I need a red hoodie now...dopeness

There's this notion that there's too much brag rap in music these days. Odd, that I didn't near a note of that until Kanye and Jay-Z dropped 'Watch the Throne.' I reason this is because 'Ye and Jay are two of the best rappers in the game today ('lest I say ever and start a war). I guess nothing really matters until the biggest names make what amounts to an entire album where they brag about how much richer they are than you. "Can't you see we gettin money up under you?" "Can't you see the private jets flyin over you?" Jesus Christ, thanks for reminding me how I just paid $13 dollars for an album where you just insult me and talk about how much you REALLY don't need more money.One might think I really hate brag rap; or are we calling it swag rap? I don't. One of my favorite people to listen to right now is Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover). Sometimes I wonder if this guy makes anything other than brag rap broken up with songs about how much he hated himself. Oh right, there are times when he mixes them together in to one song.

Why listen to this one-dimensional music? I clearly don't identify with rich black people. It all boils down to motivation. This isn't Lil' Wayne bragging about how he's born rich. These are people who started out just as normal as everyone else and worked their ass off to make it. I'm fine with gloating about it if that's your story. I want that to be my story. It's a sort of nudge to say: if you stop wasting your life and put in work you can get here. It also says: you're not here yet and I'm way more awesome than you.

Remember when hip-hop was fun?

If you watched the video for 'Otis' you'll see these two moguls messing around and having fun. It's not representative of their life. They're putting in so much work that this is their break. They're finding entertainment in the work itself. Like Wale says: No Days Off.

I wrote about all this junk to tell you this: stop reading my blog and do some work. One day I'm going to make a coherent post about something interesting, if not significant.

This is the least creepy photo I could find without taking one.

I was originally going to post about how I resonate better with my students than I do with my co-teachers but after thinking about it,  I know that's not the case. What is true is that I find myself trying to appeal to both groups.

Why am I appealing to children? What else is there to do? Class is boring and takes too much energy when the kids don't want to participate and learn. In the end, I'd rather them have fun with a loosely related English component than bash their heads in with a full lesson they won't learn and probably will just forget the next week. If it's one thing I've learned it's that Korean teachers push these kids hard. No one is rewarding me for attempting a difficult lesson. The only time I've gotten a pat on the back if for the lessons filled with fun facts and games to go along with them.

Why am I appealing to my coworkers? That's obvious. It's always better to work in an environment where people like you than one where they don't. As of right now, I'm looking to resign next year and as I've found with pretty much everything in Korea: it's all about relationships. Keep morale up, don't shit where you eat, and stay positive. After that, you'll pretty much get waived past any semblance of red tape. Don't get me wrong, I genuinely enjoy the company of my coworkers. As far as I'm concerned their awesome (save one who dislikes me for apparently no reason). However, I've eaten a lot of stuff I'd rather not and have dealt with random last-minute changes in many capacities pretty amicably. That's pretty much how it works: everyone seems to take people's crap as the cost of association. Either that or I'm dealing with a seriously passive aggressive culture that repressive all negative emotion. I'm going with the former.

In the end, I'm not really sure what I wanted to post about or where this was even going. I figured I should go ahead and write something about my experiences so far. There's a good chance I'll contradict these statements later so don't take anything I post to heart.

As far as 'Projects' are concerned, it's mainly space for my budding game development information but I don't know what else I might end up working on so I gave it a generic label. 'Korea' is all my adventures abroad, if I manage to visit another country I'll relabel to fit the content. I imagine that's what most of my friends are here to see. Trust that more content is on the way. I still have to do the obligatory apartment post (with video) and I want to do a sort of video tour and photo walk around Yeongcheon. I might do some Daegu content but downtown Daegu is a bit too big for me to run around filming, I might just talk about my favorite spots. If you have any ideas about what you want to learn about Korea I'm game to do a piece on it. Try to ask for something you can't already learn with a Google search (e.g. food, Chuseok, noraebang, etc.)

Lately, I've been sleeping and doing the same stuff I did back home (watch movies, hang out with friends, sleep) so there isn't anything interesting to report as of yet.

Fun Fact: Scott Pilgrim vs the World is an American movie, with a Canadian star, using a English director. The actor playing Knives Chau is not Chinese but Cambodian (and pretty attractive when not styled to be a 17 year old).

He asked a legitimate question. He could've taken away from that exchange that I couldn't break down my English so he could understand but the truth is, I didn't know what to say. I want to say, "because I care about how you're doing and I don't want it to affect your academic performance." However, many native teachers are gone after a year and aren't much more than tape recorders and glorified entertainers. I strive to be more than that but I, like many others, have no real attachment to Korea. I like it here, I can see myself staying more than a year but I'm not dead-set on anything.

In addition, even if I was staying and had reason to make an investment, what can I do about his problems? Tell another teacher? Clearly, I'm lacking a lot of power and influence.

Basically, I have to clear these two hurdles before he even begins to attempt to break down his Korean thoughts in to English. Which is no easy task. Looking back, I can't justify him going through all the work to tell me what's going on when all I could really say is "I'm sorry, that's unfortunate. You know, things will look up soon. Don't worry about it too much."

With one word a kid half my age is one of the first people to make me seriously consider what I'm doing on the other side of the world and what my true ambitions are.

I am at the unfortunate disadvantage of having school bills to pay back in the States. Even with those financial commitments, one would expect that when you're making over 2 million won you should be able to pocket some of that. Sadly, my consumption has decided against that.

I know what you're thinking, "Noky, you've only been there two months -- you have to naturally get items to settle in." No sir, I did that and then some. I think I just have a natural disposition to burn money. In fact, I know have a problem with sticking to a budget. I hoped for some reason things would be better here.

Anyway, I told you that story to tell you this one:

For some people, saving money is easy. Those people tend to not within the average bounds of society. If saving money was really easy, no one would question how to do it. Spending money is easy -- maybe, too easy. Thankfully, being an ESL teacher in Korea -- saving money is actually easier than saving money back in the states.

I'm not an expert so I'm not one to be dishing out advice but here's the plan from here onward:

Stop Going Out

Seriously, just stay home. A large portion of social outings in Korea are glorified drinking parties. Don't misunderstand, I enjoy social drinking. However, the I can't keep up with the frequency. A real issue for me is I've been heading out around 3-4 times a week. I have Korean class on Wednesdays that I will keep up with but otherwise, I'm going to just abuse Saturday and leave the rest of the nights for staying in town. I find that the majority of my funds disappear when I leave for Daegu. The 10k in transportation costs and average of 15k dinners add up. Anything local is still fair game though, I didn't fly thousands of miles to play the anti-social penny pincher. So I guess what I'm saying is, Yeongcheon is where it's at (read: weekly Daegu trips are too rich for my blood). In addition, I probably won't be switching my passport to multiple-entry as I need to save instead of going to Thailand and if I bother to go to Japan, I'll have missed my friends which was half the reason and would save money a significant amount of money. Hopefully they can stop in Korea on the way back instead.

Cook Damnit

Eating out is really hit or miss in Korea. Sometimes, it can be cheap and sometimes it isn't. You can often go for simple dishes like mandu or bibimbap and spend less than 5,000 won but going out for savory substance (read: meat) will end up costing you. This is where cooking in house can save you money. Even more important than saving money, I have problems with buying food and then not using it. I still have chicken pieces in the freezer from the first month I got here that now that I think about it is probably freezer burned to hell and unusable. A couple weeks ago, I threw out some ground beef because I never did cook it after thawing it. I know back home, it sucks to waste food but that half-pound of ground beef costs about $10 here. You heard right, ground beef is about 15 - 20 USD/lb here. That's not even as expensive as it can get. Man, now that I did the math, I'm really kicking myself.

Stick to the Plan

This is the big one. I've set a comfortable budget of 200k in groceries and 200k for eating out. Add to that 300k for activities/trips and 150k for bills. That leaves about 500k in savings and 500k for loans with over of 150k breathing space. There's no way I should be going out so much as to break this budget. However, I'm pretty sure I'll find a way. In a few months, I'll update with the progress.

NOTE: I am ordering a camera this month so soon I'll have pictures to support these posts.

NOTE: Yeah, I get paid in millions and spend in thousands. That's how I roll in the SK.

NOTE: The word play in the title is just to get it out of my system. I wouldn't dare subject you to it on a consistent basis.

I don't have a lot to expand upon. I got a lot to do and I really don't have the time to do it. I don't expect to be working for much longer, I really need to free up time to get everything taken care of. Maybe next time I post, I'll work up the energy to share my views on a variety of current events.

Until then, lets all wait for E3 and inevitably more information on Final Fantasy XIV.

I will not be attending Xanbats #3 this week. Oh well, my Ibuki needs a lot work anyway. I might just give up on the season. Missing two rounds and going 2 and out last week don't make my chances very good.

Tried practicing today, my PP ended up getting cut in half. On the bright side, my execution has improved again. SJC from target combo in to command dash is almost ready for battle. My next goal is to actually learn the overhead link and jab to strong link. Also on the docket, I need to incorporate command dash and backdash in to my play style. Definitely need less slide and no more jump in kunai. It's coming along though.

Still don't know for sure about Korea and I don't expect to for a month. That's okay though, right now I need to focus on this TEFL course. Which has been hard because there's so much I want to do. My mind has been filled with game designs and it sucks to put the dream on hold but I think I'm doing the right thing. If everything works out, I'll be in a much better place to develop titles and build a team.

Interesting posts are on the way, I'm going to kick it in to overdrive this week. In the meantime, what are you doing? Comment or e-mail me with the details or a link to your blog.

For starters, I needed some cash. I took up a job working for a pretty well known store franchise. I'm not going to say which one because, I may very well rant about it later and I'm not here to smear anyone's name when I vent on my personal blog (well sometimes, but not for this). Even so, a lot of people have jobs and still manage to blog. Unfortunately, my job calls me in anywhere between 10PM and 4AM and I usually work a 10+ hour shift. So, whatever daylight I have left gets spent on...

Getting things in place to go to Korea. I finally sent off my application packet for EPIK. I had my recruiter interview, EPIK interview, and preliminary offer already. Now they just need to review my paperwork and send me a real contract. Yeah, throw me in the category of the JET-rejects that decided to hop on the Korea boat. There's more to it but I don't mind be put in that box.

So, in preparation for going to Korea, my recruiter suggested I take a TEFL course through ITTT. Now, I really have no time as I have to drop 100 hours in one month in order to receive my certification on time. If that wasn't enough...

I was working on getting my first game prototype out. I say was because my computer's hard drive is pretty much dead at this point a long with all the project code I had so far. Fortunately, I suppose, I wasn't far a long so I didn't lose much but without a dedicated machine, I'm not about to tackle a one-man game development show right now.

Those are the major things going on with me. I'm still volunteering on the weekends and occasionally I'm helping my dad out. Whatever free time I do find right now gets dumped in to practicing Ibuki in Super Street Fighter 4. I should talk more about SSF4 later. For now, look for some more personal focused posts and wish my luck with my Korea placement. I'm hoping I haven't sent my documents too late.

So I took my last final of the semester on Friday. With any luck, it'll be my last final forever. I don't think I find out what grades are for quite some time. They do graduating senior grades early but I'm not sure how early. Regardless, I should now have time for that blank projects page and regular posts on this blog. Interestingly enough, I have no idea what I want to post about.

I saw Avatar in IMAX 3D, so maybe we'll talk about that. Also, the AutoCast (tentatively titled BlackGear) team is in town. Provided the recent snow clears up, we'll talked about getting together for a live broadcast. I guess in there are a lot of things to discuss.

While you're waiting for me to post again, hit up one of my friends' blogs on the sidebar. I don't know why I'm plugging them in a post, I don't get anything for it. If you're in to Japanese living/culture/stuff: I just started reading "The Hopeless Romantic" thanks to Danny Choo. Hopefully you won't realize how horrible my blog is after seeing all these others and never come back. I really need to plan these posts out because obviously my stream-of-consciousness rantings don't lead anywhere positive when it's late and I have nothing to say.