There's gold on Jo Island

Conditions looked right for a rainbow but I was in a canyon of apartment buildings, so I picked a random one, rode the elevator to the highest floor and walked the stairs to the roof to take these photos.

By chance, this apartment had a great view of Cheungcho Lake.  In the foreground  of the picture below are several rows of pipes.  They will be towed north at some point to a deep water plant that, I guess, draws the water from over a thousand meters down to the surface and desalinates it.  I don't know how distilling water (or whatever other method they use to desalinate it) from a pure source differs from using a contaminated source - removing the salt requires enough work that most every other contaminant will be removed as well.

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I posted these pics in fairly large format, but they won't expand for me.  I hope they do for you.

Video Chatting

When MSN Messenger first came out, I put everyone I knew on my contact list and chatted with many of them frequently.  When circumstances allowed, I bought a web-cam and used it with a few people.

In the last two or more years, I have only chatted with my mother.  We chat using the web-cams so she can see her grandson -well, also to talk to me and such, but mostly for the chance to see her grandson that her cruel, unfeeling son keeps 10,000 km away.

In buying the new computer, an iMac with built in web-cam, I figured that video chat would improve or at least stay the same.

This is not the case.  Apple's iChat does not work with MSN Messenger.  I have the Windows OS as well and when I use it, the built in web-cam isn't found or recognized.  anyway, it isn't functional while using Windows.

Does anyone know if this is a problem with my version of Boot Camp?  I started checking an iMac forum, but was called away just as I started reading something on that subject.

I am tempted to set up Google Video Chat - I use Google for just about everything else - but it seems like a step backward.  I expected a new computer to expand my options (and it has, mostly) not simply exchange one option with another.  If I were changing because Google Chat were a better service, that would be one thing.  But to change due to software incompatibilities is another, less palatable thing.

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Oh, I downloaded Chrome on the Windows side and I like it.  Very functional but without any flash (I mean ostentation, I guess it features Flash animation and the like).

Sand sculpting in Donghae

From the Joongang:

...1st Korean International World Sand Sculpting Championship and Exhibition in Donghae 2009. The sand sculpting event, in Gangwon Province, will take place May 16 to June 28 with 30 artists from 15 nations. 

The WSSA (World Sand Sculpting Association) says the event finishes on the 17th, while the Korea Times confirms the original dates and specifies the location as Mangsang Beach, just north of Donghae and near the whale museum I visited earlier.

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As an aside, look at the spelling of Korea in the Google results for my search.

An Influential English Daily in South Kroea

Thursday, May 14, 2009 | 9:17 p.m. ET ... A careful touch: A sculptor repairs a sand replica of Sungnyemun, which was burnt down last year, in preparation of the 1st Korean International World Sand Sculpting Championship and Exhibition in Donghae, Gangwon Province, Thursday. The event will be held through Saturday ..

This was the link for the Times.

Sokcho doesn't care about swine flu

Who would plan a 'hog rally' at a time like this?

Actually, I'm trying to find a place for the little guy to see a few Harleys.

Teacher's day fake out

This morning, in my nine AM class, a student arrived late, really late.  She is normally a strong student so I didn't feel she had slept in or any such thing.  Also, she came to class with a armful of flowers.

The words,  "Thank you" whispered, luckily, escaped before I could stop myself.  I tried to ignore the flowers and continue class, all the time thinking, 'today is Teacher's Day.'

At the end of class, a student gave me a 200ml bottle of orange juice.  The flowers were either for or from her boyfriend -yesterday was Rose Day, another triumph of Korean marketing.

First ride of the year and 'Somdari' review

I rode my bike nearly to Naksan Temple, which isn't a long trip.  On the other hand, my legs are sore this evening, but not aching; the ride might have been the perfect length.

I started by riding to a Naksan Temple on fire!

Relax, it wasn't on fire, but some metal certainly reflected a lot of sun at the base of the Kwaneum Statue.
Closer, we can see a few trees are growing on the hillside.

On the south side of the temple, on Highway 7, at Seorak Beach, is Somdari Chocolate.
I stopped in and the chocolatier gave me a glass of water without my asking.  After looking around, I ordered an ice chocolate drink for 5,000 won.

It was fantastic!  Strong and rich and sweet enough that I had to ask for another glass of water once I had finished it.  Like Travolta in Reservior Fiction (or whatever the movie was called), I have trouble paying five thousand won for a chocolate drink, but this may well have been worth it.

They make chocolates onsite and they all looked good, although the box titled, "Seafood chocolate" gave me pause.  I don't think they were serving Korea's version of Monty Python's chocolate Frog (it has a frog, lightly killed, in it), but rather some interesting translation work.

I plan to return to try the clam chowder they also serve.  It does appear to have seafood in it.
Anyway, after my stop, I headed home, taking an inland route, increasing my total distance to 25km.  I would like to ride to work in the last week of May and that's around 70km, so I have some work to do.

1st North Korean Defector living in Gangwondo

Here is a man who just seems comfortable.

From the Chosun, comes a biography of Rhee Young-gwang, the first defector from North Korea.  His defection is particularly interesting as North Korea was doing better economically at the time.

Excerpts:

As a 21-year-old North Korean soldier, Rhee Young-gwang crossed the border and came to South Korea in the night of Sept. 18, 1967, just three months after he entered the military. At a press conference one month afterwards, Rhee said, "I came here to travel the world." Intelligence agents and journalists alike had a hard time with his seemingly preposterous reason for defection at the height of the Cold War. 

Now, 42 years later, Rhee is living deep in the mountain in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province, having chosen a philosophical life in nature rather than globetrotting.

Rhee Young-gwang (right) and his wife, Park An-ja

But travel is still on his mind. "My dream is to sail from the East Sea down to the South Sea and then to the Yellow Sea and reach the Yalu and Tumen Rivers in a rubber boat when the Koreas are unified. Then I would like to go to Fiji and live peacefully until I die," Rhee says.

hhkkl

The papers are full of good news!

Another inspiring story, this time from the Joongang.  Climber Um Hong-gil, completed a promise he had made 23 years ago to build a school in Nepal where a fallen Sherpa had lived.

Mr Um was previously mentioned here in March.

Good for him

Korea Herald article and photo.

Olympic Gold Medalist Bak Tae-hwan met with swimmer-with-a-disability*, Kim Sae-jin recently to offer support and coaching advice.

From the article:

Beijing Olympic gold medalist Park Tae-hwan, 20, has inspired a junior disabled swimmer.

Only recently did was it known that Park met Kim Sae-jin, 13, a junior swimmer with congenital dysplasia, on April 14 in a swimming pool in Gangnam, southern Seoul.

According to SK Telecom Sports, Park's swim team, the two swimmers met right after Kim's dream, which was a meeting with Park, also known as "Marine Boy," was conveyed to Park. Their meeting was filmed by MBC-TV. It will air on the "MBC Human Docu Sarang" program on May 15.

Kim went through hardships in life despites his age. He was born with a limb deformity and he was adopted when he was only five months old. Luckily, his supportive mother, Yang Jung-sook, 41, and his own willpower gave him the strength to lead a productive life.

The junior swimmer's hard work finally paid off; Kim won seven medals, including three gold medals, in Britain's National Junior Swimming League that took place in Sheffield in March.

Meeting with Park was dream come true for Kim. This promising swimmer always wished for three things; meeting Park Tae-hwan, participating in London Paralympics (Olympics for the disabled) and becoming a member of the national swimming team.

I have nothing but good things to say about this.

The more I read about Mr Bak though, the more I realize I'm old fashioned about sports.  I know amateur sports teams are taking on more blatant sponsorship deals every year, but I still don't like it.  What kind of name for a swim team is SK Telecom Sports? By the way, I would love to get back into coaching, so if SK Telecom wanted a Canada-trained coach/ ESL teacher, I might be available.

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Around 15 years ago, Canadian sports groups changed the names for describing athletes with disabilities.  It was felt that " disabled swimmer", for example, with 'disabled' at the beginning, unduly emphasized the disability.  "Swimmer with a disability", puts the person first.  It's a good idea but around 14 years ago, I usually saw "SWAD" in competition programs and to call someone a SWAD seems little improvement.

Sleepers

Sleep in class, get post online!

Is the blur tool useful for anonymity or just creepy?

A second year student.
A first year student.

Well, KwandongAlex was taken

This man is not my son.

I like the blur feature for obscuring phone numbers and such.

Butterfly

There's nothing special about this butterfly.  Like all butterflies, it's beautiful.  I guess I'm just showing off the macro feature of my new camera.  The original photo on my screen is much bigger than the live version.

Cyworld: Explorer, Firefox and Safari

As part of their homework, third year students are required to make three videos through the semester. Most post their videos to Cyworld and send me a link. I am able to access most of these videos with any of the three browsers I use.

Well, until two weeks ago, I used Firefox almost all the time and Explorer the rest. These days, I use Safari (Apple's browser). if it doesn't work, I shut down, change OS and try Firefox. Finally, I try Explorer. Explorer always works but I wonder about viruses and spyware, feeling that Firefox offers more protection. Sarfari apparently offers so much protection I don't see any anti-virus software or concerns.

Anyway, today, I was able to watch all but four videos on Safari. The "mini-hompy"s (a typical Korean abreviation of Mini -homepage) didn't even open. On Firefox, they opened, but the video wouldn't play. Finally, after re-entering my login data manytimes, I was able to get to my emails in Explorer, follow the link and watch the video.

Maybe, for completeness, I should try Chrome, Google's browser.
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One other thing about Safari is that when I hover over a link, the link doesn't appear anywhere for me to read. In Firefox and Explorer, I can see the link URL before clicking on it. I like that better.

Warning: Feral bear loose near Wonju!

It escaped from a farm in 2007 and wants to eat your huney!  No word if there is also a tigger loose.

From the Korea Times:

Regional environmental agencies, civic group Korea Wild Animal and the Plant Service Association along with other experts are to carry out the shooting, though a final attempt to catch the bear alive will be made. 

Local residents have welcomed the decision. 

Manchurian black bears are on the verge of extinction and natural monument No. 329. 

The ministry has imported 27 from North Korea and the Maritime Province of Siberia since 2004 as part of a restoration project.

However, those bred at farms are ``hybrids,'' which are genetically different from those that are government-protected, environmental officials said. They are bred for meat and gall, which is known to be good for men's stamina.

I think they are using a different definition of 'known" than the one I am familiar with.  Perhaps, here, it means something more like, "believing in a crazy-ass superstition despite all evidence to the contrary and allowing horrible suffering for financial gain".

The bear could be a threat to people in the vicinity, although if it hasn't hurt anyone in two years it seems likely it won't in the future.  It is damaging crops and farmland and sadly, I have to admit that recapturing it or putting it down* are probably the best courses of action.

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*I think of this euphemism everytime I suggest someone who is holding my son to set him on the floor.  It takes a real effort not to smile or grimace while saying, "put him down".

Biryeong Falls, Seorak National Park

Today, the Coast Guard had their semi-annual picnic in Seoraksan and the picnic included a hike to Biryeong Falls.  As Kwandongwife is a coastie, the little guy and I were invited.

Although I thought I had been just about everyplace in the park, I had missed this place.

From the Seorak Dong entrance (closest to Sokcho), your choices are some seriously long hikes or several around 2-4 km.  These shorter hikes all seem to be pool table flat for eighty percent of the hike and ranging from steep to very steep for the final bit.  The hike to Biryeong is no exception and wheelchairs could probably make the first kilometer and a half.  The final 700 meters include a lot of steel stairs, some with fencing overhead to stop or slow down falling rocks.

The little guy had a fever through the night, but recovered in the morning.  Still, I didn't begrudge carrying him when he asked.  By the end of the event, he was tired and now he is feverish again.  I foresee a trip to the hospital soon.

Anyway, we saw a few animals along the way.
I caught this frog and showed him to my son.  After I returned him to his pond, a man told me to wash carefully.  I planned to, anyway, because the pond water was dirty and I was worried about parasites.  He explained, though, that he was concerned about poison.

The frog did have bright warning-style coloration, but only on it's wonderfully orange belly.  I didn't think there were poisonous frogs in Korea.  I did wash my hands and don't seem to have suffered any strange effects.

I was more cautious with the snake we saw and chose not to catch it.  It was about 30cm long and not at all afraid.
The hike started at an overflow parking lot 2km from the main entrance.  We then hiked to the entrance, which was about the halfway point of the hike.  Once we had visited the waterfalls, we returned to entrance area and picnicked under some trees.  Carrying the little guy slowed us down so we arrived late - happily I was carrying my beach blanket so we settled down to lunch quickly.
I recommend the hike, especially if you don't have much time.  This hike doesn't have the long views that the other hikes do.  This is more intimate, although not private.  Actually, I don't know how many people normally do this hike as I was surrounded by over 100 coasties.  Still, no short hike near the main entrance is going to be solitary.

Oh, in case of emergency,  figured I could call 122, as it would be a Coast Guard emergency - is that funny?

Getting comfortable at home

The new iMac computer is working great and it is almost fully set up.  It will take significant time to get really familiar with it, though.

The computer came with Korean instructions in hard copy although it was easy to set it to operate in English (or Korean).  I downloaded some manuals but I feel I am still missing stuff.  When I first set the computer up, I was surprised at having only four USB ports and a short cord for the mouse.  It seemed damn inconvenient although serviceable.  I received help partitioning the drive and in doing so, saw the serviceman plug the mouse into the keyboard.  Turns out the keyboard has two USB ports built in.

Am I just unobservant or was that tidbit included in the Korean instructions?

The computer looks great on my desk.  The CPU and hard drive and all that are built into the monitor.  The keyboard is notebook sized or possibly even smaller.  combined, I have more desk space with the desk top than I did with the notebook.  I am no longer balancing textbooks on open drawers or pulling kitchen chairs close to pile needed materials on.

Everything is backwards or, at least, turned 90 degrees, on the iMac.  The on/off and other controls are on the upper left, instead of the bottom left.  To close a window (can I still use that word?), I click on an icon at the upper-left instead of the upper-right.  The tabbed pages in Safari close on the left side rather than Firefox's right side. ...

I can't compare Apple with Windows because my closest comparison is the old and slowly failing notebook, which I will continue to use a great deal until this semester finishes.  The features on this iMac blow the notebook away but Vista might do the same.

The trick is not to think outside the Microsoft box, but ignore that box even exists.  There are a lot of similarities (Safari and the newest Explorer both look a lot like Firefox) but the key is results and not how the two paths are different.  Hmm, paths and boxes -mixed metaphors, I guess.

Boats, big and small

The weather for Children's day was fantastic. The little guy's mood was more variable and I was lucky to finish the day on a high note so he didn't go to bed cranky.

Someday, I'll learn what order to upload photos. This pic of people on sit-on-top kayaks was the last thing we did that I took pictures at.

I was concerned that the boat wouldn't hold me. With the little guy aboard, we topped 105 kg and every other boat was paddled by a child less than half my weight.

The boat was fine but KwandongAlex was disturbed by the rocking and by the way the paddle dripped water on his head on occasion. Later, we had cotton candy and he was cheered immensely.

This was at the Canoe Club on Lake Yeongnang. It is actually a club for competitive Kayaking and no canoes, recreational or sprint, were in sight.

Before attempting the kayaks, we went to tour the Coast Guard ships.

A three-year-old with a gatling gun!

A SAR boat. It looks like a lot of fun to race around on.
On the main deck.

Our final stop on Children's Day was Sokcho Beach, where we had a good time, I swam (very briefly) and we picked up 25 discarded, twisted sparklers.

The limping man says

Clean up your fucking sparklers at the beach when you leave!

I am not crippled, but I am limping.  It's ironic that it happened to me as I frequently take some time to collect them and remove them from the beach.

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Every one knows what a 'sparkler' is, right?  It is a length of wire that has 30 cm or so covered in some bright-burning compound.  When the tip is lit, it will burn brightly and shoot sparks.  It is mostly safe when in someone's hands (although I have been burned once or twice).  The ones I find, twisted and mostly buried in the sand, are half-ass caltrops.

a smaller photo

This photo may be a repeat, but now it is blogging sized.  I'm learning.  It was darn hard to find after I adjusted the size and saved it, though.  I hope that gets easier.

Posting a pic on Safari

I'm not hunting wild animals in Africa, I'm trying out my new iMac.  It's beautiful and seems to have a lot of features but I don't know how to shrink a picture - I normally post pics around 100kb, but this is likely around 2mb.

Oh, the picture itself?  My son's footprint -concave although it looks convex - at Sokcho Beach.

I expect to love this computer, but it will take a while to stop expecting things to work the way Windows does.