 6:00 the gloomy clouds came rushing back in from the south, but while it lasted, the sunshine can actually make you forget about what the weather is like the other 80% of the time. So in closing, here are some pictures of that little trail, which we plan to go back to the next time the clouds part and grant us a few nice hours of sun.

Holy Crap

So now I get it. Remember that bitchy, whiny post I made a few days ago? Well, the sun came out for a few days, I drove around the coast of the city, and ended up finding a house. My outlook has gotten a bit more sunny. So to compliment my new attitude on things, I will give some pictures to show what has convereted me. First the southern coast, which is three quarters on the way to paradise (on a sunny day). Looks kinda like Hawaii and Hobbiton had a love child. That's a good thing. Here are some pics:

And secondly the house. Found it yesterday. I had wanted to live alone, but when I found this place, I said screw it, I'll pair up for this one. Not sure of square footage (or metres for that matter), but its on the water, with a little stretch of grass and sand between the front porch and the water. Front deck surrounded by a little shrubbery. Long driveway to get to it, so its not even touching a street. Huge downstairs area with 2 living areas, a dining area and a center kitchen. downstairs has one master bedroom, one guest bdrm, one bathroom. Upstairs has another master bedroom, overlooking the water (my room ;-), another guest bdrm, and another bathroom. Enclosed backyard with Lawn, Deck, BBQ, and a friggin built in trampoline. Lots of storage in the backyard for surfboards/snowboards/dead bodies. 2 car garage, and a huge secluded concrete car park area with a basket ball hoop, and big enough for a half court and a quarter-pipe (if I want to build one). Alright, enough words, here are some pics:

Unfortunately, I can't move in till Dec 23rd, but it's perfect timing, because Haej will be able to lift all my haevy stuff for me.

Whistle While you Work

First impressions. None to say of the workplace because work for me has not officially begun, although some mild training and acclimating to the new operating system and all the proprietary Weta-tools has certainly commenced. That said, the initial impressions of the city, which are most likely unfair due to only 72 hours worth of impression-making, are a bit iffy. To be fair, Wellington is a beautiful, peaceful place filled with genuinely friendly people. But my experience thus far has been more or less cold, rain, clouds, and wind. Oh the wind. Nothing makes mildly unpleasant weather become any more unbearable than adding in some gusty wind. And "Windy Welly", as they call it, saves its gusty wind for the nice days, or so I hear. The rest of the time, which is most of the time, the winds stay at a constant "the hurricane is on its way" level. Granted the hurricane never comes, but at times I wish it would, because maybe then the wind would stop, at least for a little while.

Just some quick thoughts as I fight the jetlag. I'm sure by next week I'll have a fully different impression, because thus far its changing day to day, I just can't write about it every day. Hopefully by then I'll have some photos worth posting as well.

What's the deal with Grape Nuts?

I may have mis- represented the whole of local Korean cuisine in my previous post. I know I certainly didn't misrepresent that particular dish one bit, but in all fairness I should convey what the rest of the food was like. Delightfully it was nothing like my squirming friends in the video. I was fortunate enough to have a guide who knows and appreciates her food very much, and was able to take me to the best version of each type of dish we had the time to consume. I won't begin to list them both due to may inability to remember them all, and more so do to the likelihood that I will slay each dishes name by trying to spell it out phonetically. But I'll say this much - the experiences I got covered every type of establishment you would expect to visit when getting the Real Deal introduction to a local cuisine. There were the down and dirty holes-in-the-wall, comparable in ambiance to my favorite Mexican joints in San Diego (Bertos, Sergios, Charro). There were the original places that ONLY the locals go - and then this guy comes strutting in. And there were even the up-scale joints, some with fancy private rooms that I was surprised to find didn't kick out a guy in jeans and a t-shirt. In all I'd say the food is the most vivid, and certainly one of the most fun memories that I'll take with me from Korea, seeing as much of what we did revolved around where to eat, what to eat, and whom to eat with. And receiving a plate of wriggling severed sausages from the sea is just part of the fun.

And one more thing - I kick ASS with chopsticks. I was told so. Just look at the pictures.

99 bottles of beer on the wall

Sitting in Incheon Airport in Seoul, having arrived over 3 hours early. Wasting time on the Internet. We gave ourselves 4 hours+ for our trip to the airport and check-in, the reason being that Seoul has traffic, or more appropriately city-wide constant gridlock. All the time. I wish I had a picture to illustrate - I might, but I'll have to look for it later when I get access to my computer. You see I had to remove my laptop battery from my laptop and check the battery. New regulations, or at least regulations flying into the US, dictate that ALL Dell and Apple laptops, regardless of their model of battery, must not have a battery accompanying the computer onto the plane, thus rendering them useless unless you are lucky enough to have an outlet at your seat. Of course last time I saw one of those near my seat on a plane, I was sitting in First Class. So that would be never. But I see the wisdom in it, since dell laptops, and apparently apples now as well, are accidental bombs of fiery death. I'm sure THIS wouldn't be so comfortable happening on your lap.

Anyways, the streets of Seoul, for the most part, are always jammed. And drivers are all pretty impatient, ballsy, and most of all extremely aggressive. It's unlike any US city I've been too, even NYC. The driving is not crazy due to any excessive speeds, but more so due to peoples adaptation to the lack of speeds, thus turning every street into a slow-motion game of bumper cars. And to their credit, most drivers in Seoul know their cars lengths and widths to an inch, or should I say to a 2.54 centimeter. What I learned is that the mentality of driving is completely different. You are out for yourself, and only for yourself when you drive in Seoul. The only way you'll get yourself into a lane is if you wedge enough nose of your car in front of another that they can't physically move past you. Otherwise, nobody is letting anybody into a lane. So with this in mind, the streets rarely have a straight line of cars in any lane. The intersections are often a criss-crossing mess of cars trying to get from the lane they are in to the lane they want to be in, which as you can imagine doesn't allow for much forward progress in the traffic. But with all this chaos, I don't think I ever saw anybody seem to get mad at another for deliberately sticking their nose in front of another, or for not being let into a lane. It is accepted and everyone doesn't seem to mind, or at least they don't show it. If you imagine this scenario in the US, there would be cars being rammed and fists being thrown. But then again, perhaps the small bit of driving courtesy that some have retained and try to use helps maintain a little bit of movement in the traffic. Or not.

Either way, having experienced this all week led Haejin and I to give ourselves a load of extra time to get to the airport. But naturally, the one time we plan for traffic, we don't find any. And so here we are, wasting time in the airport. But now that I have wasted the time, it is boarding time. See you all in the states.

Do I look pale?

I thought I was a bit adventurous when it came to food. I mean, I'd like to think I'll try everything once as long as it's proven that it's edible, and other people are eating it. So far this week I've ventured into many new territories, most of them sea-creatures. I've had Sea Urchin, Sea Cucumber, Sting Ray, and Octopus (not new to me, but challenging in it's own right). So today, on a 2 hour road trip down the coast of Korea, we ventured to a small sea-side town that served traditional style Korean seafood. That translates essentially to fresh and, in most cases, raw. And not necessarily the type of raw you might have experienced. Raw in most cases to me means not cooked. Raw in this incident could have been an acronym for Recently Alive and Wriggling. Still raw, but a different level of raw.

In any event, after a bowl of squirming and kicking prawns was delivered to our table, along with a few other rather shocking side dishes, we began to nibble on some raw scallops, and other sea cuisine (I kept mainly to the mussels/clams). Then the prawns were cooked on our table, and we'd slowly pick them apart and eat them (de-pooping was a task in itself). Well as I was being offered some shrimp heads, which I actually managed to eat one of, but only one just to say I did, I couldn't keep my eyes off the appetizer plate that had arrived nearly a half hour earlier. So tact aside, I decided to finally give in and shoot a quick video of our appetizers. Now keep in mind these guys had been sitting here for 30 minutes at the least, and had died down quite a bit. But their "activity" had not subsided. What I'm talking about is what you see in the picture above (and more importantly in the video when you click on the picture above). These sliced tube-like pieces were continuously wriggling and flexing with the dexterity of a very determined, albeit severed, tongue. I was fascinated as much as I was unable to look at them in order to maintain my appetite. So join in my fascination and watch the video. You'll thank me.

By the way, I spent the whole time glancing at these things, trying to convince myself that I should eat one just to say I did. But in all honesty, what the hell would I brag about that I had eaten? A wriggling sausage skin from the sea? I think the video is bragging rights enough - that I sat with these guys dancing next to me and never involuntarily returned my lunch to the table.

San Diego is not all peaches and cream

I went to a Buddhist Temple today to take some pictures. There were lots of intricate decorations and many shoes strewn about. Some of the buildings on the grounds have the symbol you see in the pictures on the right hung over the doorway. It's called a Swastika - some of you might have heard of it. It stands for "good fortune" and "well being" - some of you might not have heard of that. I myself had heard of that only once, so when I saw these posted about the temple, I was reminded of what I had heard, and looked into it. And I'd say for any of you who don't quite understand why I am saying the symbol that represents some of the worst atrocities of mankind stands for such positive things, then I suggest you look into it as well. Start Here.

A quick summary in my words. The symbol has been in use for nearly 10,000 years, and for the last 2,500 had risen in importance as the premier symbol of good luck for Buddhism and Hinduism. Then less than 100 years ago, it was adopted by a certain group of rather nasty folks, who managed to turn it's incredibly long history of positive symbolism into an image of pure hatred and evil. And as far as my previous knowledge and education was concerned, had eradicated the western worlds ability to conceive of it as anything but, let alone know it meant anything different.

So do yourself a favor and read up on it a little. A perfect example of the extensive positive history of this symbol can be seen by wikipedia's write up on it, and that the mention of its use in a negative fashion is a small, rather insignificant paragraph at the end of a substantially long article. Worth a mention is the small blurb in the section of "Taboo in Western Countries" in which it states despite the symbols virtual disappearance in use in the western world, there is a building located in San Diego of all places, that when looked at in Google Earth (32 40'34.09" N, 117 09'27.96 W) or Google Maps it can be seen as an obvious swastika. Way to go SD - now that's a noble claim to fame.

Sea Cucumber tastes like Chicken...

...made from the soles of shoes.

First things first. Flying for 15 hours straight did not seem as bad as I had expected. I guess you can dread it, or you can make an event out of it. Haej and I chose the event route. Cocktails and in flight Yatzee to start, then some food Korean Air style (BiBimBap to those who are familiar), some less that amusing entertainment (Nacho Libre), some games (Lego Star Wars on PSP), some profound entertainment (An Inconvenient Truth), some dinner, and then my uncle's magic pill to put me down for the count. Next thing you know you are landing in Seoul.

Haejin's father's driver was waiting at the airport to take us straight to her parents house, which is a quick 2 hours away. A little more sleep got me through that one. Then arrival at the rent's place. A bit intimidating to put it mildly, especially since I am apparently the first person that Haejin has brought home. But I had practiced up on my Korean phrases, and I was ready to embarrass myself.

As you could expect everyone was more than welcoming and very warm. The first hour was mostly references to how tall I was (see picture above), mostly from her 7 year old nephew who would ask me to touch the ceiling and proceed to try himself. He finally found when he stood on the back of the couch he could match my height.

After the groom arrived with his 2 friends, we sat down to eat. There were many courses with lots of dishes I was fairly familiar with, and a few that I wasn't, but I made a point of at least trying everything, and actually finished and enjoyed the majority of it. During dinner, there was also lots of drinking. Lots of drinking. Her dad loves his nice whiskey, which is one of the gifts I brought for him. And when you are approached by someone who has a bottle in hand, you hold out your shot glass, let them pour, and then shoot it. Then you swap and pour them their shot. Then you move on to someone else and offer them a shot, and the same exchange ensues. You can see where this goes.

After the groom had indulged in a little too much whiskey, it was time to call it a night. Everybody said their goodbyes, and I headed into the city to check into my hotel. Yes, I'm staying in a hotel about 25-75 minutes from where Haej is staying, depending on traffic. That's the rules. I don't fight them. But its a very nice hotel and in an area where I can wander around and see lots of new stuff. According to Haejin it's not quite traditional Seoul, but its a nice buffer zone for me to get acquainted.

Amusing Title For First Post

I'm in Korea. I'm not into the whole blog thing. I don't quite get it. A few people suggested I should create a blog. I looked into it. Now I get it.

Kinda.