Lucky I'm Yours :)

Just some videos i thought were very cute :)
jjinja kyopta

Lucky, this is not the official MV obviously but still VERY cute




Then this is the official MV for "i'm Yours" he's changed some of the lyrics but the general sound remains pretty good :)



and some covers 'lucky' from youtube which i felt were good versions :)

Stolen from Shawn's blog :P

As it says in the name this was taken from Shim's blog :P cos i'm bored and i slept in this morning and i'm not tired yet :P

100 Skills Every Man Should Know: 2008's Ultimate DIY List
Brains and charm are fine, but a real guy needs to know how to do real stuff. After months of debate among PM’s expert editors, here’s our lineup of essential skills for the competent man.

Listed below are skills that are deemed essential for the new age competent man. I would say yes to the ones I am competent and no to the ones I am not competent; and then, I would rate myself out of a 100. Let’s go!

Automotive
1. Handle a blowout (yes)
2. Drive in snow (in an area in snow... IN snow like i need chains? no.. half point? :P)
3. Check trouble codes (nfi)
4. Replace fan belt (helped do it in a shop...)
5. Wax a car (yes)
6. Conquer an off-road obstacle (like what... a yeti?)
7. Use a stick welder (no)
8. Hitch up a trailer (yes but i had help of course)
9. Jump-start a car (yes)

Emergencies
10. Perform the Heimlich (no)
11. Reverse hypothermia (no)
12. Perform hands-only CPR (no)
13. Escape a sinking car (no... but i figure if it was dad's car that was sinking.... and i'm the reason for it... i would probably just go down with the car rather than see dad's face :P)

Home
14. Carve a turkey (turkey....no.. i'll just say yes cos i can do a chicken... kinda)
15. Use a sewing machine (yes )
16. Put out a fire (yes... me and some other fun loving fellas just peed on it :P)
17. Home-brew beer (no)
18. Remove bloodstains from fabric (yes )
19. Move heavy stuff (yes... me ;) )
20. Grow food (no)
21. Read an electric meter ( no)
22. Shovel the right way (yes )
23. Solder wire (yes.. i think.. i'll just say half point here.)
24. Tape drywall (no)
25. Split firewood (i think i have... :S man my memory sucks... sure i must've done it at some point)
26. Replace a faucet washer (yes)
27. Mix concrete (yes, or stuff similar to concrete...)
28. Paint a straight line (yeah i guess i could)
29. Use a French knife (um i'm not sure what a french knife is.... but i can handle most knives..)
30. Prune bushes and small trees (yes)
31. Iron a shirt (hell yeah i can, thanks 5 years of cadets :P)
32. Fix a toilet tank flapper (dunno what a flapper is but i have fixed toilets before...)
33. Change a single-pole switch (single pole being on off? then yes :P my lightswitch in korea broke :S)
34. Fell a tree (YES! :P and omg .. it took forever.. right Ben?:P)
35. Replace a broken windowpane (no... but does it count to break one? :P)
36. Set up a ladder, safely (yes... safely? as in... it's not going to fall down or as in... "no i didn't just put it through the window")
37. Fix a faucet cartridge (what's a cartridge?)
38. Sweat copper tubing (no .. i didn't realise metal could sweat... )
39. Change a diaper (not)
40. Grill with charcoal (yeah man ! )
41. Sew a button on a shirt (yup)
42. Fold a flag (haven't done it before but yeah i could i suppose?)

Medical
43. Treat frostbite (no)
44. Treat a burn (yes)
45. Help a seizure victim (no but i know how)
46. Treat a snakebite (yes, and to Shim.. you're not really supposed to suck the venom out..... unless you're like desperate...)
47. Remove a tick (yes)

Military Know-How
48. Shine shoes (yes)
49. Make a drum-tight bed (yes )
50. Drop and give the perfect pushup (yes)

Outdoors
51. Run rapids in a canoe (no)
52. Hang food in the wild (no)
53. Skipper a boat (no)
54. Shoot straight (this is most likely the best skill i have in this whole damn list i reckon :P)
55. Tackle steep drops on a mountain bike (haven't before...)
56. Escape a rip current (no but i know how... but i don't wanna be stuck in that situation :P)

Survival
57. Build a fire in the wilderness (yes)
58. Build a shelter (yes)
59. Find potable water (yes, for Phil: that trick does work... but you need LOTS of bags)

Surviving Extremes
60. Floods (no)
61. Tornados (no)
62. Cold (no)
63. Heat (yes ... it's Australia... think about it...)
64. Lightning (yes )

Teach Your Kids (i reckon i could teach... )
65. Cast a line (yes - fishing line?)
66. Lend a hand (yes)
67. Change a tire (yes)
68. Throw a spiral (yes)
69. Fly a stunt kite (yes)
70. Drive a stick shift (no... least not until i learn anyway :P)
71. Parallel park (yes)
72. Tie a bowline (nope)
73. Tie a necktie (yes)
74. Whittle (yes)
75. Ride a bike (yes)

Technology
76. Install a graphics card (yes... read the instructions?)
77. Take the perfect portrait (yes)
78. Calibrate HDTV settings (yes... i'm pretty sure i could wing my way through it...)
79. Shoot a home movie (yes)
80. Ditch your hard drive (yes)

Master These Key Workshop Tools
81. Drill driver (yes)
82. Grease gun (no)
83. Coolant hydrometer (no)
84. Socket wrench (yes)
85. Test light (yes)
86. Brick trowel (yes)
87. Framing hammer (yes)
88. Wood chisel (yes)
89. Spade bit (no)
90. Circular saw (yes)
91. Sledge hammer (yes)
92. Hacksaw (yes)
93. Torque wrench (no)
94. Air wrench (yes)
95. Infrared thermometer (no)
96. Sand blaster (no)
97. Crosscut saw (yes)
98. Hand plane (yes)
99. Multimeter (yes)
100. Feeler gauges (no )

65 out of 100... but a couple are like "in theory" so i guess the score probably drops a couple of points.....

Freezing weather, the korean waiter and the aftermath

So i'm gonna go through the more light-hearted things first.


Lil while back (being.. the most recent Sunday) i found myself at a wedding between a Korean guy and a Kiwi lass. The whole style of weddings i must admit is not to my taste.
The typical schedule is that the ceremony will last somewhere between 15 minutes to an hour at most (the Sunday one lasted for an hour... the western part of it dragged it on but it was good) so while the important pair get pictures and everything, the guest went to a buffet hall.. which was much much bigger than needed...... because the guests from the previous weddings were still eating there.. so the whole dining experience had more of a mess hall feel rather than any sort of reverance. It was a fun thing to experience but i must admit that i would never choose to be married in Korea but i don't think that's going to be a real concern for me thankfully

SO.. on teh way back from the wedding still all dressed up in my finest :) Nic decided she wanted to go for a couple of drinks so we went to a place called 'Warawara" over in Gangnam. I was walking to the toilet after taking off my coat when 4 Koreans walked through the door....


then they looked at me and said... "4 person table please" in Korean.... i ignored them and the all just stared at me and repeated what they said.... -.- til i spoke to the in English "sorry mate i
don't work

So it's gotten to the point that not only do i look like a local.. apparently i look like i work in a Korean joint as well -.-



********** the Aftermath*************

As a result of the email i sent, the CEO expressed a serious amount of concern regarding the situation. He responded to the email by assigning an old worker of his to the school to field and file complaints by all parties at the school, report them to the CEO and resolve them if possible.
So this Irish fella, previously a worker at the camps is now the ... pretty much mediator between us at the frontliners and the management. I no longer count our vice principal as part of the 'bad guys' I feel that she is being screwed as badly as the rest of us, except that she has to put on a much better face about the whole situation, for which I, .... sympathise. I now feel that the principal has enough idiocy between his ears for the rest of the school. Pretty much that he stated to Dave that he couldn't give a stuf about the teachers as long as the school continues to prosper. Now anybody.. if not everybody out that is thinking "... without the teachers.. there can be no school...." but i dunno what 'the almighty' is thinking.
*shrugs*

So anyway last Thursday we had our first meeting with the mediator where he basically went over all the points in the email which were heard for the first time by a couple of the staff members. Basically none of the points could really be fixed... for the most part they asked for our patience as none could really be fixed in the near future. The main change is that he will act as mediator between our bitching and the principal's idiocy, which was confirmed by said mediator in his first meeting with the P.

So that's the news baically up to this point :)

Of farewells, reunions and more farewells..... and to drastic measures

So .. seeing as it's been like ... a month almost since i last posted... there's naturally a fair bit that's been happening.

1/Joanna quitting Jes Island
2/Email to Jay
3/Gabe comes to Korea
4/Meetings and the coming of Dave.....



1/

So Joanna our much beloved head teacher, decided to quit after a heated exchange with our vice-principal...... we were all exceptionally sad that this wonderful person would no longer be working with us, protecting us and caring for us...

So we had to send her off nicely :) with a coupla beers :P


then a couple more.....



then a couple more after that.... :P



27 bottles in total were... imbibed :P

and this was only on the friday before she left :P
but then we didn't drink much during the dinner the following (her last) friday at the school
here's some pics..




There's not much to say really except that Joanna will be (and is) sorely missed from the school :(






more pics here
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=83304&l=d3222&id=728985900

2/

So after... probably WAAAY too long... i finally got the nerve together to compile a complete list of things that i felt contributed to Jes Island being an unstisfactory workplace.... i'd spent the preceeding couple of days asking colleagues at work what they didn't like.... the email ended up being abotu 2 and a half pages long..... and it ellicited a short.. but promising reply, that he would look into the problems and try and solve them......

more about this in part 4




3/

So Gabriel Lai.... my friend from high school and my best friend in year 8 came to Korea to visit a friend from Uni, but we end up hanging out anyway. I must say, it would seem that the intervening years made no difference whatsoever and damn.. did we party hard.... almost every single day basically. (i also want to say thank you here, to a certain person for her patience during this period.... and before that.... and after ......)









it was... intense to say the least :P

but i wanted to thank him for the time he spent here, as well as blame him for the lack of sleep I've had this past week and a half. But mostly i wanted to be thankful for being able to renew such an old friendship with him. So much has changed, yet so much has remained the same.....

Thank you for your words

*** for more pictures go to Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=83305&l=fbe7e&id=728985900
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=83307&l=9a032&id=728985900


5/

So, as a result of the email i sent it turns out that the CEO did do something... quite a big something.....
D had been working with the main company for several years now and the CEO had been wanting to get him back to Korea for quite some time and D was on the way to Korea for a different job when the CEO sent him a copy of the giant email i wrote and told him that if he was cool with it, his new job would be to 'fix' the place until the ELTs were happy with working there.
So I've now been assigned as the spokesperson for the elementary teachers and Dan, my twin in the kindergarten department... has been assigned spokesperson for his section....

Dan's meeting is tomorrow and mine is Thursday night....
so we'll see how things go....