So long, 2010. You've been good to me.

2010 was a really good year for me. Not only was it a good year, but it also signifies the close of a decade. The last year closed off a decade of significant growth where I truly became an adult and learned to be myself. 2010 was a year of happiness and some some lingering sadness, but 2011 is the start of a new decade. This upcoming decade will be when I close off my 20s enter my 30s and almost finish my 30s. Hopefully, I can continue the momentum and experience the ascent of my career, the spark of true love and the growth of a family.

I'm writing this quick entry while vacationing in Cebu City, Philippines. I started 2000 as a kid celebrating the millenium at home watching the ball drop in Times Square. How things have changed.

2011 is the start of a new life in a different part of the world. I love you 2010, but I've met someone new.

Adieu 2010!

Korean Websites SUCK

I'm really annoyed!

Why, why, why!? WHY do Korean websites suck so much! I think the Asiana Airlines website is the shittiest of all the websites in the world. I've been trying to check-in online and keep getting stuck at the same fucking screen where it shows a spinning clock just with a polite, "Please, wait a moment." I've been trying to check-in for the last couple hours on Firefox and on Chrome but it will not work.

I really don't understand this country's obsession with ActiveX. For all the innovation that Korea produces, it really sometimes sets itself back into the stone ages in some ways with some of its online policies and practices. The majority of websites require Internet Explorer for the site to behave properly. And if you're looking to access banking or government sites, then forget about it. I really don't understand why Internet Explorer is the standard here for transactions and online shopping (I've been told it's slowly changing). Engaging in these kind of activities on IE is like going to a hooker without a condom, that's how dangerous it is!

I hate Korean websites with all the fucking pop-ups, flash animations and the chaotic layout of a million different types of information screaming at you from the screen.

And what is it with the "batang" font that is used when displaying anything in English. They use the ugliest font ever created. I can't even do online banking because they require some sort of POS software to be installed on my computer before allowing me access due to "security reasons". In the month and a half that I've been here, I've been told that things are the way they are because of "security reasons".

I'm really pissed off and annoyed.

Korean Bakeries

I like Asian bakeries, a lot. Some of the breads smell and taste so good! Regular breads and cakes in Korea at most bakeries are really tasty.

What I don't like are the sandwiches in Korea. I think someone needs to open up a real delicatessen in Korea or something. Most of the sandwiches I've tried here almost always contain some sort of sweet pickles and the deli meats can be a bit mysterious. The worst is when they use hotdogs! The other day I bought a tortilla or burrito of some sort and inside, they stuffed a hotdog in it as the meat. You'll also find interesting uses for ketchup, mayonaise, diced cabbage and mustard in some of these "sandwiches".

I think I can understand where my grandfather got his idea for a 'sausage sandwich' long time ago when I was a kid. I think it was when I was in grade 1 or grade 2 when my grandpa made me lunch one day for school. I took it to school and at lunch I opened up my lunch to find a sandwich made of 4 hotdogs lined up and covered in a slice of cheese with ketchup oozing out of the soggy bread.

Finally got a smartphone

So it turns out I was eligible for a device subsidy if I signed up for a 2 year contract. It's a good thing I didn't buy a phone this past weekend.

I bought the Samsung Galaxy S. Here are my quick thoughts after 1 day of use:

- lovely screen and very light weight
- terrible battery life
- messaging experience isn't that great so far for me
- the TouchWiz UI is a POS
- sound quality is lovely
- camera is good, but lacks an LED flash
- I don't think I can use a phone without an LED message indicator while maintaining my sanity
- games, multimedia and apps are really cool on Android

Overall, I think I miss my BlackBerry at this point, but hopefully this device will grow on me. It better! I have to use it for 2 years.

Why are you open!?

Determined to get a new phone last Sunday, I went to T-world, Qook Show and LGu+ to check out my options. I decided to get either an Android or an iPhone in Korea and I was dead set on purchasing one before the end of the day. This is the story of how that DIDN'T happen.

I went to each of the stores and spoke to them about what they thought about each of their devices and what my options were. I decided to get an iPhone or the Samsung Galaxy S. I went to the northern part of Seoul near Gwanhwamun to go to the main office of Qook Show to get my iphone. I went there because that's the only place that foreigners can get an iphone in Seoul apparently. Korea has some laws or perhaps regulatory policies enacted by the carriers that prevent foreigners from purchasing smartphones easily. Basically, they are afraid that we'll bail on the bill etc before the contract is up. So we're forced to buy the device outright without a device subsidy. The cost of an iPhone or the Galaxy S is an astounding 900,000 KRW. This is close to $780USD...wow. So I decided to go for the iphone. I went up to the cashier and told the guy there that I was a foreigner and that I wanted to buy an iphone. He told me that there was a 2-3 week wait list for an iphone and that I could sign up to wait. Exasperated, I left the store. It wasn't that important that I get the iphone. I already have an ipod touch (love it) and I figured I'd try out the Galaxy S, which is offered by SK Telecom.

At the SK Telecom store, I went up to the guy behind the counter and spoke to him for several minutes about the various options and the pricing. Again, he confirmed that as a foreigner with my specific visa (E7), I wasn't eligible to receive any device subsidies or have the option of spreading out the cost of my smartphone over a span of several months. Basically I would have to shell out about $780USD (900,000KRW) to get the Galaxy S. sigh.

I left the store and walked around a bit, looked at some watches in Myungdong and then went back to the SK Telecom store determined to buy the phone. I went up to the same guy and he asked if I had made up my mind. I told him that I had decided to go for the Galaxy S and if he could sign me up. We talked about plans and some different color options. I found that the plans in Korea were very reasonable and I was happy with my decision. It would be nice to try out an Android phone as my primary means of communication. We sat down to go through the options and to go through the purchasing process. He then tells me that since it's Sunday, the credit card machines have been put away because they can't process credit card payments on Sunday. Nor can they activate phones on Sunday. I was stunned. The SK Telecom store was packed with people and there were people looking at various phones and options. I asked him,"Then why are you guys even open today?!" He said, "We only take cash on Sundays and phones that are purchased today are activated on Monday." Man. I couldn't believe this! This is actually the 2nd time that this has happened to me. A few weeks ago, I went to the post office on a Saturday afternoon and when I tried to pay for a service, I was informed that on weekends, cash is the only method of payment accepted because they put away the credit/debit card machines for the weekend. WTF! I went on a wild goose chase looking for an ATM that would accept foreign debit cards. Anyway, back to the story...I told him I didn't carry almost $800 in cash around with me normally and that I might as well come back on Monday when I can get the phone activated.

So this is the story of how I spent a day researching and deciding on which phone to get only to be denied because of weird corporate policies against credit/debit cards on weekends.

Tomorrow, I will try to get myself a personal phone again. And I hope it works. I hate the idea of paying so much for a phone because I know how much carriers pay the OEMs for these phones. These Korean carriers are really taking a huge profit from each device sale and it really kills me that I'm forced to fork up so much money.

There is one last option that I will consider. Korean carriers will not allow smartphones purchased abroad to be used on their networks without first having the devices 'registered'. Basically what this means is that the carrier must put the ESN or IMEI of the device in question on their whitelist. This is a very simple process that I am somewhat familiar with from my days at TELUS. Sounds easy, right? Just add the ESN or IMEI into the provisioning system of the carrier. Unfortunately, it's a rip off to do this. It costs about $300USD to get your foreign phone whitelisted. I didn't want to spend that much money to do this, but seeing as how I may have to pay close to $800 for a new phone, I may just pay $300 to get my old BlackBerry whitelisted on SK Telecom.

Frustration all around.

First Month in Korea

Today is December 16. It has been exactly 1 month since I've arrived in Korea. Time flies, but at the same time, it feels like I've been here forever. My apartment is starting to feel like home and it's slowly getting filled up with stuff.

I want to get some additional furniture and a couple paintings or photographs here.

I can't wait for my 1 year anniversary. It's going to be an awesome year.

Where to travel?!

I'm in the middle of trying to decide where to go during the last week of December.

- Thailand
- Hong Kong
- Taiwan
- Philippines

I want to visit them all, but I must choose one.

The Bucket List

Bucket List

I thought about some of the things that I want to do in my life over the last few weeks and I've come up with a 'bucket list'. The other day, I was talking to a coworker about what he did over the weekend and he told me he had celebrated his parents' 30th anniversary. It struck me as really cool that his parents have been married longer than I've been alive (obviously). I just never thought of it that way. It's amazing how long life is and how short it can be. Hopefully I will have a fruitful and successful life. But that begs the question: "What is success"? This is one of those questions with no answer. Everyone has a different conception of success, but to me, at this point in my life, it means to achieve the things that I've set my mind to and to feel that I'm on the path to becoming the best person I can be. It's a bit of a selfish conception of success, but I'm sure my ideals of a successful life will evolve.

Today, in order to achieve the "good life", I've outlined some of the goals of my life. I hope to look back on this list and cross things off as I go along and perhaps be okay with the turn of events in my life that prevented me from achieving some of these goals. One of the best characteristics to have is to be able to evolve and accept change...even if it means eventually becoming a bit of a different person along the way.

Below is my bucket list. It is a living list and will change as the years go by.

- Live in Korea
- Become fluent in Korean
- Learn another language
- Marry and have 4 kids
- Own a beautiful house
- Raise good, responsible kids
- Visit every continent
- Go on a cruise
- Become famous for at least 15 minutes
- Be published somewhere
- Climb a mountain
- Learn to sing and play an instrument
- Live in the United States
- Live in Europe
- Sell a photograph that I shot
- Learn to draw well
- Learn to sail and do it in the Mediterranean
- Meet a world leader currently in office
- Attend Cannes Film Festival
- Live in NYC and SF
- Drive along Route 66
- Visit all 50 states in America
- Drive across Canada
- Visit all provinces and territories in Canada
- Attend a summer and winter Olympics
- Make a ton of money
- Give a ton of money away
- Own a business
- Apologize sincerely to those I’ve hurt
- Act on stage
- Inspire confidence in someone who really needs it
- Learn to love

In Korea

I'm glad that I have internet at home. The rumors are true, folks. Internet in Korea is insanely fast and it's so cheap! Cheap compared to Canadian standards, at least. It's about 45 bucks a month for unlimited crazy insane fast internet and IPTV Cable here.

Now that I'm settled down, I'm looking to buy a sleek new LED flat screen TV to replace the crappy SD CRT TV I have in my apartment.

I'm looking forward to the next 2 years here in Asia. I have a couple big goals that are part of a larger "bucket list" that I've been putting together over the last few weeks.


Goals while here:

- Improve my Korean to a level that would be considered fluent. This includes reading and writing.

- Travel more and see as much of Korea as I can

- Travel outside of Korea and visit countries and cities that I haven't been able to see in the past.

- Try as many things at least once.

Before Korea

Leading up to my departure from Toronto, I was blessed with friends showing their support for my decision to go overseas through numerous gatherings, dinners and even some gifts.  I’ll remember the good conversation and the fun memories from those last week for a long time. 

My intent in leaving Canada was not to come back for a long time.  There’s a whole lot to explore and experience out there and when an opportunity comes up to see more of the world, I think I’ll always take it.  Of course, there are drawbacks to living life this way.  Mainly it’ll be hard to leave loved ones.  Hopefully, the positives outweigh the negatives in this nomadic life.  Eventually I’ll have to settle down somewhere, but I don’t know where I want to end up.

Hopefully I find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Important Question & Blading Accident

Why did you decide to use Blogger as your blog platform? I'm trying to decide what is the best option out there.  When I used to try to blog here, the themes, wallpaper and general look & feel felt very generic and inadequate.  Now, it looks like the good folks at Google suped things up a bit and made it easier for people to have nicer looking pages.

On a completely unrelated note, let me tell you about what happened to me a few weeks ago while I was out enjoying the summer.  I went blading along the lakeshore in Toronto with a couple friends who wanted to go jogging.  They jogged while I bladed.  I don't jog, period.  Anyway,  at about the 3rd hour or so of blading, I was going quite fast along the trail really enjoying the wind, the speed and the weaving in and out of human traffic.  I was able to do some thinking and see parts of the city that I don't really get to see.  It was a lot of fun, when suddenly in front of me is a small group of people who were stationary appeared.  I simply weaved in front of them and thought nothing of it until I stumbled over what they were walking around - a small street sign.  I tripped, and fell on a biker and the both of us went face first into the pavement.  My momentum took me by surprise and I literally smacked my face into the ground and hurt my wrists in the process.  I quickly got up, brushed myself off and tried to ignore the crowd of people nearby who were rushing to my attention.  I wanted to take off, but I was kind of in shock to be honest.  One lady with a baby carriage came up to me and insisted that I check my teeth and asked if I needed anything.  I said I was fine.  But I wasn't fine.  I spat out blood and checked my teeth.  Good thing they were okay.  Turns out I cut the inside of my lip and bruised it up pretty badly.  The nice lady gave me a bunch of baby wipes and a small towel for me to clean myself up with.  I eventually went to the hospital to get a tetanus shot and a stitch in my upper lip.  This is the 2nd time I had to get stitches. 

At the time, I didn't even think much about the kind lady who came to my assistance, but now that I think of it, I am glad that she was there to give me those towels.  Very kind. 

It's been a few weeks since my little accident and everything is fine now, but my left wrist still kind of hurts.  I'm sure in due time, all will be fine.

Evolution

In the last few years, I've been able to experience so much that I never thought would be possible. I am glad to see that my life has been a series of progressions, achievements and challenges overcome. It feels like I'm on the cusp of yet another adventure and opportunity to meet new people, experience new things and to see more of the world. I love it.

I'm a dreamer. I don't believe I've always been like this, but I've become like this. I want to see the world, befriend new and interesting people who challenge me to change the way I see things.

It's crazy to think back ten years and see where you were and what you were doing and then to imagine how much faster the next ten years will come and how much more change you'll experience.

It's going to exciting.