Monday, April 25, 2005

My 1st trip to Nam San Mt. Park

Well, I told you to put on your blogger belts didn't I. :-) Anyway, this is the place I went to on Sunday afternoon. I need to go back as I only saw a small part of it. The weather was wonderful. I'm hopping to get some even better pics. There is a cable car that I want to ride that takes you up to the top of the mountain. I also want to walk the many trails that run throughout the park. I hope that you enjoy these picks.

Me


The wonderful smoggy city of Seoul, or a small part of it anyway. The smog is the same no matter what part your in. Wow, it's really foggy in Korea. What, that's not fog?! Oh my, what exactly am I breathing???? Ummmm..... Posted by Hello


Man I met on my prayer walk. His name is Mr. Kang (Kahn). Posted by Hello


Another side of the Mountain, and even more of the smoggy city. Nice foreground eh? Posted by Hello


Very beautiful birds in flight, and not bad in perch either Posted by Hello


Hey! Look over here! No, don't fly away. Ohhh, nuts, this is the closest I could get. Stupid birds!!!!! Posted by Hello


color just tryin to get out :-) Posted by Hello


a shot over looking the smoggy city of seoul Posted by Hello


a little tighter shot overlooking part of the smoggy seoul Posted by Hello


now how often do you see a sign like this, lol Posted by Hello


turns out that it's a really nice restaurant; including steak on the menu Posted by Hello

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Yes Yes, It's My Apartment.

Ok, I finally have the apartment pics done. I hope that you find them satisfying, funny and informative. The pictures tell the story pretty much themselves, so I wont say much other than enjoy. Oh, and Leave Me Alone About pics for my Apartment! Wait, ... I guess now that there finally here, you will. ha, well then, I'll just shut up and let you get on with enjoying them. :-) Say, did I tell you about ....


Welcome to my apartment. Make sure you take your shoes off though. :-P Posted by Hello


Here's the kitchen. Doesn't it just warm your hearts ladies, I mean, just look at all that cupboard and shelf space. Nice eh? Oh, and the thing on the wall to your left is the water heater/heat source for the apartment. Not very efficient at keepin the apartment warm, but I think that has more to do with the poor job of heating element placements in the floor. Over all I give it a 9.5 for ingenuity and space saving.
 Posted by Hello


And here's the bathroom. Not big, but big enough. Ya know, I kind of like this whole idea, shower and all, all in one. I'm thinkin I need to build something like this in my home when I get one. It's really easy to clean, YA!, and well, when you feel like you need to take a pee in the shower, no Problem ha ha ha. Ya Baby! Posted by Hello


Ah, my sink. What more could a guy want. The mirror, well, it's directly above the sink silly. Sheesshh. 8P Posted by Hello


Push this knob in and you have a shower... Posted by Hello


... and the water comes out here. Of course it doesn't hang there while it's in use, it would get my toilet paper wet as well as the towl hanging on the opposite wall waiting to dry me off! Ever use tp after it's gotten wet and then dried. It'll bring tears to your eyes... Posted by Hello


That's the extent of my storage options in the bathroom. Good thing I'm a guy. :-P Posted by Hello


It's laundry day and as you can see, I have things hanging everywhere drying. The washer/dryer cleans well, but it doesn't dry worth a ... so, i have to use whatever i can to hang stuff on. The pile of things below my hanging shirts is actually on a rack air drying as well. Wet undies are not happy you know. Posted by Hello


ah yes, me computer, my work station from whence I slave to satisfy the demands of the masses for more pics. Sheeesshhhhhhh! Posted by Hello


guess what this is, yep, Catan!!!! 8-) Posted by Hello

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Snip Snip, buzzzzzz, ahhhh.

Well here it is. The long awaited pics of the hair cut. I just wish I had more hair to share it with. Their getting lonely up there. I need more friends for them to play with. Do you have any idea how hard it is to take your own pics, holding the camera off to the side and getting a good angle. I'd say the two pics I have are fairly decent. I tried to get some good looks at the hair cut and still make myself look decent as well :-) ha ha ha... am I good or what. :-P

Me


Hey! I'm over here pal! Posted by Hello


Not bad at all. I just wish there was more there to look at! Posted by Hello

Friday, April 15, 2005

A recent comment to another's Blog

Interesting. I would like to make some counter points though to your argument about Christianity and it's black spots in history.

Briefly, the actions of those people and leaders at that time were not Christian in any way. They were political, selfish, greed motivated, and evil. These activities in no way reflect the teachings of Jesus Christ. They do however reflect the teachings of corrupted leaders.

Yes these things were carried out by the "Church", and were done under the name of Christianity, but these things were not Christian.

Where true Christianity has been accepted and practiced, there has been major changes for the benefit of humankind. Most of the Universities and Hospitals and other such establishments were founded by Christians. At least it's that way in the US. I don't know about Australia, but I do know that it's also true in many other countries.

Where Christianity has been given a chance, the poverty level decreases, education rises, and overall well being rises as well.

If you don't believe me, do some studies on world economies where Christians have been given great leeway.

In America and in Britain, it was Christians who fought against slavery. Yes, many slave owners went to church, but their actions speak other wise as to the validness of their faith in the same way that the actions of church leaders during the middle ages and other times show that they also were not followers of Jesus.

You may say that this is a very convenient argument, but it's the truth. Read the Bible and find out what Jesus taught. It doesn't fit with what these people were doing at all. And thus, they cannot be true followers of Jesus. If they were, these things would not have happened.

With our western civilizations, we have to realize that we have been influenced by Christianity, but that does not make our actions Christian. Take South Africa for instance, strong Church connections, poor Christian values. Many of the people were deceived as to the validness of their faith. It all comes down to what Jesus taught and how we line up with His teachings.

As to your comment about Japan being a good example of not needing religion to be a good society, well, I think you need to do some reading on their history.

Japan has continuously been a murderous country to Korea, China and any one else that they could attack. Many Koreans were forced to fight in the war against America. In fact, they were forced to be kamikaze pilots. Not many people know this.

Japan was a ruthless bloody nation. They committed many inhuman atrocities and were just as bad as the Nazis. It wasn't until the Americans defeated them that things began to change. Sorry, but Japan is a poor example for you to use.

Tibet you say, well, it is a poor country, always was. Where Christianity has been accepted, so came wealth and development. It's just the way it is.

I hope that this all makes sense. Thanks for your thoughts and providing an opportunity to have discussions like this.

A Kodak Moment

Wouldn't you know it. Every time I have one of these moments, I never have my camera with me. Grrrr.

I am just walking into the institute when out of the corner of my eye I see something dart away. There is a very big mouse or very small rat eating happily away at some leftover noodles sitting on the side of the road waiting to be picked up by the delivery guy. What???! Delivery guy??!

Yep. Many times when you order food it comes on semi real plates or in semi real bowls. You eat the food and then set it out for whenever the delivery guy comes back around to pick it up. Never thought about the rats and mice though. I hope they wash those things good. eewww.

Back to the mouse. For a mouse, this thing was huge. It's tail was at least 6 inches long, and it's body was about 5. Big mouse! So, I see this thing scurry away, and I peek my head around the corner of the building, and there he/she is. Eating quite happily on the noodle. If it was quiet, I bet I could have heard it slurping the noodle. After all it is a Korean mouse right? :-P

The little mouse looks at me and continues eating away, not really being alarmed at all. So I decide to have a little fun and do an experiment. When I take a step toward this little creature, it runs under the car peeking out from behind the tire as it munches away.

Ok, I'll just position myself right next to the leftover food and see what it does. Sure enough, the little thing comes back for more. Wouldn't you? Those noodles are yummy, though I wouldn't eat them off the side of the road. :-)

The mouse comes up to the dish, looks up at me, goes to the back side of the dish and sniffs at my foot, looks around, sniffs some more, the whole time doing the little mousy dance that they do, and goes back in the bowl for seconds, or 5ths what ever the case may be.

It was too funny. I wish I would have had my camera to take a picture of that mouse right next to the front of my shoe. It would have been a great shot. I can see it in my head, the lighting and all, but alas, I'm the only one who can enjoy it. :-(

When I told my students about the funny thing that just happened to me, you guessed it, they did the same thing that many of you just did. Eewwww!, skreetch, wriggle, jump back, "I hate mice", and all that rot. Just like north americans. They were girls by the way. The boys were semi listening and had little reaction. I wonder where the girls learned to fear and dread mice from? What do you think mothers of the world?

My two nieces are terrified of spiders, or were I should say, until I got ahold of them and showed them that their mother has a few problems in the head when it comes to spiders. Of course, my sister gets it honestly, because, as you guessed it, my mother has the same disease. My dad is also much in the same way, but he doesn't let on. Sorry dad. He just kills em quick. lol He's gotten much better over the many years. Oh, uh few years. I think he's going to squash me now! ha

Any way, I'm not a big fan of them either when they are crawling on me, and I honestly did get a bit concerned when that mouse came up to me with little concern. I thought it was going to crawl right up my leg. At that point, I think all fascination would have been lost. I have to say though, that I find spiders and other things very fascinating. I like to poke at their webs and see if I can get them to move like I was a bug. They usually just run away and hide. Stupid spiders.

Well, that was my Kodak moment. How would you like to be the guy who invented Kodak? Nice.

Me

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Prayer Time

These pics are from a prayer meeting that Meyung Sung Prsb. Church was having during the 1st 5 days of March. Every day the prayer services started at 4:00 AM! and ended with the 5th service starting at 10:00 AM. Now the amazing thing is, each of these services is packed. I mean packed. Even the 4:00 meeting!

I went to the church at about 3:00 in the morning to take pictures. Mr Lee, (my boss) is part of the Video team at the church, so I had a free pass to go any where I wanted as long as he was with me :-) He took me up to the balcony of one of their buildings so I could get some good shots. It is amazing how many cars they can park in such a small parking lot. Definitely not what we are used to.

One of the things that I have been discovering about the Korean Church is their incredible dedication and desire. Many Koreans work 6 days a week, have a family, and still serve many hours for the church. Prayer is not just something they talk about, Koreans take it very seriously. This prayer meeting was called to pray over the nations and the sinful lifestyles of the people of the world, crying out to God for their salvation. That was it, evangelism. And people came by the thousands! Every stinkin service. You had to move quickly in and out or you would become part of the floor. 5000 people leaving the sanctuary with 5000 more coming in, well, you just move with the flow baby. And, it wasn't just the sanctuary that filled up, the overflow room too. Wow!

I just visited the largest church in the world, Yeouido Full Gospel Church, and the attitude about prayer is exactly the same, even more so. It seems from what I've been able to ascertain, that all of the churches that are growing so big have many many many prayer warriors who are constantly praying.

From what I've learned, Koreans have a strong desire to be the best in the world as far as production and business goes. This seems to be true in Church as well. Koreans take great pride in what they do and great pride in their churches, and there is great ownership with their churches as well.

Now, I'm not saying that the Korean Churches are perfect, I've seen some flaws as well, but the intense desire for prayer and evangelism is amazing. Enjoy the pics. I spent a good part of the day in bed sleeping afterwards. :-) 2 1/2 hours sleep wasn't much.


Such a Beautiful Building Posted by Hello


Prayer Service Baner 1st srv 4:00 AM Posted by Hello


Kids and All Coming for Prayer! Posted by Hello