Team Canada 2010

It's a little early but I have been watching a LOT of hockey since I got NHL Gamecenter and I can watch any game I want to online. So I am better informed than I have been in the past few years since now I can WATCH instead of just listen to NHL games online. There has already been a lot of speculation as to who will make the 23-man Canadian Olympic Hockey roster. I think I have some good suggestions.

First and foremost, since you can't win a game when you score no goals, are the forwards. Every team is only allowed 13 forwards. As in Olympics past there will be 13 Canadian boys NOT playing who could probably win the gold for Canada. That's just the depth we have in Canadian hockey. However, if I had to pick 13, these are the guys and possible line matches I would pick:

Line one would be Joe Thornton at center, Patrick Marleau on RW and Dany Heatley on LW. All from the San Jose Sharks. At this time the Sharks are struggling to score a bit but that's just because I loaded up on them in all my hockey pools. These guys have all been producing. Marleau is a center but his speed would be much better utilized on the wing. Take a look at the San Jose power play statistics and you have these three guys to thank for a lot of that scoring.

Line two is more contraversial. You gotta have Sid the kid centering at LEAST the second line. So I put Sidney Crosby at center with Jarome Iginla on RW and the bold choice of Jeff Carter on LW. Why Jeff Carter? He's a center for Philly, true, but he is a right handed shooter. For some reason they are rare in the NHL. And two secrets are becoming aparent to the "experts" in the NHL who are always the last to know and implement them: 1. You should NEVER take a slap shot from the point because these days it'll be blocked over half the time and a wrist shot is hard enough to go in, easier to deflect for a goal and impossible for defencemen to read and drop in front of. 2. A right handed goal scorer playing left wing is more dangerous than an angry tiger with ebola! I played some hockey before and I loved pumping one timers in while playing left wing and shooting right. That extra fraction of a second it takes for the pass to get across the body of a lefty is enough for the goalie to slide across the goal and block the shot. Elementary folks! Jeff Carter is a dangerous goal scorer and Sid the kid will feed him and Iginla all tourney. I doubt this will ever be a line on Team Canada but it sure should!

Third line is iffy. Iffy because there's no way of knowing how healthy Marc Savard will be by Olympic time. He's got a busted foot right now and coaches say he's two weeks away from play. Will he be in shape for the Olympics? I think he will. So he's my choice for third line center. Look how dismal the Bruins are without him! On his left I would put Shane Doan because he's ANOTHER right handed shooter and he's played left wing before although he's on the right side this season in Phoenix. And on the right is a guy who can play with anybody: Rick Nash. It'll be awesome to have Nash and Doan on the same line because they are two guys who regularly score a lot playing with very little support. What can they do with two all star players on their line?

The fourth line will probably have checkers. I hate that. It's the Olympics! Think skill. Score the other team to death! My fourth line center would be Ryan Getzlaf. On his right wing would be his teammate and massive scorer, Corey Perry. These guys are magic together. Left wing for this line is another guy I doubt we'll see in the Olympics but who I think deserves to be there: Dustin Penner. On EDMONTON he's piling up the stats and when I watch the Edmonton games it's HIS name I hear most. He's been a force in the NHL this year and is a natural left winger. I think he'd fit in well with the other two.

As a back-up you can't do any better than Captain Canuck, Ryan Smyth. He's played for Canada MANY times before and he can play any forward position. He's having a great year this year too! I think he'd be the best choice for the 13th forward.

LW C RW
Heatley Thornton Marleau
Carter Crosby Iginla
Doan Savard Nash
Penner Getzlaf Perry

Man that's beautiful!

Defensive pairings are pretty easy to choose in comparison.

Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer know each other well and are two of the best in the NHL.

Danny Boyle is great at joining the rush and Dion Phaneuf has a cannon from the point.

Mike Green is another offensive defenceman and he'd be great with Jay Bouwmeester to back him up.

And you can't go very wrong with veteran Rob Blake as the 7th man on defence.

The goaltending situation is going to be quite different from what I have in mind but I think the best bet for starting goalie has got to be Martin Brodeur. He's got the best save percentage and goals against average of any Canadian goalie this year and he's been steady for Team Canada forever.

For goalie number two I'd pick Marty Turco but I doubt he'll even be considered.

For my team it's a choice between Luongo and Fleury for third goalie. Neither has been outstanding this year. With Luongo you have a guy who could easily be number one but he's been injured and not very spectacular this year. Shooters have found a weakness over his left shoulder. Still I'd have to go with him. Most likely he'll be goalie number one or two and somebody else will get the third spot. But I don't see things that way.

So here is my Canadian line-up:

Centers: Thornton, Crosby, Savard, Getzlaf
Right Wings: Marleau, Iginla, Nash, Perry
Left Wings: Heatley, Carter, Doan, Penner
Extra forward: Smyth
Defence: Pronger, Niedermayer, Boyle, Phaneuf, Green, Bouwmeester, Blake
Goalie: Brodeur, Turco, Luongo

I'd give all four lines, and all defensive pairings, even ice time including penalty kill and power play. For captain I might choose Rob Blake. But there are quite a few good choices. I think I'd rotate the goalies too, but I doubt that'll happen. What a pleasure it would be to coach this team!

Smells like GOLD to me!



Just in case EVERY SINGLE player on my list is injured at Olympic time, I thought I'd make a second Team Canada. I think it's pretty good too.

Centers: Danny Briere, Eric Staal, Vincent Lecavalier, Jonathan Toews
Right Wings: Mike Cammalleri, Jordan Staal, Martin St. Louis, Devin Setoguchi
Left Wings: Simon Gagne, Ray Whitney, Brad Richards, John Tavares
Extra: James Neal
Defence: Ed Jovanovski, Shea Weber, Drew Doughty, Robyn Regehr, Michael Del Zotto, Duncan Keith, Brian Campbell
Goalies: Marc-Andre Fleury, Cam Ward, Steve Mason

The line of Briere/Cammalleri/Gagne will rock because Briere and Gagne were teammates on Philly at one time so they'd have chemistry. I wonder if Cammalleri can speak French.

Eric Staal and Ray Whitney are awesome together and it would be cool to see two of the Staal brothers on the same line.

Vinny Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis have played together for years! Brad Richards didn't usually play left wing but he's versatile and he's played with these two guys in Tampa Bay.

The young guns on the fourth line might make it their highest scoring line. And speaking of scoring: James Neal!

The defence would be more defensive than I'd like but there are a couple young fellas who might make mistakes so they need someone to stay at home and bail them out.

The three goalies are just as good as the three goalies on the first Team Canada.

These guys could win gold! I'd put a few bucks on them.

Only three more months! Only three more months!

Dave's top ten: Brian vs. Bon

It's been a while since I made one of these. Since I'm sitting at home tonight, "saving money", (that's what I call it nowadays when I am doing absolutely nothing), I figured I'd make a top ten list.

Youtube is awesome! Sometimes when I'm saving money I get on youtube and let it take me where it may. It's always different. That's one of the things I love about it. But even though it's always different, I am always the same and I focus in on my favourite things. Oddly enough I usually end up using youtube, a video site, for one of two things, neither of which you need video for. Stand-up comedy and music. Tonight it was music. And before long it was exclusively AC DC. I saw a couple documentaries, listened to a ton of songs and read a lot of comments. It seemed to me like no matter what song or video I watched there was always at least one comment about how Bon Scott was awesome and Brian Johnson sucks.

Well I don't find that at all! Back in Black was Brian's first album and it's still their best selling to date. I think it's the second highest selling in history behind "Thriller". Of course there are those who will say that Brian Johnson just cashed in on the popularity explosion that Bon Scott led AC DC up to. There is even some argument as to whether Bon Scott was the writer of some or all of the songs. "What Do You Do For Money", "Giving the Dog a Bone", "Shoot to Thrill", those titles sound a lot like the randy, rakish Bon Scott that's for sure. But I think the singing is solid and Brian Johnson had a VERY difficult job of replacing a legend and pulled it off. Something few could do. I like Brian Johnson and just about all the AC DC stuff he's done.

However, let's face it, he's not worthy to clean Bon Scott's bagpipe spitvalve. Bon Scott was made to sing rock and roll! While Brian screeches into the mike lyrics that are becoming more nasal and harder to understand as the years roll on, Bon had a lyrical character that few vocalist could match. He told stories. And we understood them. Most of them were filthy and therefore super cool! He was a hard partying, womanizer. Again, super cool! And it gave a ring of authenticity to his songs about sex with the gigantic Rosie, violence like in TNT or Problem Child, ravishing young girls, and then little bit TOO young girls like in Love at First Feel or Squealer, and it made us wonder a bit about his sanity when he sang songs like Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and Night Prowler.

He had that uncanny knack that is impossible to teach of being able to ad lib a noise, say "Wooo!", growl, howl, bark like a dog or throw in a few extra words between lines that are so perfect you can't even humm the songs any more without including them.

The following is my top ten list of songs that are loaded with Bon Scott character and prove that he was one of the best rock vocalists ever. Not necessarily my favourite AC DC songs, (I doubt I could pull that off), but some are definitely amongst my faves and they are in order. So here we go...

1. "It's a Long Way To The Top If You Want To Rock and Roll"

It's also a long way to the end of that title! But bagpipes in a rock song. How many examples of that do you know of? Bon played the pipes in this tune. And they weren't just a gimmick, they ROCK! It's the one and ONLY good use for bagpipes I can think of off hand. Oh yeah, "Mull of Kintyre". Okay I stand corrected. By myself.

2. "Ain't No Fun Waiting Round To Be A Millionaire"

"Hello Howard. Friend. Next door neighbour. Get your fuckin' jumbo jet out of my airport!"

3. "Whole Lotta Rosie"

"She ain't exactly pretty. She ain't exactly small. 42 39 56 you could say she's got it all!"

4. "The Jack"

Just a little tiny bit of sexual inniendo. "She was holding a pair, but I had to try. Her deuce was wild, but my ace was high. How was I to know that she'd been dealt with before?" and it goes on like this.

5. "Let There Be Rock"

Oh sacrilege!

6. "Dog Eat Dog"

"Woof!" I'm not kidding. Just before an awesome guitar solo. Phil Rudd is at his best in this song on the drums. This song has some pretty good lyrics too! "It's a lie and that's the truth."

7. "Squealer"

It's one of the filthy ones but the way he goes from a dramatic whisper to 'squealing' is great!

8. "Problem Child"

The first lyrics are, "Fuck this!" What a way to get into a song! "I'm a problem child. And my Mother hates me!"

9. "Love at First Feel"

Another song on the Dirty Deeds album that makes you want to wash your hands after listening to it. Then listen to it again. "You never told me where you came from. Never told me your name. I didn't know if you were legal tender but I spent it just the same." One of their first tours was called the "Lock up Your Daughters" tour. Is it any wonder?

10. "Touch Too Much"

The only song on my list from the Highway to Hell album. This was the first AC DC album produced by Mutt Lange and I think he tried to reign in Bon a little bit to make the songs tighter. But he shows some of his personality here. "She had the face of an angel smiling with sin."

I have probably forgotten one or two songs that really show Bon's abilities so why not go on over to youtube now and give them a listen. I think AC DC tunes got better and better but the lyrics and singing really weren't the same after Bon. But I WILL say that it's a VERY lucky thing they got rid of their egotistical first singer, Dave Evans. His voice was good but I can't find too many pics of him without his eyes closed in rapturous delight at his own voice. I saw a pretty good vid of Angus and Malcolm Young talking about that guy. Neither one of them could stand him. BOTH Brian and Bon are better than him!

But that's just my opinion.

This may piss some people off but I've been known to do that.

I'm having mixed feelings right now. It's Remembrance Day in Canada tomorrow. It's already November 11th here. Americans are observing Veteran's Day then too. And for I guess about 90 years the significance of these ceremonies has been diminishing every year. And that bugs me folks. It really does!

I can only imagine the emotion of the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month at the end of World War I. People all over the world were happy that the war was over but gutted about all the friends, family and innocence they had lost during the war. I think they truly believed that they were fighting for the improvement of the future in their respective countries. And as a testiment to that they went home and promptly got busy bringing record numbers of new people INTO that future that they had fought for. This is when I start thinking, "Little did they know," instead of, "Lest we forget," because at this time, (our fighting ancestors' future, and our present), I wonder if this is what they wanted. Is this what they fought and died for? And more importantly, are we getting closer or farther away from their ideals?

I don't want to be too negative because even with the limited world travel I have done, I have seen first-hand that Canada IS a better place to live than a LOT of other countries. And if I were able to live in my own country I'm sure that I'd appreciate it.

The most significant tidbit of knowledge, and by far the most shocking thing I've learned from my world travel is that in countries like Indonesia, The Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, in the country, (not so much in the cities), the happiness of the average person seems to go far beyond the happiness I see in ANYONE in Canada. I've seen people in the rice fields of Thailand working long hours in the sun that made me sweat just watching them. While I was on vacation cursing the heat, they were the happy ones. I've seen people on the beach in Indonesia who had never owned a pair of shoes selling pineapple to tourists for subsistance incomes. While I was sweating they were smiling. And in the Philippines I danced with an island full of fishermen and farmers in one of only a few pubs they had and while I was SWEATING they were singing, dancing and making me jealous.

I think when, (and if), the day comes that I can finally afford to return to Canada I just might try to manufacture a situation for myself that comes close to what these happy people have. I'll get a small house with a little land. Maybe plant some crops. Get a few dogs. It will not be anything like the situation I'm SUPPOSED to have in Canada, but maybe that's the point I wanna make here. Maybe we owe it to ourselves and our ancestors who were fighting so that we could find happiness, to stop chasing the almighty dollar and start looking for it. Happiness that is.

And here in Korea, to complicate my thoughts even further, November 11th is a day they call Pepero Day. Pepero are chocolate covered cookies shaped like sticks. Because November 11th is 11 11 and the ones are kind of stick-like like Pepero, everybody buys each other Pepero to celebrate. They have a Pepero song and games. They even do what we call, "air quotes" to signify Pepero Day.

So everybody here is in a good mood today and I'm kind of morose wondering if my our people have appropriately honoured the efforts of our ancestors. I made myself a poppy and wore it to class and my students asked what it was for. They showed interest in our tradition. They have the same thing here on June 25th. They call it "Yugeeoh", which is not to be confused with "Yugioh" the famous Japanese superhero, collector cards and cartoon. Yuk is 6, Ee is 2 and Oh is 5. 06 25.


So it's a bit of a confusing day here. Nonetheless I hope we never do forget what "The Greatest Generation" did for us. Support your local Royal Canadian Legion. And happy Pepero day!

Halloween in Korea

It's just past Halloween here in Korea. Two nights ago I entertained the idea of turning on the air conditioning and tonight the heater. However the addition or removal of clothing and/or the repositioning of windows and blinds has been sufficient to alter the temperature to my liking. If none of the above works tonight I'll just get fetal under a couple of long unused blankets on my bed. Cold has ever been a friend to me. It's the heat I despise. The transition from one to the other, (rather the other to one respectively), has been almost instantaneous this year. Apart from foliage discolouration and a slight drop in temperature Korea has been all but cheated out of an autumn. And it's tied for my favourite season here in Korea!

I saw a few snowflakes as I walked to the corner store to photocopy homework for my classes today. A five-minute walk that included no less than 15 Korean exclamations of, "Oh chuweoh," which means, "Oh it's cold!" Although, in my experience, this not so hale and hearty younger generation starts with the "oh chuweohs" as soon as you can keep your butter out of the fridge. It wasn't more than a few days ago that the same trip wetted a dry T-shirt with sweat. As I type this my feet are in need of woolen socks and I feel a sudden and overwhelming urge to eat something covered in maple syrup. It's cold folks. In MY room anyway. The air coming in the window has that familiar, full-bodied diesel exhaust bouquet. It's pretty much winter today.

On Halloween night in the German Bar in downtown Gwangju I was sitting directly beside the open door in order to have the coolest seat in the house. And it was raining outside, hot, muggy and there seemed to be no sign of fall. Things changed in a hurry.

But it's not the weather I stumbled out from under the covers to type about on this night. It's not the temperature or precipitation that has made me tear myself away from the good book I was reading. Or re-reading. (The Picture of Dorian Gray). It is an often pondered mystery of this, my adopted country that puzzles me to distraction. Why don't Koreans do Halloween?

Indeed on the very night I did query a few costumed respondents and this is what several of them had to say, "Halloween isn't traditionally Korean." A solid answer in that if it is traditional, Koreans ALL do it. No matter how ancient, antiquated, outdated or inconvenient. Right? I am not so sure of that...

How traditional are cell phones? And if you think for a second that Japan or any other country comes close in cellphone culture, you'd just be wrong. It is a firmly entrenched part of the Korean identity. Cell phones and accessories are pieces of flair in modern Korea that have replaced the societal cues such as clothing, hairstyles, fans, servants, family seals etc. You may not score a date with the best looking guy or girl just because of your cellphone but you could lose one for dropping a call, having last year's model or exhibiting slow texting skills. My phone is about 6 years old. My students think it's "cute". But it's better than when I didn't have a phone and my students thought I must be a serial killer or worse, a "wonkda." That's the Korean word for a social misfit or outcast.

It's anyone's guess as to how social culture will transform in any country, but I think I've been here long enough to give a few opinions. I think Koreans would love Halloween! Here are a few reasons why:

1. Koreans love free stuff and they love candy. Free candy is a no-brainer. And it's not something that's limited by age in any way.

2. Korean girls absolutely love to get dolled up, often to the extreme. Now here is an area where I would say Japan DOES eclipse Korea. But only in a manga, cartoon charactery way. Korean chicks just dig getting dressed to the nines. When I show pictures of girls in Halloween costumes that would qualify as being dressed to the tens or elevens, (like the ones above), my female students moan longingly. You know the princess, angel, cat, French maid, naughty nurse, student, cheerleader, and maybe comic book character etc. costumes I'm talking about. The ones Koreans just couldn't quite get away with on any other day. I'm sure they'd get right into those on Halloween!

3. Korean guys would get into those costumes too! Not so much the wearing of them but supporting the girls who wear them.

4. Drinking! Nuff said.

5. Spooky things and ghosts are a bit different but I would say Koreans like to get creeped out just as much as any culture going.

I've seen a lot of kids wearing costumes and having school parties here so it's starting to catch on. But trick-or-treaters are still non-existant. Every year I buy candy and hope, but nobody comes a-knocking.

There is all kinds of conjecture. Maybe it's just too dangerous to send kids out into the streets here. Not that they'll be abducted so much but I think the fear would be more of kids being hit by vehicles.

Maybe everybody's working, or at least at work, all night so nobody can stay home to hand out treats.

Maybe people are loathe to espouse another foreign ritual.

Maybe it's still more attractive to be too "shy" to wear a costume.

Maybe trick-or-treating or Halloween partying just needs the immeasurable boost of being featured in a Korean drama or music video before it's safe for people to do it here in earnest.

Who knows?

Really, who knows? Anyone? If you have any ideas don't hesitate to post a comment. I just can't figure it out.

And so another Halloween has come and gone and there are no signs that it is catching on yet. Oh well, maybe next year...

Kia WINS!

I hope this link will work.

These are the highlights of maybe the best game of baseball I've ever seen. I remember when Joe Carter hit his World Series winning home run for the Blue Jays but I don't remember the game being quite as exciting as this one.

I was at home watching it on my computer with my friend Guns. We had a few beers and were planning to go watch at a bar somewhere after having only a couple at my place. We didn't want to tear ourselves away from the game. It was that exciting. We finished all our beer and had a couple White Russians before the game finally came to its AWESOME conclusion. It was a long one. I think it was over 4 hours.

So after jumping around, high fiving, high tenning and yelling a lot, Guns and I went to a place downtown for further celebration. There were a couple VERY unfortunate things about the game, however. It started at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I talked with a few people who had tried to watch it in a bar and they said there really weren't that many people watching in bars. Because of the time. One guy said he was the only one in the place he was at and the owner said to him that he was sad the game started at 2 since he wasn't getting that much business. At 6 PM the day before Gwangju's Olympic Soccer Stadium was opened up and some fans watched game 6 on the big screen there. But the fact that the stadium was opened wasn't very well advertised so not many people went. And, of course, Kia didn't win game 6. I would have gone if I'd known though. The soccer stadium wasn't open for game seven again because it was at 2 in the afternoon.

The other unfortunate thing was that the final was played in Seoul at Chamshill Stadium. I guess that's where all the Kia fans were because when we got to downtown Gwangju after the game there was no sign that the home team had just won one of the most dramatic victories ever. It was pretty dead.

We went to the German Bar. It's one of two foreigner bars in town. Really the only pub in Gwangju. There was nobody there when we arrived at about 8 PM. And there are plenty of foreigners here who are big Tiger fans. But, undeterred, we asked the waitress to put the game replay on the TV and we watched it one more time while drinking German beer.



Above is a good pic of the game 7 hero, Na Ji Weon and the guy I thought should have been the Series MVP, Aquilino Lopez. Na is a second year player for the Tigers. If you scroll WAY back in this blog to find my season predictions for the Tigers I wrote that I thought Na Ji Weon might just "bust out" and have a good year this year. Talk about busting out! I don't think he deserved MVP but it was a popular choice and I can't say I'm sad to see him get it. I've seen a lot of Tigers games and usually I'm there for warm-ups a couple hours before the game. It's pretty clear that Na Ji Weon is well loved by his teammates. He's a funny-looking, clumsy, player with a bad, Kirby Pucket-esque body. The other Tigers often joke around with him on the field. He's got that kind of mascot-like position on the team. Because of this a LOT of people were pulling for him to do well this year. I really like him.

He had a very good year. He wasn't a regular starter but despite that he got 384 at bats. That was fourth on the team behind former major leaguer Choi Hee Seop, this year's league MVP, Kim Sang Hyun, and Tiger superhero, Lee Jong Beom. He got over 100 hits 73 RBI's and 23 homers. I'd call that busting out.

In the first game of the Korea Series he didn't start. But he came in for 2 at bats. He got out both times. Then in the second game he got up 4 times, had no hits and one sacrifice bunt. (which of course didn't work). He didn't start game three but he looked better getting a walk and a strike-out in two at bats. In game four he started. I was nervous that Jo Beom Hyun was going to keep him out of the game but was happy to see him play. He got two strike-outs and an out before FINALLY getting his first hit up the middle and knocking in his first run of the series.

So in the first 4 games he went 1/11, 3K, 1RBI. Not MVP type numbers. I thought he wouldn't start game 5 but he did. Gotta give credit to coach Jo for sticking with him. In game 5 he got another hit, another strike-out and another sacrifice. (which didn't work). In game 6 he got a hit and a walk in 4 at bats. So his numbers were 3/17, 4K, 1RBI, 1BB. Still not overwhelming but he was looking more and more comfortable.

In game 7 he hit TWO homers, got 3 RBI's and even threw in a walk. His final numbers were 5/21, 4K, 4RBI, 2BB. His average in the series was less than .250. Just about the entire SK lineup had a better average than that. But he DID win the final game for Kia pretty much single-handedly. And I didn't see any envy at all from other players. They were all happy for him. And I sure was!

Lopez got 2 wins and a hold in game 7. I thought he shoulda won MVP. But I kinda like it when the MVP is not a pitcher.

Choi Hee Seop hit .320 in the series, (8/25), including 4 walks, 6 runs, 5 RBI's. These are better numbers than Na Ji Weon and his two RBI's in game two won the game 2-1 for the Tigers. I suppose the reason I wouldn't give him the MVP was that he hit zero homers and struck out 5 times. He supposed to be the Tigers' home run guy.

An honourable mention goes to An Chi Hong. I noticed this rookie in pre-season and said he'd platoon with another guy at second base this season. Well the other guy is now history. An Chi Hong was voted to the All Star Game and got the MVP of that! A rookie! Too bad I was in Thailand when that happened! In the Korea Series he hit .286, (6/21) with 2 runs, 2 RBI's, 2 stolen bases and a homer. Not spectacular but it was a defensive series. And his defence was STELLAR as you can see from watching the highlights of game seven at the top of this page. He's number 8 on second base. I think he got about 10 outs in the game.

My two favourite players did well also. Lee Jong Beom hit only .238 but won game one to get the Tigers off to a good start. He also had 4 walks, 4 RBI's and 2 runs. Yoon Suk Min pitched 12 innings giving up 14 hits, and 3 runs. He struck out 11 batters but in all that time the Tigers gave him 2 runs worth of support. He won game two but lost 3-2 in game six. However Yoon won the All Star game and Lee Jong Beom was runner up for MVP.

What a great year it was for the Tigers! I can't wait for next season!

Tigers 2, Wyverns 2

The Korea Series is in full swing and for those who just don't give a crap about Korean baseball, stop reading now. I tried starting a new blog just for my favourite Korean baseball team, the Kia Tigers, but I couldn't keep up with it during my vacation to Thailand/Cambodia and I just couldn't find a good way to pick up afterwards. The Tigers were in 3rd or 4th when I left and first place when I got back. They never left first for the remainder of the year although the SK Wyverns put on a MASSIVE run of 20 games unbeaten to end the season. One was a 2-2 tie, which stupidly counts as a loss in Korea, but they still weren't beaten in their last 20 games. You would think that'd get them into first but the Tigers won 7 of their own in a row to finish out the year.

I really like the way they do things in the KBO as far as their playoff format. The 3rd and 4th place teams slug it out in a best of 5 to play the 2nd place team in a best of 5 and the winner of that takes on a very well rested season champion in the Korea Series. That well rested champion was Kia this year. They sat back and watched while the Doosan Bears beat a feisty Lotte Giant club 3 games to 1. Then they got a 2-0 lead on SK. I was shocked given the finish SK had! They hadn't lost two games in like two MONTHS! But SK came back to win the next three.

So as expected it's the SK Wyverns vs. the Kia Tigers in the Korea Series. The first two games were Tigers home games in Gwangju. OF COURSE I went to see them, right? Nope. I ended up going to my friends' restaurant grand opening that weekend. (which was this past weekend). I had a great time though! Met some nice folks and I was very impressed with the restaurant the Jackson family has set up. It's a breakfast restaurant in the Peng San area. That's near Pyeong Taek. I think they'll do all right. Likely within 6 months there'll be 4 or 5 copycats down the street. Already several people have said they were "thinking about" doing that...


Above is a pic of Moodeung Stadium, the Kia Tigers home field, as I went by in a taxi on the day of the first game of the KBO finals. Known as the Korea Series. I went to about 30 home games this year so I'm pretty comfortable in old Moodeung. It was about 1 in the afternoon when I passed by and already the crowd was REALLY thick for the game at 6 in the evening. I think I'm probably lucky I didn't try to go.

It was good to see the family again and I even went to church with them. A nice cozy, little church that sings songs that I remember from MY church-going days. The pastor is a retired military man and his sermon was on something that has been coming up again and again lately for me. It's not something good. It's the idea that when the shit hits the fan, don't sweat it cuz it just makes you stronger. It actually says that we are to "count it all JOY when we fall into divers temptations and persevere." That's in the Bible. Maybe not exactly like that, but it's there, man. Trust me.

I've been struggling with a supervisor who is doing his best to make things as tough as he can for me. He told me I could teach at camps during vacations, that I'd get my own private internet in my room, and that I'd be getting a raise so I make the bare minimum salary here in Korea:2 million won a month. All three were contract promises and all three were lies. It's VERY hard to count that kind of stuff JOY! Kicking his scrawny, spineless, prevaricating ASS would be a joy though. But not very Christian of me. Just one of the divers temptations I have to power through.

Also this semester, AS ALWAYS, he gave me my schedule without classroom numbers and as always I went to a couple of the wrong classrooms and taught at least one class full of students who sat there for 20-30 minutes before telling me I was in the wrong room. But because this happens every single time I had asked my supervisor if he was absolutely positive of the room numbers cuz they didn't sound correct to me. He assured me, (lied to my face), that they were correct.

Then this past week during midterm exams I had 3 of my 4 exams scheduled at the same time: Monday at 10 AM. The one exam that wasn't conflicting with any others was, of course, the exam for my supervisor's class, the flight attendants. Since I knew what to expect if I asked him to help with the other conflicts, I solved the problems on my own by going to the various offices of the three other departments I teach. Between the deans of the physiotherapy and dental assistant departments we were able to hammer out a revised schedule so that dental was at 9 and physio was at 10. I couldn't find the dean of the E.M.T. program so I arranged with the students to have the exam at noon on Monday. My supervisor assumed I wouldn't be able to do this, (because he thinks his job is actually hard), and he sent me a message around 11 saying, "EMERGENCY! Your class is waiting for you! Where are you?" I called him back and said, "Relax they know the exam is at 12." Sure enough they all showed up at 12. This PISSED my supervisor off!

That's what I'm dealing with here. And there are dozens of other stories I could tell. In fact scroll down my archives and read. You'll find some of them. But it has been really good recently to be talking with some of my friends about this very subject. I have actually been encouraging OTHERS to stay positive in the midst of trials and tribulations and now it's ME who has to take my own advice. I wrote a letter today to my supervisor's supervisor explaining what a jagoff he's been but because I have a pretty sweet deal here, (all things considered), and I like the hours, my students, my long vacations and I don't have a wife or kids so don't need a ton of money, I'm still happy. I'd better just accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. I haven't sent the letter to anyone although I have the email of the guy who could probably fire my supervisor's ass. I don't think I will either. Why fix what ain't too badly broke?

But back to baseball. I'm hoping I don't have to use this strategy with the Tigers although, here I go. The Tigers won the first two games. Aquilino Lopez, (a former Blue Jay hurler), started game one for the Tigers and I have to admit, I am BLOWN AWAY by how well he's done this year! Early in the season I said he'd probably crap out and be sent home. But he's not only stuck around, he's become one of the best pitchers in the league. He's now known for getting stronger as the games go on. He's the one and ONLY pitcher on the Kia staff that the coach leaves in past the 7th inning because around about that time he's virtually unhittable. I saw some stats on a broadcast that were astounding! Like opponents' batting average after the 6th inning is like .090 or something ridiculous like that! So he pitched game one. He pitched 8 innings giving up 6 hits including one solo homer. It worked out to 3 runs. Not spectacular but it was as dry as the Sahara Desert for the SK hitters on the night. They're not used to that kind of low production.

The offensive hero of the night for the Tigers was the veteran Lee Jong Beom. Everybody's favourite player. He's been around for ages here in Gwangju. The people of Gwangju know him as "The Son of the Wind", (I think it's "Param Adeul" in Korean), for one season when he hit .393, stole 84 bases and got 196 hits. (He was only caught stealing 15 times.) But that was back in 1994! Nobody expected him to star out now, but he had a good season this year and even at 38 he's producing in the playoffs. On a night when the Tigers only got 6 hits, he got two of them and they were clutch hits that earned him 3 R.B.I.'s and were the difference in the game. The final score was 5-3 for Kia. I watched the game at Scott and Minju's new restaurant. They have a big screen there. It wasn't open yet, (they were setting things up while I watched), but next day was opening day.


Above is a pic of the restaurant interior and the TV upon which I watched this historic game. That's Alex in the foreground. Because Peng Sang has a big military presence he got an American quarter and flipped it over to the heads side and asked me, "Uncle Dave, that's Barack Obama, right?" If you blow the pic up you might be able to read the extensive menu. It's mouthwatering. You can also see it in the pic on the right.

On opening day, Scott was all by himself in the kitchen cooking for an army of friends and family that ALL showed up at once. A nightmare for ANY restaurant never mind one that hasn't cooked a single meal yet. But he did admirably. There were even some walk-in customers but it was, of course, too slow for most because of the huge backlog brought on by the festivities. The customers understood. I think.

I couldn't get a picture of Scott. He was a blur in the kitchen making waffles, bacon, eggs, French toast, you wouldn't believe the menu. I wish I could post it but I lost the site. It's online. He takes phone-in orders too. That's gonna be popular.

Anyway, it was a long wait for most but for most we didn't care. We were all socializing and enjoying ourselves while Scott whipped up his magic and Min Ju distributed it all and collected the money. I think they're both going to be exponentially happier now that they don't have to teach any more. Not that they won't miss the teaching, but, like me they're gonna LOVE getting rid of the shit that comes with it. Like having to be nice to students' parents who are unreasonable and crappy supervisors and so on.


Here's Jeff, the Jackson's upstairs neighbour, eating the first order. It was the Hungry Human Breakfast. That's what I got too. And trust me you have to be very hungry or not quite human. And here's Minju waiting on tables. I KNOW she's loving every second of this new restaurant!

But back to baseball, Kia and SK played on opening day for "Bacon 'N Eggs": October 17th at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. This is closing time for the restaurant. We watched the first inning at the restaurant and the owner of the building came by, took a look and said, "Let's franchise!" Then we went home and watched the rest on TV. ANOTHER big Screen! Scott and Min Ju have done well for themselves in their businesses!

This time, MY favourite pitcher on Kia was pitching: Yoon Suk Min. Internationally for Korea he has the best record, PERIOD! But he's largely overlooked by Koreans. Same thing in the KBO. He's respected but not considered elite. I DO consider him elite and in game two he made the SK hitters his bitches! He scattered 7 hits over 7 innings giving up ZERO runs and striking out 7. The reason he's not a pitching GOD in Korea is because his team never seems to give him run support. He's like a Korean Dave Stieb. Boy THAT'S dating myself! I'd like to date myself. I'm a good guy. Good sense of humour. Not bad looking. A pretty good catch really. Eehhhh anyhooo, Kia only got 5 hits in the game and two of them went to their former major leaguer Choi Hee Seop. He knocked in one run each and that was enough for the win. Very dependable closer Yoo Dong Hoon gave up a homer in the 9th but the final was 2-1. I nearly pooped my pants when the home run was hit in the ninth. I even told Scott, who was in another room, "OH NO! Tie game," because I thought there was another guy on base. But I forgot he had been thrown out on a close play. During the season Yoon Suk Min LOST close games like this because of little tiny mistakes by relief pitchers or fielders or whatever. He didn't have a stellar season this year. He went 9 and 4 with 7 saves during an inexplicable stint as the best pitcher in the league being used as the CLOSER! Man that was frustrating for me! And for him! I think I even saw him purposely trying to be bad so as to be removed from that role. Don't blame him. Anyway, I think he'll get to pitch again and I'm hoping he'll win, it'll be for the championship and I'll be there in Seoul to watch! Maybe, just maybe THEN he'll get the respect he deserves.

On to game three. The scene now switches to Incheon, the home of the SK Wyverns. The starting pitcher for Kia was my personal acquaintance, Rick Guttormson. I met him at a pub in downtown Gwangju. We drank for a while together and chatted a bit. I still don't consider him a "friend" because he said he'd give me a signed ball at the game the next day, but he wasn't the starting pitcher even though he though he would be. So I got no ball. Not HIS fault at all. But I don't know if he'd know me from Adam or not. Next time I drink with him I'll consider him my friend. Then maybe he'll overtake Yoon Suk Min as my favourite pitcher on the team. Unless I happen to meet Lopez... I sat beside Guttormson's younger brother at one game too. Nice guy.

Anyway, he had a VERY uncharacteristically bad outing. He gave up 4 hits in the first 2 innings, which doesn't sound that bad, but he also surrendered 2 walks and by the time he was yanked he'd given up 4 runs including one homer. I've watched him all season and I KNOW he's a bit of a slow starter like most pitchers. His worst innings are the early ones. But because of the shitty internet I have here in the dorms and the TV I used to have that exploded, I was unable to watch the game so I don't know if he should have been pulled or not. I'm guessing NOT. The coach Jo Beom Hyun is far too willing to go to the bullpen even though he's got the best starters in the league. And NOT the best bullpen. Suffice to say the next guy, Seo Jae Eung, (another former major leaguer), gave up 4 runs in the next two innings and the guy who has been the darling of the coach and the scourge of the bullpen for a few seasons: Son Young Min, gave up 3 more in his one inning. The Kia batters piled up 6 runs in a late-inning comeback attempt that Son Young Min made sure fell short. Kim Sang Hyun, the league's shoe-in M.V.P. got two hits, a homer and 4 R.B.I.'s but his efforts were wasted by bad pitching. I'm kinda glad I missed that game. I went for a bracing walk after trying fruitlessly to bring it up on my computer. Probly better for me anyway.

Yesterday was the best game of the series. By remarkably good luck I had enough bandwidth to get the game. The starter for Kia was Yang Hyun Jong who had no wins and 5 losses last year. Also a 5.83 E.R.A. Thing is I remembered him from last year as being a pretty good pitcher. I got him mixed up with Yoon Suk Min a few times. Only he's a lefty. I went to a couple pre-season games this year and he was pitching and he was VERY impressive. The games were VERY boring because of him! That's why I remember.

Not that pre-season usually means anything but I wasn't that surprised to see him bust out this year and have a great season. He went 12 and 5 with a very solid 3.15 E.R.A. And he had a very good outing yesterday as well. He went 5 2/3 giving up only 4 hits. The coach, as usual, pulled him WAY too early. I was watching and he should not have been pulled. Only 88 pitches! He DIDN'T deserve to lose either! He gave up one home run on a 3-0 pitch. What kind of megalomaniac swings at a 3-0 pitch? I mean honestly! That went for two runs. Luckily for the megalomaniac. Then Kim Sang Hyun, (Kia's MVP), hit a ball that probably would have been a homerun if not for a spectacular catch by the SK fielder. I think given the right circumstances this will be the Korean equivalent of "the catch". For those of you who don't know just google it. Dwight Clark would be a virtual unknown otherwise.

Yang struck out 6 and walked only 2 in 6 innings of work. Those are awesome numbers. He just made that one mistake probably thinking, "There's no WAY this guy's gonna swing at an 3 and oh pitch!" Or in Korea, an oh and 3 pitch. And that was all she wrote. Lee Hyun Gon went 3/4 with a homer and Na Ji Weon, (who I really like), got his first hit and RBI but it was all for naught. In the 9th inning with two out the third run for Kia scored on an error. Then 3/3 Lee Hyun Gon stepped up to the plate and hit a solid ball RIGHT AT the shortstop. The real difference in the game was that catch. It would have been a two-run homerun and Kia would have won the game if it were like an inch higher. But it ended as a 4-3 loss for the Tigers.

But, oh well. Count it all joy! Now I know for SURE that there will be a game Friday. Today is an off day while the teams make their ways to Chamshill Stadium in Seoul, (a money-making scheme I really hate), which is one of the few things I don't like about the KBO. I have ONE class tomorrow. A bogus hagwon class that was just piled on to fill out my sched. Probably only one student will show! Because of that I can't go to the game in Seoul tomorrow. Unless I just say fuck it! And nothing against this one guy who shows up but, he's a few sandwiches short of a picnic. He's the REASON the other 40 people dropped out of this class. I don't think it'd be too hard to think something up...

But before I get any idears... there WILL be a game on Friday! So I don't have to neglect my duties here. Even though my beloved employers have already breached the contract 3 times I am STILL going to teach a class of one weirdo rather than be a part of history tomorrow. Count it all joy! See what I mean? There's no doubt in my mind that this theme has arisen at an appropriate time in my life. And although I squawk and squeak like a greasy wheel I really do like my job. So I don't think it'll be too big a downer to miss the game tomorrow. Who knows, maybe there'll be TWO games I can catch in Seoul! And the winner of the Korea series will be Kia and I will be there to watch it! Then this will all sound like useless whining.

But I'll have to keep that in mind while I'm teaching my ONE class at 4 PM tomorrow. Oh to clarify, the game is at 6 PM and it takes 4 hours plus to get to the stadium in Seoul from Gwangju. If not for the one student I'd go. But because of him I can't. I am guessing Lopez will be pitching tomorrow and if he makes it past the early innings before getting the nervous Jo Bum Hyun hook, he'll probably win. Then more than likely it'll be my favourite pitcher Yoon Suk Min on Friday. I can't complain.

So anyway, that's how things are this end. Sorry if you are not a fan of baseball but... I warned you.

The Study Card Argument

I heard, and saw, quite an interesting argument for atheism on youtube. Funny thing about youtube for me is when I go there I usually end up watching stuff you don’t really need to watch. I end up surfing stand-up. I love listening to comedians and with a few exceptions like Carrot Top, magician comedians or guys who are spastically jumping around on the stage and making faces, you don’t need to see anything. So you usually get a collage of still photos while you hear the act. I was listening to comedy by a guy named Doug Stanhope. Totally filthy but he makes some really good points. Like why are American people worried so much about the “under God” part of the pledge of allegiance being recited by school children? Shouldn’t they be more worried about the “liberty and justice for all” part? And why do we need to advertise so much? If you have a good product you don’t need to advertise. Almost everybody tries drugs but THEY aren’t advertised. In a democracy we get to pick our leaders, yay! But what if I’m doing okay leading myself? Where does MY vote go? This is what makes Americans Americans. Well would you still call yourself a Christian if you voted in a new Jesus every four years? Or the 4 million people a year who come into America and don’t contribute a thing that should be kicked back where they came from: babies! (I don't know how to post youtube links here but you can find the ones I'm talking about easily)

By remarkable coincidence this atheist guy who posted on youtube looked like Stanhope and I clicked on his video by mistake. But I was intrigued. I listened to the entire argument – something this atheist would most likely discount the possibility of a believer in some sort of religion doing. Likely, but I can’t say for sure. I just got a feeling that this guy had that swagger about him. His monotone voice and half closed eyes gave me the impression of perceived intellectual superiority. And it seemed a bit hypocritical since Atheism is packaged with a belief system analogous to religion. In my opinion anyways.

The scenario was as follows: He had a stack of all the religious beliefs in the world written on study cards so that the stack was massive. All the beliefs except those that I believe myself, that is. The atheist goes on to say that as we go through the cards I explain why I don’t believe in all the things written on the cards and we write my reasoning for non-belief on the backs of every individual card. He says that at some point we wouldn’t have to write anything on the backs of the cards any more, we could just refer back to earlier cards where I had explained why I didn’t believe in something else that was similar. Then he says after days and days of doing this we got to the bottom where he had secretly written all the things I DO believe in and says that when we get to those cards we could just as easily discount them using some of the earlier cards as precedence.

A pretty arrogant assumption in my opinion. First of all I really don’t think that it would have been very easy for me to GET to the bottom of the stack without finding a hell of a lot of cards that I could not discount. There would be lots of cards that are based in the same sort of reason or faith that is at the heart of my own belief system. Therefore I could not arrogantly discount them, rather I would set them aside and say that they could very well be true as far as I know. My beliefs are not always based on something that is easily proved or disproved. Often they are based on things that are impossible to prove. That’s why it’s called “faith”.

For example if there was a card that said, “Allah has always been and always will be.” I would be an arrogant dick to say that this is untrue. Rather, I believe I’d say that it could very well be possible. I just prefer to call the infinite being “God” instead of “Allah”. It’s more a question of preference, culture or geography than proof or logic or any scientific explanation.

Or one of the cards contained the idea that there was a “cosmic egg” of matter that imploded upon itself creating what “science” calls the “Big Bang”, which is the beginning of the universe as we know it. And BELIEVE me this IS a religious belief! I would have no reasoning to refute this argument because the cosmic egg is the infinite matter in this philosophy and it isn’t much different than an infinite Being that I believe in who, through divine design created the beginnings of the universe as we know it. It is absolutely identical in theory if not in terminology. I just happen to think that outrageously good luck is harder to believe in than a sentient Creator.

Indeed even this youtube guy’s atheism is something I couldn’t refute. It could very well be true for all I know and the reasoning he has for it is surely exactly the same as my reasoning on many counts. This guy apparently believes that people who aren’t atheists absolutely “KNOW” every little detail of their entire faith and have readily available streams of logic with which to reinforce those details. Well that’s not faith, that’s training. That’s somebody trying to explain something that he/she will never fully understand with knee-jerk, unchallenged dogma.

I will never claim to understand God and I’m not so arrogant as to assume that I have irrefutable evidence of my beliefs. It is only people who are as dogmatic as to think that everything is, or even CAN be explainable that would fail this study card test. That is, their own beliefs on the cards at the end would have been self-refuted at the beginning. This, admittedly, is the kind of thinking that, when attached to a religion, causes inter-religious fighting and has lead to countless wars, fights, bloodshed and violence. It’s interesting that before stumbling across this atheist’s post I was listening to a rant by Stanhope which noted that you never hear news reports saying, “Credit for the bomb that killed 180 people in the atheist settlement was claimed by the agnostic liberation organization,” or something like that.

I am not this kind of believer and I think there are MANY more like me who believe strongly without feeling any need to force others into our way of thinking. If all religion could be like this perhaps nobody would fail this test. Perhaps religion and spiritualism all over the world would be able to conspire for more good than bad.

But the guy has a point. There certainly are some people who would fail this test. Those people are more soldiers and less believers. And I agree, this kind of mental discipline is detrimental to the world and indeed their own religions. But it’s pretty darn arrogant of this guy to think that nobody who has spiritual beliefs could ever pass this test, or even that atheists themselves would get to the end of the stack and have all their cherished beliefs completely unassailed by the arguments made on the backs of the previous piles of cards.

And if this is, as advertised on youtube, the most compelling argument for atheism, this guy, and this argument, sure don’t make me want to go find a local atheist meeting and hang out with folks just like him. And that’s the point that this guy is making in an unintentional and self-defeating way: a closed mind is a dangerous thing. Anyone who believes in this card stack argument is a dogmatic atheist and that’s just as bad as a dogmatic believer.

Atheism is a relatively new thing. Given time I’m sure they’d cause lots of wars if they continue to believe so closed-mindedly. At least that's what I reckon.